1. Present situation of candy industry
Looking at the whole candy industry, the overall market demand is on a slow upward trend, but the statistical results of market growth in recent years show that the growth rate is on a downward trend. In 2008, the annual growth rate was about 10- 12%, while in 2007 it was about 13- 15%.
Each candy brand occupies the market by virtue of its category advantages. At present, there is no leading brand with comprehensive advantages, and it only leads the way in the segmentation of the candy market. For example, Xu Fuji, represented by crisp sugar; The white rabbit, represented by toffee, experienced a decline in performance in 2008 due to the melamine incident, but after entering 2009, the market has gradually picked up. ）； Alps represented by hard candy; Yake v 9 represented by functional candy; Green arrow represented by gum sugar. It is the competitive trend that the category of candy industry is constantly subdivided and extended, which makes the current candy industry have been divided from the traditional categories of hard candy, soft candy, milk candy and crisp candy, and gradually transformed and expanded into more subdivided functional candy (rich in vitamins, etc.), gum candy and other emerging leisure candy categories.
Under the trend of continuous classification, the candy industry presents the following characteristics.
1) firstly, the brand competition in the candy industry is increasing year by year, and the brand investment of candy enterprises is increasing year by year; Secondly, the leading brands in sub-categories are constantly challenged by followers.
2) Faced with the change of consumer demand in the candy market and the diversified development of snack food, the market share of traditional candy will inevitably decline in the future. Candy enterprises with traditional candy as their main business will look for new products or categories to support the new round of competition, which will lead to a more detailed market.
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3) With the help of its category function appeal and product focus strategy, emerging candy brands continue to realize the category cultivation and exclusive rise of market segments, and set off the market climax of new categories such as functional candy, chocolate, gum-based candy and leisure candy in the next stage.
4) The concentration of brands in the traditional candy market is relatively high. With the continuous segmentation of the market, the brand structure of emerging candy brands is temporarily in dynamic change.
2. Brand status quo
Brand competition is basically based on the main product brand to promote the expansion of other categories, and the competition concentration is high in a single field. At present, the main product segmentation of candy brand categories is shown in the following table.
(Main product) Chocolate butterscotch, hard candy, soft candy, chewing gum, mints, functional sugar, gel sugar.
Leading brand Dove White Rabbit Alpine Want Want Xu Fuji Wrigley Hershey Jacques V9 Wangzai
Cadbury Golden Monkey Yoha Yake Ma Dajie Lotte Golden Voice Treasure Beads are really many.
Hao Shi wo wo Shang Hao Jia Hao Li you
Ferrero
Di Chin
1) Chocolate category: 1, the industry concentration is high, and the market is in an oligopoly state. At present, Dove, Cadbury, Hershey and Di Chin have occupied more than 70% of the chocolate market in China, and the market is in an oligopoly state. 2. Competing enterprises are divided into three camps: the first camp is foreign brands represented by Dove, Cadbury, Hershey and Ferriero, which occupy most of the high-end chocolate market; The second camp is a joint venture brand represented by Di Chin and Kaiser Vuitton, which dominates the mid-range chocolate market; The third camp is represented by local brands such as Shenfeng and Golden Monkey, occupying the main share of the low-grade chocolate market.
2) category of toffee: 1, white rabbit is the top sales champion, and the competition for the second brand of toffee is extremely fierce. The main competitive brands are Yake, Alpes, Youha, Golden Monkey, Wow, Jinguan and other enterprises. 2. The future development trend of milk candy is high-end, nutritious and green high-tech, accounting for 24% of the candy market capacity.
3) Hard candy category: mainly regional brands, the first brand in the hard candy market at present should be Shanghaojia, followed by Yake's thick sandwich fruit hard candy, Golden Monkey, Golden Crown and other brands. Hard candy category is estimated to account for 22% of the candy market capacity.
4) Soft candy category: The market capacity is huge, and there is no leading brand in the market for the time being. Want Want is a little better. Yake's American Chewing is closely followed, but many manufacturers who follow up mainly focus on children with 25G---30G (Di Chin, Chengdu Tiaotiaolong, Xizhilang), which is estimated to account for 10.5% of the candy market capacity.
5) Crispy sugar market: the entry threshold is low, the brand concentration is not high, and the product homogeneity is serious. The pattern of Xu Fuji in the south and Sister Ma in the north has taken shape.
6) Functional candy: It is an extension of traditional candy brands to high-end product categories. With the further maturity of functional product market cultivation and the further intensification of market competition, the differentiated operation of various candy brands is strengthened. The competition in the functional candy market will become increasingly fierce. According to the data analysis of the candy market by the National Bureau of Statistics in 2003, the market share of functional candy has gradually approached that of traditional candy. In the next five years, it will surpass the market share of traditional candy, and the current sales share is estimated at 35%. The market share of each candy brand (Yake 22.5%, Hershey 18.3%, Jinsizi1.2%, Haolian 8.7%, Qingzui 8. 1% Datang 6%, Zhenbao Beads 4.8%, Wow 3.
7) Gum-type candy: 1, the market growth rate has increased steadily. 2. Brands are mainly those of foreign-invested enterprises. At present, the proportion of candy sales is estimated at 20%; The market share of each brand is attached (Green Arrow 49.9%, Yida 22.6%, Lotte 9.7%, Beijie 3.4%, Jialuxian 2.9%, Feilei 2.6%, Bohr 2.3%, Bibabu 2. 1%, others1.7.
3. Domestic status
With its abundant capital and brand advantages accumulated for many years, foreign candy brands occupy a major position in the traditional candy industry. Domestic brands, on the other hand, are more limited to regional survival and extensive management, and their products are homogeneous and their brand demands are positioning defects, so their performance in the market is unremarkable. Until 2003, marked by Yake's appeal for the concept of vitamin V9 and the spread of CCTV brand media endorsement, the candy industry successively spent a lot of money on advertising, celebrity endorsements followed suit, the sugar and wine party was sharp-edged, the monopoly store was the first, and CCTV's bidding was very successful ... All kinds of extraordinary measures of candy companies such as Xu Fuji, Yake and Golden Monkey made the China candy industry, which had been silent for ten years, set off a burst of enthusiasm. Since then, domestic candy brands have broken the existing competition rules and reorganized the market competition pattern by focusing on categories, demanding product functions and intensive cultivation of terminal outlets.
1) Yake Candy, which is dominated by the new generation, began to rise in the candy market with "Yake V9 functional products+celebrity endorsement+CCTV brand media endorsement communication". In August 2003, Zhou Xun, a popular actress in China, became the image spokesperson of Fujian Yake V9 vitamin candy with a price of 7 figures, and Fujian Yake became the first enterprise in the industry to use celebrity endorsement. Taking advantage of advertising, Yake quickly entered thousands of stores, supermarkets and convenience stores headed by Hualian, Lianhua, Agriculture, Industry and Commerce, Metro and Lotus. The estimated sales volume has exceeded 10 billion.
2) The golden monkey, which is dominated by the older generation, quickly achieved a comprehensive market sprint and breakthrough in the traditional candy industry in China through the strategy of "promoting new cylindrical toffee products+advertising communication+candy specialty stores". Golden Monkey established the first candy store in Jinan, Shandong Province in 2003 10. Since then, Golden Monkey has accelerated the pace of building a "point" and built nearly 3,000 candy counters and shops in the store. On the one hand, a large number of outlets have been formed, saving terminal expenses. On the other hand, through the joint promotion of air and ground, the brand image of Golden Monkey has been greatly enhanced and the product consumption groups have been expanded. The annual sales volume of golden monkey candy reached1300 million.
4. Foreign brands increase their offensive efforts.
1) Hard candy, which is dominated by the best, began to erode the candy market, and the terminal retail price of quantitative packaging was less than that of 3 yuan per 120g.
2) Many foreign brands have launched an impact on the low-end market with large packages and low-standard prices, so that consumers can form a concept of "I can eat less sugar, but I should eat good sugar".
3) Take Alpine, Hsu Fu Kee and other brands as examples, you can basically see them in all major terminals (BC supermarkets) in counties and towns, and consumers have a high awareness.
4) With the improvement of consumption level, chocolate gradually penetrated and encroached on the candy market, especially foreign chocolate.
5. Consumers pay more and more attention to brands.
1) Consumers' brand awareness has been strengthened. The brand awareness of candy consumption brands is strengthened, and the brand loyalty of single-product candy consumption is higher. With the strengthening of brand promotion of foreign candy, the brand awareness of domestic candy industry will be further promoted and enhanced. From this, it will also indicate that the competition of domestic candy brands will become the focus of market competition.
2) the domestic brand is divided into one party. At present, most domestic brands still rely on their respective regional resource advantages to carve up and occupy regional markets, and basically the strong brands in the national market have not yet appeared. In the process of development, domestic candy enterprises have been in a tepid situation, and there are a large number of candy enterprises. According to incomplete statistics, there are more than 2,000 candy enterprises in China, including 230 enterprises with annual sales of more than 5 million yuan. In the ranking of "Top Ten" in the candy market, the top seven are all foreign-funded or Sino-foreign joint ventures.
3) Foreign brands enter the market strongly. Foreign brands in the existing market occupy a dominant position in the market by virtue of their brand and product advantages. When international capital and foreign brands once again set their sights on the traditional candy and functional candy market in China, it will add insult to injury to the living environment of domestic brands. At present, in the ranking of "Top Ten" in the candy market, the top seven are all foreign-funded or Sino-foreign joint ventures, and the candy industry is in a grim situation of domestic troubles and foreign invasion. On the one hand, some foreign-funded enterprises that entered the China market in the early days, such as American Wrigley and Effen, and Italian Bufandi, used their strong financial strength and mature brand management experience to eat into the candy consumption market in China. On the other hand, domestic competition is becoming increasingly fierce: the surging momentum of Xu Fuji's continuous growth, the new forces in the south, such as Yake and Jinguan, which came from behind, are approaching; At the same time, Golden Monkey, a state-level township enterprise group with assets of more than 500 million, and brands such as Guanshengyuan and Sister Ma, established state-owned enterprises, are struggling to compete. In addition, with the further development of the functional candy market, international capital has intervened in the chewing gum market in China with xylitol as the breakthrough point. Lotte and Haoliyou tore a crack in xylitol chewing gum, which made multinational companies including Cadbury, Bufandi, Nestle, Warner (USA) and Liv (Europe) salivate at China's 3 billion chewing gum market.
4) The structure of candy products will be more subdivided, and candy enterprises will pay more attention to the different demands of product functions. In addition, because the technical threshold of candy is relatively low, the homogenization trend will be quite serious, and it is difficult to truly distinguish between brands, and the road to building candy brands is becoming more and more difficult.
5) The brand promotion of candy enterprises will pay more attention to the spread of branded media. The existing advertising strategy in the candy industry has also changed greatly. From the previous regional media to brand media such as CCTV, domestic candy enterprises, represented by Yake and Golden Monkey, launched an attack on CCTV's "sugar-coated cannonball", which further accelerated the competition among brands.
6. The importance of packaging for candy
1) The role of packaging is often underestimated, but it plays an important role in promoting products to customers in stores. Only 20% of the products in the market are advertised, and the remaining 80% must sell themselves and shout "buy me" to customers in the shopping mall. Therefore, attractive packaging design is essential. If it has a unique appearance, it will further help it attract customers' attention on the shelves. Packaging and advertising for many years, the fact that packaging and advertising are an important combination has been ignored by people. For example, for those advertised products, packaging plays an important role in helping customers recognize the products they want. This is why Professor Klaus Brandmeyer of Brandmeyer brand consulting company strongly advocates the use of packaging to strengthen advertising. According to Professor Brandmeyer, advertising without products or packaging pictures is just a waste of money.
2) If consumers have no idea about the packaging of candy products, how can they find it in a large number of goods in the supermarket? If consumers don't even know what kind of packaged products to look for, then such commercial advertisements are obviously unsuccessful. The experience of cosmetic products shows how important packaging is for brand products. Although consumers swear that they can smell their favorite perfume from thousands of products, in an experiment in which all the packages of these products were removed, consumers could not find their own perfume. However, the taste of perfume and perfume bottle must match. A rose-shaped summer perfume cannot be simply put in a traditional perfume bottle in chanel no.5. Never underestimate consumers' awareness of packaging. An important reason why many perfumes are bought is that they have elegant perfume bottles.
3) Problems to be considered in packaging design It is easy to underestimate how many technical secrets a successful packaging concept needs: in addition to a good understanding of the environment and placement of products on the shelf, it also requires basic design concepts, three-dimensional imagination of packaging, and special possibilities on the shelf. The success stories of other companies are often copied. But it is not a good idea to put a yellow soap box next to another brand's yellow soap box on a shelf. In the era of decreasing salespeople, retailers should also increase the professional knowledge needed to deal with these products and packaging. Companies that take these factors into account may use less extravagant packaging. If the manufacturer who uses trapezoidal packaging for sanitary napkins (hoping to distinguish them from other adjacent products) knows that retailers may not place these products correctly, then it may suggest that the packaging designer should design a different shape, but at the same time keep it appropriate. Or put the product in a tray, which can ensure that it can always be placed correctly. Compared with the widely accepted views or the suggestions and regulations made by the packaging law, the role of packaging is much greater.
4) In particular, in the past few years, the packaging of some products has also been beautifully designed, which is in sharp contrast with the packaging purism in the 1980s. For a specific application, people are also trying to find the ideal packaging material, rather than just using cardboard or glass. Today, packaging is more about conveying a way of life. As a signal of the spirit of the times, packaging also shows where a society is. Novel materials, shapes and designs give a brand a unique look and feel. On the contrary, a depressed atmosphere will not lead the brand to success, but will certainly hinder the diversified development of packaging appearance.