Source: Xu Huizhou on Marketing Regarding the future development trends of the condiment category, I personally believe they will develop as follows: Single condiments + side dishes → Innovative condiments + side dishes → Health-oriented and high-end back-to-basics single condiments → Compound condiments + upgraded single condiments → Compound pre-packaged dishes + high-end, high-priced unique flavor condiments As compound condiments mature and pre-packaged dishes develop rapidly, the space for single condiments and side dish condiments will become increasingly smaller. Many marketing professionals in the condiment industry may not agree with my views; Think about it: what is the comparison of household sugar consumption over the past 20 years? Below, I will elaborate on some unique viewpoints from certain individual categories: Soy sauce – rapid categorization; premiumization; high value; customized experience (Why can't soy sauce be made in spicy and numbing flavors? Such flavored soy sauce could be used directly for dressing salads! ... Many innovative ideas will be announced one by one in the future.) Doubanjiang (fermented bean paste) – compound, younger; think about the spokespersons for Doubanjiang, they are all older women; why can't there be a warm-hearted male Douban??? Of course, there are many other ideas; I believe there are talented people among the public who will come up with many more. Vinegar – functionalization, customization, categorization – vinegar-soaked peanuts are very nutritious; why not extract the nutrients from plants and combine them with vinegar? If vinegar does not innovate, it will be in an awkward position because the sour flavor in compound condiments can be replaced by many other substances, unless vinegar can be sold like mineral water! The whole nation starts to "eat vinegar" (a pun on jealousy). Fish seasoning – new category differentiation and upgrading; it is important to note that this category has high demand, but the pain points have never been resolved:
- The acidity of pickled cabbage; 2. The cleanliness and appearance of the vegetables; 3. Standard steps and quantities for making boiled fish with pickled cabbage; 4. The flavor is too monotonous; 5. Many people do not know how to slice fish or make this dish (they just boil water, add the seasoning, then add the fish and boil it). I think these points, if seen by companies with needs, will spark many inspirations (if you get inspired, remember to give me a consultation fee). Pickled vegetables (xiaocai) – casualization, customization, category differentiation, OEM processing; this industry actually has factories with good production quality, but lacks marketing; I was in this industry before, so I will write more insights. Wujiang's facial makeup packaging always reminds me of Xiang Yu's suicide, because Wujiang is hard to associate with the level of pickled mustard tuber. Jixiangju, positioned as pickled vegetables, I personally believe will develop well in 5-10 years because if the pickled mustard tuber category is completely ruined, the pickled vegetable category will grow rapidly (it is already growing now). Chuannan, positioned as a side dish for rice, will suffer greatly if a disruptor appears (if a competitor also makes this single category, with similar packaging, extremely poor quality and taste, and engages in low-price dumping, the goal being to kill the category without losing money). Weijute, with good quality, could develop into a top OEM enterprise for pickled vegetables in the future. Yuquan, with its gradual retreat from its home base and advantageous markets combined with urgent rescue efforts, is like a volatile stock market. Fujian cuisine will have particularly good development, perhaps blazing a new path, because Fujian food companies are really fast in launching new products. Zhejiang cuisine, if quality is not upgraded, will decline significantly because raw material and labor costs will rise; what will support the balance? It must be high quality + high value + high price + high sales volume. For pickled vegetables, I have new category innovations, and I am applying for patents and brands; I will not disclose them for now (they will be closely integrated with daily life, with very large volume, but I am not capable of doing it myself in the next few years). Sauces – continue category differentiation and compounding; the sauce category will continue to differentiate and innovate. One viewpoint: why can't sauces be made dry? Five-spice dried sauce? Spicy dried sauce? ... Hot pot seasoning will definitely have new positioning products; I have ideas but will keep them confidential; the current self-heating hot pot can still be popular for a while, with an increase in the audience and a sudden increase in demand for flavor innovation. If companies are willing to listen and collect consumer needs, you can produce new products that may no longer be called hot pot. Finally, I want to remind many companies that were once powerful in producing single condiments: if there is no innovative marketing, the path of OEM in the future is still viable, as long as you refine your single category; you can still live well. Now there are large enterprises positioned as OEM; why not? The overall trend tells us that price wars have little future; packaging that is too rustic and outdated may soon fall behind the market; simple and crude marketing is increasingly unprofitable... Single condiments will be integrated, even disappear from the physical market – sesame oil, sesame oil, peanut oil – this type of product will be integrated, and even in physical stores, they will be hard to see in large quantities because with the compounding of seasonings, aroma-enhancing materials will be directly integrated, and consumers do not need to see which brand the product is or whether it is pure; they only rely on taste and testing. Many northern consumers, in terms of diet and catering, can access bottled sesame oil, but in the south, it is rare to see individual households buy and use sesame oil, and some even conclude that sesame oil has no volume in the south. This is actually wrong because sesame oil is widely used in making hot pot base. If a bottled sesame oil sells 2,000 tons a year in a northern city, in a southern city (like Chongqing), sales can reach 10,000 tons! Like wasabi, a small category, the actual volume is also considerable; is it only in the north that wasabi is used for eating wood ear fungus? Can't the south use wasabi for sashimi? So for aroma-enhancing single products like sesame oil, quickly integrate soy sauce, vinegar, etc., according to dishes, and make a product together; maybe there will be a market! (A chef or a home cook needs to add about 6 seasonings when making a cold dish – soy sauce, vinegar, sesame oil, chili oil, salt, sugar, etc.; and different cooks will produce different tastes. If there is such a product, just add it once, and the taste is very stable, very good, easy to standardize, and quick to serve...) Sesame oil, Sichuan pepper oil, rattan pepper oil, chili oil – these products are similar to sesame oil; companies that are slightly ahead are combining with catering and dishes to do market development, with the idea: win over the chef, win the future. But what about the future of the future? Chicken essence, MSG, chicken juice – no need to say more about these; many OEM companies are very strong because of compound seasonings; these manufacturers very much want to do B2C market and have started to launch such products to get a share. What I need to remind is that chicken essence, MSG (containing 20-35% MSG) and similar products, with the upgrade of health seasoning standards, MSG is the first product to be abandoned by consumers; many households no longer use it, but outside they have no choice. If the state strengthens management of production and catering and issues usage standards, where will this industry go??? Oil, peanut oil, corn oil, blended oil, flaxseed oil, olive oil – single oils are only suitable for brand awareness and do not meet healthy catering standards. I think the state will issue standards in the future, no longer relying on corporate advertising; most importantly, do we trust the high-grade oils produced by our own country? Many Chinese consumers are increasing their purchases of foreign condiments year by year because they do not trust domestic legal standards. This is the reason for the lack of high-end, proud products domestically; so companies wanting to enter this field should prepare for a long marathon. Compound seasonings and sauces – categories with growth potential; many areas such as flavor types, forms, and uses are waiting for us to develop. As far as I know, companies making compound soy sauce are developing very rapidly (I wrote an analysis of soy sauce in yesterday's article). The era of pre-packaged food becoming seasoned: developing standard flavor types will integrate many single condiments. If a brand specializes in producing a sauce for cold wood ear fungus, it will integrate soy sauce, vinegar, sesame oil, chili oil, salt, sugar, etc. Consumers only need to prepare the wood ear fungus, add the sauce, and stir. So buying one pack of this sauce solves the problem; making it into small bags and putting it into pre-packaged ingredients – wouldn't that be convenient? In short, in the future, catering will upgrade, industrial flow patterns will accelerate (industrialization does not mean large scale), factory kitchens, kitchen assembly lines, and physical dining experiences will be emotional and nostalgic. My prediction – condiments combined with diet will give rise to a very professional consumer education and guidance live streaming platform (in the future, quality is the first basic requirement; if quality is not good, the platform will immediately expose it). As long as a product is distinctive, innovative, solves consumers' daily pain points, and meets their needs, it will sell well. In the future, dietary standard culture will be guided by platforms and smart tableware (with highly focused and refined products, such as Brand A specializing in sauce for cold wood ear fungus, with graduations on the packaging to add the corresponding amount based on the quantity of wood ear fungus...), not passed down orally and hands-on from the older generation. I thought of such a platform in 2015; it requires extreme professionalism, authority, standardization, and innovation. I think organizations like the Condiment Association can take the lead in doing this (only allowing enterprises with truly good products to join). The 3rd (CFIC) China FMCG + Internet Conference will be held in Chongqing in November 2017. The conference will closely focus on the theme "New Forces, New Ecology" and invite 1000+ distributors, 500+ brand owners, founders of 200+ B2B platforms, and 100+ investment and financing institutions to jointly explore a new chapter of cross-border integration! Core topics of this conference:
How can the FMCG industry achieve new growth opportunities through B2B?
How should the new supply chain behind new retail be built?
How can intra-city logistics help B2B achieve leapfrog development?
Highlights of this conference:
The industry's first "2017 China FMCG B2B Industry Competitiveness White Paper"
Case sharing of excellent transforming and upgrading distributors
Conference + exhibition upgrade: Hall 6 Internet Technology Exhibition strengthens docking
Leaders from well-known enterprises in various fields, including Alibaba Retail Link, GL Capital Finance, Eternal Asia Supply Chain, Best Dianjia, 91PiJiu, and Haiding, will deliver speeches and share pioneering views.
Registration is now open. Long press the QR code below or click "Read Original" to register. Add friend and note "Conference Registration". Click the link below to review the highlights of the 1st and 2nd FMCG + Internet Conferences: 2016 "FMCG + Internet" Summit Forum -END-