With the heat unbearable, you're spoiled for choice at the convenience store: sparkling water vs. cold-brew tea, Hydra vs. Veedo—can't tell them apart? When did so many new stars appear in the beverage world? It's time to get you up to speed!

1. The masterminds behind new drinks are still old hands You may have noticed that in the past two years, traditional beverage giant cola has been somewhat shunned, and more and more new faces have appeared in convenience store coolers. However, look closely at the labels on these dazzling new bottles: Master Kong, Huiyuan, Nongfu Spring... it's still the familiar taste. Suddenly, like a spring breeze overnight, everyone has switched to new plays. Huiyuan, which has focused on juice for 30 years, is now producing sports drinks, and Master Kong is no longer relying solely on ice tea to make its presence felt. Uni-President is probably the most enthusiastic beverage manufacturer in China when it comes to new drinks, releasing new products non-stop. The hits you've tried, like Xiao Ming Tong Xue and Sea Whisper, are all from them. Last year, these two products brought Uni-President revenue of 2.5 billion RMB. With the help of new drinks, Uni-President's beverage business profit also reached 1.105 billion RMB last year, a surge of 57.4% compared to 2014. You might even see some unconventional styles in the cooler: For example, Tongrentang and Golden Throat, brands previously only seen in pharmacies, have launched tea drinks. In this era of health craze, pharmaceutical companies can't resist crossing over to make herbal drinks for you.

2. From affordable to light luxury, there's one for everyone Shiyejun examined more than 20 popular new drinks from the past two years and found a wide price range: from Master Kong's Sea Salt Lemon at under 3 yuan to a wave of light luxury bottles at 10 yuan each. Is such a big difference just arbitrary pricing? After segmenting categories, Shiyejun noticed that the price distribution of new drinks follows a pattern: Ready-to-drink coffee and fruit/vegetable juices generally have higher prices, followed by flavored teas, and finally flavored water—at around 4 yuan, only half the price of coffee.

3. Selling so expensive, how do you rate the style? Those daring to sell at 10 yuan a bottle, to make you feel it's worth it, naturally need to upgrade the quality of ingredients: For example, Yaha HEY and Longdu Coffee both claim to use high-quality Arabica coffee beans. This type of coffee bean, grown in low-temperature, high-altitude areas, is already the mainstream raw material for coffee drinks, and is planted in places like Sichuan. But Yaha HEY and Longdu Coffee emphasize their "Colombian 1200-meter mountain" origin, as if only this can convince people of the pure taste of the coffee. Similarly, Assam Little Milk Tea, with its selling points of "South African rooibos tea + Australian frozen milk + Indonesian coconut milk," also takes the high-end route of imported ingredients.

4. The "healthy" label can make you pay more Besides emphasizing the noble pedigree of ingredients, "health" is also a reason new drinks use to convince you to pay, especially evident in high-priced fruit/vegetable juice drinks. Wei Shi Ke, priced at 10 yuan, is positioned as "100% fruit and vegetable juice." Looking at its ingredients, it's a mix of concentrated fruit and vegetable juices with water, containing no artificial flavors, preservatives, or colors. There are also those who go further on this path: In cities like Beijing and Shanghai, a batch of cold-pressed hydraulic vegetable and fruit juices with a "light fasting" posture have emerged. Because they are not made from concentrated juice with water, they have shorter shelf lives and higher prices. HeyJuice, invested by Angelababy, averages 30 yuan per bottle, and Veggie Clear is as high as 50 yuan, but still plenty of white-collar workers are chasing them. Another trend is that coconut water, which is hugely popular abroad, has begun to enter the Chinese market. Unlike coconut milk made from coconut meat with added flavors, coconut water is more natural and light in taste. In 2014, the American coconut water brand Vita Coco was acquired 25% by Huabin Group, the operator of Red Bull in China, and introduced to China at a price of 10 yuan. Last year, its sales in China reached 100 million yuan. In May this year, Coca-Cola began selling coconut water Zico on its Tmall official store, clearly to compete with Vita Coco. It's not hard to imagine that once Chinese consumers fully embrace coconut water, the global annual sales of such products, which were $400 million in 2014, will grow significantly.

5. Flavor mixing disrupts the traditional beverage industry The global health trend has made carbonated drinks somewhat less favored, but proud consumers are not just vegetarians. Thus, flavored water and flavored tea, which are healthier than carbonated drinks and tastier than water, quickly rose to prominence. Unlike the consumption upgrade trend of high-end and health, flavored water and flavored tea, which belong to the low-price camp, focus on taste innovation. For example, Xiao Ming Tong Xue mixes fruit flavors and bubbles into cold-brew tea; Shui Qu Duo, a flavored water, has a yogurt taste; and tea-coffee's "black tea + coffee" is unheard of... Flavors, bubbles, sea salt, coffee, black tea... they are no longer exclusive to a specific subcategory, but creative elements for developing novel tastes in beverages: even if you don't drink carbonated drinks, you can still get exciting sweet tastes from these flavored new drinks. It has been proven that the flavored water market, which is innovative and relatively affordable, is still large. According to the Curiosity Daily report, from January to July last year, FamilyMart's flavored water grew 20% year-on-year, accounting for 15% of overall beverage sales. Also, according to beverage consulting firm Zenith International, the global flavored water market is expected to grow from 7.5 billion liters to 10 billion liters between 2015 and 2021.

6. The hit new drinks are full of tricks to please you According to Alibaba big data, the typical user interested in online shopping for beverage categories like fruit/vegetable juice, coconut water, sparkling water, and ready-to-drink coffee looks like this (you're not one of them, right?): These new drinks, from product conception, marketing, to channels, are all racking their brains to cater to the typical consumer group of new drinks—young female white-collar workers in big cities. For example, Uni-President's Smoothie ICE and Nestlé's Coffee Mousse use young people's desire to try new things: shake the chilled bottle, juice turns into smoothie, coffee turns into mousse. Also, you may have noticed that the high-value packaging of new drinks is very appealing: Tilatu fruit tea's warm illustration style, Assam Little Milk Tea's fresh little green bottle... Xiao Ming Tong Xue, with its cute big face, won the Oscar of product packaging design—the Pentawards Gold Award—last year. That's not enough; brands also bring in your long-legged idols: Uni-President Orange PLUS Lemon is endorsed by the new national husband Song Joong-ki, and Nongfu Spring's Tea π became the first Chinese brand endorsed by the popular boy band BIGBANG... With such sincerity, it's hard not to be a hit! And it doesn't stop there; even in promotion channels, these beverage manufacturers are full of tricks: For example, Uni-President first launched Shui Qu Duo in Shanghai FamilyMart in April this year; in June, Nestlé's Coffee Mousse was first put on shelves in convenience stores in key cities... -END- The best learning platform for FMCG distributors in China Focusing on providing professional, practical, and actionable tutorials for enterprises and distributors Committed to helping Chinese FMCG distributors grow rapidly The most professional and practical knowledge base in the FMCG industry Reply with the red number below to get the corresponding content Reply with number 1 to view the complete knowledge base | 001 Excellent article selection | 002 Distributor market operation | 003 Terminal visit management | 004 Sales supervisor skills | 005 Sales improvement techniques | 006 Channel expansion | 007 Managing distributors | 008 Distributor development | 009 Distributor internal operations management | 010 Team management | 011 Efficient distribution techniques | 012 Sales manager's eighteen skills | 013 KA operation methods and strategies | 014 First lesson for new salespeople | 015 Internet, brands | 016 Distributor B2B transformation | [Long press QR code to follow]