After several years of rapid development, the development of domestic consumer goods has entered a new stage. On December 13, the closed-door salon of "The Next Station of Consumption Innovation" jointly sponsored by Beijing Business Daily and Deep Blue Media Think Tank was held in the News Building, where representative brands that have been deeply involved in consumer goods segmentation and vertical fields for a long time gathered together to explore the future development trend of the consumer market.
Make the product power to the extreme
Zhong Wei, Assistant to the Chairman/Director of Public Relations of Bethany Group
What to do when the momentum of the national tide dissipates or consumer enthusiasm decreases is a problem that all businesses, including Bethany, are facing.
When the company reviewed and discussed internally, there was one word that was repeatedly mentioned - product strength. In the past, Bethany made a lot of explosive products that quickly went out of the circle, and after the listing, the company changed its thinking and put forward the question of how to make a large single product across the cycle.
In addition to emotional payment, the first consideration for consumers when choosing a product is that the product is easy to use, which is the product power I mentioned. How to achieve the ultimate product power is a topic that every brand will reflect on and build, and it is also a lifelong mission that accompanies the enterprise.
To achieve the ultimate product power, the most important thing is that the investment in research and development must be sufficient. You can see from the financial report that in the past three years, Bethany's R&D investment has increased instead of decreasing, and has been increasing, and last year's R&D investment reached more than 5%, which is already a very high water mark in the industry.
According to the financial report data, in the first three quarters of 2023, Bethany invested a total of 182 million yuan in R&D, a year-on-year increase of 43.9%, and the R&D expense ratio reached 5.3%. Among them, the single-quarter R&D investment in the third quarter was 73.07 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 62.6%, and the R&D expense rate reached 6.9%. In 2022, Bethany will invest about 255 million yuan in R&D, a year-on-year increase of 124.96%, and the R&D rate will reach 5.08%. In 2021, Bethany's R&D expenses will be 113 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 78.47%, and the R&D expense ratio will reach 2.81%.
In addition to R&D, embracing new changes is equally important for Bethany, for example, in addition to social media and online e-commerce, Bethany is also focusing on AI technology. How to integrate AI into the product, so that consumers can more quickly reach the skin problems they want to consult, this is a guide for the entire brand of Bethany in the future.
In Zhong Wei's view, standing on the track of skin care products, from another angle, domestic products will still be a very strong representative. "In recent years, we have paid attention to overseas markets and found an interesting phenomenon - anti-daigou. Some international students think that domestic products are better to use, more cost-effective, and bring products from home to foreign use, and a very large number of overseas students will also choose to use domestic brands including Bethany. ”
At present, China is a fiercely competitive market, and China is also the largest market in the world, and if it can get the first share in the Chinese market, globalization is just around the corner. Therefore, on the premise of doing a good job in the Chinese market, how to export brand and culture to the outside world is another proposition for enterprises. In the future, Bethany will slowly explore and highlight the brand connotation when the tide recedes and when everyone has a cooling-off period, so as to attract the attention of more new consumer groups through three ways: R&D capabilities, AI technology and overseas plans.
The national tide outlet is the result of fair play
Co-founder of Sanban Zhang Yi
The national tide outlet is not a domestic product that takes advantage.
Zhang Yi believes that in the past, consumers often preferred foreign brands in brand choice, but in recent years, consumers have put domestic brands and foreign brands on the same platform and the same level to examine and compare, and found that domestic brands have their own advantages after comparison, so they choose to buy.
Therefore, the national tide outlet is the result of fair play.
Regarding the discussion on the Internet about where the domestic brand of "the national tide recedes", Zhang Yi believes that there is no need to worry. "All the domestic brands I know are built with strong product strength and team strength. When the product is good enough, it is inevitable that the brand will gain more consumer favor in the market. ”
If you want to achieve strong product strength, you must be willing to invest in product innovation and R&D. Founded in 2015, the parent company focused on providing full-scene solutions for oral care at the beginning of its establishment, and set the brand vision of "serving the oral health of 1 billion Chinese people", and has now formed a huge product matrix, covering toothpaste, mouthwash, oral spray and other categories, escorting the oral health of more than 60 million users. In the past three years, Sanban has successively created several explosive products in the field of oral consumer goods, including probiotic mouthwash, oral spray, breath freshening popping beads, tongue coating cream, oralshark SP series probiotic toothpaste, etc.
In September 2022, it was officially announced that it had established a joint laboratory for innovation and R&D with Laman Group of Canada and Peking University Shenzhen Hospital, with the help of the most professional strength, to accelerate the R&D process and apply all the innovative results in product innovation.
In addition to innovation, channel layout is an indispensable part of the development of oral care brands. However, in Zhang Yi's view, the oral care market is special, especially the main battlefield of the oral track - toothpaste. In July 2022, Shenban launched the SP series of probiotic toothpaste, and this year, Shenban has firmly ranked first in the toothpaste category on platforms such as Douyin and Kuaishou. "Mixed should be the only new brand in the toothpaste track that has squeezed into the top 10 of the list in the past ten years. ”
This is the peculiarity of the oral care market mentioned by Zhang Yi - the giants have a deep moat, and it is difficult for new brands to get on the table. In the end, how big the market can be depends on whether the brand can continue to reach users and expand the user base through content online, and on the other hand, whether all retail terminals can achieve benign effects in the vast offline market. This is also an important reason why Sanban will attach so much importance to the layout of domestic and foreign channels.
In China, it has implemented the strategy of thousands of cities and millions of terminals, and more than 200,000 offline retail terminals have been settled. In terms of overseas markets, Sanban officially released the "Five Continents and 20 Countries" strategy this year, opening up its overseas market layout, aiming to spread its business to at least 20 countries on five continents within five years. Zhang Yi said that the mixed half is not only to meet the Chinese market to gain a firm foothold, but also to look forward to becoming a pioneer of China's domestic oral brands to the world.
Sanban not only attaches importance to the investment in products and business, but also attaches importance to fulfilling corporate social responsibility from the beginning of the company's establishment. In the fourth quarter of 2022, Sanban officially launched the "8020 Plan", which aims to make every Chinese have 20 healthy teeth by the age of 80. Up to now, Sanban has carried out 15 public welfare actions related to the "8020 Plan", with a cumulative value of more than 10 million yuan in donated materials. Zhang Yi said that the vision of the mixed is to serve the oral health of 1 billion people, and hopes to make more people's lives better with products and public welfare.
R&D capabilities will become an industry barrier
Five female doctors, marketing director Hu Nan
Strictly speaking, the mainland collagen peptide market started late and belongs to an emerging market.
In overseas markets, countries including the United States, the Netherlands, Japan, and Canada have applied collagen peptides to medical, dairy, beverages, dietary supplements, nutrition, skin care products and other fields. Peptide medicines, foods, beverages, etc. have formed a huge market in Japan, the United States, and European countries.
Although there were many collagen peptide manufacturers in mainland China in 2005, it was not until June 2018 that the National Health Commission officially issued the "GB31645-2018 National Food Safety Standard Collagen Peptides", which means that collagen peptides can be added to health foods, cosmetics and health foods as a raw material, and this market has become active. According to the white paper on the collagen industry released by the Research Institute of the Ministry of Commerce, this new track is expected to reach an overall market size of 173.8 billion yuan by 2027.
In 2022, the "White Paper on the Development of Domestic High-quality Collagen Industry" issued by the Ministry of Commerce affirmed the function of collagen peptides, and the value of collagen peptide drinks was recognized. More and more companies have entered the market, and collagen peptides have also begun to play an active role in the field of oral beauty.
At the same time, the rapid development of the industry needs to participate in the high-quality development of enterprises, continuously invest in technology research and development, and enhance the competitiveness of the industry. Hu Nan said that when China's collagen peptide market was just emerging, it was still dominated by international brands, but after the emergence of Chinese brands represented by five female doctors, with their own research and development genes, they promoted the benign "involution" of domestic collagen peptide drinks in terms of technology, ingredients, formulas, etc., and constantly evolved enterprise standards into industry consensus. While insisting on independent research and development, the five female doctors also carry out joint scientific research projects with Peking University School of Medicine, Shandong University, Zhejiang University and other universities and institutions, and apply the latest technological achievements and patents to collagen peptide drinks. It can be said that at present, many important technical indicators of domestic collagen peptide drinks are in the leading position in the world. During the "Double 11" period in 2023, data from e-commerce platforms show that the market share of local collagen peptide brands such as five female doctors has exceeded that of foreign brands.
Collagen peptides are small molecules after collagen is cleaved by enzymatic hydrolysis technology in vitro, and the absorption efficiency of the human body is higher, but at present, the penetration rate of collagen peptides in the beauty market needs to be improved. In Hu Nan's view, this also requires the joint efforts of the industry to further improve the penetration rate of collagen peptides. He also mentioned that as a representative brand of oral collagen peptides, the five female doctors will pay more attention to the brand's product strength and R&D capabilities in the future, create high-quality health products with the logic of drug research and development, and do a good job in the popularization of collagen peptide science in the society.
Product upgrades should achieve multi-effect synergy
Wu Biyuan, Marketing Director of Beijing Yongenze (U Card Brand).
Consumers' health awareness is gradually increasing, and the demand for health is also escalating. From the current point of view, skin, mood, sleep, body and eyes are the health issues that consumers are more concerned about, among which young consumers are more concerned about body and skin problems. Based on the continuous changes in the current market, U Card has been trying to produce in this field for more than a year, and launched products on skin and body management last year, continuously promoting the development of products to body management.
Wu Biyuan believes that for many consumers who are engaged in body management, the most important thing is a healthy diet and moderate exercise, but how to truly achieve a balance between eating and moving, and at the same time help body management, this requires brand insight.
For the U card, Wu Biyuan hopes that it will stand in front of consumers with a product positioning that increases nutrition and reduces burden. For example, the launch of white kidney bean pre-dinner tablets by U card is becoming a new choice for consumers. It is understood that U card has cooperated with 711, COFCO Zhishang vending machine and other systems. In terms of online channels, U Card has cooperated with top anchors and live broadcast rooms.
In the next step, U card will continue to upgrade its products, for example, in addition to white kidney bean extract, the upgraded products will also plan to add L-arabinose, bisporus mushroom extract, dietary fiber and medium-chain triglycerides, green coffee powder, etc. The general direction of upgrading the product is to use natural raw materials derived from plants, and at the same time, multi-effect synergy, to provide consumers with more solutions for "high-oil and high-sugar meals" in terms of diet.
Diversified consumer demand brings new challenges
Director of Chanson Capital, Shen Meng
Behind the rise of the national tide is the inevitable phenomenon of Generation Z, that is, the "post-80s", "post-90s", and even "post-00s" groups catching up with China's economy through the period of reform and opening up dividend sharing. In this process, whether it is enterprises, social groups, or consumers, they all have rich consumption experience, coupled with the catalysis of the market economy, there are a lot of high-quality and low-cost domestic products that meet consumer needs.
In addition, after decades of reform, young consumer groups have enough self-confidence, they are willing to put foreign products and domestic products in an equal condition for comparison, when they find that the gap between domestic products and foreign products is not so big, but domestic products are more inexpensive, domestic products are naturally recognized, and the national tide is rising. In addition, domestic brands seized the opportunity to achieve some attraction in marketing, causing Generation Z to consume impulses, giving birth to the prosperity of skin, body, sleep, hair loss, oral cavity and other subdivisions, and this prosperity has also achieved many successful enterprises.
Consumer demand has changed, market rules have also changed, and these changes have accumulated to form a new consumer environment, and brands should be more proactive to keep close to market changes. When brands are sensitive enough to changes in consumer demand, they can better meet consumers' diversified and detailed consumption needs, and brands can also maximize their benefits in continuous marketing, research and development, and innovation.
Of course, at present, the industry is also facing the problem of how to continue to be a company under the cautious consumption, which requires brands to find ways to establish resonance between brands and consumers. Just as it is mentioned from time to time that some products are the concept of IQ tax, or the concept of creating explosive products, in fact, the most important thing is whether enterprises can find a reasonable reason for the existence of products outside of marketing, that is, to let consumers know that in addition to marketing, products are differentiated, or R&D advantages are used to create stickiness with consumers.
Shen Meng believes that in the context of stimulating the domestic demand market and promoting consumption, domestic consumer goods companies should seize this opportunity through their own multi-faceted development and promote their own growth. As consumers' experience, feelings, and abilities become stronger and stronger, the value of the use value of goods and the value of experience resonance are changing, and the requirements for quality and cost performance will become higher and higher.
Beijing Business Daily reporter Guo Xiujuan Zhang Junhua