Master Bao has entered the post-internet celebrity stage

After becoming famous all the way, Master Bao has upgraded his stores, proactively closed them, and then launched a sub-brand "Haofudao" after launching new products. Recently, a reporter from Beijing Business Daily learned from the bakery brand Master Bao that some Beijing stores have been gradually changed to "Haofu Road". The adjusted stores are mainly stores with an area of ??less than 40 square meters. Currently, they mainly involve 5 small stores in Beijing. This The brand mainly focuses on traditional Chinese pastries. Master Bao’s previous series of actions have always focused on quality as the core competitive point. Now, as Master Bao’s anti-counterfeiting work is still in progress, he is developing dual brands. Master Bao is gradually getting rid of the original label of Internet celebrity baking and starting to diversify and refine. The differentiated development route is also significantly different from the development model of early Internet celebrity catering brands that focused on marketing and traffic. Master Bao’s changes are also the beginning of the early Internet celebrity catering brands entering the post-Internet celebrity era and focusing on the catering business itself.

The small store was renamed as the Timzi brand

A reporter from Beijing Business Daily learned from Master Bao that in the near future, Master Bao will make adjustments to the stores that were previously opened in Beijing with an area of ??less than 40 square meters. The stores involved include Beijing Xi'an Store, Beijing Warwick Store, Beijing Dongsi Store, Beijing Xinjiekou Store and Beijing Fucheng Store. It is worth noting that the above-mentioned stores will be operated as sub-brands of "Master Bao" under the name "Haofudao". At the same time, the brand will not accept franchises and will maintain a direct operation model.

It is understood that "Haofudao" has also differentiated its products from the main brand Master Bao. "Haofu Dao" is positioned as a traditional Chinese pastry shop in the community, focusing on traditional Chinese pastries. In terms of products, in addition to retaining "Master Bao's" egg yolk cakes, pineapple cakes, raisin cakes and other traditional pastries, it will also add original jujube flavor. cakes, milk-flavored peach cakes, millet peach cakes, black rice peach cakes and other traditional pastry products, but "Xiaobei" as an "Internet celebrity" product is not among them.

In fact, Master Bao, which originally had only a small number of stores, closed three stores of Master Bao’s Beijing Xidan store, Majiabao store and Anding store in June this year. At that time, Master Bao founder Bao Caisheng told a Beijing Business Daily reporter that because the stores with large sales volume were too small, it was already difficult to meet the food safety standards required by the company. In order to ensure the company's food safety standards, he decided to close the smaller stores. 's store. However, this time for the adjustment of smaller stores, we did not choose to close stores directly.

Bao Caisheng told the Beijing Business Daily reporter that after evaluation, some small-area stores opened in Beijing in the early years could no longer meet Master Bao’s requirements for the production environment of some products, so he decided to make and sell these stores The products will be adjusted, and these stores will also be renamed "Haofu Road". Among them, the Haofu Road store no longer sells "Xiaobei". Mainly in the process of producing Xiaobei, some production links are difficult to control in smaller stores. However, Bao Caisheng also admitted that doing so will affect the profits of these stores in the short term.

Competing for market segments

"Master Bao", who has always been troubled by counterfeit stores, uses various methods such as large store strategy, bright kitchens, and store upgrades to protect his rights and fight against counterfeiting. At the beginning of this year, all Master Bao stores nationwide implemented the "Bright Kitchen and Bright Stove" project. Consumers can see the pastry making process through the transparent glass windows in the store. At the same time, there are also monitors outside the store to broadcast the store's pastry production process. In terms of internal management, a series of kitchen hygiene management systems have been formulated. In addition to seeking sustainable development measures in management, Master Bao also launched a new product "Cod Shell" this year. According to industry insiders, Master Bao’s series of actions are also a measure to seek differentiated competition in brand services and management, and to seek sustainable development through scale and branding. They are also a disguised form of suppressing copycat stores.

The adjustment of small stores and the launch of sub-brands seem to be Master Bao’s next rights protection plan. In this regard, Bao Caisheng told a reporter from Beijing Business Daily that this name change has nothing to do with trademark rights protection. In the future, Master Bao's stores will be large-area stores with an area of ??more than 80 square meters, and Haofu Road will mainly be community stores with an area of ??about 40 square meters. Among them, the Haofu Dao Association targets daily household consumption, and there are currently no plans to deploy Haofu Dao on a large scale.

Zhu Danpeng, a Chinese food industry analyst, said that from the launch of sub-brands and the adjustment of small stores, it can be seen that Master Bao has begun to operate from the direction of branding and capitalization.

The dual-brand strategy began to classify Master Bao's products, stores, and scenes. For the brand, clear and standardized strategic management was carried out in terms of trademark protection, product development and operation, and store operation. Master Bao was also Future brand promotion and all-round improvement will play a certain supporting role.

Opportunities and risks coexist

Zhu Danpeng said that distinguishing the products, positioning and consumer audiences of the parent brand and sub-brands is helpful for the development of the brand. In addition, Chinese pastries are currently popular among new generation consumer groups and middle-aged and elderly consumer groups, and we can also see the target audience that Master Bao's subdivided categories tend to favor. However, how to develop the overall operating models of the parent brand and sub-brands simultaneously, and how to ensure and divide the quality and investment of sub-brands are key issues in the dual-brand strategy. In addition, Master Bao’s elimination of copycats is still an urgent problem that needs to be solved.

According to Lai Yang, executive vice president of the Beijing Association of Business Economics, pastry brands like Master Bao need to explore how to enhance the value of the entire brand. If a brand wants to continue to develop, it cannot be supported by one or two single products. More importantly, it needs to enrich the brand connotation and give consumers a comprehensive quality experience. Prior to this, due to the excessive number of copycat stores, Master Bao has always focused on safeguarding rights. Brands like Master Bao that have become popular through the "strength" of their food products need to further explore how to keep the brand in the market and not collapse. This adjustment of stores and the launch of sub-brands will be helpful to the sustainable development of the company. However, Master Bao’s upgrade and rights protection measures will put forward higher requirements for enterprises in terms of business philosophy, supply chain, management, etc.