△ Add friend and note "inspection" to register As the beer industry gradually moves toward consumption upgrades, Budweiser's move is to attract young customers through technology and thereby expand market share..... The beer market has become unusually lively after entering the off-season. Following China Resources Beer (Holdings) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "China Resources") joining forces with Heineken to focus on the high-end beer sector, Anheuser-Busch InBev (hereinafter referred to as "Budweiser") could no longer hold back, shifting its focus from the production side to the channel side. At the 2018 China International Alcoholic Beverages Expo, Budweiser proposed for the first time to create the industry's first unmanned beer concept store, while also re-categorizing its product portfolio based on taste. Industry insiders point out that as the beer industry gradually moves toward consumption upgrades, Budweiser's move is intended to attract young customers through technology and thereby expand market share. First Foray into Unmanned Retail It is reported that Budweiser's unmanned beer concept store plan mainly involves unmanned retail, self-service bars, and brewing workshops, and also introduces facial recognition technology for self-service consumption. In addition to regular beer products, the store also offers peripheral merchandise. The reporter learned that less than a month before the unmanned beer concept store plan was proposed, Budweiser had already launched the "Unmanned Flash Store - Play Beer Guest" project in Shanghai. Currently, the promotion plan for this strategy is still in the research and drafting stage. Wang Renrong, President of Budweiser Asia Pacific, stated that Budweiser values digital marketing and hopes to keep pace with the times in the new retail sector. The reporter sent questions to Budweiser regarding the reasons and impact of the new category management method and unmanned beer concept store on the company, as well as the specific implementation process, but had not received a response by the time of writing. It is worth noting that unlike previous beer product segmentation by domestic/imported, brand, etc., Budweiser proposed dividing beer into four categories based on taste: "Crisp," "Pure," "Smooth," and "Rich," and managing its brands accordingly. Among them, "Crisp" represents brands such as Budweiser, Corona, and Harbin; "Pure" is represented by Stella Artois; "Smooth" by Hoegaarden; and "Rich" by Goose Island, etc. It is reported that Budweiser has already implemented this classification method in some retail outlets and will further expand it nationwide in the future. According to Xu Shengwei, National Director of Beverage and Alcohol Category at Carrefour, since November 2018, Budweiser has cooperated with Carrefour to renovate the beer shelf in Carrefour's Wuhan Houhu store. Wang Renrong stated that the renovation of Budweiser beer shelves in 10 Carrefour stores will be completed by the end of 2018. Zhu Danpeng, a Chinese food industry analyst, said in an interview that as a form of brand new retail implementation, Budweiser's unmanned concept store is undoubtedly aimed at further ensuring single-store profitability. Against the backdrop of consumption upgrades, Budweiser's move, combining the production side with the consumption side, currently looks relatively optimistic. However, beer industry expert Fang Gang expressed concerns, saying that the exploratory significance of Budweiser's move outweighs its practical application, and whether it can adapt to the market in the future remains to be seen. Under Pressure from All Sides in the High-End Market Behind the frequent moves in the Chinese market, the reporter noted that Budweiser is facing challenges of overall performance decline. Budweiser's latest Q3 2018 financial report shows that both profit and revenue were below expectations, with operating revenue of $1.328 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 9.9%. The reporter found that Budweiser missed revenue targets in 8 of the previous 10 quarters. However, contrary to the poor group performance, Budweiser's brands in China achieved revenue growth, including Budweiser, Corona, and Stella Artois. In recent years, Budweiser has been increasing its layout in the Chinese market, not only accelerating the expansion of its product operations but also acquiring several Chinese craft beer brands, and in January this year invested 60 million RMB to build a craft beer production line at its Wuhan factory. Online, Budweiser has established multi-dimensional cooperation with e-commerce platforms such as Tmall and JD.com. At the same time, it has cross-industry partnerships with emerging companies like Monster Charging to cover more consumption scenarios and further integrate market and channel resources. Budweiser has always held a leading position in the high-end beer market, but while accelerating its expansion in China, other domestic and foreign beer companies are also targeting the high-end sector. Foreign brands include Carlsberg's Tuborg, Carlsberg, and Kronenbourg 1664; domestic brands such as Tsingtao Beer, Yanjing Beer, and Zhujiang Beer have all launched high-end beer brands. Moreover, not long ago, the cooperation between China Resources and Heineken once again promoted changes in the high-end sector of the Chinese beer market. The current domestic beer market landscape has changed, and for Budweiser at this time, it undoubtedly faces the dilemma of being "under pressure from all sides." In Fang Gang's view, although Budweiser currently has certain brand advantages in China, it still lags significantly behind Snow Beer in scale, and its leading advantage is not too large. Despite Budweiser's continuous exploration and layout of high-end and new retail in the past two years, foreign enterprises do not necessarily have corresponding advantages in exploring new fields. Terminal Implementation Becomes a Challenge In fact, as young Chinese consumers gradually become the main consumer force, with changing consumption concepts and increased preference and acceptance of imported beer, the development space for imported beer companies in the Chinese market is gradually increasing. At the same time, there is still a certain gap between high-end and low-end beer sales. The reporter found that after logging onto the Tmall platform, as of November 26, the highest monthly sales in Budweiser's official flagship store were the 500ml*18 cans of Budweiser beer with a 50% discount and free shipping, priced at only 109 yuan, equivalent to about 6 yuan per can. In this regard, Zhu Danpeng stated that with the advent of the new generation's sovereignty era, beer companies urgently need to solve multiple pain points including brand, quality, and consumption channels. There is an industry view that facing the young group's pursuit of diversity and personalization, beer companies face challenges in both product development and marketing models. "For the vast Chinese market, this pursuit has great uncertainty, and may even lead to a significant decrease in consumer brand loyalty. Blindly catering to this can often bring additional marketing costs to companies. How to balance this relationship will test the wisdom and means of companies in promoting high-end products." In addition, data shows that since 2014, China's beer production has declined for four consecutive years. From 2007 to 2017, the number of Chinese beer companies and factories decreased by 66.5% and 27.9%, respectively. Now, the competitive landscape of the domestic beer industry has basically stabilized, and Chinese beer consumption is approaching saturation. He Yong, Executive Deputy Secretary-General of the China Alcoholic Drinks Association and Secretary-General of the Beer Branch, stated that in the past two years, under the influence of consumption upgrades, demographic changes, and overcapacity, large domestic beer companies have been under pressure in terms of product structure and marketing channels. In the future, with changes in product structure and industry landscape, the demand for more diversified and personalized mid-to-high-end beer products in China will further expand, and the increment in beer consumption capacity may shift from passive growth to active guidance. This article is sourced from Beijing Business Today. Tenth B-end E-commerce Inspection - "From Products to Scenes" Activity time: December 10-13 Activity locations: Wuhu, Nanjing, Changsha Activity schedule:
Morning of Dec 10: Visit Three Squirrels headquarters + snack store
Afternoon of Dec 10: Visit Nanjing Squirrel Small Store
Evening of Dec 10: Visit Nanjing Master Gao Beer Workshop Store
All day Dec 11: Nanjing to Changsha, or free arrangement
Morning of Dec 12: Community group buying exchange salon
Afternoon of Dec 12: Kaola Select Heroes League launch event
Evening of Dec 12 to early morning of Dec 13: Field visit to Kaola Select logistics center - This time period is the peak sorting period in the warehouse, allowing direct observation and learning of the backend operation process of community group buying e-commerce Distributor friends who are interested are welcome to join us to learn and inspect on-site : Organization format 1. Big-name exchange salon************2. Company visit
- On-site explanation
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