An ice cream brand freezer displayed by a supermarket. B02-B03 Edition Photography/Guo Tie, Chief Reporter of Beijing News
The ice cream products sold by a chain convenience store in Beijing are clearly priced.
"Moqiao" became the product of ice cream in online celebrity this year.
As the weather turns hot, ice cream and ice cream are "opened" in an all-round way, and a cold drink war is on the verge. Last year, the "ice cream assassin" caused a storm due to high prices and missing labels. Will it make a comeback this year? The Beijing News reporter recently visited 10 retail stores in Beijing, and all the businesses clearly marked the price. At the same time, ice cream and ice cream gradually return to rationality in pricing and taste innovation, and 3 yuan-5 yuan price has become the mainstream. However, there are still ultra-high-priced products above 15 yuan in the market. Merchants are more cautious in choosing, and some have stopped cooperating with some high-priced brands this year.
According to industry observation, offline channels have narrowed in the past two years, and consumers have turned to cost-effective products, which has led to fierce competition in the ice cream market this year. There is a saying in the market that "the one who gets the freezer wins the world". The head brand firmly occupies the stock freezer resources and increases the channel investment and service, which makes the latecomers walk hard. High-end chain convenience channels have become a gathering place for high-priced ice cream because of limited freezer resources and high entrance fees.
Market visit
Improvement of pricing problem
In order to know whether the phenomenon of "ice cream assassin" still exists, the Beijing News reporter recently visited 10 retail stores in Beijing, including 4 supermarket chains, 2 convenience stores, 1 community supermarket, 1 milk station wholesale point, 1 imported goods store and 1 fresh market. It was found that all the merchants clearly marked the prices of ice cream and ice cream products, and two merchants who did not set price tips last year also made improvements. Among them, Tiancheng Baolv Huashi Store, a vegetable direct store in Tianzhen County, Shanxi Province, has posted product price tags on the side of the freezer, and homes and supermarkets located in Huashi Street have also posted handwritten cold drink price lists above the freezer.
In four large supermarkets, Shuntianfu, Wumei, Yonghui and Boxma Xiansheng, the mechanical price tags of ice cream and ice cream products are generally lined up along the upper and lower edges of the freezer, and the labels correspond to the products roughly, but they cannot be aligned one by one. The Beijing News reporter randomly selected one or two cold drink products for testing, and the corresponding price tag could be found within dozens of seconds. In Box Horse Fresh Life, consumers can also scan the QR code on the freezer to check the price.
In chain convenience stores such as 7-ELEVEN and Convenience Bee, merchants generally use the combination of machine price tag and graphic price tag. Among them, 7-ELEVEN Flower Market Store adopts the form of a freezer with an upper vertical cabinet and a lower horizontal cabinet. Most of the vertical cabinets are cup-filled, bowl-filled and bagged cold drinks, which is convenient for commodity display and can be aligned with arrival labels. Last year, the price tag of cold drinks in the store of Convenience Bee Zhengdong International Building was placed on the shelf above the freezer, so it was impossible to align the arrival tag. This year, a color graphic price tag was printed to facilitate consumers to check the price.
Compared with supermarkets and convenience stores, the price of ice cream in community supermarkets, wholesale outlets and imported goods pavilions is presented in more diversified ways, including machine-printed price tags, handwritten price tags, graphic price tags, and centralized price tags for products in the same price range. In an imported goods hall of Chongwenmen New World Store, in addition to putting a machine price tag on the edge of the freezer, merchants also put a large-size price tag on each ice cream package. For example, an ice cream package cover in Yili Zhenxi is labeled with "Ili White Peach Oolong 9 yuan/Box", and the Russian imported ice cream "Walrus Milk Tank" is labeled with "12 yuan/Zhi". In addition, some cold drink products also printed the suggested retail price directly on the packaging, such as Zhong Xuegao’s Youzhi black tea ice cream.
There are still high-priced products.
However, although the price tag problem has obviously improved, high-priced products have not disappeared.
From the price distribution of different channels, the overall price of cold drinks in chain convenience stores is the highest. Among the 40 ice cream and ice cream products randomly counted by the Beijing News reporter in a store in 7-ELEVEN, only one is below 5 yuan, 18 are at the price of 5 yuan-10 yuan, and 21 are at the price of 10 yuan, accounting for 52.5%. Among the 38 cold drink products randomly counted by Convenience Bee Store No.1, only 3 are below 5 yuan, 17 are with 5 yuan-10 yuan price, and 18 are above 10 yuan price, accounting for about 47.37%.
There are many high-priced "assassins" whose prices exceed those of 15 yuan. For example, in some convenience store channels, the price of Dove light cheese dark chocolate crispy ice cream strawberry flavor (62g) is 18.9 yuan/bag, the price of Mars’ m&m’s milk flavor ice cream (70g) is 18.9 yuan/box, and the price of Zhong Xuegao strawberry white chocolate ice cream (75g) reaches 22 yuan/piece.
The number of low-priced products with a single price below 3 yuan has obviously increased in community shops, cold drinks wholesale and ordinary supermarkets, and the products with a single price in the 3 yuan-5 yuan price band have become the mainstream. For example, in the price list of 73 cold drinks in a community supermarket, products below 3 yuan account for about 26%, products with 3 yuan-5 yuan price band account for about 53%, and products with 6 yuan-10 yuan price band account for about 21%, and no products above 10 yuan are found. Among the 36 cold drink products randomly counted in another fresh market, the proportion below 3 yuan is about 11%, the proportion of 3 yuan-5 yuan price band is about 61%, the proportion of 6 yuan-10 yuan price band is 25%, and only one product is above 10 yuan.
According to the owner of a community supermarket, the sales of high-priced ice cream above 10 yuan were not satisfactory last year, and this year it has suspended its cooperation with Zhong Xuegao. Candy giant Mars has extended its Dove chocolate and m&m’s beans to ice cream products, attracting many parents and young people to buy them, and the retail price is usually not lower than that of 15 yuan. "At present, such products are selling well, but many people actually don’t pay attention to the price, thinking that they have the same price as the same snacks, so they can only buy them when they check out."
"A box of 15 yuan is too pit!" On May 10, in a community supermarket in Fangshan District, Beijing, some parents sighed when they checked out, and then put the m&m’s ice cream in their children’s hands back into the freezer.
Industry observation
"The freezer is the battlefield"
On May 10th, with the school leaving in a nearby kindergarten, Boss Zhang’s community supermarket sold seven ice creams in just a few minutes. In a corner of the store, three freezers stand side by side, with the brand LOGO of Yili, Mengniu and Luxue respectively, as if to declare the "sovereignty" of each freezer.
According to Boss Zhang, the three freezers are put in by dealers of various brands, which will put forward certain requirements for the display of products in the freezers. For example, the main brand products need to reach a certain proportion, and some brands also require that there should be no competing products. The dealers regularly visit the stores and take photos to leave their certificates. "These freezers have been put into use for many years. It is not easy for other brands to put in freezers again. Good grandma and Zhong Xuegao came to look for them before, but there is such a big place in my store, including the freezer resources and space of Dashangchao. Limited."
Some media reported in July 2022 that Zhong Xuegao promoted the display of separate freezers in offline channels, so as to facilitate consumers to distinguish products. Lin Sheng, the founder of Zhong Xuegao, said in his written materials to the media in April this year that the offline sales ratio of Zhong Xuegao has been expanding from 2021 to 2022, and it has surpassed online sales. In 2023, product differentiation will be gradually carried out, hoping to use product innovation to plan channel strategies.
However, in the eyes of an industry insider, it is not easy for Zhong Xuegao to arrange ice cream freezers offline. "There is a slogan in the industry, which is called’ the freezer wins the world’. Before the 1990s, ice cream brands competed for the channel public freezer. Often, one brand posted the poster and left, and the next brand covered the poster. In the 1990 s, Heluxue took the lead in putting freezers in the channels, hoping to monopolize the counters and use them as brand propaganda positions. Since then, Yili and Mengniu have followed suit. "
Around 2015, brands such as Northeast Daban and Haoapo put some small freezers in newsstands, fruit stalls and community stores in Beijing, Shanghai and Ningbo, which did not take up too much space and took the initiative to bear the electricity bill, thus contributing to the popularity of brands such as Ruby and setting off a wave of small freezers.
"It used to be very common to use freezers to occupy resources. Now convenience stores and supermarkets are basically unable to enter." According to the insiders, putting in freezers requires a lot of cost, with the purchase cost of an island cabinet being about 2,000 yuan and that of a small freezer being about 1,800 yuan. If you put 500 freezers in the terminal of Beijing market, the purchase cost will be nearly one million. In addition, when ice cream counters enter offline channels, they usually have to pay entrance fees and point fees, and in winter, they have to consider whether to take back the warehouse, which generates another storage fee. Because supermarkets and convenience stores are mostly located in areas with "every inch of land and every inch of gold", there is not enough space to arrange multiple freezers. In particular, the resources of freezers in convenience stores are limited, and cold drink products are usually placed in baskets, so brands compete for freezer resources.
"The freezer is the battlefield, and the channel competition is the comprehensive strength." According to Zhang Yufeng, the project consulting manager of Shenyang Fengkeqi Food and Cold Drink R&D Institute, in the past few years, major brands were relatively lax in the management of freezers, and small brands could grab one or three baskets. Now some big brands have not allowed this to happen in their own counters. Due to fierce competition, major brands are also increasing their investment in channels and services, such as sending patrol clerks to Shangchao regularly to sort out freezers, subsidizing electricity bills and display fees. "What the channel needs most is comprehensive support such as publicity, materials, display, and sinking market maintenance. No matter how low the purchase price is, it will not work. Small brands gradually lose the right to speak in the channel, and more rely on high profits, product strength and online celebrity effect."
When entering the high-end convenience store chain, the cost pressure on the brand will be further increased. Zhang Yufeng had previously negotiated with a convenience store brand, and the answer was that each store had to pay 300 yuan’s "entrance fee", and it would cost more than 700,000 yuan to launch 2,500 stores. "Taken together, a category costs almost one million yuan. If the sales are not smooth within a certain period, it will be eliminated by the last channel, which is cruel. Therefore, many brands enter convenience stores not to sell sales, but to advertise and get traditional channels to promote products. "
High-priced ice cream declines
Under the influence of cost changes such as increased market investment, the prices of some ice cream and ice cream have risen.
In February this year, Heluxue started the "first shot" of the price increase in the cold drink market. Some distributors reported that the retail price of "Menglong" series rose in 1 yuan, and the "Cute" series rose in 0.5 yuan. The staff of Heluxue explained to the Beijing News reporter on April 3 this year that due to the influence of the external environment, some dealers have price adjustment behavior, but the overall price of the products is more rational. Menglong also had price reduction communication with dealers before "knocking on the cup".
Judging from the promotion, this year, the price band of new popsicle series of major brands has been raised from 1 yuan-2 yuan to 2 yuan-3 yuan, and the price band of new ice cream has jumped from 3 yuan-5 yuan to 5 yuan-7 yuan. For example, Shenyang Zhongjie Freezing Point has launched new products such as "Guofeng glutinous rice cake series" and "Zhongjie Daguo aerospace series" this year, and the terminal price is in 5 yuan-7 yuan. This year, Bright Cold Drink introduced "Bright X Zhengguanghe" orange juice popsicle with 3 yuan price belt and torch ice cream from 7.2 yuan. Zhong Xuegao, who has always taken the high-end route, introduced the channel pricing of 3.5 yuan Popsicle Sa’Saa, and at the same time laid out the dessert "Dansheng" with the price of 15 yuan-18 yuan.
"On the whole, the products above 8 yuan have gone up by 1 yuan, and the price of 3 yuan-5 yuan has gone up by 5 hairs. The products below 2 yuan dare not raise prices, but they can feel the weight shrinking in their hands. There are still many brands that raise prices by pushing new products. We are worried that customers will not recognize them and dare not enter. " Boss Zhang, who runs a community supermarket in Fangshan, Beijing, told the Beijing News reporter that the reason given by upstream dealers for product price adjustment is the rising cost.
According to the data of Ai Media Consulting, there are many reasons why ice cream is becoming more and more expensive, and the cost of raw materials is one of them. From 2008 to 2020, the cost of raw materials such as milk and whipped cream increased by about 80%. According to Manager He, the person in charge of a cold drink enterprise, cold drink dealers and distributors have changed from "small profits but quick turnover" to "big profits and less sales". "Basically, 2 yuan products started, and products above 5 yuan made quality and channels". In the past two years, convenience stores have introduced a number of online celebrity products with low cost, high gross profit and high price, which has also driven the overall price of the cold drink market to move up.
In fact, the price increase is not a new topic, and consumers’ attention to this phenomenon reached its climax in the "ice cream assassin" incident last year. However, according to Mr. Jin, the sales manager of a cold drink enterprise in Northeast China, there are not many high-priced new products above 10 yuan in the cold drink market this year, and the industry as a whole is returning to rationality in terms of product pricing and taste innovation.
"High-priced products with a price of more than ten yuan are not so popular at the terminal. This year, channel providers are more cautious, mainly depending on whether the product value is not worth it and whether consumers can pay the bill. Some head brand prices have been adjusted, mainly because the channel side is balancing costs and profits. What we see is that some products in some areas are raising prices, and the price increase is irregular. " According to Mr. Jin’s observation, the mainstream price band of circulation channels is still concentrated in 3 yuan-5 yuan this year. Due to the cost jump of channel fees and store opening fees, the prices of new products in the southern market are mostly in 5 yuan-8 yuan.
"The competition is fierce this year, reflecting that consumers tend to choose products with higher quality and price ratio." Ding-dong buys vegetables and purchases national ice cream. Guo Zhenyu told the Beijing News reporter that this year, the platform focuses on family clothes and pays more attention to price comparison. Influenced by last year’s "ice cream assassin" and the optimization and adjustment of channel products, Ding Dong stopped cooperation with some cold drink brands with ultra-high prices.
Classic taste regression
As far as product promotion is concerned, according to the law of previous years, cold drink enterprises will promote new products, hold investment fairs and arrange production from November to February of the following year. In March, major supermarkets will remove some quick-frozen pastry products to make room for cold drink products, which is called "opening cabinets".
According to brands and distributors, the sales of ice cream and ice cream terminals have been delayed this year due to the late temperature rise. However, considering the influence of high temperature caused by El Niñ o in the future and the driving of tourism, it is predicted that the sales of cold drinks will maintain a growth trend throughout the year, and the peak may come in July.
At present, the "Moqiao" category has set off the first wave of sales climax in the cold drink market this year. According to Zhang Yufeng’s understanding, "Moqiao" is a kind of ice cream which is innovated by adding chocolate beans on the basis of last year’s "Aoqiao". Since the popularity of the Internet, it has attracted various brands to follow suit. In a community supermarket in Fangshan, Beijing, the Beijing News reporter saw that brands such as Aoxue and Dehua have launched such products, and the retail price is around 5 yuan. Some customers bluntly bought them for their online celebrity attributes.
Zhong Xuegao told the Beijing News reporter that the ice cream market is basically in a state of full opening, especially in some cities with high temperatures, and several new products of Zhong Xuegao sell well. According to the data of Ding-Dong’s grocery shopping, the sales of platform ice cream in March and April this year increased by more than 100% year-on-year, and the sales volume in April doubled. In April this year, Box Horse’s ice cream sales increased by 70% month-on-month, and found that consumer behavior was more rational, paying more attention to the quality of commodity raw materials.
Product innovation tends to be rational, which is a major feature of this year’s ice cream market. Starting from the "Double Yellow Eggs" of Aoxue in 2018, various novel flavors such as lobster, Laoganma, stinky tofu and online celebrity ice cream emerged, and reached the peak in 2019. Since the end of 2020, the ice cream market has returned to the dessert attribute, and the exotic products have almost been wiped out, and this year is the same.
According to Mr. Jin, many cold drink companies are returning to big tastes such as chocolate and pulp milk this year. Bright Dairy also confirmed to the Beijing News reporter that a major trend in the market this year is the return of new and old brands to classic tastes, such as vanilla and chocolate.
Since November last year, Guo Zhenyu has been trying to eat new products with various flavors. As a result, only one or two of the 100 products can meet the needs of the public, and most of them are not eligible for re-purchase. Compared with the new taste, the classic tastes of several major brands, such as Dream Dragon Chocolate, Baxi Vanilla, Ili Qiaolezi, Bitter Coffee, etc., "all sell very well this year with a little operational support".
"Now is not an era of differentiation, but an era of Excellence. Many big brands are choosing a category to do better. SMEs want to make differentiated products, but because there is no brand power, the cost of market education is high, so the failure rate is also extremely high. " According to Zhang Yufeng’s analysis, the marketing effect of online celebrity products this year is greater than the product strength itself. "It has driven a market for a while before, but this time has slowed down".