Analyzing the case from the perspective of marketing is a warning to you who want to start a business or have already started a business.

Opening a coffee shop is the dream of many people. There are always one or two friends around us who say they want to open one, and even you have the idea that you may be planning or already taking action.

After a long-term observation, after investigating nearly a hundred coffee shops, I roughly come to the conclusion that the failure rate of entrepreneurial coffee shops is seriously high. If a ratio must be described, it is between 70% and 85%. In other words, if you open a coffee shop, if this is your first coffee shop (you can call it a start-up coffee shop) So within 2 years (2 years is my criterion for evaluating failure), the probability of this store closing down is between 70% and 85%. You may call me arbitrary, and listen to my detailed explanation again.

I've investigated about 90 coffee shops. The so-called investigation means that I can get in touch with the operator, or if I can't get in touch with the regular person, I can get the investigation and analysis I want with enough visits. Of the 90 I am talking about, about 20 are owned by friends, or introduced to me by friends, that is, friends of friends. Most of them belong to start-up coffee shops, and there are 30 coffee shops I saw online (58.com, marketplace). 70% of them belong to start-up coffee shops. I patronized the other 40 or so on my own initiative. Generally, I found the distinctive coffee shop I wanted to go to in every city I went to.

Of course, among these 90 coffee shops, there are many successful ones. Success or not is sometimes superficial to the layman. Sometimes it is based on experience and analysis, such as a coffee shop run by my friend, which is often full, if the average person is successful in appearance, but when I sit in the shop for an afternoon, I come to the conclusion that the shop must be in a state of loss. Then my friend reluctantly admitted it. If you have achieved a full-capacity operation, why do you still lose money? I will explain the specific reasons later.

The probability of failure I am talking about is not the proportion of success or failure of these 90 stores. First of all, there are different definitions of success. (some people do not open a shop for the purpose of making money.) secondly, the stores I have been able to investigate are stores that are in operation and have failed, and I have no chance to see them.

Of course, I do not have a very standardized and strict analysis, nor do I have a very professional and extensive statistics. I don't think this will do any harm, because using a specific probability can alert many people who have the idea of opening a shop and make them think twice. In short, recently, I know that there are about 40 start-up coffee shops, most of which are in a state of bad operation, and nearly 26 are clearly in a state of loss. The rest are in a mediocre state of operation. It is clear that less than 3 can make a profit in the first half of the year. These are my friends, friends of friends, boss friends I met during the visit. They were enthusiastic at the beginning, with the dream of creating their own coffee kingdom, and even determined to compete with Starbucks. However, the reality is cruel. After hard work, there is no return. The money invested cannot be cashed out if the buyer cannot be found. It is conceivable that there will be a deficit at the end of the month.

A high-risk game

If you go to Macau, if you invest your budget in a coffee shop and put it on a table the size of a bet in Macau, you have a 48% chance of winning. If a casino says that you have only a 30% chance of winning, are you willing to gamble? I have seen too many such friends who throw themselves into a much riskier game than casinos without estimating their chances of winning. There are also some friends who originally wanted to invest a little money to play, but they did not realize that they were too big to play.

Usually, the amount of money you really invest is more than 1.5 times your budget, and you haven't calculated the time and sweat you spent on starting a business. This is also a kind of investment. It only takes you one day to go to Macau to play. The time you spend in this coffee shop game may be a year. What was your annual salary in your previous job?

I believe that people who like to gamble will not open a coffee shop. But why are there still so many people who want to open a coffee shop when they want to start a business? Too many people overestimate some things and underestimate other problems. For example, if you overestimate your abilities, such as the boss who successfully runs an advertising company, he thinks that opening a coffee shop is easy job, which is a big mistake.

For example, it overestimates the market potential of the coffee shop, thinking that if there is no coffee shop in a certain area, if you open one, it must be patronized. This is also wrong. Location is the key factor, which everyone knows, but the ability of location, many people do not have this ability; the ability here refers to your experience and analytical knowledge, as well as the time and energy you can spend.

Some friends overestimate the actual effectiveness of joining a chain, thinking that joining a chain of coffee shops will greatly improve the likelihood of success. Wrong! We marketing people should understand this truth, the more successful chain enterprises have a management model, the more cautious they should be in joining this expansion model. Come to think of it, if you join a coffee chain, you have to pay a fee and the price of coffee shop raw materials that are higher than the average market price. These will undoubtedly increase your start-up costs and operating costs, and if your store is still profitable under the pressure of these costs, the chain will have sprung up everywhere. In fact, this market is not short of capital, what is missing is a truly profitable business model, once you really have such a model, you really do not need others to join, let alone do publicity to encourage others to join, capital will find your door.

Search for coffee shops on the Internet to join, you will see a lot of coffee chain official websites, click in to have a look, you will see that the official websites of these coffee shop enterprises are full of joining content, which is worthy of your deep thinking. The official website of a successful coffee chain should be assertive, individual and demanding, and only serve as a propaganda weapon for joining. This is enough to show that the manager of this store has been thinking about how to circle the money all the time, but will it still make a good cup of coffee?

A friend of mine recently opened a start-up coffee shop. He showed me his business plan, and I saw that half of it was about how to join the business in the future, such as the terms and conditions of joining. I thought it was a little funny, so I said impolitely, brother, don't forget your roots, the most important thing is that cup of coffee. The key to your success lies in your products and services, not how you attract others to join you in the future.

I just said overestimate, so what did you underestimate? Generally speaking, the most obvious thing is to underestimate the risk. As mentioned just now, there are always risks in investment, which everyone knows. The problem is that we often underestimate one thing, which I find is that many entrepreneurs have not seriously thought about it and underestimated its importance. Let me first go back to the example of the boss of an advertising company just mentioned. This friend started a coffee shop across industries, located in a creative industrial park, and his decoration style gave full play to his advantages in creative design (please note that I am talking about creative design, not space design). The furnishings in the store are all creative things, the furniture is designed furniture, and the wall painting is artistic. As it turns out, do you know what I think when I sit in this store? It is that I will not come again. If I do not know this friend, according to a person who likes coffee, I cannot find any more reason to come again. I also put myself in the mentality of white-collar workers working in the industrial park and young literary and artistic young people who visit the industrial park. I can't find a reason to come again. Why? And what does this example have to do with the underestimation of risk? Let me talk about another case first. As it happens, I saw the announcement of the transfer of a coffee shop in 58.com, which was located on a road outside one of the exits of the industrial park I mentioned just now, close to the exit of the industrial park, close to a large high-end residential area. and it is the only coffee shop on this road, with a rent of only 4500 (about 50 yuan per square meter, my friend's shop goes to 300 yuan per square meter). It sounds attractive, so I hurried over to find out. The road where the shop is located is actually the road widened by the "village in the city". As there have been plans to further widen the road, most of the shops on both sides are in the state of temporary construction, and most of the restaurants in the middle and low end are in the majority. The store is poorly decorated, and the fatal place is that the next shop is an aluminum alloy shop that constantly makes noise and dust. I see. When I sat in this store, I was imagining the mentality of the entrepreneurs of this store in choosing the site at a very low rent. but it can be next to a large neighborhood and one of the best creative industry parks in the city. At noon, white-collar workers in this industrial park patronize, and in the evening and on Saturdays and Sundays, they are mainly customers of the community.

My friend's shop my friend told me that he is now in a state of loss, although it is not serious in his view, he said that at least some of his clients and friends have a place to gather (this is one of the reasons why many people open coffee shops). From an operational point of view, (due to the high rent and decoration costs), it is a serious loss. On the other hand, although the boss said that the reason for the transfer was the withdrawal caused by the discord between the shareholders, the low charges have exposed the situation of losses. What is the reason?

Both stores underestimate one thing and underestimate the consumer experience that a coffee shop should have.

The consumption experience of the coffee shop

Consumer experience is the experience of a consumer when consuming your products and services.

My friend's shop is located in the park where many art and creative exhibitions are held. The environment is very suitable for coffee shops. The problem lies in the internal space, which does not create a sense of cozy, rewind and chill out. The designed furniture is good and enlightening, but I can't find a comfortable stool or a suitable distance for friends to communicate with each other (separated by such a strangely shaped design coffee table). In order to brighten up the meticulous collection of paintings on the walls, the lights are so bright that they feel like a gallery rather than the softness of a coffee shop. In the sales area, there are many creative things, except for mugs, there is nothing related to coffee; the whole store, lack of theme, is it a creative craft workshop, an art gallery, or a coffee shop? Or everything, but in the end it's nothing. The marketing term is unclear and lacks the main selling point (USP). The shopkeeper underestimates the experience that a consumer wants to achieve in a coffee shop. He or she wants a space where he or she can communicate comfortably with others. It would be better if this space is enlightening, but the inspiration must be subtle. Instead of selling it deliberately (I will talk in detail about what is an enlightening atmosphere in the future). Of course, the coffee in hand must be good, must be professional, this is the most basic thing, because coffee is to drink into the stomach, sometimes, he or she may not know how to drink coffee, but your service, the presentation of your coffee, your shop image, will affect my judgment (I will explain this point in detail in the future). Finally, the price must be appropriate. I have a value estimate of my experience. The difference between the actual price and this estimate will affect the number of times I visit. My friend's shop is self-consciously decorated with high-end decoration, so the price is high, young artists cannot afford it, and office workers will choose other coffee shops in the park that are relatively cheap and have a relatively relaxed atmosphere. It should be said that my friend put a lot of thought into opening this shop, and even a chandelier is full of design flavor, but often this type of coffee shop gives you the impulse to go once, but there is no reason to go again. To put it simply, many similar very creative coffee shops feel that the operator has a different purpose, or for greeting acquaintances, or for display. It's not a place for you to enjoy a cup of coffee at a reasonable price.

The other restaurant has a set meal of 25 yuan at noon, which can be full and have a cup of coffee, but it can't compete with a tea restaurant with a terrace in the park (the charge is still slightly higher). The shopkeeper underestimated the requirements of a white-collar door engaged in creative work in the park for the experience of lunch. He / she may prefer to drink a cup of coffee that may be instant in a tea restaurant with an external atmosphere, rather than a cup of freshly ground coffee in a coffee shop without an external or internal atmosphere. On the face of it, the price of this store is cheap, but residents of the community are more willing to patronize the restaurants or cafes in the park at night, because the whole environment is already very comfortable, relaxed and leisurely. The rent of 4500 yuan seems cheap, but the poor environment (next to the aluminum alloy store) has damaged the shop's consumer experience. Although there are enough drivers and traffic to the park on the whole street, these vehicles just pass by in a hurry because of the visibility and parking problems of the shops. As for the flow of people, I can't imagine a resident in this neighborhood hoping to relax with a cup of coffee and come to this place. "I'm not in the coffee shop, I'm on my way to the coffee shop." coffee shop owners should consider not only your coffee shop, but also how your customers feel on the way to your coffee shop.

When it comes to feeling on the road, let me give an example of how great it feels to walk on the way to a coffee shop, to illustrate that focusing on the consumer experience goes to every detail, or even just one eye direction. There is a coffee shop in a park. Since admission is free, the flow of people in the park is comparable to that of the market (the park is surrounded by densely populated areas). The store is located next to one of the exits of the park, and there is also a parking lot with plenty of parking spaces, and the guests can be people who come by car or come to the park for a walk. But the shopkeeper told me that their business was very ordinary. People who come by car have always been the main patrons, because parking here is really convenient, and the road outside is the main road with traffic like crucian carp. However, the specific location of the helpless store is in the park, and it is generally difficult for motorists to pay attention to the signs at the exit of the park unless they deliberately. In the park, there is a path, but the shortest straight line distance is tens of meters, and it is a small steep slope. From the path to the shop, you need to take a winding mountain path, pass through some well-designed garden pool rockery, and finally get to this coffee shop. The coffee shop covers an area of more than 200 square meters, with floor-to-ceiling glass on the outside, and curtains are used to block the sun during the day.

This is almost an excellent position in the city that is no longer available. With so many people in a relaxed mood, how comfortable it is to sit down for a cup of coffee and afternoon tea (there are still many couples coming to the park to date in the evening). I asked the shop owner about the specific business situation. He said that he had three branches in the city, but only this one had not made any money. He also spent a lot of advertising money in the past two years, used a lot of promotion methods, and even started group buying. I told the boss that I would give you an idea that you should intercept the advertising expenses apportioned to the store and then make an outdoor advertisement for the store. The boss said that he had already done some things, such as putting up a sign at the gate of the park, setting up a lot of light post light boxes in the path near the shop site in the park, and paying a lot of advertising fees to the park side. I said that my idea was not to generate any monthly rent for advertising fees, but only for him to discuss with the park manager that the store would fund the construction of a straight slope on the hillside. This slope does not need much decoration, and the direction pointed in the straight line does not need to be the entrance of the store, just the corner of the nearest road, and then in this corner, there are several white outdoor tables, chairs and umbrellas on the lawn outside the floor-to-ceiling glass. The boss immediately refuted my view, saying that it was a bit difficult for consumers to have the feeling of going up step by step, and the park did not necessarily agree. And will also restrict the establishment of a business area outside the glass wall, the outside business area will also cause many problems, such as weather mosquitoes, inconvenient for waiters to walk, and so on. My boss friend has been in the western food and coffee industry for 10 years. At first, he believed that he had done everything he could for this store. His other two stores in the city made a good profit, named XX Coffee Lounge. It turned out that he had not yet understood the significance of setting up a few dining chairs outside the store for passers-by to see. Several white dining chairs on the green lawn can be interpreted as a visual symbol representing comfort, relaxation and leisure. This is the best outdoor advertisement. It would be a pity if a coffee shop in the park did not take advantage of such advertising channels. Before the passers-by saw through the woods in the distance drooping curtains, high above, is a kind of estrangement, do not understand, can not guess what the environment is, so there is no impulse to patronize. A straight mountain longitude is a necessary combination, which not only provides direct and shortest convenience, but also provides visual guidance. Passers-by will see through at a glance, from the path to the white dining chair, which seems to be a kind of attraction, even temptation. The original winding path of the intersection, although the sign stands at the intersection, the storefront can not be seen from the signboard, which politely rejects passers-by who come for a walk. Moreover, the name of the coffee lounge also makes people stop. The lounge has absolutely nothing to do with the mentality of passers-by who come to the park. I said to my boss: you can still continue to sell wine in the future. People who come for coffee or drinks may sometimes come to drink at night. But first you have to give them a reason to come, or at least let them take the step to the ladder. After some discussion, he finally agreed to my plan without much input, so it wouldn't hurt for my friend to try. As a result, things went unexpectedly well, and the Park Service quickly agreed to the construction of the steps. After all, it is only a few tens of meters of weedy slope, and the design of the steps is very simple, there are not too many tricks, and the display of a few stools does not affect the view. The shop owner also further changed the name of the store, in fact, canceled the word lounge, launched coffee and beverage-related packages, promotions, and added water plates at the exit of the park road on the new steps. The small move, with a total investment of less than 50, 000, gave the store an unprecedented consumption period such as afternoon tea, and businesses for walkers and tourists began to build and then grew, booming dinner and evening drinks. This friend of mine has always been a senior who taught me a lot of things, and he is also a successful operator in the coffee industry. he is very surprised why he has used so many methods and strategies in publicity and marketing, but have not been effective. Instead, it is a simple path and a few tables to solve the problem? I gave him the idea that if the coffee shop is a brand, this road and a few tables are actually an appearance of the essence of the brand. The above mentioned do not forget their roots also means, "coffee shop" as the essence of the brand can be understood as comfortable, relaxed and leisurely feeling, can also be analyzed from the perspective of consumer experience, too many operators think that with glass, sofas and air conditioners, they have already done this, so it is simple to think. I often feel surprised when I visit a coffee shop. I wonder why so many operators don't take care of so many details. And these details often need only a small change, a small amount of labor, without too much cost, can improve the guest's consumer experience. What surprises me even more is that many coffee shop operators of a certain scale spend a huge amount of money on advertising and try their best to attract new customers, but do not concentrate on imagining how to design an unforgettable consumer experience that will come back. The above example is very distinct. There is already an almost dreamy environment and enough people flow. If people still don't come, it must be somewhere out of touch with the consumer experience. This example shows that a potential guest coming for a walk in the park is psychologically related to the coffee shop, but the shop is disjointed in terms of its visual orientation and attraction. What's more, signs such as the lounge are even more irrelevant.

There are indeed a lot of coffee entrepreneurs who start a place where people want to sit down, enjoy a cup of coffee and spend an afternoon or an evening without even doing the essence of a coffee shop. What I'm talking about here basically refers to what should be done within a controllable range to achieve a satisfactory consumer experience. A consumer's consumption in a coffee shop basically covers the senses of facial features. He must take care of what he eats and drinks, what he sees, what he hears, what he smells and even touches. Of course, who doesn't understand this truth? If you don't understand this, it's over. What I want to say is that these are very subtle, tasteful, subtle, and subjective. It means that there is something that is not obvious. This light is too bright for you. He may think it is too dark. I may think it is too dark during the day and too bright at night. You think this bookshelf full of CD is too corny, he thinks it is fashionable. What about me? I said I think it's a little corny, too, but it's not my call. I'd better ask the average consumer (solve it with a survey). There are some things that are obvious, but some people just don't pay attention to them. A good coffee shop manager, he or she should be sensitive, picky, and even demanding.

Once I went to a friend's shop, just at noon, I smelled lampblack and hurriedly asked why. My friend said that their staff were cooking lunch in the kitchen, and the ventilation system in the kitchen was not very good. Suddenly I was speechless. I often suggested that coffee shops should always bake cookies during the best hours of business, and it would be better to turn off the kitchen draught during this time, because the baking smell of cookies is the best for coffee shops. Of course, the taste of roasted coffee is fine for self-baked coffee shops, but it is a bit heavy, and it is difficult to control the intensity of the smoke. In general, the smell of lampblack in the kitchen is fatal to a cafe (in fact, it is also fatal to smell it in a Chinese restaurant). If my friend is not sensitive to this, that really ignores the basic experience that a consumer should have in a coffee shop. Smell has been a basic course in store management in many industries. The marketing departments of first-class retail enterprises will study what smell attracts passers-by into the store and what smell makes consumers have the impulse to buy.

The application of marketing can be very simple!

I have cited a lot of cases above, and there are many more. I hope to use some of my marketing experience to give more consideration and consideration to those who have the idea of opening a store, or those who start a business, or even the veteran who runs a coffee shop.

I need to make it clear that I am only a coffee lover who has been engaged in FMCG marketing for a long time. After quitting my job as marketing director of a foreign FMCG company, I began to embark on a coffee trip and participated in some coffee-related projects. I have also been involved in setting up companies such as business transfer agents (the catering industry, including coffee shops, is basically most of the clients of business agents). These projects have given me the opportunity to come into contact with a large number of restaurants, most of which are coffee shops. I think my personal love of coffee is the main driver, driving me to focus on research and think about the operation of coffee shops. Because of my background in marketing, I naturally participate in a lot of business discussions with the coffee industry. I think it's time for me to share these discussions, these experiences, these views with you.

Another motivation for writing this article is that in the process, I feel more and more that entrepreneurs who lack some seemingly simple marketing knowledge (and actually very simple), is undoubtedly tantamount to putting the hard-earned investment capital into the betting table with only a 30% chance of winning. And there are many catering operators, in fact, many can be more successful, just put aside some prejudices, habitual thinking, from the essence, the original potential has not been brought into full play, the original business can be very easy, it is possible to open branches, chain operation, can be listed on the market.

In order to illustrate the importance of marketing knowledge in the operation of a coffee shop, I will first cite a case of a small shop, and then a case of a large store with an investment of more than one million. Before I patronized the shop, I had already heard that it was opened by the owner of a coffee trading company in Shanghai. after arriving at the store, I saw that the pattern inside was obviously a marketing center for the coffee business owner, which focused on promoting and selling the coffee beans they operated. I tried a very good cup of coffee, and the taste was very much to my taste. I asked the boss about this variety of beans, and the boss said it was not a single product, but a mixture of their own, and baked at home to keep it fresh for seven days. When I saw the packaging of my own brand on the shelf, I expressed my intention to buy it. Unexpectedly, the boss told me that the packaging was just a sample of the packaging, because they had to decide the baking time according to the order, so they could only book it and ship it in 2-3 days. I admire the store's persistence, generally speaking, impulsive buying behavior, of course, want to have immediately, immediate consumption, and seeing is believing. Before I fell in love with coffee, I was a deep tea man of Chinese tea. I have never bought tea online, and I can't pay for it without smelling it in the palm of my hand. But this shop owner seems troublesome, incomprehensible persistence, but let me convince the store's professional, more convinced by his pursuit of quality. I have drunk too much high-priced coffee that is not fresh and wasted. The store is willing to bake it for such a small batch purchase, and it also offers free express delivery. I pay more readily. Although the price is small, I still think it is worth it. I think I can enjoy this kind of coffee that suits my taste when I get home from a business trip in a few days. The shopkeeper also introduced some other items they operated, and suggested that I should not buy too much at once. It would be best if I could finish it in half a month. When the boss said this, I admired his business acumen even more. He first asked me to choose delivery home, and when I accepted the purchase process, and further accepted and liked this kind of coffee (home mixing, home baking, this is the only one). I will buy it for a long time, even though I am in two places, thousands of miles away, I can be his loyal customer.

In the knowledge of marketing, there is a concept that needs to be understood, that is, the lifetime value of a loyal customer. If I really become a loyal customer of this store. Buy it every half a month, 100 yuan each time. How much is it a year? 2400 yuan. Five years is 12000 yuan. Assuming that the gross profit is 50%, you can earn 6000 yuan from this guest in five years. So it's important to attract new customers, but stores with enough retention customers have a chance to make a profit. Even if there is a way for you to spend 5999 yuan to get this loyal customer, you will still make a profit on this customer.

So what kind of marketing means do you spend this 5999 yuan on? The following may not cost you a penny to let you have such a loyal customer.

Yes, it turns out the story is not over yet. For the reason of express delivery, I wrote down my address and my wife's mobile phone number. Because my wife spent more time at home, she became the designated recipient of my family. I casually asked my boss, do I need to write down my email? To my surprise, the boss said no, and he replied with a phone call. Oh, my God! he thought that my future transaction with him, or exchanges, was just as simple as I called to place an order and then made a courier after payment. What he may mean is that he thinks he already has my cell phone, or that I already have his business card, so that there will be no problem for both sides to communicate.

Just now I admired this boss for his insistence on coffee quality and his originality in management, but now I secretly regret that he didn't use some simple marketing communication means to turn a new customer into a customer who can make $6,000 in five years.

The gold mine hidden in the coffee shop

In marketing, there is a marketing method called direct marketing (Direct marketing), which seeks to establish direct communication with consumers, and mail (formerly plain mail, now email) has become one of the main channels of this kind of information exchange because of its low price and one-to-one. Of course, from a broad point of view, we can also say that this coffee trader opens a coffee shop directly to consumers. If it is a sales behavior, we can say that this is direct marketing, if it is a marketing act, we can also call it direct marketing. The average coffee industry thinks that all they can do in the store is to promote posters and other pop materials, and to have a trial drink (there will be a long description of the trial drink later), price promotion and so on. They ignored the gold mines they could accumulate for their business. This gold mine has accumulated to a certain extent, and if a business is going to sell, this degree of accumulation will be used as the basis for the valuation of the intangible assets of your business. There is nothing to open sesame seeds in this gold mine, it is what you keep accumulating, you need to do a little more, and sometimes of course you need some technical things; this gold mine refers to the customer's database (Database), which sounds complicated, a little bit, but actually easy to do. The database of the customer base of a coffee shop does not need to be too complicated. after all, we are not a big company, we just need to grasp the point, the point is that we can be very convenient in the future, at no cost, send a message to our customers. First of all, why should I send a message? like the example just now, the boss thought that I liked his coffee and would continue to buy it in the future. Has he ever thought that if he could email me in the future and sell me more information about their products, promotional activities, product information, special offers and so on? This is not the same as I am not in the coffee shop, but I still continue to receive the promotion of this store to me, virtually there is a virtual cloud coffee shop. The store can be run without rent, electricity, electricity or electricity. People are animals that need social connections. I don't think anyone who loves coffee will refuse to establish contact with this coffee-making company. Sometimes the so-called social network is so simple, a regular email, to establish a kind of contact, rather than just stay in the business card folder of both parties in a business card. This effective connection with customers will be rewarded in the future on the consumption of these customers per customer, and my chances of buying again will increase, because I am constantly reminded that in this store in Shanghai, they have coffee with the taste of my favorite coffee. and there are constantly new products I want to try, some special offers I may not want to miss. I may also want to reply, telling my boss how I feel after drinking at home, along with some of my comments; for some interesting emails, I may forward them to more friends. E-mail is convenient and free. However, it takes a lot of thought to think about the content, and how to manage customer lists and mass emails requires some software support (some low-cost websites can be easily done for you), as well as how to avoid customer spam filtering. what's more, think about how to effectively and constantly get these emails from your existing customers. I won't go into detail here. In short, when you have a large customer base, their email address will be a gold mine you can continue to develop.

Another example is the investment of more than one million, which is the first store of a start-up company with a total share capital of more than 10 million. They have been developing coffee and other beverages, baking products and business models for nearly a year, and have been searching for locations throughout the year, and have finally chosen to open on the top floor of a new shopping mall.

As a result, the result is the shop that I mentioned earlier is often full but has been losing money.

This is an interesting case. The company has enough financial resources, manpower and enough time to prepare. They have the financial resources to enable a group of outstanding talents to sit together every day to carry out research and development and planning, idling all year round, ambitious, ambitious and ambitious for a year, and then the first company will invest more than one million yuan.

When I was arranged to sit in this store, it was in the afternoon. It was called "arrangement" because there was already a queue at the door of the store, and even if the company manager came, he was squeezed into a temporary position with me. It can be said to be a hot scene, but in my opinion, it is still a business situation with major problems, and it is a fundamental problem that should be taken into account in the marketing system.

The problem is Spending per Guest and seat turnover. As simple as that, whether you're a marketer of FMCG or coffee shops, you have to care about how much your product is consumed per customer and how often it's consumed (in the case of coffee shops, turnaround rates).

A profitable restaurant operator must pursue two goals, one is gross profit margin and the other is RevPAT. As for the gross profit margin, there is an industry standard, which will be discussed later, and RevPAT is the ultimate goal. Without it, no matter how good the gross profit is, it will be in vain. RevPAT in coffee shops is calculated by the consumption per customer and the turnover per seat. In addition, if I want to value a coffee shop, there is another important indicator that must be considered, which is the turnover per unit area.

(Each of the individual indicators mentioned in this paragraph needs to be discussed separately on how to effectively improve them. I hope to introduce them to you in my other articles.)

Back to my friend's shop, more than 300 square meters of shop, in the afternoon tea this time is generally full, the surface of this shop is successful, the shop space is very unique, elegant and equipped with bookcases show a strong cultural flavor, high-quality leather sofa and chair, to achieve a comfortable, relaxed, relaxed feeling, service, attentive, and the image of the staff is good (There are several comments by the public comment network called beautiful barista), although the product can not be said to be a breakthrough, but it is also very unique, especially in terms of product creativity, and the presentation method is also very home. The overall product mix is limited to beverages and pastries and small meals, mainly focusing on fine coffee, several specialty beverages and specialty pastries. The problem is that such a product mix makes the average single customer's consumption only about 30 yuan. The reason why it is full and queuing, you can imagine in such a bustling shopping center, there is a place so comfortable, relaxed, leisurely let you sit down, consumption is less than 30 yuan, where to find ah (there are beautiful women, there are books to read)! I believe that the single customer consumption of this store is similar to Starbucks, or even higher, but first of all Starbucks will never open more than 300 square meters in such a shopping center (there is one on the first floor lobby of the shopping center, covering an area of about 80 square meters). Secondly, Starbucks has the business of Takeaway and the income of in-store products, which my friend can't do for the time being (not because he didn't think of doing it, but because the nature of the product and the store setting have decided not to do it). There is also Starbucks has better bargaining power with shopping malls in terms of rent. Starbucks is a counter order and self-collection. Another point, in my opinion, is that Starbucks has enough turnover per unit area. We observe carefully that Starbucks in shopping centers are usually narrow crowded dining tables designed with one or two sofas for attracting customers, just like the white dining tables on the green ground mentioned above. You often have to wait, and hold coffee in your hand, when there is a place to sit down, it will not sit comfortably, so that your relative stay time will be short, Starbucks in the busy section also generally provide paper cups first, in the case of your request to provide porcelain cups, the intention is needless to say (about Starbucks I will have a special article in detail later).

Many coffee shop entrepreneurs, in the design of the store as far as possible to consider a comfortable personality environment to consumers, this is right, the previous mentioned that we want to pursue the best consumer experience? The above mentioned is to pay attention to the consumption experience, to achieve a satisfactory consumption experience should be done within the controllable range of things. The key is cost control. Providing a comfortable environment, a good image of the waiter, full service (full service) consumer experience, of course, attract customers, but these have a cost, these costs in the end let you not accept particles.

Profit is the most important thing!

Coffee shop entrepreneurs, do not play character, blindly pursue personality and atmosphere, coffee shop sounds romantic, emotional place, but also a real place to do business, try to think, if you do not make a profit, how do you stick to this romance, how to express your personality for a long time?

A coffee shop opened in a particular environment has an industry benchmark that determines whether you can make a profit. This standard mainly includes cost ratio standard and gross profit standard. To measure whether a store is profitable or not, sales per square meter is the most reliable basis in today's increasingly heavy rental costs, or for areas with higher rental costs. This 300-square-meter store, due to its business model, rent bargaining power, its turnover per square meter is destined to be significantly lower than Starbucks downstairs. The full house at one time was just floating clouds, opening hours at 11 a.m.(Starbucks is open according to the opening hours of the mall), and at noon and evening meal times, due to insufficient selection of selling points, these two rounds did not produce enough table rotation. In the afternoon and evening, when the seats are full, they do not generate enough revenue because of low single-customer consumption and too long consumption time (sitting down and spending an afternoon comfortably).

Some people may ask why this restaurant doesn't offer good food. Of course, my friend thought of this, but they really did not do the food that suited their store theme, and at the same time could attract enough consumption. And they're afraid that certain popular meals, like the ones that coffee shops usually serve, will affect the atmosphere of the store, and their original vision is to be a chain coffee shop like Starbucks, and Starbucks is just sandwiches and salads. They still have some light food! The problem that can be summed up now is that their vision is to run a successful chain like Starbucks, they think they already have a unique, differentiated, core competitive product portfolio, and they also want to create a consumer experience that Chinese people love (they think Starbucks is far from doing this), but they ignore the winning formula contained in the accumulated and accumulated business model of a company like Starbucks.

I agree that such a large place, in order to increase the turnover per square meter, the food must have, the problem is how to provide popular food, without losing the consumer experience of a characteristic coffee shop, this problem, in fact, is also a headache for many coffee shop owners.

I also agree that product innovation is needed, not necessarily limited to coffee products, to meet potential demand in the mainland China market and provide more innovative consumption patterns and consumption experiences.

I agree that the thinking mode of creative concept + hype = cultural climate was once popular in today's Chinese society, but I often remind those entrepreneurs who want to think of home by concept alone and are favored by venture capitalists that the most important question is whether you are profitable now or not, or whether you are profitable in the future. VCs 'so-called evaluation of you must be based on two considerations: one is the profit model of your business now, and the other is the profit model of your business in the future.

Some answers to these questions may be found in a japanese restaurant chain. The chain, which has 45 stores in Japan (2011), landed in Shanghai in 2010 and has five stores this year (2012). The chain, which quickly established itself in Japan and claims to be Japan's largest matcha restaurant, has been forging ahead in the Southeast Asian market in the past two or three years, and Shanghai, China, has become their test ground.

Several branches in Shanghai are basically opened in large shopping centers, that is to say, there must be a high turnover per square meter to make a living. How can this tea shop do it? Needless to say, the sofa is definitely gone, neat uniform long row table, basically can be understood as a high-end fast food restaurant shop space design, the facade specially set up take-out window. What about the product mix? Food + drinks + dessert. The store has a distinct theme, with matcha as its main selling point, and then enriches its product portfolio so that it can generate a turnaround rate for each consumption period. From the menu alone, this restaurant produces solar eclipse dishes similar to izakaya, with dozens of menu varieties. From the drinks point of view, most of the drinks in this shop are prepared with matcha, plus basic coffee drinks. From the dessert point of view, this shop sells a wide variety of Japanese desserts. The store would not have been able to stand in a shopping mall without such a combination that each spending period generated a turnaround and drove up average per-customer spending. 30 yuan a bowl of ramen, 25 yuan a cup of matcha latte, can be inferred that the approximate single customer consumption is about 50 yuan. The key lies in the space design of the whole store (selected in many cases of space design books), as well as the background support of Matcha culture, so that the cost of 50 yuan has a quality guarantee, and has a distinct and unique consumption experience.

winning formula

Like my friend's store, there are often queues at the door, and some impatient consumers simply sell a cup of matcha drink at the takeout window (they also have takeout limited ice cream). On the public comment website, not many people praised their food, just felt that it was similar to ordinary Japanese cuisine, and matcha drinks were quite popular. I believe that the entrepreneur of this Japanese restaurant started as a beverage store, and perhaps developed after many setbacks. It can also be said that he discovered such a business model, such as: The traditional cultural concept derived from Matcha is used as the main theme, the modern and design-rich space design is used to bring out the grade and quality, the large shopping mall is selected to attract the young and female crowd with purchasing power, and the turnover per unit area is increased by rich meals + dense dining places + take-out windows, etc. The reason they can keep opening stores is because they have found a winning formula. The reason why this is a formula is that the location selection, store design, product mix, etc. mentioned just now play a decisive role, and any one of these factors in this formula is indispensable.

Did your coffee shop find the winning formula?

Perhaps many people think that these large-scale chains have such a formula, small shops lack the financial strength of these large companies, there is not much room to choose, what can be done has already been done, this is the idea of many small shop owners. I don't agree. In my opinion, there are many small coffee shops that are doomed to fail at the beginning due to lack of experience and marketing knowledge. I often advise these small bosses that there is actually a lot that can be done. Of course, location and rental costs are first and foremost considerations and prerequisites for business entities such as independent shops and boutique coffee shops. I have seen too many examples where the wrong location was chosen at the beginning, but I have also experienced some cases where the shop was already a very good location, but due to the business model, the consumption potential of the location was not fully utilized. Let me give you an example.

There is a shop opened in the university town, the location is also good in the central business district, rent because it is early to take the shop cost is not high, but since the opening has been in a state of loss. The store has a mezzanine floor, low floors and no windows, set up as a kitchen and warehouse. On the first floor, there is only a small cash register. I asked the boss why he didn't consider setting a table on the mezzanine at the beginning. The boss said that the height of the mezzanine would be very depressed if the table was set. He also set the toilet on the mezzanine, together with the bar function, which could spare the most business space for the first floor. It sounds like a smart idea. Without a kitchen, it would be impossible for this store to serve meals. If the bar is downstairs, it will take up the already small street front and the mezzanine will be too big for a kitchen that is only used for cooking. The transformation plan I gave the boss was exactly the opposite of the original setting. I suggested eliminating the kitchen, placing the bathroom and bar downstairs (and the bar area should not be too small), and then transforming the mezzanine into a dining area. The boss shook his head and talked a lot about the necessity of meals and the risks of extra investment in remodeling. I said that if we didn't transform it like this, the store would have no chance of making a profit. The current pattern is tantamount to a fast food, downstairs neat deck layout, loss of layout, hierarchy, and privacy. Coffee shops opened in university areas can be affordable to enter the store. In addition to college students who want to talk about love, there should be some faculty members or other social figures. I went to a large western restaurant in university town at noon. At noon, I launched a set meal of 20 yuan a plate of grilled rice and a cup of drink, which was still very popular. If a college student wants to go to a cafe next to a school to drink a drink for 30 yuan, I don't think he can afford it if it's not for romantic reasons. Couples 'consumption is quite important to privacy, and coffee with a warm atmosphere is sweet no matter how bitter it is. Not only that, if the coffee shop couldn't see the bar counter, it would lose its professional sense greatly. After all, there were still other faculty members and social figures who would visit a coffee shop in a university town because they valued the atmosphere. There is a large enough bar layout on the first floor to give the store a coffee charm, and also to create a small bar feeling, so that the wine business comes naturally. Since the bar and toilet occupy almost half of the store, they form some parts instead, creating different sections suitable for different groups of people. The most exquisite is the mezzanine, there is no natural light, just can use the lighting layout to create atmosphere, and, just take advantage of the reason that the floor is not high, the floor will be changed into tatami form, guests need to take off shoes, and sit on the ground, or back some sofa without feet, or round cushion, equipped with low tea table, and then use transparent partition design and lighting to create each independent consumption area. It was conceivable that this was the most suitable place for couples. Of course, it was also possible for three or five confidants to chat. Downstairs, it was suitable for other people who wanted to discuss business in the shop or surf the Internet. As for meals, in addition to cold food that can be handled by the bar, hot food can be provided in cooperation with nearby fast food, which can also eliminate the cost of the kitchen.

We open a coffee shop and don't have to cater to everyone. Providing a specific environment for a specific group of people is the success of many successful coffee shops I have seen. We need to segment the people who come to the store, including gender, consumer psychology, purchasing power, purchasing motivation, etc. In the above example, some of the loyal customers who come to this store should be (or can be) students with low purchasing power. The consumer psychology needs a romantic and private space atmosphere. The motivation is to have a drink and sit for an evening instead of eating.

Of course, couples who sit down for just one or two drinks a night don't necessarily have the single-customer spending and turnaround rates every coffee shop owner wants to see. But for the coffee shop in college town, couples 'spending turned out to eat up enough revenue to make a profit. The revamped restaurant is often full on the mezzanine floor and drives first-floor consumption; on my last visit, the owner told me that he had canceled his partnership with the fast-food restaurant and only served simple meals such as pasta and sandwiches because he felt that the beverage business alone was profitable enough and he needed to further create atmosphere and introduce snacks that could be completed in the bar section to further improve the evening drink business. He said his coffee might not be the best in college town, nor might his food be the best, but the atmosphere must be the most sensational in his house. Yes, we need to compromise something, give up something, change something, and then stick to something, somewhere, to be the best.

This store has experienced two start-ups, the first is the opening of this store, the second is the transformation of this store, I actually admire the owner of this store, because the second transformation is equivalent to a renovation, but the owner later told me that he has no choice, he has tried to hire very professional baristas and chefs, tried a lot of group purchases, package specials and other promotions, more tried boutique coffee and other promotions, failed to drive popularity. He had to completely change his business model so that he could create a profit formula suitable for this store.

Is this the standard weight?

A successful coffee shop not only has a successful business model, of course, but also has successful management, which ultimately depends on the efforts and talents of the operators. Let me use the following case to tell you some of my thoughts. I visited such a startup coffee shop and it was located in the kind of place where I said there was potential to be realized. The residential area next to a large commercial building in the city, because it is in the residential building inside the iron fence, although it is close to the back street of the commercial building, the rent is extremely low. When I got to the store, I ordered American coffee and spaghetti with gravy. The coffee comes up in a tall straight cup, which I think is only about 8 oz, while the spaghetti weight feels even smaller, plus the kind of plate used is the kind of middle concave but wide edge. The spaghetti is like the size of an ordinary rice bowl on a large plate. The friend who came with me couldn't help saying that the spaghetti seemed to be a little small. The boss said, "this is the standard weight." my friend can only nod and add: "maybe the plate is too big." I also wanted to say that the amount of coffee was too small, but I stopped for fear that the boss would say that it was also a standard weight. When I look at the price, coffee and spaghetti are not cheap, adding up to a consumption of about 60 yuan. I think the white-collar workers who come here to spend lunch at noon may not be able to afford it. It was only later in the conversation that they learned that if you consume a plate of spaghetti for such a meal, coffee is delivered. But this is also close to 40 yuan of consumption, ah, and still do not have enough to eat, no wonder I saw only two or three guests, and they are only consumer drinks. As for the taste of the coffee, it was even more lacklustre. I later asked my boss to show me the beans they used now, which obviously failed to keep them fresh. I even noticed some details. Several plates of potted plants were placed at the door, and the mud was covered with coffee grounds that had become moldy. At a glance, you can see that the wall paintings in the store are dozens of ones bought on Taobao only about 200 yuan; the screen of the store is equipped with a large fish tank, but there is only a white golden dragon fish alone. Several plates of hanging orchids placed on the top of the fish tank have a lot of yellow leaves, and the overall style feels like the kind of grass-roots flavor that touches the ground. When the boss saw that I was willing to discuss business management, he told me that the main direction now was the evening beverage business. And the rent of this store is very low, so that he has not lost money so far, but he really has not made any money. I praise him for his cleverness. He first finds a small shop with low-cost input and accumulates experience. He said that he also invested a lot. At the beginning, the top fee was more than 150000, and since its opening, he has made many attempts. For example, the catering section has only recently been launched, and in the coffee section, he has also tried some expensive boutiques. But he feels that not many people know how to appreciate it, so he now feels that the consumption of drinks in the evening is an opportunity.

I remember that I often go to an Italian restaurant in a five-star hotel where I often eat buffets. Every time I ask for freshly ground coffee and freshly made spaghetti. Coffee is a wide-mouthed porcelain cup of afternoon tea with a weight of less than 8 oz. The quantity of spaghetti is also similar to that of this store. But I don't just eat a plate of spaghetti and drink a cup of coffee for the buffet. In this restaurant just now, the average guest will only consume a cup of drink and a plate of meals. In fact, the cost of a cup of 12oz American coffee is very different from that of 8oz. At Starbucks, you will never see the short of 8oz, and 12oz has become the lowest consumption. As for spaghetti, I really don't know how much is the standard. I only know that the spaghetti I eat in "Spaghetti House" (a foreign chain) can eat in one plate. I still remember eating a famous ramen restaurant in Japan. After eating a bowl, I felt that I was not full, so I raised a finger to the clerk behind the counter who was in charge of cooking noodles and spoke a sentence in one more English. Who knew that he skillfully poured another ball of noodles into my bowl and answered me with the word "Free".

What is the standard?

The standard may be the amount of spaghetti in that Italian restaurant during the buffet, not too much, because too many guests can't enjoy other delicacies or waste. The standard should be the spaghetti at lunchtime in this coffee shop, not too small, too small for guests to eat. There are too many examples of this, and the managers of these coffee shops uphold certain ideas, certain systems, certain missionaries, certain programs, and certain habitual thinking. For example, no one appreciates good coffee, no one can afford to cook a good meal, so make alcoholic beverages. The audience of alcohol should be wide enough. The question is, have we made that cup of coffee? Did you make that plate of spaghetti? Or, think that a good barista and cook, with good beans and spaghetti, will be fine. Is that enough? Have you paid any attention to how you produce? Under what environment do you produce? Through what kind of service? Yes, what cups and saucers to use is a visual perception, even as small as the yellow leaves on the shelf, will affect the final experience of a consumer.

If a professional coffee maker absolutely does not allow the plants in front of his coffee shop to have moldy soil, nor will he let a business show signs of mildew. I secretly regret that this small coffee shop owner, who has been operating for a year, says that he has learned a lot of lessons, gained a lot of experience and understood some standards, but he still does not have the standard thinking and management level of a coffee industry. What is even more regrettable is that the location of this store is excellent, and the nearby high-rise office buildings and white-collar apartments are high-density markets that can be dug deep. And the rent is surprisingly low, but its performance is now below the standard, and far below the standard.

During the conversation, I asked the boss what methods to promote, and the boss focused on how he carried out the hype on Dianping.com and other catering websites. In my opinion, his shop is actually next to a gold mine, which is a super tall office building nearby. Although there are already two international coffee chains on the ground floor of this office building, but as a coffee shop living in a shop like this. There is plenty of possibility to be different from these international chains (I will elaborate on how to start a coffee shop next to Starbucks to gain advantage and success in other articles).

Instead of digging for gold mines, they went to a lot of trouble to hire some diners and editors to write some comments, hoping that the city would have customers who came specially for these reviews (and there was no guarantee that they would come again). Of course, even if there is a gold mine next to it, we should also know how to dig and what technology to dig. If we go on, it is also the scope of marketing. If a small-scale coffee entrepreneur does not know how to use some marketing strategies or means at a lower cost (the digging technology is better) and promote the target market (where the most money is to be dug), then the success rate of his management is much lower.

(I hope I have more opportunities to tell you the details of the three excavations here.)

The boss finally wanted me to value the business. I said that first of all, I needed him to provide some data. In fact, I wanted to put it off, because I thought in my heart that if there was a coffee shop next to him, the same cost would be invested. You only need to achieve a standard level of management, plus some simple and basic marketing methods that can constantly accumulate goodwill. This store can easily make it impossible for the one I visited to break even.

In the course of conversations, discussions and even heated debates with these operators, I hope I can have the opportunity to express my views to these entrepreneurs who are running a coffee shop, but in many cases, there is no time. Or the time to talk is not right, or there is nothing you want to hear.

So I came up with the idea of writing. Finally, I would like to conclude with what I had intended to say to the shopkeeper.

Every customer who comes to the store to spend money is tantamount to entrusting us, the operators of these coffee shops, to take care of the good time they should enjoy in the coffee shop. They know that your coffee shop is not necessarily the best. But it must be at a specific time and place, and they think it is the most suitable for them. This kind of suitability includes the impression of their arrival on the way they come. The products and services you enjoy, and the price you finally pay.

Pursue and find these suitability!

Source: allaboutcoffee's blog