On the evening of October 13, KFC announced on its microblog that it would launch a new brand “Kaifeng Cai”. In the first season, all the new dishes were related to “chicken”. Among them, chicken snail powder was an instant topic, which attracted netizens to call out “too much fun!” I’m looking forward to it.
Obviously, the “Kaifeng Cai” is well prepared. On the one hand, it is aimed at the lazy economy and one-man food economy in the period of normalization of the epidemic situation to provide Chinese young consumers with delicious and convenient instant food, and on the other hand, it is an innovative attempt of brand localization in China. The smart KFC, on the other hand, takes a fancy to the regional food snail powder which is popular among consumers and capital in the food industry. With its huge flow and topic degree, KFC has successfully detonated the food circle and set off a topic in the industry.
Now, foodaily will take a look at the origin of Kaifeng CAI? What is the plot of KFC, which has been committed to localization? As its parent company, what new layout plans does Yum China have for KFC in the period of normalization?
They have been ridiculed for so many years,
KFC really sells Kaifeng Cai!
“Kaifengcai” trademark was applied for registration on July 30, 2020. The applicant is Dongfang Jibai (Shanghai) Catering Management Co., Ltd., which, together with KFC and pizza hut, belongs to the catering brands of Yum Brands in China.
According to the brand introduction, Kaifeng Cai series of products are developed to meet the needs of young Chinese consumers. It takes only a few minutes to enjoy a homemade delicacy at home. The first season products will include chicken breast, chicken soup, chicken snail powder, etc. Snail powder, as a popular online food, can’t be sold online because of its peculiar smell. However, it is a blessing in disguise, which goes deep into the family consumption scene.
According to Yum China’s plan, these products have begun to appear in some KFC restaurants in 23 city, including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and so on. The chicken breasts are sold in October 12th, the chicken soup series is sold in October 19th, and the snail powder series will be sold in October 26th. The sales channels are mainly concentrated in KFC App, WeChat official account and applet. And some stores may open other channels for sale.
Selling Chinese food, the product localization and innovation journey of “fried chicken”
As we all know, KFC, as a western style chain restaurant giant, has made remarkable achievements in the process of China’s localization, and its product localization is an important step of brand localization strategy.
In recent years, KFC has successively launched some classic Chinese food, such as pancake roll, Sichuan spicy beef, salted egg yolk flowing heart moon cake, Qingming Youth League and other classic Chinese food. It has been drawing close to the Chinese people’s preference. In particular, in July last year, KFC launched a series of new products, Chuanxiang flaming spicy Kechuang barrel + spicy brine series, which broke the inherent cognition of KFC and successfully indulged in the night There is a place for the late social youth.
However, different from the traditional Chinese food, this new brand series emphasizes the family consumption scene, hoping to create an opportunity for consumers to enjoy one person’s food at home through the way of catering retail.
Kaifengcai chicken and snail powder is launched to seize the taste buds of young consumers and the outlet of contemporary food in one fell swoop under this purpose, and bring the advantages of China’s regional food snail powder into full play.
Magic mirror market intelligence data shows that the total sales volume of snail powder on Taobao tmall platform from January to May this year was 1.63 billion yuan, especially during the epidemic period. Meanwhile, according to the data of Liuzhou Municipal Bureau of Commerce, the output value of bagged snail powder has exceeded 6 billion yuan in 2019 and reached 4.98 billion yuan in the first half of 2020, with an increase of 616.9%.
As a minority taste, snail powder with “epidemic bonus” is moving from local areas to the whole country, moving towards high quality, high refinement and high standardization. The prepackaged snail powder launched by KFC is in line with this market trend. We are also looking forward to whether it can really face the top brands of haohuan snail and liziqi.
As Zhu danpeng, an analyst of China’s food industry, said: “KFC, as a fast food giant, has a rapid response and high localization efficiency. After the snail powder is favored by the new generation, KFC is bound to take advantage of the fan effect of the whole spirochete powder to improve its in store traffic and popularity. “
Of course, in addition to snail powder, kaifengcai’s first products also include chicken soup, chicken breast meat, fried rice and other convenient foods, all of which are the products of the prevailing lazy economy and one-man food economy, as well as a new attempt to meet the needs of consumers.
At this point, some people may ask why KFC’s new brand attaches so much importance to the family consumption scene? In fact, there are traces to follow.
Sales of offline stores continue to decline, and new consumption scenarios should be vigorously arranged
According to the financial report released by Yum! China in August, in the second quarter of this year, yum! China’s total revenue was $1.9 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 11%, KFC’s sales decreased by 6%, and that of pizza hut by 12%; the company’s operating profit was $128 million, a year-on-year decrease of 38%; the net profit was $132 million, a year-on-year decrease of 26%; the same store sales decreased by 11%, of which KFC decreased by 10% And Pizza Hut fell by 12%.
Qu Cuirong, CEO of Yum! China, said: “the passenger flow of our stores in transportation hubs and tourist attractions continues to decline significantly year on year, which has a greater impact on KFC than on pizza hut.” Yang Jiawei, chief financial officer of the company, also said that even though the volume of brand transactions had improved compared with the previous quarter, the passenger flow was still significantly lower than the level before the epidemic. In this regard, Qu Cuirong also put forward guiding opinions: “we will try our best to provide cost-effective and consumption occasions to attract customers, but the recovery may take a long time.”
It can be seen that before the epidemic situation is completely eliminated, this situation is undoubtedly fatal in the face of offline restaurants like KFC. The company must find new growth points to make up for the offline sales revenue, and the family has become a new consumption scene of rapid development before, during and after the epidemic development.
In addition, KFC also pays more attention to the cost performance part than before. For example, in June this year, KFC launched the “buy one get one free” weekend activity for its members for the first time, which was highly praised by members and fans.
For the third quarter financial performance, Qu Cuirong is also optimistic. In her opinion, yum! China will still maintain its goal of opening 800-850 stores throughout the year. She also said that KFC’s current return period will take about two years, and it will continue to open stores as long as it reaches this rate of return. Even if the company is able to seize the opportunity of taking out, she will still be able to exploit the new trend of takeout as long as it can continue to develop.
reference material:
Xiaoshidai: the CEO of Yum! China, which has just opened 10000 stores, said the “playing method” is coming this year!
food people are “watching” Read the original