In August 2019, Guangdong was hot and humid. On the shelves of a convenience store, boxes of biscuits were neatly arranged, their bright cartoon packaging making the entire shelf look adorable. Within a few minutes, passersby would grab a box, and the freshly stocked shelf gradually emptied again.

The store owner finally believed the distributor who supplied the store: selling this biscuit would definitely make money. Now it seemed that this biscuit, which had become popular on Douyin, was indeed bringing in good sales.

It was Meiji Panda Biscuits.

In Guangdong, over 20 distributors had just obtained the agency rights, coming from different channels. In the fiercely competitive snack food market of Guangdong, few products, especially in the biscuit category, could earn the trust of distributors. The reason Meiji Panda Biscuits became popular must be attributed to the short video app we all know well: Douyin.

This platform, with hundreds of millions of users, has become a factory for internet-famous products.

Douyin: The Dream Factory for Internet-Famous Products

In China, 250 million people are active on Douyin every day. During lunch breaks, after work, and before bed, they use Douyin to relieve fatigue and discover new worlds. This 15-second creative short video social app, targeting young people, has become an important platform for product promotion.

Douyin has captured the minds of consumers across different age groups, spread across various cities and industries. Through Douyin, they express themselves in their own ways, and through Douyin, they discover and get hooked on new products.

For snack foods, attracting consumers within just 15 seconds is not easy. The information conveyed to consumers must not only be about taste but also highlight novelty and uniqueness.

An Unintentional Act Made This Biscuit Go Viral

The explosion of Meiji Panda Biscuits was not deliberate. Who would have thought that a netizen's casual display could spark a nationwide wave of shaking? With the participation of Douyin influencers and the boost from internet celebrities, this product, though not new, made countless post-00s fall for it. "Shaking the Panda Biscuit into a ball" not only attracted over 300 million views but also became a must-do activity for young Douyin users. Homes, offices, shopping malls, and scenic spots all became check-in locations for the shaking challenge.

Ten years ago, Meiji Panda Biscuits entered the Chinese market. This international brand, originating from a factory in Singapore, entered consumers' view as an imported food. According to the earliest distributors of Meiji Panda Biscuits, it attracted many consumers back then and became one of the most popular products on the market. They never expected that ten years later, Meiji Panda Biscuits would become popular again, capturing the attention of the post-00s generation.

Meiji Panda Biscuits should thank Douyin.

The emergence of Douyin gave the expressive post-00s a platform to showcase themselves, and because of this, snack foods could spread exponentially. This is something traditional advertising cannot achieve.

At the same time, the appearance of Douyin topic challenges gave users a sense of collective participation. Every time a user uploaded a video of "shaking the Panda Biscuit into a ball," whether successful or not, it received many likes. At that moment, Meiji Panda Biscuits became a social tool, bringing together like-minded people.

Proving Itself with Quality

Meiji Panda Biscuits should also thank itself.

It was its decade-long commitment to quality that made it a trusted product in consumers' eyes; it was its continuous innovation in marketing strategies over the decade that made it a profitable product for distributors.

Ten years ago, Meiji Panda Biscuits, dressed in cartoon packaging, jumped into consumers' eyes. Advanced production techniques and high-quality raw materials made consumers recognize its taste.

Ten years later, Meiji Panda Biscuits remains youthful but has innovated, offering 7 flavors to satisfy the picky tastes of the new generation. The Meiji Oat Crisp series has diversified breakfast options for white-collar women. The cartoon-shaped biscuits with words printed on the back have sparked children's interest in learning.

Ten years later, when consumers started the "shake into a ball" trend on Douyin, Meiji knew that consumers had not forgotten it.

Gratitude to Distributors' Support

Distributors have not forgotten either.

When distributors learned that a biscuit had become popular on Douyin, they were not impressed. These seasoned veterans in the FMCG industry were not interested in internet-famous products, knowing well that their life cycles are very short. But when they learned the brand was Meiji, their eyes lit up.

Many distributors who had been representing Meiji biscuits for years felt proud after learning about the Douyin popularity, telling everyone, "See, this is the product I represent."

Distributors who did not represent Meiji also inquired about how to obtain the agency.

Oriental Express: The Professional Operator

Whether driven by sentiment or profit, Meiji Panda Biscuits has become a traffic magnet in the eyes of distributors. Behind this is the general agent for Meiji biscuits in China: Oriental Express.

When mentioning Oriental Express, the older generation of Meiji distributors have much to say. They once fought side by side with Oriental Express to open up the domestic market for Meiji biscuits. They know that Oriental Express does a good job protecting distributors' markets, with single-channel, exclusive supply, maximizing the protection of distributors' interests. Over the years, there have been no losses for distributors due to market price chaos.

At the same time, Oriental Express is also very careful in selecting distributors, after all, making money for distributors is the key.

Oriental Express also provides maximum support in market promotion and policy support. After the Douyin popularity, Oriental Express knew that to convert the huge traffic into distributor sales, it had to go offline. To this end, Oriental Express partnered with 5,000 Suning convenience stores nationwide to carry out display activities, and conducted street dance flash mobs in hypermarkets, cinemas, high-speed rail stations, airports, amusement parks, university campuses, and bus stations. These operations by Oriental Express were all aimed at helping distributors promote the product.

High-frequency offline exposure, maximized product displays, and the continuous increase in Douyin popularity made distributors notice that product turnover was accelerating. Many distributors also took out their phones and uploaded videos of themselves with Meiji Panda Biscuits.

The efforts of the Oriental Express team made new distributors understand that internet-famous products are not all as short-lived as flowers; with strong brand power and product strength, they will naturally be recognized by consumers.

A new distributor described it this way: "Maybe you don't eat biscuits often, but when you want to eat biscuits, the first brand that comes to mind is Meiji. That's brand power. When you choose Meiji biscuits and find so many series and flavors to choose from, and you can even shake them into a ball when bored, that's product power."

Traffic, profit, and turnover are the three key factors for distributors when selecting products. If a product can satisfy all three, what reason would distributors have not to represent it?

Over the past decade, the emergence of mobile internet has made product distribution channels more extensive; over the past decade, intense market competition has made distributors value profits more; over the past decade, Meiji's continuous innovation has made the brand stronger.

Ten years later, from August 20-23, 2019, at the FMCG industry event themed "Trillion-Yuan Growth · 2019 China FMCG Conference" hosted by New Distribution, new and old distributors of Meiji Panda Biscuits will have their first offline gathering.

At that time, Oriental Express will share its growth journey over the past decade on site, and distributors will also share their success experiences. Most importantly, those who have not yet represented Meiji products can experience the products and learn about relevant policies on site.

The post-80s love M&M's because they enjoy sharing; the post-90s love Kinder Surprise eggs because they love discovery; perhaps the post-00s prefer Meiji Panda Biscuits because they are good at expressing themselves.

Ten years, one more step forward.

Tips will be paid 400-2000 yuan once adopted.

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