For gourmets, the Michelin Guide with a red cover. It is undoubtedly the supreme gourmet bible.

It is the largest-selling and most comprehensive yearbook of restaurants and hotels in Europe and even the whole world. More than one-fifth of French people use it or read it at any time, even if it's just for a gourmet fugue. As a guide book, it is even powerful enough to influence consumers and practitioners:

According to The New Yorker, losing a star means losing 25% of the turnover.

After a star-rated restaurant in Dublin lost its star, its turnover dropped by 75% within one year-from last year's? 5351 has dropped to? 12,472。

At the same time, Michelin's secret unannounced selection mechanism makes it impossible for restaurants to know who the talent scout is, let alone withdraw from the selection. As a result, practitioners are often faced with the situation that the selection is inevitable, but the pressure to protect the stars is enormous. Under this invisible pressure, there have even been incidents in which restaurant leaders committed suicide:

—— In 216, Samsung Chef Beno? T Violier shot himself at home, only 44 years old. The police believe that he chose to commit suicide under the dual pressure of his father's death and the preservation of his star.

interestingly, such a food guide, which is very important to the catering industry, was produced by Michelin, a tire company.

This makes people ask: Michelin selling tires, why? How did you make a world-famous Michelin catering guide?

1

A far-sighted original intention

In 19, there were only 3, motor vehicles in France, and Michelin's main business was to produce bicycle tires. In fact, it was not until Ford's Model T came out in 198 that motor vehicles gradually became popular. You know, in 1895, there were only 35 cars in France, and even France had not established an extensive road system.

In the eyes of the public, the car is still a controversial product: no one thinks that the horse may be replaced. In the eyes of the public, the car is just a whim of the rich, and it can't be driven too far away from the garage. Therefore, when the brothers Edouard Michelin and Andre Michelin invented the world's first pneumatic tire in 19, the shrewd brothers soon realized that their competitors were not other tire companies, but the idea of "are rich people willing to buy a car and drive?"

because if no one buys a car, no one will buy tires.

Unfortunately, Andre's job is to be a cartographer in the government. Inspired by this, the two brothers came up with a solution: Michelin's logic is simple. In order to increase the demand for tires, we must first increase the demand for cars. In order to increase the demand for cars, of course, we must encourage everyone to travel far away and convince everyone that there are more attractive places to eat and play in the distance. To this end, they compiled the first Michelin Guide.

2

Making advertisements into products

The first edition of Michelin's food and beverage guide distributed 35, copies for free, including travel tips, location of gas stations, maps and instructions for changing tires. Travel guides for Switzerland, Bavaria, Britain, North Africa, Italy and other regions have also been issued. One day in 192, Andre Michelin found in a tire seller that several Michelin Guides were actually used to cushion the workbench! The Michelin brothers, unwilling to cast their pearls before swine, decided not to distribute these pamphlets for free, because "people will only respect what they pay for". The valuable sale has opened a new chapter in Michelin Guide. They began to pay more attention to its contents. Moreover, because the map is too practical and detailed, there are rumors that in the Battle of Normandy in 1944, the Anglo-American and Canadian Coalition forces even successfully landed in Normandy, France with the Michelin green book.

the practicality of the manual has laid the foundation for Michelin's operation in the next 2 years. With the continuous development of the company, they began to launch versions of various countries throughout Europe, which was welcomed by many people. Crowded readers are not only willing to spend money to buy the guide, but also keep writing letters to help improve the guide and put forward suggestions for revision.

One of the suggestions is to separate the restaurant from the driving map, which is why today's Michelin Guide will be divided into a red Michelin Restaurant Guide and a green Michelin Travel Guide.

Michelin's attention to readers' suggestions is not only reflected in the separation of the red book and the green book.

after discovering that people are particularly interested in restaurant guides, Andre hired the first batch of anonymous restaurant commentators from Michelin, and let them eat all the top restaurants in France at no cost, and then evaluated the best ones.

in 1926, Michelin's star standard was finally born. But there was only one star at that time. After the 193s, a three-level star rating system was introduced-

a star ★:? It is a restaurant that is "worth visiting" and a particularly excellent restaurant in the same kind of food style;

two stars ★★:? The restaurant's cooking is superb, and it is also worth going around the long road.

three stars ★★★:? It is a restaurant that "deserves a special trip" to visit.

according to industry insiders, according to the price positioning of foreign Michelin-starred restaurants, the per capita consumption is usually between 3, yuan and 4, yuan. Of course, even a Michelin star is already a high honor in the catering industry in Europe and America. Although Michelin Tire Company published Michelin Restaurant Guide only to advertise its products, in the end, they made this advertising brochure into a product. And let everyone be willing to pay the bill. You know, in the second half of the 2th century, when the world economy was developing by leaps and bounds, before computers and iPhone were born, the paper travel and restaurant guide market brought considerable benefits. So that although this tire company realized its dream of letting the elite buy cars as early as half a century ago, it did not close its two guides.

3

Selling products is a lifestyle

Michelin advocated a novel lifestyle of "driving out for a picnic on weekends" through Michelin Guide.

Because Michelin's main business is to sell tires, an accessory of recreational toys for the rich in France. Therefore, the red edition of Michelin Restaurant Guide has only one goal from the beginning of its separation: to serve the rich French elite.

In order to support drivers to drive and travel longer distances, they not only provide information guide sorting service for hotels and gasoline suppliers all over France, but also make self-made road signs to help travelers.

The rigorous evaluation mechanism of Michelin also makes Michelin Restaurant Guide a lifestyle mentor for the elite. In order to ensure the fairness and authority of Michelin Restaurant Guide, Michelin has always adhered to five commitments: anonymous visit, independent evaluation, careful selection, annual update and consistent standards. The selected judges are all professionals and experienced people in the catering and hotel industry, and all of them must pass the formal Michelin guide training in France.

The judges are forbidden to talk to reporters and reveal their identities, and they will ignore the opinions of restaurant waiters before reaching a conclusion. Like ordinary customers, they reserve seats, order food, eat and pay bills in advance, and they don't take notes during tasting at all like ordinary food critics.

In order to know the consistency of restaurant quality and ensure the accuracy of evaluation, they usually visit a restaurant repeatedly in half a year, but in order to hide their eyes and ears, they try to avoid going too many times, and they will go with each other and pretend to be a couple or a business person, because it is easy to arouse suspicion when they go to eat alone. At the same time, it will be discussed comprehensively according to the results of different reviewers at different times, and finally the rating will be given.

With such a strict evaluation mechanism, although the evaluation of Michelin Guide has been criticized by many people since its birth, its authority and influence in the food industry are hard to deny. Paul Bocuse, the godfather chef of new French cuisine, once said in the 196s when Michelin Restaurant Guide was in full swing: In my eyes, Michelin is the only restaurant guide in the world.

An article in The New Yorker in 1954 wrote even more. "No other restaurant guide can undertake Michelin's bloody local guide. They are completely losing money, and they are losing millions of dollars. But it is precisely because of this that it can gain the trust of the most critical French elite and get the evaluations of' thoroughness',' attitude' and' unbeatable'. "

4

tire manufacturer's cross-border food marketing strategy

Strategy 1: User participation

Any marketing strategy is indispensable to user participation, and the volume of activities that lack participation cannot be matched with expectations. Only when users actively participate can they gain word-of-mouth and effects in emotional interaction.

Michelin shares the experiences of the car journey by tasting and judging restaurants, which drives readers and diners to explore and adopt early adopters, and forms a good comment interaction with each other. Over time, it creates a strong public discussion on food and travel, as well as a strong public recognition of Michelin brand.

strategy 2: persistence and authority

if any marketing does not make the audience feel authoritative, it may only be a smash hit, as gorgeous as fireworks and short-lived. Just like the Michelin Gourmet Guide, if it is only a book that introduces pure food and has no authoritative star rating system, then it will certainly not be as successful as it is now. Because most of the "food detectives" employed by Michelin graduated from the School of Hotel Management, each food detective travels an average of about 3, kilometers a year, dines in different restaurants about 25 times, stays in more than 16 hotels and so on. In order to ensure the fair results, Michelin will make a comprehensive discussion according to the different results of the "spy" at different times, and finally give a rating. Although the judging work has been criticized by many people since its birth, its authority and influence in the food industry cannot be denied.

Strategy 3: Enhance recognition

People who love food like to punch in Michelin restaurants, so as to pay attention to and choose Michelin tires; Consumers who have used Michelin tires will also choose to try the Michelin Food Guide because of curiosity. The director of public relations of Michelin North America Company once said, "Tire is not a sexy product." The Michelin guide is of great benefit to Michelin company in brand image. When people connect "Michelin tires" with "Michelin Restaurant Guide" in their minds, Michelin can establish a similar and more recognizable impression of "this is an interesting company" in everyone's minds.

5

Jump out of inertia thinking and look for new possibilities

According to the statistics of automobile service world, Michelin ranked second in the TOP34 list of global tire companies in 219.

The reason why Michelin tires can stand out and build a strong brand with weak categories is that two Michelin Guides, red and blue, are indispensable.

categories are inherently unfair. There are differences in strength and size from birth. Products that belong to strong categories are born with higher brand attention. People will pay more attention to its brand and recommend it to others around them after using it.

tires are obviously not a strong category. People don't care whether they use brand-name tires, let alone take photos and share them with friends after using this tire, telling everyone that they have used this tire. In addition, it is still very low frequency, and it will only need to be replaced once every year. It will not be missed by everyone from time to time like food, and it will be remembered every day, and it will starve to death if you don't eat a meal.

low frequency is not easy to be shared, it is not a strong category, and the brand is difficult to be remembered. If you want to get high-frequency attention, you need to associate it with a high-frequency thing. This is also the reason why Michelin still has to do it in the internet age when it can no longer rely on the Michelin Guide to make money.

many times, we always talk about building strong categories, but not all categories can be rebuilt and transformed into strong categories. At this time, you don't have to give up in a hurry. Just like Michelin, jump out of inertia thinking and look for new breakthroughs. Perhaps, there will be unexpected gains.