"Once again, I deeply apologize to the two customers, comprehensively investigate and rectify, and the safety problem will not be tolerated!" A few hours after # Michael Chen Hotpot Restaurant Incident # landed at the top of the hot search list in Weibo, Chen He, who was under pressure from public opinion, forwarded Xianhezhuang's apology statement and publicly apologized to the public.

Last weekend, a couple was injured by a falling ceiling while dining at Xianhezhuang Hangzhou Store, which caused a hot search. Many fans said in the comment area that the hot pot restaurant had an accident, which had nothing to do with Michael Chen himself. However, stars attract business through traffic, and it is inevitable that they will be bitten by traffic. With the growing condemnation of netizens, Xianhezhuang and Michael Chen had to come forward and apologize sincerely.

actually, it's nothing new for a celebrity to open a hot pot restaurant. From Xianhezhuang in Michael Chen, Shangshangqian in Joker Xue, Huofengxiang in Ryan, and Lasancheng Hot Pot in Sha Yi recently, it has been countless which wave of stars "went to the sea" to run hot pot restaurants.

Every time a celebrity hot pot restaurant opens, other celebrities will come to the store to promote it together. Usually, there is a flood of short video marketing co-produced by celebrities and online celebrity stores. Fans have long dreamed of meeting celebrities and online celebrity, and visitors will spend money in the store out of curiosity, so celebrities can enjoy the benefits of traffic business continuously.

there are franchisees who are eyeing this traffic business and trying to make quick money. After a lot of excitement, "Michael Chen" was in charge of publicity and promotion, while franchisees watched the store's business booming. online celebrity, who came to punch in, and his fans came in an endless stream, happily earning a monthly income.

But in fact, the star hot pot restaurant really earns not the hot pot revenue, but the joining fee. The real operator is the trader behind it, making money by using the star traffic. For example, Michael Chen, Huang Xiaoming, Guan Xiaotong and other star restaurants are all run by Zhi Shan, while Sha Yi Hotpot Restaurant is run by Brother Chuan. This traffic business is booming enough in the short term, but when the heat gradually cools down, negative news such as a sharp decline in word of mouth and repeated stepping on the food safety red line surfaced.

As a result, stars can escape the blame without any effort, and fans take the initiative to excuse them. Traders earn enough franchise fees by operating traffic marketing, leaving only fans and franchisees to face the mess and feel dejected.

1

Mass-producing celebrity catering

Another celebrity has joined the craze of opening hot pot restaurants. Recently, Sha Yi opened a spicy 31% cooking hot pot in Chongqing, which was promoted by celebrities on social media one after another, and then Sha Yi shouted hard and went to the store platform. The opening of this new store was very popular. On the opening day, there were too many people at the scene, which once caused serious traffic congestion nearby. Some netizens even queued for more than six or seven hours.

There are not a few stars who take catering as a sideline. Last year, the shutdown of the catering industry failed to stop this "shop opening tide", and Sean and Huang Xiaoming still launched their own catering brands. Among many star restaurants, the most successful model is Xianhezhuang in Michael Chen.

At first, Michael Chen's star aura with singer Ye Yixi and host Zhu Zhen didn't bring good benefits to Xianhezhuang. After opening the store for 4 years, it not only gained a general reputation, but also lost a lot of money, and fell into a crisis of losing money even when opening three new stores.

At that time, the publicity route of Xianhezhuang was still a signboard with three partners in a ratio of 1:1 at the door, and photos of the three partners could be seen casually in the store. Michael Chen and Ye Yixi often went to the store for tasting and taking photos with consumers. In order to attract consumers, Xianhezhuang also launched a snap-up activity at the bottom of 9.9 yuan pot, which is in sharp contrast with the current "sky-high price" menu.

Until the second half of 2119, the appearance of Zhican made Xianhezhuang turn losses into profits and embarked on the rapid expansion of Zhang Zhilu with 511 stores in 1 years. According to Zhishan, "Around August 2119, almost all Michael Chen's stores in Fujian were closed, and then it was taken over and operated by Zhishan Group".

under the marketing of the catering operation mode, Xianhezhuang suddenly began to be active in short videos of various platforms around 2121. Most of these videos are interesting co-productions of Michael Chen and Tik Tok's various road networks in Xianhezhuang Store. The punch-in video released by online celebrity has brought huge traffic to Xianhezhuang. More than 21,111 videos have been uploaded on the topic of "You eat hot pot together" in Tik Tok. Many consumers claim that it takes up to five hours to queue up at the store.

Screenshot of a short video co-produced by Michael Chen and online celebrity

"Can you see Michael Chen?" This is the most frequently asked question in the topic video of Tik Tok # Xianhezhuang. In addition to wooing online celebrity from all walks of life, Michael Chen often makes the trend of eating Xianhezhuang with stars from all walks of life. An ugly picture of a trio of "running men" eating hot pot once rushed to the first place in hot search. In order to increase the exposure, Chen He will praise and comment on netizens who send hot pot from time to time.

the success of Xianhezhuang has provided a sample for many star hot pot restaurants. As a result, more and more stars "go to the sea" to open hot pot restaurants, taking "meeting" stars and online celebrity as gimmicks, and turning the stores into a punching resort for young people through online marketing, so as to realize the commercial realization of personal flow.

2

The business of "lying to make money without losing money"

In essence, star restaurants are an open plan of stars and traders. "Michael Chen" are responsible for publicity and promotion in the front, and traders are responsible for the specific process of opening stores and joining in the back to create the greatest benefits together.

Not only Xianhezhuang hot pot in Michael Chen, but also Jiangnan barbecue in Huang Xiaoming, Zaomenkan barbecue in Sean, natural to stay milk tea in Guan Xiaotong and Mr. Huang Yu in Andrew are all written by Sichuan Zhishan Brand Management Co., Ltd. Sha Yi's spicy 31% cooking hotpot in Chongqing is said to be "opening a shop", but in fact, his public identity is the brand officer of this restaurant, and the operator of this hotpot restaurant is Brother Chuan.

the industrial chain of star catering has gradually become clear.

There are many overlapping projects between Zhishan and Senior Brother Chuan. For example, they have jointly launched catering brands with Huang Xiaoming and Guan Xiaotong. The two are equivalent to MCN in star catering brands. By copying the standardized catering development model and combining the blessing of star traffic, the assembly line of star catering brands is hatched.

Sichuan Zhishan's brands

In order to join quickly, Zhishan selects catering categories with high standardization, batch reproduction and low threshold, such as hot pot, barbecue and milk tea. Based on the standardization of the hot pot industry, the stars don't have to invest too much energy in the production, processing and distribution of raw materials, and the gross interest rate and net interest rate of hot pot are higher than other catering categories.

Take Xianhezhuang as an example. In the early stage of opening the store, Zhishan will give suggestions on site selection, and provide personnel training and decoration support. After the opening of the store, the publicity and promotion, hot pot bottom materials and ingredients, and business analysis are all under the unified responsibility of Zhishan.

With the appeal of stars, Zhishan uses Internet marketing routines to continuously drain. Not only did you greet the various road networks to shoot short videos in Honglai Store, but also invited well-known bloggers to the hot pot restaurant to conduct live food broadcasts from time to time, covering platforms such as Xiaohongshu and public comments. Stars only need to hang their own stories in the store, cooperate with online celebrity bloggers to appear in the mirror from time to time, and have new works released or participate in variety shows to advertise, which saves money and effort.

in fact, the star hot pot restaurant can make a profit not by selling hot pot, but by earning the franchise fee.

For example, Xianhezhuang in Michael Chen has been exposed that the initial fee needs 481,111 yuan, and a deposit of 51,111 yuan is needed. If the account is calculated, Xianhe Zhuangguang, which has more than 711 franchise stores in China, can earn more than RMB 311 million by earning the franchise fee.

the number of all kinds of star restaurants data source: Ruiyide

More importantly, when the restaurant brand has an accident, the stars are hardly responsible, and fans will rush to support themselves. Ryan's Huofengxiang Hot Pot was once found to be suspected of copying the decoration style of Houtang Hot Pot, but the number of fans who came to join in the consumption only increased, and Kaijia explained to Ryan: Ryan was the shopkeeper, only personally participated in the decoration supervision, but not personally participated in the design. When Hou Tang saw it, he could only admit that he was unlucky.

This business has become the best choice for a star to engage in sideline business because of its quick money, no effort and no responsibility.

3

Who did you harvest?

the blind pursuit of fans has largely contributed to the traffic buying and selling of leeks-fans are willing to pay for the stars, and franchisees have paid for it after seeing the craze, which has helped the brand to scale rapidly, and traders and stars are happy to see it.

However, the gold-lettered signboard of the star is not always useful. There are frequent business problems, low cost performance and food safety problems of the star catering, and it may be difficult to pay for the fans in idolize for a while.

Opening a bad review area in Xianhezhuang at will is basically a complaint about inadequate service and stale ingredients. Many customers who come to the store to spend money say that "the weight is so small that it is touching". The amount of food is only 7 pieces of potatoes and 6 pieces of frozen tofu, and a 58 yuan snowflake fat beef is only 7 pieces thin. When the service, ingredients and dishes can't reach the level of customer unit price, it is of course difficult for consumers to accept such pricing. Some people even said that because the price/performance ratio is too low, they won't want to come again after punching in once.

Compared with other hot pot brands, Xianhezhuang, which has fans' support, can only maintain its score on the passing line.

Comparison of scores between Haidilao and Xianhezhuang in Beijing

Not only has word-of-mouth declined sharply, but the food safety of star hot pot restaurants has repeatedly stepped on the red line. The fake duck blood in Bao Beier Hotpot Restaurant was once heated, and the tableware of Shangshangqian Hotpot Restaurant under Joker Xue was repeatedly detected with coliform bacteria.

The seemingly lively celebrity hotpot restaurant has not been widely recognized in the consumer market. After the popularity of traffic, the consequences of consumers not buying it were directly grafted on the franchisees. Many star shops have closed down, and some places in Huang Xiaoming and Michael Chen have not been spared. The "Huangliang Yimeng" hotpot restaurant opened by Huang Lei and Morphy also closed down in less than two years.

among the leeks harvested by star catering, franchisees are the most "robust".

"People who are serious in catering business will join star restaurants." In the eyes of real catering people, the brand that promises "61% gross profit margin" and "return the money within X months" is the "Leek Project".

In Beijing, franchisees who want to open a Xianhezhuang usually have to pay an initial fee of 551,111 yuan. This is not enough. The decoration of the whole store also needs to be done by a dedicated person, and it will cost nearly 811,111 bits and pieces. Not only that, core ingredients such as hot pot bottom materials and marinades, and even tableware such as pots and pans need to be purchased from headquarters. Total * * * down, franchisees before opening the start-up cost is about 2 million.

Xianhezhuang Investment Budget Table Source: Market Boundary

Xianhezhuang once claimed that the investment return period is 9 months, which means that if a Xianhezhuang is opened in Beijing, the net profit must reach 21% before it can be returned within 1 years. However, the so-called "returning to the original business" is simply an illusion. Before the epidemic, the net profit of Haidilao in 2119 was 2.346 billion yuan, the gross profit margin of restaurants was only 18.6%, and the net profit rate was only 8.8%.

the industry leader is still like this, not to mention the star hot pot restaurant that eats for a while?

In addition, another big stunt of celebrity catering, the so-called celebrity-to-store publicity, is actually a way to save money from franchisees' pockets. It is reported that a franchisee asked the project manager "whether Michael Chen will come to the store to help promote" and got the answers that "the store has to pay part of the appearance fee and reception fee" and "if the banquet is held separately, the fee will be 1 million yuan".

in other words, this is a business that reaps fans and franchisees in the guise of being a star.

The blessing of celebrity traffic can't bring traffic and customers to catering brands continuously. After the heat dissipates, the factors that consumers consider are still taste, freshness of ingredients, food safety and service attitude. After a temporary traffic carnival, it will eventually be dull.

there may still be many people who will be attracted by the gold-lettered signboard of the stars, but the franchisees who spend the most effort will eventually bite back.