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 34 of 196
The Next Decade of China's Beverage Market
China's beverage market, after years of rapid growth, hit a turning point in 2016 and entered a phase of slower expansion. According to Euromonitor International, the soft drink market's compound annual growth rate from 1997 to 2022 was 10.83%, reaching 583.159 billion yuan in 2022. However, growth slowed post-2016, reflecting broader economic trends. The next decade will see a market expansion of one-third, with nearly 200 billion yuan in incremental space, driven by categories like sugar-free tea, ready-to-drink coffee, and functional beverages, alongside channel and consumer shifts.
FBIFWhy Do People Buy? Understanding the Truth of Purchase Gives Brand Marketing a Foundation
A product from Yunnan called flower cake is often bought by travelers. The famous brand Jiahua uses the slogan 'Three roses in one cake,' which is a good copy but fails to stimulate purchase desire because functional claims only reinforce decision-making, not desire. The article argues that brand marketing must understand the truth of purchase, which relies on three factors: scene relevance, mental uniqueness, and social popularity. It warns against two pitfalls: cognitive education trap and proprietary paranoia, and emphasizes that brand building should aim at establishing discourse power through socialization.
空手After All the Twists and Turns, the Moat of FMCG Brands Remains Product, Channel, and Consumers
This article elaborates on certain viewpoints, derived from conversations with friends including a product department manager at a leading brand and a procurement head at a platform-based trading company. The success of a company or brand relies on the marketing 4Ps: product, price, channel, and promotion. This logic is like getting into university: brand success is the total score, with product, price, channel, and promotion as four subjects (each out of 100). For admission to a general undergraduate college, the principle of strengths applies—scoring above 90 in one or two subjects (which is relatively hard) can compensate for a weak subject and still reach the cutoff. For top-tier universities (985/211), the principle of weaknesses applies: everyone is a top performer, and a single weak subject puts you at a disadvantage. In today's increasingly fierce competition, all-round development is the best strategy.
高级研究员 海游After Nine Years, I Finally Understand 'Mass Entrepreneurship and Innovation'
The 'Mass Entrepreneurship and Innovation' initiative, launched in 2014, was initially dismissed by many, including the author, as unrealistic. However, the recent economic downturn and its impact on employment have highlighted the initiative's crucial role in fostering economic growth and improving labor-capital relations.
响马老苗Instant Hit: Jinmailang's "Green Beef" Noodles Swim Against the Tide
A city distributor sold 10,000 units of Jinmailang's zero-fried noodles in a single month, while a county-level distributor moved 1,000 units monthly. The viral Douyin trend for banmian (board noodles) is part of Jinmailang's "0-Fried Healthy Noodles" series, now in short supply online and offline. Amid post-pandemic sales declines, Jinmailang's Lanfanfan zero-fried line is bucking the trend, backed by 20 years of R&D and a bold green packaging strategy.
AmySupply Chain Capability: The Core Competitiveness of Hard Discount Brands
Discount retail is surging, proving once again that if other methods fail, a 'price war' always works. In 2023, the discount store model centered on price wars exploded, kicking off China's retail discount revolution. The core competitiveness of hard discount brands lies in supply chain capability, which determines profitability and survival in the fierce 2024 competition.
陈思廷Snack Discount Stores in County Towns: Undercurrents Surging
Like a spring breeze overnight, snack discount stores have densely appeared on streets and alleys. Lin Ming (pseudonym), a resident of a fifth-tier small county town, recently found several such stores near his home, including two 'Snacks Very Busy' outlets. These stores are more fashionable than ordinary convenience stores and offer lower prices: a bottle of cola sells for 3 yuan in supermarkets but only 2.4 yuan at 'Snacks Very Busy'; a bottle of water priced at 2 yuan in convenience stores costs just 1.2 yuan at 'Zhao Yiming Snacks'. Overall, products in snack discount stores are mostly 20-30% cheaper than in regular supermarkets.
竹铭Oriental Leaf Makes a Comeback, China's Richest Man Rakes It In
The taste of tea hasn't changed; it's consumers' mindset and palate that have evolved. A beverage distributor told me that Oriental Leaf is the only brand that's truly hot, with people seeking it out rather than the other way around. After researching its history, I concluded that the only long-termism in the world is having money.
IC实验室How Did These Discount Store Franchisees Lose Their Money?
As the hottest retail format of 2023, hard discount has indeed attracted attention. New Distribution has always believed that the discount model will be one of the important retail models in the future. At the same time, we also note that 'low price' is the most impactful competitive means in current retail competition, but the skill of 'making money with low prices' is not easy to master. In a new business form, a large proportion of the first wave of pioneers often become martyrs. The purpose of this article is to remind brand owners, distributors, and discount store franchisees not to only see the opportunities of the hard discount trend, but also to be aware of its huge traps at this stage.
陈思廷Solidifying Channels and Holding the Market, Genki Forest Is Growing into a Forest
Genki Forest's official WeChat account describes itself as 'from a seed to a forest.' Indeed, born in 2016, Genki is striding forward from a seed to a forest, and industry evaluations are becoming more favorable: Genki Forest is one of the few new consumer brands that has successfully transitioned from online to offline, solidified its channels, and held its market. The company has done two things right: it proposed the slogan 'reduce costs, increase efficiency, all in on sales,' unprecedentedly valuing distributors and co-building the market with them; and it continues to innovate in category dividends...
田静Surviving in the Era of Affordable Prices
A company may collapse for many reasons, but Wang Yumeng never expected that the last straw would be 'low prices.' Her original leaf tea brand Chabiubiu was recently removed by Hema as it pivoted to a discount store model, making its mid-to-high-end positioning incompatible with Hema's new 'everyday low prices' strategy. This shift reflects a broader trend in China's consumer market toward value-for-money products, as seen in the rise of brands like Mixue Bingcheng and Pinduoduo.
李小霞 窦轩Searching for New Campus Voices: How Master Kong Wins Over College Students!
Attracting young consumers is key to a brand's sustained influence, but achieving this is no easy task. Most brands rely on flavor innovation, packaging upgrades, and celebrity endorsements for youth-oriented marketing, accumulating industry experience. Yet, amid fierce competition, many brands are exploring creative new ways to connect with young people. Master Kong, for instance, used a grand music competition to engage college students through an innovative interest-based campaign. Partnering with QQ Music, the brand communicated with young people at zero distance.
青山依旧Is the Condiment Industry Really Stagnating?
Recent Q3 financial reports from major listed companies show that half of the top ten condiment companies experienced declines in both revenue and net profit. However, industry experts argue that high inventory levels and performance declines do not necessarily indicate a stagnant market, as the overall condiment market remains stable and is evolving towards healthier, zero-additive trends.
何雯Why Are Private Labels So Cheap?
Low price is the hallmark of private labels, which offer quality at a lower price compared to well-known brands. The price difference can be significant, as illustrated by Aldi's private-label ketchup costing €0.95 versus Heinz at €3.39. The low price stems from eliminating marketing and channel costs, and is enabled by scale, which allows retailers to source directly from manufacturers at lower costs.
刘春雄Snack Discount Stores: Flooring the Accelerator, Beware of Overturning!
The author, an investor and participant in the discount retail sector since 2021, warns that the rapid expansion of snack discount stores, characterized by excessive store openings and price wars, is unsustainable and harmful to the industry. He calls for a shift towards long-term, quality-focused development.
老谭聊连锁Exclusive Release | 2023 China Discount Chain Brand TOP List
The curtain has risen on China's retail discount transformation. By the end of 2023, the number of snack discount stores nationwide is expected to reach 22,000-25,000, with sales scale of 70-80 billion yuan, a more than tenfold increase in three years. Meanwhile, hard discount stores in various categories and forms are accelerating growth, and traditional retailers are also seeking discount transformation.
New DistributionDistributor Annual Meeting Training: Brand Owners Should Stop Being Vague and Talk About Something Practical!
Recently, I've been asked: 'How should we define the direction of distributor annual meeting training?' My answer is often: increasing distributor cohesion and brand owner centripetal force through slogans, mobilization, and vague propaganda has little value. What distributors care most about in the current sluggish market are: how to make profits, how to improve cost-effectiveness, and how to enhance management team capabilities to retain talent. The best training for distributors is to combine the company's next-year business strategy, doubts, and difficulties to provide operational guidance, improve distributors' money-making ability, enhance their spending efficiency, and strengthen team management. It's more important for them to learn something practical that can be applied in the market than anything else.
高级研究员 海游“Consumers Have Matured”: Brand Disenchantment Is the Key to the Era of Hard Discounts
The boom of snack discount stores has fired the first shot in the retail industry's comprehensive move toward discounting, ushering in a supply chain revolution—a major trend that will shape China for the next decade. The emergence of discount stores can be interpreted in two ways: one focuses on low prices and discounts, resonating with the current wave of consumption downgrading, but whether this short-term factor can sustain the long-term development of hard discount models is questionable. The other interpretation sees it as a historical inevitability, emphasizing the outcome of commercial concentration. Ultimately, the hard discount era has fully arrived in China, and the supply chain revolution has begun.
刘春雄Snack Discount Stores: How Many Can Survive 2024?
The underlying logic behind the discount store boom: hard discount is not new, but why did it explode in 2023? Who is making money and who is losing in the hard discount model that emphasizes quality, low prices, and no tricks? After B2B and community group buying ended in chaos, will hard discount enter the same fate in 2024? Is it worth manufacturers embracing hard discount? To answer these questions, we must first understand the essence of hard discount, why it exists, and why it became popular. This is not a theoretical question; understanding it is crucial. We...
陈思廷The Snack Discount Format at the Forefront: A Prelude to China's Discount Retail Wave
As many readers of New Distribution are distributors, this article offers insights from an investor and researcher's perspective on hot topics: why snack discount stores are booming, whether they are a passing fad, the essence of discount formats, and industry evolution. With nearly 20,000 snack discount stores nationwide, they have disrupted existing distribution systems, causing many distributors' sales to decline sharply. During my visits to third- to fifth-tier cities, the first question I often hear is whether to franchise a snack discount store.
戚特Jiang Nanchun's Core Principles for Building a Brand
Brand growth depends on a concrete occasion, one meaningful difference, credible evidence, narrow positioning, consistent memory structures, and repeated communication that makes the brand an easy default choice.
New DistributionDesign and Technology Extravaganza in Retail: China in-store 2023 Exhibition Opens Soon!
As the official satellite show of EuroShop, the world's leading retail trade fair, China in-store Shanghai International Retail Design and Equipment Exhibition has been dedicated to presenting design-oriented store solutions and providing a larger platform for high-quality solution providers since its debut in China in 2015. The exhibition has successfully held six editions so far.
New DistributionHow Should FMCG Manufacturers Respond to the Impact of Snack Discount Stores on the Channel System?
From a distributor's perspective, the rise of snack discount stores is a product of changing times, reflecting the shift from manufacturer-led to consumer-led markets. Manufacturers must adapt by supporting regional brand chains and avoiding the trap of involution, as these discount channels become an unavoidable force.
于秀伟What Industry Trends Does This International Food & Beverage Event Reveal?
2023 is a year of recovery for the consumer goods market. As the industry enters a 'new world' characterized by quality and health, the 26th FHC Shanghai Global Food Trade Show highlighted key trends including the home-use of pre-made dishes, new consumption scenarios, high-quality and healthy products, and a resurgence in the cold chain equipment sector.
田静