What exactly makes a good product? This is likely a question many distributors are concerned about. New Distribution has long observed that while hundreds of thousands of products are launched in the FMCG industry each year, very few withstand market tests. Is it due to intense competition and involution? Is it a deviation in channel placement strategy? Or is the product logic flawed? These questions seem simple, but answering from a single dimension is impossible. In the past, a product's mission was complete once it hit the shelves; now, manufacturers care more about whether it can sell through after placement. Today's market demands more from products; distributors no longer choose a good product solely based on big brands, but more importantly, on its sell-through power. Today's shelves are no longer purely offline; they encompass all places where consumers can purchase. Product sales have completely shifted from the old shelf logic to a sell-through logic that integrates people, goods, and places in a multi-dimensional, strong combination. So, today's products may be recognized by consumers before they even hit the shelves, or they may become 'attention-grabbers' due to outstanding packaging design, being actively chosen by consumers. All this is inseparable from the product's own sell-through power. So, how to enhance a product's sell-through power? Recently, a brand in the luosifen category caught New Distribution's attention.
The Sell-Through Logic Behind Product Collaborations
Mention Liuzhou, what comes to mind? A bowl of luosifen! New Distribution noticed that Liuzhou luosifen recently appeared at the 'Village Super League' in Guizhou. The 'Guangxi Liuzhou Luosifen Town Football Team' and 'Guizhou Wudang Buckwheat Thorn Pear Mooncake Team' not only showcased their skills on the field but also brought hometown specialty foods. At the on-site food and football exhibition area, the ChouBao Luosifen booth attracted a crowd of food enthusiasts queuing up. The exhibited product was the People's Sports x ChouBao co-branded Liuzhou luosifen, with eye-catching red, green, and blue packaging, paired with the aroma of luosifen wafting from the tasting event, quickly capturing the audience's visual and olfactory senses, drawing them to the ChouBao brand booth. In conjunction with this co-branded event, ChouBao launched the 'National Sports Season, ChouBao Sends Gold Medals' campaign. By participating in the #ChouBao WOW Moment# topic online or purchasing co-branded products through the brand's mini-program or Tmall, consumers had the chance to win a gold medal made of 999 pure gold.
Three Dimensions to Understand Why ChouBao's Co-Branded Product with People's Sports Wins Consumer Favor
High Recognition Packaging: When consumers scan products on shelves, each brand typically gets no more than 0.2 seconds. In that instant, the product must capture attention and generate interest, placing extremely high demands on packaging design. ChouBao's co-branded packaging uses the format of a People's Sports newspaper front page, highlighting 'WOW' moments, with vibrant red, green, and blue tones, making it highly recognizable among many products, paying tribute to thrilling classic moments in Chinese sports history and the spirit of Chinese sports. From a food packaging design perspective, high brightness contrast creates a sense of layering between colors, appearing lively and rich, providing direct sensory stimulation to buyers and deepening product recognition and memory. In May this year, when New Distribution visited the market in Shandong, we called on a distributor in Zibo. He held two beverages: one with a fresh, white-and-blue color scheme; the other with bright red-and-blue. He confidently pointed to the red-and-blue one and said, 'This one will definitely sell well.' Therefore, ChouBao's front-page packaging format and bright colors have strong interactive and social attributes, making it highly conspicuous on store shelves and displays, allowing consumers to identify it at first glance among many products.
Prize Design Aligns with Consumer Preferences: According to the '2022 China Gold Jewelry Industry Insight Report', young people's willingness to consume gold has surged over the past five years, from 16% in 2016 to 59% in 2021, making them the group with the highest potential for gold jewelry consumption. Topics like '#Why Young People Are Increasingly Keen on Buying Gold#' and '#This Generation of Young People Is Addicted to Saving Gold#' frequently trend on hot searches. Gold has not only become a fashionable accessory increasingly popular among young people but also a hot social topic. ChouBao precisely insight into the preferences of the current young demographic, creating a 999 pure gold medal prize, paired with the brand's iconic IP design, attracting more young people to actively participate in topic interactions and purchase co-branded products.
Emotional Connection: ChouBao's collaboration with People's Sports pays tribute to three classic sports moments: 'Relay Team's Decisive Battle in Tokyo', 'Diving Dream Team's 100th Gold', and 'Women's Football Winning Asian Championship Again After 16 Years'. These peak moments are highly representative and memorable in China's sports history: the Chinese relay team's courage to break through and relentless self-improvement; the Chinese women's football team's never-give-up and tenacious spirit; and the combination of elegance and strength in Chinese diving, fully embodying the tenacious spirit of Chinese athletes. By paying tribute to these three classic moments, reviewing the passionate and striving history of Chinese sports, and honoring the spirit of Chinese sports, the brand establishes an emotional connection with consumers, triggering emotional resonance with sportsmanship, influencing mindsets while fostering healthy, positive, and upward values, thereby stimulating potential purchasing behavior. Undoubtedly, when New Distribution visited terminal markets in the past, small shop owners also mentioned that many brands' sports event collaborations, especially with trending events, do stimulate consumer spending.
Activating a Broader Consumer Base
In engaging consumers, ChouBao has won the hearts of many young consumers with its lively and cute IP image, and through diverse content on new media platforms that aligns with young people's discourse, it builds communication and enhances brand affinity. In terms of audience strategy, ChouBao uses sports marketing as a lever to establish deeper emotional connections with consumers while radiating to a broader consumer base.
Diversified Content Operations, Playing with Young People: The ChouBao IP design is inspired by endorphins, with a round yellow body, a distinctive heart-shaped mouth, and a signature happy smile, conveying the brand's 'Happy Big Bites' philosophy to the public. The brand's official Weibo and Xiaohongshu accounts use personified operations to make the brand image more vivid and three-dimensional. The official account refers to itself as 'Ben Bao' (this treasure), sharing daily work and life anecdotes, attracting many netizens to follow and interact. For example, in this People's Sports co-branded event, the official Weibo initiated the #ChouBao WOW Moment# topic interaction and invited Joyoung Soy Milk, Snacks Busy, Panpan Beverages, Tai Er Sauerkraut Fish, and C'estbon to form a 'sports buddy' linkage. As of November 1, the #ChouBao WOW Moment# topic had reached hundreds of millions of reads and hundreds of thousands of interactions. It's evident that ChouBao has grasped the underlying logic of content operations, making consumers actively watch, share, participate, and discuss, thereby spreading brand information among the young consumer group.
Sports Marketing Precisely Targets the Audience While Broadening the Consumer Base: In fact, this collaboration with People's Sports is not ChouBao's first foray into sports. In 2022, ChouBao established deep cooperation with Beijing WB Honor of Kings esports team, launching a co-branded combo pack of ChouBao Explosive Luosifen with the Beijing WB team. Many esports fans enthusiastically went to ChouBao's official Weibo to joke, 'Can I rank up to King after eating ChouBao luosifen?', accumulating off-circle buzz. Furthermore, ChouBao's collaboration with People's Sports, launching co-branded products and the 'National Sports Season, ChouBao Sends Gold Medals' campaign, and recent appearances at the 2023 Beijing Daxing Yongding River Marathon, 2023 Xi'an Marathon, and Guizhou 'Village Super League'—three sports events with a total participation of over 50,000 people—provided rapid, close-range product exposure to consumers offline. The brand's audience profile radiates from young groups to sports circles, creating topics, spreading them, and triggering a 'spectator effect' within this demographic. This close relationship fosters continuous communication among groups, giving the brand greater communication momentum. The topic discussion from this co-branded event also achieved a 'circle-breaking' effect. Short videos shot by winners of the 'Send Gold Medals' campaign sparked renewed discussion online, with #Grandson Sends Grandpa Gold Medal as Birthday Gift# ranking eighth on Douyin's local trending list. Additionally, high praise from offline event spectators and participating distributors preliminarily confirms the brand's keen market insight and precise grasp of consumers' deep-seated needs.
How much communication momentum does the audience profile radiating to sports circles have? A sports event evaluation report previously released by Weitu Sports mentioned that in tennis tournaments, marathons, snooker, football, and basketball events, the proportion of young people (ages 15-34) exceeds 50%, with the highest reaching 75%. In the coming years, young people will remain the main force for live spectatorship. From WB team sponsorship to People's Sports collaboration, to frequent appearances at sports events, it's clear that focusing on the sports track has become a long-term strategy for ChouBao. Regarding ChouBao's market actions, some distributors expressed hope that such brand activities can be implemented locally more often, enhancing regional brand influence and promoting regional market sell-through.
Establishing a 'Scenario' Breakthrough for the Sell-Through Model
The strong association between product and audience brings a strong consumption experience and cognition. Under this sell-through logic, ChouBao Luosifen has established a 'scenario' sell-through model, generating sell-through momentum and achieving rapid breakthroughs in core channels. The current shelf sell-through logic differs from traditional logic; placing a product on the shelf does not guarantee 100% sell-through. Whether at home, school, office, or on a bus, consumers can purchase any product worldwide; whether morning, afternoon, evening, or midnight, consumers can buy any product nearby. Therefore, the current sell-through logic has shifted from 'goods don't move, people move' to 'people don't move, goods move'.
How to Shift from 'People Find Goods' to 'Goods Find People'?
Goods Find People: Recently, ChouBao has made frequent appearances at sports events. The ChouBao x People's Sports co-branded product left a deep impression on the public while deeply disseminating the brand's 'happiness' philosophy. At the three sports events mentioned earlier in Beijing, Guizhou, and Xi'an, ChouBao collaborated with local distributors to display and sell the People's Sports x ChouBao co-branded Explosive Rich Soup Liuzhou Luosifen, and interacted with spectators through fun mini-games, enhancing brand exposure while providing a bridge and opportunity for the public to understand the product and perceive the brand. It's evident that sports have become a bond, an important extension for people to continuously expand boundaries both inward and outward. ChouBao's sports marketing actions deeply combine the scenario of eating luosifen with watching sports events, making the originally segmented consumption scenario permeate like capillaries.
People Find Goods: Additionally, ChouBao Luosifen has also made extensive channel placements under the 'people find goods' sell-through logic. It is reported that the People's Sports x ChouBao co-branded luosifen has been placed in nearly 4,000 offline stores, including national chain systems like Yonghui, Aeon, China Resources Vanguard, RT-Mart, Wumart, Tianhong, and Renrenle, as well as O2O platforms like Dingdong Maicai and PUPU, which quickly switched to the co-branded product. Over a hundred channel promotion activities were conducted, reaching millions of people. Notably, last year ChouBao entered Sam's Club, becoming the only luosifen brand partnered with Sam's. As one of the benchmarks in the retail industry, Sam's is known for its high-quality, differentiated product selection standards, with a broad coverage and precise targeting of high-spending consumers, unmatched by traditional supermarkets.
Overall, whether it's people finding goods or goods finding people, ChouBao's penetration and reach in offline channels have become a new growth point for brand development. For distributors, this sports event collaboration may add new selling points to their luosifen product selection logic. With both selling points and the ability to sell, coupled with ChouBao Luosifen's strong brand endorsement, it creates new profit growth opportunities for distributors.
Final Thoughts
For distributors, today's product thinking is no longer about placing products on shelves to ensure sell-through, but rather: Do you have a good product that touches consumers? Can it cover more people? Does it match deeper and broader scenario channels? So often, when hearing complaints in the market about 'market saturation' or 'competitors squeezing profits', it's often because brands have lost commercial imagination. When competing for market share using traditional, single-dimensional 4P marketing theory, it's often hard to see where growth and profits are. Based on this, brands leveraging sports marketing are actually using product design, scenario marketing, and consumer communication to trigger purchasing motives, open commercial pathways, and drive a new round of business growth. Taking ChouBao Luosifen as an example, its journey from online to offline has also injected a shot of confidence into the industry.