To survive and thrive in the competitive pre-made food market, 'Tongue Hero' still has a long way to go.
"It's too salty!"
Xia Yu tasted the broth of the Buddha Jumps Over the Wall and said to her family beside her.
This was an order she placed on the 'Tongue Hero' app, which included Buddha Jumps Over the Wall and several home-style dishes she and her family usually enjoy.
Xia Yu said that this purchase was not for convenience but because pre-made food is currently hot, and 'Tongue Hero' advertisements had reached the elevator lobby. She wanted to try the merchant's claim of "making a chef-level dish in three minutes."
But unexpectedly, from the time-consuming process of thawing and unpacking, to finding the bean sprout vegetable pack already browned when placed on the cutting board, to the portion size when plated, she was somewhat disappointed.
From its inception to now, 'Tongue Hero' has been full of appeal and topicality, whether due to the founder's personal history or the replication of the "one trick works everywhere" internet business model.
However, some pre-made food products have given consumers a poor experience.
Those who can cook won't buy, and those who can't cook can't cook
"After entering the kitchen, I realized that this pre-made food, touted as 'be a chef in three minutes,' is not simple to prepare."
Xia Yu, who rarely cooks, found herself at a loss even with just one dish, the pickled pepper beef, bought from 'Tongue Hero.'
This pickled pepper beef originally cost 44 yuan, but with a discount, it was 30.8 yuan.
For 30.8 yuan, one could buy about 400 grams of fresh Inner Mongolia beef at Yonghui Superstores. 'Tongue Hero's' pickled pepper beef contains 150g of frozen beef (origin unknown), 120g of water-preserved tribute vegetable, 60g of pickled sauce, and a pack of scallion, ginger, and garlic.
Following the cooking tutorial on the app, Xia Yu first had to thaw the frozen beef, then pour out the water from the bag after thawing, slice the beef, and then rinse it again with clean water.
Next, she opened the water-preserved tribute vegetable, drained it, rinsed it, and drained it again. Because there was no established food safety guarantee, she also rinsed the scallion, ginger, and garlic pack before feeling reassured.
Then, following the tutorial's instruction to "heat oil in a pan, 30g," she had no idea what 30g meant, so she searched online and used about a small spoonful.
After the oil was hot, she added the beef. The tutorial said to stir-fry for 2-5 minutes. She timed it with her watch and added the scallion, ginger, garlic, and tribute vegetable at about five minutes, stir-fried for about a minute, then added the sauce pack and stir-fried for 30 seconds before serving.
Throughout the process, she held her phone in her left hand to time it and a spatula in her right hand to stir.
It was a hectic operation.
"Being a chef in three minutes is simply a fantasy," Xia Yu said. From thawing the beef for half an hour to washing the vegetables and then cooking, it took over an hour, and for someone like her who doesn't usually cook, it wasn't easy.
Of course, with a thawing tool, the thawing time could be significantly reduced.
But for those who can't cook, preparing pre-made food isn't much simpler than buying ingredients and cooking from scratch.
As for the Buddha Jumps Over the Wall, whose broth tasted overly salty, Xia Yu added a bottle of mineral water and some noodles, turning it into a bowl of seafood noodles.
It's worth noting that when Xia Yu read the ingredient list, aside from various additives, the pickled pepper sauce in this dish used genetically modified rapeseed oil.
In the eyes of Xia Yu's mother, a lifelong homemaker, this choice by young people is hard to understand. If you're going to cook, why not buy fresh ingredients at the supermarket? They're healthy, nutritious, and more plentiful, and importantly, they don't take much more time than these frozen products.
She said that over time, everyone develops their own cooking habits and secret recipes. For example, for this stir-fried beef, she always adds two rock sugar pieces to "enhance freshness," then adds the corresponding seasonings and ingredients.
"If young people want to heat oil and be a chef, the first step is to choose fresh, healthy, and affordable ingredients. As for cooking steps, they can ask their parents, whose experience includes 'mom's taste,' or use apps like recipe collections and Douguo for detailed tutorials on various dishes. Why choose these ingredients that aren't cheap and aren't fresh?"
For Xia Yu's mother, who is sixty years old, the kitchen is a place for "meticulous work," requiring patience. Eating is about health and nutrition. If you lose the essential value of ingredients just for speed, what's the point of eating that dish?
This is also what she can't understand about young people choosing such quick-cook dishes.
Becoming more like the refrigerated section of supermarkets or convenience store freezers?
"Now I feel that 'Tongue Hero' is becoming more like the refrigerated section of supermarkets or the freezers of convenience stores."
Some netizens say that the categories shown on the 'Tongue Hero' app have increased compared to before, but most are items that need refrigeration or freezing. However, compared to supermarkets, the choices are far fewer.
According to observations by Lingshou, compared to before, 'Tongue Hero' now distinguishes between quick-cook dishes, ready-to-heat dishes, and pre-made ingredients, with categories expanded to include rice and noodle staples, breakfast snacks, and hot pot ingredients.
Among them, the triangular rice balls that sell well in convenience stores also appear in 'Tongue Hero's' "lazy meal" breakfast snacks. This "teriyaki chicken triangular rice ball" originally costs 5.6 yuan, discounted to 3.9 yuan, while Beijing Bianlifeng's original price is 3.5 yuan. The frozen vegetable cornmeal bun, 600g, originally costs 16 yuan, discounted to 11.2 yuan, while at Bianlifeng, where staff need to heat it before taking away, it's 3 yuan each. Three buns, about 600g, would cost 9 yuan, which is 2.2 yuan cheaper than 'Tongue Hero's' discounted price.
For low-margin catering businesses, profit margins are not large, and 'Tongue Hero' is still using the internet model of burning money on subsidies and promotions. Many in-store consumers say, "Because it's still in the discount period, the 9.9 yuan dishes are quite cost-effective, so I'm willing to buy. But if prices are adjusted later, I probably won't consider it."
It's clear that customer retention is currently stuck at the stage of users taking advantage of deals.
Additionally, on the 'Tongue Hero' app, it can be seen that most of its current products are ready-to-cook foods. The ready-to-eat and ready-to-heat "lazy meals" are from common brands like Synear and CP, while hot pot ingredients mainly come from Anjoy.
Lingshou learned that 'Tongue Hero' currently does not have its own production base. Apart from the products with displayed brands, the rest mainly come from OEM factories.
Compared to peers also making pre-made food, some have already started building their own raw material bases.
Regarding 'Tongue Hero's' operations, industry views say it is very similar to Guoquan Shihui, a hot pot ingredients chain originating from Zhengzhou. The difference between the two is that hot pot and cooking dishes differ in simplicity, which also imposes different requirements on ingredients.
Although the 'Tongue Hero' team has the advantage of internet model tactics, it still faces intense competition in the pre-made food industry.
Meituan, Dingdong Maicai, Hema, Yonghui, and other supermarket and e-commerce companies, as well as catering companies represented by Haidilao, are all making deep inroads, which puts 'Tongue Hero' at a disadvantage in terms of brand recognition and user base.
In terms of delivery, 'Tongue Hero' stores have three modes: same-day pickup, same-day delivery, and next-day delivery after ordering through the app. Due to reliance on cold chain transportation, the delivery radius is quite limited.
Same-day delivery is only available to users within three kilometers. The store arranges courier delivery on the same day, with a delivery fee of 8 yuan. Consumers beyond three kilometers need to order before 7 PM, as the store closes at 8 PM, and SF Express will deliver to the designated location the next day, with a delivery fee of 15 yuan.
Compared to "Meituan Maicai, which offers free delivery for orders over 15 yuan and operates from 6 AM to 11 PM," the difference is significant.
Delivery is also a major source of consumer complaints. Additionally, profitability is questionable, and the risks brought by 'Tongue Hero's' franchise model are uncontrollable, making it the least favored in the industry.
There will always be people who want to turn 10,000 yuan into 1 million yuan
Amid the pandemic, the pre-made food market has indeed shown significant growth.
According to data from iiMedia Research, the market size of China's pre-made food in 2021 is estimated at 345.9 billion yuan, and it is expected to maintain a high growth rate of about 20%.
Therefore, this track has attracted considerable attention from the venture capital and capital markets.
In December last year, the 'Shejian Gongfang' project was officially launched, focusing on pre-made and quick-cook dishes, and announced a rapid expansion model of "franchise only, no direct stores," later renamed 'Tongue Hero.'
Correspondingly, the number of stores in Beijing has grown from 2 in January to 28 shown on the app, including 4 about to open. That's an average of 6.5 stores per month, which is not slow.
It is reported that since its launch, 'Tongue Hero' has signed 6,000 franchise stores within three months and raised a total of 1.6 billion yuan in financing.
As for 'Tongue Hero's' layout strategy, it's still a replication of the internet model formula: burning money on marketing and fission promotion in the early stage. For example, large-scale advertising on social media platforms and elevator lobbies, and distributing coupons in community groups, are all tactics once used by Luckin Coffee.
This time, 'Tongue Hero's' strategy is more aggressive, choosing the franchise route from the start.
"Low franchise threshold, no profit sharing, and rewards for recruiting people" are 'Tongue Hero's' new marketing strategies.
Additionally, according to the partner plan published on the 'Tongue Hero' app, there are five store types, with the smallest requiring only about 10 square meters and a minimum investment of 30,000 yuan. Its promotional materials claim that if dishes are not discounted, the gross margin can reach 50%. The two smallest store types can break even by selling an average of ten orders per day.
With the pre-made food track still hot and strong marketing momentum, people dreaming of turning 10,000 yuan into 1 million yuan have enabled 'Tongue Hero' to expand rapidly in a short time.
In other words, without much capital investment, 'Tongue Hero' can achieve large-scale expansion.
However, large-scale franchising can easily bring instability and puts higher demands on the company's operational and supply chain capabilities.
Moreover, consumer awareness of pre-made food in the C-end market is still in the cultivation stage and not yet mature. And currently, 'Tongue Hero' has not truly created a hit product or solved users' pain points.
At present, on one hand, there is skepticism within the industry about the "specialty store" development model for pre-made food; on the other hand, this store type faces fierce competition from fresh food e-commerce platforms, food delivery, and supermarkets.
To survive and thrive in the cracks, 'Tongue Hero' still has a long way to go. (Original work by Lingshou Media)
Source: Lingshou (ID: lingshouke)
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