How do you evaluate Haidilao’s slogan?

Anyone who works in advertising knows that a good advertising slogan is “ from consumers, to consumers ”.

It not only requires colloquialism, but also needs to conform to consumers' perception of the brand. As the saying goes, "you are what consumers think you are."

For example, Qinghualang’s “one of the two major Maotai-flavor liquors in China” actually comes from consumers. Consumers used to use this sentence to introduce Qinghualang at the dinner table.

For example, Lanzhou’s slogan “Travel to Northwest China, start from Lanzhou” is actually nonsense for real travel enthusiasts, because if they want to travel to Northwest China, they will basically choose to go to Lanzhou first.

Another example is the “sun-dried for 180 days” slogan of Chubang Soy Sauce. Consumers will actually say this in real consumption scenarios.

However, this is not the case with Haidilao (its hard advertising).

At least in my experience, when most people talk about Haidilao, the first keyword they mention is basically "service".

And its advertising slogan, whether it is the early "Hotpot from Sichuan, good hotpot speaks for itself" or the current "Let's have fun at Haidilao", has never mentioned the word "service".

Of course, Haidilao has indeed invested a lot in soft advertising (including public relations) for the word "service" , whether it is the early Weibo jokes, the later public account articles, or the current Douyin videos.

So, why doesn’t Haidilao write its greatest features directly in hard advertising, but instead spreads them through soft advertising?

In this article, let’s talk about this topic.

01 Hard advertising provides motivation, soft advertising provides topics

Generally speaking, the main function of hard advertising is to force a reason or motivation for purchase into the audience in a very short time (such as 15 seconds).

For example, “I won’t accept any gifts this year, but if I do, I’ll accept Melatonin” is telling you: if you want to give a gift to your elders, then buy Melatonin!

For example, “If you like cleanliness, stay at Hanting” is telling you: If you want to stay in a cleaner hotel, then come to Hanting!

Soft advertising, on the other hand, does not start by introducing the product right away, but instead starts with a topic that interests you, and then tries to implant the product.

For example, a soft article about Huawei Mate7 - "Never use a cat to set the phone unlock password"

The title alone is very interesting, and the content is even more interesting. The author uses a light-hearted and popular tone to describe the reason, process, accidents and results of his sudden idea of ​​using a cat to set a password for his mobile phone one day, and also attaches photos of the mobile phone and the cat.

At that time, how did the author use the cat to set a password for the mobile phone?

It turned out that the mobile phone he used was Huawei Mate7, and its built-in fingerprint unlocking function gave the author a wonderful idea - using cat paws to set a fingerprint password. The series of interesting events that followed made it difficult for the audience not to pay attention to this phone and its features.

Back to Haidilao, why doesn’t it emphasize its services in hard advertising?

The reason is simple - because "enjoying high-quality service" is not the mainstream motivation for eating hot pot.

Who would go to eat hot pot alone just because the waiter will put a doll next to the table? How many people would want to eat hotpot just because the waiter will give you hairpins, do manicures, and give you snacks? (Although some people do go there for these reasons, this is more of a taste of novelty and is unsustainable)

Why do people eat hot pot? In fact, there are two main motivations: satisfying cravings and socializing.

Therefore, in terms of hard advertising, Haidilao’s emphasis on “good hot pot” or “good atmosphere” is a relatively correct choice.

But soft advertising is different. Since the service is indeed very good, even to the point of being unexpected, it can indeed become an interesting topic, successfully arousing the interest of the audience and allowing them to understand and love the Haidilao brand through these topics and stories. (There may even be a halo effect of "if the service is so good, then other aspects must be good too")

Yes, a brand may have many things to praise, but not every point is suitable for hard advertising.

Just like the "Popsicle Hotline" case in "Building Peak Experience":

Apparently, nobody decides which hotel to stay in based on a popsicle...

02 Hard advertising is suitable for slogans, while soft advertising is suitable for storytelling

Generally speaking, hard advertising is very limited by time (less than 15 seconds) and space (print advertising), so the content must be very concise, so most of them are centered around "short slogans."

It is difficult for a short slogan to have a strong self-propagation ability (even the "XX five minutes, OO one hour" that was made popular by netizens was actually promoted through subsequent soft articles), so hard advertising must be able to spread quickly before the client is willing to pay.

What does it mean to spread quickly? It means that if I give you money today, you have to guarantee exposure tomorrow. Then, by repeating it many times, the audience will remember the slogan, and the goal will be achieved.

However, "service" is not naturally suitable for hard advertising - either the understanding is too abstract, or the scenario is too simple.

What's the meaning?

If Haidilao's slogan is changed to "Haidilao, Good Service", the "service" here is a very abstract and very homogeneous concept - what does good service mean? I don’t know, it’s too vague! This is just like “creativity changes life”, it’s meaningless.

What if we make it more concrete? For example, “eat hotpot once and enjoy the service a hundred times”, or even more extreme, “you don’t have to worry about being lonely when eating hotpot alone”. This exacerbates the problem mentioned earlier - few people want to eat hot pot just because they want to experience the service (especially a certain service).

On the other hand, directly saying "service" in hard advertising can also create the suspicion of "deliberate service", making customers feel that everything is a pre-arranged routine, thus deviating from the core of service - sincerity.

But soft advertising is different.

Because soft advertising usually tells stories in the capacity of a third party, it is unlikely to be suspected of "deliberate service" and will instead serve as icing on the cake.

03 Hard advertising requires high frequency, hot pot category is not suitable

Just now we said that "service" is not suitable for Haidilao to use for hard advertising.

I wonder if you have noticed another phenomenon: unlike KFC, McDonald's, and Zhenggongfu, Haidilao actually rarely does hard advertising in mass media.

Its hard advertising basically only exists in one place, that is, the physical billboards near the store, or sometimes just relying on its own store signs.

Why does Haidilao rarely do hard advertising in other places?

In fact, it is mainly because: the consumption frequency of hot pot products is naturally low, and high-frequency concentrated hard advertising will not have a big impact on its business.

Fast food brands are different. The consumption frequency is very high. Many people eat fast food every day, so it is very suitable to continuously stimulate consumption through hard advertising.

The biggest feature of soft advertising is that it "spreads for a long time" - maybe only 10,000 people will read a soft advertisement today, but because it is fun and interesting and becomes a topic of conversation, people will spread it two, three, four, five, six times. After a few months, the total number of people who knew about this soft advertisement was likely to exceed one million. (The premise is that the content is good)

Therefore, for Haidilao, choosing this relatively "steady and long-lasting" promotional method is also a wise choice.

At this point, you may ask:

Yes, there can be many purposes for advertising, and not every advertisement is responsible for sales.

Let me give you an extreme example: In order to continue raising funds, a company placed advertisements on the routes that investors must take every day. As for the content of the advertisements, of course, they wrote whatever the investors liked to see...

04 How do you evaluate Haidilao’s slogan?

Haidilao’s slogan: Let’s have fun together, Haidilao.

Is this a good advertising slogan?

From the perspective of copywriting alone, it is actually not very good, because when people mention Haidilao in life, basically no one will say this sentence.

A good slogan either comes directly from consumers or is a sentence designed for consumers to say themselves.

Although the creator of the copy hopes to create the feeling that eating hot pot is a very exciting thing, from the actual effect, the so-called "having fun together" is actually just "having fun alone" - when people want to "have fun", no one will think of a hot pot restaurant first.

What kind of place is more suitable to say "let's have fun together"? I think KTV and bars might be more suitable...

In fact, considering Haidilao’s current scale and the general development of the hotpot category, the role of its slogan should probably be: continuously strengthen its leadership position.

After all, apart from people in the industry, not many people know for sure that Haidilao is the number one hotpot brand. (Also ranked No. 1 Chinese food brand)

This leadership position is a shared and excellent cognitive advantage for both its physical stores and its fast-moving consumer goods business.

Author: Brand Circle

Source: Brand-Circle