Snacks are very busy, and marketing is booming

As mass-market snacks become increasingly popular, what needs to be done to break through the current predicament?

There is one more problem to solve.

A bottle of mineral water costs 1.2 yuan, a bottle of cola costs 2.4 yuan...the prices are cheap, and it is fun to shop and take pictures. Mass-market snack shops are becoming more and more popular, and more and more of them are opening.

Among them, the snacks of Mixue Bingcheng, known as the "Mi Xue Bingcheng" of the snack industry, are very busy and impressive.

As one of the largest mass-market snack brands, Snacks is Busy has a stronger sense of the Internet, and is very popular and popular in terms of marketing. Through unconventional brand interaction and traffic exposure, and through in-depth exploration of scenarios, it explores more possibilities in retail.

While the snack industry is busy welcoming growth, it is also facing certain challenges. When marketing and scale are both "soaring", how can we balance the pace of growth?

1. The first principle of the hurricane marketing scenario

The first principle of effective marketing is to be impressive. The brand image construction of Snacks is very busy, putting the sensory "impact" on users at the forefront.

Different from the traditional impression of snack stores, Snacks is very busy, which was born in Changsha, a popular city, has its own Internet celebrity attributes. A major development feature of mass-market snack brands represented by Snacks is that they are good at "creating momentum" and are well versed in symbolic communication.

Eye-catching door signs, abundant product displays, rich selection of snacks, dynamic and pleasant store music...it has firmly grasped the "five senses" of consumers' offline experience. Shopping has become a prominent feature of Snacks, which has also formed Snacks' strategic advantage in innovation of consumption scenarios.

Snacks is good at upgrading the experience of the retail business through the evolution of every detail of interaction with consumers. One detail is that the products with good sales should be placed in the middle of the store and on the 2nd to 4th shelves, always in the first sight of customers, and the franchisees of Snacks are not allowed to change the display method and area at will.

This also reminds us of the "Walk with Me" rule: simulate the customer's scene, follow the customer's shopping, and respect the first instinct. In essence, it is a meticulous empathy.

Back to basics, Snack Busy has indeed returned to the "first principle" of brand marketing: make every connection with consumers. Under this idea, in addition to the basic brand VI, "fun" is also a very important variable.

Not only is there innovation in stores, but Busy Snacks has also figured out how to use limited edition, flash sale, and festival marketing methods. The combination of these various punches, with both depth and breadth, can be called "crazy marketing."

In January 2024, Snacks is busy opening a "XXXL" superstore. The store is super-sized, and the product packaging is also super-sized: XXXL-sized pure milk, lollipops bigger than the face, and spicy strips that require two people to carry...

The interesting and fun limited edition also triggered check-ins, creations and sharing. The visually impactful oversized packaging maximized the uniqueness, and combined with Changsha’s high proportion of young people, the brand awareness was naturally enhanced.

The "Snack Carnival" is also a key IP of Snack Busy. Snack Busy's festival carnival has become a key bridge to connect online and offline. Douyin live broadcast, celebrity interaction, expert content fermentation, store promotion and other online and offline linkages allow traffic leverage to further enhance offline advantages.

Snacks is busy not only understands traffic very well, but is also good at combining traffic with scenarios. For example, it creates new snack marketing scenarios with rich activities such as "celebrity store tours", opens up the Ren and Du meridians of traffic conversion, and makes check-in consumption the mainstream offline.

As a new brand, Snacks is Very Busy’s own experience summarized as “empowering scenarios with brands and driving consumption with scenarios”.

From the crazy marketing of Snacks is Busy, we see the marketing strategy of new brands that want to stand out quickly, that is, to leverage the attention lever and consolidate the brand mind with their own characteristics through contact with users.

2. The innovation and hidden worries of white-label business: the combination of channel power and brand power

From a deeper level of brand insight, Busy Snacks can be said to be taking a "shortcut" by "taking the long way".

In fact, insight is one step ahead of brand creativity. In fact, in recent years, the traditional retail upgrade has fallen into a "trap" anchored on the middle class. The main consumer groups outside the first- and second-tier cities have not been noticed by brands, which has also led to the saying that "the middle class is running out of room."

The mass-market snack model represented by Snacks is Busy has made a keen insight into the demand side - making snacks for more people. The slogan "Good snacks, very cheap" is both down-to-earth and impressive.

Consumption upgrade is not about price upgrade, but experience upgrade and quality-price ratio upgrade. So snacks seem to be hard-earned money with small profits and quick turnover, but in fact, they are anchored in the "trend dividend" that is closer to the essence of consumption, and are "taking shortcuts" in terms of value orientation.

When it comes to product selection, Snacks is Busy does not choose unique or expensive products, but only chooses "must-haves for the general public". Its product selection principle is to choose popular foods that are "the best-selling in the category".

As the "2023 China Snack Hypermarket Industry Blue Book" summarizes the characteristics of the snack hypermarket format as "good prices", "good products", "easy to shop" and "easy to buy".

Returning to the essence of “people, goods and places” to innovate is also the general trend. Compared with the stereotype of dim and messy discount snack shops, the upgraded experience has given Snacks the confidence to subvert.

Another novelty of the mass-market model is the profit model of "big brands attract traffic, and private brands make money". Take Snacks Are Busy as an example. A bottle of Yibao (555ml) costs 1.2 yuan, a bottle of Coke (500ml) costs 2.4 yuan, and a can of Wanglaoji (310ml) costs 2.8 yuan...

Behind the big-name products that "don't make money" are more "white-label" products that support brand development with higher gross profit margins. As the name suggests, "white-label" snacks are little-known brands. These "unknown" products that were once not actively noticed by consumers have found a sense of presence in mass-market snack stores.

Snacks are busy using the "channel power" formed by the scene to supplement the "brand power" missing from white-label foods. The price difference of this part creates profit space.

The conversion effect of brand marketing is thus apparent. When customers browse the offline shopping malls, they will unconsciously buy more. Regarding the white-label foods sold in bulk, netizens often post on social platforms, "I walked into a snack shop and bought dozens of yuan worth of food without realizing it."

It can be said that Snacks is very busy and has thoroughly understood the psychology of consumption. It has penetrated into the decision-making process of users, and its bulk products account for 40%, which reduces the purchase burden and facilitates "temporary decision-making".

The retail innovation of mass-market snacks lies in focusing on experience and returning to demand. But on the other hand, white-label products have also brought some controversy.

After all, consumers buy products based on brands, which is a trust endorsement. The trillion-dollar snack industry is undoubtedly large, but the categories of snacks are too large and too many, and it is inevitable that there are good and bad ones. The category-based success also brings related risks in the selection of supply chain products. How to better control quality has also become a test for snacks.

On the other hand, after buying snacks, consumers are not as tolerant of white-label products as they are of big brands. Many consumers question the taste and quality of white-label products in snack hypermarkets.

For mass-market snacks represented by Snacks Are Busy, how to change the "generic" impression of white-label products is not only a hard work in the supply chain, but also requires a long period of trust accumulation.

3. With the rapid growth in scale, how long can the low prices of Red and Black remain cheap?

As one of the representative companies in the mass-market snack market, Snack Bar, which has a more sensitive sense of traffic, also faces considerable competitive pressure.

It is not difficult to understand that when a new business model starts, both the brand marketing network sense and the development of the business model are relatively easy to be imitated. The competitors in the mass-market snack market are also numerous, and it is not easy to leave them behind.

If the series of marketing that expands the voice is the first-mover advantage that helped Snack Shop become the leader in the industry, then in the longer term the competition among snack shops is more like an endurance challenge, and it is also very important to form a more stable and long-term value mentality.

Although the retail model is innovative, "no secrets" also means that there are many players in the industry and there is serious homogeneity among them all starting from the same starting line.

This means that before talking about brand awareness, consumers are more likely to be attracted by discounts. The typical phenomenon of the industry's frenzy is price war, and the "low-price Shura field" of mass-market snacks has also become a phenomenal feature.

Pricing strategy is also a crucial part of brand marketing, but when the price war becomes fierce, all strategies go astray in order to grab more market share.

When the battle was at its most intense, several different snack stores were fighting each other for customer traffic. The 6.8% discount at the busy snack store was quite a big discount, and there were also buy-one-get-one-free promotions. But in the case of fierce competition, some mass-market snack stores could even offer discounts of 42%, which was even more than half price.

The huge discounts have become a trump card for franchise stores to compete for consumers in the melee. Everyone likes to enjoy good value, and when the market is hot, stores often limit the flow of customers, but even so, they will be snapped up by consumers. However, the one-hour queue time also greatly reduces the experience.

Historical experience tells us that price wars cannot continue. Operating at a loss is not in line with the essence of business, and the logic of "survival of the fittest" may also end in a mess.

Moreover, the mass-market snack industry is not a very profitable industry. Losing money to gain publicity can only attract consumers in the short term, and will not produce a repeat purchase effect. As a new business model matures, this is a bit too cruel. In this process, how much buffer can the brand power of Snacks provide?

Another factor in grabbing the market at a low price is scale. In November 2023, Snacks is Busy announced a merger with its competitor Zhao Yiming Snacks to form the Snacks is Busy Group. In this way, scale has become another moat for Snacks to lead the race.

After the merger, the number of snacks stores of Busy Snacks Group nationwide has now exceeded 7,500, making it the number one in the mass-market snack market, and is therefore known as the "Mi Xue Bing City" of the snack industry.

If the crazy marketing has supported the well-known brand power of Snacks Is Busy, then how long can the low prices that attract consumers to buy crazily last? How should the "Mixue Ice City" in the snack industry really capture the hearts of users? This value test is still testing Snacks Is Busy.

Author: yummy; WeChat public account: shock copywriting