In recent years, consumption upgrading has been strong, and new consumer tracks such as new tea drinks, new snacks, and new toys have produced one delightful brand and company after another, such as Heytea, Naixue, Zhong Xue Gao, Genki Forest, and Pop Mart. Looking at these companies, it's not hard to see that these leading companies all enjoy a considerable brand premium. Many industry insiders say: "New consumption upgrading is not about selling cheap goods at higher prices, but selling them in a more premium way." Many companies are accustomed to pricing based on value, believing that good products can be sold at higher prices. But in classic marketing theory, customers judge value through price, and they think expensive means good. So how to give products more perceived value without being criticized as a "trap" has become the key factor for new consumer companies to win.
-01- Products with ultra-high premiums Every summer, milk tea and cold drinks enter their peak sales season, and seasonal fruits also hit the market. But the price contrast between raw materials and products is often surprisingly large. For example, the watermelon products launched by Heytea and Lelecha, with a milk cap on top and tea and watermelon flesh below, sell for nearly 30 yuan per cup. Common sense says watermelon is seasonal and affordable, and eating half a watermelon until full is a must-have summer pleasure. But when placed in a drink, the problem becomes apparent—the perceived value is too low. It's only a few yuan per jin, and consumers know exactly how much goes into a cup. To sell it at 30 yuan a cup, how do you make consumers feel it's worth it? Compared to milk tea, the internet-famous ice cream brand Zhong Xue Gao is even better at creating high premiums, with individual products priced around 20 yuan. Despite such high pricing, during the 2018 Double 11, it sold out a product called "Ecuador Pink Diamond" ice cream—66 yuan each, selling 20,000 sticks in 15 hours. This ice cream brand, founded in March 2018, sold low-priced products at high prices and received angel round financing from China Growth Capital in July of that year. Why can Heytea and Lelecha sell high-priced drinks? How can Zhong Xue Gao sell an ice cream stick for 66 yuan? How do you sell a product with inherently low perceived value at a high price? The 66 yuan Ecuador Pink Diamond ice cream
-02- "Packaging" is the first step to conveying value The so-called sense of value and premium is about exceeding consumer expectations, in layman's terms, it's about "packaging." First, make consumers understand that the "cheap goods" you sell are not low-end. From Zhong Xue Gao's official flagship store, you can see that current flavors include Velvet Cocoa, Old Tree North Matcha, Light Milk, Brewed Red Date, Hand-Boiled Jasmine, Ghana Black Gold, and more—the names carry a sense of luxury. In terms of raw materials, Zhong Xue Gao emphasizes zero additives, low sugar, and low fat, with a taste that isn't too sweet. Similarly, new tea drinks selling a cup for over 20 yuan will display on the counter that they use milk from a certain brand, tea leaves from Taiwan, and other concepts. Before this, Naixue also sold 32 yuan/cup of Dominant Golden Kiwi, 33 yuan Dominant Cherry, 58 yuan/cup of Dominant Two Jin Mangosteen, 48 yuan/cup of Dominant Durian King, and 88 yuan/cup of Dominant Musang King. Golden kiwi and Musang King durian are "high-end goods" among fruits. Lelecha and Yocha's watermelon products use high-quality Qilin melons, and melon lovers can immediately grasp the value—using raw materials to show "quality" makes consumers feel it's worth it. Second, let consumers see at a glance that the added value of expensive products is high. Good raw materials are the connotation, but repeatedly emphasizing them requires a lot of communication channels and effort. A more direct way is to "show it." Naixue's two durian drinks have a small crown on the cup packaging. Heytea's Duorou Guagua adds aloe vera granules and crispy boba, and Lelecha's Xigua Luoluo contains甘露 (sweet dew), adding a chewy texture—this is the embodiment of value. Cha Yan Yuese's milk tea products have less than 500ml of milk tea in the lower layer, less than normal milk tea capacity. But the upper layer is filled with cream and crushed nuts, layered and rich, making consumers only feel it's not enough to drink. Cha Yan Yuese's Liuli product is one of its rare fruit teas, priced at 17 yuan, more expensive than its signature drinks. Before launching, they deliberated for a long time and finally showed sincerity: a cup of lemon tea contains a whole Sunkist lemon. It's known that the cost of a single lemon is 5 yuan. Even if consumers don't know, seeing the lemon makes it clear. Cha Yan Yuese founder Lü Liang said, "Cha Yan wins because it offers 30-yuan quality at a 15-yuan price. So if we sell at 20 yuan, shouldn't we give consumers a 40-yuan experience?" To sell a 5-yuan ice cream at 20 yuan, Zhong Xue Gao also changes the appearance: simplified packaging, and the product shape made into Chinese elements like roof tiles, all to highlight the premium feel. The ice cream stick inside is made of biodegradable straw, meeting national food-grade standards, with a light wheat straw sweetness. Safety is also a factor that makes consumers pay. In addition to the above, these brands have two other trump cards: environment and service. Gorgeous chandeliers, rattan wooden chairs, stylish walls, decorative paintings... Such a quality dining environment makes many young people eager to take photos and share, coupled with in-store "human + intelligent" service, creating an effect that exceeds customer expectations.
-03- "Spherical" marketing: Internet-famous + time = brand Many people say the name "Zhong Xue Gao" is strange—does it have a meaning? The official explanation is: no, it's just Chinese people's own quality ice cream, with the tile's back pattern, returning to a natural state. No meaning, no label. Not rushing to label is the way for a new brand to maximize fan acquisition during its growth period. In the past, without big data and internet thinking, the brand-building logic was "rigid branding": the brand would label itself, preset an image, and then continuously invest to consolidate that image. Zhong Xue Gao has no label; it can collaborate with the Forbidden City for a Chinese style, or have a rugged "motorcycle style," with rich personalities and no narrow common traits. Any user may have 1,000 labels. A brand doesn't need to rush to position itself; just do its duty, make the product delicious, and don't elevate ice cream to some height. On this basis, users will label you, such as fun, cool, expensive, etc. Initially, you don't need to distinguish which is which. When you have 10 million or 20 million users giving you millions of labels, you'll find commonalities among them—that's your true self, more authentic and with fewer barriers to customers. This brand strategy is a spherical, flexible strategy: the core quality remains unchanged, while other personas are constantly adjusted. The A positioning of a rigid strategy is self-labeled; the B positioning of a spherical strategy is continuously refined by others. In the current era of constant iteration, B's approach may be better and more in line with young people's personalized needs. Initially, Zhong Xue Gao's label was "internet-famous." Many people oppose brand and internet-famous, but in reality, internet channels like Douyin, Tmall, Kuaishou, Weibo, and Bilibili have become channels for users to obtain information. Becoming well-known on the internet is a necessary path for brand building. The most terrible thing is to seek internet fame but fail to achieve it. How to become an "internet-famous" brand? From Zhong Xue Gao's experience, there are three key points: First, product breakthrough. Whether it's the name, quality, or special stick, small details give consumers a different perception. Second, content breakthrough. Not fabricating stories, but hiding topic points in product, raw materials, price, flavor, and eco-friendly packaging, which are then discussed by various people and ferment. Finally, external momentum. You can find celebrities and streamers to spread the product and create external hype. If you do two of these well, you can become "internet-famous." Being internet-famous is not hard; the hard part is the road ahead, which can no longer rely on shortcuts. Zhong Xue Gao has never thought of tearing off the "internet-famous" label. Internet-famous + time = brand. The road after "internet-famous" depends on two things: First, stable quality. Quality stability is a relative value, not an absolute one. If consumers currently rate the product 80 points, then next year with more new brands, the product might only get 70 points. At that point, you need to make the product better to return to 80 points. This is a dynamic process. Second, continuous innovation. Stability is for retaining old customers; innovation is for attracting new ones. Innovation is not changing flavors or packaging—those are meaningless. True innovation is creating new value, new environments, scenes, and habits, or doing forward-looking projects, such as products that balance the gut or suit diabetics. Many people think Zhong Xue Gao's marketing is slick, but it's just the tip of the iceberg; it can make a brand internet-famous, but the road won't last long. For internet marketing, value the importance of three-dimensional traffic. Original traffic was single-dimensional; today's traffic is three-dimensional. You must find a core focus and match it with other traffic, rather than doing everything at once. Taking Zhong Xue Gao as an example, Xiaohongshu was a great platform in 2018. Zhong Xue Gao focused on deep penetration, inviting many Xiaohongshu internal employees to taste and "plant grass," then built an overall promotion strategy around Xiaohongshu, using KOLs to drive the brand. Two years later, if a new platform emerges with vibrant traffic, then make that the core. Many brands rely on a single traffic source like WeChat or Tmall, or some brands invest everywhere without penetrating deeply—these approaches have problems.
-04- Deliciousness is the bottom line: just be yourself, don't pander "You can't want old hen soup but demand the price of chicken bouillon." Among all reviews of Zhong Xue Gao, there's a saying: "Except for being expensive, it has no flaws." From a price perspective, some products with costs under 0.7 yuan have an ex-factory price of 1 yuan and a market price of 6-7 yuan, nearly a 10-fold premium, and they may not be healthy or tasty. Zhong Xue Gao's costs are at least 5 times that of ordinary products, with a cost of 4-5 yuan and selling prices of 12, 15, or 18 yuan—only about a 3-fold premium, yet healthy and delicious. In fact, many quality old flavors and good products have been defeated in the process of price comparison and cost-performance pursuit. Cost-performance has no bottom line. Even if Zhong Xue Gao were 5 yuan a stick now, some would still say it's expensive. Historically, any brand that has survived different economic cycles has not competed on cost-performance. Zhong Xue Gao's consumers are mainly women aged 27-35, with families and good career distribution. Zhong Xue Gao's brand doesn't necessarily strive in one direction; it's more about facing consumers rather than pandering to them, because pandering requires changing many things about yourself, including lowering quality and affecting the brand. For Zhong Xue Gao, several key points are clear. First, good ingredients. Except for the special nature of chocolate flavor raw materials, Zhong Xue Gao's products do not add food additives, stabilizers, or preservatives. Dairy and whipping cream are derived from repeated trials; it's normal for one ingredient to undergo 70 tests. The use of eco-friendly sticks is also a feature of Zhong Xue Gao. For food companies, making products delicious is the most basic; we need to think about how to make products more liked. The use of straw eco-friendly sticks is an example—advocating environmental protection and bringing more consumer attention. Traditional ice cream molds cost 30,000-80,000 yuan, while a set of tile-shaped molds for Zhong Xue Gao costs several hundred thousand yuan. The mold technology is difficult, with precise arc and joint angles requiring high welding precision and skilled mold factory workers. Zhong Xue Gao found a small stick factory and provided management and financial support to help them standardize production. Before product launch, nearly 20 million yuan was invested in supply chain development. Many craft aspects cannot be achieved just with technology and investment; they require a process of accumulation. Some Japanese ice pop brands have ice crystal structures that are particularly good when eaten, with technology and cold chain capable of making particles smaller and finer. No domestic manufacturer can produce such products because it requires cold chain coordination. Zhong Xue Gao's success is fortunate. First, the company's R&D is indeed strong, achieving uniqueness and one-of-a-kind product value; second, consumers' aesthetics and spending power have reached a certain height. Of course, doing the above doesn't guarantee brand success. It's like passing in a football game: if one step is done poorly, you can't think about shooting, but even if you do everything well, you might not score in the end. The success of these internet-famous brands is a kind of accident, but within that accident there is necessity—they all mastered this methodology. Source: Consumption Pie (ID: xiaofeipai1) Tips will be paid 400-2000 yuan once the tip is adopted.