Wen 丨 BT Finance You Li
On the afternoon of January 3, 2022, the snack brand Three Squirrels issued another apology statement, apologizing for the use of the "red scarf pattern" in the 2019 advertisement, and saying that the advertisement was first published on March 28, 2019, and soon after received a letter from the Committee of Young Workers, the relevant page had been processed offline on April 1, 2019.
According to the People's Daily, the use of red scarves in commercial advertisements is suspected of violating the law, and relevant laws and regulations show that the Young Pioneers flag, team emblem, team cadre logo and red scarf cannot be used for commercial activities.
Three squirrels official micro, the most recent two are for the issuance of advertising statements, just a week since the last time due to the model makeup overturned, the controversy of the three squirrels can not help but make people think deeply, brand advertising accidents frequently? Is this a problem with three squirrels, or is it a problem with the industry?
Self-inflicted, or behind-the-scenes?
From the perspective of time interval, the appearance of negative public opinion of three squirrels in the near future is indeed more frequent. On December 26, the three squirrels officially issued a statement apologizing for the makeup and elements used in the advertisement two years ago. The same is the 2019 advertisement, the same is the three squirrel brand, this time the official micro apology statement under many netizens raised questions.
In addition to questioning the position of the brand side, there are not a few people who believe that there are pushers after the fermentation of public opinion. "Did the three squirrels offend anyone?" "Are competitors digging up black materials?" "Specially sent hot search is also well-intentioned" and other voices are not uncommon, compared to the previous one-sided criticism caused the official media to point out that "regardless of the occasion, regardless of the situation, small eyes are squinting, as long as the use of small eye models are all insulting, some are too sensitive", this time, people seem to be much more rational.
Of course, whether the conspiracy theory behind the counter-accusations is correct is not possible to investigate now, but what is certain is that there is a problem with the marketing strategy of the three squirrels. Whether the three squirrels admit it or not, consumers will put a question mark in their hearts in the face of brands that have repeatedly overturned. The original intention of publicity is to expand brand influence and create a beautiful brand image, from the process of putting forward ideas to finally implementing, each step implies the appearance of corporate culture. This also means that brands must be careful and enterprising, cautious and profit-seeking, as the People's Daily commented, only brands that truly think from the perspective of consumers, respect products and audiences can win the market.
But to be fair, many people in the industry believe that with the three squirrels' intensity and advertising coverage, errors will inevitably occur in general, which is not to excuse its mistakes, but to remind other brands that marketing is not the more the better, and it may be more important to ensure the balance between quantity and quality.
According to the financial report data, the sales expenses of the three squirrels from 2018 to 2020 were 1.461 billion, 2.298 billion and 1.712 billion yuan respectively, and as of September 30, 2021, the three squirrels invested a total of 1.466 billion yuan in marketing, which has exceeded the whole year of 2018. It is understood that the three squirrels are adjusting the marketing structure and launching heavy offline positions.
Nut snacks as a gift just needed, the upcoming Spring Festival belongs to its peak consumption season, despite the recent disputes, the three squirrels have not given up the battlefield. According to financial reports, the three squirrels have entered the marketing step of the New Year Festival in advance, releasing the first TVC advertisement from December 20, planning to run for 6 weeks and ending on January 30. The head of the three squirrel brands said that the advertisement is expected to reach at least 200 million people and achieve the target of more than 10 touches per capita among key target groups." ”
The snack industry has no moat
Heavy marketing is not a problem for three squirrels and one brand, to be precise, the entire nut snack industry is plagued by this.
Xiao Wei, a practitioner in the financial industry, pointed out that from the perspective of the industry as a whole, the problem of high marketing expenses is common, and the marketing expenses of other similar brands also account for a relatively high proportion. The root cause is because of the serious homogenization competition in the snack industry.
The Daily Research Institute pointed out that the CR5 of China's snack food industry is only 16.3%, lower than developed countries and regions such as South Korea and Singapore, and also lower than the global average of 25.6%. In fact, casual snacks lack a unified standard recognized by the industry, and the characteristics of low threshold and strong replicability make brands unable to differentiate by products, and can only rely on advertising and marketing to seize consumer minds.
Looking at the financial reports of the three squirrels, the situation of increasing profits without increasing income is prominent. In Q3 2021, the three squirrels recorded revenue of 1.809 billion yuan, down 8.59% year-on-year, and the net profit attributable to the mother was 90.43 million yuan, an increase of 18.29% year-on-year. The abnormal reason is that the growth of its profit is mainly driven by price increases rather than sales increases, and the semi-annual report shows that the average price of orders for three squirrels in the first half of 2021 increased by 8.7%, and the gross profit margin of online ToC channels increased by 4.8 percentage points to 35.5%.
According to industry insiders, under the premise of extremely fierce competition in the industry, consumer loyalty to a single brand is difficult to establish, and the practice of raising prices for revenue is not a long-term solution, and the three squirrels must give new solutions. In this regard, abandoning the OEM model and honestly investing in self-built supply chains is the most stupid and best way. The repeated apologies of the three squirrels have proved that marketing is not a golden oil, consumer patience is limited, too many advertisements will sooner or later attract repercussions, and illegal advertisements will only lose the reputation of users, in the changing world, the root of life will eventually return to a good product.
According to the data of the China Commercial Industry Research Institute, the market size of the leisure food industry in 2021 is about 1,401.5 billion yuan, and there are still a lot of opportunities in the industry as a whole under the premise of accelerating the formation of a dual-cycle pattern, the correct guidance of laws and regulations, and the continuous improvement of consumer purchasing power. Holding the product in your hand, grasping the raw materials and production methods yourself instead of handing over to the upstream industry chain will become the general trend of the industry in the future.
Experts who have long been concerned about snack food point out: "The difficulty of controlling the production and processing of raw materials is much lower than that of external conflicts." External contract procurement, which originally has the problem of more than you and me, needs to coordinate the interests of the two parties through the terms of the contract, and the difficulty is different in different industries. The food and beverage industry should pay special attention to food and beverage safety, with higher quality requirements, so it is more suitable for internalization. "For the three squirrels, the revenue from the light assets has indeed reached the time to make up for the supply chain."
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