Brand No. 1: Vacancy Competition Series 017

Taking Zhong Xue Gao and Cha Yan Yue Se as examples, the article explains the brand’s strategy of achieving growth by finding vacancies in market competition.

High-priced vacancies

From 2007 to 2013, with the rising costs of raw materials such as milk, sugar, chocolate, as well as labor, transportation, and refrigeration, ice cream officially bid farewell to the era of one yuan pricing.

After 2013, traditional ice cream brands needed to find a new growth curve. They had always positioned themselves in the mid-range market, and digging for gold in the high-end market became the only way for traditional ice cream brands to grow. In 2016, domestic brands began to increase prices and take the high-end route to compete with foreign brands such as Nestle, Baskin-Robbins, and DQ for the market. Ice cream entered the 3-8 yuan stage. In 2018, Internet celebrity ice creams swarmed in, and ice cream went from offline to online, and the price also entered the 10 yuan+ era.

In 2019, ice cream brands all went online. Aoxue opened a flagship store on Tmall in early 2019. In April, Yili, Wall's and Nestle also opened flagship stores on Tmall. In August, Unilever's ice cream brands (including Wall's, Magnum and Grom, etc.) also entered Tmall stores. Yili launched the high-end brand Xu Jin Huan, and its main battlefield is also online - fish swim in the shallow water, eagles fly in the sky, and all kinds of creatures compete for freedom in the frosty sky.

In 2018, there were only more than 60 online ice cream brands, but in 2019, this number has increased to more than 140. With such competition, branding is the only logic and branding is the only survival rule. For new consumer brands, the core is to redefine the value of the category.

From the perspective of physical properties (use value): there is never one more ice cream in the world, nor one less. French sociologist Jean Baudrillard once said: "People never consume things themselves (use value), they always use things as symbols that can highlight themselves.

Demands are always there, waiting to be better met. In fact, to better meet consumer needs, we must first have better products, breakthroughs in products, and greater consensus on counterintuitive ideas. There has never been a so-called good marketing logic - people cannot be influenced by what goes into their mouths; there has never been a logic that a good product does not have good marketing. Products and marketing are two sides of the same coin.

In May 2018, Zhong Xue Gao's first product was launched. From the beginning, Zhong Xue Gao was committed to creating an ice cream that was different from the past. The Chinese tile-shaped appearance and the "proverb" on each ice cream stick that can only be seen after eating have become the labels that distinguish Zhong Xue Gao from other ice creams on the market.

Zhong Xue Gao has transformed ice cream from a basic category at a relatively low level of Maslow's needs into a self-oriented category, or even a superego category. The brand positioning divides its consumer groups, and consumers form a dramatic "separation" from others in the symbolic consumption of ice cream, realizing symbolic consumption and symbolic consumption, thereby enhancing the product's premium ability and transcending the physical attributes of ice cream.

Visual difference: Different from traditional ice cream, Zhong Xue Gao has made a breakthrough in product appearance, changing the old visual sense of square, round, strip and stick of traditional ice cream appearance, and combining it with traditional Chinese architectural elements. Zhong Xue Gao's tile shape breaks the consumer's perception of the appearance of traditional ice cream. Whether a product is good or not depends on whether consumers are willing to share it with you.

Because of the huge difference in appearance recognition, Zhong Xuegao is naturally qualified to be "shown off" - if a product is not "showy" enough, it will not be qualified to become a hit.

What goes into your mouth can’t deceive you, and warmth is hidden in the details: Compared with the situation where traditional ice cream brands have dozens of SKUs, Zhong Xuegao chose a short, few and refined product route from the beginning. The regular products only have about 8 types such as light milk, velvet cocoa and Ghana black gold. The others are mostly some joint models and seasonal limited models. The product structure is arranged by a small number of SKU strategies, which changes the seasonal and random characteristics of ice cream and prolongs the consumption time.

If consumers are happy at the peak and end of an experience, then they will feel happy about the entire experience, and there is warmth in the details. In addition to the special chocolate flavor ingredients, Zhong Xue Gao's other products do not add food additives, stabilizers, etc.

Dairy products and cream are the result of repeated tests. To ensure the peak taste experience, one ingredient must undergo 70 tests. In addition, in order to make a good stick, 20 million yuan was invested in the supply chain to support its suppliers in standardizing and regulating equipment, technology, management, and funding, and to be the first to change the popsicle stick from wood to biodegradable straw that meets national edible grade standards.

Group suggestion and group imitation constitute the underlying logic of popularity. Communication is essentially group imitation behavior under group suggestion. That is: not through direct persuasion or coercion, but through indirect suggestion to make people accept a certain point of view or engage in a certain behavior. According to Crawley's research, 67.8% of users believe that the content of the grass-roots content has a great influence on the choice of goods and ultimately the purchase behavior, 74% of users have purchased the grass-roots goods, and 80.7% of users will complete the purchase within a week after being grass-roots.

Avoid the crowded offline market and go online in a symbolic way: In the past, ice cream was purchased in supermarkets, hypermarkets and convenience stores. These channels have long been occupied by brands such as Yili, Mengniu and Lu Mengxue, and it is really difficult to break through.

Zhong Xue Gao avoided the offline battlefield in the early stage and adopted online sales, and made ice cream into a symbolic phenomenon and phenomenon symbol with social attributes. It focused on in-depth penetration, seeding, and recommendation on Xiaohongshu, forming a positive cycle in the chain of posting orders-paying attention-purchasing.

Brand co-branding, topic tags: cross-border cooperation with well-known brands. Such as Wahaha, Luzhou Laojiao, Three Squirrels, Fiyta Watch, Roewe Automobile, Nayuki Tea, Xiaoxiandun. Through co-branding with Luzhou Laojiao, "White Wine Blackout Ice Cream" was launched, and co-branding with Fresh Bird's Nest Xiaoxiandun to launch "Bird's Nest Lava Ice Cream", etc., ice cream products with different flavors are launched to meet the needs of different users. Cross-border cooperation is not to put two LOGOs together, but to use and bind customers together. Through brand co-branding, new scenes are created to stimulate new interests, generate new topics, and attach new labels.

Celebrity endorsement, customized products: Signed Tong Liya, Zhou Yiwei, and Ao Ziyi as brand spokespersons. Through the influence of celebrities, we can cover a wider range of people, step out of the "niche" circle, and quickly expand brand awareness and influence, as well as the reach of brand information.

Redefining the value of the ice cream category, integrating products with social attributes, deeply penetrating Xiaohongshu, creating topics through brand collaboration, and increasing coverage through celebrity endorsements. Since the launch of its first product in May 2018, Zhong Xuegao has blazed a trail of its own and also paved the way for traditional ice cream brands. There are no secrets in marketing, and the brand will survive to the end.

Driven by Zhong Xue Gao, other ice cream brands have followed suit. Guangming and White Rabbit jointly launched milk candy ice cream, taking the national trend route; Yili NOC Xu Jinhuan used brand spokesperson Zheng Yunlong to boost brand awareness; Mengniu Green Mood crossed over to the national comic IP "Jiang Ziya"; Wall's, Heytea and Nayuki have jointly launched milk tea flavored ice cream; Madiel has also gradually become popular with the influence of top anchors and food KOLs such as Wei Ya, and the most expensive ice cream sells for 22 yuan; Zhongjie Bingdian launched a new brand "Zhongjie 1946", and the top of the product uses an iconic standing relief, which soon became a hit.

Unfortunately, at its peak, Zhong Xue Gao did not redefine its true competitors. It made a strategic mistake and mistook Mengniu, Yili, and Wall's as its competitors, earning the name "Ice Cream Assassin" for its inverted price and channels. Subsequently, with limited funds, Zhong Xue Gao placed its own freezers in the channels on a large scale, which put it in a "four-war zone" on the competitive side.

At its peak, Zhong Xue Gao occupied 2.1% of the total market, while Mengniu, Yili, and Wall's were 10 times its size. Zhong Xue Gao made a small bet for a big one, but lost everything. The reason is that Zhong Xue Gao did not fundamentally define its competitors at the stage, and ignored the fact that Zhong Xue Gao could only suffer the consequences of its own efforts during the competition stage.

Who are our enemies and who are our friends is the primary task of the revolution.

Geographical vacancies

In 2013, the tea market was in the category cultivation and introduction stage. At that time, Heytea was still called "Royal Tea" and had opened a store in an alley in Jiangmen City, Guangdong Province for less than a year; Nayuki's founder Peng Xin was still a senior executive in a listed company. Inspired by the national style, Lu Liang designed a lady pattern based on the proprietress as the brand logo. In the winter of that year, the first Cha Yan Yue Se opened under the overpass on Jiefang West Road in Changsha. Two years later, in 2015, new tea brands attracted a lot of investment, and with the blessing of capital, the category entered a period of rapid growth, reaching its peak in 2018.

Category development cycle: category cultivation period, category introduction period, category growth period, category maturity period, category differentiation period, and post-category period. Category cultivation and introduction period: Category first, then brand. Growth directly driven and created by the brand is almost rare. Category growth and maturity period: In the long run, companies with strong channel power have greater advantages in the cultivation of flavor products. Category differentiation period: Brand companies actively meet consumer needs based on scenarios, characteristics, and functions, and occupy the vacancies of category differentiation.

In 2011, 1DianDian, freshly brewed milk tea, was launched, and the category was cultivated.

In 2014, Gongcha and milk tea with milk cap emerged, and the category was introduced

In 2015, the internet-famous milk tea brands Heytea and Nayuki were in the growth stage.

In 2020, Mixue Bingcheng’s official Weibo account announced that the number of its stores worldwide has exceeded 10,000, and the category has reached maturity.

2020: Category differentiation period

Focus on the region and occupy the vacant space: one store every ten steps, firmly defending Changsha

From the point of view of time, Heytea, Nayuki and Chayanyuese all started large-scale store expansion in 2015. Heytea and Nayuki’s stores are mainly in first-tier and new first-tier cities. Chayanyuese chose a different path and focused on the regional market - Changsha.

Jeffrey Moore, the godfather of Silicon Valley, once gave an interesting explanation of the final market structure of emerging industries: Imagine that there are three kinds of animals in the forest: gorillas, baboons and small monkeys. The gorilla weighing 800 pounds is undoubtedly the overlord, and all the bananas in the forest belong to it. The baboons do not compete with gorillas for the market, but focus on their own market. Monkeys often travel in groups, but they can survive only by picking up small and rotten bananas that gorillas and baboons do not eat.

In the first year, there were 5 stores, and in the second year, there were 6 stores. It was not until July 2015 that Cha Yan Yue Se began to rapidly expand in the core business district of Changsha, and opened more than a dozen stores that year. In August 2017, Cha Yan Yue Se had 40 directly-operated stores in Changsha.

In commercial wars, the advantage often belongs to the defending party. Without an absolute advantage in military strength, it is difficult for the attacking party to gain an advantage over the defender. To win, at least three times as many troops as the opponent must be deployed at the attacking location.

At its peak, Cha Yan Yue Se had 2.2 times as many stores in Changsha as CoCo and 1DianDian, and 2.7 times as many as Shuyi Shaoxiancao and Mixue Bingcheng. In the three administrative districts of Tianxin, Yuelu and Furong alone, Cha Yan Yue Se had 142 stores, of which Tianxin District had 63 stores, making it the administrative district with the most stores.

Cha Yan Yue Se also admitted that after the first store opened in Wuyi Square, it saw shops for rent nearby and rented them for the convenience of management. "Who knew that more and more shops would be rented, forming a pattern of 'one shop every ten steps'."

Opening stores densely is not a business strategy, it is just a coincidence that they are opened together - genius does not need theory, theory needs genius - people are often more willing to tell wonderful stories, just like what Zeng Guofan said: I didn’t know that my battle was so wonderful.

The price range of Cha Yan Yue Se is basically between 10 and 22 yuan, while the prices of Heytea and Nayuki are concentrated between 25 and 35 yuan. According to market research data, 15 to 24 yuan is the price range with the largest audience, accounting for 64%. The second is the 25 to 34 yuan range, accounting for 28%. New tea drinks with the same price as Cha Yan Yue Se are not as delicious as Cha Yan Yue Se; those that are as delicious as Cha Yan Yue Se are not as cheap as Cha Yan Yue Se.

Follow the trend and you will die, do the opposite and you will live: Different from the cute and cartoon style of Heytea, Coco, etc., Cha Yan Yue Se started with the "Chinese style" route. I don't want to be like them, and I know that if I do, I will die because I can't do it. Chinese style itself is a good topic. And our development just happened to catch up with the trend of promoting traditional Chinese culture. This is not something I can guess, and there is still a component of luck - Lv Liang.

The leader fights a defensive battle, the followers fight an offensive battle, Cha Yan Yue Se and Mixue Bing Cheng fight on the flanks;

Defensive Warfare: Only Market Leaders Should Consider Defense

Offensive warfare: Find the weakness in the leader's advantage and attack it

Flanking warfare: launching in uncontested areas, i.e. looking for vacant market niches

Guerrilla warfare: always ready to retreat, always ready to fight

Leadership strategy: Heytea targets Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, while Nayuki targets Guangzhou and Shenzhen. The prices are concentrated between 25 and 35 yuan.

Follow-up strategy: CoCo and 1 point, follow up the second-line layout, the price is concentrated between 15-22 yuan

Flanking tactics: Mixue Bingcheng, surrounding the city from the countryside, prices are concentrated below 10 yuan; Cha Yan Yue Se, building a stronghold and defending Changsha, prices are concentrated between 10 and 22 yuan

Heytea and Nayuki are fighting a defensive battle. The core of the defensive battle is to constantly launch attacks on themselves. In terms of channels, they build channel depth from the first-tier layout to the new first-tier, quasi-first-tier and then second-tier; in terms of products, they develop new products, launch new flavors, and cultivate new sub-brands to build a moat.

CoCo and 1DianDian, in their offensive war, found the competitive advantage of misalignment in time and space, exchanging time for space and space for time, deploying in the second line to form an encirclement advantage and challenge the leaders. Mixue Bingcheng used low-priced vacancies to station troops in the third and fourth lines, while Cha Yan Yue Se focused on the region, defended Changsha and occupied the geographical vacancies.