A bowl of ramen sells for 7.5 billion yuan a year, and people queue up for 7 days and 7 nights. The unique marketing strategy is "anti-traditional"!

Ichiran Ramen - the legend of ramen, has even become one of the must-see "attractions" for tourists visiting Japan.

Someone has done statistics and found that 70% of Chinese who have been to Japan to eat ramen would recommend Ichiran, and many even call it a "god-like store."

In 2013, Ichiran opened its first overseas branch in Hong Kong, setting a Guinness World Record for a queue of seven days and seven nights. When the queue was the longest, it took 4 hours to get a bowl of ramen.

As of 2012, Ichiran Ramen's sales reached 7.5 billion yen , the highest turnover among Fukuoka-based ramen restaurants.

In fact, in the eyes of many Japanese and ramen lovers, Ichiran is not top-notch ramen. According to the authoritative Japanese food website Tabelog, the highest-scoring Ichiran branch in Tokyo scored 3.53, which is at the "medium" to "upper-middle" level, with the highest score being 4.48.

In terms of the number of stores, Ichiran has about 50 branches nationwide, only half of Ippudo Ramen, and not even among the top ten in Japan.

However, why is it that this store, which is "not outstanding" in every aspect, can make people willing to queue for 4 hours?

In fact, Ichiran's original intention in designing this closed-off seat was not only to allow customers to concentrate on eating noodles and enjoying the taste, but more importantly to allow women who mind other people's eyes to eat comfortably (in Japan, ramen restaurants are considered male-oriented restaurants, and women who enter the store alone will attract stares).

However, this setting has an unexpected effect on foreign tourists. For foreign tourists who do not understand Japanese, communicating with Japanese store clerks can be a hassle. Yilan's setting avoids these troubles. Customers only need to buy and pay the ticket to eat noodles. On the other hand, because the seats are enclosed, first-time tourists who don’t know how to eat noodles don’t have to worry about being laughed at even if they put the ingredients and sauces randomly.

An unintentional act of Yilan has become a major feature to attract foreign tourists. As the originator of this "autistic space", Yilan has also obtained the patent.

Famous restaurants sell dishes that the chef considers to be the best after years of refinement. The goal is to "let customers appreciate and accept the chef's skills." Customers' acceptance of the chef's choice also represents a kind of respect and trust for the chef.

However, Ichiran did the opposite.

When eating ramen at Ichiran, the waiter will hand you a piece of paper with only one type of ramen to choose from. However, other factors such as flavor strength, oiliness, noodle hardness, side dishes, etc. can be decided by the customers themselves.

Each bowl of noodles has a unique flavor, and can be called a bowl of customized noodles... On the other hand, because customers can choose the noodle-making method themselves, they have a greater sense of participation and the noodles will taste better to their own taste.

Chinese people are used to having many choices when eating, so the menus in Chinese restaurants have a wide variety of options, even though most people don't need to eat that many dishes.

Ichiran’s flavor selection system may receive mixed reviews, but compared to other ramen restaurants, it is obviously more in line with Chinese eating habits and is naturally more popular.

In fact, the 24-hour operation strategy of "Ichiran" was originally designed for working people who drink until late at night after work and have a midnight snack before going home.

However, this actually adapts to the "habits" of tourists.

For most tourists, they would not consider spending time queuing up at a famous ramen restaurant in an inconvenient location during the day. They would just go shopping at department stores or outlet stores and think about dinner when they close.

However, at this time, many stores were closed, and without having eaten anything better for comparison, Yilan became the "best" in their minds.

At Ichiran Ramen, the entire process from ordering to payment is a fully intelligent system with extremely high operational efficiency.

When you enter Ichiran Ramen Restaurant, you will see an ordering machine. Choose the ramen and side dishes you want, then put money into the machine to get the ticket.

Different people have different opinions on Ichiran's strategy. However, the purpose of business is always to make profits. Yilan's good intentions in customer experience may be a reference for many companies.