Some people say, “Without the pressure of external competition, consumers cannot become God!”
This is true. Many things in business actually follow this principle.
However, it needs to be stated that at the beginning of 1988, it was not the high-end clothing industry that was first developed in Beijing, but the modern fast food industry that had just developed.
The past year of 1987 can definitely be regarded as a landmark year for the enlightenment of the modern fast food industry in Beijing.
Because in November of this year, the first American fast food restaurant selling fried chicken appeared on Qianmen Street in Kentucky.
A month later, a beef noodle chain store appeared on Dongsi West Street in Beijing, with the sign of "California Beef Noodle King".
These two fast food restaurants are completely different in terms of business content. Although one focuses on pure Western-style fried chicken fast food, the other focuses on Chinese-style food.
But what they have in common is that they all use the word "America" to attract customers.
Moreover, with its bright-colored signboards, simple decoration style, and dining mode of queuing up to order first and then returning to your seat to eat, it distinguishes itself from traditional Chinese snack bars and even Hong Kong-style fast food restaurants such as Yili Fast Food.
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Therefore, for most people who have never been to the United States, and may even think that they will never have the opportunity to set foot in the United States, their fantasies about the American dream are all invested in this fried chicken and this bowl of noodles.
To put it bluntly, for the Chinese people who flock to American fast food, what they buy is not just an ordinary fast food, but their curiosity and fantasy about the United States.
Therefore, these foods, which originally had ordinary tastes and ingredients, can naturally create a sacred aura because of the customers' beautiful emotions, thus selling for high prices, easily making away their hard-earned money.
Especially the one selling beef noodles, it is just a fake brand that is purely a gimmick. There is no such business in the United States.
After all, Kentucky is really a big company from the United States. Although it has a dark heart, it is a truly imported product after all. Food ingredients and some equipment and supplies are indeed imported from abroad.
But what’s that beef noodles?
Apart from a gimmick, there is nothing that can be linked to the United States.
No matter the taste or cooking level, it is incomparable not only to our authentic Lanzhou Beef Noodles, but also to the same fake, our locally created "Lanzhou Ramen".
But the price is just as high as Kentucky's seven-and-a-half-person set meal, and they actually dare to sell it for six yuan a bowl.
Let’s just say how well this knife is sharpened!
Is this brave guy fat?
Talking about this matter, it is as divisive as the "authentic old Beijing sandwich" that appeared at Donghuamen Night Market for 30 yuan a few years later.
It's a pity that there are too many ignorant people, and many people have no ability to distinguish. They really think that people in California love to eat beef noodles.
I would rather spend a pound and a half of soy sauce beef to eat a bowl of noodles with only a small piece of coriander, four or five pieces of beef, and two ounces of noodles soaked in soy sauce soup, just to experience the beef noodles that Americans love to eat and our local noodles.
What's the difference.
This made the unscrupulous merchants make a fortune. With 80 tables, they had to receive more than 3,000 customers a day. At the busiest time, the tables were turned over more than 30 times in a single day.
As a result, nine out of ten people had their American dream shattered. Everyone found out that their hard-earned money had been stolen, and they could only think behind their backs that "California people don't understand what's going on."
I am relieved.
Nothing else can be done.
However, these two American fast food restaurants have made a lot of money by relying on the curiosity of Beijing people, and the good times are almost over in just a few days.
Because with the arrival of the new year, a Western-style fast food restaurant called "Gingerbread Man" opened in Beijing.
This brand focuses on affordable prices, and the low prices are outrageous.
Moreover, "Born" is a chain model, and there are even five stores in major downtown areas in Beijing.
This incident was as if the sacred stone at the top of Huaguo Mountain exploded, and a flying monkey destined to cause havoc in the Heavenly Palace popped out.
The fried chicken king and the wagyu noodle king, who were enjoying huge profits, were stunned and couldn't live anymore.
Needless to say, the man behind this kind of weird thing that should not have happened and could never happen is the invisible richest man in the capital, Ning Weimin.
He and his "American cousin" Shen Cun planned the business of the "Gingerbread Man" fast food restaurant that suddenly appeared and disrupted the fast food scene in Beijing for nearly a year.
It's just that in the past, good things always took a long time due to various accidents and were delayed again and again.
But this time, it finally came to fruition, and the business was open for business.
As for why Ning Weimin gave the fast food restaurant such a name?
Mainly because in Western culture, the various beautiful symbolic meanings represented by gingerbread men are particularly in line with the special complex of Chinese people towards Western culture.
The gingerbread man is not just a Christmas food, it is an iconic Western cultural symbol that knows no borders and is widely spread.
There are many interesting legends surrounding the gingerbread man.
For example, the tradition of making gingerbread men at Christmas is said to have originated from a sudden idea of Queen Elizabeth I, who ordered the pastry chef to make gingerbread cookies to look like guests.
But out of romantic feelings, many people believe that the popularity of gingerbread men comes from a pair of lovers who were separated because of the war. When they got old, they were worried that the other party could not find them, so they sold gingerbread men in their own villages that looked like each other.
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In addition, Christmas gingerbread men have their own traditional stories.
"The Gingerbread man" comes from Grimm's fairy tale, and is well known to everyone in the entire Western world, regardless of gender or age.
This story tells the story of a freshly baked gingerbread man who escaped from the oven to avoid being eaten. He ran all the way, avoiding grandfather and grandmother, pigs, cows, and horses. Finally, when crossing a river,
Be tricked by the cunning fox or be eaten.
And in this story, the gingerbread man sang a sentence all the time during his escape.
"Run, run, as fast as you can. You can't catch me, I'm the gingerbread man."
Therefore, "gingerbread man" has a special meaning and has always been used to describe a simple and courageous person.
Just like what the lyrics of another song "bigger than Gingerbread man's vitality" want to express, basically, it is equivalent to what we mean in the Internet age by "bigger than Gingerbread man's vitality".
It can be seen from this that the cultural content that can be unfolded through the gingerbread man is extremely rich.
There is no doubt that such a little thing has unlimited cultural extensibility and broad cultural tolerance.
Whether it's Valentine's Day, Easter, Children's Day, Halloween, Christmas, New Year, or even traditional Chinese festivals, it will be very convenient to plan theme activities in the future.
And because gingerbread men are common cultural knowledge in most Western countries, they are not limited to one country or one region.
Then Ning Weimin can choose well-known delicacies suitable for pre-made dishes from the entire Western world and use them to develop new products for the restaurant without violating the rules.
In addition, the cute image of the gingerbread man has become quite mature and is friendly and lovable. It has long been a household name in the West and is children’s favorite fairy tale image.
So as a brand symbol, people everywhere, whether adults or children, will definitely like it.
There is no need to demonstrate this inevitable effect at all.
Even the peripheral products are well designed. If there is a chance to cooperate with the film and television industry and animation industry, it is entirely possible to create a well-known IP.
So after listening to Ning Weimin's full explanation, Shen Cun readily agreed and nodded in approval of this name, which was full of unlimited business possibilities and full of potential.
Even Kang Shude and Jiang Nianyun also praised it and thought it was extremely appropriate.
After all, every era has its own characteristics, and they never thought that a fast food restaurant could have such a method.
Even they have to admit that titles such as Giesling, French Bakery, and Jiying Fan Cuisine in the past are obviously a bit out of date nowadays.
January 30, 1988, Saturday, was the grand opening of five "Gingerbread Man" stores in Beijing.
Unlike Kentucky, which opened a single store, Ning Weimin did not hold any leadership speeches, lion dances, or even a huge inflatable balloon in front of these five stores to celebrate.
In his opinion, these are all formalities and have little effect on attracting customer flow.
He thought very clearly that his store is located in Di'anmen, Xidan, Dongdan, Wangfujing and Qianmen, the most prosperous traditional business districts in Beijing. There is no shortage of customers. As long as the signboard is eye-catching and the decoration style is unique, it will be a success.
It can attract people.
So on the opening day, he only asked the store managers of the five stores to set off a big cha whip each before opening the door, in accordance with Chinese tradition.
To put it bluntly, it was just to increase happiness and bring good luck. In this regard, he didn't want to spend any more money.
However, this does not mean that he does not pay attention to publicity and does not know how to build momentum when a new store opens.
Who is Ning Weimin?
Don't forget, he has too many hidden attributes.
In addition to being the richest man in Beijing and a shareholder of LVMH and Pierre Cardin, he is also the number one boss in the domestic entertainment industry, the number one celebrity agent in the country, and has a wife who owns the sixth largest film company in Japan.
So since he has natural advantages in celebrity resources and media resources, he will of course promote the new store through his best method.
In fact, the approach he took was particularly direct.
Based on his knowledge in his previous life, he discussed with Shen Cun and formulated an opening event called "Red Five Stars".
Then advertise through several local newspapers with the largest circulation in Beijing.
In the form of a full-page advertisement for a week, they informed everyone that their gingerbread man fast food restaurant was about to grandly open, and introduced their activities and content in detail.
Specifically, Ning Weimin arranged for Matsumoto Keiko, Teresa Teng, Zhang Qiang, Fei Xiang, and Cui Jian, five big stars who are currently staying in the capital, to take action.
At noon on the opening day, they will be arranged to go to one of the five "Gingerbread Man" fast food restaurants to meet movie fans.
As for which store each celebrity goes to, it is all randomly arranged and will surprise customers like a lottery.
In addition to signing autographs for fifty random customers on site, they themselves will also dine in the restaurant with everyone and taste gingerbread man’s specialties.
What's more, each celebrity will also make a special recommendation for customers of the restaurant they visit by choosing one of their favorite dishes from the menu.
From then on, within a week, this recommended dish will be a buy-one-get-one-free discount for customers who patronize this fast food restaurant.
In other words, five different stores will welcome five different stars and five different preferential foods will appear.
It's easy to collect wool, you just need to visit one by one.
As long as the new store opens within a week, you can enjoy the different buy-one-get-one-free special offers at each Gingerbread Man fast food restaurant.
In addition, within a week of the opening of the new store, no matter which "Gingerbread Man" fast food restaurant customers visit, as long as they spend ten yuan on site, they can get a gingerbread man key chain as a gift.
Of course, the quantity is limited and will be given away while supplies last. This is also an inevitable additional requirement.
At the same time, because these five stars are also tasked with preparatory publicity for the release of "Crazy Rich Asians" next year, especially Teresa Teng and Fei Xiang will attend this year's Spring Festival Gala, they will inevitably be interviewed by many media reporters
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Whether it is radio stations, TV stations, various newspapers, and well-known domestic magazines such as "Popular Cinema", "Movie Pictorial", and "Friends", there are many opportunities to be interviewed.
Therefore, Ning Weimin didn't have to worry about the publicity channels of TV and radio stations at all, and he didn't have to pay a single word of advertising fees.
When these celebrities were being interviewed, they consciously released the news about the opening of the Gingerbread Man fast food restaurant.
Even a few celebrities helped out on a voluntary basis, and no one asked Ning Weimin for commercial acting fees or endorsement fees.
Ning Weimin still felt quite embarrassed and insisted that everyone receive a LV bag as a gift.
It doesn't count as reward, it only counts as friendship, so this matter can be covered up.
As for his wife, she really doesn't get any remuneration at all, she just fulfills her duties as a boss lady.
All in all, in terms of advertising costs, Gingerbread Man Fast Food Restaurant has made a lot of money.
Who in the world can be like Ning Weimin and let the top five celebrities at home and abroad come to endorse his fast food restaurant for free?
Anyone who sees this will be exclaimed that it is too exaggerated.
Especially the money he spent is actually not much more than Kentucky.
Just give a few newspapers a total of about 120,000 yuan in advertising fees.
But influence and coverage are completely different.
In fact, as soon as the news about the imminent opening of Gingerbread Man's five fast food restaurants was released, it was like a royal salute that almost exploded in the sky across the entire capital, attracting the attention of the whole city.
As a result, on the opening day, it was indeed very lively, and there were long queues even before the doors opened.
The five shops are all almost the same, and the queue stretches for two miles.
Not to mention that Ning Weimin had to ask the police to help maintain order.
In places like Di'anmen, Xidan, and Dongdan, traffic is prone to congestion, and even the traffic police are here.
Near noon, each of the five stores welcomed a big star, which caused "three floors inside and three floors outside", and there was a joy inside and outside the store.
Especially in the three stores where Keiko Matsumoto, Teresa Teng and Fei Xiang appeared, fans were extremely enthusiastic.
If it weren't for the help of the police to maintain order, doors and windows would have been broken through and a serious stampede would have occurred.
However, there were no near misses, and the result was pretty good.
By interacting with the big stars, the customers who came to the scene that day were very satisfied.
The end-of-day business figures were also very encouraging.
The total turnover of the five stores exceeded 116,000 yuan, and almost all the dishes prepared were sold out.
In other words, the average sales volume of each store is more than 23,000 yuan.
This is based on underestimating customer enthusiasm and having to close the store an hour and a half early.
Otherwise, I might have to increase sales by 10,000 yuan.
In addition, John was also nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor for the movie "The Last Emperor" and flew to the United States to attend the Golden Globe Awards Ceremony on January 23.
He was unable to stay and participate in this event.
Otherwise, if he, a handsome guy who has already started to become famous in the international film industry, comes to support the show, it will definitely cause a bigger sensation and make it even more popular.
Of course, some people may still remember that on the opening day of Capital Kentucky, the sales figure for a single store was as high as 40,000 yuan.
It looks like Kentucky's sales figures are much higher than those of Gingerbread Man.
But objectively speaking, there is no comparison.
Because the stores in Kentucky are large, the price of individual products is high.
What's more, each of Gingerbread Man's five stores has buy-one-get-one-free specials.
So if you look at the number of items sold, the gingerbread man is definitely better.
In particular, the opening of five branches together can create such a figure and attract people from almost all over the city to join in. This is an incredible business miracle.