---
title: "When the Trend Comes, How Can Food Product Managers Leverage It to Create Hit Products?"
description: "The sudden outbreak of COVID-19 disrupted the calm of 2020. During the pandemic, consumer demand for immunity-boosting and convenient foods rose due to fear and laziness. Beyond pandemic-driven needs, shifts in consumer demographics and rising spending power have created new category opportunities. Brands must discern and act on these trends to develop successful products."
author: "FBIF"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2020-03-03"
categories: "Brand Marketing, Management & Methods"
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# When the Trend Comes, How Can Food Product Managers Leverage It to Create Hit Products?

> The sudden outbreak of COVID-19 disrupted the calm of 2020. During the pandemic, consumer demand for immunity-boosting and convenient foods rose due to fear and laziness. Beyond pandemic-driven needs, shifts in consumer demographics and rising spending power have created new category opportunities. Brands must discern and act on these trends to develop successful products.

The sudden outbreak of COVID-19 disrupted the calm of 2020. During the pandemic, consumer demand for immunity-boosting and convenient foods rose due to fear and laziness. Beyond pandemic-driven needs, shifts in consumer demographics and rising spending power have created new category opportunities.
Lei Jun of Xiaomi once said: **Standing at the风口, even a pig can fly.** Countless brands are racing to catch up on trends, fearing they might miss the opportunity for growth.
Consumers are fickle, so manufacturers need to launch new products that align with new trends to meet demand. However, according to Nielsen data, over the past decade, new products have had increasingly shorter lifespans in the market, averaging less than 18 months. FMCG companies worldwide have wasted over $4 billion on unsuccessful new products.
When a trend emerges, product managers constantly ponder how to identify it, make judgments, choose the right track, and develop products with explosive potential. No one can predict which products will succeed, but we can use past knowledge and experience to estimate product development, reduce failure rates, and strengthen brands.
**-01-**
**The Evolution of Food is a History of Consumption Development**
Before studying consumption trends, let's review the evolution of consumer products over the past 30 years to understand changes in consumer demand. We can see that over the past three decades, consumers have shifted from eating to eating well, from satisfying hunger to focusing on health, and from simply eating to enjoying life. Consumer needs have changed dramatically.
Take juice as an example: product types have evolved from low-concentration juice to medium-high concentration juice, to 100% pure juice, to NFC juice. Juice content has increased, processing methods have shifted from concentrated reduction to non-concentrated, and storage and transport have moved from ambient to cold chain. Nutritional value has increased, and taste has become fresher, gradually meeting consumer demand for nutritious, natural juice. Brands like Nongfu Spring, Huiyuan, Luckin Coffee, and Chu Orange have successively entered the NFC juice category.
Image source: Tmall
Food types and selling points have undergone earth-shaking changes. New trends are driving more new demands in the food industry, such as sugar reduction, plant-based options, and smaller packaging. It's no longer just about taste and price. What drives these changes in consumer demand?
**1. Growth in National Economy and Per Capita Income**
Over the past decade, per capita GDP has grown by 130%, surpassing the $10,000 mark in 2019. Consumers have more disposable income, leading to higher expectations for food. From eating to eating well, from one food for multiple scenarios to specific foods for specific scenarios, and from the whole family drinking the same milk to elderly milk for seniors and children's milk for kids.
Per capita GDP growth over the past decade, data source: National Bureau of Statistics
**2. Formation of Consumer Segmentation and Grouping**
Consumers are divided into multiple groups based on physiological and consumption attributes. For example, according to Taobao's segmentation, consumers can be divided into eight groups: middle class, new forces, small-town youth, and silver-haired generation. Different groups have different consumption and individual needs, inevitably leading to diversified new product development. This is the fundamental reason for diversification.
First, changes in the main consumer group affect the food industry. As post-80s, post-90s, and post-95s become the main consumers, young consumer groups differ significantly from their parents. Consumption has shifted from conservative to active, from practicality to personal enjoyment, with higher demands on product quality and core values, forcing brands to grow to meet these needs.
Young consumers have high patriotic enthusiasm and stronger confidence in domestic products, which helps domestic new food brands grow better and achieve success in niche categories.
Second, changes in group size have a significant impact on food. For example, as the middle class grows, previously niche demands have increased in volume.
Middle-class mothers focus on family health and need healthier foods with fewer additives, leading to the emergence of yogurt brand Jane Ho. With the trend of youth wellness, foods that are natural, additive-free, and plant-based have become more popular, revitalizing plant milk and sugar-free tea categories. The growing single population has sparked the single economy, making one-person meals a new development trend. **Developing products for specific groups, with precise product benefits, promotion channels, and methods, increases the likelihood of success.**
**3. Improvement in National Education Levels**
As the overall education level of the population improves, information asymmetry further diminishes. Consumers are increasingly scrutinizing nutritional components and additives in food, leading to the emergence of KOLs who guide food consumption, thus fostering a trend of rational eating.
**4. Technological Advancement**
Technological progress provides the support to meet consumer pain points, turning product expectations into reality. Technologies like vacuum freeze-drying and ultra-high pressure sterilization have matured, making food preservation and sterilization easier, promoting industry development.
**-02-**
**When the Trend Comes, What Homework Should Food Brands Do?**
In recent years, major companies have launched many products that align with consumption trends, such as coffee, plant milk, and sugar-free tea. They cater to new food trends like health, developing upgraded or entirely new product types to meet consumer demands. New trends also stimulate brands' motivation to develop new products.
In fact, when a trend emerges, the first thing we should do is not rush to launch and sell products, but rather to sharpen our tools first—calmly analyze the trend and market to find the right path for product development.
**First, carefully analyze what consumer demands the trend expresses and how to guide new product development.**
Trends hide consumers' desire for improvement of current products; they are expressions of demands. For example, sugar reduction and low fat are expressions of demand for low-calorie, healthy diets; small packaging and semi-finished meals express convenience, one-person meal, and lazy needs. Only by grasping the actual consumer demands and pain points can we develop new products in line with the product line.
These pain points have become bottlenecks for product development. Consumers currently have no choice but to use them temporarily, but once new options appear, they are likely to switch brands. Like the sugar in Coca-Cola or the oil in potato chips, these are points of consumer fear.
As consumer awareness increases, these points become obstacles preventing users from consuming these products. This is the category pain point expressed in the trend. Coca-Cola recognized this and gradually developed products like sugar-free Coke and high-fiber Sprite. Potato chip products have also shifted from fried to baked, with less oil and healthier.
Image source: Tmall
**Second, everything is based on consumer insight, not closed-door brainstorming in the office.**
Analyzing trends inevitably involves understanding the target audience. To meet users' pain points, delight points, and itch points, let's break them down one by one.
If we want to develop a new product, let's first answer the following questions:
**(1) Who is the target group for the new product, and what are their profiles?**
This question helps brands better understand the boundaries of the people the new product reaches. Is the main consumer group for the new product families or single nobles? Urban white-collar workers or small-town youth? Do they need affordable luxury or high cost-performance? Do they seek value or individuality?
Different groups inevitably have different consumption needs. The era of one product for all is gradually passing. Only by accurately targeting the physiological and psychological needs of the target group can we develop products more effectively.
Take coffee, which has been hot this year. Luckin Coffee developed rapidly because it targets consumers who primarily use coffee for its refreshing properties, mainly white-collar workers and some college students. The brand's appeal is high cost-performance. Compared to Starbucks quality, the price after coupons is almost half of Starbucks, winning consumers' hearts.
Image source: Luckin Coffee official Weibo
In contrast, new tea brands like Heytea also target young white-collar workers and college students, but consumers perceive Heytea as a material expression of refined living, a product that brings joy. Based on emotional needs, consumers pay more attention to individuality. Heytea's single cups are priced around 30 yuan, higher than Luckin. Therefore, grasping the physiological and psychological attributes of the target group is crucial for targeted product development.
Image source: Heytea official Weibo
**(2) How can product development meet consumer needs?**
Products satisfy not only pain points but also itch points and delight points.
Simply put: **Pain points are about satisfying consumers' fears; consumers buy because they fear the consequences, such as fearing weight gain from drinking too much Coke or fearing reduced work efficiency due to sleepiness.**
**Delight points provide immediate feedback; the moment users eat or drink, they feel great, generating satisfaction.**
**Itch points stimulate consumers' desire to satisfy their ideal self, which can be understood as the person they aspire to be.**
For example, specialty snacks and drinks developed for Generation Z satisfy users' need for individuality and belonging. Users are happy to share such products to define themselves as trendy, cool, and distinctive. A typical example is Yili QQ Star's "Coolest City" series, such as the unconventional hotpot flavor, which encourages trial and social sharing.
QQ Star Coolest City series products
Image source: Yili QQ Star official Weibo
Certain beauty and body-shaping products may not provide immediate delight, but they make users feel they are moving toward their ideal life, satisfying itch points.
Typical products include Super Zero's three-day light fasting set, Dong-E E-Jiao's Zhenyan series, and Xiaoxian Dun. These products leverage consumers' aspirations for body shape and appearance to stimulate itch points, driving strong purchasing power.
Image source: Xiaoxian Dun official Weibo
The author believes that among new meal replacement brands, Ruofan focuses on quick eating, targeting pain points, while Super Zero focuses on body shaping, stimulating itch points.
Therefore, although both are meal replacements, they differ significantly in product composition and brand claims. Ruofan's slogan is "Irregular meals? Always have Ruofan," advocating "1 minute, 80% full, making eating a worry-free choice." Super Zero's claim is "Ideal body, Super Zero," with products mainly in 3-day combo packs, while Ruofan offers bottled drinks for single servings, divided into different types for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Super Zero and Ruofan brand slogans
Image source: Brand official flagship stores
Each product needs to clearly define which user need it satisfies to enable targeted development and promotion, laying the foundation for future sales growth.
**Third, under the current trend, pay attention to competitors' market performance and how to create competitive products.**
No new trend is noticed by only one company; everyone pays attention and develops simultaneously, or followers quickly catch up after pioneers launch new products. Therefore, making effective differentiation in fierce competition is essential.
For consumers, products consist of basic attributes and highlight attributes. Basic attributes are the most fundamental satisfaction of consumer demands, such as satiety, thirst quenching, and vitamin supplementation. Highlight attributes are differentiated features added on top of basic attributes, determining whether users choose you among similar products.
If a product only meets basic attributes, the brand faces intense competition, and as the category matures, it will gradually enter a red ocean. Only with highlight attributes can a product escape low-end competition, achieve differentiation, and potentially create unique consumption, enhancing competitiveness.
For example, in the oat product category, brands like Quaker and Wangbaobao promote Australian oats and freeze-dried fruits, but the differentiation is small. However, Wangbaobao uses whole-grain baking (non-puffed) and adds large yogurt chunks and large freeze-dried fruit pieces, creating significant differentiation and better meeting needs. This highlight difference can be in process, raw materials, packaging, etc.
Left: Quaker fruit oat crisp; Right: Wangbaobao oats
Image source: Tmall
**Fourth, treat new trends cautiously; some trends need time to cultivate.**
Acceptance of new trends takes time. Blindly accelerating iteration is like pulling up seedlings to help them grow.
Kunlun Mountain launched a 4-yuan price point for mineral water, clearly ahead of the consumption trend at the time, and did not achieve rapid growth.
Similarly, in 2008, Coca-Cola launched a sugar-free tea product, Yuanye Tea, which was also above the mainstream price range for beverages at the time. Despite endorsements from Jackie Chan and his son, and massive free tasting promotions involving tens of millions of people, it failed to open the sugar-free tea market and eventually withdrew.
As consumer demand for healthy foods grew, additive-free sugar-free teas began to grow rapidly. After nearly a decade of market cultivation, sugar-free tea finally saw the light. In 2017 and 2018, growth rates reached 30% or higher. Oriental Leaf took the lead in the category, becoming the top sugar-free tea brand in the 2018 C-NPS China Customer Recommendation Index.
Image source: Oriental Leaf official Weibo
**Fifth, choose your track calmly and make targeted breakthroughs.**
In recent years, many internet-famous new brands have accelerated the upgrade of multiple food categories, such as Super Zero meal replacements, Zhong Xue Gao ice cream, and Wangbaobao oats. By aligning with consumption trends and focusing on a single category and channel, they have created extreme products and achieved success. New brands can combine trends to find suitable niche categories within mature large categories, grow stronger, and set new product benchmarks.
Large brands like Yili and Dali have chosen the soy milk track, building new category brands and leveraging channel and communication advantages to expand the market. They educate consumers on new trends, turning small categories into large ones.
Image source: Zhi Xuan official Weibo
**Sixth, analyze before launching; don't blindly launch new products.**
Blindly launching new products without differentiation leads to being trapped in fierce red ocean competition. New products divert resources from strong products, hindering the upgrade and promotion of advantageous old products. Diverging from company strategy and blindly entering unfamiliar fields brings growth risks.
**-03-**
**4P Planning for New Product Development:**
**Product, Price, Place, Promotion**
Through the above analysis, we have completed the preliminary preparation for product development. Next, we will elaborate on the details of new products from the 4P perspective.
**Product: First, we need to determine whether the product aligning with consumption trends is an upgrade of existing products or a new product development, and whether it is a line extension under an existing brand or a new brand creation.**
If it's an upgrade of existing products, line extension can be used, such as Coca-Cola and Coke Zero. The plant milk brand Zhi Xuan broke the conventional carton packaging, extending to portable bottles, and developed high-protein soy milk products, significantly differentiating from regular soy milk and defining a new trend for plant milk among young people.
If it's a new brand, conduct consumer research before development, including brand confirmation, product concept, packaging design, and advertising creativity.
**New products that align with consumption trends must satisfy one of the user's pain, itch, or delight points.** For example, high-end yogurt Jane Ho focuses on no additives, providing pure yogurt products, meeting the needs of middle-class mothers for family consumption. New tea drinks use real tea and real fruit juice, abandoning non-dairy creamer and artificial flavors, creating a new category.
Image source: Jane Ho official Weibo
**Price: Price is determined by product attributes, competitor benchmarking, and other factors, and must not exceed the user's perceived price for the category.**
For example, in recent years, Uni-President has developed several high-end products in milk tea and pure tea. Among them, allègre ready-to-drink milk tea in 270ml bottles is priced at 20 yuan per bottle on Tmall, significantly higher than regular ready-to-drink milk tea. However, consumer reviews indicate no significant differentiation, so it may struggle to gain traction. In contrast, Lamian Noodles' semi-finished noodles, with rich ingredients and taste comparable to offline stores, are more easily accepted at around 17 yuan.
Image source: Lamian Noodles official flagship store user-shared image
**Place: In the early days, channels were relatively simple, and channel power determined brand distribution depth. Brands like Master Kong and Wahaha, with strong channel advantages, could quickly reach terminals and consumers after launching new products. But now, with increasingly complex channels and different consumer groups across channels, targeted selection and use are needed. Determine the main channel, penetrate it deeply, and then gradually expand to other channels.**
For example, convenience store channels, due to long business hours, convenience, and younger consumer trends, are more suitable for distinctive consumer products. Taking Bianlifeng as a reference, surveys show that users prefer heavy-flavored snacks, such as spicy beef jerky, as spicy stimulation can relieve stress. In product design, beverages with strong IPs are more conducive to sales.
Therefore, personality-driven products can use convenience stores as the launch channel. The head of Single Grain once said that their potato chips initially used convenience stores and premium supermarkets as main channels, with single-store sales reaching up to 300 packs per day, far exceeding regular brand sales.
Image source: Single Grain official Weibo
E-commerce channels, free from geographical limitations, can reach more consumers. The rapid development of e-commerce also provides good channel resources for brand growth. Platforms like Taobao have certain support mechanisms for new products, using personalized recommendation technology to promote to potential target groups and provide traffic support.
In communication with multiple brands, we also see that many new brands are more precise and detailed in channel layout. For example, high-end ice cream brand Zhong Xue Gao uses online as the main channel, supplemented by offline stores and pop-up stores, selectively reaching users and establishing a high-end brand image.
**Promotion: Large-scale advertising and comprehensive promotion are practices of large enterprises. Small and medium-sized enterprises and innovative companies often lack sufficient funds for such promotion. Moreover, comprehensive multi-channel investment can lead to a large proportion of advertising waste.**
In recent years, "brand and effect integration" has become a new communication concept, where achieving sales growth during communication is a key point for new brand promotion. Social platforms like Xiaohongshu, Douyin, and Kuaishou provide new communication channels for brands. Community communication brings new channel resources, which is more conducive to in-depth understanding of new product consumers.
Image source: Xiaohongshu screenshot
In fact, for new products that cater to trends, some categories face consumer education issues. Large-scale advertising and cramming consumer education are not effective. Targeted, in-depth education and category advantage promotion are more suitable for new category communication, using PR and new media marketing, with vivid content and KOL guidance to gain consumer awareness.
After launching new trend products, promptly follow up on brand communication and sales dynamics. If sales stagnate, analyze promptly to find the root cause, whether to iterate quickly, cut losses decisively, or improve communication strategies and increase category communication.
**-05-**
**Conclusion**
Consumption trends are a reflection of consumer needs, but we must also recognize that the complexity of China's consumer groups and regional differences means we cannot use one product or one trend to cater to everyone.
Xiang Piao Piao cup milk tea still has significant volume in lower-tier markets. It is reported that a county-level distributor in Guyang County, Anhui, alone achieved annual milk tea sales of 30 million yuan. This shows the impact of complex national conditions. Therefore, developing product and promotion strategies by segment and channel is essential to better align with trends and achieve a leading position in niche categories.
Of course, beyond riding the trend, the next step is to create trends, awaken consumer awareness, and thus become a trendsetter. This is a challenge for brands, but also an opportunity.
Source: FBIF Food & Beverage Innovation (ID: FoodInnovation)


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## Citation metadata

- Publisher: New Distribution
- Author: FBIF
- Published: 2020-03-03
- Canonical: https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/when-the-trend-comes-how-can-food-product-managers-leverage-it-to-create-00013776/
- Original source: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/6j_MbPcmz2zCR-qYUewEOA

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