The most coveted market in the beverage industry is undoubtedly the foodservice channel. With massive crowds, perfectly matched scenarios, and high-frequency consumption, foodservice has always been a fiercely contested battleground for beverage brands. But when it comes to rising from foodservice and growing into a national beverage brand, one name cannot be overlooked: JDB. Throughout JDB's creation of the herbal tea category and its miracle of promoting herbal tea from a corner of Lingnan to the national market, marketing innovation in the foodservice channel has played a crucial role. Spicy hot pot paired with the slogan 'Afraid of getting heaty? Drink JDB' has been deeply etched in the minds of foodies, becoming a classic example of scene marketing. Today, the classic continues, and innovation keeps advancing. Since July, JDB has partnered with multiple TV stations nationwide to launch a series of food exploration activities themed 'No Spice, No Life, JDB@U', such as 'JDB 2022 Chongqing Hot Pot Competition' and 'JDB 2022 Zhejiang Delicious Late-Night Snack Season'. Through activities like visiting famous restaurants, influencer live streams, and scanning QR codes for prizes, JDB herbal tea has further become the beverage of choice for foodies enjoying crayfish, hot pot, barbecue, and other delicacies. 01

Foodservice: The Stronghold of Scene Marketing

There's a saying in the beverage industry: 'Those who win foodservice win the world.' With 'food' and 'beverage' together, it's called 'foodservice.' From cola, Sprite, and orange juice to various fruit juices, sodas, and herbal teas, consumers have more choices than ever in restaurants, and competition among beverages is intensifying. Why do all beverages place such importance on the foodservice channel? Besides the sheer size of foodservice, an important reason is that the foodservice channel is a natural communication scene, transaction scene, and consumption scene—'three scenes in one.' This is crucial because communication, purchase, and consumption are often fragmented, and sometimes the buyer and consumer are not the same person, which not only increases marketing complexity but also makes it difficult to evaluate the effectiveness of marketing activities. The 'three scenes in one' of the foodservice channel means that scene marketing in foodservice can concentrate efforts to break through, forming a closed loop from communication to transaction to consumption, generating a huge multiplier effect. This is why JDB was able to break out from the foodservice channel and go national. It's also why JDB has always placed such importance on foodservice channel marketing. However, doing scene marketing well in the foodservice channel is not easy. Many products quickly gain traction in foodservice, but few become long-lasting national brands. JDB is indeed a rare case worth studying and learning from. 02

Product: A Solution for Users

When mentioning JDB, the first thing that comes to mind is 'Afraid of getting heaty? Drink JDB.' Many think it's just an advertising slogan, but behind it lies profound marketing insight—when we talk about a product, what are we really talking about? Essentially, a product is a solution to meet user needs in a specific scenario! For example, Ford said: When you ask consumers what they need, they say they need a faster horse. What does that mean? Consumers' real need is to get from point A to point B faster. When you provide a better solution—a car—their need shifts from a horse to a car. Back to JDB. At family gatherings, friend dinners, indulging in food with steam rising, people inevitably need drinks while enjoying their meal, but what exactly to drink? If it's just about quenching thirst and tasting good, many products are solutions. But JDB keenly observed that while enjoying food, consumers also worry about getting heaty. The slogan 'Afraid of getting heaty? Drink JDB' turned a latent need into an explicit demand. What's more impressive is that JDB, through innovative marketing models, seamlessly integrated its product into real foodservice scenarios, allowing consumers to smoothly accept the psychological perception that spicy food and JDB are the best match through immersive experiences. Its terminal visualization in the foodservice channel goes down to every table. When consumers enter a restaurant, themed banners, roll-up banners, LED screens, and fully stocked JDB displays catch their eyes; after sitting down, napkins, toothpick holders, along with promotions like 'Scan the code for treasures,' make JDB visible and accessible everywhere, creating a full-scene, immersive communication effect that ultimately makes 'Afraid of getting heaty? Drink JDB' perceptible, resonant, and implanted in the mind. 03

Continuous Iteration and Localized Innovation

This is the logic behind JDB's scene marketing. But this only explains why JDB could break through in the foodservice channel, grow from small to large, and create the herbal tea category; it doesn't explain why it grew from strong to stronger, becoming a national kingpin brand and continuously leading the development of the herbal tea category. Perhaps we can get a glimpse from the series of marketing activities JDB has launched this summer. Since July, JDB has partnered with multiple TV stations nationwide to launch a series of food exploration activities themed 'No Spice, No Life, JDB@U'. For example, the JDB 2022 Chongqing Hot Pot Competition featured anchor teams, spicy celebrities, visits to famous restaurants, cross-screen interaction, and scan-to-win prizes, giving consumers plenty of excitement! The JDB 2022 Spicy Fresh Hunan Crayfish Season saw Mango TV's new-generation hosts and highly attractive local food explorers lead foodies in search of late-night delicacies—spicy crayfish. There are also activities like 'Fujian Late-Night Snack Season,' 'Shanxi Barbecue Heroes Gathering,' and 'Zhejiang Delicious Late-Night Snack Season,' all unfolding vigorously across the country. From these activities, we can see that JDB's scene marketing is not original but co-created by multiple parties. Stores provide scenes and customer flow support for themed interactions, and JDB partners with TV stations to invite consumers to explore restaurants, uncovering the deliciousness and stories behind the food. This is actually about binding and synergizing brand, media, consumption scenes, and consumers, bringing young consumers into the scene experience in ways they like. Moreover, JDB can iterate continuously by observing consumption trends while inheriting its legacy. According to the '2017 Food Consumption Report' released by the China Cuisine Association, consumers' primary basis for ordering is taste preference (32.7%), with spicy (including mala and sour-spicy) leading at 27.6%. According to Meituan-Dianping data, among consumers' favorite tastes, spicy and fresh occupy the top two, with spicy accounting for as high as 41.8%. Spiciness has become the greatest common denominator in Chinese diets and is gradually becoming the 'national taste.' JDB, having observed this consumption trend, uses 'No Spice, No Life, JDB@U' as its core theme, integrating JDB into consumers' full-scene experience of 'eating, drinking, having fun, and enjoying life,' which not only resonates with the broadest consumer base but also reinforces the positioning of 'Afraid of getting heaty? Drink JDB' in consumers' minds. In addition, JDB's scene marketing, while having commonalities, also reflects local food cultures through localized innovation. China is vast, and dietary habits vary greatly across regions. In the scorching summer, the foods that attract consumers most are crayfish, hot pot, barbecue... But since specific scenes vary by region, JDB's innovative scene marketing not only fully showcases different regional food cultures but also, through the perfect fit between JDB and spicy food, promotes the recovery and development of the foodservice industry in the post-pandemic era.

Final Thoughts:

In the FMCG industry, creating a hit product is easy, but building a brand is hard. How can a product stand out among consumers' many choices and even become a long-lasting brand deeply rooted in people's hearts? This is a question that many companies deeply engaged in the foodservice channel must answer. JDB's success is, of course, the result of multiple factors, but its long-term commitment to the catering economy, its insight into consumer needs with the slogan 'Afraid of getting heaty? Drink JDB,' its collaborative co-creation, its observation of consumption trends, and its continuous iteration and localized innovation—these experiences may offer inspiration to industry companies.