1. Present situation of candy industry
Looking at the whole candy industry, the overall market demand is slowly rising, but the statistical results of market growth in recent years show that the growth rate is declining. The annual growth rate was about 10- 12% in 2008, and it was about 13- 15% in 2007, which was 3-5% lower than that in 2007.
Candy brands occupy the market by virtue of category advantages. At present, there is no leading brand with comprehensive advantages, only leading 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 due to the melamine incident in 2008, but after entering 2009, the market 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 categories of candy industry are continuously subdivided and extended, which makes the current candy industry have been divided from traditional hard candy, soft candy, milk candy, crisp candy and other categories, and gradually transformed and expanded to more subdivided functional candy (rich in vitamins, etc.). ), chewing gum candy and other emerging leisure candy categories.
Under the trend of continuous classification, the candy industry presents the following characteristics.
1) First, the brand competition in the candy industry has intensified year by year, and the brand investment of candy enterprises has increased year by year; Secondly, the leading brands of sub-categories are constantly challenged by followers.
2) Faced with the changes in consumer demand in the candy market and the diversified development of snack foods, 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 more detailed market.
This article was published in vPro |boraid|
3) With the help of its category function appeal and product focus strategy, emerging candy brands have continuously realized 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) Brand concentration in 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 brands to promote the expansion of other categories, and the concentration of competition in a single field is high. At present, the main product breakdown of candy brand categories is shown in the following table.
(Main products) Chocolate toffee, hard candy, soft candy, chewing gum, mints, functional candy and gel candy.
Leading brand Dove White Rabbit Alpine Want Want Xu Fuji Arrow Hershey Jacques V9 Wangzai
Cadbury golden monkey Yoha Yake, Sister Ma, there are a lot of lotte golden voice pearls.
Shi Hao Wo Wo Shangjia Haohao Li You
Ferrero
Di Chin
1) Chocolate: 1. Industry concentration is high, and the market is in an oligopoly state. At present, Dove, Cadbury, Hershey and Di Chin occupy more than 70% of the chocolate market in China, and the market is in an oligopoly. 2. Competing enterprises are divided into three camps: the first camp is foreign brands represented by Dove, Cadbury, Hershey and Ferrero, 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 Kamikaze and Golden Monkey, occupying the main share of the low-grade chocolate market.
2) Category of toffee: 1. The sales volume of white rabbits is the first, and the competition for the second brand of toffee is extremely fierce. The main competitive brands are Yake, Alpine, Youha, Golden Monkey, Woohoo, Golden Crown 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: regional brands are the main brands. At present, the first brand in the hard candy market should be Shang Haojia, followed by Yake's thick sandwich fruit hard candy, golden monkey, golden crown and other brands. Hard sugar is estimated to account for 22% of the candy market capacity.
4) Soft sweets: The market capacity is huge, and there is no leading brand in the market for the time being. Want Want is better. Yake's Mei Chew followed closely, but many manufacturers followed mainly children of 25G-30G (Di Chin, Chengdu Tiaotiaolong, Xizhilang), accounting for 10.5% of the candy market capacity.
5) Crispy sugar market: low entry threshold, low brand concentration and serious product homogeneity. Xu Fuji in the south, the pattern of Ma Dajie 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 the market cultivation of functional products and the further intensification of market competition, the differentiated management of various candy brands has been strengthened. The competition in the functional candy market will become more and more 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%, Qingkou 8. 1% Datang 6%, Baozhu 4.8%, Wow 3.6.
7) Chewing gum candy: 1. The market growth rate has steadily increased. 2. Brands are mainly brands of foreign-funded 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%, North Street 3.4%, Jialuxian 2.9%, greatly 2.8%, Ferrer 2.6%, Boer 2.3%, Bibibu 2. 1%, others1.7.
3. Family status
With abundant funds 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, product homogeneity, brand appeal is positioning defects, and their performance in the market is mediocre. Until 2003, marked by Yake's appeal for the concept of vitamin V9 and the spread of CCTV brand media endorsements, the candy industry spent a lot of money on advertising, celebrity endorsements followed suit, sugar and wine parties were sharp-edged, monopoly stores were the first, and CCTV's bidding was very successful ... All kinds of unconventional measures by candy companies such as Xu Fuji, Yake and Golden Monkey set off a boom in China's candy industry, which had been silent for ten years. 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 intensively cultivating 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 endorsements+CCTV brand media endorsements". In August, 2003, Zhou Xun, a popular actress in China, became the image spokesperson of Fujian Yake V9 vitamin candy at a price of 7 figures, and Fujian Yake became the first enterprise in the industry to use celebrity endorsements. Taking advantage of advertising, Yake quickly entered thousands of shops, supermarkets and convenience stores headed by Hualian, Lianhua, Agriculture, Industry and Commerce, Metro and Lotus at the beginning of the year. Estimated sales have exceeded 1 100 million.
2) Golden Monkey, which is dominated by the older generation, quickly achieved a full-scale 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 its first candy store in Jinan, Shandong Province on June 5438+ 10, 2003. Since then, the 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 are formed, which saves the terminal cost. On the other hand, through the joint promotion of the air and the ground, the brand image of the golden monkey has been greatly enhanced and the product consumption groups have been expanded. The annual sales of golden monkey candy reached 654.38+03 billion.
4. Foreign brands increase their offensive.
1) Good hard candy began to eat into the candy market, and the terminal retail price of quantitative packaging was less than that of 3 yuan/120g.
2) Many foreign brands have launched an impact on the low-end market with large packaging and low-standard prices, so that consumers can form the concept of "I can eat less sugar, but I want to eat good sugar".
3) Take Alpine, Hsu Fu Kee and other brands as examples, which can be basically seen in all major terminals (BC supermarkets) in counties and towns, and consumers' awareness is high.
4) With the improvement of consumption level, chocolate gradually penetrated and occupied the candy market, especially foreign chocolate.
5. Consumers pay more and more attention to brands.
1) The brand awareness of consumers has been strengthened. The brand recognition of candy consumption brands is strengthened, and the brand loyalty of single candy consumption is higher. With the strengthening of the promotion of foreign candy brands, the brand awareness of the domestic candy industry will be further enhanced. From this, it will also indicate that the competition of domestic candy brands will become the focus of market competition.
2) Domestic brands are divided into one party. At present, most domestic brands still rely on their respective regional resource advantages to carve up and occupy the regional market, and basically the strong brands in the national market have not yet appeared. Domestic candy enterprises have been in a tepid situation in the development process, and there are many 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 "Top Ten" ranking of 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 turn their attention to the traditional candy and functional candy market in China again, it will make the living environment of domestic brands worse. 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 Wrigley and Effen in the United States and Buffandi in Italy, used their strong financial strength and mature brand management experience to encroach on the candy consumption market in China. On the other hand, domestic competition is becoming increasingly fierce: Xu Fuji's surging momentum, followed by Yake, Jinguan and other new southern forces are approaching; At the same time, Golden Monkey, a state-level township enterprise group with more than 500 million assets, 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 intervened in China chewing gum market with xylitol as the breakthrough point. Lotte and Haoliyou tore a crack in xylitol chewing gum, which made multinational companies including Cadbury, Boufandi, 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, it is difficult to really distinguish 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 brand media. The existing advertising strategy in the candy industry has also undergone great changes. 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", and the competition among brands further accelerated.
6. The importance of candy packaging
The role of packaging is often underestimated, but it plays an important role in selling products to customers in stores. Only 20% of the products in the market advertise, and the remaining 80% must sell themselves in shopping malls and shout "buy me" to customers. Therefore, attractive packaging design is essential. If it has a unique appearance, it will further help it attract customers' attention on the shelf. 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 advertising products, packaging plays an important role in helping customers identify the products they want. This is also the reason why Professor Klaus Brandmeyer of Brandmeyer brand consulting company strongly advocates the use of packaging to strengthen advertising. Professor Brandmeyer believes that 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 them in a large number of goods in supermarkets? If consumers don't even know what kind of packaging products they are looking for, then such commercial advertisements are obviously unsuccessful. The experience of cosmetics shows the importance of packaging for brand products. Although consumers swear that they can smell their favorite perfume from thousands of products, they can't find their favorite perfume in an experiment in which all the packages of these products are removed. However, the taste of perfume and perfume bottle must match. A rose-shaped summer perfume in chanel no.5 can't be simply put in a traditional perfume bottle. Never underestimate consumers' awareness of packaging. An important reason why many perfumes are bought is that there are 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 the placement of products on the shelf, it also needs basic design concepts, three-dimensional imagination of packaging and special possibilities on the shelf. Success stories of other companies are often copied. But it's not a good idea to put a yellow soap box next to another brand's yellow soap box on the shelf. In the era of decreasing sales staff, 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 luxurious packaging. If the manufacturer of sanitary napkins using trapezoidal packaging (hoping to distinguish them from other adjacent products) knows that retailers may not place these products correctly, it may suggest that the packaging designer design different shapes, but at the same time keep them appropriate. Or put the product in a tray, which can ensure that it can always be placed correctly. Compared with the widely accepted view or the suggestions and regulations made in the Packaging Law, the role of packaging is much greater.
4) Especially in recent years, the packaging of some products is also beautifully designed, which is in sharp contrast with the packaging purism in the 1980s. For specific applications, people are also trying to find ideal packaging materials, not just 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 the brand a unique look and feel. On the contrary, the depressed atmosphere will not lead the brand to success, but will definitely hinder the diversified development of packaging appearance.