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 83 of 196
Losing 3.8 Billion and Still Cutting Jobs: Why Did Coca-Cola Lose to Pepsi This Time?
Both sell sugary drinks, but why is Coca-Cola suffering more than Pepsi? Recently, Coca-Cola announced 4,000 layoffs with estimated severance costs up to $550 million (about RMB 3.8 billion). In Q2, Coca-Cola's net profit fell 33% to $1.8 billion, meaning about one-third of earnings will go to severance. In H1, Coca-Cola's revenue dropped 15.73%, while Pepsi's grew 1.68%.
贺哲馨2020 Soda War: Some Reminders for Entrepreneurs Wanting to Enter the Beverage Industry
2020 may mark a new era for the beverage market. Our company has already taken on three beverage projects, and even more beverage brands have come to us for consultation. Half of these beverage entrepreneurs have no prior experience in the industry, chasing whatever is hot. I think this is dangerous, so here are some reminders. 1. The beverage market is enormous, possibly one of the few trillion-yuan markets in China, with no oligopoly and less policy regulation than baijiu or cigarettes. Nongfu, Coca-Cola, Uni-President...
小马宋Channel Transformation in the Second Half of 2020: Insights from Chacha Food's Dual-Curve Strategy
This article discusses channel transformation in the post-pandemic era, emphasizing that channel changes should not be viewed in isolation but as part of a coordinated 4P strategy. It highlights the importance of category, traffic, and scenario, and shares Chacha Food's approach to focusing on two business lines: sunflower seeds and nuts.
王斌Hema Fresh vs. Miss Fresh: The Battle for the Fresh Food Market (Models, Positioning, User Profiles, Customer Acquisition Costs...)
The fast-paced urban lifestyle and convenient logistics services have driven the rapid growth of fresh food e-commerce in recent years, especially accelerated by the pandemic. This article provides a competitive analysis of Hema Fresh and Miss Fresh, two leading platforms, covering their models, positioning, user profiles, and more.
New DistributionFruit Wine 'MissBerry': Founded Less Than a Year, Secures Tens of Millions in Financing from Matrix Partners China; Founder Discusses the New Fruit Wine Track!
China has long been at the forefront of global wine production and consumption, ranking first in spirits (baijiu) consumption, first in beer production and sales, and nearly first in wine consumption. However, in the trillion-yuan liquor market, the three major categories of baijiu, beer, and wine are dominated by established players, making it difficult for newcomers to break through channel and brand barriers. Yet, within China's millennia-old liquor landscape, a niche category has always survived in the cracks: fruit wine.
何年Tsingtao Beer's E-commerce Strategy: Latest Thoughts on Short Video Livestreaming and In- and Out-of-Platform Seeding and Harvesting
Both brand owners and technology providers need to know what they want to achieve, whether in public or private domains, and where the growth points lie. E-commerce doesn't guarantee growth; it's about finding the growth points. In February and March, China's e-commerce overall declined by 22%, yet Tsingtao Beer continued to grow. What exactly is e-commerce digitalization? Digitalization is all-encompassing, an E-transformation of the entire process from top to bottom based on corporate strategy. The topic here is e-commerce digital marketing, which involves two aspects: marketing digitalization and e-commerce digitalization.
史永刚Why Are "Sleep Aid Beverages" Struggling to Sell Despite 300 Million Insomniacs in China?
Despite over 300 million Chinese people suffering from sleep disorders, "sleep aid beverages" have failed to gain traction in the market. This article explores the reasons, including the gap between consumer expectations and actual effects, regulatory restrictions on marketing, and the stigma of multi-level marketing.
刘雨静We Studied 20+ New Sparkling Water Products at Home and Abroad, and You Can Forget About Genki Forest
This summer, Genki Forest has become incredibly popular, with over 12.3 million search results on Baidu, 1.18 million Weibo posts, and 20,000+ Xiaohongshu notes. The carbonated beverage market has finally seen new life, as traditional carbonated drinks have been declining due to health concerns. This article analyzes why Genki Forest succeeded, explores the booming sparkling water market, and discusses the potential for new brands to innovate beyond the standard formula.
胖鲸研究所Three Keywords of Lawson's Speed: Community-Oriented, Youth-Oriented, and Lower-Tier Markets
Since announcing profitability in its main business last year, Lawson has significantly accelerated its development. Despite a slowdown due to the pandemic, its store expansion remains strong. Based on the current pace, it is highly likely that Lawson China will surpass 3,000 stores by the end of 2020. After the pandemic eased, Lawson expanded more aggressively, opening 28 stores in Chongqing from April to July, and entering multiple third- and fourth-tier cities.
龙商网Yakult, a bestseller for 85 years, is now selling 'lactic acid bacteria' cosmetics?
In recent years, the concept of 'probiotics' has become increasingly popular, with various advertising slogans such as 'nourish the stomach' and 'promote digestion' emerging, making these products synonymous with health. Probiotic drinks have thus come into being, and most now contain lactic acid bacteria, hence the name 'lactic acid bacteria drinks'. When it comes to lactic acid bacteria drinks, one cannot avoid mentioning Yakult, which boasts '10 billion live lactic acid bacteria', achieving the feat of 'one product, 85 years, annual sales of 27 billion', and earning the nickname 'one red bottle conquers the world'. In 2019, it captured over 60% of China's probiotic drink market, with daily sales of 7.6 million bottles in China. Recently, Yakult has further expanded its strategy in China by entering the cosmetics industry.
KittyBreaking | 2020 Global Dairy Top 20 Released: Yili Rises to 5th, Mengniu to 8th
Recently, Rabobank released its 2020 'Global Dairy Top 20' ranking. Overall, revenue growth for the top 20 global dairy companies slowed, with a 1.3% year-on-year increase in 2019 (in USD), compared to 2.5% in 2018. Notably, Nestle ($22.1B) and Lactalis ($21.0B) retained the top two positions, while Chinese dairy companies Yili and Mengniu made significant strides, ranking 5th and 8th respectively.
FBIFThe "Marketing" You Work So Hard At Might Be the "Fake Marketing" That Leads You Astray
Marketing is the profitable satisfaction of needs. This year has seen major market changes; it's gratifying to see some companies truly seize opportunities and make great strides, but disheartening to see more led astray by "traffic-first" and fabricated new concepts. If companies fall into misunderstandings about marketing, they may never escape these pitfalls.
苗庆显Why Did Unilever Reduce Its 1,600 Brands to 400?
As early as 1999, Unilever operated in about 150 countries worldwide and had as many as 1,600 brands, making it one of the world's largest FMCG companies. Why did Unilever have so many brands? And why did it later reduce its brands from 1,600 to 400?
曹虎 王赛800 Billion! Wei Chuan's Lactic Acid Bacteria Beverages Undergo a Major Transformation
As demand for health beverages grows in the post-pandemic era, Wei Chuan has launched a major upgrade to its lactic acid bacteria beverage category. On August 26, during the livestream debut of Wei Chuan's China President Hsieh Tsung-Peng, two newly upgraded lactic acid bacteria products made their debut, with nationwide distribution expected by September.
何丹琳Old Dominants Are Anxious, They Are Being 'Killed' by Emerging Brands!
After writing an article about the new consumption wave last year, I've been told repeatedly that my closing line 'every consumer product is worth redoing' was spot on. Since the pandemic, I've been busy with Alibaba's investment in Helijia, and now I've finally turned to see how the consumer goods world has changed. To my shock, established brands like Shu Uemura, Givenchy, Avène, Quaker, and Tong Ren Tang are being quietly overtaken by domestic upstarts such as Zuben, Florasis, Winona, Wangbaobao, and Xiaoxiandun. The infrastructure dividend of the past 20 years has set the stage for a new era of Chinese consumer brands, driven by product managers, technological innovation, and a youthful spirit.
雕爷Three Squirrels' Zhang Liaoyuan: How to Win in a Once-in-20-Years Brand Opportunity?
Affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, many companies faced huge operational pressure in the first half of 2020 due to reduced store traffic and declining consumer spending. As the first internet food FMCG brand to surpass the 10 billion yuan threshold, Three Squirrels also faced challenges. However, outstanding entrepreneurs are better at finding opportunities in crises. In a speech titled 'From the Traffic Era to the Content Era: The Next P&G Era Has Arrived', Zhang Liaoyuan shared his in-depth thoughts and implementation methods for building new brands as Three Squirrels transitions from a single brand to multiple brands.
章燎原“Buying Traffic Is Death, Not Buying Traffic Is Also Death”: How Did We Fall into the Trap Again?
When faced with the dilemma of choosing between certain death and suicidal action, you are not confronting the real problem. The article argues that the real issue is not traffic, terminals, or advertising, but the lack of genuine market value, product appeal, and brand strength.
响马老苗Tmall Food x Baorun Shares | Launching the Alco-Pop Category: The 'Alco-Pop Trendy Alcohol Creation Camp' Opens!
In recent years, due to upgrading consumption structures and changing habits, the drinking demand among the 'she-generation' of young consumers has increased, leading to significant growth in the low-alcohol beverage market and a substantial rise in consumer penetration. Trendy alcoholic drinks are gaining popularity, and the market is witnessing a new wave of youthfulness, diversity, and lower alcohol content. Statistics show that during the 2020 618 mid-year promotion, online sales of low-alcohol beverages grew over 100% year-on-year. Low-alcohol drinks have entered the traditional beverage market with strong momentum, becoming a new trend category. However, during this rapid growth phase, the scarcity of quality brands has become a major challenge in capturing more market share.
New DistributionLive Streaming Is Not the Future; Building a New Marketing Value Chain Is
Consumer decisions are driven by two cognitive systems: System 1 (intuition) and System 2 (rationality). Live streaming appeals to System 1, making it suitable only for low-involvement, low-risk, low-price products. The real value of live streaming is limited to driving purchase behavior; building brand awareness, cognition, and evaluation requires a complete marketing value chain of brand seeding, content marketing, and live-stream harvesting.
空手Building a Bridge Between Brand and Consumers: How Does Yanjing U8 Win Hearts?
How does a time-honored national brand connect with young consumers? Yanjing U8, a bestseller this summer, has provided the answer. This summer has been unique and surprising, as the suppressed "slash" and "post-00s" generations finally found release. A refreshing summer is inseparable from beer, and in recent months, this beer product hailed as the pride of domestic goods—Yanjing U8—has taken the country by storm. It has appeared on the hottest social and functional platforms such as Douyin, Weibo, Xiaohongshu, and Douguo Food, and has even won over celebrities like Pang Bo, Wang Han, Zhang Meng, and Ding Dang.
陈峰Weng Yinuo of Hongzhang Capital: The Future of New Brands and New Traffic
At the 2020 (3rd) China FMCG Conference, Weng Yinuo, founding partner of Hongzhang Capital, shared insights on the evolution of traffic, brand building, and DTC strategies. He emphasized that brands must adapt to fragmented media and channels, leverage category innovation, and build emotional connections with consumers to succeed in the new retail landscape.
翁怡诺Liu Chunxiong: 4 Hot Words for Brand Growth under the Combination of Internet and Tradition
At the 2020 (3rd) China FMCG Conference, Liu Chunxiong shared insights on how traditional enterprises can achieve growth by integrating with the internet. He highlighted four key concepts: Experience, KOC, Cloud Store, and Channel Live Streaming, which have driven growth for many companies despite the pandemic.
刘春雄Swire Coca-Cola CEO Su Wei: Business Recovery Accelerates After Pandemic, Focus on All-Category Beverages
Su Wei stated, "In the Chinese market, consumers are beginning to widely accept new beverage brands and some niche products. New beverage categories such as bottled water, sports drinks, and sugar-free tea are also being embraced by consumers. Therefore, we need to accelerate the development and expansion of new products." The 2019 milk powder market was full of uncertainty. "If you look closely at the regions where Swire Coca-Cola operates, you will find that China is the leader in business growth," Su Wei told reporters. "It is for this reason that we see the prospects of the Chinese market and have placed our China headquarters in Shanghai, where we will continue to increase investment in assets, personnel, and products."
綦宇Exclusive | Launching Officially in September, Yangyuan Takes Over Red Bull Anaji Operations!
New Distribution exclusively learned that on September 1 (today), Yangyuan Beverages held a mobilization meeting at its headquarters to officially begin operations of Red Bull Anaji under Thailand's TCP Group. Red Bull Anaji is the first new Red Bull product launched by TCP Group in China after the licensing dispute with Reignwood's Red Bull. Yangyuan Beverages, known for its 'Six Walnuts' product, is a major player in the northern Chinese market. This partnership signals a strategic move by TCP to leverage Yangyuan's strong distribution network in the north to boost Anaji's sales, intensifying competition in the energy drink market.
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