Text: Danlin He
At this year's Expo, the booth of Italian chocolate giant Ferrero appeared for the first time as a "new member" danish blue can cookie, which aroused the curiosity of many viewers: "Is it that you are a company?" ”
In fact, although the two companies are still relatively independent in brand operation, Kelson Group, including Blue Can Cookies, was acquired by Ferrero affiliates for more than 2 billion yuan last year, and Blue Can has become a "new trump card" in Ferrero China's field of cookies. XiaoShidai learned that one year after completing the acquisition, the business of the two companies in the Chinese market has basically completed the integration.
On Saturday, Zhang Deng, general manager of Danish Blue Can Greater China, revealed at the Expo that next, Blue Can Cookies will use Ferrero to "roll up their sleeves and do a big job" in terms of channel expansion, product and scene diversification. The Danish cookie brand, which sold more than 400 million yuan in China last year, expects double-digit year-on-year growth this year.
Ferrero's "new member" Danish blue jar cookies participated in the Expo
Let's take a look.
Add the scene outside the Spring Festival
"Blue Can and Ferrero are still two separate legal entities, but after the alliance, we will have deeper cooperation." Zhang Deng told Xiaodian that in the layout of online and offline channels, the capture of Chinese consumer demand, and the construction of brand power, Blue Can has places where ferrero can be borrowed.
After joining Ferrero, one of the Danish cookie brands' priorities is to expand its diversified consumption scenarios.
At present, blue jar cookies are the "New Year gift choice" for many Chinese consumers, and the Lunar New Year is also the most important sales time for this cookie brand in the Chinese market, which is the time when its annual sales are the largest. According to Zhang Deng, although the annual sales are not the same, the sales during the Spring Festival period "will probably account for more than half."
"On the one hand, the Spring Festival is a traditional festival that Chinese consumers attach great importance to, and they can choose the blue jar as a gift, which is a great recognition for us." In our view, this market is not saturated and is still worth further intensive cultivation. She said.
On the other hand, she pointed out that Blue Can has also made a lot of efforts in other sales periods, "Now in many other scenes, consumers have begun to choose our cookies, such as Mid-Autumn Festival, May Day, Teachers' Day and other holidays, as well as birthdays or friends' gatherings." ”
For example, Zhang Deng said that this year's Mid-Autumn Festival, blue cans have made product display changes in the mall, and there will be some designs that are more conducive to showing products. "Here, I'll sell it first, and in our future market distribution, you'll see something very different from what we used to do, like opening a pop-up store." She said.
Due to the different consumer needs of different scenarios, accordingly, Blue Jar Cookies is also expanding its product portfolio. "In addition to the big gift box, we also have some small packaged products that are suitable for afternoon tea or between work." Zhang Deng said. XiaoShidai learned that at present, there are nearly 20 SKUs of blue can cookies in China, and all products are imported from Denmark.
Danish blue can cookie small package products
Asked if he would consider using his local factory for local production when he joined Ferrero, Zhang Deng said that there were no plans to produce in China at present. "I don't think the localization of blue jar cookies means that it has to be localized in production. With Ferrero's intervention, we hope that Blue Can can better capture the needs of local consumers, and we will make a lot of investment in this. She said.
Steady and steady "Shangxin"
In terms of product innovation, this Danish blue can cookie chooses a "global and local combination" approach.
Zhang Deng told Xiao Food Generation that the Chinese team of Blue Can will feedback some local consumer big data to the company's research and development center in Denmark, and then the research and development center will do some research and development on the new formula based on the understanding of the product, and then feedback to the Chinese team, and finally decide how to be new in combination with consumer research.
She said that the blue can will pay attention to the current popular taste, "in recent years, the sea salt taste is very popular, we have launched a new product for this taste." However, she also stressed that the strategy of the blue jar is to turn "the current popular into a classic", rather than constantly following the trend.
It can be seen that compared with the current practice of many food companies, the Danish blue can is quite stable and steady in the "new" aspect, and it can even be said to be conservative.
Ferrero Expo booth
"Because our cookie has been around for many years, its recipe is classic. If we want to change, we may need to look at the new consumer trend and how much market value it can bring. The number of SKUs is not our ultimate goal in itself, it needs to translate into beneficial output. Zhang Lantern told Xiao Shidai.
Interestingly, this coincides with the attitude of the new owner Ferrero.
"In such a rapidly changing market as China, we have also wondered whether we want to drive innovation quickly. But later, we felt that one of the more suitable practices for Ferrero was 'taking advantage of the situation'. That is to say, after we already have a product that is popular with Chinese consumers, we will choose the right time to do diversified extensions and introduce other flavors that are relatively mature overseas, rather than making Internet celebrity products that have no evergreen vitality and are only short-lived. Ferrero China's relevant person in charge told The Small Food Generation.
Two new flavor products from Kinda Fun
The latest example is two new flavors of Jianda Colorful Music, which debuted at the Expo this year, including dark chocolate flavor and white chocolate flavor. Seeing the "strong performance" of Kenda Binle during the epidemic, Ferrero believes that now is a "good time" to expand the product line of this series.
"In some European markets, the taste of black and white chocolate is already a very mature SKU, and we have repeatedly considered when we can introduce it to China. This year, we're rolling out two new flavors across the board. The above-mentioned person in charge said.
This, she said, is mainly because during the epidemic, Ferrero observed that while other SKUs were frustrated by the reduction in the consumption scene of gifts, The performance of Kenda Colorful Music was very strong. "Compared to gifting products, this kind of small package suitable for personal enjoyment (self indulgence) is very eye-catching, a small sweet tooth may light up your mood, and the unit price is not expensive."
Ma Rucheng, general manager of Ferrero China, introduced the new products at the Expo
Ferrero believes that in the post-epidemic period, in addition to traditional gift-giving, the trend of growing personal chocolate consumption will also continue. "We felt that this trend could be sustained and exploited, which is why we chose to expand our product line at this time and introduce more new flavors in China."
Next year, the network will be "doubled"
Back to the Blue Jar Cookie. The biggest boost that "new owner" Ferrero can bring undoubtedly includes channel expansion.
Up to now, the sales area of Blue Can Cookies is mainly concentrated in South China and surrounding markets that are radiated by Hong Kong. According to XiaoDian, the earliest, the blue can was exported to the mainland market through Hong Kong, China, and then in 2015, the Blue Can Jinbao (Shanghai) Management Co., Ltd. was established in Shanghai, responsible for product sales, which was wholly owned by the Danish Qixin Blue Jar Cookie (Hong Kong) Co., Ltd.
Therefore, in terms of regional expansion, the focus of the blue tank at the moment is to enter the market that has not been touched before. Zhang Deng said that Ferrero, which has entered the Chinese market for a longer time and has a more perfect channel layout, will help Blue Tank to open up new areas and markets.
"In the short term, the biggest growth driver for our blue can is to use Ferrero's online and offline channels to lay out our products more extensively and deeply." She told the snack generation.
According to Ferrero, through the organic integration and coordinated operation of the two sides, it is expected that in 2021, the number of stores covered by blue cans across the country will "double".
XiaoShidai learned from Ferrero that in order to better seize channel opportunities, the company also has a "big move": expanding the original internal e-commerce team into a new "e-commerce/new retail" team, and also establishing a new "digital acceleration and transformation" team, the latter is more focused on big data analysis.
"This year, Ferrero China has carried out the integration of online and offline teams, as well as the merger of blue can online business, and the integration is expected to play a greater business driving force." Ferrero's relevant person in charge told Xiaoshidai that this new framework has been built since last year, and it has been fully set up at the beginning of this year, and it has been used during the epidemic.
The change also brought real growth for Ferrero China. According to EC Dataway, in September 2020, ferrero's online sales in the chocolate category jumped to the top of the industry for the first time (Note: only refers to FERRERO, excluding blue cans).
Ferrero has 8 new products debuting at this year's Expo
"Our team also serves Blue Can, including the future development of its O2O business." said the above-mentioned person in charge. In addition, she mentioned that blue cans are currently more laid out in modern channels, "in the future we will also enter more convenience store channels." ”
For now, this synergy is more behind the scenes, and from the consumer's point of view, the two companies are still operating independently. For example, on the Tmall platform, you won't see products with blue cans in the Ferrero flagship store, and vice versa.
"The impact of the epidemic is actually dangerous, and we can use this stage to accelerate some strategic adjustments." Zhang Lantern indicated to the small food generation.
Growth has picked up this year
Despite the impact of the epidemic this year, Zhang Deng told XiaoShidai that Danish blue can cookies are still confident of achieving "double-digit growth" in the Chinese market and accelerating over the previous year.
"Last year, our sales were about 400 million yuan, a slight increase over the previous year. This year, we hope to achieve double-digit growth. She said. According to reports, at present, China is the world's largest market for Danish blue can cookies, accounting for more than half of sales.
China is also the fastest growing market for packaged sweets in the world. According to Euromonitor International data, at present, the market value of China's packaging sweets market will be close to 41 billion euros, ranking second in the world after the United States, but the Chinese market is the fastest growing in the world, and is expected to surpass the United States and become the world's first in 5 years.
For the long-term development in China, the company has just cleared an "obstacle".
Recently, the Beijing Intellectual Property Court's Civil Judgment ruled that the Danish Qixin Blue Can Company won the unfair competition dispute with Youyijia (Shanghai) Food Trading Co., Ltd. (Crown Cookies China Import Distributor). At this point, the six-year-long Danish Blue Jar indicted Crown Cookie Unfair Competition Dispute case finally came to an end.
The judgment pointed out that according to the investigation, the "place of origin" or "country or region of origin" of Crown Cookie products was Indonesia, and there was a false element in the advertisement of Youyijia in newspapers and e-commerce websites that crown cookie products originated in Denmark.
"This is not only meaningful for Blue Can, but also for the protection of consumer rights, who have the right to know what kind of product can be called a real Danish cookie." Zhang Deng said, "We believe that cookie products originating in Denmark are not only a symbol of a category, but also a guarantee of high product quality. ”
Zhang Deng told XiaoDian that before the blue can less communication with consumers about the selling points of these products, the future will be more meticulous in consumer education. "For example, communicating our product formulations and origins. I think this is also one of the core competitive advantages of Danish Blue Jar Cookies. She said.