Expands from 0 to 2With 50,000 stores, it took 21 years for Zhengxin Chicken Chop to go. WhileFrom 250,000 fell to 1More than 10,000, but it took less than three years.
On December 1, a Zhengxin chicken steak was being abandoned by young people and rushed to the hot search on Weibo, causing heated discussions among netizens.
In the comment area, many netizens said that they hadn't eaten Zhengxin chicken steak for a long time.
Could it be that this generation of young people has really abandoned Zhengxin?
A chicken steak with a unit price of 10 yuan has created a "revenue myth" of 7 billion a year.
How popular was Zhengxin chicken steak back then? It is no exaggeration to say that for a long time,As long as there is a commercial street in the country, you can find Zhengxin chicken steak. Some Zhengxin stores have even opened to the top of the hill in the Internet celebrity scenic spot, and employees commute to work by ropeway every day.
In fact, Chen Chuanwu, the founder of Zhengxin Chicken Chop, was originally engaged in the quick-frozen food industry.
In 2000, he opened a snack bar in Ruian, Wenzhou, named Zhengxin Snack, which is the predecessor of Zhengxin Chicken Chop.
Although the brand was established at first to digest the frozen inventory in hand, I did not expect Zhengxin Snacks to make a name for itself in the fast food industry with its advantages of cleanliness and high cost performance.
With the maturity of the business model, in 2012, Chen Chuanwu decided to cut 90% of the SKUs, leaving only the signature product chicken steak and a few products, and officially changed the name to "Zhengxin Chicken Chop".
Before 2013, Zhengxin Chicken Chop opened more than 800 stores, all of which were directly operated stores. In 2013, Chen Chuanwu correctly judged the market and made a key decision - to open up the franchise store.
Compared with general catering brands, the threshold for joining Zhengxin was very low, with a franchise fee of less than 40,000 yuan, while Juewei duck neck in the same period was charged 15-300,000 yuan.
The low franchise fee is only one aspect, and Zhengxin also has an advantage in other costs. First of all, Zhengxin's stores are generally small and do not accept dine-in, and the "take-and-go" model greatly reduces the cost of decoration (Luckin later followed this model).
Secondly, there is the cost of ingredients. As early as 1999, Zhengxin Chicken Chop established its own logistics brand, Kompasu Logistics, and began to implement the whole industry chain model in 2015 to further reduce costs.
With these advantages, Zhengxin has been making great progress all the wayIn just a few years, the number of stores has exceeded 10,000, and it is also the first brand in the fast food snack category to exceed 10,000 stores. According to reports, the annual net profit of Zhengxin at its peak was as high as 7 billion yuan.
However, thirty years to the east of the river, thirty years to the west of the river.
Zhengxin's fortunes, in the next few years, were reversed.
According to the data of "Narrow Door Dining Eye", as of December 2023, there are only 11,619 stores left in Zhengxin Chicken Chop.
In less than three years, the number of stores has plummeted by 10,000. How was the ubiquitous "street fighter" "abandoned" by young people? I have summarized 4 reasons.
First of all, there is fierce competition in the industry.
For catering snacks, such industries with low commercial barriers have a very low entry threshold. Where there is success, there is imitation.
After the fire of Zhengxin chicken steak, various fried chicken brands have sprung up one after another. Moreover, they are even more extreme than Zhengxin in terms of cost performance.
For example, "I ordered a fried chicken", and quickly opened up the market for 20 yuan a whole chicken. The domestically produced Hamburger Wallace also won with a "low price" strategy.
On Weibo, a consumer expressed his true feelings about why he no longer chooses Zhengxin:"Take a casual walk around the snack street on the first floor, there are a variety of fried chicken brands, fried chicken cutlets, fried chicken legs, fried wing tips...Chinese, American, Korean, there are too many choices, and they are generally not expensive. ”
Secondly, it is a single product SKU.
Although in those years, Zhengxin quickly conquered a large number of consumers with the popular product of "Big Chicken Chop with Face".
But with the times, consumers' tastes are also changing. "One trick to eat all the time" may have worked ten years ago, but it obviously doesn't work today.
When Sister Xi's fried skewers entered the fried chicken ring, when the exquisite duck neck co-branded Zhen Huan's biography, it sold crayfish. Zhengxin chicken steak is not moving, and it seems a little "unenterprising".
In recent years, Zhengxin chicken steak has not made major innovations in the category, and consumers often eat the same taste, even if it is delicious, it is still a day when they are tired of eating (a little bit of predicament also has this reason).
Then there's the high cost of customer acquisition.
Some people may compare Zhengxin Chicken Chop with the current Luckin, after all, on the surface, both of them are "pack and go" and join the expansion model.
But in fact, Luckin's business model is far more mature than Zhengxin Chicken Chop.
Luckin entered the private domain early and precipitated all brand users in its own APP or mini program. This allows them to repeatedly reach these users by issuing coupons, resulting in continuous repurchase behavior, which invisibly reduces the brand's customer acquisition cost.
The new customer acquisition model is very traditional, and it is still advertising + natural**. There is not much to say about advertising, the cost of the public domain is getting more and more expensive, which is already the consensus of everyone. And nature** is also showing a gradual downward trend.
Here I have to mention the problem that the layout of Zhengxin stores is too dense. Judging from the data of Jihai brand monitoring, in the third, fourth and fifth tier cities where stores account for more than 50%.Zhengxin stores are located at a distance of "500 meters from existing stores", accounting for more than 30% of the encrypted stores.
The chaotic protection of the area will inevitably lead to the diversion of passenger flow. There will even be mutual squeezing, vicious competition and so on.
Finally, there is the inflated selling of goods**.
You must know that when Zhengxin started, it relied on "super high cost performance". 10 yuan a chicken steak, the amount is delicious and delicious, and the sour plum soup is also given. Not to mention the continuous price increase, the taste is also seriously discounted.
In this regard, some netizens complained, "Zhengxin forgot his original intention." I used to really like to eat it, but now that the flour is wrapped more and more, the quality of the chicken steak is much worse and it is not delicious. ”
In the final analysis, for consumers, it doesn't matter whether there are 10,000 stores, whether it's a big brand, and whether there is a co-branded innovation doesn't matter.
In other words, as long as it is "delicious and not expensive", it will always be the first choice of consumers.
The catering track always needs innovation, and there is no "classic" that does not need to be upgraded. It's as strong as Coca-Cola, and it has also modified its own recipe countless times.
Sailing against the current, if you don't advance, you will retreat. Competitors are innovating, and Zhengxin Chicken Chop is lagging behind in product development, which eventually puts the company in today's predicament.
Looking back at the ups and downs of these years, I think brands can take some inspiration from them. Below I have summarized 2 suggestions for your reference.
1. The product keeps pace with the times
A successful explosive product is a "differentiated" characteristic label. For example, when you think of Chef Fei, you can think of stir-fried meat with chili; When you think of Genki Forest, you can think of sparkling water.
If you want to do it well, a very important point is that the explosive product of "chicken steak" has been released. And through proper marketing, ask Huang Bo to endorse the brand, advertising slogan: chicken steak bigger than face. It makes people feel the cost performance of chicken steak at once.
However, after creating the chicken steak, Zhengxin's R&D team seems to have come to a standstill. Some of the subsequent attempts have received a mediocre response in the market, and the brand has not been very determined to increase the SKU category.
In the case of KFC, for example, KFC may have initially "conquered" Chinese consumers with Colonel Chicken Nuggets and Finger Sucking Original Chicken. However, in the years since, KFC has never given up trying to launch more meals.
Star items such as Old Beijing Chicken Roll and Tender Beef Wufang are all products customized by KFC based on Chinese market research. Therefore, it is very popular with Chinese consumers.
2. Marketing innovation
It's not just the product that needs to keep up with the times, but also the marketing. In this regard, Mixue Bingcheng, which also focuses on the "sinking market", has set a good example for Zhengxin.
It is also a "take-and-go" catering model, although Mixue Bingcheng cannot achieve the ultimate in service like Haidilao. But it does not affect the user's mind in various ways.
The ** Divine Comedy of "I love you, you love me, Honey Snow Ice City is sweet" has formed a phenomenal screen of over 10 billion, triggering large-scale secondary creation.
Not only that, the brand mascot Snow King always attacks frequently, whether it is to "solicit customers on the street", jump in competing stores, or play the meme "Snow King is blackened" on a hot day. There are always 10,000 ways to grab the attention of consumers.
In addition, there is KFC's famous "Crazy Thursday" literature, from the initial marketing to the later national meme. Among them, the brand's initiative in marketing is indispensable.
It can be said that Michelle Bingcheng and KFC can have fun, and they can also put down their bodies, mingle with young people, and constantly shorten the distance between each other. It's no wonder that in today's fierce competition in the catering industry, young people will miss them.
From the rise and fall of Zhengxin chicken steak, it is not difficult for us to find that the success or failure of enterprises is closely related to consumers.
Only by listening to the needs and feedback of consumers, and constantly optimizing and improving products, can we impress the hearts of users and win the market. That's what consumer-centricity is all about.
Of course, today's enterprises talk about consumer-centricity, not only to do a good job in products, but also to optimize and improve consumers in terms of experience, marketing, digital technology and other aspects.
Only in this way can the company go from explosive to long-term red and become a brand truly trusted by consumers.
Finish.I am a senior digital marketing expert in @晏涛三寿 and the author of "Super User Growth", pay attention to the official account of "Yan Tao Sanshou", let's gain insight into the essence of marketing together!