Chapter 473: All thanks to peers
Iterative upgrades of products based on customer needs should be classified as services.
As the market gradually shifts from a seller's market to a buyer's market, any sales behavior can be summed up in three words: selling services.
Decades or even more than ten years ago, some people still could not get enough food. At that time, if you had rice at home - no, you didn't even need rice, even if you had a sack of bran and shredded sweet potatoes at home, you would have absolute bargaining power when facing customers.
However, with the development of the times, eating is no longer the main difficulty faced by people in cities, especially in an international metropolis like Zhonghai. How to eat well, how to eat healthily, and even how to eat with culture and connotation, and how to eat with inner joy, are the issues that these urban white-collar workers who are gradually accumulating wealth think about.
Therefore, in the first development stage of Zhen Xiang Fast Food, Lu Yiming first played the health card. By exaggerating the harm and disgustingness of gutter oil, he successfully created a track for Zhen Xiang Fast Food.
Now, the first stage has ended, because not only Zhenxiang Fast Food, but other fast food brands and street restaurants have followed suit, promising not to use gutter oil or spoiled ingredients.
So, what should we do when facing competitors after the health card loses its effect?
Lu Yiming wanted to work on the packaging so that Zhenxiang fast food could enter its second stage - from eating healthily to eating with pleasure.
The customized packaging box not only looks clean and hygienic, but also very beautiful and convenient. It comes with a tool kit of disposable chopsticks, spoons, and plastic gloves, which fully reflects the company culture.
People are always greedy for small gains. When he comes to eat, it is natural for you to give him a pair of chopsticks, but if you also give him a spoon and a pair of gloves, he will feel that he has made a profit regardless of whether he can use them or not.
This is Lu Yiming’s strategy in competing with Xiao Longbo.
This strategy proved to be very successful.
After Zhenxiang Fast Food opened, relying on the reputation it had accumulated previously and the principle of nearby delivery implemented by Lu Yiming, the new store, after sharing part of the delivery tasks of the old store, gradually penetrated into the shopping malls and office buildings around Quyang Road.
For two companies with completely overlapping businesses, competition is a zero-sum game. If one of them gets an order, it means that the other loses the order.
After several days of penetration, the sales of Fanzhenxiang fast food have dropped significantly.
In the student union office, Xiao Longbo was very depressed when he learned that Fan Zhenxiang's sales had plummeted.
Xiao Longbo racked his brains but couldn't figure it out. Zhenxiang Fast Food had clearly not done anything special. It just opened an ordinary store. Why did its business suddenly become so good?
Is it really true that pirated products cannot beat genuine products?
That doesn't make sense.
Just when Xiao Longbo was puzzled, Ji Feiyang walked in carrying two lunch boxes.
"Here, this is for you."
Ji Feiyang sat opposite Xiao Longbo and placed one of the lunch boxes in front of Xiao Longbo.
"Here you go, this is the lunch box I bought from the new Zhenxiang fast food store. See if there's any difference in the taste."
The new Zhenxiang fast food store did not do any excessive publicity, but business picked up all of a sudden. Xiao Longbo and his friends really couldn't understand this, so Ji Feiyang decided to buy one to try and see if they had made any improvements to the taste.
After the two of them finished eating, they found that the taste was not much different from that of the old store.
“It tastes the same.”
Xiao Longbo became even more depressed now.
He even speculated that the improved sales of Zhen Xiang fast food might be due to the improved taste, but when he ate it he found that it had not changed at all.
This level of depression is like you thinking your love rival has lost weight and become handsome so he has seduced your goddess, but you find out that he is still short, poor and ugly, but he still seduced your goddess, leaving you with no excuses to comfort yourself for your failure.
After eating his fast food, Xiao Longbo was about to throw the box into the trash can in the corner, but when he bent down, he made a huge discovery.
"Fei Yang, come here quickly!"
Ji Feiyang came over and saw Xiao Longbo squatting next to the trash can, so he asked, "What's wrong with you? Did you vomit?"
"no!"
Xiao Longbo took out a foam lunch box from the trash can, pointed at the logo on it and said, "Look, this is the packaging of the Zhenxiang lunch box. We used to eat in this."
Then he took out the packaging of the Truth Lunch box he had just eaten and said, "This is the packaging they are using now."
"The previous packaging was very fragile and would break if squeezed hard. Moreover, if you put some soup in the lunch box, the soup would spill out nine out of ten times. But their new lunch box is deeper than the instant noodle box and is divided into two layers. Not only does it separate the food and the rice, but the opening is also specially treated, just like a coffee cup. After the lid is closed, even if you turn the cup upside down, the soup will not spill out. And there are disposable chopsticks, disposable plastic spoons, and disposable gloves."
"The taste hasn't changed, but the packaging has. Is that why they're taking our business?"
Xiao Longbo felt even more uncomfortable. It was like you thought your love rival had lost weight and become handsome so he abducted your goddess, but you turned out that this short, poor and ugly guy just changed his clothes, but still abducted your goddess.
“Should be…right?”
Ji Feiyang was also very depressed. He couldn't understand why Zhenxiang Fast Food could defeat them simply by changing its packaging.
In fact, if we explain it from a psychological perspective, the principle behind all this becomes very simple.
For example, many so-called luxury goods are actually IQ taxes. For example, an umbrella that costs thousands of yuan but is not waterproof, but people still buy it. Why? Is it because the buyer is a big idiot? Of course, this possibility cannot be ruled out, but the deeper reason is for face.
Who doesn’t want to save face when living in this world?
Not to mention luxury goods, a product with good packaging is more likely to attract the attention and love of users.
Think about it, in an office, the lunch boxes that other people eat are packaged in high-end and classy packaging, while the lunch boxes that you eat are packaged in foam plastic. Isn’t the difference immediately apparent ?
If you compare yourself to others, you will die; if you compare goods, you will throw them away!
Ordinary people don’t have the ability to compete for luxury goods, so how can they not compete for a box lunch?
Although my lunch box is 50 cents or one yuan more expensive than yours, yours looks more high-end and exquisite, so it's worth the money!
This strategy is particularly popular in places like Zhonghai.
Ji Feiyang thought for a long time but couldn't figure it out. He felt that his intelligence was insulted, so he was furious and said, "This Lu Yiming actually used such a dirty trick!"
Xiao Longbo made his fortune by imitating Zhenxiang fast food, so he naturally thought of a corresponding solution immediately: "Isn't it just changing the packaging? Let's change it too. I don't believe that I can't beat that Lu Yiming."
For Xiao Longbo, although he may not understand the principle, it is obvious that changing the packaging can increase sales, and it is easy to replicate.
The next day, Xiao Longbo found an advertising company and asked them to design the packaging for his Zhenxiang lunch box based on the packaging of Zhenxiang lunch box. In order to make the packaging more upscale than Zhenxiang fast food, he spent 50,000 yuan on the cost alone.
Ji Feiyang felt so painful that he muttered, "We originally used this money to open branches, but now we are forced to use it to consolidate the existing market. We must not let anything go wrong. Fifty thousand yuan, how many lunch boxes do we have to sell to make it back?"
Xiao Longbo also sighed and said, "I hope everything goes well. As long as we can maintain our market share, we will make back the money sooner or later."
Ji Feiyang said: "We have spent a lot of the one million invested by Boss Gao."
One million seems like a lot of money, but after actually putting it into operation, the two found that they had to spend money everywhere. Fortunately, the fast food industry has always had abundant cash flow, so Fan Zhenxiang can still maintain its operation.
Xiao Longbo pretended to be calm and said, "Don't worry, as long as we can expand the market and ensure sales, we will definitely make money."
After a few days, all Fanzhenxiang fast food restaurants used the latest design of packaging boxes, which even looked more high-end than Zhenxiang fast food restaurants.
When the new packaging box arrived at the store, Xiao Longbo laughed wildly after reading it, his face grim: "What a delicious fast food, die for me!"
Dormitory 303.
Ni Cong bought a few lunch boxes and put them on the table. He said to Lu Yiming, "Come and eat."
Lu Yiming put down the book and asked, "Where did you buy this today?"
Ni Cong said: "The rice smells so good."
After hearing this, Lu Yiming couldn't help but tease, "Good fellow, you are aiding the enemy."
Ni Cong said: "They also changed the packaging."
"oh?"
Lu Yiming raised his eyebrows to show his surprise, but he was not nervous at all.
"President Xiao is quite capable. He caught up with us so quickly."
Ni Cong said gloomily, "You're still laughing? I heard that they spent tens of thousands of dollars to design this packaging. I just took a look and it's really cleverly designed. It looks more convenient and easier to use than our packaging. How about we change it too?"
"Change your ass."
Lu Yiming said nonchalantly, "You change one and I change another? I don't have that much free time . Since they want to follow me, I really want to see how long they can follow me. We just need to continue to improve. Those who learn from me will live, and those who imitate me will die. They don't have any ideas of their own, they just follow me and repeat what others say. I have at least nine ways to kill them. Nine!"
"Then tell me, how should we deal with it now?"
Lu Yiming said casually, "It's simple. You can ask someone to make a discount card, about the same size as a business card, with a more exquisite design. When customers order food from us, it will be given as a gift along with the food. Our delivery staff will carry a delivery stamp with them, and they will stamp one on the card after delivery. Each discount card has nine stamp slots. If you fill up a discount card, the tenth time will be free. Our discount is not actually that big, but the effect will be very good. After all, people are greedy for bargains. This move is equivalent to binding the customer base. Anyone who buys the Zhenxiang lunch box will definitely have to continue to order food in the future just to get the free lunch box."
Ni Cong exclaimed: "Great! Lu Yiming, you are so awesome. Every decision you make hits the prostate of consumers accurately, making people unable to stop."
Lu Yiming smiled but said nothing. The tricks that were used too much by street milk tea shops in later generations were now used in this era. It would be natural to kill anyone who stands in the way, and kill anyone who stands in the way.
Lu Yiming said: "The real power of this move is not to increase sales, but to reduce the sales of competitors. After all, there are only three meals a day. If customers eat our food, they will not eat our competitors' food. This can suppress the development speed of competitors to the greatest extent."
The fast food industry is an industry with high cash turnover, but the risks are also very high because the storage period of food is very short. If fresh ingredients are not sold on the same day, they may start to deteriorate, resulting in huge losses.
Lu Yiming's strategy can be considered to kill two birds with one stone.
Of course, such a little trick is basically not difficult to imitate. I estimate that in just a few days, Fan Zhenxiang fast food will follow suit.
But so what? I can just try another way of playing when the time comes.
If Fan Zhenxiang doesn't try to overtake others and just follows behind Zhenxiang fast food, it will be killed by Lu Yiming sooner or later.
After changing to the new packaging, the sales of Fanzhenxiang fast food increased significantly, which made Xiao Longbo finally put his mind at ease.
However, before he could be happy for a few days, sales fell again.
This kind of repeated changes made Xiao Longbo feel extremely irritated. On the day when he got the sales data, Xiao Longbo happened to have no classes. He rode his 28-inch bicycle directly to the Fanzhenxiang store and was furious: "I heard that our sales have plummeted again? What's going on? Didn't we change the packaging box? Did they update it again?"
"no."
Ji Feiyang handed over a small card expressionlessly and said, "This is a card given to me by a customer. He said it's a discount card for Zhenxiang Fast Food. Buy nine and get one free."
"Depend on!!!"
After hearing this, Xiao Longbo was so shocked that he sat down on the spot, and it seemed as if all the blood in his body was frozen.
He was a smart man, so he immediately saw how destructive this "evil plan" was.
If it's just a simple price reduction discount, Fan Zhenxiang has nothing to worry about. At worst, you can just follow suit. Anyway, the profit of high-priced boxed lunches is very high, so there is a lot of room for price reduction.
But his opponent's actions made him very uncomfortable.
If you want to get that discount, you have to order nine boxed lunches. Based on two meals per day, at least five days of boxed lunches will be bound to Zhenxiang Fast Food.
In other words, once you order the Zhenxiang fast food once, you are unlikely to order the Zhenxiang rice again in the next five days.
But during these five days, every lunch box will come with a discount card. Five days after another five days, when will it end?
Xiao Longbo's teeth were almost broken, but he had to follow up: "We also have discount cards. Isn't it buy nine get one free? Then we will buy eight get one free!"
The continuous challenges have rapidly increased Fan Zhenxiang's financial expenditure, but Xiao Longbo has no choice. The more he invests in the early stage, the more he cannot withdraw now.
Because he can no longer afford to lose.
But at Zhenxiang Fast Food, the atmosphere was festive.
Lu Yiming made a series of moves, making his competitors run around in exhaustion, which broadened the horizons of Ni Cong and Wang Dazhuang.
"Lu Yiming, Fan Zhenxiang has indeed started to follow our lead in offering promotions, and their discounts are even greater than ours. What do you think?"
When Wang Dazhuang said this, there was no nervous expression on his face. Instead, he looked a little gloating.
Lu Yiming used surprising moves one after another, which made him have no doubt that Lu Yiming had more tricks up his sleeve.
Ni Cong also asked with great interest: "Yes, how to deal with it? Come up with a few more ideas to kill him."
Lu Yiming smiled and said, "No, we don't need to do anything now."
This puzzled Ni Cong: "Why?"
Wang Dazhuang also said: "Shouldn't we beat the fallen dog now? It is better to pursue the enemy with all our remaining courage instead of seeking fame by imitating the tyrant."
Lu Yiming said: "Don't just learn a few poems and use them randomly. We have come up with several ideas in succession. Users' tolerance has reached a bottleneck. Going to work every day is tiring enough, and they have to accompany merchants to play games. If they play too many tricks, they will lose their favor."
Lu Yiming couldn't help but think of Bing Xixi in later lives.
"Now, we just have to wait for them to make a mistake. Their discounts are bigger than ours, which means their costs are higher than ours. Unless they raise prices, their profit margins will definitely not be as high as ours. We have two stores, and they only have one. Our base is so small. He can't get involved in the business of my first store, but my second store can grab some of his business. No matter how you look at it, he will be the first to collapse."
Lu Yiming knows the nature of capital much better than they do. Capital is short-sighted, and its only mission is to pursue profits, and visible profits. Lao Ma's evaluation of capitalists is very sharp: as long as the price is right, capital will sell the rope to hang itself.
Therefore, as long as Gao Yousi feels that he can no longer make big money, he will definitely stop providing financial support to Fan Zhenxiang. By that time, if Fan Zhenxiang has already been established and is unable to make ends meet and cannot receive any additional funding, bankruptcy will be a matter of minutes.
After more than a week, although there were no new moves from Zhenxiang Fast Food, Xiao Longbo was worried every day, fearing that Zhenxiang Fast Food would launch a sneak attack when he was not paying attention.
This put him in a very bad mental state.
As for business, because Fanzhenxiang Fast Food and Zhenxiang Fast Food serve the same customers, the two companies are almost identical in terms of packaging, taste and pricing. The discounts offered by Fanzhenxiang Fast Food are slightly bigger. Relying on this slight advantage, the business is better, but also limited.
Originally, all the business in that area belonged to Fan Zhen Xiang fast food. But now Zhen Xiang fast food has opened across the street. Although the business is 50-50, Fan Zhen Xiang fast food has actually lost 50% of the market share.
This made Gao Yousi feel very unhappy. On a rainy afternoon, he came to the Fanzhenxiang fast food store.
