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 37 of 196
1L 'Loser Drinks' Win Over Young Consumers
Young consumers are increasingly favoring large 1L bottles of beverages, dubbed 'loser drinks' online, for their cost-effectiveness. This trend is reshaping brand strategies, though small bottles still dominate sales.
燃次元工作室Beverage Market Sees New Changes: How Brands Can Navigate Cycles and Achieve Growth
The Chinese beverage market, exceeding one trillion yuan, is evolving with health-driven product segmentation, category innovation, and channel diversification. Brands like Chengde Lulu are adapting by innovating products, expanding channels, and enhancing brand image to navigate market cycles and achieve growth.
青山依旧Join the Most Innovative Food Brands: Applications for the 6th iSEE Global Awards Are Now Open!
The application channel for the 6th iSEE Global Awards is officially open. As a leading professional award in the food and beverage industry, the iSEE Global Awards were initiated by Foodaily in 2018 and consist of two major awards: the iSEE Global Food Innovation Award and the iSEE Global Taste Award. Adhering to the principles of fairness and authority, and after five years of professional accumulation, the iSEE Global Awards have attracted over 6,000 entries, making them not only a stage that innovative brands participate in annually but also a barometer for industry attention to innovation and brand trends.
iSEE AWARDRedefining Jelly and Candy: How Snack Brand 'ZUO一下' Made Its Mark in Just Three Years
Founded in 2020, snack brand 'ZUO一下' has risen to prominence by innovating in the jelly category with health-focused, adult-oriented products and expanding into candy, leveraging functional and emotional value to stand out. Its success is attributed to product innovation and strategic channel partnerships, achieving over 100 million yuan in sales within three years.
冯瑶A Store Earning 80,000 Yuan a Month? A Super Franchisee Reveals the Secrets of His Snack Discount Store Business
A super franchisee in the snack discount store industry reveals that in northern China's county markets, a single store can generate daily revenue of 20,000-30,000 yuan and monthly profits of 60,000-80,000 yuan, with top performers reaching 100,000-150,000 yuan. He shares insights on investment returns, risks, and the industry's future, emphasizing the current dividend period and the importance of location and experience.
任文青AndyWidespread Price Inversion in Baijiu: How to Break the Deadlock?
China, as the world's second-largest consumer market, has a vast and deep domestic unified market. Since the reform and opening-up, it has maintained nearly 40 years of rapid growth, with the advantage of its super-large market scale being particularly prominent. Starting in 2012, consumption surpassed investment and exports to become the strongest driver of economic development, with total retail sales of consumer goods doubling in eight years. In the first half of this year, consumption contributed 77% to GDP growth. The baijiu industry, as a traditional food and beverage sector highly dependent on domestic demand, is now facing a deep adjustment period due to multiple demand-side factors, leading to widespread inventory buildup, price inversion, and weakening confidence. This article offers three suggestions for price management: source governance, manufacturer-dealer collaboration, and BC integrated marketing.
王丹华The 'Commercial War' Turns to Sugar-Free Tea
A new 'commercial war' is unfolding. Recently, consumers posted photos of Suntory oolong tea priced at 3.8 yuan per bottle on supermarket shelves, sparking speculation of a price war and trending on Weibo. However, Suntory denied any price adjustments. Despite the rumor, sugar-free tea is gaining popularity among young consumers for health reasons, with brands like Suntory and Oriental Leaf expanding their presence.
燃次元工作室Who Will Rule the Billion-Yuan Compound Seasoning Market?
Workers have long puzzled over why chain restaurants are proliferating while wok-fired dishes are disappearing. Around five or six years ago, street-side stir-fry shops were everywhere, and people believed this business would stay hot. But times have changed: chain restaurants and pre-made dishes have rapidly replaced stir-fry shops, and compound seasonings have played a key role in this shift. They overturn the old habit of adding seasonings multiple times during cooking, allowing a single sauce packet to easily complete a dish—convenient, fast, and standardized.
陈晓京The Agency Model of Making Money from Backend Fees Has Reached Its End
The author recently visited distributors in Southwest and South China to discuss their business situations. These influential distributors shared their feedback and feelings, which are recorded for discussion. Cases include a leisure food distributor in Southwest China with annual sales of 130 million yuan, who relies on backend rebates for profits and has exited the KA system, and a top distributor of a famous liquor brand in South China facing severe price inversion and high growth targets.
赵波Nationwide Stores Exceed 3,300: Wanchen's Four Snack Retail Brands Merge Under 'Haoxianglai'
On September 12, 2023, Wanchen held a media conference in Beijing to announce the merger of its four snack chain brands—Haoxianglai, Laiyoupin, Luxiaochuan, and Yadiyadi—under the unified name 'Haoxianglai'. This move aims to accelerate synergy and integration in brand image, market expansion, operations, digitalization, and culture, further consolidating Wanchen's leading position in the snack hard-discount industry.
任文青AndyHas the Snack Collection Store 'Bubble' Burst?
Snack collection stores, once ubiquitous and favored by young people, are now closing in large numbers. A 95s consumer noticed many nearby stores shutting down, and brands like 'Mrs. Rice' and 'a1 Snack Research Institute' have faced closures or disputes with franchisees, raising questions about the sustainability of this retail model.
燃次元工作室C'estbon Launches New Mineral Water Brand 'Benyou' to Enter the 2-Yuan Segment, Adding Another Piece to the 100-Billion-Yuan Bottled Water Market
C'estbon, a leading player in packaged water, has launched a new mineral water brand 'Benyou' priced at the mainstream 2-yuan level. This move provides C'estbon with more leverage in the peak season and represents its latest effort to expand in the over 200-billion-yuan bottled water market.
潘娴Instead of Letting Others Steal 30% of Their Business, Why Don't Distributors Open Their Own Snack Stores?
A distributor once asked me if he should open his own snack store after seeing snack stores cause 30-40% sales declines in their vicinity. Rather than letting others take the business, why not do it themselves? They already have supply chain advantages. This article explains three concepts—hard discount, chain franchising, and distribution-retail integration—to help distributors understand the industry transformation and decide whether to open stores.
任文青AndySnacks Are Booming, But Beverages Are Crying!
Bulk snack stores have grown rapidly over the past year, attracting significant capital. For example, Snacks Are Very Busy completed a 240 million yuan Series A financing in April 2021, while Zhao Yiming secured 150 million yuan in Series A funding this year. These stores use low-priced beverages and branded snacks as traffic drivers, which has severely impacted traditional beverage sales channels, forcing manufacturers and distributors into a difficult position.
赵胜男Traditional Snack Companies Are 'Fleeing' the Internet
As cities rush to revive consumer sentiment, snack stores with minimalist decor and footprints rivaling Miniso stand out. Bestore recently opened a 1,200-square-meter superstore in Wuhan, its largest nationwide, drawing over 10,000 visitors and sales exceeding 760,000 yuan in three days. Despite lackluster performance, including capital reductions and store closures, Bestore is doubling down on offline channels, reflecting a broader industry shift as online growth stalls.
罗弋Flavored Milk: Gathering Dust on the Shelves
While ambient white milk has regained consumer attention through functional additions and milk source innovation, and low-temperature fresh milk continues to win over consumers with its nutrition and freshness, flavored milk has been underperforming, with its market share shrinking since 2012. This downturn is also reflected in brand financial reports, such as in 2022 when China Want Want saw growth in all categories except its dairy and beverage business, which declined by over 10%, with Want Want Milk accounting for 90% of that segment; similarly, Li Zi Yuan, known for its 'sweet milk,' experienced declines in both revenue and profit in 2022.
青翎20 Perspectives on Moutai Coffee by Luckin Coffee
1. The Moutai+Luckin collaboration is a game played by top-tier brands, not complicated, and small brands can only participate but not truly play. 2. It's a pattern, with many similar topics like Porsche-version Huawei, Six God RIO, etc. 3. A good PR event should be big, sweet, crisp, unique, and cheap.
赵波Xinchao Media Zeng Jian: Everything for Growth, Everything for Winning!
On August 18, at Xinchao Media's Shanghai headquarters, New Distribution interviewed Zeng Jian, co-founder and senior vice president of Xinchao Media. As China's largest community media platform, Xinchao Media serves as a barometer of the FMCG economy's prosperity. The interview provides a comprehensive perspective on the 2023 FMCG economy. Zeng Jian, a serial entrepreneur, led the company's expansion from regional to national, building the largest advertising sales team in China's offline media industry. Since 2020, he has built the KA team, serving nearly 300 well-known brands and creating several classic brand cases.
陈思廷Fan Shikai: Jinsha Distillery Integration Proceeds Smoothly, Will Achieve Set Goals as Planned
On September 2, the third 'Celebrate Harvest, Promote Harmony: Jinsha Red 2023 Harvest Celebration' was held in Jinsha County, Guizhou Province. Since 2021, Jinsha Distillery has held this event for three consecutive years, making the 'Jinsha Red Sorghum Festival' a unique annual brand IP event. In the afternoon, Jinsha Distillery also held a symposium with nearly a hundred media representatives. This year, after China Resources Beer officially took over Jinsha Distillery, the industry and media have paid close attention, with various opinions circulating. At the symposium, Fan Shikai, Vice President of China Resources Beer and General Manager of Jinsha Distillery, responded positively and in depth to many industry concerns for the first time.
陈思廷Is Attacking the Lower-Tier Market a False Proposition for New Consumer Brands?
In 2023, the most discussed topic in FMCG is offline terminal construction, with the lower-tier market being the hottest point. Many recognize it as a future channel and growth opportunity, but results are minimal. The author argues that the lower-tier market is not a false proposition; rather, the issue lies in strategy management and a lack of precise marketing and operational capabilities. The so-called lower-tier market refers to the distribution business in third-, fourth-, and fifth-tier cities, including prefecture-level cities and county/township networks.
程英奇From Zero to 100 Million in Six Years: The Growth Story of a Distributor Representing 80+ Brands Including Lee Kum Kee and Totole, with 5,000+ Stores
Despite the general downturn in distribution, some distributors still find growth opportunities by seizing market share. Bajie Trading, a seasoning distributor in Nanchang, Jiangxi, achieved over 100 million yuan in sales within six years of its founding in 2014, by focusing on fine management and adapting compensation models to different stages of growth.
New DistributionWeiwei's Substance and Image
After a long detour, Weiwei shares found that soy milk is its ultimate destination. In the 1990s, Weiwei Soy Milk emerged in the wild consumer market, with the slogan 'Weiwei Soy Milk, Happy and Joyful' deeply rooted in people's hearts. However, after listing as the 'first soy milk stock', the company focused on diversification, trying dairy, coal, liquor, real estate, and pharmaceuticals, only to end up empty-handed after more than a decade in the liquor industry. In recent years, the prodigal son has finally returned, divesting loss-making assets...
陈晓京“Going Premium, Winning Battles”: A Brand Sample That Penetrates Fujian's Premium Beer Market
Focus and forging swords are the two magic weapons for breaking through in a weak market. The landscape of Fujian, a key battleground for premium beer, is changing. With a population of 41.88 million and a total beer capacity of 1.55 million kiloliters, Fujian has the highest premium structure among the three major markets, making it a must-win region for premium beer brands.
陈思廷Genki Forest Wants to Cross the River by Feeling Nongfu Spring's Stones
Genki Forest has entered the bottled water market for the third time. After multiple attempts and facing direct competition from bottled water giants, what does Genki Forest really want? Once a disruptor in the domestic sparkling water market, Genki Forest made a high-profile entry into the bottled water sector in July 2021 with its premium "Youkuang" brand. Two years later, "Youkuang" failed to make a significant impact in the "3-yuan water" market as expected. This summer, Genki Forest is testing the waters again. In June, the company launched a recruitment campaign for product experience officers for its new purified water product.
赵若慈