Soy sauce is the largest category in China's condiment industry, with annual production reaching tens of millions of tons. Currently, in the domestic market, the well-known Haitian soy sauce leads the pack, followed by Lee Kum Kee, Chubang, and Original Fresh, forming a competitive landscape of 'one superpower, multiple strong players.'

However, recently, Totole Original Fresh soy sauce has changed its brand strategy, heavily focusing on Focus Media elevator advertising, promoting '0 additives, 3 layers of freshness,' aiming to use healthier ingredients and a more original taste to directly target 300 million urban mainstream consumers and further capture market share.

As is well known, Totole is a leader in the chicken essence field. Why is it making a high-profile entry into the soy sauce market? What is the competitiveness of Totole Original Fresh soy sauce?

-01- Reason 1: The needs of mainstream consumer groups are unmet

As the post-90s generation works, marries, and establishes careers, they, together with the post-80s, form the 'new middle class.' They contribute 70%-80% of urban consumption power and are also opinion leaders and word-of-mouth influencers for brand consumption, affecting the transformation and upgrading of products and brands. Only by winning the favor of the new middle class and meeting their personalized needs can companies gain a competitive advantage in the future.

As the main consumer force in today's society, the new middle class has consumption concepts that differ greatly from those of the post-60s and post-70s. Quality, health, safety, and experience are replacing cost-effectiveness as their rigid consumption demands.

However, looking at the entire soy sauce market, most existing soy sauce brands add flavor-enhancing additives such as sodium sorbate, sodium benzoate, I&G, and dipotassium hydrogen phosphate to their ingredients, and there are few soy sauce products that use completely healthy and safe ingredients.

People choose a soy sauce brand often because they 'have no choice' or simply because 'the advertising is good,' not because the product is competitive and meets user needs. A healthier and safer soy sauce product is urgently needed.

Totole seized this pain point and created the Original Fresh soy sauce series, which contains 'only 6 ingredients' and is free of preservatives and sweeteners, ensuring both safety and peace of mind.

Compared with traditional soy sauce ingredients, the Original Fresh series includes water, white sugar, defatted soybeans, wheat, and corn fermentation paste made from edible corn starch, all of which are familiar, healthy, and safe edible ingredients.

While keeping the ingredients simple, the Original Fresh series does not compromise on umami, truly achieving '0 additives, 3 layers of freshness,' breaking industry bottlenecks and meeting the health and safety consumption needs of mainstream middle-class consumers.

-02- Reason 2: Innovative brand strategy differentiates from competitors and takes the middle-class route

Soy sauce is a mass consumer product, and many soy sauce brands have developed mass-market marketing strategies based on their product characteristics. Products, advertising, and ordering meetings are their favorite tactics; TV, newspapers, radio, and DM are their preferred advertising channels.

However, this mass-market approach seems to be 'falling behind' in the current era of information overload, media fragmentation, and product homogenization. Brand marketing should always be consumer-centric. With mainstream media shifting, the traditional 'one-size-fits-all' approach may fall into the awkward situation of being self-limiting.

Currently, compared with the traditional approaches of Haitian, Lee Kum Kee, and Chubang, Totole has not followed the conventional 'casting a wide net' mass-market model in its brand marketing. Instead, it has taken a different path and implemented precision marketing. After positioning the mainstream consumer group as its target audience, it chose Focus Media elevator media, which can precisely reach this group with brand information, as its main communication channel.

The core value of Focus Media elevator media lies in occupying the 'elevator' scenario, which is a daily必经 place for 300 million mainstream middle-class consumers. Its unique characteristics of active viewing and ability to ignite mainstream consumers can quickly occupy users' minds, establishing brand awareness and a mental moat.

In recent years, Focus Media has successfully helped new economy and traditional brands such as Qiaqia Little Yellow Bag, Miaokelannuo, Bosideng, Feihe Infant Formula, XPeng Motors, and Bitauto achieve brand upgrades and ignition. In the decentralized media era, the centralized value of Focus Media is increasingly prominent.

Urban mainstream consumers are increasingly becoming the main consumption force. They are not only KOLs but also KOCs. With the continuous development of quality and health demands, Totole Original Fresh's promise of '0 additives, 3 layers of freshness' is bound to gain more support from the middle class.

In the era of consumption upgrading, only by grasping the mainstream middle class can companies ignite the main engine of consumption and win the market. In the long run, Totole will continue its stable and vigorous development momentum and is expected to set off a new trend of healthy soy sauce consumption and advance to the first tier.

Once the tip is adopted, a reward of 400-2000 yuan will be paid.