"I apologize to the two customers again, comprehensively investigate and rectify, and the safety issue will not be tolerated!" A few hours after # Michael Chen Hotpot Restaurant Incident # appeared on the hot search list of Weibo, Chen He, who was under pressure from public opinion, forwarded an apology statement from Xianhezhuang and publicly apologized to the public.

Last weekend, a couple was injured by a falling ceiling while dining at Xianhezhuang Hangzhou Store, which triggered a hot search. Many fans said in the comment area that something happened in the hot pot restaurant, which had nothing to do with Michael Chen himself. However, stars attract business through traffic, which will inevitably be countered by traffic. With the growing condemnation of netizens, Xian Hezhuang and Chen He had to stand up and apologize sincerely.

In fact, it is nothing new for a star to open a hot pot restaurant. From Xianhezhuang in Michael Chen, Shangshangqian in Joker Xue, Huofengxiang in Rui 'an, and Spicy Tri-city Hot Pot in Sha Yi recently, there are countless stars who "go into the sea" to run hot pot restaurants.

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

Some franchisees are also eyeing this traffic business and trying to make quick money. After the excitement, "Michael Chen" was responsible for publicity and promotion, while the franchisees watched the store's business flourish. Internet celebrities, who come to punch in, have a steady stream of fans, happily earning over 10,000 yuan a month.

But in fact, what the star hot pot restaurant really earns is not the hot pot income, but the franchise fee. The real operators are the traders behind them, making money by using star traffic. For example, Michael Chen, Huang Xiaoming, Guan Xiaotong and other star restaurants are all run by Shan Zhi, while Sha Yi Hotpot Restaurant is run by Chuan Ge. 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 safety red line surfaced.

Therefore, stars can easily escape the blame, and fans also take the initiative to excuse them. Traders earn enough franchise fees by operating traffic marketing, leaving only fans and franchisees feeling dejected in the face of the endgame.

1

Mass production of star catering

Another star has joined the craze of opening hot pot restaurants. Recently, Sha Yi opened a spicy 30% hot pot in Chongqing. Celebrities publicized it on social media, and then Sha Yi shouted loudly and boarded the store platform. The opening of this new store is 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-rated restaurants, the most successful model is Xianhe Village in Michael Chen.

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

At that time, the publicity route of Xianhezhuang was still that there were three humanoid billboards with the ratio of 1: 1 at the door, and photos of three partners could be seen casually in the store. Chen He and Ye Yixi often go to the store to taste and take 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 20 19, the appearance of Zhican turned Xianhezhuang into a profit and began the rapid expansion of Zhang Zhilu in Zhang Zhilu, which had 500 stores in 1 year. According to Shan Zhi, "Around August 2065438+2009, almost all Michael Chen's stores in Fujian were closed, and then Shan Zhi Group took over and operated them".

Under the marketing of catering operation mode, Xianhezhuang suddenly became active in short videos of major platforms around 2020. Most of these videos are interesting co-productions of various road networks of Chen He and Tik Tok in Xianhezhuang Store. Punch-in videos released by network celebrities have brought huge traffic to Xianhezhuang. In Tik Tok, more than 20,000 videos with the theme of "Eating Hot Pot Together" have been uploaded. Many consumers claim that it takes up to five hours to queue in the store.

Screenshot of a short video jointly produced by Michael Chen and Internet celebrities.

"Can I see Michael Chen?" This is the most frequently asked question in Tik Tok # Xianhezhuang topic video. In addition to attracting network celebrities from all walks of life, Michael Chen often eats Xianhe Village with stars from all walks of life. An ugly photo of a trio of "running men" eating hot pot once rushed to the top of the hot search. In order to increase the exposure, Michael Chen will praise and comment on netizens who send hot pot from time to time.

The success of Xianhezhuang has provided samples 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 celebrities as gimmicks, and turning the stores into a punching resort for young people through online marketing to realize the commercial realization of personal flow.

2

The business of "lying down and not making money"

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

Not only Xianhezhuang Hot Pot in Michael Chen, but also Jiangnan Barbecue in Huang Xiaoming, Shaun's Zaomenkan Barbecue, Guan Xiaotong's natural milk tea and Andrew's Mr. Huang Yu were all compiled by Sichuan Shan Zhi Brand Management Co., Ltd. Sha Yi's spicy 30% hot pot 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 hot pot restaurant is Brother Chuan.

The industrial chain of star catering has gradually become clear.

There are many overlapping projects between Shan Zhi and Chuange. For example, they jointly launched catering brands with Huang Xiaoming and Guan Xiaotong. These two brands 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.

Brand of Shan Zhi, Sichuan

In order to join quickly, we choose all the catering categories with high standardization, batch reproduction and low threshold, such as hot pot, barbecue and milk tea. Based on the standardization of hot pot industry, stars don't have to put too much energy into the production, processing and distribution of raw materials, and the gross profit margin and net profit margin of hot pot are higher than other catering categories.

Taking Xianhezhuang as an example, Shan Zhi will give site selection suggestions at the initial stage of opening the store, and provide personnel training and decoration support. After the store opened, Shan Zhi was in charge of publicity and promotion, chafing dish bottom materials and ingredients, and business analysis.

With the star's appeal, Shan Zhi used Internet marketing routines to continuously drain. Not only do we invite various networks to shoot short videos in Honglai Store, but we also invite well-known bloggers to live food in hot pot restaurants from time to time, covering platforms such as Xiaohongshu and public comments. Stars only need to hang their stories in the store, cooperate with online celebrity bloggers to appear from time to time, release new works 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 was exposed that the initial installation fee needed 480,000 yuan, and a deposit of 50,000 yuan was needed. If the account is settled, Zhuangguang Xianhe, which has more than 700 franchise stores in China, can earn more than 300 million yuan by earning the franchise fee.

Number of various star-rated restaurants Source: Ruiyide

More importantly, if the restaurant brand has an accident, the stars will hardly have to bear the responsibility, and fans will scramble to support themselves. Ryan's Huofengxiang Hotpot was once found to be suspected of copying the decoration style of Houtang Hotpot, but the number of fans who came to participate in the consumption only increased. Jia Kai explained to Ryan: Ryan is the owner and only participated in the decoration supervision personally, but did not personally participate in the design. When Hou Tang saw it, he could only admit that he was unlucky.

Money comes quickly, you just need to show your face, and you don't have to take responsibility. This business has become the best choice for stars to engage in sideline business.

three

Who was harvested?

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 also paid for them after seeing the fanaticism, which has helped the brand to expand rapidly, and merchants and stars are also happy to see it.

However, the golden signboard of a star is not always useful. Problems such as star catering's own operation, low cost performance and food safety are frequent, and it may be difficult to pay for idolized fans 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 for consumption said 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 portion of 58 yuan's 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 don't want to come again once they punch in.

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

Comparison of scores between Haidilao and Xianhezhuang in Beijing area

Not only has word of mouth fallen 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 heated, and the tableware in Joker Xue Shangshangqian Hotpot Restaurant was repeatedly detected with coliform bacteria.

The seemingly lively star hot pot restaurant has not been widely recognized in the consumer market. After the traffic became popular, the consequences of consumers not buying it were directly grafted on franchisees. Many star shops have closed down, and some places in Huang Xiaoming and Michael Chen have not been spared. Huang Lei and Murphy's "Huang Liang Yimeng" hotpot restaurant also closed down in less than two years.

Among the leeks harvested by star catering, franchisees are the most "strong".

"People who are serious about the catering industry will join star-rated restaurants. "In the eyes of real catering people, the brand that promises" 60% gross profit margin "and" return the money within X months "is" leek project ".

In Beijing, if you want to open a franchise store of Xianhezhuang, you usually have to pay an initial fee of 550,000 yuan. That's not enough. The decoration of the whole store also needs special people to do it, and it will cost nearly 800 thousand bits and pieces. Not only that, core ingredients such as hot pot bottom and marinade, and even tableware such as pots and pans need to be purchased from headquarters. Generally speaking, the starting cost of franchisees before they start business is about 2 million.

Xianhezhuang Investment Budget Table Source: City Boundary

Xianhezhuang once claimed that the investment return period is 9 months, which means that if you open a Xianhezhuang in Beijing, the net profit must reach 20% before you can return to your capital within 1 year. However, the so-called "returning to the industry" is simply an illusion. Before the epidemic, the net profit of Haidilao in 20 19 was 2.346 billion yuan, the gross profit rate of restaurants was only 18.6%, and the net profit rate was only 8.8%.

Industry bosses are still like this, not to mention the star hot pot restaurant that eats temporary traffic?

In addition, another stunt of star catering, the so-called star-to-store publicity, is actually another way to save money from franchisees' pockets. According to reports, some franchisees asked the project manager Michael Chen if he would come to the mall to help with the publicity activities, and they were told that the mall should pay part of the appearance fee and reception fee. If the banquet was held separately, the fee would be 6,543,800 yuan.

In other words, this is a business with a star coat, and both fans and franchisees have a good harvest.

The blessing of star traffic cannot continue to bring traffic and customers to catering brands. After the heat dissipates, consumers still consider taste, freshness of ingredients, food safety and service attitude. After a brief traffic carnival, it will eventually be dull.

Perhaps many people will be attracted by the star's gold-lettered signboard, but the franchisee who spends the most energy will eventually bite back.