Image source @ Visual China
Text | TanglangFin, author | Tu Lin
"Sleep is not good, eat I see you no less."
This emoji, which was taken by Sun Yining to intimidate Principal Wang, has been spread by netizens some time ago due to the miracle effect of "de-oiling" and "anti-correction".
However, ridicule is ridicule, this meme does reflect the current situation of life of many young people: no matter how late they stay up, as long as there is a food "call", they can struggle to get up from bed and shout "I can" in a sleepy voice. As a result, this sentence has also become a "self-deprecating punch card" copywriting when netizens can't control their mouths.
On the one hand, it is a mouth that cannot be controlled for food, and on the other hand, it is a heart that is constantly anxious about the body. The "Post-8090 Health And Wellness Consumption Insight Report" pointed out that 82.7% of young people in China are either losing weight or running on the road of weight loss.
How to rationalize the natural contradiction of "both delicious and thin"? Young people are looking for answers on low-calorie snacks.
<h2>First, the low-calorie snack industry has blown up the "Chinese wind"</h2>
When it comes to low-calorie snacks, it's almost impossible to avoid Japanese snack brands.
On social platforms such as Station B and Xiaohongshu, as long as you enter the keyword of "low-calorie snacks", a series of "low-calorie snack evaluation recommendation lists" come out, and snack brands from Japan always account for the majority.
Taking the top two videos under the entry of "low-calorie snacks" in the Little Red Book as an example, Among the snack brands recommended by bloggers, Japanese brands account for almost 80%. Among them, the two brands of Hamada meal replacement biscuits and konjac jelly also appeared in two videos repeatedly, which shows its popularity.
Not only that, but many Japanese snack brands will also launch "low-calorie versions". For example, the functional chocolate launched by Glico that we are familiar with, the calorie of each bag is controlled at 262kcal, in order to allow those consumers who shout "Dada" for high calories to maintain their good body while satisfying their appetites.
The reason why Japan's low-calorie snacks will be "favored" in China is largely due to the fact that there were not as many consumers who pursued healthy eating in the past as there are today.
A relatively niche consumer demand is difficult to attract the attention of the market, which leads to domestic brands in the expansion of healthy snacks "half a beat slower". Without much choice, consumers can only give priority to those Japanese brands that have become popular in the market.
But as mentioned at the beginning, in the past two years, with the pursuit of weight loss and health of more and more young people, domestic snack brands have gradually smelled the "business opportunities" and began to move closer to the direction of low-calorie snacks.
From the perspective of brands, there are both traditional snack brands represented by Weilong and emerging snack brands represented by good shops. The former has impressed many young consumers with star items such as "konjac cool" and "wind eating kelp". The latter officially announced a new sub-brand "Good Product Flying" last year, and the brand mainly targets the 18-35-year-old pan-health population and weight management population.
In addition, the soft drink brand represented by Yuanqi Forest has also launched low-calorie small snacks such as low-fat low-calorie chicken breast sausage and pop pearl bobo yogurt, and is creating a product matrix in the direction of healthy and light food.
These three brands happen to represent three categories of players in the current healthy snacking world. One type, represented by Weilong, directly pushes new healthy snacks under existing brands. One type is represented by good shops, which regard healthy snacks as sub-brands and form a multi-brand matrix. There is also a category of cross-border players represented by the Yuanqi Forest, which extends to healthy snacks outside the main business.
At present, the attention and consumption of domestic consumers to healthy food are still rising.
According to McKinsey's 2020 China Consumer Report, 72% of consumers say that they are more inclined to choose a healthy lifestyle today, compared with consumers' pursuit of low prices in the past, which has transformed into a demand for healthy nutrition.
For domestic low-calorie snacks, this means new opportunities. With the increase in public demand for low-calorie snacks, "Mantis Finance" believes that in the future, there will be more and more domestic brands engaged in low-calorie snacks.
<h2>Second, young people shout to lose weight, and brands rush to "contribute"</h2>
Low-calorie snacks are still essentially in the snack food category. According to the Sullivan Report, Gen Z and millennial consumers are the main consumers in China's snack food industry, accounting for 38.2% of China's population and 69.2% of snack food consumption. Therefore, for low-calorie snack brands, it is particularly important to seize the "heart" of young consumers.
According to the survey summary of "GuYu Data", calories and taste are the most concerned aspects of low-calorie snacks by netizens.
But combining the two is not simple.
Take, for example, a low-calorie snack on chicken breast meat. In order to maximize consumers' ignorance of the original "chai chai" taste of chicken breast, brands have tried almost all conceivable expandable forms, including instant chicken breast, chicken breast strips, chicken breast sausage, chicken breast meatballs, and even chicken breast potato chips.
In a word, as long as consumers are willing to eat, no matter what kind of chicken breast, snack brands can "whole" out.
At the same time, the survey of "Gu Yu Data" also shows that cookies, cakes, chocolates, puffed foods, which originally looked high-calorie snacks, have also become popular recommendations for netizens when choosing low-calorie snacks.
Wanting the taste of high-calorie snacks and not wanting to gain weight, this seemingly difficult thing has long been cracked by snack brands. That is to "work hard" from the raw materials of snacks. For example, konjac, which has always been known for its low calorie, has been used by major brands to make a variety of high-calorie snacks "low-calorie versions".
The konjac milk puff pastry launched by the online fitness platform Keep, under the slightly sweet taste that the public can generally accept, can achieve a stronger satiety effect than ordinary biscuits, and has been recognized by many users.
In addition, konjac cake, konjac bread, konjac jelly and other products have long been "available". What young people need to worry about is not whether they can eat or not, but how to overcome the "choice phobia" and pick out their favorite one.
From the above analysis, it is not difficult to find that whether it is the use of ingredients or snack types, brands are moving towards convergence. This indicates that after the early brutal competition, a more intense competition for brand effectiveness is about to begin.
Specific to the brand, the previously mentioned types of players can be said to have their own advantages at the level of market competition.
In terms of category richness, the "good product flying" under the good product shop is even better.
At present, in the Tmall flagship store of Liangpin Shop, Liangpin Feiyang has launched more than 10 products including low-fat konjac, low-fat dried eggs, high-fiber oatmeal biscuits, etc. At present, Weilong's healthy snacks can be related to konjac cool and wind to eat kelp. As for Yuanqi Forest, the aforementioned low-calorie snacks are only two or three models, and they have not yet been listed in the flagship store.
But in terms of consumer mentality, old brands like Weilong have more advantages than new brands.
A notable example is that the number of fans in Weilong's flagship store is actually lower than that of the good shop, but because Weilong's "spicy brother" name left by Weilong in the snack industry is too loud, it is easier to get consumers' attention when pushing new products. Therefore, although both brands have launched konjac strips, the sales in Weilong stores are significantly higher than those of good shops.
In addition, the brand represented by Yuanqi Forest has also played a "big single" strategy in the healthy snack industry.
Recently, Yuanqi Forest launched a new brand called "Wang Spicy Spicy", the main product is a vegetarian belly made of konjac. Although it is not competitive enough in terms of product differences, in the view of "Mantis Finance", Yuanqi Forest is estimated to want to build it into a "explosive single product" and once again stage the miracle of "single product with brand" of sparkling water.
Thanks to the boost of "national tide new consumption", the healthy snacks launched by the above domestic brands have been well received by the market.
Weilong's konjac cool and wind eating kelp belongs to the "vegetable product income", the company's annual report shows that in 2020, Weilong vegetable products revenue reached 1.168 billion yuan, accounting for 28.3% of the total revenue, becoming the fastest selling category of Weilong in recent years. In terms of good shops, according to its financial report, as of the end of 2020, the sales revenue of good food immortals was 223 million yuan, and the net profit of sales was 25.4098 million yuan.
In summary, in the view of "Mantis Finance", although it is young people who shout weight loss, it is actually snack brands that "contribute" in the end. In other words, it is these young people who "just want to lie flat, both want and want" that stimulate the market demand for low-calorie snacks, so that Push snack brands continue to move towards "low-calorie".
<h2>
Third, can the spark of low-calorie snacks ignite the plains?
</h2>
Among the low-calorie foods that have caught fire in the past two years, in addition to low-calorie snacks, there are actually low-calorie meal replacements.
According to the "Tmall Food Industry Trend Report" released by CBNData, meal replacement food has become a major trend for the whole people, and its consumption in new first-tier and second-tier cities has accounted for nearly 50%.
Of course, there are also views that are accustomed to grouping these two types of food into one category. However, from the perspective of functionality, the difference in consumption scenarios between low-calorie meal replacements instead of staple foods and low-calorie snacks instead of snacks is still quite obvious.
Because the meal replacement is a staple food, its requirements for satiety and low calories will be higher. But low-calorie snacks are not the same, when they are actually eaten, the effect that needs to be achieved is not "alleviating hunger", but "alleviating hunger". Based on the difference in intake between the two, low-calorie snacks have more "operating space" in taste, which in turn can enhance their substitution for normal snacks.
According to the Global Adult Weight Survey published by authoritative magazines, the number of obese men in China is 43.2 million, and the number of obese women is 46.4 million, and China has surpassed the United States to become the country with the largest obese population in the world. Although obesity is not absolutely positively correlated with snacking, it is always right to prevent microaggressions.
Therefore, in the long run, "Mantis Finance" believes that the mission of low-calorie snacks is not only to impress consumers, but more importantly, to promote the entire domestic snack market to move closer to the new trend of health.
It's not easy.
According to Euromonitor, from 2021 to 2025, the compound annual growth rate of China's snack food market will be about 4.6%, and it will reach 447.59 billion yuan by 2025. To promote such a large market as a whole towards the direction of "health", it is obvious that it is not possible to rely on a few brands in a short period of time.
In fact, in the view of "Mantis Finance", snack brands can completely "copy" the operation of soft drink brands.
Before the birth of the Yuanqi Forest, the "sugar-free wind" in the domestic soft drink industry was far less so big than it is now. However, with the "sugar-free sparkling water" out of the circle, Yuanqi Forest has completely detonated the domestic sugar-free beverage market, so that a number of "old predecessors", including Master Kang, Nongfu Spring, etc., have to speed up their pace to join the battlefield "digging gold", and the entire market is crowded and lively.
In the same way, snacks such as cookies and fries are inseparable from two elements to move towards "health": First, brands like Yuanqi Forest need to explore the way in advance, so that the market can see the growth potential of this category. Second, there needs to be enough brands willing to participate, so that everyone can hope to make the cake of healthy snacks bigger.
In the previous matter, there are already brands doing it, and the aforementioned Weilong, Liangpin Shop and Yuanqi Forest are the representatives.
As for the latter matter, according to the Nielsen survey report, 82% of Chinese consumers are willing to spend more on healthy catering products, which is much higher than the global average of 68%. Driven by huge consumer demand, I believe that many brands will still choose to join the battlefield of low-calorie snacks.
Domestic snacks are "healthy", everything is ready, waiting for good news.