New Eye Consumption Group Works
Written by | Yating
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How much do you know about "plant protein"?
According to Xinyan statistics, from 2007 to 2016, the compound growth rate of plant protein beverages reached 23.3%, which was much higher than the revenue growth rate of the total soft drink category, and the proportion of the entire industry rose to 18.69%.
Coincidentally, according to the "2020-2021 China New Economy Venture Capital Analysis Report" released by IT Orange at the beginning of the year, the plant protein beverage market ushered in rapid growth in 2020, including Mengniu, Yili, Nestlé and other domestic and foreign food and beverage giants have been laid out, and 2020 or become the first year of China's plant-based beverage market.
It can be said that 2020 is a new flashpoint for plant-based beverages.
In general, there are more subdivisions of plant protein drinks, and oat milk is the main incision that many merchants choose to enter in recent years. According to Nielsen data, as of October 2020, in the 31 cycle, oat milk increased by 212%, ranking first in the food and beverage growth category.
The rise of plant protein drinks is mainly due to people's pursuit of healthy, zero-sugar, low-calorie foods. Because plant-based foods are free of cholesterol and lactose, they are less burdensome to eat and easier to digest and absorb, and are considered healthier food choices.
The boom in plant protein drinks has not only spawned the birth of a number of enterprises, but also been greatly sought after by capital. The cutting-edge brand "oatoat" has received two rounds of financing in the five months since its establishment; "Sirui Technology", which focuses on health food, has obtained 60 million yuan of financing before the establishment of the brand.
But, under the heat of the fire, is the development of plant protein drinks really as we can see? Is consumers' pursuit of plant-based protein drinks really needed or imitated? To this end, this article Xinyan will start from the industry giant Yangyuan, as well as three new rising stars: "plant label", "oatoat", "Omar Planet", deconstructing the logic behind the rise of the industry.
01
"Ignorance" under false touting
Plant protein drink is actually a relatively large concept, the product according to the different raw materials used, can be divided into walnut dew (milk) drinks, almond dew (milk) drinks, peanut butter (milk) drinks, coconut juice (milk) drinks, soy milk (milk) drinks and other varieties.
The TMIC trend release shows that from the hot words of the market search in 2020, the health and genuine heat is still the same; it is worth noting that the popularity of the concept of "dietary fiber" and "low card" has grown rapidly. This shows that with the further improvement of consumers' emphasis on food health, the consumption upgrade of the beverage industry will move in the direction of nutrition and health.
However, consumers' pursuit of plant protein drinks seems to be based on the pursuit of healthy quality of life, but after research, Xinyan found that more consumers buy plant protein drinks not out of their own needs, but a blind follow-up.
Most consumers only know that plant protein drinks are a healthy drink, but plant protein drinks specifically include which products, why they are healthy, where is the difference with animal protein, and which different drinks are suitable for different groups of people.
Although plant protein drinks have gradually become popular in the past two years, plant protein drinks themselves can be described as "long history".
Hebei Chengde Lulu co., Ltd., which was established in 1997, the main product of almond dew is a plant protein drink, and the coconut tree brand coconut juice and Weiwei soy milk that appeared later are also plant protein drinks.
Why have these drinks appeared for so many years and have not been able to become a hit, but the oat milk that has appeared in the past two years has made a big splash, and even the industry with plant protein has broken the circle? Is oat milk healthier and more nutritious than other beverages?
Obviously not, the source or oat milk is more marketable.
If you think about it, it is difficult for consumers to associate coconut water and soy milk with keywords such as dietary fiber, zero lactose, and low fat, but when it comes to oat milk, they will more or less know that this is a healthy plant protein drink rich in dietary fiber. Oat milk has been popular in the market since its inception under the label of health, additive-free. These labels, accurately poke at the pain points of today's consumers, high fiber, low fat, nutritious and will not get fat, do you not want to be moved?
In the case of products that have long appeared, the management of demand expectations has been stimulated in recent years.
Therefore, it is not that the first movers did not make products with heart, but that these established companies do not understand the laws of marketing. But this also exposes a major problem in the plant protein industry: consumers' enthusiasm for plant protein may be just a whim, when the wave recedes, what is the next explosion of plant protein? How can consumer expectations be managed?
02
The giants are worried
As mentioned earlier, there have long been many enterprises in the plant protein industry, and Yangyuan is one of the representatives.
Yangyuan Beverage has been deeply cultivating walnut milk drinks for 20 years, and has been committed to the research and development, production and sales of plant protein drinks mainly based on walnut kernels. The main brand "Six Walnuts", which has won a well-known trademark in China, includes walnut milk, walnut peanut lotion and other categories, and is currently the largest producer and sales of walnut milk drinks in China.
In 2017, the total output of the company's products was about 840,000 tons, accounting for 8.34% of the national market share of plant protein drinks, while the market share of the second to fifth place was less than 3.5%. In 2018, the company was listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange. It can be said that Yangyuan Beverage is an absolute giant in the plant protein market.
As the head company of the industry, Yangyuan has an absolute right to speak in the market, and in recent years, the fiery heat of plant protein drinks has opened up a broader sales market for Yangyuan, and the development of Yangyuan seems to be a good one.
However, the giants also have troubles.
At the beginning of the positioning, Yangyuan Beverage did not focus on the daily drinking consumption scene, but preferred to emphasize the gift attributes of the product.
This approach is certainly reasonable, for example, in a special period of time, a short period of consumption highs will be formed, but this attribute has also become a major restriction on the company's sales expansion. In the peak sales season, that is, close to China's traditional festivals mid-autumn festival, Spring Festival and other dates, market demand is released in a concentrated manner, and beverage purchases and sales peak, but once this time node is passed, sales volume will fall rapidly.
Sales are susceptible to seasonal influences and have significant instabilities. At present, customers pay more attention to the gift attributes of the product for the purchase of Yangyuan walnut dew, rather than out of their own needs, and it is not easy to reverse the customer's cognition of the product in a short period of time. This has become an urgent breakthrough problem in the further expansion of the Yangyuan market.
In addition, as a cost-sensitive industry, plant protein has low added value of products and product sales are easily affected by raw materials.
For walnut milk products, the main raw material purchased upstream is walnut kernels. In the first half of 2017, the raw material procurement of walnut kernels accounted for 23% of the cost of Yangyuan's self-produced products; the packaging materials of Yangyuan Beverage were mainly iron cans, which accounted for 52% of the cost of self-produced products in the first half of 2017; and white sugar accounted for 4.4% of the cost of self-produced products in the first half of 2017.
Figure: Direct material costs account for the production costs of the company's own products (Source: company prospectus, Tianfeng Securities Research Institute)
Material costs account for more than 90% of a company's production costs, which is not a good signal for a business.
First of all, the relatively high cost of cans indicates that the added value of the products produced by the company is too low, the investment in product research and development is too small, and the replaceability of the product is extremely strong. And if the upstream iron can supplier production is not timely, resulting in insufficient supply, it will lead to the supply chain of Yangyuan products being broken, resulting in immeasurable economic losses.
Secondly, the main raw material of walnut milk products is walnut kernels, which are not produced by the company itself, but need to be purchased to the walnut planting base upstream. On the one hand, the production of walnuts is highly susceptible to external factors such as climate, resulting in unstable yields; on the other hand, because the production and planting of walnuts is not within the scope of the company's supervision, the quality control of walnuts is also difficult to grasp.
It can be expected that once there is a problem with the supply or quality of the raw material walnut kernel, the company will face an operational crisis.
Of course, the most worrying thing for the company at present should be how to deal with the pressure caused by the popularity of oat milk on walnut milk.
From the perspective of consumer portraits, the main consumer group of oat milk is the first- and second-line cutting-edge white-collar workers and exquisite mothers; and the consumer group of walnut milk is mainly the middle-aged and elderly group in the third to sixth lines of small towns, compared with the first- and second-line consumer groups, this part of the consumers are limited by purchasing power and have low price acceptance, which means that Yangyuan Drink wants to increase the price of its own products and increase revenue, and also needs to think about whether its audience can accept it.
Moreover, third- and fourth-line consumers do not care so much about the health of beverages, and carbonated beverages still occupy the minds of this part of consumers. This also means that Yangyuan is surrounded by carbonated drinks in its own sales market, and it is also facing the danger of being milked by oat milk in the back.
If Yangyuan Beverage wants to maintain the first position in the industry, it needs to make certain adjustments to the company's brand positioning. Reducing the gift attributes of products, increasing research and development, improving the added value of products, or trying to lay out oat milk and soy milk markets is also a new choice.
As for whether Yangyuan Beverage can create the next "six oats", it depends on how the company's next move will go.
03
The three schools of thought contend, each with its own strengths and weaknesses
After studying Yangyuan, let's look at the three new forces of "oatoat", "Omar Planet" and "Plant Label".
OATOAT, just make the ingredient list that you can understand.
Founded in May 2020, oatoat has completed three rounds of financing in only 10 months, positioning itself as a high-end plant-based protein drink with a pure ingredient list, so the company's current core product is only a main product of oat milk.
In fact, the strategy of oatoat is very well understood, in the case of limited funds in the early stage, it is dedicated to a category and a taste, hoping to blow up this single product, and then use channels to promote other products.
So, what do you rely on to blow up a single item? An "accessible ingredient list" is a nice gimmick. In order to convey the concept of healthy eating to consumers, oatoat has simplified the ingredient list to the extreme, with 99% of the contents of oatmeal drinks being water and oatmeal, while adding a small amount of vegetable oil and salt to ensure nutritional balance on a healthy basis.
This concept is very suitable for the psychology of oat milk consumer groups, the first month of Tmall's launch, that is, in September 2020, oatoatat achieved the goal of domestic oat milk Tmall sales head.
However, there is no additive ingredient list, one can do, everyone can do. Where the core competitiveness of oatoat products is reflected, New Eyes puts a question mark here.
Omar Planet, the channel advantage supported by big data.
Founded in the second quarter of 2020, Omar Planet is also a plant-based protein beverage brand. Different from the marketing strategy of Oatoat's large single products, Omar Planet pays more attention to channel construction.
The core team of Omar Planet has the DNA of Internet products and brand marketing. Therefore, based on the advantages of user big data, Omar Planet has a deep insight into consumer needs, penetrates the drinking scene of plant milk through content marketing resources, community advantages and new retail play, and rolls out online and offline channels.
Founder Huang Haoming said that in the future, Omar Planet plans to strengthen the brand imprint with the trend design style, jointly brand with IP cross-border, and bring the brand out of the circle in combination with interactive marketing and social methods of young scenes.
Online and offline synchronous sales, IP cross-border co-branding, enhance social attributes, this series of marketing methods, at first glance seem to be a little familiar. Now the Internet products, it seems to be applying the same marketing template, the existence of the template does provide development ideas for many emerging companies, but if you want to go out of the circle, it is far from enough to rely on the same template.
Plant labels allow consumers to become entrepreneurial partners.
Plant Label is the first plant nutrition brand launched by Siray Technology. It is worth mentioning that Sirui Technology obtained 60 million yuan of capital financing before the establishment of the brand.
Founder Zhang Proud is a big V with 3 million fans, so when doing market research, he pays special attention to user experience. The founding team believes that every consumer is a partner with whom they start a business. In the early stages of product development, the team posted job postings on social platforms to recruit product creative officers. Zhang Hao said that the suggestions of these "super users" will be an important reference for the development and iteration of "plant label" products.
It can be seen that the way plant labels are played differently from the previous two companies. Sirui Technology pays more attention to consumer demands, and consumers' opinions and suggestions are an important part of product research and development. This is certainly a good idea, but the key is that the needs of different consumers are different, and how to make a product meet the needs of more consumers as much as possible should be further considered.
Whether it is the industry giant Yangyuan, or the rising star oatoat, Omar Planet, plant labels, driven by market demand, they are constantly trying to catch up with new consumption hotspots. But hot spots come and go quickly, and how to maintain vitality after the boom fades is what every practitioner in the plant protein drink industry needs to think about.