Image source @ Visual China
Text | Zinc scale, author | Starry night
Near the "Goddess Day", major online and offline supermarkets have warmed up in advance, and all kinds of women-related goods have been hung up on the promotion price. At this time, merchants can usher in a substantial increase in sales through the "she economy", while consumers are aiming at the opportunity to hoard goods.
In the past two years, paper products have been subdivided into more and more use scenarios, so more players and fans have emerged. In order to pursue a refined life, young people will at least hoard four types of paper towels, including paper, kitchen paper, wet toilet paper, and roll paper, to meet the needs of different scenarios.
Therefore, established manufacturers such as Jierou, Vinda, Xinxiangyin, and Debao began to adapt to market changes; brands such as Nipiao, Cotton Times, and Kexinrou broke out of the subdivision track; Dr. Lilac, Ma Yinglong, and Gynecology Yanjie also involved in related products through professionalism in the medical field...
As early as 2020, the domestic household paper market has exceeded 100 billion yuan. In 2021, the online sales of wet toilet paper categories increased by 65% year-on-year, and the high-end market share accounted for 74%, with a growth rate of more than 63%.
Paper towels began to be given many functions and adapted to more scenes. As Gen Z consumers gradually grasp the economic initiative and play a new proposition of "back wave", paper towels can also be played with more tricks. However, from the current point of view, this track has not yet produced a brand that has both traffic and tension.
Behind the crazy hoarding, the habit of using paper has been subverted
Every year on the eve of the March 8th Festival, Qiao Yu will be ready to hoard. From the past only hoarding enough sanitary napkins for one year in offline supermarkets, to the current major e-commerce platforms have also regarded The March 8 Festival as an important promotional node, and the types of goods participating in the promotion have also become dazzling.
Qiao Yu opened the e-commerce APP shopping cart, sanitary napkins, aromatherapy, towels, paper towels have been included in the must-grab commodity queue. However, among them, paper towel products occupy a large number, both ordinary paper, roll paper, but also kitchen paper, kitchen wet paper, toilet paper, wet toilet paper.
"I have to say that the current tissue manufacturers are really rolled up, from function to appearance, it must be readily available." However, there are quite a few new types of paper towels that are indeed artifacts, and it is not an exaggeration to say that they can no longer be used once they are used. Qiao Yu quipped.
Indeed, the enthusiasm of young people for hoarding paper is still high, and even many people have become the main force of paper purchases at home. Singer Wang Sutaki once mentioned in a variety show that the paper he currently uses is actually hoarded 3 or 4 years ago. There are also many users on the Little Red Book who are keen to share their experience of hoarding paper.
"The price of the Vida stereoscopic beauty M code is about 30 yuan / piece, and there will be a 50% discount coupon when the flagship store is promoted, and it will be bought when it is grabbed." Bambu, Qingfeng, and Vinda will give out 200-100 coupons, plus cross-store full reductions, basically can achieve the lowest price. "Sharing articles like this can often get a lot of praise.
In addition, young people are also keen to dig up and evaluate newly launched paper products, and recommend and share them on social platforms. For example, a large number of kol recommended babycare cloud soft towels, the copy often emphasizes "friendly to rhinitis patients", "baby delicate skin can also be used", "add Japanese moisturizing cream" and other promotional points, just hit the pain points of young consumers.
There are also popular wet toilet paper in recent years has also become a demand in the continuous science and publicity, according to Jingdong and Ipsos IPSOS released the "2021 Home Clear Blue Ocean Category Trend Report" shows that in 2021, wet toilet paper online sales increased by 65% year-on-year, in the paper, wet wipes subdivision of the sales momentum is the most rapid, wet toilet paper shows a high-end trend, high-end market share accounted for 74%, the growth rate of more than 63%.
For a time, traditional paper manufacturers such as XinXiangyin, Shujie, Vinda, and Debbold launched related products and continued to lead the market segment; KeXinrou, Nipiao, babycare aimed at people with more refined needs; Dr. Lilac, Gynecology Jie, Ma Yinglong captured consumers with professionalism... Almost every wet toilet paper has a different audience.
Young people who gradually hoard paper addiction, rhinitis should use "nose nobles" containing moisturizing ingredients, cold paper containing compound quaternary ammonium salts when they have a cold, kitchen paper and kitchen wipes should be used alternately in the kitchen, and wet toilet paper with a higher degree of hygiene and sterilization should be preferred in the toilet, and each paper towel should perform its own duties, so that the life of young people is more exquisite.
Engaging in joint name, wet toilet paper with traditional Chinese medicine, in the IQ tax?
In order to adapt to the different needs of young people, major paper brands have opened a crazy inner-roll mode from various dimensions such as product categories, efficacy, packaging, and marketing.
Brands that used to produce with only one mind seem to understand the power of IP overnight. According to incomplete statistics on zinc scale, brand IP co-brand products such as Vinda and Wuhuang Wanxiao, Heart Xiangyin and Xiaoliu Duck, Ni Piao and Doraemon, Shujie and Line Friends, Gynecology and Cherry Pills are hot in the market.
IP co-branding is usually created through the recommendation of KOLs, "Wet toilet paper is not bad for me, so choose a favorite packaging and use it more happily." Some consumers said so. However, through the blessing of the appeal of IP itself, the joint model can often stand out in a number of similar products and quickly attract "face value control".
In addition, paper brands have also begun to rack their brains in adding ingredients. Zinc scale found that the new paper towel launched by Shu Jie mainly added "Hokkaido milk" ingredient, and milk refers to cream containing Hokkaido milk extract imported from Japan, which is -42% more friction coefficient than ordinary paper towels; Dawang Luxury Moisturizing (Favor) series of facial tissues add hyaluronic acid, glycerin and bone collagen, aiming to occupy the "C position" of the makeup table.
There is also a class of brands that focus on bacteriostatic ingredients of Materia Medica according to their own advantages, such as gynecology cleansing wet toilet paper to add Centella asiatica, bitter ginseng, 100 parts, Cnidium monnieri; Ma Yinglong wet toilet paper adds North American witch hazel extract, curaçao aloe vera extract, honeysuckle extract. Such products emphasize that "not all wet toilet paper is sanitary wipes" and say that the sterilization effect is as high as 99%.
Different publicity focuses on meeting the needs of different consumers, but the brands that currently occupy the top market share are still traditional tissue brands. According to star map data, the top ten brands in terms of paper towel sales during the "Double Eleven" period in 2021 are Vinda, Jierou, Xiangyin, Qingfeng, Cotton Era, Dupour, Plant Protection, Kexin Soft, Spotted Cloth, and Diffuse Flower.
However, high sales do not mean high profits, in the increasing market competition, brands need to take into account more and more factors from production to sales, and the cost is higher.
On February 28, Zhongshun Jierou disclosed the 2021 performance express report, showing that the net profit during the reporting period was about 582 million yuan, down 35.8% year-on-year. This is the first decline in the company's net profit after six consecutive years of growth.
As for the reasons for the decline in profits, Zhongshun Jierou revealed that in addition to the rise in production costs caused by the rise in the price of international raw materials and packaging materials, the company's increased promotional efforts in order to increase market input also directly led to the increase in sales expenses.
On the one hand, the rising cost pressure, on the other hand, the marketing expenses that have to grow, which is the dilemma faced by paper brands. Whether it is a large supermarket, convenience store, or online e-commerce platform, it is necessary to fight a price war, so brands are still indispensable investment in function and marketing.
In other words, how to grasp traffic, sales and profits at the same time is still a major problem in the next competition.
Paper companies that understand marketing have seized the "clever" Z generation?
A variety of paper subdivisions are highly sought after among young people, but paper companies have won sales but cannot reduce costs, and the play of the new consumption era has obviously become the sword of Damocles on the heads of enterprises.
From the perspective of market size, the domestic household paper market size has exceeded 100 billion yuan as early as 2020, and the average annual compound growth rate in the past decade has exceeded 8%. However, the consumption of household paper in the mainland is still far from that of developed countries.
The data show that the per capita annual household paper consumption in developed countries such as the United States and Sweden is more than 20kg, the per capita annual household paper consumption in Japan and South Korea is more than 15kg, while the per capita annual household paper consumption in the mainland is only 6.2kg.
Market size of China's household paper industry in 2014-2020 (Source: Euromonitor Information Consulting)
This side shows that there is still a large breakthrough space in the scale of the mainland paper products market. At present, in the domestic market, Hengan (Heart Xiangyin), Vinda, Zhongshun Jierou, and Jinhongye Paper (Qingfeng) have formed the "first echelon", occupying nearly 30% of the market share, while the small paper companies that occupy the remaining share have hardly formed an effective voice.
Such a pattern, coupled with the catalysis of the epidemic, has allowed many small enterprises to see the future living space, and has also attracted mature brands in other industries to transform across borders.
For a time, the main low-cost, the main curative effect, the main high-end have emerged. Zinc Scale found through the love of the enterprise investigation, the online start of the paper industry "price butcher" planting and protection, in 2018 completed the angel round of financing; the company behind Kexinrou is specialized in the production of high-strength corrugated paper; Unifree behind the company's business scope involves medical equipment, pet supplies, masks and other projects. Today, these once lesser-known companies have begun to become popular through different degrees of marketing.
Gradually, marketing methods have become the top priority for paper companies. However, relying on network traffic to quickly open up the market, win the attention of consumers, and expand the cost of products is not a long-term solution for enterprises.
Specifically, young consumers now have a complete set of solutions to tap the low-cost channels of products, whether it is professional wool KOLs for promotional summaries, or categories of discounted APP, all of which provide young consumers with new ideas on how to hoard goods at low prices.
"Qiao Yu" will often understand the value-added price range of each commodity between orders, "for example, the price of a single package of Vinda Stereoscopic Beauty M is usually around 1.5 yuan, if it is lower than this price, it is worth hoarding." "Brands' prices online are almost completely transparent.
In addition, strict young consumers will also evaluate the similar paper products of each brand horizontally. During the "Double Eleven" period in 2021, the online products of Vinda and Debao were complained about by consumers, pointing out that their paper was thinner and chipping. "The quality of some products is really good when they first come out, but after gradually opening the market, the quality begins to decline significantly, and it is possible to become thinner and smaller." Some consumers have used the same paper towel for many years and have felt a significant change.
In fact, these seemingly small changes are very obvious to the "Internet natives" of Gen Z consumers. How to grasp the balance between cost and profit of traditional paper companies still needs to be explored up and down. Marketing is certainly a shortcut and a honey in the new consumer era, but to truly capture the clever Generation Z, marketing is only the first step.