When it comes to e-commerce hits in the FMCG sector, Fire Chicken Noodles (Buldak) is a must-mention. Known for its unusually spicy flavor, it claims to be the "spiciest in Korea." Before May 2016, sales of Fire Chicken Noodles in China were almost zero, but in just 60 days, it became the top-selling instant noodle on Taobao, highly sought after by young people, especially the post-00s generation.

Of course, this is not the end. Two years ago, Fire Chicken Noodles were riding high, winning over Chinese consumers, but now they are losing to Chinese distribution channels. After the initial boom in online e-commerce, Fire Chicken Noodles now face the problem of a shrinking offline market.

1 How Did Fire Chicken Noodles Win Over Chinese Consumers? In 2016, at the peak of live streaming, the famous eating show blogger "大胃王密子君" (Mizijun the Big Eater) posted her first eating show video on Weibo, performing the feat of eating 10 bowls of Fire Chicken Noodles in one go, which quickly went viral. Around the same time, a video titled "China's Big Eater Mizijun is here! Eating 10 Bowls of Fire Chicken Noodles in 16 Minutes 20 Seconds!" was uploaded to Bilibili, amassing over 2.18 million views.

"Eating shows" (mukbang) involve bloggers sitting in front of webcams at home, live-streaming or recording themselves eating. This food "entertainment" originated in South Korea and began to gain popularity in Japan, China, and other neighboring countries around 2014, as netizens shared it.

While young users watch eating shows to vent emotions (stress relief), they often develop an interest in the food itself, especially products like Fire Chicken Noodles that carry the topic "how spicy is it really?" which stimulates ordering enthusiasm. Baidu Index shows that searches for Fire Chicken Noodles began to grow exponentially from May 2016.

Since then, as digital natives of the post-00s generation, they began to imitate, and Fire Chicken Noodle eating show videos frequently appeared and were highly popular, with some single videos reaching nearly 3 million views.

Watching the Live Process: Many viral videos titled "So-and-so ate X bowls of Fire Chicken Noodles" typically feature bloggers challenging themselves to eat Fire Chicken Noodles on camera. "The front is sweet, the back is spicy," "This spiciness might be remembered for a lifetime"... Bloggers describe how spicy the noodles are while their mouths gradually swell from the heat. The barrage of comments also discusses whether it's spicy and whether people from Chongqing, Sichuan, Shanghai, Shandong, etc., can handle it. Many express curiosity and want to try it, placing orders online on the spot.

Regarding Fire Chicken Noodles becoming an internet sensation, a representative from the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) once explained: "The fried noodles have a chewy texture and are generally spicy, which suits Chinese tastes. Instant noodles also frequently appear in Korean variety shows, and the introduction and recommendation by food bloggers have also contributed significantly."

In the past few years, the Korean Wave, led by TV dramas and music, has spread to various fields. Whether it's food or cosmetics, various products imported from Korea have swept across China. Instant noodles, as a specialty food of Korea, are no exception. In popular Korean dramas and variety shows, instant noodles are a common sight. This has attracted many Korean drama fans to buy more instant noodles.

According to Alibaba big data statistics, Samyang Fire Chicken Noodles were the best-selling instant noodle flavor online for two consecutive years in 2016 and the first half of 2017.

2 Why Do Fire Chicken Noodles Struggle Offline? With the popularity of Korean variety shows online and domestic live broadcasts, consumers gradually developed strong awareness, and sales on e-commerce channels began to surge.

In September 2016, some domestic imported food trading companies began to explore the offline market and achieved rapid development. For a time, Fire Chicken Noodles appeared in most offline imported food specialty stores and large supermarket systems across the country. From cautious attempts by distributors at the beginning, to rapid product turnover, to product shortages, sales of Samyang Fire Chicken Noodles exploded in October.

As a category that may have grown the "fastest" in FMCG history, after nearly a year and a half of rapid growth, how is it now?

An industry insider who wished to remain anonymous told New Distribution that although online sales of Fire Chicken Noodles have grown significantly, offline channels are facing serious problems due to a lack of strict control.

Related industry insiders revealed that Fire Chicken Noodles are currently facing the problem of "price collapse" offline. Fire Chicken Noodles are basically sold at cost price (ex-factory price) of 25 yuan per bag, leaving no profit for either import agents or channel distributors. In just one year, channel distributors have reached a state of low or even zero profit. He believes that if this continues, Fire Chicken Noodles may just be a "trend" that will quickly die out after the fad passes.

In fact, besides hits like Fire Chicken Noodles, many imported brands face similar problems when laying out offline channels: as long as a distributor is willing to do it, they grant agency rights without controlling the channel or prices, ultimately leading to market chaos.

3 How Should Similar Imported Internet-Famous Products Plan Their Offline Layout? Strictly speaking, these "traffic-carrying" imported internet-famous products have already completed consumer awareness through online social media communication, leveraging social interaction to drive online channel sales growth. However, when entering offline channels, they face China's highly fragmented local distribution network. Without sufficient attention in the early stages and laissez-faire management later, even if they want to manage, they often have awareness but lack the means, eventually becoming "has-been internet celebrities."

Ideas for Imported Products' Offline Layout: First, fully understand and attach great importance to China's fragmented market. For companies expecting long-term development in the Chinese market, planning should start from the top-level strategic design; Second, build a marketing team that truly understands the Chinese market and Chinese channels; Third, based on category attributes, conduct market research, and establish a complete channel layout system, from B2C to B2B and traditional distribution models, promoting market distribution paths in a rhythmic and planned manner; Fourth, after the initial distribution network is completed, strictly control the price system. Price is the lifeline of a product and the most problematic link in the distribution process. A slight mistake, such as price collapse, can cause fatal damage to the enterprise's distribution network.

Comments by Ren Xiaodong, Partner at New Distribution: 1. Circle Marketing: From the rise of Fire Chicken Noodles through live streaming, it's clear that a group of post-00s users supports half of Fire Chicken Noodle consumption. This is a subculture circle of Korean Wave fans, and all communication and transactions revolve around this circle; 2. Social Media Marketing: 1) Initiate KOL topic-based reviews that appeal to the post-00s circle, thereby continuously generating topics on social platforms (Weibo, Zhihu, Bilibili, etc.), including testing, PK, and discussions, leading to secondary and tertiary explosions among onlookers and bystanders. 2) They effectively set up topics that can be exploded, with strong emotional appeal and social currency, from PGC to UGC, with frequent brand-user interaction; 3. Launch Logic: The key to whole-network marketing is the trinity of awareness, transaction, and relationship. Note that initially placing directly on e-commerce channels was lukewarm, but after various social traffic emerged, it exploded on Taobao within just 60 days. Why? Because the product didn't have its own traffic before, but later it did. All this is due to social awareness and communication; 4. Follow-up Marketing Action Suggestions: After Fire Chicken Noodles' traffic rises, it's important to guide traffic to major e-commerce channels, such as B2B channels, social e-commerce channels, and content e-commerce channels, to maximize volume. Similarly, you can't just put the product out there; you need to carefully study the rules and gameplay of these platforms, use their marketing tools (video, live streaming, communities, etc.) to build awareness in advance, bring topic and trendiness, and thus explode across the entire network.

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