Speaking of banana milk, it is not difficult to think of a "yellow storm" that once swept through China's dairy industry. From the end of 2012 to 2014, New Hope, Yili Weikezi, Mengguote, Want Want and other companies launched banana milk. For a time, the dairy shelves were filled with yellow packaging.
From left to right, the banana milk products of New Hope, Yili, Mengniu and Want Want are respectively
But some people may not know that there is also a "hidden boss" behind this "storm" - Bingley Banana Milk. New Hope once said that it made banana milk because it saw the hot sales of Bingrei banana milk, which had just entered China at that time[1].
The local version of Bingrei Banana Milk (left) and the export version (right) of Bingrei Banana Milk, image source: Bingrei official website
This "banana milk fever" has been on fire for a while before it ebbed out. However, the "hidden boss" Bingrui banana milk is a national product that has been precipitated for 50 years. In 2022, its annual sales climbed to 200 billion won (about 1.105 billion yuan at the exchange rate on December 30, 2022)[2].
People who often follow Korean dramas must be no strangers to Bingrei banana milk. It always appears in major hit Korean dramas "moisturizing things silently".
In "Please Answer 1988", which depicts the style of Seoul, South Korea in 1988, banana milk appears many times as a popular element of that era. It is the standard accompaniment of "Deshan" as a Miss Olympic Games. When the poor "Shanyu mother" can't afford expensive bananas, she chooses to buy banana milk for her children to drink.
Image source: Screenshot from "Please Answer 1988" (2015)
In "Twenty-Five, Twenty-One", which is set in 1998, the "famous scene" of the male protagonist hiding by the heroine's window to deliver banana milk also made the audience excited.
Image source: Screenshot from "Twenty-Five, Twenty-One" (2022)
In the Chinese hit "The King of the House Tower", the male protagonist who traveled from ancient times to modern times was stunned by the taste of banana milk for the first time and regarded it as his favorite. This plot has caused many Chinese viewers to "search for the whole network" for Bingre, the brand behind this bottle of banana milk.
From the 70s and 80s of the last century to the present, from children, middle school students to young people, this bottle of yellow banana milk with a somewhat "fat" body seems to have penetrated the lives of all generations of Koreans.
This is also confirmed by the sales situation. In the Korean dairy market, Bingrei banana milk can be said to be the "big fault TOP". Not only is it firmly the No. 1 in the processed milk market, but it is also the first dairy product in Korea to exceed 100 billion won in annual sales[3]. Cumulative sales have exceeded 9.5 billion bottles [4].
While other Korean brands have followed suit with banana milk, the track is still Bingrei's home turf – with a market share of more than 80% [2].
图片来源：Business Watch
Why is banana-flavoured milk so popular, and how has Bingley kept it hot for 50 years?
Launched in 1974, Bingrei Banana Milk holds up a large milk item by virtue of its fashionable and rare banana flavor and memorable "jar bottle" packaging. After opening and occupying the market, Bingrei banana milk became a national memory in the 70s and 80s.
But after that, Bingrui did not play the emotional card, but continued to connect with this generation of young people, trying to advance to a large item that young people would also like.
Bingrei Banana Milk, which is 50 years old, has not only maintained its position in the Korean processed milk market, but has also gradually entered the "next level" in the process of rejuvenating its own customer base.
1. Impress Koreans who don't drink milk, it has become the "white moonlight" of a generation
In South Korea in the early 70s of the last century, milk was a sensitive topic among the population. Bingrei's predecessor, "Daeil Dairy" (renamed "Bingre" in 1982) under the Korea Explosives Group, was the founder of Bingrei, but it was through this sensitivity that banana milk rose.
The "sensitive" is that the South Korean military government at that time was strongly encouraging milk consumption and was eager to consume the overproduced milk. You must know that milk was not widely used among the Korean people before, and many people developed lactose intolerance symptoms before they formed the habit of drinking milk. Children had stomach upset after drinking milk provided for school lunch, and it even became a social problem [3].
This phenomenon has evolved into a popular resistance to milk. The advent of Bingre's banana milk has filled the gap between the people and the government [3].
At that time, Kim Jung-hee, the founder of the Korean Explosives Group, practiced the concepts of "serving the country through enterprise" and "promoting national health". As a result, the R&D team thought about how to make more people like drinking milk [2].
The breakthrough is first and foremost the banana flavor. Previously, strawberry and chocolate flavored milk had been verified by the market with little effect [5], so the R&D team of Dayi Dairy thought of using banana as a flavor.
The idea of this flavor innovation is likely to arouse popular interest. At that time, bananas were considered a high-end consumer product due to import restrictions in South Korea and were sold at a high price, almost one of the most high-end fruits on the market.
But the idea is also quite risky. The cost of bananas is prohibitive, and it has not been proven that the banana flavor is appealing enough to counteract the public's aversion to milk. Bingley later also stated that the practice "is likely to pose a risk of self-destruction and plunge the company into crisis"[5].
Bingre's early advertising slogan "Different taste, different quality" promoted banana milk, image courtesy of Business Watch
But the market's reaction quickly dispelled those fears. As soon as banana milk was launched, it was the first in the "airborne" processed milk market. Some people who cannot afford to consume bananas seem to want to satisfy their curiosity about bananas by tasting the flavor of bananas as a "high-end product" with banana milk [5].
Perhaps for this reason, even if banana milk is so expensive that it is classified as a "high-end drink"[5], it does not seem to affect the public's love for it.
Another innovation that has been proven to work for the next 50 years is the "jar" packaging that has become the brand's identity. Similar to Coca-Cola, Absolut Vodka and Yakult, Koreans can recognize it as Bingrei Banana Milk just by looking at the outline of the "pot-bellied poop" bottle even if the text logo is erased.
This is also the result of careful design by the R&D team.
When considering packaging, they first identified differentiated materials. Previously, the Korean dairy market was largely in glass bottles and plastic bags, while Bingrey opted for translucent polystyrene bottles. This distinguishes it from other dairy products while highlighting the color characteristics of the banana milk itself[3], i.e. yellow, which is the same color as the skin of the banana.
After the material was decided, while thinking about the shape of the bottle, they saw the "Moon Temple" at the pottery fair and decided to use this container style that Koreans are all too familiar with to hold banana milk [3].
The bottle of banana milk is remodeled from the traditional container "Woltan", which is common in rural Korea, Photo credit: National Museum of Korea official website, Bingeri official website
This package also has a lot of "hidden buffs" in the details. For example, the waist of the bottle has two rows of small protrusions, which are not easy to fall off when held in the hand [3].
For example, if the rim of the bottle mouth is convex inward and has a certain width, it is a spill-proof design [3].
Bottle design details, image courtesy of naver blog@영일
Bingrei banana milk has also become one of the memory points of the bathhouse for Koreans born in the 70s and 80s. Going to the bathhouse is a common family ritual in this generation, and they will have the memory that after a "painful" bath, their parents will "reward" them with a bottle of sweet banana milk [3].
Drinking banana milk after taking a bath is a childhood memory of some Korean post-70s and 80s;
For Koreans, just like going to Hangang Park to eat instant noodles and fried chicken with beer, "bathhouse + banana milk" has also become a pair of fixed CPs.
It can be said that from the taste, packaging to the scene, Bingrei strengthens the Korean mind in every link. When Koreans think of banana milk, they think of yellow jar bottles, and when they go to a bathhouse, they think of banana milk. And each link points to the brand Bingre.
With other brands following suit, more banana milk products appeared on the market later. In addition, Bingley has also been "attacked" by other brands.
In 2007, Mainichi Dairy launched an "attack" against Bingari over the color of banana milk. They launched a white banana milk and named the product "Bananas Are White". Focusing on the "banana milk white theory", the daily dairy industry cooperated star artists released a series of advertisements, pointing to the yellow banana milk on the market, including bingrei, with added coloring.
However, Bingre's position was not challenged in the end, as consumers had developed a perception that although the flesh of bananas was white, this did not prevent banana milk from being yellow [3].
2. Effectively "ingratiating" young people, Bingrei enters the "next level"
But feelings only belong to one generation after all. When the taste of bananas is no longer unusual, how to attract people to buy and recreate new memories of banana milk has become a problem.
Bingre's marketing team has stated that they are "always concerned that there will be a generational shift in the customer base of banana milk at some point"[6].
In 2016, a contact with college students revealed that although young people have a deep understanding of banana milk as a "childhood drink", they rarely consume it. The marketing team lamented: "No matter how famous a product is, once it is forgotten, no one will buy it" [6].
Bingrei began to target Generation MZ, young people born between 1980 and 2010, with targeted marketing [6].
Methodologically, Bingley believes that there are 3 prerequisites for its marketing.
First, marketing must drive sales.
Second, marketing that is suitable for products is good marketing, not blindly copying.
Third, the basis of everything is product power [6].
That's why, while marketing to this generation of young people, Bingree still focuses on retaining the "traditional framework" of banana milk, even if it is sometimes not optimal in terms of efficiency.
For example, jar bottles are actually an inefficient type of packaging. The special shape of the middle protrusion makes it more wasteful of space for display and loading when arranged, and the unit output is more limited. But the jar bottle is where Bingre's banana milk is an important product strength. Even later, in order to break through the short-term warranty limit for export products, the Tetra Pak package for long-term storage was adopted, Bingrei still printed a conspicuous jar bottle style on the bottle.
Export products in Tetra Pak packaging still highlight the shape of the jar bottle, image source: Hema App
On the basis of retaining the "traditional framework" and not destroying the product strength, Bingrui has focused on maintaining communication with young people in recent years, and in the process, it has emphasized its product power to young people "moisturizing things silently", so as to continuously "renew" the life of this old product and enter the "next level" of younger customers.
1. Insight into young people: use humor as a method
The premise of communicating with young people is to know young people well enough.
One of Bingre's insights for young people is that for young people, "humor" alone is enough to form a closed loop, i.e. to "feel fun, try it, and reach the brand". This simple logic also creates an environment where marketing teams can freely generate a variety of ideas [6].
One example of this process is Bingre's 2017 custom "explosion" of straws, which are standard for banana milk.
After a hangover, what should I do if I want to lie down and drink banana milk to "continue my life"? I can hang up the banana milk and sip it in an "infusion" style......
If a couple wants to share a bottle of banana milk at the same time, Bingree invented a heart-shaped straw with a double suction inlet......
There are also "SOS straws" that look like fire extinguisher sprinklers and can be used when you need to relieve spiciness, "Bamboo Dry Straws" that can be extended indefinitely to drink N bottles of banana milk at the same time, and "Giant Straws" with a mouth diameter of 12 mm that can quickly suck in large amounts of banana milk.
The "My Straws" campaign won the Korea Advertising Awards, as well as two awards at the Clio Advertising Festival;
These seemingly "bizarre" straw designs are the result of Bingre's analysis of young consumer behavior. In the process of communicating with young users, they found that young people rely on banana milk to relieve spicy food after eating spicy food, and also rely on banana milk to relieve hangovers [6]. So they developed the "SOS straw" and the hanging water straw.
Bingrey not only shot an advertisement for each of the five straws, showing their usage scenarios and design details, but also decided to release them as products.
The conversion effect is significant. The five ads have been viewed more than 50 million times, and all 30,000 straws sold out within a week [6].
2. Extended scene: Transform into base milk, everything can be banana milk
Bingrei is also working to broaden the use of banana milk. Guiding users to DIY is one solution.
For example, young Koreans may refuse banana milk, but it is almost impossible to say no to coffee. When the "national gourmet" Bai Zhongyuan introduced Bingre's banana milk-based "jar latte" on social media, many netizens began to reproduce it at home.
"Consumers are producing different versions and new topics are constantly being spawned, and that's what makes this generation fall in love with banana milk. Lee Su-jin, head of Bingre's dairy division, has stated [5].
Korean netizens use Bingrui banana milk to make their own "jar latte", picture source: Instagram@dabok__
"Jar Latte" is one of the contents of the series of advertisements "Banana Milk myTaste" released by Bingrui and Baek Jong-won. In addition to lattes, they also released recipes for "jar pancakes", "jar puddings", and "jar milkshakes". Banana milk has been transformed into a base milk that adds banana flavor to a variety of foods.
The "waist line" that comes with the jar bottle also perfectly indicates the amount of banana milk required for the recipe, eliminating the need to measure it with a measuring cup. In each video, Baek Jong-won drinks half of the banana milk and uses the remaining half for dessert making.
Baek Jong-won makes pudding with Bingre's banana milk, image credit: Bingre's official banana milk YouTube channel
The painting style of DIY banana milk is gradually "outrageous", and even instant noodles are not immune.
Bingrei released how to add banana milk to instant noodles, image source: Bingree Banana Milk YouTube channel
The idea of "banana milk for everything" was later extended to Bingre's marketing to the Chinese market as a long-term form of content.
In the domestic version of Douyin, the "Special FM" collection of Bingrei's official account has been updated to episode 51, with a total of 1.363 million plays. It introduces the method of DIYING bingari products, including banana milk.
A video of making a "lazy banana cake" based on banana milk
3. Top stream with top stream: To co-brand, but also to make the product itself into IP
Co-branding has become a common way of cross-border drainage. But Bingrui not only has to rely on external drainage, but also has built himself into a traffic IP.
In 2016, Bingley made banana milk a check-in destination. Targeting consumers between the ages of 10 and 30 who have low awareness of Bingre's banana milk[7], they opened a banana milk-themed café called "Yellow Cafe".
The interior of the store emphasizes the shape and yellow elements of the jar bottle, which is the classic element of banana milk, and not only a giant jar and bottle display is placed, but also the painting on the wall is based on the theme of jar and bottle.
Image source: Seoul Finance
Moreover, all the products on the menu use Bingrei banana milk. In the process of attracting people to check in and experience, Bingrei let them taste banana milk products by the way.
Yellow Cafe店内部分菜品；图片来源：Seoul Finance
The store opened in Seoul's Dongdaemun shopping district, which is home to locals and foreign tourists, and there was a long queue outside the store. Although Bingrui said that the store was intended to market banana milk, and the store's turnover was not the ultimate goal, at the beginning of the store, the store's average monthly turnover also reached 100 million won (about 575,700 yuan at the 2016 exchange rate)[8].
It is worth noting that the offline experience has also fed back the sales growth of banana milk products to a certain extent. In particular, after opening a second branch in Jeju Island in April 2017, the sales of Bingrei banana milk increased by more than 15% at one point [5].
Merchandise such as keychains, which sell an average of 3,000 units per month, have become a popular item on the souvenir lists of foreign tourists[7].
Part of Bingre's banana milk, image credit: DBR
Online, Bingrui also creates his own IP image through social media, and maintains communication with online users in a cute and humorous way.
If you open the Instagram interface of Bingrei's official account, you may mistake it for a "fake account", as it is filled with a red-haired comic book character. But a closer look reveals that he wears a crown in the shape of banana milk on his head, and his earrings are also in the shape of Bingre's logo.
Bingrey devised various plots to get the characters to introduce Bingre's products
This is Bingrei's "worldview" for his social media account - the prince of the "Bingri Kingdom" "Masis" (from the Korean word for "really delicious") has been entrusted with managing the Kingdom's Instagram account to pass on various updates to Bingrei's followers.
Sometimes, Prince Masis posts just a "selfie", like a friend in the circle of friends, to show you his appearance.
The caption in the picture: "Who took a picture of my sleeping face!?" netizens commented: "You are so handsome"
Even the product spokesperson can't stand in the "C position" in this account, but appears in the form of a photo with Prince Masis.
Bingre's banana milk spokesperson IU "posed for a photo" with Prince Masis, which reached 15,000 likes
Since Masis posted his first "selfie" in February 2020, Bingley has continued to draw and update various episodes, and has published 1200+ posts. These posts not only show Masis's "personal charm", but also "implant" various scenes related to the product.
Under this kind of "chasing" operation, Bingrui has precipitated a lot of private domain users. At present, the number of followers of Bingre's Instagram account has reached 201,000, and the number of likes on Masis-related posts has remained in the thousands, and some posts have reached 10,000+ likes.
While maintaining its own IP traffic, Bingrei Banana Milk is still "rubbing" the current "Big Top" popularity.
For example, Bingrui cooperated with the "top stream" in the emoji industry in the past two years - the painter Cui Xingxing. In the video advertisement drawn by Cui Xingxing, his character and "Tanzi" have become good friends.
Image source: Screenshot from Bingre's Banana Milk YouTube official channel
The face of Loopy, the "female star" who has exploded in the past two years, has also been printed on the jar bottle of another flavor product, strawberry milk. This bottle of milk instantly turned into a meme in your hand.
图片来源:naver blog@Boa Night !
III. Conclusion
A general look at Bingre's marketing to young people in recent years shows that they have not departed from the products designed 50 years ago at almost every step, but have emphasized their "traditional framework" to users again and again.
Therefore, the shape of the jar bottle and the yellow elements have repeatedly deepened the young people's understanding of Bingre's banana milk in a new form.
With the development of the times, these "traditional frameworks" may no longer be the best choice in terms of efficiency, such as inefficient jar bottle packaging. But Bingley thinks very clearly – to abandon them is to give up the entire brand.
Perhaps the secret to Bingre's 50-year-old banana milk is to keep these brand assets and make them visible to young people in a way that is more appealing to them.
Reference Sources:
[1] Bu Xiang, "New Hope Dairy's Fresh Counterattack", October 23, 2015, Finance and Economics
[2] 정선영, "기성세대 추억 '바나나맛우유', Z세대 공략 새 브랜드로 진화", November 9, 2023, 굿모닝경제
[3]정재웅,《바나나맛 우유, 어떻게 47년을 '반하나'》, September 29, 2020, 비즈니스워치
[4]이민아,《'1trillion 클럽 빙그레' 만든 1등 공신 바나나맛우유... 95억개 팔렸다》, February 5, 2024, Chosun Biz
[5]전세진,《바나나맛우유, 전통 지키면서도 '힙'한 이유》,2019年7月16日,DealSite
[6] Kim Sung-mo, "I was just playing with the brand with my customers...'Binggrae' smiles broadly with 'Dornja Marketing'", 310号 (2020年12月第1期), DBR
[7]라안일,《빙그레 바나나맛우유, 가공유 중 원유 함량 가장 높아》,2017年11月28日,백세시대
[8] 최유희, "빙그레 '옐로우카페' 1호점 이달 문 닫는다", February 13, 2019, 서울파이낸스
This article is the original of FBIF Food and Beverage Innovation, author: Tuna, editor: Bobo, please contact for authorization for reprinting.