Should we focus on one dish when doing catering?

Many entrepreneurs have the same question when doing catering: whether they should focus on one dish. This question makes sense. For example,

Banu focuses on hairy belly hotpot, Tanzong focuses on chopped pepper fish head, and so on.

It seems that as long as resources are focused on one dish, performance can be increased. Should your own brand also focus on one dish?

Epistemology determines methodology. First, you must know the pros and cons of this methodology. Only then did I know how to use this methodology. Under what conditions is it appropriate to use this method? You have decision-making criteria. Otherwise, it is easy to become cannon fodder. You need to know whether your company should focus on one dish.

First of all, we need to know,

1. What is the use of focusing on a dish?

Analyzed from the perspective of consumer cognition,

In an extensive market, product focus can help consumers have a clearer understanding of the value behind your brand. When talking about your brand, they can immediately clearly tell what your signature dish is and what your unique value is. This reduces consumers’ decision-making costs.

Analyzed from a mental perspective,

In an era of information explosion, product focus can help your brand form a clearer memory point in the minds of consumers. Compared with other brands, For homogeneous competitors, when consumers have relevant needs, the first thing that comes to mind is your brand. That is to say, it has priority over competitors in acquiring customers. It can greatly increase the customer acquisition rate.

From the perspective of internal operations and external communication, the company's limited resources can be more focused, thus forming a synergy.

In one sentence, the essence of product focus is the brand’s hook in the minds of consumers. Or I will think of you first when I have relevant needs.

Its underlying logic is the brand's external expression of value perception, a process from extensive to refined.

The method is to start from the consumer's cognitive side, first look for this hook. Then force companies to use this hook as the starting point to reconstruct value. 2. What are the risks and disadvantages of focusing on one dish?

First, the product you focus on must have a sufficient basis for public awareness. It has roots, a matrix, and a natural sense of value. It has to be a good seed in itself.

In this way, all the packaging, promotion, marketing and other resources you invest later can get twice the result with half the effort. Only then can we support the profit model of a single store.

You can think of product focus as trademark registration, but trademarks go to the Trademark Office to register, and one less thing is lost. Product focus is to grab the minds of consumers, and one less thing is less. . The essence is a game theory. In an extensive market format, whoever focuses first will have the advantage, because the mind is preconceived.

Second, if you can do it, you must also be able to sell it. You need to rely on a lot of advertising to rape consumers' minds. If the resource investment does not reach the critical value, the pot of water will not boil.

Third, focusing on one dish is just one method of building a brand. It cannot cure all diseases.

Some categories are still in the early stage of extensive market, and there are many better market opportunities. Sometimes excessive segmentation and focus on one dish may also narrow the market.

Because after focusing. When consumers think of this dish, they will think of you, and at the same time, they will not choose you if they don’t want to eat this dish. And after your brand focuses on one dish, the impression in consumers’ minds has already been solidified.

Fourth, if the streets have been divided into various single-product stores on a large scale, you are still over-dividing this single product. Just go into the alley and get to the main road where big trucks can go.

For example, pickled fish in golden soup - pickled fish in golden soup - pickled seabass in golden soup - small pot pickled seabass in golden soup - and so on. If you grind this hook so small, you can hook a few customers.

I often laugh at this phenomenon and say that after struggling for several years, I finally got myself into a dead end, because there is a three-kilometer rule in catering.

The demand base and purchasing power of the surrounding three kilometers determine your single store profit model.

To summarize briefly, methodology is dead but people are alive. Only when you truly know the shortcomings of a method can you master it. Secondly, anyone can scheme, the key is to be decisive. No matter how good the method is, it will be useless if you make mistakes in judging market opportunities and market competition.

3. Does it mean that as long as the product focuses on performance, it can grow?

The answer is definitely not.

The reason why you propose a plan is not because it makes sense, but because you have seen the future and figured out what will happen if it is implemented. What will happen in the first step, what will happen in the second step, and make a comprehensive pros and cons analysis.

All plans that have not yet been implemented and verified are based on predictions and deductions of future scenarios after implementation. Product focus is a hook to acquire customers. The function of the hook is only to increase the customer acquisition rate. Solve the problem that consumers have a clear understanding of your value.

A simple explanation is that whether you focus on fish heads or fried pork with chili peppers, the products you make can give consumers a better value perception than other competitors. If you focus on the product, it will not be as good as the one next door. That's the sky loft. Therefore, behind product focus is the overwhelming investment of resources. It is better to cut off one of his fingers than to hurt ten of them. From tableware, copywriting, posters, menus, advertisements, stories, ingredients, cooking methods, etc., all resources must be blessed,

Because this product bears a strategic mission and requires belief.

Thirdly, all competition among enterprises is not a competition based on a single value point. It’s not just about one dish, it’s about the entire value chain. Whether you can retain customers depends on your products, environment, services, operations, marketing, etc. What is involved behind this is the weight of your resource allocation.

4. How to focus on a dish?

Look from the mind, and you must do mental research, because product focus involves a lot of resource investment, and it is not something that just any expert can pat on the head. Able to make decisions.

Look from the market competition pattern. If it is not completely occupied by competitors, you need to analyze and judge the competition pattern.

Look from the sales data. It must be consistent with the company's own resources and genes.

For example, we have a customer who cooks Quzhou cuisine in Ningbo. It’s called Thirty-Nine Dishes.

There are more than 300 Quzhou dishes in Ningbo, and almost all of them are called Quzhou local cuisine restaurants. Everyone is the leader in the imitation category, and the business is not bad.

The best seed among the three heads and one claw is the fish head.

And the recognition of this big item has not been completely occupied by competitors.

At the same time, it is also the dish with the best sales data in the brand store, so next, let’s put it The category is changed to Quzhou Big Fish Head, and the slogan is changed to, to eat Quzhou Big Fish Head, go to Thirty-nine Road. The menu will be sold to order in the open market and cooked in small pots. All copywriting, ingredients, menus, The tableware, the way of presentation, and the whole pop of the store are all on the fish’s head. After the first line of penetration and focus, the performance nearly doubled. Gross profit also increased five points.

5. Do all catering brands have to focus on one dish? The answer is definitely not.

The value of a brand is divided into functional value, emotional value and social value.

The product focuses on slicing the cake in a stock market from the perspective of functional value. It is only suitable for large categories with relatively long product lines. And it is in a relatively extensive competitive landscape. Small brands that do not have competitive advantages of their own.

If your brand has reached a stage.

For example, Haidilao, what it needs to do is to widen the gap between its competitors, highlight its social attributes, and provide social value.

Instead of focusing on products for differentiation. So his advertising slogan is, Let’s have fun together, Haidilao, instead of appealing to the product level, good hotpot can speak for itself.

Secondly, if you are in a niche category with sluggish demand. If you still segment, focus, and cut the cake in a niche market, you are leading yourself into a dead end.

The correct approach in this situation is to reactivate this category through innovation and expand the demand base of the category.

The number one driver of economic development is innovation, because you can’t get a railroad even if you add up all the carriages.

To summarize, product focus is a hook to acquire customers from the perspective of consumer awareness. From the perspective of business operations, it is the focus of resources.

6. In addition to focusing on one dish, what other methodologies can improve performance growth?

A cross strategic model table that we have summarized based on years of practice. But this model can explain all cases in the catering industry.