---
title: "2016, How Should Beverage Companies Precisely Align with Consumer Trends?"
description: "2015 was a turbulent year, with sales declining across major companies due to factors like the internet, the rise of Generation Z, consumption upgrades, product aging, and economic downturn. This article analyzes the root causes and proposes strategies for selling products online in 2016, including selling upgrades, cost-effectiveness, identity, scarcity, niche markets, word-of-mouth, and time-saving benefits."
author: "赵波  朱丹蓬"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2015-12-27"
language: "en"
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# 2016, How Should Beverage Companies Precisely Align with Consumer Trends?

> 2015 was a turbulent year, with sales declining across major companies due to factors like the internet, the rise of Generation Z, consumption upgrades, product aging, and economic downturn. This article analyzes the root causes and proposes strategies for selling products online in 2016, including selling upgrades, cost-effectiveness, identity, scarcity, niche markets, word-of-mouth, and time-saving benefits.

2015 was destined to be a turbulent year, with sales declining to varying degrees across major companies. The reasons are not limited to the following factors: the internet, the post-90s and post-00s generations, consumption upgrades, product aging, and economic downturn. The combined effect of these factors has posed a difficult challenge for the older entrepreneurs born in the 1950s and 1960s. Wahaha's new products will continue to fail one after another next year; Master Kong's products, despite packaging upgrades, cannot break through the dilemma of shrinking market share; and JDB's legal battles, no matter how lively, cannot change the industry's contraction. Even if the juice industry grows, Huiyuan has nothing to do with it. Where is the core problem? This article will take you through a thorough analysis.

Let's start with the internet:

**CNNIC data: As of June 2015, China's internet users reached 668 million, with an internet penetration rate of 48.8%. Mobile internet users reached 594 million, and rural internet users accounted for 27.9% of the total, reaching 186 million. China's internet has achieved basic popularization, and the penetration rate of online retail to offline has reached 11.7%.**

For enterprises, the internet is an unavoidable topic. In contrast, the dismal performance of major companies in 2015 can be partly attributed to the economic downturn. **However, a deeper reason is that most products currently sold by major companies were born before the popularization of mobile internet. With the spread of mobile internet, consumers' new ways of communication, entertainment, consumption, and lifestyle under the internet have become vastly different from before. There is a serious disconnect between product iteration and rapidly changing consumer demands. The selling points and appeals of once-mainstream products are being rapidly marginalized. Crucially, many companies are helpless in the face of declining sales, blaming the economy and market rather than analyzing the serious disconnect between their own brand, marketing, and strategy and the current market situation.**

**In 2016, product positioning and marketing restructuring are mandatory courses for every enterprise.**

**So, in the internet era, what should companies sell online, and how?**

Today, I am not diagnosing a specific company, nor can I. I am merely analyzing how to sell products online effectively. The selling points below are not unique to a single product; your product may possess all or none of these characteristics. However, these characteristics are core elements for selling well online.

**Sell Upgrades**

Consumption upgrade is one of the themes of 2016. Post-80s and post-90s consumers are less price-sensitive and have higher quality requirements. Low-cost, low-quality, low-price products have been completely marginalized, and many excellent products with low visibility have emerged. For mainstream companies, upgrading products while innovating quickly is a safe and steady strategy.

There are many ways to upgrade. This year, Master Kong's product upgrades followed this principle, upgrading seasoning packets and noodle cakes. Jinmailang's "One and a Half Bucket" also used this strategy to launch products more suited to its channel positioning.

For Coca-Cola, which has been around for over a century, upgrading its product formula is impossible, but by upgrading packaging and communication, it can still gain widespread consumer recognition. In recent years, from nickname bottles to lyric bottles, it has been popular and won the favor of many young people. Its strategy is to use conceptual innovation to upgrade the product in consumers' minds, making the brand more fashionable and youthful, thereby extending the product's life cycle.

**Sell Cost-Effectiveness**

Xiaomi initially had no brand; it relied on cost-effectiveness to attract a large number of users who wanted high performance but were unwilling to pay high costs. Although many phones now offer comparable cost-effectiveness, Xiaomi remains synonymous with cost-effectiveness in consumers' minds. Leveraging this, it has swept across many categories, including TVs, routers, power strips, wristbands, water purifiers, and air purifiers.

(Image: Some products sold on Xiaomi's official website)

On e-commerce platforms, many products lack brand endorsement and unique differentiation, so the only thing they can compete on is price. For consumers, price is one factor but not everything. The real core is that we want to gain more experience and service at such a price. "Cost-effectiveness" is definitely a proportional relationship; it does not mean cheap. No one forbids you from selling at high prices, as long as you can provide experiences and services that exceed user expectations, your cost-effectiveness emerges.

**Sell Identity**

Because of Lao Luo's (Luo Yonghao) sentiment, I bought his phone. Despite the phone's constant issues and the fact that many phones with higher cost-effectiveness appeared shortly after its release, I won't say it's bad because I didn't buy it for cost-effectiveness but because of Lao Luo's pursuit of sentiment and his life experiences, which made me feel the phone was worth the price. Even though Luo Pang's membership is useless, I am still willing to become a member. Even though I have switched to Kindle for reading, and the books he recommends are widely available in electronic versions online, I still can't help but buy two paper copies for collection. When you identify with a person or a thing, product premium is far more emotional than rational.

(Image: Luo Yonghao, founder of Smartisan)

There are many factors that drive consumers to make a purchase decision, but they are all based on trust in the product/brand. When your product is good and excellent but lacks visibility, the influence of opinion leaders is far more important than advertising. Master Gao's craft beer, though very niche, still has many people willing to pay for the expertise of the opinion leader because Master Gao is an expert in this field.

(Image: Gao Yan, founder of Master Gao Beer)

Crowdfunding based on communities is also a way to identify with product values. However, it should be understood that **communities based on products are unstable; it is the shared lifestyle behind the product that stabilizes the community. Communities such as mother and baby, and outdoor enthusiasts are examples. Products derived from shared values are the true crowdfunding products.**

**Sell Scarcity**

Antiques are valuable not because of their practical utility but because they are scarce, especially unique editions, which are priceless.

The price of our products today is not determined by ourselves but by the degree of market competition. Apple's hardware costs are not much higher than other Android manufacturers, yet it can sell its products at such high prices not because of superior hardware performance but because its user experience is irreplaceable. This is competitive scarcity. In today's fully competitive market, few products are truly scarce due to technological advantages, but creating conceptual and ideological scarcity is something every company can do.

For example, the recognized value of beer is freshness, but most beers have a shelf life of 6 months to 180 days. Taishan Draft Beer has reduced its shelf life to only 7 days. Because 7-day draft is the only short-shelf-life beer on the market, its price, due to the uniqueness of its producer, becomes a competitively scarce product, just like Apple.

(Image: Taishan Draft Beer)

**The price of a product is not about its value but its scarcity. When you understand this, you will understand why your product is of good quality but consumers don't buy it.**

**Sell Niche**

China has a large population, so there will always be people with strong tastes and preferences for the unusual. This group is very willing to pay for their hobbies. Previously, these people might have been too dispersed to be valuable, but internet technology extends the long tail infinitely. Because of internet connectivity, you can find and satisfy these consumers with common interests at no cost.

(Image: Kewpie Salad Dressing)

For example, Kewpie Salad Dressing has been in China for 21 years. Because its consumer base is very niche, some consumers may only have tasted it at KFC or McDonald's. However, **its sales in China reached nearly 13 billion yen in 2015!** Although niche, do you think this sales figure is small? There are countless such examples; many hidden champions in various categories are quietly making money. Market size doesn't matter; what matters is whether you can find the needs of this niche group.

**In the internet era, it is easier and more convenient to bring people with the same interests together. Don't underestimate these niche categories, because without competition, they may be a big market.**

**Sell Word-of-Mouth**

With the awakening of consumer awareness, the importance consumers place on product quality has reached an unprecedented level. **Reviews posted by friends on social media after use, and comments on professional review sites, are important factors in consumer choices.** With the internet's popularity and high information transparency, if a product is good, consumers will naturally recommend it. But if a product is only superficially good, no matter how famous the brand or how many ads, you cannot stop consumers from giving negative reviews online.

(Image: Poster of the movie "Goodbye Mr. Loser")

This is evident from the movie "Goodbye Mr. Loser." Good wine needs no bush. The brand logic has shifted from awareness → reputation → loyalty to reputation → awareness → loyalty. **In the future, products must first have word-of-mouth, then sales, rather than first advertising, then brand.**

**Sell Time**

The essence of selling time is to save users time or improve efficiency and service. Saving users time is one of the mainstream business models of the future. In today's fast-paced life with more screens, consumer attention has become a scarce commodity. Helping users save time or attracting their time has become one of the core competitive advantages for companies.

Healthy and green convenience foods, delivery services, vending machines, software, etc., are all born to save users time.

(Image: Vending machines on Japanese streets)

Why are banks afraid of Alipay? Anyone who has used bank cards for online shopping knows that the confirmation and payment processes are too troublesome and time-consuming. Alipay saves users time and solves the "trouble" that banks cannot solve. Another example: what is the biggest feeling when shopping on JD.com? It's speed! If you order in the morning, it can be delivered in a few hours at the fastest. This is one of the reasons consumers recognize it despite the siege from Taobao and Tmall.

Time passes quickly when you don't feel it's wasted, but when you feel it's wasted (waiting for payment, checkout, choices, delivery), and as consumers' time becomes more valuable, they are more willing to pay for time.

Speaking of this, I must mention the change in the concept of brand in the future internet era. What is a brand? **A brand is trust, safety, quality, face, and value. A brand is the shortest distance between a product and consumers. In the future, the importance of brand will definitely exceed the push of channels.**

**Marketing is dead, channels are undergoing qualitative changes. In future marketing, products and brands are no longer something you can just "self-pleasure" to satisfy consumers. Whether your strategy is 2P, 3P, or 4P, it cannot be separated from D Cap. 4C is the true foundation of marketing in the future internet era. The essence of selling products in the future is selling delivered value, and understanding the relationship between products and users is a lesson every marketer must learn.**


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