---
title: "Can Dongpeng Special Drink, After Price Slashing, Make Big Waves?"
description: "Dongpeng Special Drink's canned product has been on the market for a year and a half, with its retail price reduced from 5 yuan to 3.5 yuan. Recently, a beverage distributor tipped off Information Times that the canned Dongpeng Special Drink, originally priced at 5-6 yuan, has been reduced to 3.5 yuan. The company confirmed the news, stating it is a proactive response to competition. Industry insiders note that the domestic functional beverage market is becoming increasingly crowded with new entrants and copycat products, while Red Bull, priced around 5 yuan, still holds a dominant position, making it difficult for competitors to challenge. Dongpeng's price cut is seen as a wise move."
author: "刘芳"
publisher: "New Distribution"
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published: "2018-08-17"
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# Can Dongpeng Special Drink, After Price Slashing, Make Big Waves?

> Dongpeng Special Drink's canned product has been on the market for a year and a half, with its retail price reduced from 5 yuan to 3.5 yuan. Recently, a beverage distributor tipped off Information Times that the canned Dongpeng Special Drink, originally priced at 5-6 yuan, has been reduced to 3.5 yuan. The company confirmed the news, stating it is a proactive response to competition. Industry insiders note that the domestic functional beverage market is becoming increasingly crowded with new entrants and copycat products, while Red Bull, priced around 5 yuan, still holds a dominant position, making it difficult for competitors to challenge. Dongpeng's price cut is seen as a wise move.

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**Dongpeng Special Drink's canned product has been on the market for a year and a half, with its retail price reduced from 5 yuan to 3.5 yuan.**
Recently, a beverage distributor tipped off Information Times that the canned Dongpeng Special Drink, originally priced at 5-6 yuan, has been reduced to 3.5 yuan. The reporter contacted the company and confirmed the news. Dongpeng responded that this is a proactive response to competition and part of the company's product optimization. Industry insiders say that in recent years, the number of companies entering the domestic functional beverage market has been increasing, and copycat products are emerging one after another. In addition, Red Bull, priced at around 5 yuan, still firmly holds the leading position, making it difficult for competing products to shake its dominance. At this time, Dongpeng Special Drink's decision to lower prices is also a relatively wise move.
**1. Investigation: Canned products basically reduced to 3.5 yuan**
In response to the distributor's tip, the reporter saw on major e-commerce platforms that the price of canned Dongpeng Special Drink has basically dropped to around 3.5 yuan. For example, on Tmall Supermarket, a 24-can pack of 250ml Dongpeng Special Drink costs only 84 yuan, with each can priced at 3.5 yuan. On JD.com's Dongpeng Beverage official flagship store, the advertisement "Gold can only 2.99 yuan/can" is prominently displayed on the store's homepage, with a 24-can pack of 250ml Dongpeng Special Drink priced as low as 71.9 yuan, averaging less than 3 yuan per can.
The reporter learned that at the National Sugar and Wine Fair in March last year, Dongpeng Special Drink launched its gold can product, with a retail price of 5-6 yuan, comparable to Red Bull. In a supermarket in Huangpu District, the reporter still saw canned Dongpeng Special Drink priced at 5 yuan. A supermarket manager said that the company's beverage turnover period is three months, so if the company recently took price reduction measures, the terminal would not show it so quickly; the current pricing is still the previous one.
Regarding the price reduction of canned Dongpeng Special Drink, the reporter randomly interviewed several consumers in the supermarket, and most citizens said they were not aware of the price cut. "I've bought bottled Dongpeng Special Drink before, but at the same price, I would still choose Red Bull because it feels more authentic," a citizen surnamed Lin, who was choosing functional beverages, told the reporter. "A price cut is certainly good news for consumers, and I would choose to buy it if needed in the future."
The reporter also confirmed the price reduction news from Dongpeng. "Currently, only the gold can 250ml has its retail guide price adjusted from 5 yuan to 3.5 yuan," said a Dongpeng Special Drink spokesperson, but explained that this is not a price reduction of the original product, "but a new gold can launched in August."
**2. Response: Adjusting prices to cope with industry competition**
Dongpeng stated that this price reduction is a proactive response to competition. "As everyone knows, the industry leader Red Bull is embroiled in trademark disputes, launched Zhanma, and quickly drove new product development with promotions like 'One Yuan Enjoy'. Thailand's TCP is about to launch Red Bull Angei, a product highly similar to Red Bull. At that time, the collision of the two 'Red Bulls' in the market will inevitably trigger a price war in canned functional beverages. Rather than being passive then, it's better to proactively adjust prices to meet the challenge and reprice canned functional beverages," the Dongpeng Special Drink spokesperson responded.
In addition, Dongpeng Special Drink also stated that since the end of last year, many copycat products have flooded the functional beverage market, many of which are of low quality and imitative, engaging in heavy price promotions to confuse consumers. The price cut is a measure to block inferior and counterfeit brands. The company has also adjusted the packaging materials for cans, replacing them with a more environmentally friendly material, optimized logistics to reduce costs, and adopted a more flattened channel.
**3. Experts: Previous product positioning did not match the market**
Zhu Danpeng, a Chinese food industry analyst, believes that Dongpeng Special Drink has always sold well in third- and fourth-tier markets, and the positioning of canned products priced at 5-6 yuan clearly does not match the market. "This market cannot accept such high prices," Zhu said. At the same time, against Red Bull, which is priced similarly, canned Dongpeng Special Drink does not have obvious advantages. It is reported that when Dongpeng Special Drink first launched its canned product, it was widely considered by the industry to be targeting Red Bull. However, Red Bull's position in the domestic functional beverage market has never been shaken.
According to Nielsen data from January 2017 to February 2018, in the domestic functional beverage market, Red Bull holds a 59% market share; followed by Lehu with 11%; Dongpeng Special Drink and Zhongwo each hold 9%. "The entire Chinese functional beverage market is still a hot cake, but it is actually very difficult for companies to rashly try to grab Red Bull's market share," Zhu said.
Beverage brand planner Chen Wei believes that competition in the domestic functional beverage market is increasing, and counterfeit products are rampant. Dongpeng Special Drink's price cut for its gold can product is also a wise choice. "Generally speaking, price reductions for old products involve compensation and coordination of channel distributor interests, which is complicated. But price reductions for new products that have just been on the market for a short time can not only increase sales but also segment the market, which is a win-win situation for the company, distributors, and consumers."
**4. Industry Observation:**
**The functional beverage market is hot, but brand cultivation still takes time**
The functional beverage market has expanded significantly in recent years and has continued to grow rapidly this year. Zhu Danpeng said that in 2018, China's functional beverage retail sales will exceed 45 billion yuan. In the next five years, the functional beverage market is expected to have a compound annual growth rate of over 12%. Behind the hot market, the performance of new entrants seems lackluster.
Zhu told the reporter that in the functional beverage field, Carabao has also lost a lot in the past year or two, and Monster has had poor sales for three years, only improving last year after selling over 200 million yuan. Relevant data shows that in 2017, Carabao sold about 100 million cans, but this still falls short of its sales plan of 170 million cans in China. Carabao's first-quarter 2018 report shows that from January to March this year, Carabao's sales revenue in the Chinese market was only about 58 million yuan.
In addition, Monster's performance in the Chinese market is also not ideal. Monster Beverage's second-quarter results show that global net sales for the quarter were $1.02 billion, up 12% year-on-year, but losses in China and India had an adverse impact on its operating income. In the future, Monster will launch a new product called "Monster Ultra" in China, and in 2019, it will further expand the scale of this new product's launch in China.
In Zhu's view, the Chinese functional beverage market needs a long process of brand consumption cultivation. "Red Bull has been on the market since 1995, and now it has been 23 years. This is a long accumulation, and the market position cannot be challenged by other companies just by launching a new functional beverage brand," Zhu said. He added that although the functional beverage market is still growing at a high rate, market competition is becoming increasingly fierce, and companies entering the industry still need to be cautious and avoid blindly following trends.
Source: Information Times
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