Background:
FengMao KaoChuan was established in 1991 and is one of the most powerful grilled skewer brands in China. In 2021, FengMao KaoChuan officially entered into a strategic partnership with Hua & Hua. Through the Rhombus Model strategy, Hua & Hua helped FengMao KaoChuan build a complete brand structure, transforming it from one of the industry players to the leading brand in the casual dining-level grilled skewer category!
Casual Dining-level Grilled Skewer Strategy:
From the beginning of its entrepreneurial journey, FengMao KaoChuan broke away from the traditional model of grilled skewer street stalls and roadside stands. By creating a clean and quality dining experience, providing high-quality ingredients, and delivering exceptional service, it subverted consumers' inherent impression of dirty and messy grilled skewer experience.
After a thorough review of FengMao KaoChuan's business, we proposed and established the strategic positioning of "casual dining-level grilled skewer."
Internal Strategy Focus:
Clearly define the path to building future competitive barriers: Internally, with the concept of casual dining-level grilled skewers, we have set the direction for the strategy. We plan the product restructure, service experience, and marketing activities around the concept of "casual dining-level" to proactively position ourselves in the trend of grilled skewers becoming a regular dining option and continuously build FengMao's competitive barriers!External Differentiation:
Restructure consumers' choice logic: "Casual dining-level grilled skewers" establishes a new category, and FengMao is the pioneer of this category. When consumers want to eat grilled skewers, they enter our categorization logic, where there are two types of grilled skewers: grilled skewer at the roadside/stalls and casual dining-level grilled skewer restaurants.
FengMao KaoChuan Super Proverb:
Facing customers, we have designed the brand proverb: "Treat Guests to Grilled Skewers, FengMao KaoChuan," embedding FengMao KaoChuan directly into the context of treating guests. Treating guests well implies higher expectations and higher-quality gatherings. When treating guests to grilled skewers, one should go to a higher-quality grilled skewer restaurant. This is a scenario where demand can only be met by casual dining-level grilled skewers.
Treat Guests to Grilled Skewers, FengMao KaoChuan. No need for persuasion, no need for explanation, just a direct appeal. Every day, there are people who want to treat guests to a meal. There were people who treated guests 100 years ago, and there will be people who treat guests 100 years from now. By embedding the brand in the recurring scenario of treating guests to a meal, this becomes a brand proverb that can be continuously invested in and used for 100 years.
The King Symbol of Grilled Skewer:
The Chinese character "串" in the context of skewers is both a pictographic and an ideographic character. It combines graphics and text, and since its inception as a pictographic character, it has maintained this form, accumulating cultural significance for over five thousand years.
Therefore, we have leveraged the inherent drama of the brand and directly embedded the FengMao brand onto the "串" character, which represents the entire industry. This creative approach resulted in the symbol "丰字串" (Feng Zi Chuan). At the same time, we added the most visually compelling symbol to "丰字串" — the eyes, amplifying the stimulating energy of Feng Zi Chuan exponentially! Through this creative approach, we have a super sign, registering the "串" character as a brand trademark and capturing the unique king symbol of the skewer industry for FengMao KaoChuan!
FengMao KaoChuan Products:
Naming is a cost, naming is a calling, naming is an investment, and the first principle of naming is cost-effectiveness. FengMao KaoChuan's original flagship product, "Sonid Grilled Lamb Skewers," had excellent word-of-mouth among customers. However, it was challenging to introduce Sonid Lamb due to its unique difficulty, making it difficult for customers to remember and spread. After conducting research, we discovered that, due to its distinctive black eye rings, Sonid Lamb bears a striking resemblance to China's national treasure, the giant panda. The local herdsmen affectionately call it "Panda Lamb." Therefore, we renamed Sonid Lamb as "FengMao Panda Lamb."
When we named it Panda Lamb, the dissemination cost of Sonid Lamb skewers approached zero because the whole world knows about giant pandas, and the world is filled with fans of giant pandas. Additionally, we created the super proverb "Panda in Sheep, FengMao Panda Lamb" and reinforced the purchasing rationale with the copy "1 in every 1,000 sheep." We used the most intuitive number to amplify the stimulating energy of Panda Lamb.
