Ideas and techniques for creating an Internet celebrity store!

In the past few years, the streets were full of discussions about Internet celebrity stores. However, in the past one or two years, with the closure and scandals of various Internet celebrity stores, Internet celebrity stores seem to have been labeled with the derogatory term "short-lived". Even though there are many problems with Internet celebrity stores, there are still many people who want to create an Internet celebrity store. Why?

Because Internet celebrity stores can bring more traffic and popularity.

You know, what many bosses in the restaurant industry are most worried about now is the difficulty in acquiring customers. Moreover, the competition for this kind of customer traffic is increasing day by day, as an average of 7 million people rush into the catering industry every year. Turning a restaurant into an Internet celebrity store is essentially a better means of acquiring customers and spreading the word.

So what is an Internet celebrity store? How is it different from traditional physical stores?

As the name suggests, Internet celebrity stores are catering brands that are very popular on social networks (the Internet celebrity stores I refer to in this article refer to offline Internet celebrity stores, not e-commerce Internet celebrity stores). The biggest feature of Internet celebrity stores is queuing, and the most obvious behavior of consumers when they go to Internet celebrity stores is to take photos and share them .

(Pictures from the Internet, deleted if infringement occurs)

Now, Mr. Monster will share the following three points with you:

1. Reasons why online celebrity stores become popular

2. How to create an online celebrity store

3. How to make the online celebrity store more sustainable

1. Reasons why online celebrity stores become popular

Since the main feature of Internet celebrity stores is queuing, let’s think about it directly:

Why are consumers willing to walk a few more kilometers or even cross cities to queue for several hours at an Internet celebrity store?

On the surface, it is for taking photos and sharing on social platforms, but in reality it is a way for consumers to satisfy their herd mentality and curiosity.

The core group of Internet celebrity stores is basically young consumers. Young people sometimes like to be eccentric and express themselves individually, for example, they want to wear different clothes. It would be embarrassing if they found out that there was another person in the company wearing the same clothes as them.

But young people are also human beings, and they possess basic human nature - a sense of social identity . So when people around you are discussing and sharing something, and you don’t want to be isolated, you will participate in and experience what everyone is discussing.

If we find that many people are recommending and checking in at a store, we will be motivated to "go and experience it too", otherwise we will feel that we are out of date - it is understandable that this is a herd mentality.

So when we see many people sharing and recommending a store among our friends or on social platforms such as WeChat Moments, Douyin or Xiaohongshu, most of us will be curious to pay attention and experience it - this satisfies the curiosity.

(Screenshot from Xiaohongshu)

Of course, there are many other macro factors, such as the rise of mobile Internet, which allows information about Internet celebrity stores to spread wider and faster. I won’t go into details here.

After understanding the core psychology and needs of consumers, it will be easier to think about how to create an Internet celebrity store. 

2. How to create an online celebrity store

In the era of mobile Internet, Internet celebrity stores need to have two elements: first, the brand must be a hot topic online and have enough relevant information to divert traffic offline. The second is that offline experiences make people want to take photos and share them on social media, allowing offline content to flow back online, forming a closed loop.

To sum it up simply, the brand must be topical online and make people want to take photos and share them offline.

Let me talk about these two points below.

1. Online: Topical content is spread

Basically, many people learn about a popular store through online social platforms, and then go to the store to experience it and check in. For example, you may see more than two people in your circle of friends sharing a store, or a celebrity is recommending a store. Therefore, if you want to create an Internet celebrity store, online marketing is an essential part.

There are two aspects that need to be achieved online:

(1) Communication should be topical

Whether it's Heytea's long queues and cheese milk cap, Luckin Coffee's popularity abroad and its black pearl milk tea, or Tai Er Pickled Cabbage Fish's "no groups of more than four people allowed" and "pickled cabbage tastes better than fish", these are all brands creating topics that can be discussed and spread.

There are many ways to create topics, such as endorsements by celebrities, like "Nice to Meet You" endorsed by Han Han (now closed) and "Thank You Tea" invested by Ma Dong from "U Can U Bibi" and so on.

I would like to share two practical methods here: one is to create events that break cognition , such as Tai Er’s “no reception for more than four people” (although I know Tai Er does this for efficiency per square meter and table turnover rate, but saying it out loud is an event that breaks cognition for consumers); the other is the ultimate experience , such as Haidilao’s early frequent promotions of services such as wiping your hands with paper when going to the toilet and squatting to paint your nails for free. 

The more topical it is, the more likely it is to stimulate consumers' desire to experience the product in the store. Among them, "often long queues" is the most talked-about topic . For example, the popular Gelaoguan hotpot in Shanghai attracts a large number of people to experience it because of the long queues. As mentioned before, this satisfies our need to follow the crowd. So it’s no wonder that some Internet celebrity stores spend money to hire people to queue up in the early days.

(2) There should be enough information about the brand on the Internet

For the current catering industry, if you want to create an Internet celebrity restaurant, it not only needs to be topical, but also needs to be searchable on the current common social platforms. For example, social platforms such as Xiaohongshu and Douyin. If you can’t even be found on Dianping.com, users will hardly know you, and the possibility of in-store experience will be greatly reduced.

Whether to adopt a multi-platform scatternet communication strategy or a single-platform penetration communication strategy depends on the attributes of each platform and the resource strength of the brand.

2. Offline: Make people willing to take photos and share

I can say that an Internet celebrity store that doesn’t make people willing to take photos and share them is not called an Internet celebrity store.

Because in addition to satisfying consumers' dining needs like other traditional restaurants, the biggest difference between Internet celebrity restaurants and other traditional restaurants is that they are also a form of social currency. The main reason most people choose Internet celebrity stores is to be able to take photos, check in and share them . This approach also allows offline customers to share and increase online secondary dissemination and traffic.

In order to get existing consumers to actively take photos and share them on social platforms, the operating principle is to create an experience that exceeds customers' expectations and cognition, so that customers can have memorable moments and take photos to share.

I will share with you from three dimensions: scene experience, product experience, and service experience.

(1) Scene experience

If the environment design and scenes of your store do not have any obvious style or can arouse customers' desire to take photos and share, the effect of creating an Internet celebrity store will be greatly reduced. 

We have seen that the internet-famous stores that are actively shared by consumers on social networks basically have certain distinctive or high-value styles in their environmental design.

Characteristic scene design, such as ancient Chinese style, other countries or regions with strong representative styles. The brand of Changsha Wenheyou Lobster Restaurant is basically a scene design with Changsha’s local characteristics.

The scene design of one of our hotpot clients is mainly based on the style of the youth memories of the post-80s generation, and it also has a distinctive style, which attracted many people to take photos and share them.

The most attractive group for the high-value scene design is young female consumers. Girls are naturally more eager to take photos and share them than boys. Therefore, more than 70% of the consumers in many stores with high-value design styles are female. For example, Nayuki’s Tea.

We have a client who sells skewers. The overall style is very typical of an internet celebrity. At the same time, they also design a lot of materials for taking photos and sharing, which can easily attract women to take photos and share.

Therefore, in the design of space and other materials, we need to create a unique scene experience that will make customers want to take photos and share them.

(2) Product experience

Tasty products are the basis for customers to repurchase. Customers will only take photos and share them if the product experience exceeds their expectations and cognition.

To create a good product experience, you can think about it from two aspects. One is the overall presentation of the product, such as shape, size, etc., to ensure that it exceeds customer cognition and has high appearance and good looks. Such as "tripe bigger than the face", Luckin Coffee's "brown sugar pearl milk tea that's like a mudslide", etc.

In addition, you can also create a different experience throughout the entire product experience, such as creating standards for eating methods. For example, the previous Diaoye beef brisket was served one by one, and each dish had a standard way of eating and a sense of ritual, which was very impressive. Some ways of eating were beyond the customers' cognition, and customers would also take photos to share.

(3) Service experience

You can also consider it from the service level, creating memorable moments and encouraging customers to take photos and share them.

The service experience is the experience conveyed by the waiter, so it can be considered from three aspects: one is the waiter's language, two is the waiter's actions, and three is the waiter's image.

For example, when Tai Er Pickled Fish is served on the table, there will be a unique sound and action shouted by a special person. This is a different sense of ritual experience. Because the sound is exaggerated and interesting, many people are impressed and will take photos to share and spread it.

Some popular online restaurants will play drums and gongs when serving dishes, and dress up in Hanfu (Chinese traditional costumes) and with gauze on their faces. For example, the waiters at celebrity Bao Beier’s Lazhuang Hotpot give people a feeling of time travel.

We have a cooperative client in Shenzhen called "Yu Xiaoyao". Because it serves Jiangsu and Zhejiang cuisine, in addition to the overall scene design in the style of Jiangnan, the waiters are also dressed in Hanfu and with gauze on their faces, which leaves a deep impression on customers.

To sum up, the three-dimensional experiences of scenarios, products, and services shared above can be combined at the same time, or you can just focus on one or two points. But for Internet celebrity stores, scene experience is an indispensable part.

3. How to make online celebrity stores last longer

Internet celebrity stores are no longer "popular". The most obvious feature is that "no one is queuing up ". In serious cases, they may even go bankrupt and close down.

Miss Zhao's No Waiting, Diaoye Beef Brisket, and Huang Taiji went from popularity to obscurity in just three years; Nice to Meet You, Little Piglet, and Parallel Imports took two years; A Basket of Small Happiness took one year; and Remicone Dark Cloud Ice Cream took half a year. Internet celebrity restaurant brands are closing down at an increasingly rapid pace. Nowadays, most of the Internet celebrity stores disappear in just half a year.

Therefore, if you want to make the Internet celebrity store last longer, you must first know the reasons why Internet celebrity stores do not last long.

1. Reasons why influencers don’t last

There are various reasons, the main one being that there is no chance of repeat purchases.

Whether it is an Internet celebrity restaurant or a traditional restaurant, the essence of catering business still requires repeat purchases rather than a one-time transaction (except for catering in scenic spots). Repeat purchases are mainly driven by experience , so catering is also an experience-driven industry. The experience includes products, services, and environment. Most of the Internet celebrity stores fail because of problems with products, environment, and services.

The reason why many Internet celebrity stores cannot survive for more than half a year is because the reasons for the long queues or the internet popularity are not long-lasting and are highly replicable.

For example, deliberately hiring people to queue up and then hyping it up on the Internet. However, this method is very easy to replicate and the consumer experience is not good. Because when you wait in line for three or four hours to taste the products of this online store, and find that the products are not as delicious as expected and the service is not up to par - you may just take a photo and never come back again. After consuming the traffic within several kilometers around, even if the store spends a lot of money to hire people to create queues, it will naturally no longer be popular.

But this reflects the root problems of the enterprise at two levels:

First, external brand awareness and customer experience management are not good enough.

The consumer experience in catering is more of an expectation management. Online topical communication will give consumers very high expectations. If the offline experience fails to meet or exceed consumers’ expectations, it will become a one-time purchase and it will be difficult for them to make repeat purchases or give word-of-mouth recommendations.

For example, Diaoye Beef Brisket claimed in topical communication that it spent 5 million to buy the exclusive recipe of a Hong Kong chef god, so consumers naturally have high expectations for the taste of the product. Then you find out after arriving at the store that the product is not as good as you expected - the customer experience is not good, and it will be difficult to generate repeat purchases.

Second, the entire internal operating system is not perfect and inefficient.

Internet celebrity restaurants are also restaurants. If there are problems with internal management and operations, the customer experience will naturally be bad.

For example, the reason for the closure of "Miss Zhao Doesn't Wait for a Table" was largely due to problems in internal management, which resulted in unpalatable food and poor service, according to industry analysis. Another example is "Nice to Meet You", a franchise invested by Han Han. Its stores in various cities have closed one after another due to problems such as chaotic management of franchisees, unpaid wages for employees, unlicensed operation, and substandard food safety.

Of course, there are many more factors. But there is another fatal factor, which is the problem of trademarks not being registered in advance , resulting in rampant counterfeiting and imitation without being able to crack down on it. Many Internet celebrity brands have died because of this trademark issue . The predecessor of Heytea was called "Royal Tea", but due to trademark issues, it finally had to spend a lot of money to buy the "Heytea" trademark. For example, there are only about a hundred genuine Luckin Coffee stores, but there are more than 9,000 copycat stores. There is even a phenomenon that genuine stores are squeezed out by copycat stores.

After sharing here, you basically know how to become an internet celebrity for longer.

2. If you want your online celebrity store to last longer, you must at least:

( 1 ) The reason why there are queues at online celebrity stores is that they have high thresholds

What is the reason why people line up for your brand, and is this reason lasting and difficult to replicate?

For example, the long queues at A-po Beef Offal in Guangzhou are due to the uniqueness of Grandma Chen herself.

( 2 ) Create experience value that exceeds customer expectations

For example, if a customer comes to your store because of a queue and finds that your products are delicious and the service experience is also very good, even exceeding the customer's expectations, the customer may be likely to repurchase. Otherwise, customers will just satisfy their curiosity and never come back.

( 3 ) The brand’s operating system must be good enough

The quality of the operating system is reflected in the customer experience. Your product efficiency, production standards, service experience, etc. are all covered in the operation system.

For example, the reason why Tai Er Pickled Fish has such a great customer experience is that it is supported by the operational strength of Jiu Mao Jiu Group.

( 4 ) Supply chain and quality control must be done well

In the catering industry, what really matters is your supply chain capabilities. Because this is the internal strength of the product experience.

For example, after becoming famous, in addition to focusing on Internet marketing, the most important task of Heytea is to follow up upstream. Today, Heytea not only has its own tea garden, but also has signed exclusive agreements with upstream plantations, investing in improving soil, planting and tea-making techniques. Some products take five years to produce, but Heytea does this in order to gain a first-mover advantage in future supply chain competition.

( 5 ) Register your trademark before opening a store

China is constantly developing, and brand and trademark awareness will become stronger and more important in the future. I won’t say much about this.

IV. Conclusion

Finally, I need to remind readers who want to or are currently in the catering industry that not every store or catering brand is suitable for becoming an Internet celebrity store. Some stores may end up making things worse due to improper operation or insufficient marketing and operation capabilities.

Not every store is deliberately trying to become an Internet celebrity store. Some restaurant owners may just want to make the environment look better or their products unique, and they may accidentally be actively spread on social media by customers who visit the store. There are many such examples.

For example, we met a catering client. Because the environment and atmosphere were full of artistic conception, people who came to the store couldn’t help but take photos and share them. As a result, many customers came to consume because they saw others’ sharing.

Can doing these things prevent Internet celebrity stores from becoming unpopular or going out of business? Definitely not. No matter how well a brand performs, its business may decline or even go bankrupt due to various unexpected reasons. However , if we know the ideas for building Internet celebrity stores and learn to avoid some pitfalls, we can at least reduce the probability of Internet celebrity stores being short-lived or going bankrupt, and make them last longer. Now that we know the ideas for building an Internet celebrity store and have learned to avoid some pitfalls, we can at least reduce the probability of an Internet celebrity store being short-lived or going bankrupt, making it more sustainable.

If the number of stores increases in the future, the internet celebrity effect may decline. But as long as you are willing to increase investment in the supply chain and operation system and build a well-known brand chain store, it will be a good result.

For example, Le Caesar Durian Pizza and Starbucks were also internet celebrity stores where internet celebrities checked in in the early days. Later, while the number of stores expanded, they invested heavily in building internal strength such as supply chain and operation system. Although they are no longer internet celebrity stores in everyone’s minds, it is also good to have become a well-known brand chain store.

Author: Mr. Monster

Source: Mister-shou