---
title: "How Will Protein Beverage Companies Develop in the Future?"
description: "Recently, companies such as Mengniu, Yili, Wahaha, Jinmailang, Uni-President, and Heiniu have successively announced the launch of new walnut milk products, causing the already fiercely competitive walnut milk industry to become unsettled. Facing the increasing saturation and slowing growth of the mainstream beverage market, the high-speed growth and initial scale of the walnut milk market have attracted many major brands to enter, which is understandable, but the current situation where various big players are entering in groups is indeed rare. This has triggered various speculations: Are the big brands testing the waters short-term or expanding long-term? Are they aiming for deep cultivation..."
author: "付邦安、张璐"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2015-05-06"
language: "en"
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original_source: "https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/uTqZ1LcchaKQ7PKQ_XT6cQ"
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---

# How Will Protein Beverage Companies Develop in the Future?

> Recently, companies such as Mengniu, Yili, Wahaha, Jinmailang, Uni-President, and Heiniu have successively announced the launch of new walnut milk products, causing the already fiercely competitive walnut milk industry to become unsettled. Facing the increasing saturation and slowing growth of the mainstream beverage market, the high-speed growth and initial scale of the walnut milk market have attracted many major brands to enter, which is understandable, but the current situation where various big players are entering in groups is indeed rare. This has triggered various speculations: Are the big brands testing the waters short-term or expanding long-term? Are they aiming for deep cultivation...

Recently, companies such as Mengniu, Yili, Wahaha, Jinmailang, Uni-President, and Heiniu have successively announced the launch of new walnut milk products, making the already fiercely competitive walnut milk industry quite unsettled. Facing the increasing saturation and slowing growth of the mainstream beverage market, the high-speed growth and initial scale of the walnut milk market have attracted many major brands to enter, which is understandable, but the current situation where various big players are entering in groups is indeed rare.
This has triggered various speculations: Are the big brands testing the waters short-term or expanding long-term? Are they aiming for deep cultivation or just stirring up the market temporarily? And does the entry of these large enterprises point to a reality that the industry will face a new round of reshuffling? Although the answers are not yet known, for many small and medium-sized walnut milk enterprises, panic is inevitable.
Take Haojiayi, a client I currently serve, as an example. After years of development, its scale has reached over 200 million yuan. Although it has accumulated a certain market foundation, both brand power and influence lag behind first-tier companies like Yangyuan, clearly putting it at a disadvantage. Facing this possible industry structural adjustment, where should such companies go in the future?
First, stick to it. It must be clear that when a category goes through the start-up period, development period, and enters a highly active stage, big brands and large enterprises will inevitably intervene; and the entry of strong brands will definitely drive industry development, ignite a new round of consumer enthusiasm, and further expand the industry scale. Up to now, the mainstream consumer market for walnut milk is still focused on gifts and presents, with an extremely single consumption pattern. From these perspectives, the overall industry scale continues to grow, and trends such as industry segmentation and diversification release positive signals. Although the expansion of industry capacity brings many uncertainties, it is not without opportunities for small and medium-sized enterprises that have long been confined within the industry. Discarding panic, the most important thing now is to stick to it.
Second, innovate. Looking at the new products launched by major enterprises, except for Mengniu's choice of "Plant Mill" to take a high-end differentiation route, whether it is Wahaha's Dushi Walnut, Uni-President's Oxygen Walnut, Jinmailang's Golden Walnut, Heiniu's No. 33 Walnut, or Yili's Yili Walnut Milk, their positioning and pricing are strongly confrontational with the market-leading products. It can be seen that although big brands have entered, their product innovation is not high, and differentiation appeals are not obvious; the industry is still in a stage of homogeneous competition. Following the category will only continuously deplete the value of a single category, making it lower and lower. Only by continuously innovating on the basis of following and staying ahead of market and consumer demands can new breakthroughs be achieved. Although Yangyuan's dominant position in the industry will not be shaken in the short term, for small and medium-sized enterprises, whether they can stand out in the chaos and go further on the walnut milk path depends on product innovation and upgrading.
In the final analysis, the competition in the walnut milk market in recent years remains at a low level, seemingly fierce but actually lacking innovative moves and breakthroughs; and the entry of leading enterprises has not solved the dilemma of homogeneous competition. If walnut milk beverages remain at the stage of gift-giving and ceremonial products, their future growth will only be squeezed growth, not true expansion. Therefore, what truly determines the future development direction of walnut milk is whether it can become a consumer lifestyle, which requires attempts from the following aspects.
First, focus on consumer groups. Currently, in terms of consumer guidance, the main consumer groups of walnut milk are not clearly defined, and the problem of "buyers don't drink, drinkers don't buy" has not been broken through. Walnut milk is neither like milk beverages that can meet the needs of multiple consumer groups such as old, middle-aged, and young, nor can it lock in special consumer groups like functional drinks to focus on incremental growth. Who are the heavy consumers of walnut milk? This is a difficult problem that needs deep mining and thinking.
Second, innovate packaging forms. Since Six Walnuts successfully broke through, it has driven the rise of a large number of walnut milk enterprises. Up to now, major enterprises have rushed in, but walnut milk products are still mainly three-piece cans and boxed packaging, with positioning still at the gift-giving stage. Similar positioning, homogeneous products, and severely insufficient product and channel power will inevitably become constraints on category development. There have been attempts by some enterprises to innovate in consumer guidance, developing ready-to-drink PET bottled walnut milk, but they were all drowned in the cruel market without any improvement. In the final analysis, it is because market awareness is insufficient. Now that Mengniu and Yili have intervened, regardless of whether their intention is to stir up the market or seize opportunities, a new round of industry fluctuations is about to begin. Whether large enterprises try to lead or small enterprises defend, new ready-to-drink walnut milk products will soon surface. This is a good opportunity to enter the market.
Third, improve product quality. In December 2014, the new national standard "Plant Protein Beverage Walnut Milk (Milk)" led and participated in by Yangyuan was approved for trial operation. This time, all parameters of the new national standard were increased by 20% on the original basis. Among them, the core indicator protein content increased by 20%. At this time, many large enterprises have joined, and the market capacity will continue to expand. But on December 5, 2015, the new national standard was officially implemented, and products that do not meet the standard will withdraw from the market, making a new round of industry reshuffling inevitable. In addition, if ready-to-drink products are developed, the existing product taste cannot impress consumers. Therefore, it is necessary to develop new products with suitable taste and unique selling points to meet the broad needs of ready-to-drink consumer groups.
Fourth, guide scenario consumption. The success of Six Walnuts has rooted the appeal of "often use brain" in consumers' minds, achieving maximum awareness. Many enterprises have entered the family consumption brought by gift-giving, but they have not actively guided and created new consumption scenarios to supplement multiple consumption needs. As the leading category of plant protein beverages, whether walnut milk can develop multiple benefit appeals, explore in areas such as hunger relief, meal accompaniment, meal replacement, and children's nutritional drinks, achieve diversified product uses, and create multiple consumer excitement points is crucial to the future development of the industry.
In 2014, coconut juice was very busy. The achievements of Susa Special Forces in a short period were amazing, mainly because they made a lot of innovations in products: reducing additives, leaning towards original ecology; raw grinding process to improve product quality; focusing on catering and banquets, igniting large bottles; entering circulation channels to expand market scale. For the future direction of walnut milk, we might as well learn from the deep innovation of coconut juice, seize the best opportunity now, and with higher technical content, quickly realize the transformation from "gift" to "ready-to-drink", and move closer to a broader consumer market!
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