Brand Marketing Expert and Restaurant Crisis Management Expert Li Lichan: There Are Reasons Why Inner Mongolia Beef and Mutton Have Not Produced Major Brands

What are the key factors for breaking through in the branding of Inner Mongolia beef and mutton?

On March 25th, the 2026 China Catering Industry Festival and the 35th HCC Global Catering Industry Expo were held at the Hangzhou Convention and Exhibition Center, jointly organized by the World Chinese Restaurant Industry Federation and Hongcan.com. During the “2026 China Food Ingredient Development Forum,” panelist Li Lichan, an expert in brand marketing and restaurant crisis management, shared her insights.

△Brand Marketing and Restaurant Crisis Management Expert Li Lichan

Li Lichan stated that a good brand has a solid foundation, which is the supply chain, ensuring the brand’s sustainable development and endurance. Therefore, a safe, stable, consistently high-quality, and competitively strong supply chain or ingredients are core competitive advantages for a brand’s growth.

Taking Little Sheep as an example, she mentioned that a plate of meat and a pot of soup were the brand’s core strengths. It was these two flagship products that made Little Sheep popular across the country. The meat in Little Sheep’s dishes comes from six-month-old lambs from the Xilin Gol grassland, and the soup uses a secret hotpot base.

In Li Lichan’s view, regardless of whether a company has 10, 50, or 100 stores, the construction of the supply chain must follow a step-by-step, sequential growth process. For restaurant brands, the supply chain is the solid foundation for the company’s growth.

Additionally, Li Lichan shared a phenomenon worth pondering: why has Inner Mongolia beef and mutton never truly developed into major brands?

Li Lichan pointed out that Inner Mongolia’s beef and mutton account for the largest proportion and contribution in China. However, as raw ingredients from Inner Mongolia, beef and mutton have not established recognizable brands, and many people cannot name any true brands.

She explained that for civilian use, Inner Mongolia beef faces significant competition from imported beef, which has more price advantages over locally sourced beef. The cost of raising cattle in Inner Mongolia is very high, with roughly half grass-fed and half grain-fed. In contrast, most imported beef is entirely grain-fed.

As for mutton, Inner Mongolia has many different types with strong regional characteristics, making it difficult to develop large brands. It is more suitable for niche, culturally rich brands.

Furthermore, Inner Mongolia lags behind in market front-end services and engagement with restaurant businesses, compared to Central China and the South.

These multiple factors have contributed to Inner Mongolia beef and mutton not developing into major brands.

Li Lichan hopes that in the future, high-quality beef and mutton from Inner Mongolia can break out of the region and form deep collaborations with top-tier restaurant brands, truly branding them, enhancing their premium value, and creating culturally rich brands.

“If ingredients are only exported as raw materials, they can only be sold at raw material prices. But once transformed into culturally meaningful, soulful, and story-rich food products, their added value is completely different,” Li Lichan said.

Finally, she emphasized that restaurant and supply chain companies are not just client and supplier, but a community of interests and shared destiny. Only by working together with a win-win mindset can they achieve long-term stability and sustainable development.