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.
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4701 articles · Page 20 of 196
Revenue 15.839 Billion Yuan, Net Profit 3.327 Billion Yuan: 2024 Eastroc Beverage Performance 'Explodes'!
Eastroc Beverage's 2024 annual report shows revenue of 15.839 billion yuan, up 40.63% year-on-year, and net profit of 3.327 billion yuan, up 63.09%, marking seven consecutive years of significant profit growth. The company's electrolyte beverage revenue surged 280.37% to nearly 1.5 billion yuan, while its distribution network expanded to nearly 4 million active terminals.
何雯Countdown: 10 Days to Go! Mondelēz, China Resources Snow, Hsu Fu Chi, Yili, Three Squirrels, Lee Kum Kee, Mengniu, Tsingtao Beer, C&S, Sour Plum, Qiaqia and More Gather in Chengdu for a Grand Event!
The 10th China FMCG Innovation Conference, the 4th China FMCG Hard Discount Conference, and the 4th China FMCG Distributor Conference will be held in Chengdu from March 17-19, 2025. With 10 days to go, the event will feature 130+ leading FMCG brands, 100+ retail enterprises, and 500+ regional top distributors, totaling over 2,000 industry elites, for a grand gathering of thought leadership and networking.
New DistributionWhen Retailers Launch Private Labels, What Should Brands Do? Lessons from Costco and Pepsi in North America
Whether it's hard discount, membership-based retail, or instant retail, along with private labels that haven't fully exploded, the impact of channel changes on brands is undeniable, and 2025 will only be more intense than 2024. In this context, what should brands do? Looking globally, China's retail industry is not leading. Many problems can be solved by looking at retail history. This article briefly shares the 'love-hate entanglement' between Costco and PepsiCo in the North American market, more precisely, a 20-year tug-of-war between brand and channel.
张振宇Why Can't the Premium Fresh Milk Track Produce a Super-100-Billion Single Product?
According to Kantar Worldpanel, the average penetration rate of low-temperature milk nationwide was 39% in 2023, while in Shanghai it had already reached 72% by 2020. In high-penetration markets, the trend of upgrading from entry-level pasteurized milk to higher-quality premium milk has begun, and the diversification of milk consumption scenarios is accelerating the replacement of ambient milk by fresh milk.
王莹First Retailers Focusing on 'Clean Ingredients' Have Already Reaped Rewards
In October last year, Sam's Club's 'One Little Tangerine' snack went viral and sold out immediately upon launch. 'Dole sold it for years without much traction, but Sam's sold it and it exploded,' an industry insider told the author. What exactly did Sam's do to 'One Little Tangerine'? Besides improving cost-effectiveness, Sam's 'radically revamped' the snack's ingredients, removing excessive food additives and flavorings, and reducing sugar by 30%. In the end, the ingredients were only mandarin oranges, white sugar, and citric acid, and the shelf life was shortened from 12 months to 5 months. Even the packaging proudly states: sodium benzoate 0%, potassium sorbate 0%, lemon yellow 0%, sunset yellow 0%, and flavoring 0%. The combination of high cost-effectiveness and clean ingredients made this snack break out and go viral.
零售氪星球Dayao Soda Losing to Southerners?
Dayao, a carbonated beverage brand from Inner Mongolia, has achieved over 3 billion yuan in sales by focusing on the restaurant channel, but now faces challenges as the carbonated drink market declines and it struggles to penetrate southern China and modern retail channels.
冯羽100 Days to Gaokao! Six Walnut Launches First 'Zhuangyuan Can' to Accompany National Exam Candidates
On February 27, 2025, with 100 days remaining until the Gaokao, Six Walnut launched its limited-edition 'Zhuangyuan Can' to support candidates nationwide. This move combines scenario-based marketing with deep emotional engagement with parents, aiming to stand out in competitive Gaokao marketing.
冯瑶Earning Tens of Millions in 3 Months, Selling 100,000 Units in 10 Days: The Next Opportunity for FMCG Distributors Is on Dewu
After the New Year, we visited over a dozen distributors and felt their strong sense of crisis: not only is there no growth, but many are seeing declining sales and profits. Some are trying new channels like e-commerce, but traditional e-commerce platforms are saturated, leading to high costs and low returns. However, emerging platforms like Dewu, popular among young consumers, are offering new opportunities for growth.
AsherQiaqia Food Achieves Growth in Both Revenue and Profit in 2024, Leading Nut Company Breaks Through Against the Trend
Against the trend, impressive performance. On February 25, 2025, Qiaqia Food Co., Ltd. (stock code: SZ002557) released its 2024 annual performance report (note: preliminary estimates by the company's finance department, not audited by an accounting firm). Despite a weak consumer market and slowing snack industry growth, the company achieved revenue of 7.131 billion yuan (up 4.79% year-on-year) and net profit of 852 million yuan (up 6.19% year-on-year), with non-GAAP net profit growth reaching 9.73%, demonstrating the resilience of a leading enterprise in navigating cycles.
New DistributionCai Hongliang, Father of Baicaowei, Stumbles with Zihaiguo
Cai Hongliang's 46 years have seen two major turning points: selling Baicaowei for financial freedom, and founding Zihaiguo, which now faces enforcement actions and personal consumption restrictions. This outcome was arguably destined when Lotus Holdings abandoned its acquisition two years ago, dashing his re-entrepreneurship project on the eve of a capital market debut.
沈庹Behind the 60% Growth of Douyin's FMCG Market: How Can Small and Medium Brands Break Through?
The same beauty product sells out instantly in a Douyin livestream but performs poorly on traditional e-commerce platforms. The '2025 Ocean Engine FMCG Industry White Paper' reveals that Douyin's FMCG market is booming with a 60% growth rate, yet nearly 80% of small and medium brands struggle to survive. This reflects deep changes in consumption scenarios, user needs, and marketing models.
专注消费的Liuliumei's Product–Channel–Marketing Growth System
Liuliumei links regional fruit innovation, channel-specific products, high-influence retailers, hero SKUs, youth marketing, and quarterly launch rhythms to support both brand growth and distributor sell-through.
New DistributionCotti Coffee's Foray into Convenience Stores: 'Within Reach' or a Distraction?
On February 13, Cotti Coffee announced a comprehensive upgrade of its 'Within Reach' plan, introducing a convenience store format and entering the convenience store industry. The upgraded store formats include coffee shops, convenience stores, and shop-in-shops. The company maintains its target of 50,000 store terminals by the end of 2025. While leading convenience store chains like 7-ELEVEn, FamilyMart, and Lawson have successfully created coffee brands to diversify categories and achieve multi-functionality, it is not easy for a coffee brand to operate convenience stores. 'Although coffee, due to its high-frequency and rigid demand attributes, naturally matches convenience store consumption scenarios, this does not mean that coffee brands entering convenience stores is a good business.'
RBF团队From Health Wine to Sauce-Flavored Liquor: Jing Brand Paves a New Path
In earlier years, with the popularity of the slogan "Jing Wine is good, but don't overindulge," Jing Wine gained fame and became a leader in the health wine sector. However, the niche market of health wine could no longer sustain Jing Brand Co., Ltd. From health wine and herbal baijiu to sauce-flavored liquor, Jing Brand has chosen a path full of challenges and opportunities. Long hovering around the 10 billion yuan revenue line, the company was founded in 1953 as a state-owned distillery, and in 1980, Wu Shaoxun was assigned to work there after military service, rising to factory director within just seven years.
伯虎团队Selling Diapers in Africa: This Chinese Company Earns Hundreds of Millions a Year
With intense competition in the Chinese market, are there more opportunities overseas? On January 27, Softcare Limited ("Softcare") filed its IPO prospectus, aiming for a main board listing in Hong Kong. Softcare's main business is baby diapers, baby pull-up pants, sanitary napkins, and wet wipes, with brands including Softcare, Veesper, Maya, Cuettie, and Clincleer. Although it is a Chinese-funded enterprise, Chinese consumers are unfamiliar with it because Softcare primarily targets emerging markets in Africa, Latin America, and Central Asia, with its headquarters in the Dubai Airport Freezone.
沈庹Snack Retailers Accelerate 'Supermarketization', Traditional Snack Companies See Diverging Performance
If 2024 was a year when the snack industry split like a river, with traditional snack companies mired in difficulties while bulk snack retailers surged ahead, then 2025 marks a watershed with 'supermarketization' becoming the new battleground. Leading bulk snack players are evolving from snack collection stores into 'money-saving supermarkets' and 'wholesale supermarkets', seeking new growth beyond the snack aisle.
楚勿留香Deepseek Reveals the Ten Major Dilemmas Facing Chinese Marketing
China's FMCG market is experiencing an unprecedented 'Song of Ice and Fire,' with supply-side expansion clashing against demand-side stagnation. As growth hits a decade low, brands face ten critical dilemmas, from supply glut and information overload to algorithmic control and cultural fragmentation, signaling a systemic crisis in the industry.
赵波95% of Snack Chain Stores Are Stuck in the Homogenization Quagmire: Products Are the Sharp Knife for Sustainable Operation!
2024 was a year of land grabbing for snack chains, driven by capital, with many achieving good results. However, from the fourth quarter, store operation pressure became overwhelming. While declining store performance was anticipated, the magnitude was unexpected. The reasons include declining consumer spending power, high store density and product homogenization, reduced consumer interest, weakened price advantages, and insufficient talent. The article suggests that expanding categories and moving toward discount supermarkets is difficult and correct, but the key is product innovation and building core competitiveness.
王正齐Lee Kum Kee Launches 'Flavor with Feeling' Global Brand Campaign, Making Chinese New Year Dishes More Flavorful
In recent years, Chinese cuisine has sparked a global craze, with overseas Chinese restaurants reaching nearly 700,000 and a market size of nearly 3 trillion yuan. Lee Kum Kee, through its 'Flavor with Feeling' global brand campaign and Chinese New Year dish marketing, showcases the charm of Chinese culinary culture and drives the global popularity of Chinese flavors.
New DistributionCoca-Cola Classic Case: Using Scenario Marketing to Achieve Incremental Growth
This article uses Coca-Cola's OBPPC framework to explain how scenario marketing can generate incremental growth. It details a classic 2005 case in Shenzhen where Coca-Cola focused on the 'drinking at home' scenario, leading to a 10% increase in POS sales, and outlines the methodology's systematic approach involving multiple departments.
曹扬Wahaha, Baixiang, and金星: Old Brands Reborn, Catching the Torrential Traffic
At the November 2024 Wahaha distributor conference, Zong Fuli unveiled her first report card since taking the helm, with revenue of 72.8 billion yuan, matching the scale of a decade ago and achieving an annual growth of over 20 billion yuan compared to 2023's 50 billion yuan, a 47% year-on-year increase. This growth was driven mainly by strong sales of bottled water and AD calcium milk, with bottled water sales up 188% and AD calcium milk up 70%. A one-year growth of 20 billion yuan for a giant brand is unprecedented in China's FMCG history, possibly a peak that will never be surpassed.
方刚Retail Stores Are Severely Oversupplied, but Competing on Low Prices Is a Misconception
Retail stores are severely oversupplied, but competing on low prices is a misconception! This is a conclusion drawn from my in-depth exchange with Mr. Zhang Zhiqiang. Who is Zhang Zhiqiang? He is known as "China's No.1 in Category Management," and the book "Category Management," published in February 2024, was written by him and Dr. Brian Harris, the "Father of Category Management," specifically for the Chinese market. On the last day of 2024, I visited Mr. Zhang in his Beijing office, and we talked for nearly three hours. Much of what he said inspired me deeply, such as: "Existing consumption is insufficient to support so many retail stores; a large portion will be eliminated."
任文青AndyBlossoms, The Rose, Joyful People, Talk Show...: The Essential Laws and Methods of Brand Building Seen Through the Year's Hit IPs
I have always believed that all brand building and marketing practices must ultimately return to consumer needs and decision-making patterns. Changes in the consumer behavior chain are the root of changes in brand marketing. The behavior chain in the traditional era is called AIDMA, the most classic behavior model proposed by American advertising scholar E.S. Lewis in 1898 and written into major communication textbooks. AIDMA includes Attention, Interest, Desire, Memory, and Action.
空手New Distribution Zhao Bo: Customer 'Troubles' Are the Brand's Growth 'Map'
Customer needs are essentially the troubles users face. The article from the official account 'Liang Jiangjun' raises a question: if you were a furniture manufacturer wanting to develop a wardrobe, how would you do it? You might consult reports and surveys, and big data might tell you trends like Morandi colors or new Chinese style, but the data won't tell you the troubles your users are currently facing.
赵波