Wen 丨 Fast Elimination Jun
A bottle of steamed fish soy sauce has sold well in the north and south of the river, led the industry for more than 20 years, and has been collectively "praised" by top cooking masters. What is the product and business secret behind this?
01
The master praised, and a bottle of soy sauce was fired all over the north and south
"I miss the taste of my childhood", "My mother's dishes are the best", "Grandma's rice is the most delicious"... These are the most direct reflections of subtle taste memories. This strong "nostalgic" characteristic of people's taste determines that the condiment market is basically "old-fashioned", and it also determines that the "authentic" and "professional" behind the "old-fashioned" are important barriers to the condiment industry.
In the field of professional catering, "Source Commentary" is the foundation of different soy sauce brands. It can also be understood that the endorsement of authority determines whether a condiment is "authentic" and "professional" or not.
Recently, more than a dozen top chefs gathered together to review and write their stories with Lee Kum Kee, the century-old condiment leader, and shared their experiences in the use of Lee Kum Kee's big item, steamed fish soy sauce.
Aged Registered Chinese Chef and National Treasure Chef Lee Yiu-yun participated in the development of Lee Kum Kee's steamed fish sauce, and its specialty, rice-smoked whitewater fish, is an example of using simple ingredients to create new delicious and high-value dishes. It is understood that the taste of traditional steamed fish is relatively single, in order to make the dishes more umami, Master Li Yaoyun gave up the original soup of steamed fish, drizzled with Lee Kum Kee steamed fish soy sauce, instantly raised the umami taste of the fish to a higher level.
Senior-level registered Chinese cooking master, national treasure level cooking master Li Yaoyun
Master Li Yaoyun said in an interview that although steamed fish soy sauce is a soy sauce, its salty umami taste, moderate sweetness and soy sauce flavor can further stimulate the umami taste of the ingredients themselves. It can be used as the main spice when steaming fish, maintaining the original taste, and cooking other dishes is also easy to cook.
In addition, Yan Huiqin, a senior registered Chinese cooking master, also said that Lee Kum Kee's steamed fish soy sauce not only reduced labor costs, but also satisfied with the feedback from diners. As an expert in the use of spices to boil soy sauce, she also stressed that the unique soy sauce produced by Lee Kum Kee's steamed fish soy sauce after brewing is not available in the soy sauce itself.
FMCG learned that more than a dozen celebrity chefs of various cuisines, including Master Lee Yiu-yun and Master Yan Huiqin, have given unanimous praise to Lee Kum Kee's steamed fish soy sauce. Among them, celebrity chefs of major cuisines said in interviews that Lee Kum Kee has a deeper understanding of steamed fish soy sauce in terms of source seasoning and localization practices for different regional dietary preferences.
How to go to the national market is a problem for all condiment companies, because diners in different regions have different preferences for sweet, salty and other tastes. However, in recent years, with the upgrading of consumption and the improvement of consumer health awareness, steamed vegetables that can retain the original taste and nutritional value of food to the greatest extent have become more and more popular, and many families have developed a good habit of eating a steamed dish every day. Steamed fish soy sauce, which has a strong inclusiveness in steamed cooking, has also entered more restaurants and the kitchens of ordinary diners.
FMCG jun interviewed a number of senior chefs in Fujian, Shandong, Sichuan, Henan and other places, all of whom said that Lee Kum Kee steamed fish sauce is more inclusive of dishes, which can increase the umami taste of ingredients and will not dominate, but it is easy to get "salty" or "sweet" feedback when using competitive brands of steamed fish soy sauce. As Master Yan Huiqin said, Lee Kum Kee's steamed fish soy sauce can make up for the difference in the acceptance of dishes by diners in different regions, both in terms of color and taste.
In addition, with the assistance of Lee Kum Kee's Food & Beverage Department, local chefs have also integrated Lee Kum Kee steamed fish soy sauce into local cuisine and applied it to fried, roasted, soaked, steamed and stir-fried dishes, thus creating more new dishes. There are even Thai chefs who use Lee Kum Kee steamed fish soy sauce to flavor local dishes.
Although the difference in taste exists objectively, for diners, they always want to pursue freshness and deliciousness. And Lee Kum Kee's steamed fish soy sauce can indeed bring a different new experience to different cuisines.
02
Secondary empowerment, the old single also has a new increase
For a long time, a major crux of the catering industry has been the contradiction between differentiation and standardization, not only to have unique dishes and tastes to form a differentiated competitive advantage, but also not to be subject to chefs, improve efficiency and carry out standardized transformation of operating processes. After a long period of exploration, custom condiments have become a solution.
For example, the birth of steamed fish soy sauce is very representative.
Cantonese people are very fond of steamed fish, but generally soy sauce will taste too salty, so the restaurant's experienced chefs are their own steamed fish sauce sauce. After repeated research and development and blending by Lee Kum Kee researchers, the "Lee Kum Kee Steamed Fish Soy Sauce" was created specifically for steamed fish. After the fish is steamed, the chef only pours in the right amount of steamed fish soy sauce to make the steamed fish more delicious.
In addition to the product, the naming of "soy sauce" is also a very successful concept marketing. After a long period of market education, consumers have formed the inertial thinking of "steaming fish to use steamed fish soy sauce", which also ensures that the category can obtain a high premium for a long time.
It is worth noting that the new national standard for condiments, which has been implemented on December 21, 2019, requires the configuration of soy sauce and vinegar, and the "product name" or "commodity standard number" column in the product outer packaging label clearly shows that the implementation is a composite seasoning standard, so that it will be easy to distinguish between brewing soy sauce and vinegar.
According to the industry's point of view, the implementation of the new national standard has protected the interests of standardized production enterprises such as brewing soy sauce and brewing vinegar, which do not need to spend too much energy on dealing with the vicious competition brought about by low-cost condiments, but focus on making the main brewing products bigger and stronger. Some enterprises that compete in the market with low quality and low prices face the risk of being eliminated.
In fact, Lee Kum Kee's steamed fish soy sauce has been very popular since its introduction, and it has penetrated into different regions with the migration of cuisine. For example, every time he goes to a city, Lee Kum Kee will find a local classic dish, re-seasoning with his own products to make fusion innovations, and then let the sales staff bring new dishes to push the condiments. It is said that Lee Kum Kee's steamed fish soy sauce is how it attacked the steamed fish heads on the Hunan table.
By opening up the commercial catering end and obtaining the right to cultivate tastes, Li Jin remembered to influence the dominant family side. There is a leverage effect in this logical line, that is, if the commercial catering end is leveraged, then the cake at the family end will also be "eaten into the mouth". This is also an important reason for the continuous growth of Lee Kum Kee steamed fish soy sauce consumption in households.
In addition, Lee Kum Kee has also continued to explore the diversified consumption scenes of its own products, such as the birth of iconic dishes in the fields of stir-fry, roasted vegetables, and sauces. As Master Lee Yiu-yun said, Lee Kum Kee steamed fish soy sauce, at first everyone thought it was just steamed fish, only suitable for light flavor dishes, and now it can stand out in various cuisines. For example, the addition of steamed fish soy sauce enriches the taste of dishes such as small stir-fried meat, hand-torn cabbage, and dried cauliflower.
After more than 20 years of development, Lee Kum Kee steamed fish soy sauce has gradually become a large single product in the category, and Lee Kum Kee, as the "founding father", has long become synonymous with the steamed fish soy sauce category.
It is worth noting that although it is already an old item, with the improvement of health awareness, the development of consumption upgrading and the rise of the lazy economy in recent years, Lee Kum Kee steamed fish soy sauce is once again releasing new potential energy.
First of all, Lee Kum Kee Steamed Fish Soy Sauce is a pure brewed soy sauce product, and the quality is not comparable to the blended soy sauce. Secondly, consumers' demand for "eating well" is getting higher and higher, and the soy sauce with specific functions is meeting the specific taste needs of consumers. In addition, factors such as miniaturization of the family structure and the lack of cooking skills of the post-90s generation have also led to functional soy sauce, including Lee Kum Kee's steamed fish soy sauce, which is gradually becoming the "second bottle of soy sauce" in restaurants and homes.
In recent years, with the gradual shrinking of the consumer group of ordinary soy sauce with poor flavor and low price, the proportion of soy sauce in each family with more than 2 bottles has grown more and more obviously. This year's sudden epidemic has deepened the differentiation of catering and non-catering channels, condiment catering channels have been greatly impacted, while the rise of home cooking, the main force of condiment consumption has further shifted to the family end, which is also a significant positive for Lee Kum Kee steamed fish soy sauce from the B end to the C end.
03
Industrial upgrading, steamed fish soy sauce steady and good
A small drop of soy sauce supports the soul of the national diet and also constitutes a huge commercial soil.
Data show that the annual per capita consumption of soy sauce in China is 3.7 kg. With the development of China's economy, the people's living standards continue to improve, China's high-end soy sauce industry will usher in rapid growth in the future, it is expected that the compound growth rate of the soy sauce industry in the next five years will remain at about 7%, reaching 35.98 billion yuan by 2025.
How to incorporate this huge incremental market into the bag and bring greater profit margins to support their own channel providers is a problem that every condiment company must think about.
Externally speaking, in the next 5-10 years, the soy sauce industry, and even the entire condiment industry pattern will present an industrial pattern led by a small number of national well-known brand enterprises and the coexistence of brands with local characteristics, while small enterprises that do not have technical advantages will be eliminated. Obviously, the Matthew effect is objectively beneficial for leading companies such as Lee Kum Kee.
On the other hand, with the accelerated upgrading of the soy sauce industry, functionalization and health are the two major trends in the upgrading of soy sauce products. Among them, the upgrading demand for soy sauce in different consumption scenarios is also differentiated: the upgrading of soy sauce at the catering end mainly considers whether the product can bring direct taste improvement to the dish, so the functional products that subdivide the use scenario have a large room for growth; while the upgrading of soy sauce at the home end, the source of more urgent demand for healthier, 0 additive, natural brewing and other attributes of the product is expected to continue to increase.
In fact, as a pure brewing product with 0% added MSG and flavor, taste and health have always been the main attributes of Lee Kum Kee's steamed fish soy sauce.
In recent years, Lee Kum Kee steamed fish soy sauce has not only resisted the risks brought about by changes in the external environment and industry competition, but also relied on excellent product quality and unique product positioning to further penetrate into the field of household consumption with catering channels as the guide. With the popularity of functional soy sauce, the brand effect will gradually increase, and the concentration of the industry will be further enhanced. Lee Kum Kee continues to maintain the leading position of the steamed fish soy sauce category, and constantly carries out subdivision innovation to consolidate the advantages of the category, and the certainty of the future will continue to be good, and the vertical innovation and refined operation of traditional FMCG enterprises have demonstrated.
More importantly, as an incremental product of Lee Kum Kee, the popularity and ability of steamed fish soy sauce not only helped dealers quickly expand urban business, but also contributed a lot to expanding business outlets. In other words, a small bottle of steamed fish soy sauce not only adds a lot of color to the tables of consumers and catering businesses, but also helps dealers get real money and silver, achieving a win-win situation.