The 2023 Blue Whale New Consumption Forum and Whale Tide Award Ceremony was successfully held in Shanghai on the afternoon of December 26. The forum was hosted by the Blue Whale and Whale platforms, and co-organized by the Financial Associated Press, where industry elites from consumer enterprises, investment institutions, consulting institutions and well-known universities gathered together to focus on the theme of "New Consumption Recovery, Resilience and Common Growth", discuss hot issues and cutting-edge trends in the consumer industry, and jointly find a way to break the situation in the future of the consumer industry.
At present, China's economy is in a stage of slow recovery, and the consumer market environment has become more and more complex, which puts forward extremely high requirements for the vitality and adaptability of each consumer brand.
Li Hui, General Manager of Whale Platform, said in his opening speech: "In 2023, China's consumer industry will face some challenges, both twists and turns, and development, and everyone is actively looking for new development opportunities, which is also the purpose of our Consumer Forum. I hope that everyone can take advantage of the holding of this forum to discuss how the current consumer industry should go through the cycle, break through the difficulties, embrace new technologies, and embrace new consumer groups. ”
Li Hui, general manager of the whale platform
Li Hui said: "The Whale Tide Award continues to pay attention to the development of the consumer industry, has been held for four sessions so far, and our selection criteria have also developed with the industry, this year we pay more attention to the company's brand influence, growth potential, innovation potential, and scientific and technological content, and we judge the current high-quality enterprises in the consumer industry through these dimensions." ”
Four keynote speeches gathered
At the forum, in a keynote speech entitled "Changes and Breakthroughs in China's Consumption Track in 2024", Zhou Ying, director of the EMBA program of Antai College of Economics and Management of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, talked about the six tracks, four major consumer groups, and three breakthrough models of the consumer industry in the case of consumption downgrade. In her opinion, "in the new era of consumption, all industries are worth doing all over again".
Zhou Ying, director of the EMBA program at Antai College of Economics and Management, Shanghai Jiao Tong University
Specifically, Zhou Ying believes that the six major consumption tracks are lazy economy, health economy, pet economy, single economy, outdoor economy, and e-commerce economy;
Food & Beverage is a very traditional industry that has seen growth through economic cycles over the past three years. Lan Shili, Chairman of the Board of Directors and President of China Dongxing Group Co., Ltd., pointed out in his keynote speech "Consumer Goods are Promising" that food and beverage is not impossible, but promising, and the market is very large, and the key is to make cheap and delicious beverages, which is the key. Wuhan No. 2 Factory Soda launched a canned product with a price of 1.99 yuan, 330ml mainstream fine can packaging, and a juice content of 15%, breaking the myth of "two music" low prices.
Lan Shili, Chairman of the Board of Directors and President of China Dongxing Group Co., Ltd
"Wahaha and Nongfu Spring are both the largest beverage companies in China, and their scale is tens of billions of yuan, but they dare not make efforts to make soda categories, probably because they are afraid of the market position of 'two music'. I'm not afraid, I just want to challenge the soda industry." In the keynote speech, Lan Shili shared the secret of the success of Wuhan Erchang Soda, "China's No. 1 Soda Stock", "Our product concept is high quality and low price, adhere to the low-price strategy in product pricing, and use price to open the market. In addition, we actively embrace the Internet and promote our products through various channels such as live broadcast and the Internet, with online sales accounting for more than 60%. ”
In a keynote speech entitled "How Consumer Brands Can Make Good Use of Capital Power to Survive the Cycle", Xu Jiawei, founding partner of Ruifeng Capital, said: "We are now in the process of cyclical transformation, and consumer companies must use the power of capital to leverage capital. ”
Xu Jiawei, founding partner of Ruifeng Capital
In Xu Jiawei's view, the world's successful consumer goods companies have four characteristics: super brand, super supply chain, super channel, and super data.
In the keynote speech entitled "Tax Structuring of Corporate Financing and Listing in the Consumer Goods Industry", Yuan Chengfei, PwC China Tax and Business Advisory Partner, said that there are several different tax planning methods, such as cross-border transactions, mergers and acquisitions, special preferential applications, tax collection optimization, including going to Hong Kong and Singapore, as well as equity incentives and cost optimization.
PwC China Tax & Business Advisory Partner Chengfei Yuen
What is the structure of an enterprise going public and raising funds in the future? Yuan Chengfei believes that there are two kinds. In the case of A-share listing, it is a domestic structure, and the main holding company of the investor is the operating company. In addition, enterprises need to build overseas structures for overseas listing. Enterprises need to make different choices according to their own circumstances.
The two roundtable forums were wonderful
At a time of rapid economic change, many consumer companies are hoping to find ways and means to develop next year. In the roundtable discussion on the topic of "Opportunities and Challenges for Enterprises under the New Consumption Trend", a number of guests from consumer enterprises, communication agencies, and consulting agencies had detailed exchanges.
From left to right: He Tianjiao, editor-in-chief of Blue Whale Finance, Wang Long, vice president of Focus Media, Lan Shili, chairman of the board of directors and president of China Dongxing Group Co., Ltd., Hu Shiqi, brand director of Yaya Co., Ltd., and Yang Rui, senior consultant of Reese category innovation strategy consulting and FMCG industry expert
Wang Long, vice president of Focus Media, believes that pessimists are always right, and optimists are always moving forward. Chinese have not yet seen the prosperity, China's follow-up consumption upgrade is a steady stream of power, 470 million people above the middle will inevitably make China the world's first consumer market.
In the view of Lan Shili, chairman of the board of directors and president of China Dongxing Group Co., Ltd., achieving the ultimate cost performance can help consumer enterprises successfully break through. Lan Shili said that the principle we have always adhered to is high quality and low price. The advertisement of Wuhan No. 2 Factory Soda is very popular, "delicious and cheap", catchy and deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. The pricing of 1.99 yuan also adapts to the downgrade of consumption this year.
Hu Shiqi, brand director of Yaya Co., Ltd., is the "killer feature" of Yaya. We do e-commerce, aiming at the 399-799 range, our overall brand exceeds 10 billion a year, the core price segment of 399-799 range, you use the style is better, the price and quality are excellent, everyone will choose your brand, not the white label, this is the reason why we can grow rapidly in recent years. In addition, the cost performance is not a low price, but a sense of value to the extreme.
Yang Rui, senior consultant of Reese category innovation strategy consulting and expert in the FMCG industry, we have summed up a common experience, enterprises should be driven by innovation, drive their own category upgrading with innovation, and get rid of the competition by innovation. In the past, we saw the growth of sweeping robots like Dyson in household appliances, but there is a category of washing and mopping machines that are growing rapidly, and consumption is not a downgrade, but an upgrade. How to achieve this upgrade, it is more important to find the point of category innovation and drive the sustainable growth of enterprises with innovation.
He Tianjiao, editor-in-chief of Blue Whale Finance, added that many people feel that the recovery has not met their expectations this year, and some people have put forward various views such as consumption downgrading and consumption upgrading. Of course, we have also seen that more companies are doing cost-effective.
In the roundtable discussion on the topic of "Building Soft and Hard Power, How to Overcome the Cycle", a number of guests from consumer enterprises and research centers had a full exchange.
From left to right: Liao Dingfeng, editor-in-chief of Whale Platform, Huang Chenhui, general manager of OATLY China Sales, Le Jing, public relations director of Guangliang Liquor, Liu Hui, director of Dayao Beverage Corporate Affairs Center, and You Wuyang, founder and president of Hangzhou Xijiang New Retail Research Institute
Huang Chenhui, general manager of sales of OATLY China, we make oat milk, and we belong to a small category. It is very difficult for small categories to go through the cycle, from our point of view, OATLY has its own stage of development, and we feel that our growth is more about developing with partners. If you pay attention, or oat milk has an understanding, the strongest channel of OATLY oat milk in the market is the coffee channel. With the booming coffee market in recent years, we have also received a wave of dividends.
In the view of Le Jing, the public relations director of Guangliang Liquor, we put forward a comprehensive ToC brand strategy, which is also a strategy based on the offline layout of 1 million terminals, and we face the C-end in brand promotion and market execution, helping our partners to do business better and sell wine better.
How to pay attention to it in the long term, Liu Hui, director of the corporate affairs center of Dayao Beverage, summed up from the 40-year development history of Dayao that the first long-term doctrine will not be troubled by short-term so-called interests or temporary difficulties. The second long-termism is to uphold an altruistic value to create maximum value for our partners. The third long-termism is a kind of love, with the product as the core.
You Wuyang, founder and president of Hangzhou Xijiang New Retail Research Institute, believes that there are two things that need to be done through the cycle: first, we must adapt to the changes in consumption in time, because it is true that we have changed rapidly in recent years. The second is to improve efficiency. New consumption is high-quality, cost-effective, and high-product, which is the most important feature of new consumption at present.
Liao Dingfeng, editor-in-chief of the host whale platform, added that when it comes to crossing the cycle, it must be some fluctuations that have occurred in the current cycle and we need to do it. If it is still developing at the same high speed as a few years ago, there is no such thing as crossing in the very fast growth. In recent years, the economy has fluctuated, which is a great challenge for consumer enterprises, and poses challenges to their strategic decision-making, channel change and innovation, and operation and management.
The list of the 4th Whale Tide Awards was announced
At the end of today's event, the 4th Whale Tide Award Ceremony was held, and the list of winners was officially announced. This year's Whale Tide Award pays more attention to the brand influence, growth potential, innovation potential, and scientific and technological content of enterprises, and selects high-quality enterprises in the current consumer industry from these dimensions.