Why did we lose so badly in front of Starbucks when we were both office cafes?

Lou Cafe, a cafe in the office building.

According to Ka sir, Starbucks has a coffee-like form in both the Empire State Building in New York and the Lenovo Building in Beijing.

However, the local caf é, which entered this space earlier than Starbucks, presents another diametrically opposite group image: they are literary and artistic, docile, have no commercial intentions, and most of them struggle on the line of survival.

Local cafe VS Starbucks Lou Cafe, what is the difference?

In October, Starbucks launched a "caf é" service for white-collar workers at the Empire State Building. 12000 staff members in the office building can place orders through a special website, and the meals ordered will be delivered to the designated office within 30 minutes.

In China, Starbucks also has a "floor coffee" for Lenovo employees at its Lenovo headquarters in Beijing. Lenovo gets a 15 per cent discount on its card and can swipe work card, which is very popular.

Apart from Starbucks, we also have "Lou Cafe" in Hong Kong, and we have entered this special market space earlier than Starbucks.

However, compared with Starbucks, the local "Lou Cafe" presents a completely different kind of group image: they are literary and artistic, docile, have no commercial intentions, and most of them struggle to survive.

Today, Mr. Ka would like to talk to you about the niche ecology of the industry.

Hard reality, damn feelings.

Sitting in my own cafe, two or three friends, a few cups of grinding, a beautiful afternoon.

This is the life ideal of many young people to run a cafe, and sir also thought about it at that time.

In addition to such ideologues as sir, there are also many doers who can do whatever they want. If it happens that there are no trenches and no commercial ambitions at that time, Lou Cafe is the most suitable choice for you.

First of all, cheap. Relative to shops, the cheap rent for office space seems to be specially prepared for you. When coffee houses sprang up in 2009, the rent for office space in Zhengzhou International Trade Building was less than 1 yuan.

Second, be quiet. In contrast to the noise on the street outside the Starbucks window, the coffee shop in the office building can hear the elegant ticking of the second hand on the wall, which is in line with the environmental aesthetics of literary and artistic youth.

Third, the cost of attracting customers is low. Drive directly to the door of the office of the target group, saving even the cost of publicity.

A gust of wind blew, but any office building with a little popularity can see the figure of the newly opened coffee house.

But most of the coffee shop operators later found that the reality is like this:

In contrast to the hustle and bustle of Starbucks, coffee shop operators can hear the ticking of seconds on the wall.

Do not earn much, there is a lot of competition, and passenger flow is a dead end.

In 2009, Abu Abu Cafe entered the International Trade Building in Zhengzhou and became a "time-honored brand" of Lou Cafe, which is the position of many literary and artistic youth.

Founder @ Xijiao Xiaowu said that positioning white-collar workers in office buildings as target customers is a bit romantic. But in China, especially in second-and third-tier cities, it is difficult for white-collar workers to support the format of Lou coffee.

Why can I buy Starbucks House Cafe?

To put it simply, the Empire State Building, as a landmark in New York, is called "real white-collar workers". They all have the habit of drinking coffee.

More importantly, they consume a cup of coffee as stress-free as you smoke a Zhongnanhai.

Passenger flow has become the Achilles heel of local cafes.

After breaking the idea of white-collar workers, there is almost no natural flow of people in the Lou Cafe hiding in high-rise buildings, and they are regular customers back and forth.

And these regular customers are slowly moving from Lou Cafe to Starbucks, Man Coffee, Costa-- at least, these fashion chains that continue to open stores have diluted customers' enthusiasm for Lou Cafe.

At the same time, ITC's office rent has risen all the way from 90 cents to 2.7 yuan, and labor costs are getting higher and higher. When you wake up every morning, you have to figure out how many cups of coffee have been sold today so that you don't lose money.

There is a "martyr" in the cafe: who still wants to be a cafe today, who beeps foolishly.

@ Xiaowu in the western suburbs sighs that if you want to make money, you really can't be a house coffee.

But the strange thing is that people keep pouring into this niche space. This phenomenon is summed up by the industry as emotional excess.

There are more than a dozen cafes in the International Trade Building where Abu Abu Cafe is located.

QR code, WiFi, weekend activities, a Wechat account that introduces you to coffee knowledge. Upstairs and downstairs, almost all the cafes have the same standard configuration, and the homogenization is serious.

The Survival Law of survivors

At present, most of the surviving Lou Cafe in the market have accumulated a loyal customer base in the early days of the market, and thus spent a long time.

They toil day after day on the way of keeping regular customers and bringing new ones with familiarity.

Otherwise, "I'm the next to fall."

circle

Circle is the soul of coffee house management. In a sense, Louka culture is the circle culture. Activities are usually an important form of business circles. But it takes a lot of hesitation to carry out any activities.

The founder of the famous Lou Cafe, who was once very popular in Wuhan, concluded at the time of the transfer: Lou Caf é must be the theme. Avoid all kinds of things, one hammer from east to west.

To target a segment of the crowd market, do sticky fan activities. "Why did CC live well before? because it was a coffee shop with the theme of HR, but after crowdfunding, there was no theme, so it was transferred in three months."

Product

The people who enter the cafe are all regular customers, and the product is so poor that it doesn't make sense.

@ Xijiao Xiaowu said that when he broke into this business with his head covered, at first he imitated Shangdao Coffee and served all kinds of products, almost messing around.

Now they have explored a mature product line with "boutique coffee" as the core.

The original coffee beans made by cola processing and the pure handmade blue box cranberry biscuits are very popular with customers.

If you don't even bother to use your mind on the product, it will take a minute for those once loyal customers to fall apart, he said.

Environment

Times have changed, and people's aesthetic appreciation of cafes is no longer dark corners, scarlet chandeliers, and whispering music.

This summer, Abu Abu Cafe has renovated its storefronts and walked in a simple and bright style:

Transform the dark cafe into a sunny room, remove the dark red sofa, and replace the wooden tables and chairs with lively culture and science. Near the window, there are more tables and chairs.

Walking into such a simple and open space, it is easy to forget that you are in an office building at an altitude of 60 meters.

E-commerce

E-commerce is becoming another lifesaver for Lou Ka.

To some extent, it makes up for the embarrassment of the cafe space and competes with other cafes. Moreover, the unique literary flavor makes it easier for Lou coffee to win consumers in online sales.

Earbags, cups, coffee beans and even coffee machines can be sold. At present, the Internet revenue has accounted for 40% of the total revenue of Abu Abu Coffee.

In addition to selling things and building online cafes, it is also a new position for cafe operators.

As always, sir put the ugly words to the end. Opening a coffee shop is a business after all. In particular, what is the most important thing for independent cafes with relatively weak brands?

Lot, lot, lot.

Therefore, if you still want to start running a cafe today, think about the words of the martyrs before making a decision.

Source: Ka Men