Sparkling water 2.0 era - fighting

“If Yuanqi Forest transforms sparkling water and achieves a breakthrough in sales, it is defined as the sparkling water 1.0 era. Then domestic and foreign soft drink brands have joined the sparkling water market to ‘fight’, which can be defined as sparkling water. The 2.0 era."

In "The Devil Wears Prada" released in 2007, the first thing every day as a workplace rookie played by Anne Hathaway is to pour a glass of San Pellegrino sparkling water to the devil.

Fourteen years after the film was released, China’s soft drink market is once again in turmoil due to sparkling water.

On June 27, 2021, Nongfu Spring became the target of criticism due to the suspected use of white peaches produced in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan, where the nuclear leak occurred, and the stock price also plummeted. The products involved in this incident It's soda sparkling water.

Nongfu Spring Clarification did not use this product, but only developed the Dawn White Peach flavored drink. But it is undeniable that Nongfu Spring did use peaches produced in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan as a gimmick in its previous promotions.

Nongfu Spring soda and sparkling water was accused by netizens of being "Japanese-friendly" for its "hard imitation" of Japan. In the sparkling water market, the phenomenon of using Japanese elements as a breakthrough point for publicity has long existed. Yuanqi Forest is the biggest beneficiary, but it was also Yuanqi Forest that opened up the Chinese sparkling water market.

Sparkling water is the new blue ocean

In 2020 Tmall 618, Yuanqi Forest surpassed Coca-Cola and became the first place in the water beverage list. For the whole year of 2020, Yuanqi Forest’s total sales were nearly 3 billion yuan, of which sales of sparkling water were nearly 2.1 billion yuan.

Before Yuanqi Forest, international sparkling water brands had entered the Chinese market. However, due to price, taste, channels and other factors, no sparkling water had truly opened up the Chinese market. Domestic traditional soft drink companies such as Nongfu Spring and Wahaha have not made any achievements in the sparkling water market. In 2015, the retail sales of China’s sparkling water market were only 25 million yuan.

In Europe, sparkling water has long been a best-seller. According to statistics, 40% of European consumers prefer to drink sparkling water, especially in Germany, where sparkling water production accounts for as high as 78%.

In 2016, Yuanqi Forest launched its first sugar-free product, Rancha. However, under the attack of Tea Pi, Oriental Leaf and other tea drinks, Rancha’s performance was mediocre. During reflection and observation, Yuanqi Forest discovered the blue ocean in the red ocean beverage market—sparkling water.

Carbonated drinks have always been a big market in beverages, and sparkling water, which focuses on zero sugar, zero fat, and zero calories, can become a substitute for carbonated drinks in terms of taste. In addition, Yuanqi Forest uses The sugar substitute "erythritol" improves the taste of sparkling water and retains the sweetness. This product generated sales of over 100 million in 2019.

In order to open up a larger market, Yuanqi Forest is not stingy in advertising and marketing. Tang Binsen, founder of Yuanqi Forest, once said: "When we dare to create 2 billion yuan in revenue, we will spend 1.8 billion yuan on advertising." According to statistics, Yuanqi Forest's advertising investment in 2020 will be about 900 million yuan.

In 2020, Yuanqi Forest’s advertising has entered a state of pervasiveness. Online, as long as young people have access to variety shows, TV, Spring Festival Gala of Station B, Satellite TV Gala, Li Jiaqi's live broadcast room, Yuanqi Forest has spent heavily to acquire them.

Offline, Yuanqi Forest not only places Focus’ elevator TV posters, but also dominates street advertisements and buildings in some crowded places, such as Gongti North Road across Sanlitun in Beijing. Exterior advertising.

Seize the younger generation’s demand for “healthy” and “good-looking” drinks, use “sugar-free sparkling water” as a sales breakthrough, use pervasive advertising to increase visibility, and support Yuanqi Forest Sparkling Water from various parties. In 2020, it achieved revenue of over 2 billion, with performance increasing by approximately 270% year-on-year.

Such achievements also make Tang Binsen more confident in the beverage market. At the dealer conference in December 2020, Tang Binsen proposed a sales target of 7.5 billion yuan in 2021.

How to achieve the goal of 7.5 billion, further increasing the sales of sparkling water is an inevitable choice, but this is not easy, because the blue ocean of sparkling water has long been targeted by many beverage brands.

The competition has begun

Forward-looking data shows that the overall domestic sparkling water market size is expected to reach 32 billion yuan by 2025. In addition, the threshold for making sparkling water is not high, and "erythritol" is not a patent of Yuanqi Forest. Therefore, sparkling water with a large market and low threshold has become a "must battleground for military strategists."

Traditional soft drink brands represented by Nongfu Spring and Wahaha, new tea brands represented by Heytea and Naixue Tea, as well as milk drinks, beer, and OEMs have all joined in to seize the sparkling water market. in action.

Among many brands, Nongfu Spring has made the most fierce attack, and behind the fierceness is the anxiety that its total revenue in 2020 will fall by 4.79% year-on-year.

Whether Nongfu Spring can seize the sparkling water market has become one of the keys to maintaining revenue.

Beginning in April 2021, Nongfu Spring has successively launched soda sparkling water in four flavors: Dawn White Peach, Hinata Summer Orange, Mojito, and Harumi Glycerine. In the marketing of 0 sugar, 0 fat, 0 On the basis of the card, 0 potassium sorbate is also proposed (potassium sorbate is an organic acid preservative).

Along with the launch of new products, a secret operation has also begun. A convenience store owner revealed that if you put a box of Nongfu Spring sparkling water in the Yuanqi Forest Freezer, you can get a display fee of 30 yuan.

In the event called "God of Wealth from Heaven" launched by Nongfu Spring, as long as merchants put Nongfu Spring's sparkling water into the freezer of Yuanqi Forest, they will get a free bottle for every bottle they put in. The price is 3 Yuan’s Changbaixue mineral water, with a maximum limit of 48 bottles.

Putting your own sparkling water into other people’s freezers is the latest and most urgent task for Nongfu Spring salesmen this summer.

For the sake of sales, Nongfu Spring is also very generous to its salesmen. According to internal regulations, for every box of sparkling water sold, the salesperson can get a commission of 1 yuan, while for a box of mineral water, the commission is only 5 cents.

Price is also an important chess piece for Nongfu Spring to seize the market. For example, next to the 5 yuan bottle of Yuanqi Forest, Nongfu Spring is placed for 4.9 yuan; in convenience stores with higher prices, the second product is launched at half price. activities; actively participate in discount activities on e-commerce platforms, etc.

In order to increase product visibility and sales, Nongfu Spring also invited Zhu Yilong to endorse its products. Idol endorsement and fans footing the bill have become standard. In a product review on an e-commerce platform, Zhu Yilong's fans posted their orders one after another.

Although there was an overturn when marketing Fukushima White Peach, it does not mean that Nongfu Spring Sparkling Water has been sentenced to death. At present, it seems that Nongfu Spring, which has channels and is not short of money, is still a strong competitor in the sparkling water market.

In addition to Nongfu Spring, beverage giants such as Wahaha, Coca-Cola, and PepsiCo are also not idle.

Kellyone, a brand owned by Wahaha, launched a soda sparkling water called "Angry Bobo" in August last year. In June this year, Wang Yibo was officially announced as the brand spokesperson.

Coca-Cola not only launched bottled and canned sparkling water, but also launched hard seltzer sparkling wine. On supermarket display shelves, Coca-Cola sparkling water is also placed in the most conspicuous position; Pepsi-Cola bubly sparkling water, endorsed by Xiao Zhan, is also a force that cannot be ignored; in addition, the milk drink brand Yili also launched sparkling milk, and Mengniu launched Lactic acid bacteria sparkling water.

Brands such as Mingren, Berry, Watsons, Perrier, Ripe Fruit, Qingquanchushan, and Qingqi have also joined the "fight" for sparkling water. These brands are displayed online or offline. Showed considerable strength. Previously. Jianlibao, which is a OEM for Yuanqi Forest, has also launched its own sparkling water product - "Microbubble".

In the face of many powerful competitors, in order to stabilize its market advantage and achieve the goal of 7.5 billion, Yuanqi Forest has built its own factories, continued to develop new products, vigorously laid out freezers, occupied a large area of ??display areas, Exploring overseas markets, sponsoring variety shows, and inviting front-line celebrities to endorse this boxing combo.

Offense is the best defense

Internally, Yuanqi Forest focuses on building its own factories and developing new products.

In June this year, Yuanqi Forest and Dujiangyan successfully "joined hands". It is reported that Yuanqi Forest plans to invest 1 billion yuan in Dujiangyan City to build an industry-travel integrated beverage production base and a western research and development, sales and settlement headquarters.

Before "joining hands" with Dujiangyan, Yuanqi Forest's "forest factories" had already been built in Chuzhou, Anhui, Zhaoqing, Guangdong, Xiqing, Tianjin, and Xianning, Hubei. After signing the contract with Dujiangyan, Yuanqi Forest completed a large-scale layout covering East China, South China, North China, Central China and Southwest China.

The five self-built factories can help Yuanqi Forest expand regional production capacity, strengthen quality control, reduce logistics and warehousing costs; complete new product testing and process optimization more efficiently, and provide C2M (C2M means consumer demand Drive factory production) customization to provide better support; further enhance data-driven intelligent manufacturing capabilities.

It is reported that the self-built factory has allowed Yuanqi Forest to shorten the time from receiving orders to retail terminals from 14 days to 7 days.

Tang Binsen, the boss of Yuanqi Forest, said that 2021 will be a big year for Yuanqi Forest’s products. At present, 95% of Yuanqi Forest’s products have not been launched, and the company’s R&D expenses and R&D personnel will also be 3% of those in 2020. times.

This year, in addition to further enriching the taste of soda sparkling water, Yuanqi Forest also launched a new product "Full Score Micro Bubbles" and invited Ni Ni to endorse the product. "Alien", a brand of Yuanqi Forest, has launched Alien energy sparkling water, with sales exceeding 10,000.

Externally, Yuanqi Forest continues to make efforts in four aspects: building freezers, displaying in shopping malls, going overseas, and increasing variety shows.

Although Yuanqi Forest is an upstart, it cannot avoid the old path of putting it in the freezer. At the end of 2020, Tang Binsen proposed a plan to launch 80,000 smart freezers in the spring of 2021. A large part of the 7.5 billion sales task depends on freezers. In addition, Yuanqi Forest also hopes to rely on freezers to record sales data, improve supply chain efficiency, save management costs, and feed back product production and research and development.

Tang Binsen advocates the "domestic creation-overseas copy" model, and Yuanqi Forest is also trying this path. In order to further expand overseas, Yuanqi Forest won the Singapore HCS Health Label in July 2020, and also hired Liu Zhen to accelerate its overseas expansion plan. According to information on the recruitment website, Yuanqi Forest is currently recruiting talents in overseas market digital marketing, international public relations leaders, international product managers, etc.

In order to increase brand awareness, Yuanqi Forest also sponsored the female music competition reality show "Explosion Stage" this year.

Yuanqi Forest is meeting challenges from all parties with an aggressive attitude. After major brands "joined the war", the "fight" in the domestic sparkling water market has officially begun.

Text | Chen Jiejie

Produced by "Modern Advertising" magazine