Increase the "health selling point" Can new tea brands break the game?

The purchase price of Gu Ming's signature lemonade group is 6.9 yuan/cup, the new Shuyi burnt fairy grass is 9.9 yuan/cup, and the Shuyi kumquat lemonade is 4.9 yuan/cup after discount...... Focusing on the price band below 10 yuan, a new round of price war is being staged for freshly made tea.

In addition to the price war, new tea brands are beginning to roll towards health. Recently, Bawang Tea Ji announced the launch of the "Nutritional Choice" health label nationwide, Nai Xue's tea (02150. HK) and Happy Lemon have also piloted the launch of the "Nutritional Choice" logo, and Heytea issued a declaration on sugar control of fruit tea last month.

"The new tea drink began to be healthy, on the one hand, because of the high degree of product homogeneity and the lack of unique differentiation advantages, and on the other hand, the health meets the selection needs of the current mainstream consumer groups." Shen Meng, director of Chanson Capital, told the Red Star Capital Bureau.

Start a "price war":

Honey Snow Ice City Lemonade

After the coupon, 0.68 yuan for a cup

Compared with the past when a cup of milk tea is often twenty or thirty yuan, this price reduction has attracted a lot of attention, and the related topics of "milk tea farewell to 30 yuan" have once been on the hot search.

According to the Financial Associated Press, recently, the price of many new products of Shuyi Burning Fairy Grass is below 10 yuan, of which the price of kumquat lemonade is 6 yuan, and the original price of 12 yuan/cup of grape series new products is 9.9 yuan/cup after a limited-time discount. At the same time, Gu Ming launched a three-month discount on lemonade in Guangdong, from 10 yuan per cup to 4 yuan per cup, comparable to Mixue Bingcheng.

On group buying platforms, the discounts are even stronger. Taking ancient tea as an example, in Changsha, the purchase price of the signature lemonade group is 6.9 yuan/cup, the book is also kumquat lemonade after discounting 4.9 yuan/cup, and the tea Baidao (02555. HK) returns to taste green plum green tea in the current season, and after superimposing a 3 yuan platform coupon, it only costs 6.9 yuan per cup. The price of Mixue Bingcheng, which is known for its "parity", is also further declining, and the original price of 4 yuan/cup of lemonade is only 0.68 yuan/cup after superimposing 3 yuan platform coupons.

"The increase in orders [in the near term] is not very significant." The staff of a store in Changsha said. At the same time, there are not a few consumers who use discount coupons to "pick wool". "There are a lot of customers who use coupons, generally Douyin and Meituan coupons, (raw materials) are the same, and after verification, they will go down to our (store) side, and they will be made for you normally." The clerk of many brand stores such as Tea Baidao and Honey Snow Bingcheng said.

According to Jimu News, in a Shuyi Yao Xiancao store near Yuejiazui, Wuchang District, Wuhan City, at the end of April, the new white moonlight series "strawberry white moonlight" was just launched, and the price of a large cup was 10 yuan; At the beginning of May, the new "Peach Oolong Fruit Tea" was launched, and the large cup was only 9 yuan.

In fact, milk tea brands have been cutting prices for a long time. As early as the beginning of 2022, a number of leading milk tea brands have officially announced comprehensive price reduction plans, driving a wave of price reductions for domestic new tea brands. Among them, the price of classic brand products has been greatly reduced by 10 yuan, and the "easy" series of 9 yuan ~ 19 yuan has been launched; Another brand has set the price of the main product below 19 yuan.

Add to the "health selling point":

Push the grading logo

Ask fitness bloggers for endorsements

However, in addition to the "price war", new tea brands have begun to increase their "health selling points".

On June 28, Bawang Chaji announced the launch of the "Nutritional Choice" health label nationwide. Bawang Chaji told the Red Star Capital Bureau: "The trial in Shanghai in the past four months or so has been relatively successful, and the sales of Class A and B products in Shanghai account for more than 60% of the total products. ”

The reporter learned that Bawang Chaji began to implement the "Nutritional Choice" health label in Shanghai regional stores in March this year. In the same month, Nai Xue's tea and Happy Lemon also announced the implementation of the "Nutritional Choice" health label in Shanghai.

The "Nutritional Choice" grading label comprehensively reflects the non-dairy sugar, saturated fat, trans fat, and non-sugar sweeteners contained in beverages through the four grades of ABCD, and the recommended degree decreases from grade A to grade D.

In addition to the health label, Bawang Chaji also launched a calorie calculator and announced the GI value of the product. Nai Xue's tea has developed Luo Han Guo 0 calorie sugar, and Heytea has also continued to claim the use of "real milk, real tea, real fruit", and in the past two months, it has announced that the fruit tea product "0 calorie sugar" is free and cooperatively launched products made with low GI sugar raw materials.

In the context of accelerating the health of the volume, the Red Star Capital Bureau checked a number of new tea drink order applets and found that most of the products were clearly labeled with calories, and even converted to the same amount of fruit, and some of them were labeled as only half a pear for calories.

In addition to the health of raw material rolls, the two brands of Heytea and Bawang Tea are also "competing" in endorsement cooperation.

In March this year, Heytea announced that fitness blogger Pamela would serve as Heytea's 2024 "Health Recommendation Officer", and recommended 11 products around the theme of "Light Burden, True Health"; In the same month, Bawang Chaji invited Liu Genghong, who is also a fitness blogger, to promote the new product "Wake Up Spring Mountain"; In April, Bawang Chaji invited tennis player Zheng Qinwen to serve as a health ambassador.

Expert analysis

Health marketing can improve brand competitiveness

But be wary of rollovers

Shen Meng, director of Xiangsong Capital, told the Red Star Capital Bureau that "the health of various tea brands is to attract more potential consumers".

"One old and one young", in the view of chain management expert Li Weihua, is a potential customer of the new tea drink brand under the health strategy. He also believes that the tea industry can now start to roll health, which is also related to the development of the entire industry.

"From milk tea powder, non-dairy creamer brewed milk tea to the current fresh milk tea, with the iterative development of the industry and products, the substantial improvement of raw material quality and processing technology, as well as the continuous strengthening of packaging, co-branding, scale, etc., the space for major brands to roll is running out, and some head enterprises with strong supply chain and strong R&D capabilities will enhance their competitiveness through volume health," Li Weihua said, "Volume health is more beneficial to enterprises with strong R&D and supply chain." Enterprises with weak supply chains cannot bring down the cost of raw materials, and strong R&D capabilities are also required to maintain the taste after the volume is healthy. Of course, some companies may not need to roll up health if they are rolled to the extreme in some aspects, such as the price of Mixue Bingcheng."

The volume is healthy, and it has indeed brought a certain positive impact to the tea brands.

Heytea told the Red Star Capital Bureau: "Since its launch on March 25, the sales volume of the 'Pamela Light Burden Recommendation' drink has exceeded 30 million cups. At the same time, after announcing on May 17 that the fruit tea 'true 0 calorie sugar' was free, in less than a month, nearly 500,000 users chose to order a free fruit tea drink with 0 calories added to it. Heytea will carry out all-round sugar control actions, from raw materials to formulas, to explore the overall sugar reduction of beverages."

According to the data of the "2023 User Love Tea Report" released by Nai Xue's tea, in 2023, 63.3% of consumers will choose less sweet, an increase of 10% compared with 2022, and 38% of consumers will choose to pay an extra yuan to upgrade to the option of using "monk fruit sugar", willing to spend money to "buy health".

It is worth noting that while health marketing can attract consumers, if marketing is greater than health, it can also lead to a rollover.

In July last year, Jasmine Yogurt, a freshly made yogurt brand that focuses on the concept of health, was questioned by consumers due to the non-dairy creamer incident, and Jasmine Yogurt was also caught in a raw material turmoil. Finally, Mo Yogurt announced the upgrade of a new version of the milk base and the recall of all old raw materials. However, the reputation and sales of jasmine yogurt have been affected to a certain extent. According to an August 2023 report by Southern Metropolis Daily, a Mo Yogurt franchisee in Guizhou said that its store turnover has plummeted by half every day since the controversy caused by Mo Yogurt.

In addition, when most brands advertise a product as healthy and low-calorie, they attach conditions such as "no additional sugar and no small ingredients", and these additional conditions are often marked in small characters that are easy to ignore, which also makes many consumers doubt the authenticity and transparency of health marketing. (Zhang Luxi)

Disclaimer: All works marked "Source: XXX (non-China Food News Network)" on this website are transferred from other media, and the purpose of reprinting is to convey more information, which is only for netizens to learn and reference, and does not mean that this website agrees with its views. Copyright and copyright belong to the original author, reprinting is not intended to infringe copyright, if there is content, copyright and other related issues, please contact this website as soon as possible, we will deal with it as soon as possible.