In 2020, innocent, a UK-born internet-famous juice brand, was brought to China by Coca-Cola. Raising the banner of health with 'no additives except fruit', this juice brand, known for its 'freshly squeezed whole fruit' selling point, was once regarded as a formidable 'new force' in the domestic juice market. However, within just four years, the once high-profile 'star player' has quietly retreated. Online, its official stores on Taobao and JD.com have closed one after another; offline, innocent products can no longer be found in supermarkets or convenience stores. After March this year, with the end of innocent's foodservice business with Starbucks China, it signaled that this juice brand, once popular in Europe, has officially concluded its 'China journey'. From being highly anticipated to a hasty exit, why did innocent ultimately fail? Distinctive Marketing, Popular Overseas Before entering the Chinese market, innocent was already one of the largest juice brands in Europe, sold in 23 countries including the UK, France, Germany, Denmark, Switzerland, Belgium, and Sweden. The reason innocent became popular across Europe, besides its excellent products, was its legendary marketing tactics. As a brand born in the UK, innocent noticed that due to the cold, long winters and heating issues, many elderly people in the UK died each winter from cold-related illnesses. Therefore, since 2003, innocent launched a fundraising campaign called The Big Knit: each year, it collected small knitted woolen hats that could fit on juice bottle caps, then sold the juice with the hats on, donating 25p from each bottle sold to Age UK, a British charity for the elderly, to improve their heating conditions. Because the hats were hand-knitted by volunteers, each one was unique, and the innocent juice with hats became very popular as soon as it hit the shelves. Over time, knitting enthusiasts participating in the campaign expanded from the UK to the whole of Europe. Meanwhile, the little woolen hats on the caps gradually became a highly symbolic brand asset for innocent, helping to build the brand's reputation. In 2009, beverage giant Coca-Cola noticed innocent and invested £30 million for about 20% of the shares. In 2010, it added another £65 million investment, increasing its stake to 58%. By 2013, Coca-Cola fully acquired innocent, bringing it completely under its wing. With Coca-Cola's support, innocent experienced rapid growth. By 2019, innocent's annual sales had exceeded RMB 4.3 billion. In fact, before entering the Chinese market, innocent was already somewhat famous. On social media platforms like Xiaohongshu, many people would ask others to buy innocent drinks on their behalf, or even spend heavily to collect the little hats from innocent bottles, creating a collecting craze similar to stamp collecting or blind boxes. Therefore, unlike brands that invest heavily in marketing when first entering China to make consumers aware of them, innocent started with its own 'traffic' in the Chinese market, entering with the 'internet-famous' label. In 2022, the head of innocent's China region said in an interview that since entering the Chinese market in 2020, innocent had seen 3-4 times growth every year. The head also predicted that in 2022 and the coming years, innocent would maintain a doubling of performance annually in China, with average growth of 2-4 times per year. Crowded Fruit and Vegetable Juice Market Why did innocent, with its 'perfect start', ultimately 'lose the battle'? According to the '2023-2029 China Fruit and Vegetable Juice Beverage Market Deep Survey and Market Demand Forecast Report', the overall scale of China's fruit and vegetable juice beverage market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 8.5% over the next five years, with the industry scale reaching RMB 147.52 billion in 2023. It is expected that by 2027, the total industry scale will exceed RMB 204 billion. From the overall industry scale, the fruit and vegetable juice beverage market is not small, but when focusing on the sub-segments, the situation is completely different. Currently, juice market product types can be divided into fruit-flavored drinks, juice drinks, FC juice, NFC juice, and HPP juice, with market size decreasing in that order. The segment where innocent, which emphasizes health and naturalness, is located is NFC juice, which ranks second from the bottom in market size. Although fruit and vegetable juices are moving away from the old 'sugar + water' image, and NFC juice is a dark horse category in the structural upgrade of the juice market, it is undeniable that the NFC juice market is still in its introductory phase. Especially, with insufficient market share, the NFC juice track has already seen various players, including traditional giants in the juice industry like Nongfu Spring and Huiyuan, as well as many new brands and forces. Perhaps, for Coca-Cola behind innocent, rather than investing relatively limited resources in a not-yet-mature track to help a new brand break through fierce competition, it would prefer to continue investing in its brands that have a more stable position and higher brand maturity in China, such as its largest juice brand in China, Minute Maid. Although innocent has now retreated from the Chinese market, its growth momentum in China was not bad, but compared to Minute Maid, the overall scale was too small. Perhaps in the future, as the market share of NFC juice continues to rise, innocent may make a comeback. From August 20-22, 2024, the '2024 6th China FMCG Conference' with the theme 'Crossing the Shrinking Era', along with the '3rd China FMCG Hard Discount Conference' and the '3rd China FMCG Distributor Conference', will be grandly held in Shanghai. At this conference, all roles in the FMCG industry chain will gather, allowing you to see industry trends at a glance, understand hot track trends, penetrate industry resources, and precisely connect with leading brand manufacturers, top retail platforms, and excellent large distributors with over 100 million in sales nationwide, providing you with precise decision-making, efficient cooperation opportunities, and on-site learning of exclusive methodologies from FMCG giants! With keynote speeches, roundtable dialogues, report interpretations, closed-door salons, and networking dinners, this thousand-person event is sure to have something for you!