First of all, pull back the timeline. Before the National Day of 20 10, Xibei was still an enterprise featuring local catering in the northwest. At the peak, there were nearly a dozen brands with an annual revenue of nearly 500 million. Among them, the main profit sources are Xibei U-noodle village and ninety-nine felt houses, which are the main business banquets.
After 20 10, the national eight-article policy was promulgated, and the original premise was invalid.
Xibei is like many traditional catering enterprises. It has entered the road of strategic transformation for many years, hoping to explore a development road more suitable for the new era.
From 20 10, Xibei went from the original oat noodle village to northwest folk dishes, to Xibei northwest dishes, to sheep cooks, and finally returned to Xibei oat noodle village. Only by finding a development matching system that conforms to the current living structure can we embark on the road of rapid development. This tossing process has great reference value for the whole industry. So far, it seems that no one has really made it clear.
Therefore, this paper starts with the following two questions.
First, why hasn't Siebel's strategic positioning been adjusted so many times? What is the reason?
Second, why did you go back to Youmian Village and get away with it? What is the reason?
My personal conclusion is: "strategy is not based on mental cognition, but the essence of strategy is to guide the input-output efficiency of enterprise resource allocation."
An effective strategy must first get through four chains.
Demand chain, value chain, supply chain, connection chain. Four chains in one is a strategy.
Why?
Let me explain these four chains to you first.
The key to the so-called demand chain is that it is not a single chain point, but has both overlap, compatibility and conflict. Multiple demand points cross together, which is called demand chain.
Grandpa Mao once said that the primary problem of the revolution is who is your enemy and who is your friend.
Similarly, the primary problem of running a business. Also want to know who your main customer base is? Who is your non-major customer base?
/kloc-Young customers aged 0/6 to 25 are completely different from those aged 25 to 45 in terms of spending power, consumption concept and demand preference.
Boys, girls, middle class, white-collar workers, petty bourgeoisie, young people in small towns, etc. Have completely different consumption views, preferences and spending power.
Secondly, different customers have completely different needs in different consumption scenarios. Eating at home, eating on the road, eating in the store, eating alone, eating with family, eating with friends and eating with leaders have different core needs.
Some pursue quick satiety, some pursue early adopters, some pursue indulgence, and some pursue social interests.
If you blindly pursue to meet the needs of customers, it is easy to fall into a dead end. How to define a clear demand chain from these invisible, uncertain, complex and diverse pan-demands is the first step of the strategy.
Because this demand chain is the origin of all resource allocation of enterprises. At the same time, we should also consider the base, frequency and competitors of this demand chain.
If you just think that catering is just what you need today, it can only prove that you haven't started yet.
Value chain is the solution of demand chain.
Is to meet the core needs of major customers. The whole experience value includes product innovation, product line design, product presentation, product structure planning, pricing system, dining space scene, service system and so on.
The core of the value chain is many but different. More importantly, compared with other competitors, it provides a deeper and more extreme solution.
The difference is the so-called differentiation, and the so-called difference is better than. But difference is not the purpose, but different unique values are the purpose.
Behind "more" and "different" is weight, that is, choice, that is, where to do it. What you do is your core competitiveness, and what you do is your source of profit.
Because behind the value chain is the supply chain, and the supply chain corresponds to the cost structure.
The core of supply chain lies in how to build this value chain with lower cost and higher efficiency.
How big is the single-store model with the highest input-output ratio behind a value chain? How many tables? How many people? How many dishes? What's the rental fee? What is the investment cost of decoration? Should we build a central kitchen? Do you want to build a production factory? Distribution center? Where to do it? Which places are empty? Behind each item is a real major cost investment.
Everything you want to do is for nothing, even if you want to invest, there is no cost, and the corresponding cost is too high. The higher the cost, the higher the price and the smaller the customer base. The cardinal number is small. At the top, the ceiling of this business is limited. At the bottom, it may not be able to support the single-store profit model in many business districts.
Because in the end, no matter what your strategy is, you have to settle on real financial data such as efficiency, human efficiency and net profit.
The so-called connection chain is to extract the unique value created by enterprises and the values behind it, transform it into core information, and connect consumers' cognition, memory, trust and emotion through the dissemination of information.
All information communication behaviors need to conform to consumers' existing cognition and strengthen consumers' memory of brand core values. Establish consumers' recognition and trust in the brand, output values and arouse consumers' emotional resonance.
The development process of a brand is a process of strong connection with more consumers' minds, memories and emotions through the continuous dissemination and diffusion of information, so that when they have related needs, they will first think of you, trust you and choose you.
Demand chain, value chain, supply chain and connection chain are all called strategies.
Translating in vernacular Chinese is how to create a deeper and more unique value chain with lower cost and higher efficiency, meet the core needs of main customers in a competitive price band, and then connect the cognition, memory and emotion of more potential consumers through brand marketing. This is the underlying logic of strategy.
I call it, four chains in one, and this is the strategy. The so-called total cost leading strategy, value leading strategy, differentiation strategy, etc. It is nothing more than different resource weight ratios on four chains.
Understand this underlying logic, and then look back to see why Siebel's four strategic adjustments have failed, and you will be clear at a glance.
▌ First of all, why did you switch from Xibei Youmian Village to Xibei Folk Cuisine?
Because I can't even get through the connection chain.
Siebel has been working for 20 years, but many people still don't know the word. Many people pronounce (Xiao) and have cognitive difficulties. It is difficult for this brand to link the mental memory of consumers, and it is also difficult for the brand to be remembered and spread. This is Mr. Jia's heart disease for many years.
Trout specializes in psychological cognition. If you directly switch to northwest folk dishes, this cognitive obstacle problem will naturally be solved.
▌ Second, why can't it be replaced by Xibei folk dishes?
Because we can't get through the supply chain.
Trout defined Xibei as a folk dish in the northwest of Xibei: "90% of the main ingredients come from the countryside and grasslands in the northwest".
This positioning has been done for a while, and the whole team, including Mr. Jia, is particularly uncomfortable.
Why?
Because when 90% of raw materials come from the northwest countryside and grasslands, enterprises will be subject to many constraints. For example, a pepper, Sichuan pepper is particularly good, but to reach 90%, it is very troublesome to use northwest pepper, and the research and development, production and operation of many products are greatly restricted.
Then the internal team discussed it many times and decided to get rid of the concept of 90%. From Xibei folk dishes to Xibei northwest dishes, the main theme is "grassland beef and mutton, rural grains".
▌ Third, why can't we eat Xibei Northwest cuisine instead?
Still didn't get through the supply chain.
Because the concept of northwest cuisine is too big. The coverage of the northwest region is too large, and the team lost its focus in the product development process. Stir-fried chicken, meat steamed stuffed bun, cold rice noodles, etc. They are all extremely classic northwest dishes. Whether to go to the menu or not, this matter becomes extremely tangled and troublesome.
There is no logical main line between product design and product structure.
Later, I went to see Reese and made a new orientation. Northwest food expert who focuses on Xibei cattle and sheep.
▌ Fourth, why is it that the experts from Xibei Northwest Cuisine to Xibei as sheep still have no effect?
Because even the demand chain has not been opened.
First of all, many places didn't eat mutton in summer, that is, they could only do business for half a year.
Secondly, the cost of mutton itself is too high, the unit price of natural customers is high, the unit price of customers is high, the demand base of customers is small and the consumption frequency is low. Then mass enterprises are likely to become niche enterprises. If the scale is small, it will not support the single-store profit model. If it were big, it wouldn't have the scale of today's Xibei.
Once again, as soon as the sheep cooking expert landed, the passenger flow plummeted. Therefore, it is not enough to change it quickly, and the subjective will inside is still on the surface.
▌ Fifth, why did you finally return to Xibei Youmian Village, but instead embarked on the road of rapid development.
Because the demand chain, value chain and supply chain have been reopened.
The key figure is a general manager of Siebel named Wang Longlong. Based on his first-line experience for many years, he extracted the original value chain from the original Xibei store of several thousand square meters and opened a 300-square-meter model shopping mall, which was very experienced. Make a single store model with high floor effect and human effect.
This new model emerged completely from the bottom up without any external assistance.
Finally, Hua and Hua helped Siebel get through this link chain.
Through the symbol "I love you", the problems of recognition and cognition are solved, and then through the red plaid tablecloth and China on the tip of the tongue, you can enter the United Nations, get Ban Ki-moon, kiss discount festival, parent-child activities and so on. Let Xibei brand and more consumers have a bond of cognition, trust and memory. It enhances the visibility and potential of Xibei brand.
Finally, four chains were integrated, and the matching system of living structure in the new era was found. Then, there was the momentum of risking one's life and forgetting one's death, and hundreds of stores ran out in just a few years.
Understand this underlying logic, and you will understand:
No matter what orientation is advocated, consumers' mental cognition should be the origin of resource allocation.
Or take the core needs of target customers as the origin;
Or take the enterprise's own value gene advantage as the origin;
Or take the internal cost structure as the origin;
It doesn't matter. The important thing is that all four chains can be opened and integrated. The policy is valid.
This is why I stand up and position myself. It is because I feel that most pan-industry positioning experts have no industrial chain perspective, are unable to get through these four chains, and blindly advocate to enlarge the weight of mental cognition. But many bosses have no judgment ability in the face of new knowledge, so that they are overly superstitious. This phenomenon is actually harmful to the whole industry.
Catering is an industry driven by experience and centered on repurchase. Experience can produce perception, and perception can be transformed into cognition.
For example, after you go to Haidilao for experience, you can get more information through experience perception, and get the cognition of its good environment, good taste and good service, which has nothing to do with its "Hey, Haidilao".
Therefore, the premise of building cognitive advantage is how to build a unique value chain with lower cost and higher efficiency and gain experience perception. Then we can turn this unique value into a cognitive advantage, and the integration of the four chains is the core of the strategy.
For some catering enterprises, the products are aging, the experience is outdated, the cost performance is low, the model is cumbersome, the human efficiency is low, and the demand chain, value chain and supply chain are not open.
Just do a mental scan, occupy a mental vacancy, and manipulate the mind through large-scale advertising. Does this work? It is only useful in tourist attractions, because you don't have to buy it once.
The above is just a four-in-one strategic model, which deconstructs the reasons why Siebel failed to make four adjustments.
However, this is only the basic element of the strategy. The key to the rapid development of Xibei lies in the following three major dividends.
1, channel bonus
After looking for so many strategic consulting companies, I naturally understand the whole macro trend. Xibei can be said to be the first brand to enter the shopping center, and they enjoyed the full-cycle dividend of the rise of a new channel.
2. Category bonus
A few years ago, in the national shopping centers, there were very few northern food brands that could be named. If you want to eat northern food, you can only choose Siebel. At the same time, the macro catering data catering maintains an incremental market of more than 10% all the year round. According to the data of Meituan, Northwest cuisine is the fastest growing category in recent years.
3. Advertising bonus
Advertising is a game theory. When everyone is not advertising, you can get a wave of dividends by voting first. If others follow suit, the dividend will be flat.
Xibei is an enterprise that tasted the sweetness of advertising more than ten years ago. Knowing who the consumer is with a loud voice, he will choose who, especially for the catering industry, consumers like the new and hate the old, and want to try anything they have never eaten. After advertising in Xibei for so many years, half of the 300 million middle class tried, and they made a total of 20 billion yuan.
The combination of four chains and three big bonuses is the real reason for Siebel's success. In addition, the most important thing is that Mr. Jia and the whole core team are diligent, hardworking and talented, and have strong organization, operation and execution capabilities.
Understand the essence of Siebel's problems in the transition period and the real reason for Siebel's success. Looking back at Siebel now, we can easily see his current problems.
Why is the performance gradually declining?
On the surface, it is the cause of the epidemic, but in fact it is the failure of boundary conditions.
1, the three major dividends decrease.
The first is the diminishing channel dividend. Rents are getting higher and higher, and people are getting less and less.
Second, the category dividend is decreasing. All the early adopters have been tasted, without mystery and curiosity.
Thirdly, the dividend of advertising is decreasing. Many people know Siebel and remember his red grid and oil cotton symbols, but remember these symbols? They don't agree. After one experience, there is still no motivation for continuous repurchase.
2. The leading edge of the core value chain is decreasing.
Xibei began to transform from 20 10, and when it was fully developed, the whole catering industry was still in the initial stage of the transformation and exploration of the National Eight Articles, and the dimension of competition pattern was not high. You have foresight, so to speak. At the same time, shopping malls were just emerging at that time, and the psychological threshold of consumers was not high.
Nowadays, it has become the norm for consumers to go out to eat, and all kinds of new and exotic brands in shopping malls are blooming, with more delicious, good-looking and fun to watch, and the psychological threshold is getting higher and higher.
Secondly, many rising stars, including master elder brother, old bowl club, Zhenlaoshan and Miss Flower Arrangement, step on the shoulders of their predecessors and provide more and more, deeper and more extreme solutions through continuous innovation, upgrading and differentiation. The leading edge of Siebel's whole value chain is decreasing year by year.
Thirdly, the cost structure, rent, ingredients and personnel costs of the supply chain are increasing year by year.
In other words, consumers' demand chain and psychological threshold are climbing; The average level of industry competition pattern is rising; The cost structure of the back-end supply chain is rising;
However, Siebel's core value chain has not kept pace with the times and maintained its leading edge. You can even say that you are still eating money from five years ago.
Therefore, there are no successful enterprises, only enterprises of the times. This is also the reason for the decline in Siebel's performance.
This is also the reason why we see that the dishes in Xibei are getting lighter and lighter, because we have to reduce costs and increase efficiency; This is also the reason why we want to push the bull's bone, because we want to open up sources and increase income; However, this series of self-centered actions can not solve the fundamental problem, but gradually push Siebel into a negative cycle.
In fact, the above two points are not the core of Siebel's real question. The real problem of Siebel is its "three symbols".
Because many fatal problems are often hidden under the advantages that make you proud.
3. These "three symbols" firmly locked Siebel.
▌ The first role, I like (1).
In order to solve the problem that northwest cuisine is too extensive, we focus on oil noodles and try to establish a strong connection with consumers with unique value points. In order to solve the cognitive recognition problem of Youmian, we created the brand symbol I love you.
This symbol really solves the identification problem of oat flour and makes consumers remember oat flour. At the same time, it also makes Siebel and oatmeal firmly equal.
But in the wrong direction, the result will be counterproductive and get twice the result with half the effort.
First of all, categories are inherently unequal. Youmian is a weak category with weak cognition and weak demand. Even if it has health care value, it is still pasta and staple food.
Compared with northwest cuisine, oat noodles are like ice powder in hot pot, lung slices of lovers in Sichuan cuisine and okra in Cantonese cuisine. Use one of these products to go out and direct and become a hook to win customers. Just like a small horse-drawn cart, the profit model of several hundred square meters and the unit price of more than one hundred customers are difficult to provoke. This can be seen from Xibei's noodle sales ratio data and repurchase data, and the data is objective.
Secondly, the results of market phenomena also exist objectively. Siebel has been advertising so hard for many years. You have spared no effort in various advertisements and public relations such as Sister Youmian, Toona Youmian Festival, Children's Youmian Activities, Youmian Festival, entering the United Nations and Jia's recommendation. However, you will find that there are few market followers for more than ten years, and so far there are few catering brands focusing on excellent noodles nationwide.
Why? Because the ship was not man-made, it was made by the sea and sank to the bottom of the sea. On the contrary, in recent years, new brands of northwest cuisine such as Xinjiang and Shaanxi have mushroomed, almost making a hit.
Third, the generalized cognition of Youmian Village is noodle restaurant. However, beef bones, lamb chops, big fish and other hard dishes are recommended in the door, and the unit price is above 100. This is selling dinner in the name of fast food. Consumers are prone to psychological dislocation and have the impression that Xibei Youmian Village is too expensive.
Finally, all the above are common sense. Many people know that the main surface is like standing in a gold mine to pick up garbage, but Siebel has been insisting. In addition to personal feelings, more is the investment in noodles for many years, which makes the sinking cost too high to get out of the alley. So that it gets deeper and deeper until it gets dark.
▌ The second role, red grid.
The core values of Siebel are nutrition, health and good ingredients. The main customers who are willing to pay for this core value are the middle class aged 25 to 45 who have certain spending power, because this wave of people's body muscles gradually decline with age and their health awareness is awakening. I am also willing to pay a premium for healthy and good ingredients.
With the accelerated pace of life, there are about three high-frequency consumption scenarios for this wave of people:
?
At this time, the second role came. Red plaid cloth, this symbol really reminds everyone of Siebel, but when this symbol is posted on the dining scene of the whole restaurant, it is a family fast food restaurant, and it is embarrassing not to drag the children in.
Obviously, this dining scene is not suitable for the leisure scene pursued by the host and guest, such as girlfriends, couples, friends and colleagues. It is also not suitable for the sense of grade and privacy pursued by light business social banquets.
In the end, in the scene where only one family is dining, Siebel will be the first choice.
Because family dinners really don't pay attention to any environmental grade, they are more about pursuing clean and hygienic taste catering services. But family dinners are cost-effective, because many old people and women are people who pinch their fingers to live.
At this moment, the third operator came.
The third symbol, big bones.
Niu Dagu directly pushed up the unit price of customers and raised the revenue in a short time, but it also directly pierced the original boundary of Xibei. Xibei's loyal family customers have been directly discharged, so that it is rumored everywhere that Xibei has changed from a small expensive to an old expensive, which is essentially an overdraft of brand trust assets.
These "three symbols" are posted. The cognitive label is clear, but the customers have all left.
In addition to early users, there is also a wave of local tyrants who often take their wives and children to Xibei.
Therefore, labels are risky, so be careful when you paste them. Everything should be viewed with dialectical logic, and we should see failure from victory and victory from failure. The fatal problems of many enterprises are often hidden under the advantages that they are proud of, but they are all covered up by the bubble in the incremental market.
All in all,
These are the core of Siebel's real problems.
Finally, back to the topic, how should Siebel break the game? How can we find a matching system of survival structure that conforms to the present era?
Personally, there are only two directions.
First, bottom-up, four chains in one.
It is to rebuild a new value chain according to the cost structure of the existing supply chain. Including re-development of products, product line design, re-establishment of price system, re-transformation of dining space scenes, to meet more consumption scenarios and the core needs of major customers.
But the core of this scheme is to weaken the three symbols of red grid, I love and ox bone.
Use a new brand strategy to re-command these brand assets of the whole Siebel and rebuild consumers' cognitive advantage of Siebel.
Otherwise, in this "three-character" framework, how to toss is an internal action behind the decimal point.
What brand strategy is it? I'll sell it first and stop talking. Anyway, it's definitely not northwest cuisine, nor is it a oat noodle village. To be sure, it needs a big move.
Second, from top to bottom, the four chains are integrated.
According to the current cognitive chain, demand chain and value chain, the back-end reconstruction cost structure is reversed.
This scheme doesn't need to lose these "three symbols" and it doesn't need to be too big. It only needs to cut out one or two hundred square meters from Xibei's original single-store model to make a new brand. On the premise that the existing income remains unchanged, the cost structure can be reduced by one third. Then all the problems are solved.
But this scheme has caused new problems. What format is this one or two hundred square meters cut out?
Personally, no matter what category you do, the premise is that you need to form dislocation competition with Xibei's existing value chain, and it is best that the genes are consistent and the back-end food supply chain can complement each other.
So the best suggestion is to consider making mutton hotpot. How? Is to be a lamb again.
Finally, sum up.
1, four chains in one, which I personally summed up through years of practice. This is a framework for strategic diagnosis and analysis. 4p, similar to marketing, can actually be applied to all industries. It's just that different industries, different strategies and different dynamic weight ratios.
The rule of the business world is to win or lose. Yes, farting makes sense; If you lose, it makes sense. It's all bullshit Even so, I suggest you think and summarize the reasons behind failure and success, and look at the problem with dialectical logic. See failure from victory and victory from failure.
Many fatal problems are actually hidden under the advantages that make you proud, and many business opportunities are often hidden in places that others look down upon.
Ships are not made by people, but by the sea.
"Ship" is an enterprise, "man" is an entrepreneur, and "sea" is an objective law of the market. Moreover, the market changes with time, that is, the boundary conditions of this law are also changing.
Therefore, there are no successful enterprises, only enterprises of the times. How to keep pace with the times and find a matching system of survival structure in line with the new era is a problem that every enterprise should think deeply.
Top-level design of catering brand, strategist, business expert, strategist, craftsman.