Beverages as Gifts: It's Not About Store Penetration, It's About Winning Hearts!

In the future, gift-giving consumption will become a significant strategic opportunity for beverage products, and the era of leveraging gift-giving consumption to drive the market and establish market position is quietly arriving. Under the new competitive landscape, beverage brands will encounter new development opportunities. Facing these opportunities, whether enterprises can seize the chance to build their brands and establish brand discourse power becomes the primary consideration.

The Value of Beverage Gift-Giving Consumption and Brand Appeal

Many marketing professionals believe that beverage gift-giving consumption occurs only after a product becomes a bestseller, but this is not the case.

Consumers engage in gift-giving consumption based on the product's gift-giving value, not its popularity. For example, Giant Group's two major products: First, Golden Wine (Huangjinjiu), which was positioned from the start as a "health-preserving baijiu for elders," distinguishing it from medicinal liquor. Golden Wine uses the value of its ingredients to express its health benefits, reflecting its gift-giving value. At the same time, based on its positioning as "not a medicinal liquor, but a beverage liquor," it advocates good taste. Second, Nao Baijin (Brain Platinum), launched based on the physical manifestation of aging brain function in the elderly, targeting the need for "brain health and improved sleep." From the outset, it targeted the consumer psychology of elderly people who are reluctant to buy good things for themselves but hope others will give them gifts, leading to the "gift-giving consumption" positioning. This gave rise to the clever advertising slogan, "This holiday, no gifts; if you receive gifts, it's Nao Baijin," and the success of Nao Baijin today.

Similarly, for beverages, whether consumers give beverages as gifts depends on whether the product's value is recognized and whether the product inherently possesses gift-giving value. The misunderstanding that beverage gift-giving consumption only occurs after a product becomes a bestseller arises because using beverages as gifts is not yet widespread, and consumer attention to beverage gift-giving is lower compared to other products. As beverage gift-giving consumption matures, it will eventually create a new landscape in the beverage gift market.

Since "beverage gift-giving consumption" stems from the affirmation of a product's gift-giving value, to successfully establish brand discourse power, one must also consider the product's value perspective.

Considering Brand Discourse Power from a Product Value Perspective

Research has found that for beverage gift-giving consumption, consumers tend to categorize beverages into two types: those with nutritional value and those without. Although both have their claimed functional values, consumers prefer this distinction based on the product's ingredients.

Nutritional value examples include milk for strengthening the body and walnuts for brain health, with representative brands like Yili and Six Walnuts. Products without nutritional value but with accepted functionality include herbal tea for preventing heatiness and vitamin drinks for energy, with representative brands like Wong Lo Kat and Red Bull. Overall, consumers tend to prefer products with nutritional value when choosing gifts.

Of course, the market position a product occupies is usually determined by whether the product's value is easily perceived by consumers. For example, Lulu Apricot Kernel Milk, because the value of apricot kernels is not widely recognized by consumers, and the value Lulu claims, "moisturizing," is difficult for consumers to perceive. In contrast, Wong Lo Kat's claim of "preventing heatiness" is easier for consumers to perceive, making it more suitable for gift-giving.

Considering Brand Discourse Power from a Cultural Perspective

Whether a product's benefit points meet consumer needs is the most fundamental requirement. However, many products' benefit points do not directly align with gift-giving consumption, so many brands consider cultural angles for holiday promotions. For example, leveraging the association between brand names and culture: Wong Lo Kat's "Ji" (auspicious) connects to festive occasions and auspicious years, creating a "Ji" culture; Six Walnuts' "Liu" (six) connects to "liu liu da shun" (smooth sailing), creating a "Shun" culture.

In contrast, Red Bull's holiday associations are relatively weaker. From "Drink Red Bull in the Year of the Ox, I'm the Best" in 2009 to "Red Bull Has Energy, New Year Everywhere Exciting" in 2011, it seems Red Bull abandoned the "Ox" culture. In essence, Red Bull could deepen its brand culture, creating its own "Ox" culture—like "ox spirit soaring" or "simply awesome"—to achieve promotional goals. Similarly, Lulu's "Gathering Happiness" concept is not directly linked to the brand name, and the concept feels forced, failing to evoke direct associations in consumers.

Additionally, although products like cola cannot meet gift-giving needs due to their packaging and product nature, they have leveraged brand culture to gain an excellent advantage in occasion-based consumption. Coca-Cola, since entering the Chinese market, has aligned with Chinese culture. The image of golden boys and jade girls holding Coke bottles to celebrate the New Year directly resonates emotionally with Chinese consumers. Similarly, Coca-Cola has launched different packaging with culturally distinctive patterns to appeal to consumers, such as gift bottles and nickname bottles.

Since the beverage gift market is heating up, and there are no products specifically targeting gift-giving consumption—only products with inherent value that leverage holidays and Chinese culture for promotions—the "first mover" has yet to appear. This clearly indicates that the beverage gift market is not yet mature. Once the market develops to a certain extent and a company becomes the first to seize the opportunity, more gold diggers will enter the beverage gift market.

How to Establish Brand Discourse Power

To find a foothold in the "beverage gift market" and establish brand discourse power, one must first explore the consumption behaviors, habits, and occasions of beverage gift-givers to identify their true needs. Then, transform those needs into a compelling message.

Crafting a Heart-Winning Message. This can be approached from two angles: from a positive rational appeal to find the purchase reason and gift recipient, and from an emotional appeal to associate with good culture and a strong image.

A Good Purchase Reason. Insight into consumer psychology is essential for uncovering purchase reasons. Especially for beverage products, a good purchase reason often cannot be a strong functional claim. Consumers find it hard to accept strong functional claims for beverages (except functional drinks), such as "fear of heatiness" or "frequent brain use." One is a problem, the other a state; the emphasis is on consumer psychology, which can target the gift recipient. The buyer is not necessarily the user, especially in gift-giving. Therefore, appeals targeting the gift recipient are crucial. In the competitive landscape, targeting specific groups is effective, such as "for elders" with Golden Wine.

Associating with Good Culture. Using the brand name to directly associate with culture is very important. For example, "Drink Wong Lo Kat, Have an Auspicious New Year" effectively combines the character "Ji" with Chinese culture to convey value. Some brands cannot find a way through their brand names, but they should not force wordplay; instead, they should explore other avenues.

Creating a Strong Image. Using a powerful image to represent the brand and evoke emotional associations in consumers is appropriate. "China's Herbal Tea, Heqizheng" and "Haier, Made in China" both establish a strong image from the "China" angle. Of course, Heqizheng's brand implementation makes it difficult to align with the "China" image.

It must be recognized that without rational appeals providing consumers with purchase reasons, relying solely on emotional appeals cannot successfully build a brand; in competition, it will eventually be squeezed out by competitors. Only when consumers clearly see that the purchase reason aligns with their needs can a brand break through in competition. Emotional appeals, in the brand-building process, can polish and activate the brand; the two complement each other to successfully establish brand discourse power.

Establishing an Easily Recognizable Visual Identity. A product must establish an easily recognizable visual identity to be more easily remembered by consumers. An easily recognizable visual identity can be achieved through: 1) unique colors; 2) unique shapes; 3) unique patterns.

In the gift market, because Chinese people prefer red, red-packaged products have more promotional advantages. Products with other color packaging do not have this advantage, such as Pepsi's "Dare to Be China Red." The promotional approach of using "red" to appeal to Chinese pride is essentially a way of thinking.

Finding the Right Product Format. In addition to a heart-winning message and an easily recognizable visual identity, a suitable product format is also necessary. After years of development in the beverage market, three consumption forms have their own prominent formats. Immediate consumption is typically dominated by bottled products, as the screw-cap design is convenient for carrying and storage while satisfying immediate drinking needs. Occasion-based consumption can be divided into home consumption and special occasion consumption; occasion-based consumption is more evident in shareable and boxed formats. For special occasions like hotels and restaurants, canned products have found a sales breakthrough, and due to the closed nature of these channels, competition is fierce. In the gift market, boxed and canned products have relatively obvious advantages, while bottled products have clear shortcomings.

Operational Execution Tests Enterprises. Of course, to establish brand discourse power, the product is the core issue. Once the strategic direction of the product is clear, other aspects of the 4Ps, such as price, channel, and promotion, must also be adjusted accordingly.

In terms of price, it should be positioned within the price range consumers accept in the industry environment and based on the gift recipient. For example, current consumer psychology starts from the gift recipient. Beverage gifts are usually for visiting relatives and friends or for leaders; consumers often seek prestige, while for relatives and friends, they seek value. A case of beverages priced below 100 yuan meets the acceptable price range for ordinary people giving gifts to relatives and friends.

In terms of channel, design channel structures that facilitate consumer purchase and ensure products reach gift-giving consumption endpoints. For example, shops near communities and numerous small retail outlets satisfy the convenience of purchasing and directly giving gifts.

In terms of promotion, plan market promotion activities with a rhythm and schedule. At the same time, it is necessary to form a set of promotional activities that align with the enterprise's own characteristics and are distinctive from competitors.

These important strategic alignments test the enterprise's operational execution capabilities. Every detail matters; for example, pressing dealers to stock up before holidays to control their capital and thereby attack competitors' tactics is also crucial.

A brand without the right to speak is not a good brand, and a brand that speaks without authority is also not a good brand. Only by starting from the strategic thinking of "discourse power" and adapting to the competitive environment of the industry can a brand be truly established. Competition in the beverage gift consumption market will intensify, and products courageously developed for the gift market will emerge at such a time and break through.

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Reposted from "JDB Training"

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