Recently, Hefu Lao Mian has launched 20 upgraded new menu, including Angelica pork bone soup bamboo shoot noodles 25 yuan, baby tomato noodles ** (including tomato soup noodles, soft-boiled eggs and **potato snacks) ** 26 yuan. By improving product quality and adopting a layered strategy, Hefu Lao Mian has built a product matrix covering the ultra-wide ** band of 25-108 yuan, and increased the proportion of products of 25-29 yuan.
Not only Hefu Lao noodles, but also many brands in the tea, liquor, hot pot and other industries have also begun to expand the ** belt, such as Heytea has expanded ** to the 20 yuan range, and Haidilao has also launched a cheap sub-brand "Hi Lao Hot Pot". By fully penetrating the layout of different consumer circles, the brand has more voice and the initiative of market competition.
In the fiercely competitive catering industry, how will Hefu Lao Mian give full play to its own strength when it enters the 25-29 yuan ** belt, and what kind of imagination will it bring to the industry?
How can brands break through in the "involution"?
According to data from Zhiyan Consulting, the size of China's Chinese fast food market reached 774.4 billion yuan in 2021 and is expected to reach 1,268.5 billion yuan in 2025, accounting for 70 percent of the market size of the fast food industry11% with a compound growth rate of 1313%。It can be seen that in the catering track, the growth prospects of Chinese fast food show strong certainty and have the resilience to go through the cycle. Grasping the opportunity of the catering track is the key to breaking the game for each catering brand.
As the leading brand of Chinese catering, Hefu Lao Mian does not rely on the traditional Chinese catering method of expanding and opening stores, but finds its own market through refined operation and precise positioning. When Hefu Lao Mian entered the market, it occupied a leading position with 40 yuan to 45 yuan**, leading the consumption upgrade of Chinese noodle soup with high-quality raw soup base, product innovation and new Chinese style store experience. This model has also affected entrepreneurs in other segments, such as rice noodles, rice noodles, beef noodles and other segments have also appeared in the same model of brands.
After gaining a firm foothold in the first belt, Hefu Lao Mian has a larger market share through the establishment of the global ** belt. This strategy not only provides consumers with a variety of choices, but also allows Hefu Lao Mian to have more initiative in the competition. At the same time, Hefu Lao Mian can use the brand reputation, product innovation experience and high-quality raw materials established earlier in the first range of 25-29 yuan, which is a competitive barrier that other similar brands cannot overcome in the short term.
How to balance **, scale and taste
The establishment of the global ** belt is actually a test for a brand. Because it has to find a balance between **, scale and taste.
Looking at China's catering industry, in the past, it was usually hot pot brands that were able to balance this issue well. Because hot pot pays more attention to the bottom of the pot and the ingredients, it does not need to cook too much, so it can expand rapidly under the condition that the ** chain is stable. Fast food chains such as fried rice and noodles are difficult to find solutions in this "impossible triangle".
The fast-food chain brand Laoxiang Chicken has more than 1,000 stores, but it is still stuck in the Anhui market. When it was time to expand, it needed to start making up for the homework and establishing a production base in Shanghai to cover the East China market.
Behind the food you and I eat in the restaurant is a stacked combination of many business models and logics - which involves product research and development, the right to speak in the first chain, store operation, etc., each of which affects the final taste presentation. That's why, when 2After 0 upgrades, when Hefu Lao Mian broke into the 25-29 yuan ** belt, catering people and even some consumers who know something about this track have raised such questions, how did it do it?
In fact, the establishment of this global ** belt is the embodiment of the right to speak in the ** chain of Hefu Lao noodles. In terms of the first chain, Hefu Lao Mian has established a competitive barrier. In 2022, a new modern food industrial park of nearly 100,000 square meters will be completed, plus the existing 1The 50,000-square-meter kitchen has a first-class chain system that can support the basic operation of thousands of stores in the future and the nationwide cold chain distribution needs.
In addition to the first chain, the reason why Hefu Lao Mian can take into account both scale and taste is that it has quite strict requirements for quality. In terms of product research and development, the upgraded new products of Hefu Lao Noodles focus on health preservation, taking Angelica pork bone soup as an example, the formula contains 18 flavors of herbs, and is paired with traceable pork barrel bones, and the first soup is extracted by simmering slowly. The optimization of every detail and the adjustment of each process require repeated testing by the R&D team and continuous innovation of the cooking process.
In the selection of ingredients, Hefu Lao Mian strictly controls every product and every detail, from eggs to eggs, Wuchang rice, and high-quality non-GMO oil, so as to ensure that consumers have a sense of comfort and security at home for dinner. These controls on quality details, coupled with the maturity of the first chain, can ensure the stability of food taste in large-scale production.
Another killer feature of Hefu is the standardization system. Hefu Lao Mian has established an information-based traceability system to maintain transparent and stable quality, so as to achieve "standardization of product production process, food safety management, hygiene management, and service", and strictly follow the process parameters for food production.
At the same time, Hefu Lao Mian also reduces costs and increases efficiency through digitalization, and "picks wool" from its own ** chain. Specifically, the informatization and digitization of Hefu Lao noodles can better realize the standardization of the whole link from procurement to factory production and logistics and transportation, so as to reduce costs and improve efficiency between the production links of the first chain, ensure that customers get a high-quality taste bud experience, and at the same time provide delicious food to consumers with reasonable quality.
It can be seen that in the impossible triangle of scale, taste and **, Hefu Lao Mian has found a solution to the problem through scale, digitalization and standardization.
Polishing the product, hiding the traffic password
Many people may not have noticed that there is also a "traffic password" buff superposition in the process of upgrading and fighting monsters in the catering industry, that is, its explosive effect.
Since its establishment, Hefu Lao Mian has successfully created many popular products with consumer reputation. For example, the herbal tomato cartilage noodles that fans keep leaving messages in various social ** interactive areas of Hefu Lao Mian asking for a return is a popular classic product of Hefu Lao Mian - it has since returned. In addition, the herbal health noodle soup series has sold more than 70 million bowls since 2017.
Another hidden popular attribute of Hefu Lao Mian is "health". In recent years, from disdain for health preservation, to attention to health preservation, and then to love health preservation, young people's health blood has awakened rapidly. Hefu Lao Mian has accumulated more than 10 years of experience in the field of health preservation, this time 20 upgradeThe newly launched "Four Treasures of Health" - herbal soup, coarse grain noodles, longevity dishes, and health tea, also stepped on the rhythm of the trend, which not only improved the quality of the product, but also found the balance between "delicious and healthy". With such a quality and cost-effective advantage, there is a good chance to run out of the health department.
Obviously, the importance of popular products for a brand is self-evident, it can bring stronger brand awareness, enhance consumer stickiness, and thus enhance brand competitiveness. If you are worried that the explosion is just a flash in the pan surrounded by the traffic effect, then look at McDonald's "Big Mac" has become a classic product of this brand, which not only proves the success of a certain product, but also highlights the brand's position in the global catering market.
In fact, whether it is a classic or a new product, Hefu Lao Mian is not a product of the market to follow the trend, but closely follows the taste buds of consumers, and most of them have dozens or even hundreds of product iterations behind it. In addition to the product development and first-chain advantages that have been mentioned, the speed and quality of product updates and iterations also reflect the basic plate of Hefu to create explosive models. It is reported that Hefu Lao Mian has updated at least 217 versions of the product menu since its establishment, reaching a refresh rate of twice a month.
On the one hand, it is to improve the formula based on long-term market feedback, and on the other hand, it is to optimize and innovate based on the cooking process and the ingredients themselves. However, unlike launching new products, iterating existing products will not make consumers notice them immediately, but it can continuously strengthen consumer awareness and accumulate long-term reputation. This kind of classic style is often a potential hit. Industry insiders said.
According to the report "Blue Book of China's Noodle Industry" released by Frost & Sullivan, as of September 2023, in the domestic noodle market, Hefu Lao Noodle has the largest direct sales revenue, and the growth rate of direct sales revenue and the number of directly operated stores are leading the industry. It is reported that Hefu Lao Mian currently has more than 500 directly-operated stores and more than 20 million members, and Frost & Sullivan awarded it the title of "No. 1 Brand of Chinese Noodle Restaurant".
Under the acceleration of scale, the new health products of Hefu Lao Mian have laid out the global ** zone, and these new products are likely to become popular in different ** belts, further consolidating the head position of Hefu Lao Mian in the noodle track, allowing Hefu Lao Mian to win the first-mover advantage when the "involution" of China's catering market accelerates, and open up the imagination of future development.