With the development of food delivery to the depths of young people's lives, a familiar and unfamiliar concept "meal" has been re-excavated.

From the literal meaning, it is easy to understand, the auxiliary to the ready-to-meal meal, that is, the meal, the bibimbap, and the food that can make the meal more enjoyable. In the catering and food markets, table meals generally refer to foods prepared by businesses that can be used as dishes, such as stewed vegetables, mixed vegetables, pickles, etc., to be eaten together with the dishes made by consumers to enrich the table.

At the level of standardized food, when it comes to catering, the first thing we instinctively think of is Laoganma chili sauce and Fuling mustard. These are the two most influential brands in China's table food, and they are also the largest market players in the two industries of chili sauce and mustard. After decades of market cultivation, Chinese consumers have long become accustomed to eating with sauce, pickled mustard and porridge.

However, there will always be new players coming out of the huge market. While the old godmother has gone abroad and conquered many foreign friends, new domestic hot sauce brands have also continued to emerge. In recent years, this wave has opened up the channel idea of "takeaway + hot sauce", related brands Began to use new network channels to occupy a dominant position.

ONE

Pictures are both a scene and a channel

Takeaway gives new vitality to catering food

Hot sauce is a common stock at the family table, and it is also standard on almost all tables in restaurants. In the context of family and dine-in meals, as a side food, chili sauce has three flavors that stimulate taste buds and appetite, namely "spicy, sour, and fragrant", and it is widely accepted in both the north and the south.

Only the takeaway scene has not penetrated yet. It is impossible to put the whole bottle of chili sauce as a product on the menu, and fewer customers order a bottle of bibimbap sauce through takeaway. However, the highest proportion of takeaways and the highest repurchase rate are simple meals and fast foods. These types of meals especially require sauces to increase their taste.

At the same time, although there are new chili sauce brands in the consumer market, they will face a "Lao Ganma problem": if the price is more expensive than Lao Ganma, they can’t be sold, and if the price is cheaper than Lao Ganma, they will lose money. The root of the problem lies in the fact that, compared with brands like Laoganma for decades, the channel coverage is far from reach.

The takeaway scene lacks spicy sauce for meals, and the new spicy sauce brand lacks sales channels. Once the two are combined, it becomes the best way for new entrants to break through.

Hubang Hot Sauce, founded in 2016, finally decided to abandon both the dine-in and family dining scenes and instead focus on the take-out scene. This was very risky at the time and the prospects were not clear enough, but under the combined effect of market push and pressure, this has become a direction that must be tried.

Takeaway is not just a “channel” but more a “scenario” for serving hot sauce. Therefore, it is closer to consumers. Not only does it end when it is sold to catering businesses, but it can generate more information with customers. Direct correlation can help you understand consumers’ perceptions of the product more quickly.

Therefore, the catering brand must first form an in-depth cooperative relationship with catering takeaway merchants and form a "strong connection", provided that it can solve the rigid needs of catering merchants in serving customers and improving efficiency.

The first thing to be solved is the issue of specifications. Small packages of chili sauce are more in line with the one-person food scenario. The restaurant does not need to separate and pack it by itself, but can directly pack the finished product and takeaway for one person.

The second is the problem of taste matching. The same is chili sauce, which can provide a variety of flavors, and different foods have different flavor combinations, and customers can also choose according to their own preferences.

Again, there is a price issue. The price of chili sauce in small packages is not high, mostly between 3 and 5 yuan, so that customers have no pressure when choosing, and at the same time, businesses can still have a certain profit margin.

Finally, there is a sense of experience. The personalized packaging style can create a sense of surprise, provide customers with dining pleasure, and enhance the customer's sense of quality and praise for the meal.

Complementary food products are not just an embellishment for takeaway, they must be an enabling element for takeaway, so that they can develop long-term cooperation with the takeaway market.

Take-out is both a scene and a channel, and catering brands also need to choose a suitable catering brand to cooperate. The first selection criterion is whether they can bring traffic to themselves. It can be seen that whether it is Hubang Hot Sauce or Zuo Da Shi, both of them have chosen to cooperate with well-known takeaway brands. The usual model of catering brands is to establish long-term strategic cooperation with more than 200 chain brand merchants in the food delivery industry, so that tens of thousands of brand catering merchants can be covered.

In 2016, my country’s food delivery sales exceeded 160 billion; in 2017, the food delivery market exceeded 300 billion; in 2018, the volume of food delivery transactions reached 441.5 billion; in 2019, the transaction value of my country’s foreign delivery industry was 603.5 billion, and the number of food delivery users was nearly 416 million. people……

In such a large, fast-growing, trending dividend market, many commercial entities are digging in and sharing the dividends. The natural fit of catering food and takeaway has made them the hottest commercial phenomenon in recent years-Zuo Big Lion has already received financing, and the sales of Hubang's chili sauce is approaching the 100 million yuan mark.

TWO

Look at the new Internet celebrity era through cases

A new way of serving hot sauce

Now that they grow in such a market environment, the new hot sauces have a different market play.

The takeaway business itself pays attention to traffic, and as part of the product, the hot sauce for the meal must also have the attraction of traffic. It can be seen that the most popular catering food will be presented to the target customer group in the form of "net celebrity food".

In 2017, Hubang Hot Sauce launched small packages of 15g, 30g and 50g on Ele.me and Meituan's two major takeaway platforms, facing the market with the role of "standard delivery" and "single artifact". Later, he joined the popular anchor Li Jiaqi and others to carry out "carrying goods" propaganda through live webcast.

After the huge traffic made it quickly popular, the LOGO of the movie "Captain of China" and "The Climber" was revealed during the National Day gift film "Captain of China" and "The Climber" during the National Day of the "Eleventh" National Day. It also launched the "Spicy Tide" with Keming Noodle Industry. Noodles" products.

The daily order volume of the takeaway platform is basically more than tens of millions, and the new retail covers more of the new generation of people born in the 90s and 00s, but the simple exposure is not enough. "Only to attract attention, at this time, appearance and topical and personalized expression are the key.

For example, Hubang Chili Sauce launched a limited edition co-branded gift box of hot noodles during the National Day last year. Its appearance design is based on Chinese red, with hand-painted knife and horse dan patterns as the main part, supplemented by cranes and clouds. Hubang Chili Sauce is positioned as the most current one. The eye-catching national trend.

However, today's Internet celebrity products not only have to look good on the surface, but also have content and stories inside. Zuo Dashi, which has obtained financing, firstly worked on the product itself. Niu Mowang Hot Sauce and Dried Fish Hot Sauce are all products that have been "blown" on the Internet. In the brand story, it is also repeating: Zuo Dashi Gourmet team members include food consultants in "Bite of China" and "Chinese Taste". Food critic Dong Keping is also Zuo Da Shi’s "Chief Gourmet Officer"; the gourmet team will go all over the country to find delicious products and get them. To the formula, the formula will be mass-produced after industrialization.

This kind of breakthrough in the minds of customers is more powerful. The same is to eat chili sauce. For a small portion and a few dollars, you can get a brand new experience than in the past. Naturally, it will be easier to form spontaneous communication power on the customer side.

Increasing the exposure rate of the food delivery platform and strengthening the exposure memory points are not only to increase the sales volume in the food delivery channel, but also to build the brand from a long-term perspective, so that the product can be recognized in other channels.

THREE

Explore new and old brands more than ever

How will the catering market develop in the future

In the ever-changing Internet era, both new and old industries need to embrace changes in order to achieve sustainable development.

In fact, the catering market has always been there. While new entrants are expanding new styles of play, the original "big brothers" have not stopped.

"Fuling mustard tuber", a leading company in China's tableware industry, has long been a listed company. After occupying consumers' brand awareness of low-cost tableware, it has begun to grow rapidly under the social wave of consumption degradation. Growth, the potential is unstoppable.

The first is to expand the product matrix. With mustard tuber as the commander, kimchi, dried radish, kelp shreds, mustard soy sauce, pickles...just mustard tuber, it has a variety of flavors such as light, sauce-flavored, slightly spicy, spicy, sour and hot, broken rice, crispy, etc., gradually The impression of low-end and shoddy is removed, and it expands horizontally in the field of appetizers, and continues to be active on ordinary people's tables.

Abundant SKUs and a well-developed sales network built over the years have allowed the performance of this catering food company to continue to rise. At the same time, Fuling mustard tuber is still expanding new channels, because even though it has been operating in traditional sales channels such as supermarkets, convenience stores, and ordinary retail outlets for a long time, the competition is still fierce and the cost is still high.

As a result, companies have set their sights on the "sky"-aviation and aircraft meals and meals have begun to become a new market. Many people have experienced in-flight meals without any taste. Some keen airlines will arrange flight attendants to take a bottle of tempeh chili sauce to their customers. This method is very popular.

The Sichuan brand "Pixian Douban" soon developed the "Pixian Douchi Mushroom Sauce" as a side food for Sichuan Airlines. At the same time, it also broadcasted its own promotional video on Sichuan Airlines. Passengers in the first class of the aircraft video, Sichuan Airlines magazine, and Sichuan Airlines The advertisements of Pixian Douban can be seen in the lounge advertising machine, media and other places to continuously strengthen the brand impression.

Coincidentally, Hainan Airlines distributes Hainan’s yellow lantern chili sauce with meals. The airline meal channel also has the same characteristics: customers who are satisfied with the product after tasting will return to the physical store or take the initiative to "find goods" online. The airline meal provides an excellent stage for brand and product display. Another example is Guizhou Miao Girl's "Bagged Refined Chili Peppers" has become a bright spot in the catering products of many airlines such as Capital Airlines, Southern Airlines, Southwest Airlines and Chongqing Airlines. Ms. Miao also used the label of "Aviation Oil Chili" in the online flagship store to endorse herself.

The tremendous enrichment of lifestyles and the diversification of consumption scenarios make the exploration of channels a must-try for enterprises.

to sum up

The consumption of accompaniment food in each meal of the customer is small, but the taste can have a strong impact, and each meal will be selected. This is not only a snack, but also a beverage. For example, Pepsi-Cola will emphasize its catering function in its advertising and marketing activities. It has successively held the Hot Pot Festival and Pepsi Lobster Festival to strengthen itself and the "CP sense" of different catering categories such as hot pot and crayfish in the catering scene. .

In contrast, Coca-Cola has cooperated with its good partners McDonald's and Burger King, two fast food giants on the Meituan platform, to cooperate in interactive coupon collection and takeaway discount activities to deepen the combination of Coke and the fast food scene.

Taking catering and beverages as the first march, the next challenge for catering food brands is how to form a complete catering closed loop and create their own gourmet world.

Whether it is a family dining scene, a takeaway scene or a travel scene, these are all about the needs of customers during the process of eating a meal, how to eat more delicious, richer, and healthier, and this will be a blue ocean market that continues to grow. Creating a rich product portfolio, enhancing emotional connections with customers, and exploring multiple channels will be the main goals and breakthroughs in the catering market at this stage.