Mantis observation, the author 丨 easy to not two
Procter & Gamble, known as the fifth largest talent "ticket warehouse" in China's Internet industry, has contributed a lot of "talent" to the rise of new food consumer brands. Behind brands such as Ramen, WonderLab, Jane Eyre Yogurt, and COOOOK Light Cooking, there are active "Procter & Gamble" talents.
The underlying logic of new food consumption is nothing more than to focus on young people to innovate new products, new brands and new categories. Young people will not fail to live up to food, and those "Procter & Gamble veterans" who have been immersed in the field of FMCG for many years have also captured the food consumption trends of young people to innovate endlessly and let new brands dig up one after another.
So, can the "P&G" attack give birth to a "Procter & Gamble" in the food consumption industry? By reviewing the development trend of new food consumption in 2021, Mantis Observation tries to explore this issue in depth.
The logic of feeding young people's products runs through
2021 is a turning point for new consumption. With the significant cooling of sentiment in the venture capital circle, many brands have ushered in a watershed in development. But in the food industry, new consumption is still the main driver of brand growth.
On the one hand, new food brands are still the darlings of capital.
According to Chuangbang data, the number of financing cases of consumer enterprises in the first three quarters of 2021 is as high as 520, which has exceeded the number of financing cases in the whole year of 2020. Among them, food and beverage brands have become a new outlet for institutions and Internet manufacturers to hunt.
The Analysys data also further corroborates the capital heat of the food track. In November 2021, the food track received a total of 18 financing events with a financing amount of 1.635 billion yuan, of which 8 cases exceeded 100 million yuan, making it the track with the largest number of financing events of more than 100 million yuan.
On the other hand, hema CEO Hou Yi said that "the industry will be re-done", the new food brand track has also been fully reflected, and product innovation has been through the traffic play, in the market to gain a foothold.
According to food industry headlines, in 2020, Wang's sales exceeded 800 million yuan, ramen said sales reached 900 million yuan, and Jane Eyre yogurt sales reached nearly 900 million yuan. These brands, according to estimates, will most likely exceed the 1 billion mark in 2021.
Capital favor, users pay, reflecting the new brand represented by ramen and Wang Full, the logic has run through.
In the view of "Praying Mantis Observation", it focuses on three aspects.
First, high-precision positioning makes small incisions, and the full sensory experience makes great demand.
For example, ramen said that the self-hi pot is to bring the Japanese ramen and hot pot in the restaurant into the consumer's table in the form of fast food; snail powder is to make a niche regional cuisine, after the improvement of popular taste, it has become a popular Internet celebrity food respected by young people; and Wang Full is focused on the needs of light food crowds, focusing on yogurt cereal...
The smaller the incision, the more accurate the crowd covered, but to let the accurate audience know the existence of this brand and pay for it, it is not only to solve the need to eat enough, but to mobilize the consumer's full sensory experience: the spicy snail powder launched by Hao HuanLuo is to amplify the heavy taste stimulation of the snail powder; ramen is to let consumers eat fast food exquisitely...
Lu Xiuqiong, a global expert partner at Bain & Company and former CMO of Coca-Cola, said that the new consumer choice is more important than the effort. And she summarized the track selection into 13 words: "real demand, race track, small incision, high added value". This is also the basic point of the rise of new food brands.
Second, inject delicious "stimulants" and add healthy "placebos".
However, in a long period of consumption environment, delicious food is often accompanied by high sugar, high sodium, heavy oil, heavy spicy and so on. Thus, in the context of new consumption, consumers put forward a new proposition for food that should be both delicious and healthy.
If delicious food is the "stimulant" that prompts consumers to place orders passionately, then under the trend of healthy eating, food may not be absolutely healthy, but leaning in this direction reduces the guilt of young people enjoying delicious food.
Just like Wang Fengfeng has always been in the name of low calorie and delicious, providing a meal replacement solution for people who pursue health, so as to be able to stand out from brands such as Quaker and Calebbe.
But in fact, the calories of Wang's fullness are not low, and the fat content is not low. Taking Wang's full fruit multi-roasted oats as an example, Peppermint Health shows that every 100g calories is 407 kcal. And 100g of rice has a calorie of 116 kcal.
However, compared to the puffed processing of Calbe, Wang's full of non-puffed baking does reduce the calorie content and is healthier.
Third, narrow the sense of boundary of the scene and enlarge the sense of consumption ceremony.
Growing up in the era of material affluence, food is no longer the existence of the current young people to solve the needs of food and clothing or to relieve hunger, when they choose a food, behind it often represents a way of life.
COOOOK light cooking, which locates exotic cuisine, allows many consumers to have a sense of ceremony of eating steak, pizza, pasta and other Western foods at home, which lies in micro-innovation in the experience. For example, the small pipe wine equipped with pasta is filled with red wine and brandy in a very thin tube, allowing consumers to pour themselves on the pasta in the last step of cooking; and ramen's saying that "one person is also good to eat" will fill the atmosphere of one person's food.
These rituals, which should only be in the restaurant or self-cooked, are brought about by the brand in the form of pre-cooking, breaking the scene boundary between the store and the home.
Walk on the road to becoming a brand
Even if capital is still favored and users are still paying, it is still difficult to run out of a "Procter & Gamble" in the field of new food consumption.
Looking at the global food market, mars is recognized as the "Procter & Gamble of the food industry". If you only say the name of the company, many people may not be familiar with it, but when it comes to Dove Chocolate, M&M beans, Snickers, Crispy Bastis Rice, as well as Yida Chewing Gum, Green Arrow Chewing Gum, and Big Bubble Gum, True Knowledge, Rainbow Candy and other products, there should be very few people who don't know.
In chocolate, candy and other tracks, Mars' brand has basically achieved global well-known and leading tracks. Even in the field of pet food, "one-third of the world's pets eat Mars' Borough dog food and Weijia and Royal Cat Food every day."
Returning to the new food consumption brands in China, many brands have reported the vision of becoming "Procter & Gamble in the food industry". For example, three squirrels, Zhang Liaoyuan said that "the future of the three squirrels is to do procter and gamble in China's food industry"; and the self-hi pot also tries to change from "self-hi pot" to "self-hi pot production" strategic change, and strives towards "procter and gamble in the food industry".
However, the new brands that have risen from the new wave of consumption have not left keywords such as Internet celebrity explosions, celebrity planting grass, marketing advertisements, and live streaming with goods. This has led to the brand basically relying on the traffic brought by Xiaohongshu KOLs, Douyin bloggers, B-station UP owners, live broadcast anchors, etc. to support sales.
Ramen said founder Yao Qidi said: "Content marketing in 2017, social e-commerce in 2018, and live streaming in 2019, we have stepped on the point at every step." As a result, the annual sales of ramen in 2019 were as high as 250 million yuan.
But relying on traffic, once the traffic dividend fades, brand sales will be exhausted. Magic Mirror market intelligence data shows that during the first round of pre-sales of Double 11 this year, the sales of ramen noodles were close to waist-cutting compared with last year, and the ranking in the field of convenience fast food also fell from fourth to tenth last year.
In contrast, Mars, which has the title of "Procter & Gamble in the food industry", even if the trend of sugar reduction is prevalent now, it is difficult to avoid Mars's Dove and M&M's brands when it comes to chocolate and candy, and in the case of having a strong brand mentality, Mars only needs to iterate products according to consumer trends, and it can still stay in the choice of consumers.
One obvious difference between this is that the new brand is in the product business, while Mars is doing the brand business. For consumer goods, relying on products can only have temporary traffic, and relying on brands can precipitate intangible user assets. This is also why Whale Research New Consumption describes new consumption as "a carnival of explosive products, not a victory for brands".
Therefore, in terms of new food brands that are starting to buy, in order to truly become "Procter & Gamble in the food industry", it is also necessary to build a strong brand moat, cross the cycle, and make the product business into a brand business.
How to build a brand moat?
Lu Xiuqiong's new consumption course "New Consumption Cultivation, Growth Through Cycles" said that the real moat of the enterprise is 4 Ss: Special Know-How intangible assets, Switching Cost habit effect, Scalability scale ability, and System Rigidity cost advantage.
Through these 4 S's, new food brands may be able to find a way to build brand power. The "Praying Mantis Observation" also summarizes three key points that are more superficial.
First, establish reasonable brand values to carry the emotional values and spiritual needs of young people.
Many people love to drink Coca-Cola, in addition to the consumption of Coke as a product, there is also the Coca-Cola brand, so that consumers feel the happiness, invigorating and other emotional value and spiritual belonging. As Coca-Cola's advertising director, Archie Lee, summed it up: "What matters is not what the product is, but what it represents." ”
Second, pay attention to the in-depth cultivation of scene habits, build brand competition barriers and expand premium space with a high degree of consumer stickiness.
Food naturally has the characteristics of high frequency and rigid demand consumption. However, these characteristics need to find accurate scenes and cultivate consumption habits. Let consumers continue to repurchase after tasting the early adopter.
For example, in addition to the basic scene of fresh breath, Yida chewing gum also cuts into additional scenes such as chewing Yida after meals to help oral health and soothe emotions with chewing, so as to cultivate consumption habits in multiple scenes. In the 2020 China Brand Power Index - Chewing Gum Ranking, Yida ranked first.
Third, roll out the global scale, with a dense omni-channel three-dimensional network to carry out "saturation attacks" on consumers, to ensure that consumers achieve deep reach.
Many food products are not planned consumption, but generate impulse consumption after seeing. This is also why brands such as Ramen Say and Zi Hi Pot will continue to conquer offline channels after making a splash from online.
For food brands, online shopping is usually planned mass shopping, and the offline scene is to ensure that consumers can be seen in any commercial situation such as supermarkets and convenience stores, and enter their consumption minds. When they want to buy, they can "get it at their fingertips" to improve the brand's reach efficiency and conversion.
Like Coca-Cola, it did "turn 'away from Coca-Cola' into an impossible thing."
Resources:
"New Consumption Cultivation, Growth Through Cycles" Chaos Academy
"Bain Consulting Lu Xiuqiong: The New Underlying Logic of Consumption in the Food Industry" Interface News