Produced | Tiger Sniff Commercial, Consumer and Mobile Group
The author | Miao Zhengqing
The title image | Visual China
The rules of the game on the "plant protein food" track are changing, and the key logic today is: get the young, get the world.
If you're not quite sure what "plant-based protein foods" are, you may have heard of "artificial meat." On platforms such as Douyin, Station B, and Xiaohongshu, a wave of "plant protein food planting fever" has arisen around 2020, but most creators are accustomed to replacing more scientific terms with "artificial meat" in order to cause a hot topic among young people.
The popularity of the plant protein food track reached its peak in 2020, when the average monthly related companies got financing, in 2021, the plant protein food track poured into more international big names, V2 Food, Beyond Meat and other brands began to make online + offline two-way force, and even Beyond Meat directly built a factory in China to "localize" production capacity. In the C-end market, chain brands have also opened an era without "meat": Starbucks, KFC, Luckin, and Xicha have launched "plant protein artificial meat" related products, which have become a trend for a while.
The head of the tea tasting track product told Tiger Sniff that young people are the key behind this plant protein food boom. "Generation Z and post-00s are more willing to try new, plant protein artificial meat is quite topical, and the health and environmental protection elements behind it are also very pleasing among young people."
On January 11, Zhou Zero announced the completion of a $100 million B round of financing led by Primavera Capital, followed by Professor Zeng Ming, and the old shareholders Joy Capital, Matrix Partners Venture Capital, Lightspeed China, and Yunjiu Capital, and after completing this round of financing, Zhou Zero has become one of the most valuable local plant protein food technology companies in China.
With the completion of new financing at Zero Week, industry insiders began to pay attention to the changes in the underlying logic of the track.
"From the very beginning, we have been talking to young people. In a brand new track, you need to rely on young people to co-create and spread trends. Kiki (Wu Yanzi), CEO of Zhou Zero, told Tiger Sniff that consumers aged 18 to 30 constitute the core users of Zhou Zero's "plant protein products", and the proportion of men and women is balanced, with the proportion of young girls slightly higher and the proportion of post-00s continuing to increase.
It is also worth noting the change in the direction of investment winds. In the eyes of some investors, the industry is about to face a "reshuffle tide". Wang Sheng, a partner at Innova Angel Fund, told Tiger Sniff: "Local companies with core technologies, self-built supply chains and deep cultivation of Chinese food culture will get more opportunities. ”
Another investor in the field, who did not want to be named, said that the plant protein food track has shown a "protracted war" situation, "the earliest wave of companies that rely on marketing and gimmicks to survive will gradually be eliminated, and brands with self-built supply chains, research and development capabilities and localized products will remain on the table." The investor believes that in 2021, the capital circle has fine-tuned the evaluation thinking of the plant protein food track, and more people realize that this track needs to be "a friend of time". "Capital that wants to make quick money and harvest quickly will be away from the table, leaving behind players who really want to cultivate new tracks."
Post-00s prefer "plant protein"?
Liu Qi, a heavy consumer of plant protein, is a girl born in 2000. The first time she paid attention to plant protein products was at the yoga studio she usually visited. While practicing several difficult maneuvers, the coach told her that "muscle strength is insufficient and she needs to be supplemented with protein." After completing her day's training and stumbling around a shop on the first floor, she discovered a plant-based protein bar, which started her journey to eat plant-based protein products.
Shen Nini, a college student born in 2002, not only ate plant protein products herself, but also successfully planted grass for three girls in the dormitory. She is a fan of a fire boy band, when she accidentally found that her favorite male star posted several sample pictures of a certain brand of plant protein products on the SNS platform, which became the starting point for her to pay attention to plant protein products.
Food industry analyst Qian Chang told Tiger Sniff that on an international scale, plant protein products have a clear "rejuvenation trend". "Whether it is the European and American markets, the Japanese and Korean markets or the Chinese market, young consumers are driving this trend." Qian Chang said that the rise and fall of a food culture or category, behind the complex historical and cultural reasons, in the post-war (World War II) economic recovery stage, Europe, the United States and Japan and South Korea markets arose a strong "carnivore" trend of thought, which is a generation or even generations after experiencing years of material scarcity and hunger "compensatory consumption". After 2010, the vegetarian trend in the European and American markets has gradually strengthened, which is inseparable from the deep influence of the previous two or three decades of "meatless and unhappy years", as well as people's pursuit of deeper spiritual values.
In the domestic market, Qian Chang believes that people's food culture in the past four decades is gradually undergoing deep changes. "In the past decade, low-carbon water and light food have gradually become popular, while younger Generation Z and post-00s have generally grown up in the years of abundant food, and their attitudes towards diet have a more diversified vision."
But the appetite of young people is not easy to "open".
The head of the market of a plant protein startup told Tiger Sniff that everyone in the circle realizes that "young consumers are opportunities", but they have complex and changeable needs and more personalized choices, which means that they are "uncertain and not easy to meet".
Kiki and her team have found a different path. In November 2021, Zhou Zero cooperated with Shanghai Frisbee Golf Club to hold a number of "Frisbee Activities" offline. Just before and after, Zhou Zero organized a number of camping and cooking activities through the "Neighborhood Project". And these activities attract a large number of young people. Yang Yuan (pseudonym), who participated in several offline events held by Zhou Zero in Shanghai, said that she was attracted to the frisbee project at the time, and what made her feel interesting was that although she was a "frisbee white", she still successfully participated in the "competition".
In the model of Week Zero, after consumers get products, they can enter the "private domain pool" through the WeChat subscription account, and Week Zero will hold a variety of offline activities in a targeted manner, and in these activities, Week Zero will provide a large number of products for users to try, including some new products that have not yet come out. In this process, Week Zero will collect user feedback, and even develop new products in the laboratory based on newly obtained demand intelligence, which constitutes the research and production link of Week Zero.
"The focus of my attention is on the consumption scenarios of users. In fact, in every scenario, there is consumer demand, and what we need to understand is these needs, and we may use a stupid but effective way to obtain demand intelligence - co-creation with users. Kiki said that in the process of starting a business for more than two years, her biggest feeling is that "didactic" grass planting is completely useless to young Chinese consumers, and even arouses a rebellious heart. There are too many differences in culture and eating habits between the domestic market and North America, which means that participants in the plant protein food track must find a "pragmatic way to play" suitable for the Chinese market.
A UP master who makes a plant protein food video at Station B told Tiger Sniff that his video users are mainly Generation Z and post-00s, and in order to attract these viewers, he not only added a large number of camping videos, but also added "three pits" videos in 2021. (Three pits: Hanfu, lolita clothing, JK uniform) and these videos attracted many young men and women, who gradually became the main consumers of plant protein foods in their B station small shops.
It is worth noting that in addition to this young trend, the plant protein food track is also facing deeper changes. In other words, in order to meet the more complex and changeable needs of young consumers, related brands are completing a round of "new evolution".
The wind direction of the track has changed
On January 11, Zhou Zero's self-built factory landed in Xiaogan, Hubei Province. It is reported that after full production, the plant will have the ability to produce more than 100 different forms of plant protein products at the same time.
According to Kiki, at the beginning of the business, the founding team of Zhou Zero had decided to build its own factory, and even began to choose a site at that time, but on the one hand, due to financial pressure, on the other hand, due to the scale of orders, Zhou Zero did not gamble on the model of building a factory with heavy assets at the beginning. After the official commercialization at the end of 2019, Zhou Zero completed the initial experience and capacity accumulation through oem methods, and when the funds and order volume were gradually boosted, Zhou Zero officially promoted the factory construction plan in 2021. Self-built factories mean that Zhou Zero will gradually change from the OEM model to the integration of production, research and marketing, and further strengthen supply chain management.
"Self-built factories can bring about changes in four links, the first is to further strengthen the confidentiality of formulas, and secondly, self-built factories are of great benefit to the improvement of production efficiency, at the same time, self-built factories can allow brands to have more room to develop when polishing products, and self-built factories can further reduce production costs." Kiki told Tiger Sniff that having its own factory can make Zhou Zero more flexible and responsive to market demand, and for the plant protein food track, "fast reaction" is the key at the moment.
A person in charge of a plant protein brand once told Tiger Sniff that because the entire market is in a relatively early stage, there are a large number of "blind spots" in the entire industry in terms of user demand, which means that the companies involved need rapid insight, rapid attempt, rapid research and production, and rapid supply. "And for the plant protein food track, everyone is adopting a light inventory or zero inventory strategy to reduce risks, which puts forward higher requirements for market responsiveness."
The transformation of Week Zero is not just on the capacity side. Just 4 months ago, they had just completed a strategic shift, and in the first two years of their business, Zhou Zero adopted a "B2B2C" model. They launch co-branded products with chain brands and use them to push products to the C-end market.
According to people familiar with Kiki, because her family runs a vegetable restaurant in Shenzhen, "deep integration with the catering industry" became the direction of choice at the beginning of Zhou Zero's business. At that time, Zhou Zero issued cooperation invitations to a number of domestic and foreign chain restaurant brands, and even Kiki personally wrote English emails to a foreign chain big brand to promote their own products.
It wasn't a "lying and winning" time. It is reported that around 2019-2020, although domestic chain catering brands began to pay attention to plant protein products, they generally had a cautious attitude. The person in charge of the operation of a chain hot pot brand once told Tiger Sniff that at that time, people in the circle generally thought that plant protein products belonged to the "new wave", but they could not "touch the end" for user consumption ability and interest, so everyone was generally "cautious".
The existence of the International Plant Protein Food Company also made it more difficult to get a "B-end order" at that time. At that time, Kiki often led the team and the international plant protein food brand team to "game" head-on, and even "roadshow products" in front of the procurement leaders of chain catering companies.
For Zhou Zero, this not easy birth history strengthened the company's resilience. Some investors have told Tiger Sniff that among the local plant protein food companies that appeared around 2019, there are generally two ways to play, one is to choose an easy path: relying heavily on marketing and relying on gimmicks; the other is to choose a difficult model and directly strive for orders for big-name restaurants. "Judging from the situation in the second half of 2021, those companies that chose a difficult model in the rise process have survived." The investor said.
By 2021, Week Zero already has a strong influence in the B-end market, and they have the largest number of B-end customer bases among local plant protein food companies. Some people who did not want to be named told Tiger Sniff that through B-end orders, Zhou Zero basically achieved "self-sufficiency", and this is very important for the capital world. In the past year, Zhou Zero's products have successively landed in brand stores such as Dicos, Xicha, Luckin Coffee, FamilyMart, 711, Rosen and other brand stores, and as of now, the plant protein food technology company, which has been established for less than 3 years, has reached cooperation with 100 brands and more than 14,000 stores.
"Plant protein food companies generally burn money, and hematopoietic capacity is a key barrier. In 2020, when the wind is at its peak, capital is still willing to fight, but in 2021, everyone will first choose those projects that can make their own blood and survive. An investor who did not want to be named told Tiger Sniff in September this year that in 2020, "capital is quite eager for the plant protein food track, and everyone wants to harvest quickly." ”
The key issue that most plant protein companies need to address is "market perception." Some practitioners of the track have bluntly said that the biggest challenge of the plant protein business is "out of the circle". "Explaining to consumers what plant-based protein is and convincing them to try it is a costly thing to communicate."
Co-working with B-side customers is a strategy of Week Zero. At that time, in the stores of brands such as Xicha, Dicos, and Luckin, there were products of Zhou Zero. Unlike other plant protein companies, when providing products to B-side customers, Zhou Zero will match a complete set of "solutions", including products, cooking technology, SOPs, and marketing strategies. In such a situation, when consumers buy plant protein products through the above-mentioned chain catering stores, they often pay attention to the "IP" of Zhou Zero, which has become the earliest "planting journey" of Zhou Zero.
But relying solely on cooperation with large customers is not enough to promote plant protein products. So in the second half of 2021, Zhou Zero began to enter the To C market directly. "In fact, we wanted to be a To C company at the beginning of our business, but we were very pragmatic and knew that different stages had different strategies, so we started with a B2B2C strategy." Kiki told Tiger Sniff that For The Ultimate Direction for plant protein tracks, even it should evolve into a "lifestyle" based on plant protein foods.
It is worth noting that young forces have played a key role in the rise of Zero Week. Some people related to the tea brand that had cooperated with Zhou Zero told Tiger Sniff that the plant protein products they launched at that time were generally bought by young users.
Another restaurant chain company that has launched plant protein food since 2020 told Tiger Sniff that they statistically found that among registered members, consumers aged 20 to 25 have the strongest spending power in plant protein products. "When our group first discussed this matter, it was precisely to attract young people through new categories, especially the Z generation and post-00 groups often mentioned in the catering industry."
Right now, for Kiki and more plant-based food track participants, the most critical challenge in 2022 is how to further pull new and improve repurchase in the C-end market. This is actually a continuous race between "demand insight" and "market reaction", and in this race, a clear development logic is: learn to embrace young people.
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