In April, China's aerospace sector will once again trend online. From 1 day to 6 months; from 1 person to 3, China has repeatedly broken records for space stays, and the Shenzhou-13 crewed spacecraft has entered its return countdown. On March 24, according to CCTV's understanding from the Astronaut Training Center, the three Shenzhou-13 astronauts began return preparations, with the return mission scheduled for mid-April. As is well known, the successful stationing of three Chinese astronauts is China's longest crewed mission to date and 'the latest milestone in building a space power.' China has made a resounding statement toward the goal of becoming a 'space power.' As a five-year partner of China's aerospace program, Master Kong, under the guidance of the aerospace power strategy, has conducted aerospace science popularization activities in multiple cities nationwide, reaching over 500,000 students, holding nearly 100 lectures by aerospace experts, and using digital technology to connect online and offline, helping countless young people build aerospace dreams.

At the same time, as a leading enterprise in the instant food industry, Master Kong has also used aerospace empowerment to fulfill the responsibility and commitment of a national enterprise toward 'Healthy China.'

Aerospace, as an important strategy for Master Kong, has run through the company's development in recent years. A deep analysis reveals: what is the development logic behind Master Kong's aerospace strategy?

The Development Logic Behind the Aerospace Strategy: Upgrading Content Strategy Aerospace is a very rigorous systems engineering, representing the most meticulous system design, the highest precision quality, and the strictest safety guarantees. This tightly interlocking system, with its high standards and industry requirements, shares certain similarities with the food industry's supply chain. Taking instant noodle production as an example, from initial raw material origin screening and admission, to precise control of dozens of processes on the production line, to quality inspection and stability testing, to warehousing, freight, and shelving, and finally reaching consumers, it undergoes very scientific and strict full-process traceability management.

It seems that Master Kong's partnership with the aerospace industry and support for aerospace science exhibitions is a sponsorship activity or brand endorsement? Neither. For Master Kong, this is an upgrade of content strategy.

The so-called 'content strategy' elevates content to the same status as brand, using content production, distribution, and application to build a moat for the enterprise and comprehensively lead growth.

In 1992, 'Master Kong' instant noodles sparked a dietary revolution in China. The first bowl of 'Master Kong' braised beef noodles was born in the Tianjin Development Zone. Since then, 'Master Kong' instant noodles, with the promise of 'fragrant, delicious, and visible,' flew into countless homes, and 'Master Kong' became synonymous with convenient gourmet food in consumers' minds. Since then, Master Kong has become famous across the country.

Returning to the present, with the progress of the times and consumption upgrades, consumer needs have risen to 'higher-level needs' such as cognition, aesthetics, emotion, and self-expression. But no matter how needs change, food safety and quality assurance will always be the crucial 'fundamental base' within higher-level needs.

Master Kong is certainly aware of this. In 2017, it began cooperation with China's aerospace program, benchmarking Master Kong instant noodles against aerospace quality, upgrading the food safety management system, promoting high-end R&D and transformation of food safety technology, and allowing consumers to enjoy instant food of aerospace quality. With the support of aerospace standards, in 2020, Master Kong's 'Braised Beef Noodles' and 'Suda Noodle House' products were fortunate to become China's first 'space noodles.' Through the dissemination of the aerospace strategy, Master Kong's good-quality content has been permeated across all domains, benchmarking aerospace quality against instant food quality, subtly grafting onto consumer minds, and forming a positive cycle.

The Core of the Aerospace Strategy System: Iterative Big Penetration When enterprises pursue growth, they typically experience three iterations of growth models—the channel era, the media era, and the consumer era.

We are currently in the third period, the consumer era, where the logic of growth is to solve consumer pain points, create consumer experiences, and build emotional connections between brands and consumers. With the support of the aerospace strategy, how does Master Kong connect with consumers? This includes two dimensions: 'attention and growth power.'

Attention: Aerospace Quality, from Reach to 'Touch' It is understood that Master Kong invested 500 million yuan to build an innovation R&D and food safety research center in Shanghai, establishing a professional team of 3,000 people for food safety and quality control. As early as 2015, Master Kong invested 300 million yuan to build the world's largest FD freeze-drying plant, applying advanced aerospace technology to preserve the nutrition of vegetables and meat.

Master Kong has also actively carried out 'industry-university-research' cooperation, partnering with the Shenzhen Green Voyage Interstellar Space Technology Research Institute to jointly build the 'Aerospace Instant Food Joint Laboratory,' striving to support and assist in bringing aerospace technology to the people and contributing to 'Healthy China.' By introducing cutting-edge aerospace food technology, Master Kong hopes to further enhance food safety system control, benchmark against aerospace quality, and use deliciousness, safety, and freshness to give the national brand a new proposition in the quality era.

The supporting food safety infrastructure gives consumers the greatest quality assurance. Therefore, the 'attention' mentioned here is not about covering more people, but about touching the hearts of more consumers. From this perspective, Master Kong's benchmarking against aerospace quality has raised the ceiling of the instant food industry.

Growth Power: Creating Demand, Penetrating the Consumption Chain In March 2022, Master Kong Holdings announced its 2021 full-year results, achieving revenue of 74 billion RMB, a year-on-year increase of 9.6%, exceeding previous institutional expectations, with shareholder profits reaching 3.8 billion yuan. Master Kong's instant noodle business revenue was 28.448 billion RMB, and excluding the 'high base' factor of the 2020 pandemic, it grew by more than 12.4 percentage points compared to 2019. According to Nielsen data, Master Kong's sales market share was 48%, up 1.7 percentage points year-on-year, firmly ranking first in the market.

Why was Master Kong's sales side still able to grow against the trend in 2021? We can glean some insight from the five-year 'aerospace strategic cooperation.' As mentioned earlier, benchmarking against aerospace quality is Master Kong's crucial 'fundamental base.' Under this premise, Master Kong strongly promotes product upgrade strategies, continuously implementing a product matrix strategy of multiple price bands, multiple specifications, and multiple flavors.

For example, it launched 'Big Bucket' and 'Big Food Bag' specifications to meet consumer demand for large portions; it reached new white-collar and new middle-class consumers with high-end noodles like 'Suda Noodle House' and 'Soup Master'; new products like 'Tomato Egg Beef Noodles,' 'Gan Mian Hui,' and 'Korean Spicy Beef' focus on segmented tracks... laying out office, home, outdoor, and other scenarios, continuously driving sales growth.

The Significance of the Aerospace Strategy: Symbiosis with Consumers Unlike a decade ago, we are in an era of information explosion. If an enterprise wants to convey 100% of information to consumers, perhaps only 1% will remain in their memory. Therefore, in an environment of excessive information, consumers' impressions of enterprises are one-sided and vague.

From this perspective, the 'aerospace strategy' is a content production system that Master Kong has built for itself. It can continuously deliver positive content about 'good quality' to consumers. By holding aerospace science exhibitions and aerospace experience camps, it allows consumers to realize their aerospace dreams while also participating in food safety construction.

Since becoming a partner of China's aerospace program, Master Kong's aerospace science popularization activities have traveled across the country, covering almost all regions, bringing wonderful interactive aerospace science experiences to young people and planting the seed of an aerospace dream in their hearts.

From a series of Master Kong's actions, it can be seen that Master Kong is achieving 'brand-consumer symbiosis' through aerospace, which is a strategic proposition urgently needed in the current market.

On the one hand, the increased richness of products and the gradually lowered threshold for information access mean that consumers will be more inclined to choose products that express personal emotions; on the other hand, production technology iteration has lowered product R&D barriers, and the previously explicit production barriers are gradually transforming into implicit 'brand awareness barriers,' meaning that products increase in value due to the brand, not that the brand reflects value through products. Under the guidance of the aerospace strategy, Master Kong has transformed from a 'storyteller' to 'co-narrating stories with consumers'—speaking with one voice in different places: Master Kong adheres to aerospace quality, supports aerospace dreams, and creates a better life. 2022 is another 'big aerospace year.' How high Master Kong can reach under aerospace empowerment is worth looking forward to.

Are you 'watching' me?