The reason why many consumers favored Mixue Bingcheng before was because it was cost-effective, and the lemonade for 4 yuan was cheap and big, and almost no consumers would refuse the ultra-cost-effective Mixue Bingcheng. However, in recent days, even tea brands such as Hey Tea, Ancient Tea, and Shuyi Burning Fairy Grass have also rolled up in price, and have launched products with an average price of about 5 yuan.
Like Gu Ming's "signature lemonade", it only costs 4 yuan after the event discount; Although the "kumquat lemonade" of Shuyi burnt fairy grass is priced at 6 yuan a cup, if you add "mint milk green", it will only cost 10 yuan for two times, and the average price is only 5 yuan; Even the Hey Tea, which has always been regarded as expensive in the hearts of consumers, only costs 4 yuan a cup of the classic product "Pure Green Tea Yanhou" after using the coupon. It seems that the tea track has set off a trend of volume prices, and they have begun to compete with Mixue Bingcheng?
01.
Roll after roll!
In fact, it is not difficult to see from the fluctuation of these tea brands in recent years, such as Gu Ming, Shu Yi Yao Xiancao, Shanghai Auntie, Tea Baidao and other brands have all begun to launch low-cost products. Taking Heytea as an example, after 2022, Heytea has begun to adjust the price of products, and many products have bid farewell to the era of 30 yuan, and even some products have reached the single-digit price range. For example, Heytea's representative products, American coffee and pure green tea, are both around 9 yuan, which is not much different from Mixue Bingcheng.
In addition to Hey Tea, Shuyi Burning Fairy Grass has also launched a number of new products priced at about 10 yuan this year, and compared with the previous products, the price of the new products has dropped by 3-6 yuan. As for Aunt Shanghai's actions, it is even more direct, Aunt Shanghai has launched a "tea waterfall" for the sinking market, and the product prices are around 2-12 yuan, and the overall price range is benchmarked against Mixue Bingcheng.
Even this year's Sweet Lala and Bingchun tea drinks, which are particularly popular with consumers, are even more realistic in terms of price, and the Bingchun tea drink, known as the "Pinduoduo" in the tea industry, is as low as 2 yuan a cup, and the average customer unit price of 9.43 yuan is also particularly attractive. More and more tea brands are launching low-cost products, and more and more low-price brands are rising.
02.
Low prices are unavoidable
In fact, the increasingly fierce price war that is presenting today is, in the final analysis, because of the increasingly fierce market competition. With the relatively low threshold of the tea industry, more and more new brands continue to pour in, coupled with the impetus of capital, which leads to an oversupply of similar products in the market, and the differentiated competition of tea brands has become more and more difficult. In order to stand out in the crowded market, many tea brands can only choose to reduce prices as the most direct and effective means, hoping to attract consumers through low prices.
And although all major tea brands use price reductions as a selling point to attract consumers, the common methods used by different brands are also different. For example, the most intuitive way is to directly reduce the price of the product, as well as by issuing a large number of coupons, carrying out activities such as "buy one get one free", "half price for the second cup", etc., to reduce the price in disguise, and at the same time, there are also cost-effective package combinations, so that consumers feel "value for money". But regardless of the form it takes to consumers, the end result is to use low prices to attract consumers to buy, thereby increasing sales.
03.
How long can low prices last?
For consumers, the price involution of tea brands is, of course, the longer the better, after all, why not spend less money to buy the same product. But for tea brands, price wars are not a very sensible competitive strategy. For large brands with abundant funds and mature supply chains, they can take this opportunity to squeeze the living space of small brands and accelerate market integration. However, the continuous price war will also consume corporate profits, affect brand image, and even fall into a vicious circle of "low price and low quality".
However, in the long run, the healthy development of the tea industry should not only rely on the price war, but from the competitive advantage of the brand itself, return to the essence of the product while constantly innovating, and use products to conquer consumers instead of using low prices to please consumers. Therefore, in the future tea market, perhaps in the end, it is the brands with good quality and innovation that can go further.
· Some of the pictures in the article are from the Internet, and the copyright belongs to the original author