Without the impact of the Spring Festival special period, this time would be the peak season for beverage brands' water battles. In 2019, with giants like Nongfu Spring and Tsingtao Beer entering the soda water field, other small and medium enterprises followed suit, making 2020 destined to be an extraordinary year for soda water. The special period has further deepened human health awareness, and soda water's inherent health attributes have surged with the boom in health beverages. How should water companies strategize? Here are some suggestions.
-01- Current Status of Domestic Soda Water
1. Some Authoritative Data China's soda water industry has been growing steadily since around 2010, and in recent years, more and more brands have entered the soda water market. According to Kantar Worldpanel data, from 2017 to 2018, the sales growth rate of the soda water market reached 36.9%, and in the future, the expansion speed of soda water will continue to grow rapidly. A research report released by Nielsen pointed out that in 2018, the sales growth rate of food and beverage sub-categories showed that ready-to-drink soy milk, unsweetened tea, low-temperature milk, soda water, and other FMCG products focusing on "low sugar, health" showed rapid growth. "Strong health awareness has changed people's purchasing habits for food and beverages. 83% of Chinese consumers will proactively adjust their diet to prevent health diseases, 13 percentage points higher than the global average. They also pay more attention to healthy food and beverages and have a stronger willingness to consume." In addition, 79% of consumers pay attention to the ingredients of the food and beverages they consume, and 82% are willing to pay more for food and beverages with safe ingredients, far higher than the global average (68%).
2. Common Domestic Soda Water Brands From packaging: PET bottles are the mainstream, cans are supplementary, and glass bottles are sporadic. From price range: Mingren's 3 yuan price range is the main, Watsons' 5 yuan price range is supplementary, and other products' price ranges are sporadic. From channels: Mingren focuses on circulation channels, with non-circulation channels as support; other soda water brands focus on KA and CVS, with other channels being natural circulation. From promotion: Mingren has begun to systematically educate consumers, with consumer promotions as support; other soda water brands use online platforms, event marketing, etc. to expand brand influence.
-02- Brand Positioning of Soda Water It is not difficult to find that many leading brands rely on only 1-3 SKUs to carry the banner of "first-line brands." These SKUs not only account for a huge share of the enterprise's sales but also serve as the foundation for the brand's endorsement. In today's fragmented media environment, promoting soda water solely through CCTV loudspeakers + brand endorsement is not feasible. The soda water market has been in chaos until now, still lacking a national leading brand. So at this moment, all soda water companies seem to be standing on the starting line of the same track. Whoever makes precise efforts first can overtake on the curve and lead the pack. For example: "Natural weak alkaline," "Use your brain often, drink six walnut milk," "Afraid of getting angry, drink Wanglaoji" - these differentiated brand positions are deeply rooted in people's minds and are important factors in building a successful brand. But think about it: aren't other waters naturally weak alkaline? Can't other walnut milk help with frequent brain use? Don't other herbal teas have the function of preventing internal heat? So the success of soda water also depends on differentiated positioning. The effect of shouting it out first versus later is vastly different. Below are several positioning suggestions based on the special functions of soda water for brand owners' reference.
1. Positioning: Nourish the stomach and aid digestion Core: Neutralize stomach acid Soda water can neutralize stomach acid. The Helicobacter pylori in our stomach causes gastrointestinal dysfunction, slow gastrointestinal motility, and upward reversal of stomach qi, leading to bad breath, acid reflux, nausea, vomiting, bloating, indigestion, loss of appetite, etc. Soda water contains sodium bicarbonate, which after hydrolysis produces bicarbonate ions that can neutralize excessive stomach acid and effectively inhibit the expansion of Helicobacter pylori.
2. Positioning: Beauty and skincare Core: Antioxidant Soda water has antioxidant effects and can prevent skin aging. Lemon + natural soda water: helps improve appetite, prevent skin aging, and beautify the skin.
3. Positioning: Relieve gout Core: Dissolve uric acid Uric acid is the biggest culprit of gout. 100 mg of weakly alkaline soda water can dissolve 21.3 mg of uric acid, which is twice the dissolution rate of ordinary drinking water. In terms of mechanism, the sodium bicarbonate in soda water can alkalize urine, promote the excretion of uric acid, and have a uric acid-lowering effect. Therefore, regular consumption of soda water can effectively excrete uric acid that has adverse effects on the body, freeing patients from gout. Although gout is difficult to treat, as long as you insist on drinking 2000ml-3000ml of soda water daily for 15-30 days, the uric acid level in the blood will significantly decrease.
4. Positioning: Beer companion Core: Relieve indigestion Some people like to drink a lot of ice-cold beer, which can easily affect digestive function, and in severe cases, cause spastic abdominal pain, diarrhea, and other gastrointestinal diseases. At this time, it is advisable to drink some soda water instead. Moderate consumption of soda water helps regulate digestive function and relieve indigestion symptoms.
5. Positioning: Gastric mucosa protective umbrella, meal companion Core: Weak alkalinity Soda water is weakly alkaline and has the effect of protecting the gastric mucosa. Drinking a small amount of natural soda water 20-30 minutes before each meal can stimulate gastric acid secretion and aid digestion; the calcium and magnesium ions can also soften stool, promote intestinal peristalsis, and help regulate metabolism and excrete acidic metabolites.
6. Positioning: Oral problems Core: Alleviate symptoms Soda water also has good effects on oral diseases, stomatitis, and throat diseases. Gargling with soda water or drinking it regularly can alleviate symptoms.
7. Positioning: Anti-fatigue Core: Refresh and relieve fatigue Drinking soda water daily can refresh and relieve fatigue, improve sleep quality; smoking, when a cigarette is placed near soda water for a moment, can reduce the harm of tar and nicotine.
8. Positioning: Sober up, relieve alcohol Core: Accelerate alcohol metabolism Natural soda water can accelerate the metabolism of alcohol in the human body, reduce the damage of alcohol to the liver, and is the best companion for drinking! Drinking natural soda water while drinking alcohol makes it less likely to get drunk, and when drunk, drinking natural soda water helps sober up faster!
9. Positioning: Health care for middle-aged and elderly Core: Decomposition effect, lower three highs Basically, most people over 60 suffer from hypertension, due to excessive acidity in the body, thick blood, and slow blood flow. Sediments attach to the blood vessel walls, causing the walls to thicken, thus forming hypertension. Soda water can improve this symptom well because it has an extraordinary decomposition effect and strong dilution power, which can decompose and excrete the sediments on the blood vessel walls. Long-term consumption of soda water can achieve a good blood pressure-lowering effect. Case analysis: The following is a poster of Mingren soda water, which is quite popular in the market. It can be seen that Mingren soda water's differentiated positioning is the 8th one above: relieve alcohol, sober up. It is worth emphasizing that since soda water has the above 9 benefits for the body, there are many brand positioning points, and integrated positioning is also possible. For example, you can combine relieving alcohol and aiding digestion into one, with differentiated positioning as: relieve alcohol and aid digestion; Tsingtao Beer's "Prince · Seaweed Soda Water" also adds a new differentiated positioning for this product with the seaweed ingredient. However, the appeal points of differentiated integrated positioning should not exceed 2, otherwise consumers will find it difficult to form precise brand awareness, increasing the probability of failure.
-03- Starting Operation Model for Soda Water: BC Integrated Operation I once served at Nongfu Spring for five years, and during those five years, the two things I led the team to do the most were: 1. Terminal store visibility construction (B-end: achieve water stacks in every store); 2. Consumer education (C-end: community water battles, water tests), This approach is also effective for the future. Teacher Shi Wei once analyzed the trinity theory system of cognition, transaction, and relationship, proposing that cognition is transaction, and transaction is relationship. In the Internet era, the B-end opens the channel model, whose function is transaction, the scene where consumers purchase; the C-end opens the communication model, whose function is cognition, the reason consumers choose to buy. At this time, if an enterprise only does B-end or C-end alone, it will be a step slower, and in the fast-moving consumer goods circle where fast fish eat slow fish, it cannot survive. After making precise positioning for soda water, the next thing to do is BC integrated operation.
For the B-end, there are 3 problems to solve: 1. In terms of channels, grabbing everything at once is doomed. What kind of B-end is the target customer for brand owners? For example: if positioning for aiding digestion, first do catering channels; if positioning for beauty, first do beauty and fitness channels; if positioning for anti-fatigue, first do convenience stores around office buildings. 2. What kind of scene should brand owners create based on the soda water positioning to attract target consumers to watch? For example: positioning for anti-fatigue, create a scene of white-collar workers working overtime day and night. 3. How to integrate online promotion to achieve online publicity and offline experience? Air force moves first, land and sea cooperate, media first, distribution and free tasting follow up.
For the C-end, there are 4 problems to solve:
- How to guide the C-end to understand soda water and create demand for soda water?
- How to attract C-end attention and enhance the brand awareness of soda water?
- How to interact with C-end through inquiries and establish brand attitude towards soda water?
- How to build brand loyalty and increase consumers' willingness to buy soda water? Put yourself in their shoes, immersive experience.
-04- Analysis of Soda Water Sales Promotion: Targeted Distribution, Deep Sales Promotion Even for first-line brands, do not rely on brand endorsement and channel power for indiscriminate distribution. Consumers' awareness has completely changed. Just like Red Bull, a single product leads the pack while other products remain unknown, so targeted distribution that matches product positioning is particularly important. When selecting target channels and target outlets, it is recommended: Based on the logic of deep sales promotion, local first-line soda water brands should do brand display (buy out shelves and freezers exclusively to avoid competitor erosion), while other non-first-line soda water brands should do category display (fight alongside first-line competitors). For example, Jinmailang soda water category display: lean on the big guy, highlight competitive advantages, and shape new consumer awareness. Jinmailang's newly launched soda water this year: Everyone knows that Mingren soda water is the leader in many regions in this category. Category display is to fight hand-to-hand with the leader. What Jinmailang shapes is new consumer awareness:
- The retail price is also 3 yuan; 2. The pH value is 8.0; 3. The capacity is 74ml more than yours, and there is also a chance to win another bottle. If you are not a die-hard fan of Mingren soda water, would you waver?
Finally: Consumer awareness is upgrading, lifestyles are upgrading, and consumption capacity is also upgrading. With the continuous infusion of health concepts, the soda water trend is believed to form soon. Along with it, other beverage companies will follow with their soda water products. 2020 may become the first year of soda water, and a market battle is inevitable. Who will be the king of this battle? Let's wait and see.
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