Mao Jin
The driving force for the development of the wine industry comes from the upgrading of the B-end structure and the consumption upgrade of the C-end, but for fruit wine, this growth is neither the adjustment and improvement of the industry structure, nor the change of consumption habits and the upgrading of consumption level, but the structure of C-end consumers has changed...
In recent years, the number of mainland cider companies has grown rapidly at an average rate of 30% per year. Statistics from the State Administration for Market Regulation show that there were only more than 2,000 fruit wine manufacturers in 2015, and by the end of 2021, there were more than 5,000 fruit wine production enterprises in the mainland, with an annual output value of more than 50 billion yuan, and fruit wine enterprises grew year by year to promote the development of fruit wine.
At the same time, the sales growth rate of fruit wine products is also very strong, and the performance of online channels is particularly prominent.
Jingdong big data shows that in the past five years, the average annual compound growth rate of fruit wine sales on the Jingdong online platform has exceeded 200%, and there are currently more than 350 fruit wine brands on the platform.
Looking at the data of Tmall Innovation, in the first half of 2021, the sales of fruit wine on Taobao, Tmall and Jiuxian Network surged by 1626.2% year-on-year to 324.3 million yuan, with total sales of more than 3.6 million pieces, an increase of 1944.6% year-on-year. The market as a whole shows a momentum of production and marketing.
According to Japan's Nomura Securities Company, while maintaining an average annual growth rate of about 30%, China's low-alcohol market will exceed the total capacity of 250 billion yuan by 2035.
Capital has entered the market to promote the development of the fruit wine category
Just like the sauce wine fever, the strong momentum and good development prospects of the fruit wine industry have also attracted the attention of the capital market. According to the statistics of One Glance Commercial, from 2020 to 2021, a total of 7 fruit wine brands such as MissBerry, Plum See, belong, and Luo Drink have successfully carried out industry financing, and the amount of single round of financing ranges from tens of millions to over 100 million yuan. For example, MissBerry, a well-known cider brand, has conducted a total of 4 rounds of strategic financing with a total of nearly 200 million yuan; On November 17, 2021, the low-grade tea cider brand "Falling Drink" received nearly $10 million in Pre-A round financing from BAI Capital, XVC and Tiantu Capital. The strong entry of capital has further boosted the confidence of the industry and promoted the rapid development of the fruit wine industry from the other hand.
Incredibly, 10 years ago, cider was still a typical "niche + chicken rib" representative of many liquor products. The market share is low, the product is featureless, the taste is low-end and single, so that the distributors who are willing to specialize in cider are very rare.
The younger consumer population has triggered the demand for fruit wine categories
As we all know, the driving force for the development of the wine industry comes from the upgrading of the B-end structure and the consumption upgrade of the C-end, but for fruit wine, this growth is neither the adjustment and improvement of the industry structure, nor the change of consumption habits and the upgrading of consumption level, but the structure of C-end consumers has changed.
The "Z-generation group" and "urban women" group aged 18-34 are representatives of the new generation of young cider consumers. They have strong purchasing power and self-independent consumption concept, and the tidal nature of fruit wine connotation coincides with it. The major changes in the C-end structure have brought subversive changes to the traditional cider industry's business concepts, brought many new opportunities and challenges, and the industry has begun to study this new consumer group in depth.
What is a "Generation Z Group"? There are about 320 million people in China's "Z-era group" dominated by post-95s and post-00s, and their consumption characteristics are rationality, experience, personality, self-pleasing, sensibility, and self. In terms of drinking habits, nearly 30% of people said that they never drank, and the remaining 70% said that they would choose low-alcohol, low-alcohol, light-burden fruit-based flavor products, which are the most important consumer groups of low-alcohol liquors such as fruit wine.
There are about 300 million female consumers aged 18-40 in China, and the annual consumption expenditure is nearly 10 trillion yuan, which is equivalent to the retail markets of Germany, France and the United Kingdom combined. With the deepening of China's urbanization process and the improvement of women's education level, urban white-collar women are paying more and more attention to the consumer experience of pleasing themselves and fashion. Therefore, beautifully packaged, avant-garde, low-alcohol and healthy fruity wine products are well suited to the social cost needs of female consumers and are increasingly favored by them.
According to the statistical report of Boston Information Company, 80% of women's alcohol consumption is concentrated on fruit wine and wine, and it has been maintained much higher than the unit price growth rate of male customers.
Where is the path for the blue sea of fruit wine to chase deer and win the world?
With strong comprehensive strength, we will gain a firm foothold in the chaotic war
From the perspective of development trend, the entire industry has not yet appeared with a prominent dominance of the head brand, the Matthew effect in the industry has not yet formed, whether for fruit wine manufacturers or distributors, there is a possibility of "winning in chaos". At this time, enterprises should first consolidate their internal strength, relying on strong corporate strength, independent production and research and development capabilities and creative products to take the lead in the initial market to gain a firm foothold.
A diverse consumer group constitutes a product that requires diversification
From the product level, although the main consumer groups of fruit wine are mainly "cutting-edge female white-collar workers", "fashion mothers", "Z-era people" and even young people after 00, there are still obvious differences between this part of the cutting-edge consumer groups. Therefore, the product style cannot be "one trick fresh, eat all over the sky", it should be further subdivided in this target group, and different types of products should be accurately benchmarked against different types of needs, such as the "Mengguo Beauty" series of Tongkang Manor, which is rich in urban trend female style, the "Berry Sweetheart" series, which is rich in the cute style of Internet celebrities, and the plum see and drink that are rich in cultural and creative national tide.
A new channel model that combines online leadership + offline experience
From the perspective of channels, the online shopping habits of today's young consumer groups have been very solidified. According to statistics, among the young consumer groups aged 18-34, 40% of them are men and 60% of women, and about 55% of consumers will choose to buy alcohol online. Coupled with the product attributes of cider, the importance of online channels is beyond doubt.
However, at present, some fruit wine companies choose the main battlefield of sales on the e-commerce side, ignoring the construction of offline direct drinking channels. The author believes that this is unreasonable. Taking Jiang Xiaobai's fruit wine as an example, according to the data research of Blue Whale Finance, the actual sales proportion of its online sales accounted for only 5% of the total sales of the category. Therefore, the current marketing direction common to all alcoholic products should still focus on "embracing channels". As the old saying goes: "Seeing is believing". Offline channels can really get closer to consumers, especially for ciders with meal attributes. The special channels of boutique catering, bars and bars, fashion catering, and hot pot restaurants in the complex with key layouts are very important.
So in the marketing system of cider, what should the interactive relationship between online and offline be? The author believes that through the leading promotion of the online platform, we should realize the three major means of consumer group line harvesting, the establishment of private domain traffic, and the creation of brand culture, convert and monetize online traffic through offline channels, and establish a closed loop from trying to repurchase to brand loyal fans at the consumer end through planting grass, circle of friends culture, various promotional activities, etc. The organic combination of online and offline will ultimately achieve the balanced development of channels. (The author is a senior consultant of Great Aim Consulting)