Click to read the original article for details Source: Chief Brand Officer (ID: pinpaimima) Food is the first necessity of the people. With the continuous rise of the domestic new consumption wave, the food industry has also been pushed to the forefront. Instant food, coffee, tea drinks, healthy snacks... Black horse brands are emerging frequently in various sub-categories. However, besides well-known new brands like Saturnbird, Zhong Xue Gao, Heytea, Wangbaobao, Wangxiaolu, Daily Dark Chocolate, Zihaiguo, Lamiandishuo, and Super Zero, Pinmei noticed that in the 4th issue of Tmall's "Tmall Food New Brand Creation Camp" list, themed around Creative New Flavors, Guochao Food, Stress-Relief Food, Happy Home Living, Quality Ingredients, Light Meals, Light Beverages, Niche Food, New Nutrition, and Fresh Food, another 100 new brands stood out and appeared in the public eye. Among these, some have already established a place in their sub-categories; some have accumulated a loyal fan base in private domains; and some have even become favorites frequently recommended by KOLs... So, with the boost of new platforms, new trends, and new demands, how did these brands seize the opportunity and quickly achieve a 0-1 growth path? Pinmei selected three themed tracks: Light Meals, Creative New Flavors, and New Nutrition, to summarize the strategies for new brands to stand out in their early stages from a practical perspective. Product is King: Big-Item Strategy with a Small Cut When starting a new brand, most people choose to enter an industry because it has huge market potential and many opportunities. But often at this time, everyone needs to clarify a reality: a large industry size means more target users, and the more target users, the more dispersed their needs, making it difficult to precisely target products. The so-called small cut focuses on highly concentrated and matched needs. On this basis, brands can leverage the advantages of big items to continuously expand their reach and attract new users. Take the light meal industry as an example. In 2013, the concept of light meals began to enter the Chinese market, and development was relatively stable during that period. It wasn't until 2020, when the world was affected by the pandemic, that the light meal industry received unprecedented attention, with rapid growth in market demand. A large number of new light meal brands emerged domestically, but due to severe product homogenization, the industry generally suffered from insufficient product strength and low brand loyalty. But why did Future 7 (Weilai Ke 7) manage to stand firm? On one hand, the brand chose the niche concept of "hardcore tech food" to enter, using differentiated positioning to capture users' mindshare in this field, while also launching the highly competitive flagship product "Xiaoqingzhuan" (Little Light Brick), gradually attracting target users. ▵ Image source: @Future 7 Here, the big item can also be understood as a hit product, which is a product with the ability to break through circles. As a painstaking work of the Hunan Agricultural University research team, "Xiaoqingzhuan" took 6 years to develop, making it highly suitable for hit product characteristics in terms of nutritional structure, taste, and form. It not only meets the low-calorie, low-fat nutritional needs of light meals but also tastes good without being greasy, solving the pain point that light meal products cannot combine health and deliciousness. ▵ Image source: @Future 7 Therefore, since its launch, "Xiaoqingzhuan" has received excellent market reputation, especially on Zhihu, where search keywords for Future 7 are mostly "full of hardcore food science," "developed by top students," "Top 1 taste in meal replacement," "good nutritional structure," etc. Under the influence of the product's high-quality reputation, the brand quickly achieved the goal of continuously breaking through circles and attracting peripheral users. So, in the same light meal industry, Keep's entry point is nutritional food specifically for sports enthusiasts. As we all know, Keep is a domestic fitness app. Leveraging its own influence, Keep Food entered from the angle of sports health food, launching products for protein supplementation, energy control, and post-exercise recovery, providing comprehensive health support for sports enthusiasts. ▵ Image source: @Keep Calorie Store Based on this awareness, those who need to manage body fat and weight and expect to participate in exercise will proactively purchase the same food to gain psychological satisfaction, allowing the product to naturally spread from Keep's fitness users to the general public. This shows that in the early stages of a new brand, the product's ability to attract users is extremely important, as it determines whether the brand can achieve user circle expansion. Value Transmission: Opening an Emotional Channel Between Brand and Users There is a consensus in the industry that when users choose a brand, they are not just buying the product but also identifying with the emotional value the brand conveys. Therefore, for brands in the 0-1 stage, besides focusing on the product's value, they must also understand the emotional orientation behind users' purchases to establish a spiritual connection and help the brand go further. Among the new brands shortlisted in Tmall's Creation Camp this time, Coconut Full (Yemanman) is a special presence. The brand's co-founder Austin mentioned that Coconut Full hopes to be a brand that does not follow trends but truly conveys a healthy lifestyle to users. Therefore, the first product launched by Coconut Full was not the familiar coconut juice but a healthy coconut light cake. ▵ Image source: @Coconut Full This cake is made with a new type of coconut baking powder, which is a high-fiber powder obtained from fresh defatted coconut meat of golden coconuts imported from Sri Lanka, ground and dried. Each cake has only 45 calories, about half the calories of an apple, making it both nutritious and healthy. ▵ Image source: @Coconut Full But after the product launch, the team found in research that nearly 70% of consumers hoped to keep the high crude fiber texture while making the cake softer and moister, achieving a melt-in-your-mouth sensation and reducing sweetness. So the Coconut Full team added coconut oil to the original formula, and through product iteration and innovation, they maximally met user needs. This behavior is actually a transmission of brand value. That is, Coconut Full hopes to craft the highest quality products for users, allowing them to feel the brand's ultimate pursuit of quality and healthy life while tasting the product. ▵ Image source: @Coconut Full It must be understood that products without emotional value cannot truly enter the hearts of young people. Conversely, users loyal to a brand are not just fans of the product but also like-minded people who identify with the same life values. It is clear that only by building a unique brand value system and emotional channel can a brand rise above product-level competition and enter a larger stage to showcase its charm. Focus on Users: Know How to Do Subtraction to Achieve Incremental Growth Chinese people emphasize that you must give up something to get something. In the early stages of a new brand, facing various user needs, brands easily fall into the trap of "everything is a priority, but nothing is truly prioritized." At this time, brands need to do subtraction. Focus attention on users' core needs. For example, to differentiate from other similar health foods, Youledao in the New Nutrition theme did not overemphasize product-level expression but started from the users' core need scenario, repeatedly reinforcing its positioning as a nutritional breakfast. ▵ Image source: @Youledao Once the brand establishes this core awareness, whenever it's time for breakfast, users will naturally pay attention to the breakfast cup product and even proactively learn about different flavors, thus forming a long-term purchase habit, helping the brand gain new growth. ▵ Image source: @Youledao Besides focusing on consumption scenarios, brands can also focus on functionality. For example, By-Health's Meirimeijia Sleep Starlight Jelly adds ingredients like GABA and collagen, targeting those who stay up late and helping them relieve fatigue. By being user-centric and maximizing focus on needs, these new brands reduce unnecessary investments in their early stages, concentrate efforts on key matters, and find the most effective way to communicate with users. Leveraging Channels: Amplify Platform Momentum and Play the Leverage Effect Nowadays, more and more new brands are co-creating with platforms. On one hand, new brands mostly launch online, making cooperation with platforms a necessary choice; on the other hand, because leading e-commerce platforms have strong resource scheduling capabilities, they can provide brands with more exposure opportunities. Data shows that the success rate of food brands launching new products with Tmall has increased by 12 times, and the development time for new products has been shortened by 75%. The undeniable platform power is emerging. In the latest "Tmall Food New Brand Creation Camp" list, most head and waist new brands have deep cooperation with Tmall, such as Coconut Full, which was shortlisted in the "Top 10 Innovative Flavors" this time. After being shortlisted in the "Tmall Food New Brand Creation Camp TOP100" in July, the brand accelerated its deep cooperation with Tmall, not only arranging seeding outside Tmall but also actively participating in various PKs and training in the Creation Camp, ultimately reaching the public. At the same time, Coconut Full also stated that during the cooperation, Tmall's industry managers would provide constructive directions in industry and category insights, guiding the brand through data to find future growth space and avoid detours. By leveraging the mature data system, rapid user feedback, and comprehensive marketing reach of e-commerce platforms, new brands can repeatedly achieve new user circle expansion and seeding. The platform's leverage effect greatly shortens the growth cycle of new brands. Final Thoughts: New Brands Accelerate Debut, Food Industry Has a Promising Future The landscape of the domestic food track has changed. In the "2021 Food and Fresh Food Consumption Trends and Business Innovation Outlook," Lin Feng, Senior Marketing Director at Kantar Insights, believes: The future food track will show trends of more diverse senses, higher-level emotions, and more dimensional emotions. Therefore, the era when leading companies had absolute market discourse power is gone forever. Now, there will be more small but beautiful diverse values. In this process, e-commerce platforms represented by Tmall play a crucial role. Since the opening of the "Tmall Food New Brand Creation Camp" in May this year, Tmall has attracted over 400 new brands to participate in the camp activities. The platform mobilizes resources from multiple channels to help new brands seed and harvest, adding not only technical and data support but also interesting creative forms to attract attention, giving these new brands the opportunity to reach more C-end users. Both the brand leaders of Future 7 and Coconut Full stated that during the brand's growth, Tmall's companionship made the brand's journey smoother. The platform's professional data support and full-process co-creation made new brands' product development more precise and growth paths clearer, providing comprehensive assistance for rapid brand growth. Although the market is ever-changing, it is foreseeable that with the co-creation of platforms and brands, the future food track in China will be even more promising. Are you "watching" me?