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 98 of 196
Changing Perceptions with a Walnut: How Walnuts Can Explode in Sales Like Milk!
Last year, China's snack food market reached 484.9 billion yuan, with nuts and roasted seeds accounting for 23% of the entire snack food market. Over the next three years, nut and seed snack sales are expected to maintain a compound annual growth rate of 10.7%, potentially reaching 345.6 billion yuan by 2020. The growth model of the nut industry has shifted from demographic dividends to fan quality dividends. The entire industry can be summarized by four 'new' aspects: new generation, new consumption, new retail, and new thinking. However, the industry is currently hindered by severe product homogenization and single-mode and channel issues. As an excellent example of innovation in the nut snack industry, Hebei Lvling Kangwei Food Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as 'Lvling Food') has conducted in-depth market research and, with innovative products and differentiated marketing, quickly gained a large number of consumer fans.
New DistributionHow Small Brands Can Break Through the Blockade and Defeat First-Tier Brands?
In an incremental market, small brands can survive by imitating big brands and targeting niche markets. However, in today's saturated and stagnant market, small brands face the challenge of being crushed by big brands' aggressive competition. To thrive, small brands must abandon conservatism, adopt challenger strategies, find breakthrough points, leverage new traffic and channels, and follow the eight laws of challenger innovation to establish a strong brand identity and win consumer loyalty.
赵波Totole Original Fresh Focuses on Focus Media to Attract Middle Class, Soy Sauce Market Competition May Intensify
Soy sauce is the largest category in China's condiment industry, with annual production reaching tens of millions of tons. Currently, the domestic market is dominated by Haitian, followed by Lee Kum Kee, Chubang, and Original Fresh, forming a 'one superpower, multiple strong players' competitive landscape. Recently, Totole Original Fresh soy sauce has changed its brand strategy, heavily focusing on Focus Media elevator advertising, promoting '0 additives, 3 layers of freshness' to target 300 million urban mainstream consumers and further capture market share. As is well known...
New DistributionThe Awkward Position of NFC Juice
Have you ever bought NFC juice priced above 15 yuan? How many times? Leading brands like Huiyuan, Nongfu Spring, and Uni-President have entered the NFC juice market, yet why haven't they achieved billions in sales? Despite being known for freshness, health, and nutrition, NFC juice has failed to capture consumers in the era of consumption upgrade. From Zero Degree Fruit Workshop's entry in 2012 to Luckin Coffee's foray in 2019, over seven years, as players entered and exited, this once-promising juice category has fallen into an awkward position in China.
李青林Global Flavored Water Market Exceeds $10 Billion; What's Next for the 'Small but Beautiful' Flavored Water Market?
In 2016, the global non-alcoholic beverage market was valued at $967.3 billion, with a projected CAGR of 5.8% from 2017 to 2025. Growing health consciousness is driving growth in functional drinks and bottled water, while dampening carbonated soft drink demand. The global flavored water market grew from $6.5 billion in 2013 to $10.3 billion in 2018, with U.S. sales nearly doubling to $2.5 billion. In China, flavored water saw a boom in 2014 with products like Hai Zhi Yan, but the market is still developing, with opportunities in flavor innovation, functionality, and sustainability.
FBIFFacing Market Encirclement by Nongfu Spring, C'estbon, and Ganten, How Can Small Brands 'Snatch Food from the Tiger's Mouth'?
The author, with 12 years of experience in bottled water sales management, shares insights on how weak brands can achieve regional dominance despite being squeezed by strong competitors. Drawing on examples and strategic principles like guerrilla and offensive warfare, the article offers practical tactics for small brands to focus resources and carve out their own territory.
海游Distributor Lao Zhang's Worries, Marketing Director Lao Cao's Pain: What's Wrong with the Traditional Channel Model?
To vividly illustrate the problems in the current FMCG industry's channel model, this article creates two characters—distributor Lao Zhang and marketing director Lao Cao—to reveal the drawbacks of current channels through their pains and worries, and on this basis, outlines the direction of future channel transformation.
高松Breaking | E-cigarette Industry Faces National Standard, Online Channels Cut Off!
On November 1, the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration and the State Administration for Market Regulation issued a notice to protect minors from e-cigarettes, urging the closure of online sales channels and removal of e-cigarette products and ads. This takes effect immediately, meaning all internet sales sites and e-commerce platforms must remove e-cigarette products and ads within the day.
New DistributionBlind Faith in Influencer Livestream Selling Is a Disease That Needs a Cure
The article critiques the hype around influencer livestream selling, arguing that while top influencers can drive sales, most others fail, and the real key is product quality and price, not the influencer. It warns against blind faith in this model and explains the underlying dynamics for all parties involved.
半佛仙人Soda Water Chaos
China's soda water market is poised for a chaotic battle as major brands enter the fray. With giants like Genki Forest, Tsingtao Beer, Uni-President, and Nongfu Spring launching new soda water products, the market is heating up, but consumer confusion between soda water and sparkling water may hinder growth.
澄韵Do Small and Beautiful Local Distilleries Still Have a Chance?
Li Du's value lies in its 'small and beautiful' survival strategy for local baijiu. Despite being a small local distillery, Li Du has shown that by creating value, communicating it through immersive experiences, and leveraging social media, local distilleries can thrive even without national reach.
刘春雄Master Kong Instant Noodles Sold 11.5 Billion in Half a Year, Why Shift to Energy Bars?
According to AC Nielsen data, China's instant noodle consumption exceeded 40 billion servings in 2018, returning to the '40 billion servings club', and in the first half of 2019, sales in China's instant noodle market rose 7.5% year-on-year. Master Kong's 2019 interim results show that its instant noodles alone sold 11.5 billion yuan in the first half of 2019, with revenue up 3.68% year-on-year, contributing 37.85% of the group's total revenue. As the instant noodle market recovers, Master Kong, one of the industry leaders, has begun selling energy bars. Recently, Master Kong quietly launched the 'Sunshine Youxian' brand, officially entering the meal replacement energy bar field.
FBIFBrand Owners Take Note: 'Private Domain Traffic' Has Arrived—Should You Follow?
Private domain traffic is a new concept that has garnered significant attention in the marketing field this year, both online and offline. There is considerable debate about its value: some see it as a revolutionary marketing innovation that will transform traditional models, while others dismiss it as merely adding friends on social platforms. This article argues that private domain traffic will become the primary marketing model of the future, potentially replacing traditional systems, and offers guidance on how enterprises can build a new marketing system centered on it.
鲍跃忠Five Years, Four Victories: The Winning Strategy of China's First 'Blue Army' in Beer
Since 2014, Tsingtao Brewery established its 'Blue Army' innovation marketing division to tackle the industry's downturn and brand aging. Through four major campaigns—craft wheat beer, ultra-premium beer, private customization, and e-commerce—the Blue Army achieved victories, revitalizing the brand and setting a benchmark for innovation.
李青林Jiangxiaobai's Guide to Staying Young
Whether it's allowing consumers to express themselves or using consumer language, the essence is a 'reconciliation' between the brand and consumers. Jiangxiaobai, a young Chinese baijiu brand, has achieved success by understanding and engaging with young consumers through innovative products, marketing, and a youthful corporate culture.
田巧云Goodbye Chen Peisi, Unforgettable Beibingyang
Returning does not mean victory or success; time has taken away the past, along with consumers' former tastes and habits. 1983 is destined to be unforgettable, as it marked the debut of Beibingyang on the Spring Festival Gala stage, a brand that later disappeared and made a comeback.
王杨森How Laocunzhang Achieved 6 Billion in Sales with a Bare-Bottle Liquor?
Laocunzhang is another industry anomaly in the mass liquor era besides Niulanshan. Because it is not a listed company, it is not easily noticed and exploited by the keen capital market early; also because its selling price is lower than Niulanshan, it is regarded as an un-copyable outlier by most mainstream enterprises in this industry that pay taxes in a standardized way. However, after multiple verifications, the author speculates that its actual sales may be astronomical. Considering multiple factors such as reasonable avoidance of low-end liquor tax burden, authorized remote filling, and sales discounts, several industry experts speculate that the actual shipment sales may be close to 6 billion...
刘义军Community Group Buying Officially Enters the Era of Three Kingdoms: Should Brands Follow or Not?
After a year of brutal growth, community group buying has settled into a competitive landscape dominated by a few major players. This article analyzes the current competitive dynamics, whether there are still opportunities for new entrants, and whether brands should partner with these platforms.
新经销刘少德What Changes and What Stays the Same in Marketing?
The article discusses the complexity of marketing concepts and the importance of distinguishing between what changes and what remains constant. It argues that while marketing methods vary across industries, the core goals of driving sales growth, enhancing brand value, and increasing customer loyalty are timeless. It also addresses challenges for startups in branding and the evolving role of data and AI in marketing.
张锐One Step Closer to Hema's Dream of 'Over 50% Private Brand in Three Years'
As competition in China's retail industry intensifies and product homogenization becomes more severe, developing private brands has become a key breakthrough for differentiation. However, most retailers are blindly following others, leading to poor positioning, weak branding, and ineffective marketing, resulting in excess inventory and a 'dabble and quit' approach. Hema, a leading new retail player, has achieved over 10% private brand penetration, offering valuable lessons for traditional retailers.
宋九亮Chasing Red Bull, How Likely Is Eastroc to Succeed in Its IPO?
In 2019, China's functional beverage market experienced a turbulent yet seemingly calm transition. Since the Red Bull trademark case in June, the launch of Red Bull Anaji pushed the dispute to a climax, with discussions lasting over three months. Eastroc, the industry's second-largest player, is now pursuing an IPO, facing both opportunities and challenges as it aims to close the gap with the embattled Red Bull.
澄韵Dealers Should Never Pin Their Hopes on a Single Brand
More than half of 2019 has passed, and all dealers are complaining about poor market sales. Manufacturers have raised prices multiple times to balance their books, but whether consumers will accept the increases is a huge test for dealers. In the early days, dealers aspired to represent big brands, but now representing them has become a dilemma—abandoning them is a pity, while keeping them is exhausting.
New DistributionFive New Products Launched Together! Can This Company Become the Next 'Three Squirrels'?
In recent years, Three Squirrels, Be & Cheery, Bestore, and Qiaqia in the snack food industry have leveraged e-commerce to quickly create a 'nut craze', attracting multiple snack giants to enter the nut market, such as foreign brand Kraft Heinz. Before this, nut products were never mainstream in the snack food sector. Undoubtedly, nuts are now at the industry's peak. According to a Mintel research report, over the next three years, nut snack sales will maintain a compound annual growth rate of 10.7%, with the market size expected to reach 345.6 billion yuan by 2020...
New DistributionFounded 4 Years, Annual Sales 15 Billion, FMCG Maternal and Infant B2B2C Platform - Haipaike's Practice!
In just 4 years, Haipaike has established the largest B2B2C deep distribution maternal and infant platform in the FMCG vertical category. As of now, Haipaike has cooperated with more than 8,000 maternal and infant brands, covering 170,000 maternal and infant stores, with 2018 GMV of 10 billion, and is expected to achieve 15 billion GMV in 2019. Founded in 2015, Haipaike uses internet technology to aggregate a maternal and infant supply chain platform integrating brand owners, service providers, distributors, and retailers. Recently, New Distribution had a dialogue with Haipaike's founder...
袁来