Many comments point to a truth: distributors' market confidence is collapsing, and their sense of security is disappearing. A very objective reality: in the past decade of linear growth, as long as channels were deep enough, with deep distribution and high terminal coverage, it was an era of easy wins. But now, the industry chain transformation triggered by the retail end is in full swing, channels have undergone major changes, and China's FMCG market as a whole has entered a shrinking market. Distributors face enormous operational pressure, with difficulty selling goods being the most prominent issue. Recently, during a market visit by New Distribution, a distributor from Guangxi, Ms. Tao, mentioned: "After the manufacturer held its distributor conference for us in February this year, they immediately adjusted their market strategy. Some products had price adjustments based on raw material costs. The manufacturer is very reliable. Although our current volume isn't large enough, cooperating with such a manufacturer gives us a great sense of security." From Ms. Tao's information, we learned that the manufacturer she referred to is Crayon Shin-chan.
Deep Insight Listening to Frontline Distributor Voices As one of the leading enterprises deeply rooted in the snack food industry for over 20 years, Crayon Shin-chan was officially listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in December 2011. Its products, including jelly pudding, candy, beverages, leisure cooked food, and instant food, cover more than 300 varieties, occupying a place in many people's snack memories. At a distributor conference this year, Crayon Shin-chan pointed out three directions: Firmly implement omni-channel operations, firmly build major products, and firmly cultivate major customers. That is: omni-channel operations, with full distribution both online and offline; further optimize products and launch strategic big single products; and win-win with distributors, cultivating regional leading distributors. Ms. Tao said that five distributor meetings have already been held this year, and each time, strategies are adjusted based on market terminal feedback, with consumers at the core. They make price adjustments to seek a balance between price and cost; they innovate products based on consumers' pursuit of cost-effectiveness and food health, and find differentiated positioning for products in different channels. The upgrade of the pudding series this time is a major strategic innovation move for Crayon Shin-chan this year. In 2024, it was repositioned as "Healthy Flavor Pudding Master," with a new slogan: "Crayon Shin-chan, Pudding Master." To further strengthen consumers' association with the Pudding Master, Crayon Shin-chan invited a French dessert master for joint research and development, launching a series of brand-new pudding products. Behind this upgrade is a clear aim at the trend of China's snack food market moving towards youth, high-end, and health. Consumers are becoming more rational and cautious in their dietary structure. Kantar Consumer Index, which monitors Chinese consumers' positive sentiment monthly, points out that in the second half of the year, this positive sentiment will remain relatively stable. Consumers no longer only pursue material success but pay more attention to physical and mental balance and health. At the same time, the demand for health extends to more segmented tracks, such as probiotic functional products, sugar-free tea, pure juice, and functional beverages, which are growing rapidly, indicating the possibility of innovation-driven growth in these tracks. Secondly, cost-effectiveness. "Cost-effectiveness" is a high-frequency word that has appeared from the past year until now. Kantar Consumer Index research found that in the fourth quarter of 2023, the proportion of high-income households valuing cost-effectiveness also increased significantly. This further reflects that today's consumers do not want to sacrifice quality but hope to buy higher-quality products at cheaper prices. In other words, cheapness is about quality on the basis of low price, while cost-effectiveness is about low price on the basis of quality. Regarding the manufacturer's pudding upgrade, Ms. Tao expressed her view: "The upgraded pudding needs time to settle. The product packaging is more standardized, details have been upgraded, and it's more convenient to carry; the spoon is placed inside the cup. The flavor upgrade adds milk components and product endorsement. There is great room for sales growth in the future. I plan to continuously carry out promotions and tasting activities."
Product Upgrade Enhancing Terminal Store Sell-through From the communication with Ms. Tao, it is clear that she is very confident about the terminal sell-through of the pudding series. When asked how to do it specifically, Ms. Tao said: "First, do image displays in stores to penetrate consumer minds; second, use promotional activities to drive sales, for example, the upcoming focus is on Children's Day and the Dragon Boat Festival, creating a festive atmosphere, and making activity entries from scenarios more natural; third, do promotional tastings, so that consumers can see it, think of it, and get it." Obviously, Ms. Tao amplifies the product's selling points and focuses her business operations on store operations. We interpret the product from three dimensions.
Enriching the Pudding Matrix, Positioning Health Attributes After this upgrade, the pudding matrix includes fresh milk pudding, steamed milk pudding, lactic acid bacteria pudding, thick coconut milk pudding, double protein pudding, ice cream pudding, and cheese pudding. Among them, fresh milk pudding uses premium imported milk powder from New Zealand, processed with pasteurization, with a rich and mellow taste, and achieves 0 added gelatin and 0 trans fatty acids; steamed milk pudding is co-developed with the French master, pioneering the steaming process, with 30% less sugar, tender and smooth, melting in the mouth. Its biggest feature is using pure and gentle steam to retain the rich milk aroma of fresh milk, requiring slow and lengthy time to achieve such silkiness, truly reflecting the taste of time and handcraft. Expanding Consumption Scenarios, Raising the Consumption Ceiling Mr. Yu Jian, General Manager of Kantar Worldpanel Greater China and a Chinese consumer and retail market expert, once suggested to companies: In 2024, out-of-home consumption scenarios are more diverse. In each scenario, consumers' preferred purchase channels and categories are different. Among the most important three out-of-home scenarios—tourism, entertainment, and shopping—there are very strong consumption opportunities. Brands must think about how to seize these new scenario opportunities and provide products that consumers are willing to spend money on, to continuously stimulate business growth. The largest explosion in out-of-home scenarios is among families with children. The upgraded pudding, with its nutritional composition and quality requirements, is more suitable for the original target groups such as children and mothers in out-of-home scenarios. At the same time, it adds high-income consumers in first- and second-tier cities, radiating to all people, raising the consumption ceiling, and expanding more consumption scenarios. French Master Professional Certification, Enhancing Value Points On the basis of meeting health and portability, taste is very important. Mr. Zhao, a distributor from Nanyang, Henan, said that Crayon Shin-chan's pudding has always had a good taste. This time, with the upgrade in ingredients, the taste is richer, with a mellow milk aroma and melts in the mouth. The key move in this upgrade is that Crayon Shin-chan invited a French dessert master for a joint collaboration. The master has 6 years of pastry teaching experience, is a medal member of the Disciples Escoffier Association, has served as a renowned dessert master in Fréjus, France, and holds BTM, CAP, MC and other prestigious certificates, known in the world of high-end dessert design. Starting from professional quality and exquisite taste, it provides a strong support point for consumer sentiment, implementing the concept of "Delicious, Happy, Instant Enjoyment." When asked why she is confident about the sell-through of this product, Ms. Tao gave four product selection logics: "First, product quality must be good; second, product price must have advantages; third, product packaging must be recognizable. Post-90s and post-00s generations place great importance on packaging, which needs continuous updates and iterations to cater to local youthful consumption; fourth, the manufacturer must develop products with a healthy development concept, as high-end consumer groups value health. When these four points are met, I am confident in taking my product operation capabilities and channel sinking to the extreme."
Category Innovation Exploring New Paths Indeed, for distributors, in the past era of linear growth, your customer was the upstream brand; in the current shrinking market, your customer is the downstream terminal store. The ability to distribute and sell through based on stores is the true core competitiveness of distributors. This capability not only needs to be built by distributors themselves, but manufacturers must also give absolute product support to distributors. As is well known, fruit jelly has always been one of the top favorite jelly categories among consumers. Its key demand point lies in the content of fruit pulp. Traditional fruit jelly is relatively simple, mostly using crushed fruit, which easily breaks after processing, lacking the development to completely preserve the shape of a whole fruit. In the highly homogeneous jelly market, Crayon Shin-chan overcame raw material technical difficulties and pioneered a whole-fruit jelly. Ms. Tao said that a whole fruit is a great selling point, especially for children, and it easily moves consumers. The special feature of this jelly is that it wraps a whole strawberry in the jelly. It selects Monterey strawberries from high-altitude mountainous areas in Yunnan, each with a diameter ≥25mm, with a 1% selection rate, meaning only 1 out of every 100 fruits is selected. It not only retains the taste of strawberries but also adds the chewy texture of jelly, satisfying consumers' pursuit of summer snacks and their psychology of novelty, fun, and gifting. At the same time, it meets the three "0" standards: 0 fat, 0 trans fatty acids, and 0 sodium cyclamate, satisfying consumers' fantasy of a whole fruit, allowing them to eat to their heart's content. In addition, Crayon Shin-chan sees the demand for convenience and comfort under the "lazy home economy" and launches a leisure braised food segment. One product is braised meat eggs, using egg sources from the golden laying period at 25 degrees north latitude, with fresh eggs delivered within 12 hours, adding nutrition to deliciousness, which can be called an industry first. Another is juicy authentic sausages, with raw materials strictly selected from large factories' fresh pork, refined from pork hind legs, with pork content over 80%, making it a pioneer in new-style meat sausages. Most notably, Crayon Shin-chan enters the "boneless" claw category track, innovatively developing "Boneless Fan" chicken feet/duck feet, using deboned whole claws, strictly selected customized large phoenix claws with tendons, refined processing, and marinated with dozens of natural spices, soaked at low temperature for 48 hours, and mixed with high-speed centrifugal seasoning technology, making the product more flavorful. The key is the highly recognizable "Boneless Fan" product visual system, establishing high terminal recognition. Ms. Tao frankly said that the leisure braised food segment was launched in April this year, and so far, they have reordered three times. How did they achieve this in just over a month? First, they distributed the goods to A-class quality stores, i.e., the best local hypermarkets in terms of location, foot traffic, and decoration, and deployed the strongest salespeople to do terminal image displays and activities in the stores. After the sell-through feedback exceeded expectations, they replicated it to B-class and C-class stores. In Ms. Tao's view, the packaging, price, and taste of "Boneless Fan" products are competitive. The food is delicious and requires no bone removal, meeting consumers' needs for convenience and taste. Ms. Tao is based in Yulin City, Guangxi Province, and has 20 years of distributor experience, achieving annual sales of 180 million yuan. She covers all channels, including KA stores, supermarkets, circulation channels, campus channels, fruit channels, and ice cream channels. She frankly said that the market is very difficult now, with severe polarization: high-end products and healthy products are growing; low-end products are also growing, with products priced from 0.5 yuan to 3 yuan growing, but mid-range products are declining. This is what consumers want: cost-effectiveness. Crayon Shin-chan will refer to distributors' suggestions and respond immediately to real market feedback with adjustments, which gives us distributors the greatest support.
Final Thoughts From the communication with distributor Ms. Tao, it is clear that as consumer demand for jelly food becomes increasingly diverse, the jelly market is also calling for a category revolution. The demand for high-end, healthy, and functional products is forcing the jelly industry to accelerate innovation. According to a report released by China Research Network, there are currently over 300 jelly enterprises in China, with a jelly market size of about 25 billion yuan, making it the world's largest jelly producer and consumer market. The brand concentration in China's jelly market is relatively high, with first-tier jelly brands occupying about 60%-80% of the market share. As competition intensifies, we see Crayon Shin-chan making bold moves, always "consumer-centric, quality-oriented," listening to frontline market voices and channel partners' suggestions, and boldly innovating more possibilities for products. If you are interested in Crayon Shin-chan, you can contact the Crayon Shin-chan distribution hotline, national recruitment phone: 0595-88160022