Mixue Ice City: The wealth code from "0" to "1"

Out of curiosity, I looked up the development history of Mixue Bingcheng . My goodness, this is not a development history at all, it is simply a textbook martial arts film written for ordinary people like us! Inspirational! So inspiring!

So Queen, I want to talk about how Mixue Bingcheng defeated Nayuki, became the second in the milk tea industry, and created a milk tea empire that competes with Heytea. After all, I also want to get rich.

A slightly sincere opening statement:

Maybe he has never thought about what will be waiting for him in the future. He only knows that never giving up and seizing the present are the sure-fire weapons to success.

1. The past and present of Mixue Ice City

In 1997, Zhang Hongchao smelled the business opportunity of shaved ice. With 3,000 yuan of start-up capital from his grandmother, he started his shaved ice entrepreneurial journey in a village in the city.

With the price of shaved ice at 0.5 to 1 yuan at the time, Zhang Hongchao could sell more than 100 yuan worth of shaved ice a day just by selling shaved ice. However, although the urban villages seem to be very popular, in reality, due to economic constraints, people are unwilling to consume it again after trying it, and the shaved ice business quickly declined.

In less than two months, Zhang Hongchao's shaved ice shop closed, but Zhang Hongchao was not discouraged. After several failed business ventures, he finally opened his own store near his alma mater, Henan University of Finance and Economics, in 2003. In addition to the daily sales of cold drinks, he also sold some home-cooked dishes in the off-season. With the good reputation he had accumulated over time, the store's business gradually stabilized.

Zhang Hongchao has a kind of tenacity that never gives up. When I opened a shaved ice stall, I didn't have a shaved ice machine, so I made one myself. I welded a turntable to one end of a motor and a blade to the other end, and that's how I made the first shaved ice machine.

At that time, there were demolitions everywhere in Zhengzhou, and Zhang Hongchao's store was not spared and was forced to close several times due to demolitions. Despite many failures, Zhang Hongchao still persisted. This strong character laid a good foundation for him to start his milk tea empire in the future.

In 2006, a "Rainbow Hat" ice cream priced at 20 yuan appeared in Zhengzhou and instantly became a hit. With his keen business intuition, Zhang Hongchao felt that this was a rare opportunity, so he spent more than half a year developing an ice cream recipe and paid a large sum of money to buy the secret recipe for making ice cream cones.

From then on, Mixue Ice City’s hit product - ice cream cone - was born. It tasted good at two yuan a serving, and while maintaining its original flavor, the price was later reduced to one yuan, making Mixue Bingcheng an instant hit.

2. The milk tea empire that cannot be replicated

After the epidemic, unable to withstand the impact of the market, milk tea brands such as Heytea and Nayuki have proposed to raise prices, and Mixue Bingcheng has also made a difficult decision: not to raise prices.

Good news, good news. The difficult decision does not refer to the miracle doctor universe, but that the price of milk tea will not be reduced! !

How does Mixue Bingcheng manage to remain profitable in the face of low prices?

All this starts with his industrial chain:

After the ice cream became popular, it was so hot that it was in short supply. Zhang Hongchao started a franchise model and his relatives and friends became his first generation of franchise store owners.

With the emergence of its second hit product, lemonade, Mixue Ice City’s sales soared, attracting a new batch of franchisees. However, as the number of franchises increased, raw material costs and operating costs continued to rise, and cost control became the primary issue.

In 2012, Mixue Bingcheng established an independent R&D center and central factory, and achieved self-production of core raw materials.

By 2014, Mixue Bingcheng had established its own warehousing and logistics center in Jiaozuo, Henan, and branch warehouses in Zhengzhou, Foshan, Shenyang, Chengdu, and Urumqi, Xinjiang, covering the whole country, so that raw materials can be delivered directly to stores for free, making it the first brand in the national soft drink industry to offer free logistics delivery. So far, the total number of Mixue Bingcheng stores has exceeded 1,000, and its performance has increased more than ten times.

As of June 24, 2020, Mixue Ice City has more than 10,000 stores worldwide

The independent R&D center strictly controls product quality, the free logistics reduces operating costs, and the dual guarantees of quality and logistics have led to a surge in the number of Mixue Bingcheng franchise stores.

The economies of scale brought by numerous stores have given Mixue Bingcheng more say over raw material suppliers, which has enabled Mixue Bingcheng to obtain raw materials at prices 20% lower than the market price. This means that compared with similar soft drink brands, Mixue Bingcheng will make 20% more profit.

The general flow chart of the industrial chain Source: Queen’s homemade PPT picture

3. Marketing that closely follows the market

In addition to the closed-loop industrial chain that is difficult to replicate, Mixue Bingcheng’s marketing model is also worth learning from.

1. Targeting the lower-tier markets

For many years, Mixue Bingcheng has always focused its store opening efforts in third- and fourth-tier cities and below. These places are home to students and young people who have just entered society. Compared to product appearance, they pay more attention to the price of the product. The sales price of all series of Mixue Bingcheng does not exceed 10 yuan, which satisfies young people who also have a demand for milk tea but whose economic level is still unstable.

French scholar Baudrillard once pointed out that consumption in modern society has actually exceeded the satisfaction of actual needs. Material consumption has become spiritual consumption. The purchase of goods or services is not mainly for its material value, but to find a certain "feeling" and the meaning of consuming items. If internet-famous milk tea brands such as Heytea and Nayuki satisfy people's desire to take photos and check in, then Mixue satisfies people's desire to just drink milk tea.

Life is already bitter, wouldn’t it be nice to have some sweetness? Milk tea is a weapon that allows people to enjoy the present moment. It is needed by young people in small towns, girls living in slums, and students without income.

With such a huge population base, Mixue has taken thoughtful care of everyone's needs. A single spark can start a prairie fire. The Wuling-Hongguang MINIEV 20,000 yuan commuter car has done it, and so has Mixue. At the same time, this is also a signal of anti-consumerism. No matter whether it is high-priced or low-priced, I drink what I like. It is also a way for young people to show their individuality.

2. Set up IP and create brand vitality

In the era of attention economy, whoever can catch the attention of consumers will seize the marketing opportunity. IP is an essential element to catch the user's attention and is an emotional bridge between the brand and the user.

What is IP Marketing?

Academic expression:

IP marketing is about restoring the connection between brands and consumers to the connection between people, shortening the distance and rebuilding trust. It is easier for individuals to establish trusting relationships with users and to form emotional connections. Previous marketing was brand-centric, and the brand image that was created was cold and hard, making it difficult for people to feel close to it. IP marketing, on the other hand, is centered on human connections, and through personality agents, it makes the brand warmer, easier to get along with and approach. Therefore, IP marketing is essentially a revolution of connection. (Source: IP Marketing: The Second Connection Revolution, Kou Shangwei, Du Yun)

Translation: Feeling friendly

The logo design of Mixue Ice City is a little snowman wearing a crown. If it were put in a cartoon, it would look like a runaway snowflake from Disney.

Mixue Ice City logo

Happy advertisement, it’s so magical, my ears are now filled with the BGM of this commercial.

The combination of childlike innocence, ghostliness and emotion works together to cover all age groups and show the vitality of the brand in all aspects.

3. Marketing opportunities

In addition to designing attractive one-dollar coupons, Mixue Bingcheng launches different marketing activities every month to attract young people.

For example, recently we have organized music festivals, launched joint ventures, made lucky bags, and collaborated with movies.

New music festivals in April

March and Mengniu's joint

Spring Festival Lucky Bag Event

The super topic has as many as 28.062 million views and 3,097 posts.

It has surpassed Haidilao and Weilong in the Weibo super topic popularity rankings.

Even co-branded movies and recruited management trainees

Maybe the taste of Mixue Ice City is a little lacking compared to other similar products, but as a small ice cream, it also has its due faith, just like the entrepreneurial history of the Zhang Hongchao brothers, who have also experienced hardships, can better understand the real needs of boys and girls who are temporarily in the slum stage. Satisfying the most basic needs, setting reasonable prices, launching the Qingteng plan, small wishes and great energy, perhaps this is their biggest expectation for Mixue Ice City.

postscript:

In fact, there is a part about franchising Mixue that I didn’t write about. As a highly profitable industry, the milk tea industry is undoubtedly a powerful tool for entering the catering industry to accumulate the first pot of gold in life (in the fast food business model class that the Queen once took, the teacher recommended that one can start a business by opening a milk tea shop first). However, under the current internal environment, franchising is really the last method of entrepreneurship to consider. The water is too deep and it is not recommended to try. This is a sincere suggestion from a semi-industry insider. Haven’t we harvested enough profits from the funds this year? !

To write this article, in order to ensure its accuracy and completeness, I consulted a lot of information, so much so that even I don’t know which ones I have read and which ones I have collected but have not had time to read. However, I would like to thank them all here:

Author: Advertising Queen

Source: Advertising Queen