If you want to grasp the trends of the catering industry in 2024 and find the direction of development, the "2024 Catering Calendar" launched by RedMeal.com and Enum Media in conjunction with hundreds of industry experts may be able to point you the way forward.
Looking back on the past year, opportunities and challenges coexist in the catering industry.
On the one hand, China's catering industry is full of vitality. Each catering track continues to be subdivided, and subdivisions such as freshly made yogurt, new Chinese burger, roast duck, and sour soup hot pot have risen rapidly; Tea, coffee, hot pot and other categories are hot, and many brands have also ushered in a period of rapid development, Luckin Coffee and KFC have broken through the scale of 10,000 stores, Tea Baidao, Mixue Bingcheng, and Gu Ming have launched an impact on IPOs, and brands such as Hey Tea and Fish You Together have actively gone to sea to seek new opportunities ......
On the other hand, China's catering industry is also facing many challenges. According to the data of enterprise investigation, the number of revocation and cancellation of catering-related enterprises in 2023 will exceed 1.36 million. Many catering brands have failed, and there are frequent news of store closures and bankruptcy.
Entering 2024, catering companies will face more challenges, and how should catering people respond?
Involution will continue to intensify in 2024
It is very important for restaurant companies to do a good job of positioning
Many industry insiders believe that the industry involution will continue to intensify in 2024.
In terms of products, the "* war" and "new war" may intensify; In terms of channels, in addition to takeaway, retail and group meals will also become new channels for brands to compete to develop; On the first chain, self-built or consolidated ** chain system will also become a common choice for many brands; In terms of marketing, live broadcasts and co-branding will be more popular......
In this context, it will be increasingly difficult for restaurant companies to do a good job in operation. In order to stand out from the highly competitive catering industry, it is not advisable to blindly follow other companies, and restaurant companies must find the right positioning, clarify their own advantages, and find a way to differentiate.
In short, it isThe more serious the involution of the catering industry, the more restaurant companies need to pay attention to fundamentals and do a good job of positioning. According to Trout Partners' global president, Deng Delong, the bigger the market, the smaller the focus of the company. The turning point of history has already appeared, and now the market in all walks of life has been infinite, and if you want to break through, you must learn to do subtraction and narrow your focus.
And this has been verified by more and more catering companies. Many catering companies have made great progress by reorganizing their positioning and finding their positioning. So, what can positioning bring to catering companies?
First of all, positioning allows catering companies to frame the direction of development. For example, brands such as Tustin and Chef Fei's Chili Stir-fried Meat are well versed in positioning, and rely on positioning to successfully frame the development direction of the brand, and finally achieve rapid development.
The Tustin store initially sold pizza products, but later added burgers due to poor performance. At that time, there were quite a large number of pizza and burger joints in the catering industry, and the leading brands of Western fast food usually only chose burgers or pizza as their main products. As a result, Tustin adjusted its positioning to burgers, but the problem that followed was that in the entire burger category, Tustin did not stand out in terms of store size or product advantages.
After some in-depth analysis, Tustin has positioned itself as a Chinese-style burger, and the new positioning is quite different from that of a Western-style burger. Through the combination of "freshly baked burgers" and various special Chinese food fillings, cost-effective burger products, coupled with the store design style with a national trend, Tustin has successfully captured a large number of consumers, and the scale of the store has expanded rapidly. Red meal big data shows that as of January 2024, the number of stores in Tustin has exceeded 6,700. Driven by Tustin, the new Chinese burger track has risen rapidly and become one of the most dazzling tracks in the catering industry in recent years.
Relying on precise positioning to achieve rapid development is also Chef Fei. Before Chef Fei positioned the chili fried meat, the chili fried pork was just an inconspicuous home-cooked dish in the Hunan restaurant. Chef Fei cleverly made the chili fried pork a popular product, and it was directly reflected in the brand name. Through this strategy, Chef Fei successfully created the Hunan cuisine subdivision of chili stir-fried meat and achieved nationwide expansion.
Secondly, accurate positioning can allow catering companies to find their advantages. For example, Luckin Coffee has risen rapidly through precise positioning and continuous innovation, and has become a leading brand in the highly competitive coffee industry.
Before Luckin Coffee entered the coffee track, coffee products at that time were mainly traditional coffee. Through in-depth market analysis, Luckin Coffee has boldly innovated in terms of products, launching coffee products that are more suitable for Chinese consumers, such as milk coffee and fruit coffee. This move makes Luckin Coffee and Starbucks and other coffee brands form a distinct positioning difference. Relying on the precise positioning advantages of products and other aspects, Luckin Coffee has achieved rapid development, and it has rapidly grown into a leading brand in the coffee beverage track in just a few years.
To sum up, finding the right positioning is crucial for catering companies. However, many restaurant companies do not know how to do positioning.
Based on this, at the beginning of 2024,Red Meal NetworkwithWell, um, mediaLaunched by hundreds of industry experts2024 Dining CalendarThere is a special "positioning chapter" in it, which can analyze the way of positioning for catering enterprises.
The "2024 Food and Beverage Calendar" helps restaurants successfully break the game
In the "2024 Catering Calendar" "Positioning Chapter" jointly released by Red Meal Network and Enum Media, 31 catering upstream and downstream experts, new opinion leaders, and catering high-quality service providers conducted in-depth research on catering positioning issues.
For example, Gan Le, the founder of Ganshiji Chengdu Fat Intestine Noodles, pointed out in the "2024 Catering Calendar" that being a brand restaurant chain is inseparable from thinking about the choice and characteristics of categories. Each category has its own characteristics, and catering companies need to amplify the characteristics of their category and find out the positioning of the crowd.
For another example, Feng Weidong, CEO of Tiantu Investment, pointed out in the "2024 Catering Calendar" that catering brands must avoid the four traps of abstract categories, weak categories, excessive marketing, and bad names to do their positioning.
Another example is Wang Shunhai, chairman of Chongqing Wudoumi Catering Group, pointed out in the "2024 Catering Calendar" that positioning is the foundation for enterprises to become stronger and longer.
In addition, Liu Huiping, founder of Babi Food, Yang Mingchao, chairman of Guoquan, Jia Guolong, founder of Xibei Catering Group, Wang Xiqing, specially invited vice president of China Cuisine Association, Zhou Zuze, founder of Jiuguo Yitang Sauerkraut Fish, Yang Lipeng, founder of Xiaoyang Shengfang, Niu Yuxin, director of Yihai Kerry Group, and other leading catering founders, upstream and downstream experts in the catering industry also expressed their experiences and insights on positioning in the "2024 Catering Calendar".
In addition to positioning, the "2024 Food and Beverage Calendar" also covers topics such as trends, traffic, development, cognition, operation, branding, marketing, innovation, management, strategy, and pit avoidance. It can be said that each chapter of this food and beverage calendar condenses the wisdom and insights of many industry leaders, and these valuable views not only show their professionalism and industry experience, but also condense their unique insights and deep thoughts on the future between the lines.
In 2024, in the face of increasingly fierce industry competition, catering companies need to grasp the precise direction and seize the opportunity. And this is a number of fields such as upstream and downstream experts, entrepreneurs, and new opinion leaders in the catering industry366 bitsThe catering calendar co-created by elite representatives expressed the core views on catering operation, management, marketing, and strategy in concise words from different professional perspectives and cognitive levels.
In this calendar, you'll find a lot of useful business advice and tips in the F&B industry to help brands improve customer satisfaction, increase sales, and more. It is believed that through the views of these guests, catering practitioners and relevant groups in the catering industry can better grasp market trends, enhance brand competitiveness, achieve sustainable profits, and finally successfully break through the development.