They’re all marketing, so why do expensive ice creams have different fates?

There are only a few expensive ice cream brands, but they have developed differently. Let’s read this article to find out.

As the weather gets hotter, a new round of ice cream "war" is getting underway.

Today, ice cream has gradually become a fashionable leisure food that people enjoy all year round, but with the emergence of more and more "ice cream assassins", the public has started a "big discussion" about high-end ice cream brands. Many netizens said: Now it is really not fun to take ice cream that I don't recognize.

Recently, Zhenxi and Zhong Xuegao, both of which are positioned as high-end brands, have attracted industry attention again. On one hand, they officially announced top celebrity spokespersons and linked with Douyin to launch topics to break the brand circle. On the other hand, the company was fined more than 9 million yuan, and the founder was restricted from high consumption, saying that "I have to pay off my debts even if I sell sweet potatoes."

Why do brands with the same high-end positioning have such different developments? Is it because consumers do not accept expensive ice cream, or is it because the brand story is not told correctly?

1. Zhong Xue Gao’s “failed” sinking

Since the end of last year, Zhong Xue Gao's Weibo has been a hot search topic. From being accused of wage arrears to accounts on multiple platforms being suspended, the price of the product dropping from 60 yuan to 2.5 yuan, to the recent execution of 9.01 million yuan, the founder said he would sell sweet potatoes to pay off the debt...

The company’s revenue exceeded 100 million yuan only 16 months after its establishment, and exceeded 1 billion yuan in 2021. It has been the sales champion in the ice cream category during Tmall’s 618 shopping festival for three consecutive years. However, its reputation has completely disappeared under these hot searches.

Source: Screenshot from Xiaohongshu

Zhong Xuegao’s brilliant achievements in those years were inseparable from the operator (founder) behind it - Lin Sheng.

Although he majored in history, he has been working in the advertising industry since graduation, serving various big brands - Guanshengyuan, White Rabbit, Master Kong... With the marketing operations of "Madiel" and "Zhongjie 1946", Lin Sheng became famous in the industry. So Lin Sheng founded his own ice cream brand - Zhong Xue Gao.

In the mind of "advertiser" Lin Sheng, creating a hit product requires the following three steps: product breakthrough, content breakthrough, and external promotion.

In terms of product breakthroughs, Lin Sheng not only designed a unique tile shape, but also made breakthroughs in materials and prices. Therefore, "high pricing", "high formula" and "high appearance" are the natural tones of Zhong Xue Gao.

In terms of content, Lin Sheng focuses on national trend thinking, which is not only fresh and interesting, but also can awaken consumers' national sentiments; in terms of external promotion, Lin Sheng has put in a lot of effort.

Online, they used KOL and KOC to promote products, and livestreamed products by top influencers to promote products on social media. Offline, they opened flagship stores and expanded sales through convenience stores and other supermarket channels, which continuously triggered fission and completed the closed loop of traffic. At that time, the "Ecuadorian Pink Diamond" at 66 yuan per stick was a hot product of Zhong Xue Gao. All 20,000 sticks were sold out within 15 hours of its launch, and many consumers even paid a higher price to buy from purchasing agents.

Afterwards, terms such as "Ice Cream Assassin" and "Does not melt in one hour at room temperature of 31 degrees" put Zhong Xuegao in the spotlight of public opinion. Unfortunately, Zhong Xuegao has never been able to get out of the spotlight of public opinion.

Faced with public pressure, Zhong Xuegao immediately responded to the food safety issue, saying that the product only uses a very small amount of food emulsifiers and thickeners, all of which are added in strict accordance with relevant national standards. In order to win back the hearts of consumers, Linsheng also launched a low-priced sub-brand, Sa'Saa, priced at 3.5 yuan. In addition, it tried to take advantage of the AI ​​craze and become popular again. However, this new product, which claims to be created by AI, did not make much of a splash.

According to Lin Sheng, the main sales channel for the new product Sa'Saa is offline, and online sales are mostly for free. Offline sales have always been the main battlefield for Yili and Mengniu. It is difficult for an online celebrity brand with the label of "ice cream assassin" to impress consumers. At the same time, Yili and Mengniu also began intensive resistance. According to Daily People, at that time, Zhong Xue Gao distributors in many cities had to face the "choose one of two" problem.

In fact, one of the reasons why Zhong Xue Gao became the ice cream assassin is because the high-end positioning of the brand is at odds with the brand's offline sinking strategy. Imagine that in the freezers of first- and second-tier community supermarkets, an expensive new product appears, which can easily make consumers who are not clear about the price feel "backstabbed". Zhong Xue Gao's new product Sa'Saa is also designed to make up for this "defect".

But when Sa'Saa appeared, Zhong Xuegao's capital chain was already "full of holes". According to Daily People: In March 2023, Zhong Xuegao's cash flow was in crisis. At that time, it was the time to promote the new product series Sa'Saa, and it was a time to spend a lot of money. The "old shareholders" who had originally agreed to continue investing did not make additional investments in the end, which also accelerated Zhong Xuegao's "decline".

According to Daily People, Zhong Xuegao has raised nearly 1.3 billion yuan from the primary market since its establishment, and its valuation once approached 4 billion yuan.

Now, Zhong Xuegao has not only been fined 9.8313 million yuan, but also had its equity valued at nearly 40 million yuan frozen. It is unknown whether Lin Sheng, who is considering "selling sweet potatoes" to pay off his debts, can still wait for his "white knight".

2. Zhenxi achieved breakthrough through entertainment marketing

After Zhong Xue Gao's "fall", there have been many comments about "not buying expensive ice cream". The reason given is also very close, that is, consumption downgrade. Judging from the comments on major social platforms, this is indeed the case. Many consumers said: "I can't afford it" and "I won't pay for face."

However, after seeing the popularity of Zhong Xue Gao, many brands also began to launch expensive ice creams to test the waters. For example, Yili's Zhenxi, Xujinhuan, Moutai ice cream, etc. Take Zhenxi ice cream as an example. The brand's recent actions are in sharp contrast with Zhong Xue Gao.

Zhenxi Ice Cream is the first high-end ice cream brand launched by Yili Cold Drinks, which was established in 2015. Zhenxi's target audience is people aged 26-35 in first-tier cities, so the brand's marketing goal is to get close to young people.

To this end, Zhenxi chose to focus on entertainment marketing, sponsoring variety shows such as Let's Camp 2, Chinese Restaurant Season 3, Please Take Care of My Refrigerator, and Hahahahaha, using camping, afternoon tea and other leisure eating scenes to play with young people, in order to capture the hearts of young consumers. In addition, it signed Lu Han as its spokesperson, using the artist's popularity to continue to build momentum for the brand.

According to data from relevant institutions, the sales of ice cream on the Douyin platform in the past 30 days reached nearly 180 million, with a month-on-month increase of 372.8%. Among them, Zhenxi achieved brand breakthrough with the topic #Open Zhenxi to enjoy a short vacation at any time#. So far, the topic has attracted more than 100,000 users from different industries to participate. In addition, related high-quality content will also receive traffic rewards from Douyin.

Source: TikTok

In addition to the content linkage, Zhenxi also simultaneously launched offline store group purchase coupons, inviting anchors such as @大包笑了 and @爱笑的露娜 to participate in the promotion. At the same time, official accounts such as @伊利冰淇淋牧场店 and @伊利冰淇淋工厂店 also cooperated with the event for live broadcast promotion, which not only increased consumer brand awareness but also further increased product sales.

According to data from relevant institutions, in the past 30 days, Yili’s own broadcasting account has put 45+ Zhenxi-related ice cream products on the shelves, with estimated sales of 7.5 million to 10 million.

3. The “expensive” marketing gene of ice cream can be traced back a hundred years

In fact, the "expensive" marketing gene of ice cream brands has existed since the birth of this category.

As early as the Warring States Period, Qu Yuan recorded in "Chu Ci Zhao Hun": "Crush the fermented grains and drink them cold, which will make the wine cooler."

The prototype of ice cream was formed during the Tang Dynasty. In the painting of ladies in the tomb of Prince Zhanghuai and the painting of wild banquet in Tang Dynasty murals, a food called Sushan appeared, which was called the "founder" of ice cream. According to historical records, the bottom layer of Sushan was similar to ice, covered with cream, and decorated with flowers, colorful trees and other decorations. At that time, only nobles could eat it.

The first ice cream brand to appear in China was a foreign product called "Beauty Ice Cream", which was established in 1925. In order to promote this new product, it collaborated with popular female singers at the time to promote it, and carried out "bombardment-style" advertising in major newspapers and radio stations. Soon this ice cream became "famous" in Shanghai.

Afterwards, the factory was nationalized, and an engineer in the factory said, "China should have its own cold drink brand." Thus, Guangming brand popsicles were launched. In order to break the market monopoly of "Beauty brand ice cream," Guangming launched a marketing tactic of free tasting. Not only did it organize various yangko teams to promote it everywhere, but it also gave it to citizens for free along the way. According to data, Guangming's promotional advertisements were everywhere on major traffic routes, newspapers, and radio stations in Shanghai at that time.

With this eye-catching marketing campaign, the sales of Guangming brand popsicles exceeded that of the previously popular "Beauty brand ice cream".

After that, domestic ice cream brands such as Beiping Ice Factory, Shenyang Zhongjie Ice Point, and Guangdong Wuyang flourished. In the 1990s, Yili and Mengniu began to exert their strength, and products such as Suibian, Chocolatier, and Yili Mood swept supermarket freezers. At that time, there was no big difference in pricing between the two companies, so they were closely matched. At the same time, expensive foreign brands such as Wall's (formerly owned by Unilever), Nestle, and Haagen-Dazs came one after another.

In recent years, Internet celebrity products such as Douyin brand Xu Moumou, Maotai ice cream, and Dove ice cream have emerged. In terms of price, these new Internet celebrity products are not "affordable". Take the recently popular Douyin brand Xu Moumou as an example. The price per kilogram is about 32 yuan. Based on the weight of a 64-gram ice cream stick, the price of a stick is about 4 yuan. Although the cost-effectiveness is good in terms of ingredients, it has no price advantage compared with "old Internet celebrities" such as Ice Factory and Aoxue Coconut Ash.

In terms of taste, the flavors of ice cream products that have appeared in recent years have become more and more diverse, such as wine flavor, rainbow candy flavor, sea salt milk flavor, and brave the world flavor. According to data from relevant institutions, in the past 30 days, flavors such as "vanilla", "jasmine" and "milk" on Douyin have been more popular in the market.

Source: Xiaohongshu

It is worth mentioning that today's ice cream and popsicle consumer market is more pursuing product quality, such as health implications.

According to media reports: An ice cream brand marketing manager once said: "Innovation and health will be the biggest development trend of the ice cream industry in the future. Wall's has launched So Good light ice cream, which is fortified, low-fat and contains protein; Yili has launched the "super high-end line" Xu Jin Huan, which is 0 sucrose and low-fat; Sanyuan Foods has also launched the Baxi Light series to test the waters, and these products have achieved good market results.

What do you think will be the next “tipping point” in the ice cream industry?

Author: Xia Tian

Source: Clour (ID: 1093227)