I favor soy milk because in the current beverage market, every protein drink has reached its peak, with leading brands like Lulu Almond Milk, Six Walnuts Walnut Milk, Coconut Palm Coconut Juice, and Yinlu Peanut Milk. Soy milk itself is China's national drink—soy milk that has been popular for thousands of years—yet no truly significant soy milk brand has emerged. An ancient poem says: "Beside the sunken boat, a thousand sails pass by; before the sick tree, ten thousand trees spring to life." There are many beverage subcategories; some are indeed in decline, while more are bursting with unprecedented vitality. After more than 10 years of market cultivation, Chinese soy milk has entered a period of rapid growth. As we all know, the veteran in the soy milk industry, Hong Kong's Vitasoy, through its long brand heritage and market education, has established its leading position in bottled soy milk in the southern market. Especially in the process of gradually moving from the foodservice channel to personal consumption habits, but due to the consumption habits of the northern market and Vitasoy's geographical disadvantages, soy milk has remained lukewarm. During this period, in the northern market, after the melamine incident, some regional companies saw market opportunities and carried out marketing, but unfortunately, due to the lack of systematic marketing plans and the lack of ability to lead consumer education, they ended up anticlimactic. They remained scattered and stuck in a gift-oriented state. From Dali's high-profile launch of Doubenben at the beginning of this year to the just-concluded National Autumn Sugar and Wine Fair, second- and third-tier companies have followed suit in entering the soy milk product category, and even some unremarkable companies have flocked in, wanting to share the dividends of the growth period of the soy milk category. Is the spring for soy milk really coming? Or will it be like the fleeting black water drinks and hawthorn juice around us? As companies or distributors, how should we choose and rationally view this category currently in a state of warring states? Because since the soy milk industry has been industrialized, especially for gift-oriented products (mainly Tetra Pak packaging), there are no particularly solid technical barriers. At the autumn sugar and wine fair, the author made a rough count: regardless of brand or scale, there were at least 300 soy milk brands recruiting distributors. Among them, OEM products accounted for the majority. One OEM factory was used by more than ten brands recruiting distributors, which is lamentable. Such low-quality, low-price disruption, with high gross margins and brand name edge play, tempting distributors, before this category truly forms personal consumption habits and before a truly dominant brand emerges, will inevitably accelerate the life cycle of the soy milk category. So in this era where the category is already in chaos before achieving great success, as a distributor, how should you view and choose such products to get a share?

  1. Good products are always the king I have always advocated that food and beverage companies are conscience enterprises. A company qualified to grow and develop in this industry must first make good products. Quality is the first priority; genuine ingredients are the basic conscience of the enterprise. On this basis, taste and mouthfeel must be good. When making a beverage, on the basis of ensuring quality, it must first be delicious. Those so-called good products that provide consumers with an unpleasant mouthfeel are the failure of the R&D department. Necessary seasoning and flavoring are essential. After all, today's consumers, these ancestors, while vowing to defend the pursuit of good quality, also expect good taste. Deliciousness is what everyone likes, isn't it? I always feel that a good product is a beautiful woman. While pursuing inner beauty (good taste and mouthfeel), she must also dress beautifully. Applied to the product, the packaging must be exquisite. The current soy milk brands mainly use green as the main color, giving a fresh and comfortable feeling, pleasing to the eye. Personally, I think they are already dressed not badly. Having been kept in the deep boudoir for thousands of years, it is time to send her off with music and fanfare. Those companies that do not focus on taste research, do not pay attention to appearance design, and only play with price are all hooligans and are hard to sustain.
  2. Reasonable packaging specifications and price bands are half the success How to sell soy milk? Currently, the main packaging forms on the market are glass bottles and Tetra Pak. Especially in the past few years, soy milk products including Thailand's Vaminu, Hong Kong's Vitasoy, and domestic Yonghe have mainly used glass bottles as the main packaging form. Those products are mainly for foodservice channels and home consumption, but in overall market operations, their performance is still a bit lacking. Why is that? I think many companies may not truly understand why they are in the foodservice channel; they are all blindly doing foodservice for the sake of foodservice, with too rigid thinking. You can look at the rise of Wanglaoji. Wanglaoji first started in the foodservice channel, but ultimately it was in the circulation and modern channels that it achieved annual sales of over 10 billion. Therefore, using foodservice as a lever, the ultimate goal is to leverage home consumption as the foothold. Use foodservice to drive national consumption. So, Tetra Pak packaging can just play a supplementary role. Under current circumstances, 12-pack Tetra Pak gift boxes and 16- or 20-pack family packs will become mainstream packaging in the future market. In this packaging process, 12-pack gift boxes should take the premium route, targeting the price band around 60 yuan, while 16- or 20-pack family packs target the price band around 40 yuan. This should be the mainstream price for the future development of soy milk. To put it bluntly, since everyone hopes soy milk will grab market share from milk, or refer to milk to create a second daily protein, following the price system of milk becomes the only way for soy milk products.
  3. Correct regional entry is half the effort At present, the regions with a good soy milk atmosphere are mainly Hubei, Hunan, Guangdong, Guangxi, and Jiangxi. When relevant companies choose their main markets, they should pay attention to the importance of regional selection. Just like in the story of selling shoes, one of the salesmen said, planting crops in barren land always yields poor harvests. Even if you have massive resources to deploy, in the early stages of market operation, isn't it more appropriate to choose places with less consumer education pressure and use a method of leveraging four ounces to move a thousand pounds? Those companies still waiting on the sidelines can pay attention to Dali's market performance during this Mid-Autumn Festival. Before that, they should prepare product formulas and packaging designs. Once Dali explodes this Mid-Autumn Festival, there will definitely be good performance during the Spring Festival. The spring for soy milk is coming soon. Are you all ready to dig the soy milk gold mine this Spring Festival? Source: FMCG Home (ID: lp800315111) -END-