---
title: "Two Marketing Experts: Ten Trends and Four Major Changes in the Condiment Industry in 2016"
description: "This article presents insights from two marketing experts on the condiment industry in 2016. Zhang Feng, Chief Consultant of Musen Enterprise Management, outlines ten trends including industry consolidation, capital influx, brand concentration, and the rise of compound seasonings. Hou Junwei, General Manager of Shanghai Ruinong Enterprise Management Consulting, discusses four changes: a shift towards mid-to-high-end products, a return to natural and traditional methods, accelerated e-commerce adoption, and the importance of scenario planning."
author: "New Distribution"
publisher: "New Distribution"
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published: "2016-03-07"
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# Two Marketing Experts: Ten Trends and Four Major Changes in the Condiment Industry in 2016

> This article presents insights from two marketing experts on the condiment industry in 2016. Zhang Feng, Chief Consultant of Musen Enterprise Management, outlines ten trends including industry consolidation, capital influx, brand concentration, and the rise of compound seasonings. Hou Junwei, General Manager of Shanghai Ruinong Enterprise Management Consulting, discusses four changes: a shift towards mid-to-high-end products, a return to natural and traditional methods, accelerated e-commerce adoption, and the importance of scenario planning.

**"Taste" Future**
**----Interpretation of Trends in the Condiment Industry**
By Zhang Feng, Chief Consultant of Musen Enterprise Management
With the downward pressure on the overall economy, the entire food industry will still face a harsh winter in 2016, truly entering the coldest days. The survival pressure on enterprises cannot be underestimated. As a livelihood-related industry, the condiment sector also faces considerable pressure. However, the condiment industry has its own particularities and also faces many opportunities.

**Trend 1: Wave of Closures and Mergers**
With the overall economic downturn and intensified industry competition, some small enterprises, constrained by capital chains, channels, insufficient market investment, slow growth, and lack of core products, will see a large number of closures in the coming period. Meanwhile, enterprises with a certain scale, their own leading products, regional brands, and production hardware conditions will gain new life through mergers and reorganizations.

**Trend 2: Accelerated Listing and Financing of Industry Enterprises**
When the economic environment is poor, the traditional food industry is a safe haven. Since condiments are the industry closest to people's livelihoods, it is a safe haven within the traditional food industry. With the decline of the real estate industry and the bubble in the internet industry in recent years, capital is gradually returning to traditional industries. Although the condiment industry grows slowly, its brand life cycle is long, profits are relatively guaranteed, and its risk resistance is strong, making it increasingly favored by capital. At the same time, with the lowering of listing thresholds and the diversification of listing channels, many high-quality mid-sized condiment enterprises with growth potential will go public through various channels.

**Trend 3: Industry Enters a Shakeout Period, Brand Concentration Increases**
Whether from economic factors, the capital era, or the industry's own development laws, the condiment industry has entered a shakeout period. Especially for more traditional categories such as soy sauce, vinegar, and fermented bean curd, brand concentration will become increasingly high.

**Trend 4: Compound Seasonings Rise Rapidly, but Technical Risks Remain**
Innovation has always been a constraint on the development of the condiment industry. In recent years, influenced by the catering industry and changes in the age structure of household consumption, compound seasonings have grown rapidly. However, many enterprises do not simply proportionally mix original, single raw materials; instead, they use chemical additives to meet product performance and consumer requirements. This poses significant technical risks. Once national laws and regulations are gradually improved and consumer awareness (such as health monitoring data) becomes transparent, such enterprises may face fatal blows.

**Trend 5: Food Safety is the Primary Factor for Enterprise Survival**
Recently, the state has begun to truly focus on food safety. General Secretary Xi Jinping has also given important instructions on the safety of the people's food. Therefore, in the future, enterprises should place product safety first. Regardless of brand strength or enterprise size, from the national strategic level, matters concerning people's livelihoods are not trivial. Therefore, whether in technical formulas, processing techniques, production environments, or raw material quality, enterprises must adhere to high standards and strict requirements; otherwise, they will face disaster. 2016 will undoubtedly see a storm of food safety rectification.

**Trend 6: Industry Enters an Era of High Prices**
In people's minds, condiments are a consumer industry for the masses, with generally low product added value, and prices for all categories have been in a low-lying state. However, with the hard demands of some high-end consumers for health, concepts, and actual product raw materials (such as non-GMO, green, natural), and the hard costs invested by enterprises, a batch of high-quality, high-priced products will inevitably emerge and occupy their due consumer groups. Taking soy sauce as an example, products priced at dozens or even hundreds of yuan have already performed well in the market.

**Trend 7: Return to Traditional Techniques, Time-Honored Brands Rejuvenate**
The condiment industry has a history of thousands of years, during which a large number of time-honored enterprises have been nurtured and passed down for centuries. However, due to the impact of industrialization, outdated systems, and scale dilemmas, many time-honored enterprises have declined or disappeared from people's memories. In recent years, with people's recognition of traditional brewing techniques and the return of original ecological consumption concepts, the advantages of time-honored brands are gradually emerging. Coupled with national policy support and capital market pursuit, many time-honored enterprises will surely rejuvenate.

**Trend 8: Capital Remains a Challenge for Small and Medium Enterprises**
Limited by the slow growth of the condiment industry, long brand cultivation cycles, and low product added value, cash flow remains an obstacle to the development of small and medium enterprises. Ensuring cash flow and leveraging market and other channels for financing will continue to be key concerns. However, the author does not recommend direct financing through financial channels, but rather capital integration through supply chains and equity reforms.

**Trend 9: New Positioning and Models in Manufacturer-Dealer Relations**
With the emergence of new business models, resources will inevitably be redistributed. Coupled with the hard requirements for professionalism in all supply chain links, the traditional single buy-sell cooperation between manufacturers and dealers will inevitably be broken. To survive, manufacturers and dealers must highly integrate and consolidate, eliminate traditional internal friction thinking, and tightly bind interests to create new symbiotic relationships and cooperation models.

**Trend 10: Channel Fragmentation Increases Pressure on Input and Output**
In recent years, with the traditional channels entering a shakeout period (especially the saturation competition faced by supermarket chains), the rise of new channels, and the impact of internet thinking (although the condiment industry, due to its consumption characteristics, finds it difficult to benefit from the internet), channels have entered an era of fragmentation. Although single-store output continues to decline and customer traffic decreases, the condiment industry still cannot do without traditional channels such as physical stores, leading to a serious mismatch between input and output, resulting in increased costs and declining sales. However, promotion in the condiment industry must be down-to-earth and close to the main consumer groups. Therefore, the author suggests that enterprises focus on ground promotion, display, community stores, store coverage rate, and terminal interception, while using the internet, self-media, and soft embedded approaches for low-cost communication to enhance brand awareness. In a poor overall environment, this is the best strategy.

**Four Major Changes in the Condiment Industry in 2016**
By Hou Junwei, General Manager of Shanghai Ruinong Enterprise Management Consulting Co., Ltd.
From the perspective of the food industry, the condiment industry is still relatively fragmented, with many product categories and many similar enterprises nationwide. Under these circumstances, the condiment industry will see the following changes in 2016:

**First, condiments will continue to develop towards the mid-to-high-end direction.** Why would daily consumer products like condiments move towards higher prices or higher value? This is because the consumption level of the current consumer groups is improving, and consumption concepts are changing. Additionally, the domestic middle class is expanding, and more consumers are willing to spend more money to buy better products. Overall, these products will move towards providing more value to consumers, and mid-to-high-end products will be a trend in 2016.

**Second, the entire condiment industry will see a trend of returning to simplicity.** From the current domestic food industry perspective, food safety has always been a major issue. That is to say, looking back ten or twenty years, China's food safety problems have never been resolved. When consumers purchase products, they do not know which product is safe and free from food safety issues. Based on this consumer psychology, enterprises in 2016 or longer in the future will see more products that do more work on safety appeals, and the best way is to make their products have the most natural characteristics or features.

In specific performance, it is divided into nostalgic and appeal types. For example, if a product has a packaging style from the 1980s, it indicates that the enterprise uses the most traditional methods to produce the product, or it conveys from the perspective of raw materials and the industrial chain that its products are trustworthy and reliable.

**Third, with the rapid development of the internet, the pace of e-commerce development in the condiment industry will also accelerate.** Although most condiments are not easy to transport, as consumers' dependence on internet platforms, including mobile internet, continues to strengthen, condiment products will also expand sales on internet platforms, and the volume will further increase.

It is worth noting that single condiment products are not particularly suitable. For example, would a consumer buy just a bottle of soy sauce online? It is possible. But such a single product is not very convenient for either merchants or consumers. Therefore, the internet is more suitable for combined condiment sets. Such product combinations may be more suitable for online sales and consumer online purchasing needs. For example, soy sauce, vinegar, MSG, oil, etc., can be combined into a set and sold online. Whether such combinations appear or not, e-commerce is an important trend. I think the condiment industry's e-commerce will develop well in 2016 or next year.

**Finally, since the internet has brought many conveniences to our lives and changed our lives, enterprises should pay attention to scenario planning for their products.** That is to say, enterprises should create familiar scenarios for consumers through their products, brands, and sales channels, resonate with consumers, and thus generate stronger stickiness. For enterprises, this can lead to sales; for consumers, they can purchase products they are familiar with and recognize.

Source: New Third Board Food Research

**-END-**

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