The annual Spring Sugar and Wine Fair concluded in the beautiful and leisurely city of Chengdu. The fair achieved remarkable results. According to official data, total transactions at this year's fair reached 23.02 billion yuan. Among them, alcohol transactions totaled 11.87 billion yuan, food and beverage transactions totaled 8.71 billion yuan, condiment transactions totaled 1.39 billion yuan, and food machinery and packaging transactions totaled 1.05 billion yuan.
What insights did this Chengdu Spring Sugar and Wine Fair give us food industry professionals? In other words, what are the trends for various product categories? I will give a rough overview here. Corrections are welcome, and even brickbats are welcome.
First, let's talk about alcohol. Alcohol is the category with the largest share at the fair every year.
Baijiu (white liquor) has a long history in China, and it is well known that Chinese people love to drink it. Someone once said that the amount of baijiu consumed by Chinese people each year is equivalent to a West Lake. The specific data cannot be verified, but it is enough to show that domestic baijiu sales are still astonishing. There are countless distilleries. In some liquor-producing provinces, almost every prefecture-level city has its own distillery. In previous years, baijiu prices soared and sales were huge. In the past two years, due to national policy influences, the baijiu industry's fortunes have turned sharply downward. Distributors of baijiu are having a harder time each year, and some have directly switched to other businesses.
At this Chengdu Sugar and Wine Fair, liquor companies were clearly looking for opportunities, and liquor distributors even more so. There were forums about liquor one after another, but there were still not many highlights for baijiu. Everyone was talking about Jiangxiaobai, which is popular online but limited to Sichuan and Chongqing offline. In fact, looking at Jiangxiaobai's sales, 50 million yuan in 2013, and according to its boss's claim of doubling each year, 2015 sales should be 200 million yuan. For the national baijiu market of 800 billion yuan, that's just a drop in the bucket. The reason it caught the attention of all the big liquor companies is because it got involved with the internet. Now all companies are confused when they hear the word internet, which is understandable.
Analyzing carefully, Jiangxiaobai follows a niche, big-single-product route and became famous overnight with the help of the internet. Our big liquor companies were used to counting money lying down in previous years, and were suddenly stunned by national policies. I believe that liquor companies should adjust their strategies in a timely manner, transitioning from the past high-end, multi-brand, multi-price-band approach to mid-to-low-end, big-brand, mid-to-low-price-band. Jiangxiaobai targets the post-80s and post-90s generations. On the one hand, their consumption level is relatively low-end; on the other hand, they have individuality. It plays personalized marketing, targeting the target consumer group with marketing techniques suitable for them. This is the strength of offline companies; it's just a matter of adding internet. Luzhou Laojiao's "Lu Xiaoer" and Langjiu's "Wai Zui Lang" easily surpassed 1 billion yuan with just a little effort, right? This is big brand, mid-to-low-end, mid-to-low-price band.
In addition to targeting the post-80s and post-90s groups, the large baijiu consumer group is still the post-50s, post-60s, and post-70s. For this group, the price range that most can accept for self-consumption should be 50-200 yuan, especially concentrated in 50-100 yuan. This price range is acceptable to those who love drinking and drink frequently. Due to the baijiu consumption education in previous years, most people have accepted the concept that higher price means better quality. So if baijiu prices are too low, consumers may find it hard to accept. Therefore, baijiu at 100 yuan for two bottles should be welcomed by consumers, and at the same time, for liquor companies, the profit margin is also acceptable. Big liquor companies should make products in this price band the focus of promotion: big brand, mid-to-low price band, and then make quality and taste up to standard. Why worry about not selling?
Beer, wine, and foreign spirits are all special cases, so I won't go into detail here. I'll discuss them individually when there's an opportunity.
Next, let's talk about beverages. Beverages are second only to baijiu in proportion.
The 600 billion yuan beverage market attracts many food companies to pounce on it. However, because beverage operations require large capital investment and the operational methods are the most difficult in the food industry, once a beverage succeeds, the company will take a big step up. If it fails or dies, the company basically collapses. Although in Chengdu, apart from a few functional beverages similar to Red Bull, there were no particularly bright beverage products, based on the beverage development trends of the past two years, light beverages will be the category to chase and fight over in the next two years. Following the success of Uni-President's Hai Zhi Yan and Coca-Cola's Aquarius, Mizone's Sui Yue, Suntory's Qin Ping Shui, Wahaha's Tou Xiao Meng, and Want Want's Qin Shi Dai have all come out one after another. It is said that Nongfu Spring will also launch a water lychee series light beverage. With so many big brands fighting in this space, it shows that light beverages are unstoppable.
For many years, tea drinks and fruit juice drinks dominated the market. Finally, a beverage category with some gimmick like light beverages has charged in, bringing a fresh breeze, but it should be followed by blood and storm. This will inevitably eliminate most, leaving one or two brands' products to dominate the market.
As for mineral water, I have to mention Ager's Changbai Ganquan. I quite admire it for a simple reason: Ager's Changbai Ganquan was launched at just the right time. Previously, various high-end mineral waters had been fighting for a long time, especially the sudden emergence of Evergrande Ice Spring, which kept the high-end water market turbulent. Ager's Changbai Ganquan was launched at this time, using clever force, borrowing what Evergrande Ice Spring bought with big money:
- Consumers all know the difference between mineral water and purified water.
- Consumers all know that Changbai Mountain water is good water.
After borrowing the east wind, they set the price of Changbai Ganquan at 3 yuan, a price that consumers can fully accept, and successfully used the concept of "the first glass of water in the morning" to guide consumption. This is undoubtedly a classic case of borrowing momentum marketing. The popularity of Changbai Ganquan at the fair site further confirmed my previous judgment about this product.
Candy, chocolate, and jelly are still a major category that cannot be ignored.
At every Sugar and Wine Fair, many candy and chocolate companies exhibit, but because big companies rarely attend, there are not many highlights to be found. Based on my many years of experience, due to changes in consumer tastes and misleading public opinion about candy, overall candy sales have been declining in the past two years. Companies have also somewhat stalled in innovating candy. After the black sugar plum candy became popular, basically no distinctive candy has come out. Distributors should still consider representing larger traditional candy brands to be safer, such as Ma Dajie, Ager, and Jinguan.
Chocolate is different. Its annual growth remains above 10%. For the domestic market, due to the withdrawal of Jindee and the acquisition of Golden Monkey, the competition in the mid-to-low-end chocolate market will be more obvious. Chocolate companies can consider first occupying these lost blank markets, then gradually entering the high-end chocolate market. The online brand Qiaoluo has done well in the mid-to-high-end chocolate market. If it enters offline, starting from mid-to-low-end and then seizing the mid-to-high-end market, it should have a good performance, especially its "poop" handmade chocolate, which is comparable to Dove's silky smoothness, with a sweet but not greasy taste, very good. Another brand of Black Diamond, "Miyu," is currently performing well in the market. Its packaging and quality are very good, making it a strong competitor in the chocolate market.
In terms of jelly, I am quite optimistic about Ager's stretch jelly and Chibi Maruko-chan's konjac seaweed jelly. The key to Ager's stretch jelly is innovation: when you put it in your mouth, it can stretch with threads, giving a real fruit texture and chewiness, just like eating real fruit. As for Chibi Maruko-chan's konjac seaweed jelly, not only is it special in shape, it doesn't bring water out when eaten, doesn't dirty hands, and also has functions like lowering blood pressure, blood lipids, blood sugar, weight loss, and promoting bowel movements.
Baking: a category with one hit product after another.
Since 2008, baking products have started to become popular, almost every one or two years or one product, and almost a product is popular for only one or two years. From Sanhui Maifeng French bread, Daliyuan bread, Panpan soft cake, Danfu waffle, Youchen meat floss cake, Gangrong steamed cake, to various brands of steamed sandwiches, a product is popular for one or two years and is quickly replaced. Because the entry barrier for baking products is low and it's easy to create hit products, baking companies have sprung up like mushrooms in recent years. Baking has also moved from long shelf life to short shelf life, but very few products can truly settle down. In the second half of last year, pocket bread came out, which should be a short-term hit product this year. However, because the product itself has the defect of easily growing mold in hot weather, it's hard to say whether there will be problems this summer. Therefore, related companies should make necessary preparations in advance.
Snack foods: this is the hottest category in the past two years.
The snack food category covers a wide range, basically a general term for what used to be called "small snacks." Products other than main meals count. Snack foods are mainly bulk goods, but also include some fixed-weight packaged products. In terms of taste, everything excluding the above categories is considered snack food.
Consumers' tastes are constantly changing. Previously, they preferred single sweet tastes, like candy, jelly, biscuits, etc. Now it's different. They like multi-flavor blends, such as salty-sweet, spicy-mala, sour-spicy, etc. Therefore, snack foods with such multi-flavor fusion are the current trend. Especially in recent years, with daily public opinion suppression, there are no national standards for latiao (spicy strips) and vegetarian meat that have been circulating in the market. Latiao, which combines salty, sweet, and spicy, makes consumers want to eat more. Vegetarian meat, which looks like meat but isn't, leaves a lingering aftertaste. Henan Youliang Biotechnology Co., Ltd. bravely took on the heavy responsibility of changing consumers' previous perception of latiao as "unhygienic and unsafe." By self-building a factory area covering 600 mu and introducing standardized automated production lines, they produced "Xiao Hua Tou" latiao and "Mai Xiao Dai" very vegetarian meat, which became an instant hit at this Sugar and Wine Fair, with on-site payments and orders coming in an endless stream. According to the company boss Lu Xin'an, "We want to produce safe and hygienic products to change everyone's bad impression of latiao. Our purpose is to make food for our families and ourselves. This is a main reason why our products are so popular. Another main reason is that they are delicious. Our marketing general manager and I spent more than eight months adjusting the taste and designing the packaging. How we treat our products is how the products will repay consumers and us."
In addition, braised products are also a highlight in snack foods. Braised products from Chaozhou, Henan, and Sichuan will all go to the national market. These products combine salty, sweet, spicy, mala, sour, and fragrant flavors, meeting consumer tastes. This is what I call the product trend. We need to see whether a product tends to conform to the consumer consumption trend. If so, such products, when operated with good marketing methods, will definitely become hits.
Mr. Chen from Ager once summarized snack foods as "four transformations": portability, instant consumption, substantiation, and constant long-term. These "four transformations" are very useful to me, and they clearly reveal the method for judging product trends. The first three are easy to understand. "Constant long-term" means normal temperature and long shelf life, which is consistent with my view on short-shelf-life products. That is to say, in the next at least ten years, products that meet these "four transformations" can be boldly operated and can be operated for a longer period without worrying about being eliminated in one or two years, because this is the product trend.
Ding Zhongwei Senior food marketing expert, engaged in food marketing and training for 20 years. He has served at Hsu Fu Chi, Golden Monkey, Ager, Jinguan, and other well-known food companies. Currently, he is the general manager of the marketing center of Shanghai Zeyun Biotechnology Co., Ltd. He is a special expert contributor to "China Candy," an expert contributor to magazines such as "Sales and Market," "Sales and Management," "Sugar, Tobacco, and Wine Weekly," and "Food Industry Science and Technology," a columnist for "First Marketing Network," and a special contributor to several self-media platforms including "Sales and Market," "Sales and Management," "Internet Plus," "Professional Management Consulting for FMCG Distributors," and "Golden Distributor." Email: devy66663@163.com
-END-
The best learning platform for FMCG distributors in China Focusing on providing professional, practical, and useful tutorials for companies and distributors Committed to helping Chinese FMCG distributors grow rapidly The most professional and practical knowledge base in the FMCG industry Reply with the red number below to get the corresponding content Reply with number 1 to view the complete knowledge base | 001 Excellent article selection | 002 Distributor market operation | 003 Terminal visit management | 004 Sales supervisor skills | 005 Sales improvement techniques | 006 Channel expansion | 007 Managing distributors | 008 Distributor development | 009 Distributor internal operations management | 010 Team management | 011 Efficient distribution techniques | 012 Sales manager's eighteen skills | 013 KA operation methods and strategies | 014 First lesson for new salespeople | 015 Internet, brand | [Long press QR code to follow]