NEW DISTRIBUTION RESEARCH TOPIC
How can brands grow beyond price competition?
Evidence and cases on product strategy, category innovation, marketing, and channel coordination in China’s consumer market.
Related research and analysis
4701 articles · Page 11 of 196
A Traditional Beer Distributor Ventures into B2b and Opens 7 Flash Warehouses
Recent surveys by New Distribution from 2023 to 2025 reveal that profit decline has become widespread among distributors, though revenue decline is narrowing. A case in point is Haochunte Trading in Zibo, which stabilized its traditional trade, launched a B2b platform, and entered instant retail with seven self-operated stores.
周群Post-11.11 Era: The Way Brands Do Marketing Must Change
The annual 11.11 shopping festival has begun, but the atmosphere of national frenzy has faded, and consumers are no longer easily swayed by promotions and coupons. In this post-11.11 era, brands need to shift from simple promotional tactics to content marketing that is scenario-based, in-depth, and asset-building, to truly stimulate consumer demand and influence purchase decisions.
空手From Hit Product to Benchmark: Damowang and Liubiju Strategic Upgrade, Ten-Year Pact Defines China's Authentic Sesame Sauce Konjac Tripe
In today's FMCG market, competition is fierce, and while many products seem promising, few truly achieve distribution, fast turnover, and lasting vitality. New Distribution has noticed a product that broke through the market's limitations: Yanjin Shop Damowang Sesame Sauce Konjac Tripe, which became a phenomenon in the konjac snack category through category innovation and authentic flavor.
何雯A Century of Marketing Is Nearing Its End: When Will It Turn the Page?
This article reviews the history of marketing over the past century, identifying four key turning points: the birth of revolutionary media, shifts in marketing orientation, the formation of analytical frameworks, and the maturity of management systems. It argues that with the rise of mobile internet and changes in consumer behavior, the era of user-oriented marketing is ending, and a new paradigm centered on scenarios is emerging.
刘春雄Collective 'Backstabbing' of Sugar-Free Drinks? Master Kong and Nongfu Spring Can't Sit Idly By
After years of the sugar-free wave, sugary ready-to-drink teas are quietly regaining voice on social media. Data shows that on Xiaohongshu, new posts about 'iced tea' outnumber those about 'sugar-free tea' by more than double, and the category is seeing a resurgence of white sugar as brands like Genki Forest, Master Kong, and others launch reduced-sugar products. The key battle now is defining the next generation of sugary ready-to-drink tea, balancing health concerns with classic flavors.
刀法行研A Bottle of Water, a City's Story: Aquafina Reinvents Cultural Tourism Marketing!
In the FMCG industry, competition in the bottled water market has always been intense. For a long time, brands have fiercely competed around physical attributes such as 'water source' and 'purity.' However, today's consumers not only care about water quality and health but also the emotional value the product can bring. Therefore, how to reach consumers' hearts and deeply explore brand value has become a common topic for many bottled water brands. New Distribution observed that Aquafina, PepsiCo's bottled water brand, has gained deep insight into this trend and turned its attention to the culture and value behind 'water.' Not only did it complete its 'Pure from the Heart' brand upgrade in 2024, but this year it has continued to deepen this concept, continuously cultivating the cultural tourism track, truly starting 'from the heart' to provide consumers with better products and services.
杨玉琳Media Changed, Brand Communication Must Change Too
In an industry dominated by traditional giants in baijiu and beer, three seemingly unrelated brands—Jiangxiaobai, Guolifang, and金星中式精酿—each carved a distinct path to success by precisely leveraging communication media. This highlights the immense influence and rapid evolution of media, which acts as an amplifier for marketing.
公方刚2000+ New Beverage Products Unveiled, 10,000+ Professional Visitors Gather: 2025 Pin Yin Hui Autumn Innovative Beverage Exhibition Grandly Opens in Nanjing!
As beverage industry professionals grapple with the anxiety of 'difficult product selection and even harder sell-through,' and the stark contrast between stagnant warehouse inventory and viral channel hits on social media, the market urgently seeks a breakthrough. On October 11, that breakthrough emerged at the Nanjing Han Lu Lou Hotel with the grand opening of the 2025 Pin Yin Hui Autumn Innovative Beverage Theme Exhibition, injecting strong momentum into the sluggish market through its vibrant on-site atmosphere, deep trend insights, and precise, efficient business matchmaking.
品饮汇媒体中心Why Store Brands Are Not the Same as White-Label Products
Many people are discussing supermarket private labels, but there is a common misconception in the industry that equates them with white-label products. In fact, the underlying logic of product development differs fundamentally. This article explores these differences from a product development perspective, offering guidance for distributors and retailers.
赵波Young People Don't Eat Instant Noodles Anymore? Baixiang Hires Top Celebrity Endorser, Revealing Industry Anxiety
Baixiang Foods recently announced actor Wang Yibo as its brand ambassador, sparking online buzz. However, behind the celebrity endorsement lies a grim reality for the instant noodle industry: consumption in China fell by 4 billion packs from 2020 to 2023, dropping to 43.8 billion packs in 2024, with sales declining 8.9% year-on-year in Q2 2025.
专注消费的Wanchen Group Aims to Be the 'Pop Mart' of Snacks
Wanchen Group, one of China's largest snack groups, has initiated a Hong Kong IPO plan to advance its international strategy and enhance competitiveness. If successful, it will become the first 'bulk snack' stock on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, ahead of rival Mingming Henmang.
伯虎团队Three Squirrels, No Longer Wanting to Be a Brand
Starting in 2025, after returning to 10 billion yuan in revenue, Three Squirrels quickly launched an 'all-category, all-channel' transformation strategy. The core of this strategy is to break beyond the single label of nuts and snacks in terms of categories, expanding into all high-frequency consumer goods categories, and to break free from reliance on a single online platform in terms of channels, achieving full coverage across online and offline channels. The industry has been debating the company's 'aggressive strategy.' This article neither supports nor promotes any particular strategy; all views expressed are solely my own. We aim to objectively evaluate and attempt to reconstruct Three Squirrels' strategic path, to understand what Three Squirrels wants to do, and through this case, interpret the changes currently occurring in the FMCG market.
戚特We Visited Fresh Beer Fulujia: How Mixue Bingcheng Sells Beer
On September 30, Mixue Group announced it acquired a 53% stake in Fresh Beer Fulujia for about 297 million yuan, extending its product line from beverages and ice cream to fresh beer. Fulujia, founded in 2021, positions itself as an affordable craft fresh beer brand with about 1,200 stores across 28 provinces, and its business model mirrors Mixue's low-price, beverage-like approach.
窄播How Did Zulijian Sell 600,000 Bottles of Beverages?
Despite the fierce competition in the beverage industry, one brand has taught the industry a lesson: Zulijian, known for its elderly footwear, recently made headlines by selling frozen dumplings at 3.9 yuan. While some think Zulijian's beverages target the elderly, the brand actually aims at young consumers, similar to Moutai's ice cream strategy.
点这里关注→From Instant Noodles to Cultural Creative Ice Cream: A Train Carriage Condenses 20 Years of FMCG Consumption Changes
This article traces the evolution of food and beverage consumption on Chinese trains over the past two decades, from instant noodles and snacks to healthier, more experiential options like marinated food, freeze-dried coffee, and cultural creative ice cream, reflecting broader industry trends.
FBIF“Duck Neck King” Falls into Its Darkest Hour
Amid consumption downgrading and intensifying industry competition, the former “Duck Neck King” is facing an unprecedented survival crisis. On September 19, Juewei Food announced it had received an advance notice of administrative penalty from the Hunan Regulatory Bureau of the China Securities Regulatory Commission for failing to recognize franchise store decoration revenue from 2017 to 2021, resulting in understated revenue in annual reports and false financial records. Consequently, the company's stock will be subject to other risk warnings (ST).
张铁Coconut Tree's "Old-School" Poster Sparks Heated Debate: Netizens Say, "Just Stick to the Edgy Ads"
This year's bosses are quite busy. Following the "truce" between Xibei's Mr. Jia and Luo Yonghao, a grand business debate has officially concluded. But the stage never rests—now Coconut Tree's "President Wang" has made a high-profile debut, making a splash. Recently, netizens passing by Coconut Tree Group's headquarters in Haikou, Hainan, were startled by the huge sign reading "Who Will Save the Bankrupt 'Coconut Tree' Group?" The dense black text against high-saturation colors resembled a debt collection notice in a residential corridor.
杨阳Mooncakes: The Competition Is Fiercer Than Bubble Tea
Mooncakes, a traditional Chinese pastry, are undergoing a collective evolution as brands compete fiercely within a short sales window. From health-focused options like low-GI and sugar-free varieties to innovative shapes, flavors inspired by new tea drinks, and cross-industry collaborations, the category is reinventing itself to attract modern consumers.
FBIFFarewell to 'Shelf Hegemony': Category Management Steps Down, Single-Item Driving Takes the Lead
Recently, more newly opened and renovated community supermarkets have added the letters 'NB' to their signs, standing for 'Neighbor Business'. These stores share a common feature: reduced product counts and increased display space per item, with managers citing Aldi's 'minimalist SKU' approach. Meanwhile, at the start of this year, Walmart China CEO Zhu Xiaojing advocated for 'curated SKUs, single-item driven, not category driven' at Sam's Club, providing a successful theoretical basis for product selection in physical supermarkets. This raises the question: has the 20-plus-year category-driven management philosophy completed its historical mission, and will single-item driving become the dominant direction for product development and sales?
零售荆言Zong Fuli's Second 'Self-Harming Strike'
Starting to endure and plan at 14, and formally counterattacking at 40, Zong Fuli staged a real-life short drama of 'the eldest princess returns for revenge.' This drama includes elements such as succession obstruction, inheritance disputes, and equity conflicts. However, reality is not a short drama, and Zong Fuli is not a protagonist with superpowers; all she can do is enter the game herself and engage in close combat.
最话团队White-label beverages 'ebb'? Increasingly rejected by terminal stores
This year, our system's procurement almost stopped sourcing white-label beverages, said Mr. Wu, a purchasing manager at a central China snack bulk retail chain. In a generally cold market, white-label products sell even worse. White-label beverages refer to small and medium brands between well-known big names and 'three-no' products, often in popular categories but cheaper, epitomizing 'extreme cost-performance'. In fact, entering any snack bulk store, one often sees...
擎苍Farewell to Mass Marketing
Marketing is fundamentally a response to market demand, and shifts in demand always move in step with the times. From the 'land-grab' of the growth era to the 'intensive cultivation' of the contraction era, the underlying logic of the consumer market has undergone a disruptive change—the mass marketing HBG model, which once worked through 'large-scale production, broad-reach advertising, and extensive channel coverage,' is being replaced by precise penetration of segmented audiences and resonance with niche circles. This shift is not accidental but an inevitable result of slowing economic growth and evolving consumer attitudes.
公方刚When the Beverage Business Enters 'Hard Mode,' What 'Certainty' Can We Still Seize?
During a recent market survey in East China, a distributor lamented, 'I've never found the beverage business this tough.' With new products emerging endlessly, price wars raging, and consumer demands becoming increasingly picky, growth seems a luxury in today's water and beverage market, where anxiety and unease are the norm. But there are exceptions. 'Ice tea is doubling, Alien electrolyte water is up 20%, monthly sales target achievement is consistently above 110%, and for the full year, exceeding the target by 20% is highly likely,' said Mr. Huang.
张雨薇From 'Spills on Opening' to the Code of Premium Quality: Kunlun Mountain Mineral Water Ignites a Nationwide Experiment Craze
UGC is the gold standard for testing product sell-through, and consumers are the best spokespersons. This view, shared by marketing expert Fang Gang at the 7th China FMCG Conference hosted by New Distribution, resonated with the audience. Kunlun Mountain Mineral Water's recent innovative marketing campaign is a vivid example. Facing consumer complaints like 'It spills every time I open it!' and 'Why is Kunlun Mountain Mineral Water so full?', the brand did not shy away but instead launched a challenge and scientific experiments, turning a small issue into a symbol of premium quality and driving both brand awareness and sales.
何雯