Whether it is due to internal reasons such as the aging and curing of the enterprise itself, or external reasons such as customers' aesthetic fatigue, decreased freshness, and changes in the general environment. Enterprises should discover or create the 1st, 2nd...nth growth curve that can make the enterprise prosperous in a timely manner at the critical moment in the life cycle or growth process. Otherwise, no matter how brilliant an enterprise may be, it may decline and even decline.
For franchise and chain operation companies, although some companies may skip several stages, in general, successful companies may go through the following stages or key nodes of continuous upgrading and overall circulation, that is, the first stage The core strategy of n growth curves.
To sum up, a long-lasting company may experience the following nine growth curves in sequence or in a jumping order:
1. Burst point
During the start-up period, a successful enterprise will definitely have a flashpoint, which can be in any aspect such as product, environment, service, and culture. As long as you are good enough, unique, or even just rely on a small innovation, you may be out of the circle quickly.
For example, Perfect Diary relies on the concept of replacing big brands, HEYTEA relies on the combination of real milk, real tea and real fruits, Haidilao relies on thoughtful service, Banu relies on the product of Maodu, and Naixue’s tea imitates Starbucks The third space was shouted, and the tea Yanyuese and Hutou Bureau played the national style card, and so on. The explosion of these companies in the start-up period will even affect consumers' cognition for many years.
If the businesses are really similar, you can also create a unique perception or flashpoint. For example, both are casual snacks, the three squirrels emphasize the first nut category, BESTORE emphasizes high-end, Laiyifen emphasizes freshness, Xiaogao chestnuts focus on the chestnut category, and so on.
But no matter what, the tipping point will become your first growth curve.
2. Chain operation
With the explosion point of the previous stage, you will be imitated or even surpassed by more companies without surprise, and you need to find the next growth curve.
For outlets (which can be physical storefronts in the traditional concept, or virtual online stores, branches, etc.), scale is one of the best options to quickly occupy the market, form preconceived barriers, and reduce supply chain costs. . And the business model of the chain operation has undoubtedly become your second growth curve.
However, at this time, most companies will choose direct sales for a variety of reasons. For example, he has been hurt by joining, fear of leaking secrets, raising the weight of negotiating with capital, wanting to earn early market dividends alone, not knowing about franchising, fear of losing control of joining, etc.
3. Franchising
After the development of direct-operated chains in the previous stage reached a certain scale, the disadvantages of direct-operated sales began to emerge rapidly, such as heavy assets, slow expansion, high operating risks, and difficulty in motivating and managing employees from different places.
At this time, franchising, known as one of the most mainstream business models in the 21st century and in the future, has reached the C position on the market stage.
In most industries, almost all leading companies have adopted the franchise business model, such as 7-ELEVEn and 36524 in the field of convenience stores, Michelle Bingcheng in the field of new tea, Juewei in the field of lo-mei, and Hailanzhi in the field of clothing. Huazhu in the home and hotel field, Shuyu Mining in the pharmacy field, etc., are all leaders in the franchise field.
Those companies that originally insisted on direct sales and better control have also abandoned the direct sales model and vigorously expanded the franchise model when faced with competitors who clearly have an overwhelming advantage after adopting the franchise strategy, such as Zhou Hei Ya and Laoxiang Chicken.
4. To enter the country
Due to various reasons such as logistics restrictions in different places, difficulty in localization, changes in the competitive environment, lack of strategies and tactics, and difficulty in standardization, many companies will always linger or focus on the doorstep of their homes, concentrating on operating their own provinces and cities or several nearby provinces and cities, etc. small area.
However, even regionally chained princes and kings will definitely be threatened in today's globalized market. The reason is very simple. Of course, you don't have to go out, but powerful enemies from outside will definitely enter your territory. Therefore, in order to survive, live better, and be tempted by a larger external market, regional chain enterprises will eventually rush out of the local or region with limited market and development ceiling, and instead spread their vision and chain outlets across the country.
For example, after struggling for a long time and being unfavorable in the surrounding market, they finally decided to enter Chongqing, Nanjing and more provinces and cities; the convenience stores that used to be divided into local regions and slicing were all eager to dominate the world. .
5. Diversity
With the gradual expansion of the scale of the enterprise, the enterprise will naturally extend upstream and downstream, for example, it will be interested in the fields of raw material supply, personnel training, processing and manufacturing, logistics and distribution.
Because companies spend too much money in these areas every year, they may not be able to guarantee quality, quantity, timeliness, and price stability. At the same time, in the face of numerous consumers, thousands of stores and other existing downstream resources, companies have to think about how to further "squeeze out" comprehensive resource operations from the fundamentals of depth and breadth.
So, inspired by thinking like SPA, enterprises began to implement diversification relying on the industrial chain.
Of course, in order to diversify more orderly, safely, successfully, comprehensively and systematically, enterprises will take the "Weihua Four-Dimensional Whole Industry Chain Platform Model" as one of the guiding principles of diversification at this point. According to this model, you can easily, accurately and scientifically select your diversified fields, steps, types, etc.
6. Multimarket
When an enterprise goes through the previous stages and basically becomes a "group" rather than a simple chain enterprise, the market as the main business or the start-up business may already be in a state of fierce competition.
At this time, enterprises should work hard on multiple markets, open up new market segments in the main business or the market field where they started, or take food from competitors. The specific means are mostly based on market segmentation standards or elements of consumer portraits For breakthroughs, such as price, gender, income, occupation, age, etc.
In this way, HEYTEA and Naixue will cut prices to grab the mid-end market. Huazhu simply covers everything from economy to ultra-luxury hotels, Anta enters skiing, outdoor and other fields, Semir enters children's clothing, Li Ning enters fashion shoes, Sephora They began to focus on the men's skin care market other than women, Wal-Mart entered the membership warehouse supermarket, and so on.
7. Multi-brand
With the gradual deepening and expansion of diversification and multi-market strategies, enterprises realize that they need to establish different brands. At least such benefits include avoiding aesthetic fatigue, preventing brand aging, and attracting new main consumer groups, such as Generation Z.
In fact, don't say that the established strategy is multi-brand Anta, even Li Ning, who claims and insists on a single-brand strategy, has obviously loosened its single-brand strategy, such as establishing its own high-end brand LINING 1990 and acquiring Baoshi. Dragons, Clarks, etc.
Of course, even if the demarcation line between different brands is not very clear, there are even some overlaps and blurring, but this does not affect the persistent pursuit of multiple brands. For example, Chow Tai Fook has made eight or nine new brands.
8. Going overseas
In the same way, when the domestic market has a ceiling or excessive involution, the huge overseas market will naturally become a new continent for companies to compete for food.
Facts have proved that more and more local Chinese enterprises have begun to enter overseas on a large scale. Even before the domestic market is full, they have begun to lay out their own chain networks with a global perspective when they first started. Many local Chinese chain companies such as Bubble Mart, New Tea Drinks, and MINISO have made remarkable achievements or at least useful explorations and attempts in international operations.
Of course, it must be repeated: franchising is one of the best ways for a business to operate internationally.
9. Crossover: the beginning of the next growth curve cycle
When an enterprise achieves the above-mentioned growth curve, the enterprise should have a considerable amount of human, financial, material and other resources. Even if the previous market is not aging, the enterprise can or should open up a new battlefield. At this time, the so-called crossover, that is, companies entering other fields, may reopen a new cycle of growth curves.
Therefore, Chow Tai Fook Jewelry began to enter real estate, Watsons boss Li Ka-shing will be involved in many industries such as oil, real estate, retail, port, telecommunications, Tong Ren Tang will open a coffee shop, Uniqlo will open a flower shop, China Post will open a milk tea shop, and Michelle Ice City will open a convenience store. store, Hebei 365 Group opened a large mall, and so on.
Finally, it should be noted that companies may skip levels when they discover or create the nine growth curves mentioned above. But in any case, when you are in the middle and late stages of the previous growth curve, you have to plan ahead for the next growth curve, as is the case with the so-called "eating from the bowl and looking at the pot".
In addition, the cycle of the above-mentioned nine nodes of the growth curve itself is also constantly circulating and endless.
As long as you can understand, learn, master and practically apply the nine-step cycle model of Weihua's growth curve, then a century-old enterprise is no longer just a dream, but a reality that happens to your enterprise.
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