National Tide 1980.

It’s really starting to roll up!
Someone said, "Without the pressure of external competition, consumers cannot become God!"

This is true. Many things in business are actually like this.

However, it should be pointed out that at the beginning of 1988, the first industry to take off in Beijing was not the high-end clothing industry, but the modern fast food industry which had only just begun to develop.

The year 1987, which has passed, can definitely be regarded as a landmark year for the enlightenment of modern fast food industry in Beijing.

Because in November of that year, the first American fast food restaurant selling fried chicken, Kentucky, appeared on Qianmen Street.

A month later, a beef noodle chain store appeared on Dongsi West Street in Beijing, with a sign that read "American California Beef Noodle King".

These two fast food restaurants have completely different business contents, although one focuses on pure Western-style fried chicken fast food and the other focuses on Chinese-style food.

But what they have in common is that they all use the word "America" ​​to attract customers.

Moreover, it also distinguishes itself from traditional Chinese snack bars and even Hong Kong-style fast food restaurants such as Yili Fast Food with its brightly colored signs, simple decoration style, and dining mode of queuing up to order first and then returning to a seat to eat.

So for most people who have never been to the United States, or even feel that they will never have the chance to set foot on American soil, all their fantasies about the American dream are invested in this piece of fried chicken and this bowl of noodles.

To put it bluntly, for the Chinese people who are flocking to American fast food, what they buy is not just an ordinary fast food, but their curiosity and fantasy about the United States.

Therefore, these foods, which originally had ordinary taste and ingredients, would naturally generate a sacred aura because of the customers' beautiful emotions, and thus be sold at a high price, making their hard-earned money easily.

Especially the one selling beef noodles, it is simply a fake brand created for publicity. There is no such business in the United States at all.

After all, Kentucky is a large company from the United States. Although it has a shady heart, it is a genuine imported product after all. The food ingredients, equipment and supplies are indeed imported from abroad.

But what is beef noodles?
There is nothing to link to America except a gimmick.

In terms of taste and cooking level, it cannot be compared with our authentic Lanzhou beef noodles, let alone the same fake "Lanzhou Ramen" created by our local people.

But the price is almost as high as Kentucky's $7.30 single-person meal, and they dare to sell it for $6 a bowl.

Just tell me how sharp this knife is!

Is this really brave?

To talk about this matter, it is just like the "authentic old Beijing sandwich" that appeared in the Donghuamen night market for 30 yuan a portion several years later.

Unfortunately, there are too many people who are ignorant of the truth. Many people have no ability to distinguish and actually think that people in California, USA like to eat beef noodles.

I would rather spend the money for a pound and a half of braised beef to eat a bowl of noodles with only a small piece of coriander, four or five pieces of beef, and two taels of noodles soaked in soy sauce soup, just to experience the difference between the beef noodles that Americans love and our local ones.

This made the unscrupulous merchants rich. With 30 seats, they had to serve more than customers a day, and during the busiest time, they had to turn over tables more than times a day.

As a result, nine out of ten people had their American dreams shattered. When they found out that their hard-earned money had been defrauded, they could only think behind their backs, “People in California don’t understand anything about society,” and console themselves by saying, “It’s only a one-time mistake.”

Nothing else can be done.

However, the good days for these two American fast food restaurants, which made a fortune by taking advantage of Beijingers' curiosity, are almost over in just a few days.

Because with the arrival of the new year, a Western fast food restaurant called "Gingerbread Man" opened in Beijing.

This brand focuses on affordable prices, and the prices are ridiculously low.

Moreover, it was born as a chain model, and even opened five stores in major downtown areas of Beijing.

This incident was just like the divine stone on the Flower-Fruit Mountain exploding, and out jumped a flying monkey destined to cause havoc in the Heavenly Palace.

The fried chicken king and the beef noodle king, who were enjoying huge profits, were so stunned that they couldn't survive.

Needless to say, the mastermind behind this bizarre incident, which should not have happened and was impossible to happen, was the invisible richest man in Beijing, Ning Weimin.

The "Gingerbread Man" fast food restaurant, which suddenly appeared and disrupted the fast food landscape in Beijing, was a business that he and his "American cousin" Shen Cun had planned for almost a year.

It’s just that due to various unexpected events, good things always take time to come and they have been delayed again and again.

This time, everything finally came to fruition and the business opened for business.

As for why Ning Weimin gave the fast food restaurant such a name?
This is mainly because in Western culture, the various beautiful symbolic meanings represented by gingerbread men are particularly in line with the Chinese people's special complex about Western culture.

Gingerbread man is not just a Christmas food, it is also an iconic symbol of Western culture that is widely spread across national boundaries.

There are many interesting legends surrounding the gingerbread man.

For example, the tradition of making gingerbread men at Christmas is said to have originated from Queen Elizabeth I of England who had a sudden idea and ordered pastry chefs to make gingerbread men in the shape of guests.

But out of romantic sentiment, many people believe that the popularity of gingerbread men comes from a pair of lovers who were separated by war. When they got old, they were worried that the other party would not be able to find them, so they sold gingerbread men in the image of each other in their village.

In addition, the Christmas gingerbread man has his own traditional story.

"The Gingerbread Man" comes from Grimm's Fairy Tales and is known to everyone, young and old, male or female, throughout the Western world.

This story tells of a freshly baked gingerbread man who escapes from the oven to avoid being eaten. He runs all the way and avoids the old grandfather and grandmother, pigs, cows, and horses. Finally, when crossing the river, he is deceived by the cunning fox and is eaten.

And in this story, the gingerbread man kept singing a line while escaping.

"Run, run, as fast as you can. You can't catch me, I'm the gingerbread man."

Therefore, "gingerbread man" has a special meaning and has always been used to describe people who are simple and courageous.

Just like what the lyrics of another song "bigger than Gingerbread man's vitality" want to express, it is basically equivalent to what we say in the Internet age "more vital than the indestructible cockroach".

Therefore, we can see that the cultural content that can be unfolded through the gingerbread man is extremely rich.

There is no doubt that such a small thing has unlimited cultural extension and fairly broad cultural inclusiveness.

Whether it is Valentine's Day, Easter, Children's Day, Halloween, Christmas, New Year, or even traditional Chinese festivals, it will be very convenient to plan theme activities in the future.

And because gingerbread men are common cultural knowledge in most Western countries, they are not limited to one country or one region.
Then Ning Weimin could just select well-known delicacies from the entire Western world that are suitable for pre-prepared dishes and use them to develop new products for the restaurant, which would not be out of place.

The cute image of the gingerbread man is already quite mature. He is friendly and likable in himself. He has long been a household name in the West and is the children's favorite fairy tale image.

Then, if it is used as a brand symbol, people from all over the world, whether adults or children, will definitely like it.

This inevitable effect does not need to be further demonstrated.

Even the peripheral products are easy to design. If there is an opportunity to cooperate with the film and television industry and the animation industry, it is entirely possible to create a well-known IP.

So after listening to Ning Weimin's full explanation, Shen Cun not only readily agreed to this name that was full of unlimited commercial possibilities and great potential, but also nodded in approval.

Even Kang Shude and Jiang Nianyun praised it and thought it was very appropriate.

After all, each era has its own characteristics. They never thought that a fast food restaurant could have such a way of playing.

Even they have to admit that names like Jishilin, French Bakery, and British Restaurant are obviously a bit out of date nowadays.

January 1988, 1, a Saturday, was the day when five "Gingerbread Men" restaurants in Beijing opened for business.

Unlike the single store opening in Kentucky, Ning Weimin did not hold any celebrations such as speeches by leaders, lion dancing, or even releasing giant inflatable balloons in front of these five stores.

In his opinion, these are all formalities and have little effect on attracting customers.

He thought clearly that his stores were located in the most prosperous traditional commercial areas of Beijing, such as Di'anmen, Xidan, Dongdan, Wangfujing, and Qianmen. There was no shortage of customers. As long as the sign was eye-catching and the decoration style was unique, people would definitely come. So on the opening day, he only asked the store managers of the five stores to set off a big firecracker before opening the doors according to Chinese tradition.

To put it bluntly, it was just to add joy and bring good luck, and he didn't want to spend a penny more on this.

However, this does not mean that he does not emphasize publicity and build momentum for the opening of a new store.

Who is Ning Weimin?

Don't forget, he has too many hidden attributes.

In addition to being the richest man in Beijing and a shareholder of LVMH and Pierre Cardin, he is also the top boss in the domestic entertainment industry, the top celebrity agent in the country, and has a wife who owns the sixth largest film company in Japan.

Well, since he has a natural advantage in celebrity and media resources, he will of course promote the new store in the way he is best at.

In fact, the approach he took was particularly direct.

Based on his knowledge from his previous life, he discussed with Shen Cun and planned an opening event called "Red Five Stars".

Then advertise through several local newspapers with the largest circulation in Beijing.

6◇9◇Book◇Bar

They used full-page advertisements for a week to inform everyone that their Gingerbread Man fast food restaurant would be grandly opening soon, and introduced the methods and content of their activities in detail.

Specifically, Ning Weimin arranged for five big stars currently staying in Beijing, namely Matsumoto Keiko, Teresa Teng, Zhang Qiang, Fei Xiang and Cui Jian, to take part.

At noon on the opening day, they will be arranged to go to one of the five "Gingerbread Man" fast food restaurants to meet with fans.

As for which store each star goes to, it is arranged randomly and will bring surprises to customers like a lottery.

In addition to signing autographs for fifty random customers on site, they will also dine with everyone in the restaurant and taste the gingerbread man's special foods.

More importantly, each star will choose one of their favorite dishes from the menu as a special recommendation for the customers of the restaurant they visit.

From then on, for a week, the dish they recommended will be available on a buy-one-get-one-free basis for customers who patronize this fast food restaurant.

In other words, five different stores will welcome five different stars and five different discounted foods will appear.

It’s easy to get free stuff, you just need to visit them one by one.

You can enjoy a buy one get one free special offer at each Gingerbread Man fast food restaurant within a week of the new store opening.

In addition, within one week of the new store opening, no matter which "Gingerbread Man" fast food restaurant customers visit, as long as they spend ten yuan on site, they can get a gingerbread man key chain as a gift.

Of course, the quantity is limited and will be given away while stocks last, which is also an inevitable additional regulation.

At the same time, because these five stars are also tasked with pre-promoting "Crazy Rich Asians" which will be released next year, especially Teresa Teng and Fei Xiang who will be on this year's Spring Festival Gala, they will inevitably be interviewed by many media reporters.

There are plenty of opportunities to be interviewed by radio stations, television stations, various newspapers, and well-known domestic magazines such as "Popular Movies", "Film Pictorial", and "Zhiyin".

Therefore, Ning Weimin does not have to worry about the publicity channels of television and radio stations at all, and he does not have to pay a single cent for advertising fees.

When these stars were interviewed, they consciously released the news of the opening of the Gingerbread Man fast food restaurant.

Even a few celebrities helped out on a voluntary basis, and no one asked Ning Weimin for any commercial performance fees or endorsement fees.

Ning Weimin still felt embarrassed and insisted on giving everyone an LV handbag.

If we don't count the reward, but only count the friendship, this matter can be covered up.

As for his wife, she really didn't receive any compensation at all and was simply fulfilling her duties as a boss's wife.

All in all, the Gingerbread Man fast food restaurant made a lot of money from advertising expenses.

Is there anyone in this world who can be like Ning Weimin, who can get five major domestic and foreign celebrities to endorse his fast food restaurant for free?
Anyone who sees this will exclaim that it is too exaggerated.

Especially the money he spent, which was actually not much more than Kentucky.

It was just a total of about 120,000 yuan in advertising fees given to several newspapers.

But the influence and coverage are completely incomparable.

In fact, as soon as the news about the upcoming opening of the five Gingerbread Man fast food restaurants was released, it was like a royal salute that almost exploded the entire sky of the capital and attracted the attention of the entire city.

As it turned out, on the opening day, it was really busy and there was a long queue even before the store opened.

The five shops were all pretty much the same, with the queue stretching for two miles.

Not to mention that Ning Weimin had to ask the police to help maintain order.

Places like Di'anmen, Xidan and Dongdan are prone to traffic congestion, and even the traffic police have come.

Near noon, five stores each welcomed a big star, which caused a huge crowd inside and outside the store, and there was joy inside and outside the store.

Especially in the three stores where Keiko Matsumoto, Teresa Teng and Fei Xiang appeared, fans were extremely enthusiastic.

If the police hadn't helped maintain order, the doors and windows would have been broken and there would have been a serious stampede.

But it was a safe bet and the result was good.

Through interaction with the big stars, the customers who came to the scene that day were very satisfied.

The business data at the end of the day was also very encouraging.

The total sales of the five stores exceeded 116,000 yuan, and almost all the prepared dishes were sold out.

That means the average sales of each store is over 23,000 yuan.

This is the data generated based on the fact that the enthusiasm of customers was underestimated and the store had to close an hour and a half earlier.

Otherwise, I'm afraid we'll have to increase sales by another 10,000.

In addition, Zun Long was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor for the movie "The Last Emperor" and flew to the United States to attend the Golden Globe Awards ceremony on January 1.

He couldn't stay to participate in the event.

Otherwise, if this handsome guy who has already begun to gain fame in the international film scene had come to show his support, it would have caused a bigger sensation, and in this case, it would have added fuel to the fire.

Of course, some people may still remember that on the opening day of Beijing Kentucky, the sales of a single store reached 40,000 yuan.

It seems like Kentucky has much higher business figures than the Gingerbread Man fast food.

But objectively speaking, there is no comparison.

Because the stores in Kentucky are large, the prices of individual items are high.

What’s more, each of the five Gingerbread Man stores has a buy-one-get-one-free special.

So if we look at the number of items sold, the gingerbread man is definitely the winner.

Especially the fact that five branches opened together to create such a number, attracting people from almost all over the city, is an incredible business miracle. (End of this chapter)