For all participants in the instant food industry, how can they achieve counter-trend growth amid market challenges such as product homogenization, channel diversification, and slowing industry growth? How can they provide more suitable products and marketing promotions for different channels?

At the 112th Sugar and Wine Fair, Akuan Food, which shouted "Don't eat instant noodles, eat Hongyou Mianpi" , offered new thinking: providing more targeted products and marketing for different channels and consumer groups to achieve both brand and sales effectiveness, and to lead category growth.

"Don't eat instant noodles, eat Hongyou Mianpi" – Akuan Food's slogan Echoes throughout the instant food industry

"Don't eat instant noodles, eat Hongyou Mianpi." This slogan proposed by Akuan Food at the Sugar and Wine Fair resounded throughout the venue and echoed across the entire instant food industry.

As Akuan Food's main hero product, the Akuan Hongyou Mianpi series has created a brand-new instant food category, restoring the regional flavor of Sichuan. It features non-fried, no-cook preparation, and chewy wide noodles, significantly distinguishing it from traditional instant noodles in terms of convenience, flavor, form, and production process.

After all, in the entire instant food industry, most products are made with frying processes. However, under the trend of "three controls" (oil, sugar, and salt control), oil control has become an important indicator for consumers when purchasing products. The emergence of non-fried processes not only expands the company's existing product line but also, under the health trend, better matches consumers' demand for "eating well and eating quality," with a clear trend effect.

In other words, upgraded consumer demand is forcing industry innovation, and the combination of "adding" and "subtracting" is driving the instant food industry into a new era of nutritious, delicious, low-oil, and low-fat products.

Under such consumer demand, Akuan Food leads category development with technological innovation, adopting self-developed processes to overcome challenges such as long rehydration time, high water temperature requirements, and hard and crispy texture in non-fried instant foods, promoting quality upgrades and achieving a technological leap from "Made in China" to "Created in China."

This is the confidence behind Akuan Food's bold claim of "Don't eat instant noodles, eat Hongyou Mianpi." It encompasses Akuan Food's product development philosophy centered on consumer demand and category innovation, and it is also a powerful statement of Akuan Food's brand image reshaping.

"New Instant Food Species" Shines Potato Mash Noodles: The Best-Selling Product Eaten into Existence by Consumers

The slogan "Don't eat instant noodles, eat Hongyou Mianpi" represents not only the hero product Hongyou Mianpi but also Akuan Food's diverse and innovative product matrix.

In addition to Hongyou Mianpi, Akuan Food has also innovatively launched another hundred-million-level product. In October 2023, the new product Potato Mash Noodles sold out 100,000 cups within two hours of its debut, and sales exceeded 10 million in the first month. As of November 2024, the Mash Noodles series (including Pea Mash and Mash Noodles) has accumulated shipments of over 200 million. Its excellent market performance also earned it the title of "Akuan Potato Mash Noodles: National Online Sales No.1 for 2023-2024."

At the Sugar and Wine Fair, Akuan Potato Mash Noodles also received widespread praise from distributors and channel partners across the country: "It's sticky and gooey; this kind of product is very popular with young people. It's not just a different flavor; it's different from other products in terms of eating method and form."

Why are Akuan Potato Mash Noodles so popular among consumers?

1. Precise consumer insight: Meeting the needs of "carbohydrate happiness" and "comfort food"

The success of Akuan Potato Mash Noodles first stems from a deep insight into young consumer groups.

In the offline dining market, potato mash mixed noodles and mixed rice noodles are not new. In cities like Chengdu and Changsha, many sticky and gooey foods have appeared and become popular with the help of mukbang (eating shows).

Akuan Food's R&D team went deep into more than ten cities across the country and surveyed nearly a hundred stores, including chain restaurant brands and roadside stalls.

After multiple investigations, Akuan Food found that the "double carbohydrate happiness" of potato mash mixed rice noodles and mixed noodles is an important reason why young consumers love them. As a highly comforting choice, "carbohydrate foods" have become a "cure" for many people to cope with stress, not only filling young people's stomachs but also providing emotional healing and satisfaction.

With a broad consumer base and a gap in the instant food track, Akuan Food, holding a large amount of first-hand research data, began intensive product development.

2. Benchmark effect: Expanding from core platforms to all channels

Douyin is a paradise for mukbang, and many offline noodle and rice noodle restaurants have also joined Douyin Local Life. Douyin is also the gathering place for the core consumer group of Akuan Potato Mash Noodles. Therefore, Akuan Food's core channel strategy is to use Douyin, a platform with strong communication power, as the launch pad for new products.

When Akuan Potato Mash Noodles became popular on Douyin, Akuan Food followed up on other platforms and retail channels, gradually increasing the distribution of Potato Mash Noodles. Through this benchmark effect, not only is the resistance to entering other channels reduced, but the brand's bargaining power with channel partners is also greatly enhanced.

During the omnichannel expansion, Akuan Food also constantly pays attention to consumer feedback and iterates on products, successively launching flavors such as Tan Tan Sauerkraut, Tomato, and Turkey, providing diverse choices for consumers with different taste preferences.

Multiple Products Showcased Meeting the Diverse Needs of Young Consumer Groups

At this Sugar and Wine Fair, Akuan Food also brought many distinctive and popular products. These rich and diverse products together weave Akuan Food's product line, meeting the taste preferences of different consumers and greatly enhancing the brand's market competitiveness.

In addition to making efforts in the "noodle" track, Akuan Food also maintains industry-leading technology and competitiveness in the "rice noodle" category. Examples include popular products like "One Root Fen Haozi" and "Fresh Rice Noodle Hot and Sour Rice Noodles."

Hot and Sour Rice Noodles: Definitely Eat Fresh Rice Noodles

Akuan Food has been continuously exploring and innovating in rice noodle cake technology. The original fresh wet rice noodle freshness-locking process distinguishes it from traditional extruded rice noodles and crystal rice noodles, disrupting the industry, and this process is applied to Fresh Rice Noodle Hot and Sour Rice Noodles.

Fresh Rice Noodle Hot and Sour Rice Noodles combine the intangible cultural heritage of traditional hand-made rice noodle techniques, going through 12 meticulous processes including raw material selection, washing, grinding, filtering, settling, starching, and noodle making. It perfectly replicates the freshly cooked taste of hot and sour rice noodles from offline restaurants.

Compared with ordinary instant hot and sour rice noodles, Jinli Ancient Street Fresh Rice Noodle Hot and Sour Rice Noodles have a thicker noodle body of 2mm, making them smoother and chewier when slurped.

A Single Root Nearly Half a Meter Long: Fen Haozi Triggers Online Challenges

Akuan Food has also created the highly distinctive "One Root Fen Haozi" , which is a leader in its subcategory!

Young people are challenging themselves to slurp down an entire 45+cm Fen Haozi in one go. The product is suitable for various scenarios such as staying up late watching dramas, gaming in dormitories, and working overtime to satisfy cravings. Content platforms are seeing rising popularity, with total short video views exceeding 100 million!

The 0-fat potato noodle strips offer a sticky and chewy texture, paired with special Sichuan-style chili oil and authentic sweet soy sauce, with rich sauce coating the entire Fen Haozi – extra long, extra saucy, extra fragrant!

Online, many consumers have spontaneously initiated the "Slurp Down a Whole Fen Haozi in One Go" challenge, and various ways of eating Fen Haozi have proven the product's communication and marketing power.

Through interesting eating methods and consumption scenarios, it breaks the stereotypical perception of instant food, bringing freshness and differentiation to consumers. This not only proves the product's market potential but also highlights Akuan Food's strength in innovative R&D and brand promotion.

Pioneering the Healthy Instant Food Track

Recently, "Weight Management Year" has become a hot topic of national concern. The National Health Commission issued the "Weight Management Guidance Principles (2024 Edition)" to guide citizens in scientific weight loss.

Akuan Food, as early as 2023, took the lead in launching the konjac vertical instant food brand – Mo Xiaobao. In 2024, the annual sales of Akuan's konjac instant food series approached 100 million yuan.

Akuan Food combines the perception of konjac as chewy and rich in dietary fiber with categories that have more diverse consumption scenarios and product forms that consumers prefer, creating products such as Konjac Cold Noodles, Konjac Cold Skin Noodles, and Konjac Buckwheat Cold Noodles. These products satisfy people's pursuit of deliciousness while also adhering to the concept of healthy eating, perfectly aligning with the current health and nutrition innovation direction of the instant food track.

Akuan Food's konjac series products have also repeatedly ranked No.1 on multiple Douyin category charts.

Having good products requires good policies. At the Sugar and Wine Fair, we learned that Akuan Food will continue to strengthen communication and cooperation with distributors, enhance support, and aim to establish closer partnerships to jointly explore the market.

By providing preferential policies and incentive measures, Akuan Food hopes to attract more high-quality distributors to join, jointly promoting the rapid distribution and market expansion of Akuan Food products.

Leading the Instant Food Industry with Innovation Consumer Insight – Product Innovation – Category Innovation

In today's fast-paced life, instant food products have become the first choice for many consumers. However, many instant food brands in the market often fall into homogeneous competition and lack innovation.

After Akuan Food used the non-fried hero product Hongyou Mianpi to break into the traditional instant noodle market, it has continuously launched distinctive and healthy instant food products with its deep exploration of regional culinary flavors and strong R&D capabilities, successfully leading the industry's development.

"Don't eat instant noodles, eat Hongyou Mianpi" is not just a purchase reason provided to consumers; it is also a manifestation of Akuan Food's more than 20 years of innovative development, and a high-level summary of Akuan Food's promotion of industry development through category innovation.

We have reason to believe that as consumers pay increasing attention to healthy eating and demand diverse instant food products, Akuan Food will continue to be driven by category innovation, continuously launching more innovative products, leading new industry trends, injecting new vitality into the instant food industry, and bringing better-tasting products to consumers.