Why don't the most Chinese eat world-class snacks?
Updated on: 34-0-0 0:0:0

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How good are Chinese at eating? This is evident in the ability to prepare delicate ingredients.

The paws of poultry and livestock are rich in keratin and have a tough and untreated taste, which people in most countries are helpless about. But in the hands of Chinese chefs, the feet and claws of pigs, cows, sheep, chickens, ducks and geese can become a feast that includes pig's feet with ginger vinegar, roasted hoof tendons with green onions, spicy sheep's feet, tiger skin phoenix feet, mustard duck paws and abalone sauce button goose paws, which not only give you a clear cooking, but also have no overlapping origin and flavor type.

在現代食品工業的加持下,不少料理從正餐化身為零食,造就了中國最廣闊、最具多樣性的零食市場,其總體規模超過1.4萬億元,單是預包裝肉類零食,2024年的市場規模就有2902億元。但在英國品牌評估機構Brand Finance發佈的“2024全球食品和飲料品牌”價值報告(Food & Drink 2024) TOP10中,只有蒙牛、伊利兩個中國乳企上榜,零食品類則被國際食品巨頭瓜分。曾經薄弱的中國高端製造的國際影響力正在逐漸擴張;反倒在“最會吃”的盛名之下,零食賽道還在繼續上演著茶圈“7萬家中國茶企敵不過一個英國立頓”的尷尬局面。

尼爾森分析指出,預包裝肉類零食的第一品類是鳳爪。中國人每年吃掉336億隻鳳爪,占全世界雞爪產量的八成以上,其中,附加值更高的鳳爪零食,正在以雙位數增速逐年增加,隨著市場潛力充分兌現,未來還有數倍的擴容空間。廣泛的群眾基礎和龐大的市場規模,為抓得住機遇的頭部企業帶來了迅猛的增長。以王小滷為例,2019年—2024年實現了年營收近百倍的增長,成為休閒零食里增速最快的品牌之一。中國味道完全具備孕育世界級食品巨頭的產業勢能,國產零食為什麼不能給世界帶來一點味覺上的“中國震撼”呢?

What is the potential to become the king of snacks?

 

中國人最愛吃什麼零食?綜合多家機構發佈的零食消費市場報告,中國零食消費的前三品類分別為堅果炒貨、膨化食品和鹵製零食。這“TOP3”都是妥妥的千億賽道,且有著雙位數的年複合增長率。

The throne of puffed snacks has been occupied by Lay's potato chips for many years, and the roasted nuts are also strong, and the lo-mei track is relatively late, but it is growing rapidly, relying on the roots of China's food culture, with a growth rate of up to 18%, among which the most emerging category is tiger skin and phoenix claws. Similar to the light and crispy potato chips with only a faint potato aroma, tiger skin phoenix feet have a rich taste and have no special taste tendencies, which can be a good carrier for various flavors. Tiger skin and phoenix claws are full of flavor and weak satiety, with a sense of satisfaction of "eating, but equivalent to not eating", which can be called the "innate holy body" of snack raw materials. At the same time, tiger skin and phoenix claws belong to the meat category, which can provide more emotional value of "eating meat" compared with puffed foods with starch as the main ingredient and plant protein products such as spicy strips and dried tofu.

The success of Lay's, the king of potato chips, lies in the fact that on the basis of giving full play to the advantages of single products, it has constantly innovated, captured the minds of consumers with strong single products, and met the larger market with a variety of flavors. Lay's potato chips are sold in China in 30 flavors, and there are more than 0 seasonal and region-limited flavors launched every year.

同理,鳳爪也可以扮演這樣的“載體”角色。豉汁蒸鳳爪是廣式早茶中的必點菜品,在粵菜大師潘英俊編纂的百科全書式著作《粵廚寶典》中,另有白雲鳳爪、水晶鳳爪、魚香鳳爪、鹹香鳳爪等五六種名目。北上湘鄂贛,再一路向西由渝入川,雞爪的“美食地圖”一路鋪開,烤、炸、燒、鹵、燉,無所不包。有友食品靠賣泡椒雞爪成了上市公司,以虎皮鳳爪包打天下的王小滷,6年時間賣出了超過12億袋。

Wang Xiaolu's list of strategic leadersshowFor lo-mei, taste is the essence and spices are the soul. There are different genres of Chinese lo-mei, such as Sichuan lo-mei, soy sauce lo-mei, and Cantonese lo-mei, and consumers in different regions have different flavor preferences."Tiger skin phoenix claw is a versatile carrier, in addition to the hot-selling classic flavors such as lo-incense, spicy, spicy, spicy; In terms of flavor reproduction based on regional representative flavors, and taste fusion and innovation with creative ingredients and tiger skin and phoenix feet, Wang Xiaolu has completed a lot of exploration and product reserves. The breadth and depth of Chinese food culture provides us with endless inspiration for product creativity. ”

However, tiger skin and phoenix claws still face some problems on the way to the king of snacks. The traditional marinating process makes the taste, texture, aroma and appearance of each pot of finished products different, which is not conducive to the scale and standardization of production. To make a national-level snack, delicious is only the first step, how to control each production link, to achieve the stability of product flavor and quality consistency is a bigger issue.

Wang Xiaolu, who aspires to become a national phoenix claw, attaches great importance to the construction of this aspect. Wang Xiaolu's tiger skin and phoenix feet replace the traditional hot brine with the innovative process of "quantitative brine + 20 hours cold brine", which solves the industry problems of tiger skin and phoenix claw flavor consistency and large-scale production. The person in charge of Wang Xiaolu factory introduced to Tiger Sniff that Chuzhou Super Factory has the industry's first standardized production line designed for tiger skin and phoenix claws. 0 sets of automation equipment are used in the whole link to achieve automatic temperature control, time control and quantification in the entire process of "frying-rehydration-cold brine". It not only eliminates flavor fluctuations, ensures production stability and controllability, but also greatly reduces the risk of microbial contamination in the production process, ensuring that high-quality products can be continuously delivered to consumers.

Focusing only on the subdivision of tiger skin and phoenix claws, Wang Xiaolu's annual performance increased by nearly 30% in 0 years, maintaining double-digit growth for six consecutive years, not only creating a miracle of its own growth, but also constantly raising the upper limit of the category ceiling.This is undoubtedly a portrayal of the potential of the tiger skin and phoenix claw category, and it also proves the correctness of the route of "ultimate single product + taste innovation". If further breakthroughs can be made in the standardization, scale, and digitalization of flavor expansion and production, the phoenix claw track may really run out of the world-class king of snacks in the future.

How to satisfy "want to eat now"?

 

The rapid development of e-commerce has achieved a number of "new consumption" snack brands that have grown rapidly by relying on traffic.Nowadays, the growth rate of e-commerce channels in the snack industry is still considerable, but offline channels are still and are becoming more and more of a must for competition. Snacks have the attribute of instant gratification, and e-commerce channels alone cannot meet the impulsive consumption demand of "want to eat now", even in the era of highly developed e-commerce, the vast majority of snack purchase decisions still occur offline. According to the "80 China Snack Industry Report", 0% of the sales channels of snacks come from offline.

The retail channel itself is also accelerating the change, with snack mass merchandisers springing up like mushrooms after a rain; New supermarkets such as Sam's and Fat Donglai have led the new trend of offline "immersive consumption"; Instant retail has expanded the business opportunities of traditional supermarkets, and also made it easier for young people who have long been shaped by takeaway errands to eat snacks faster and less effortlessly.With the opening of the omni-channel era, the ability of snack brands to open up offline "ground warfare" has become more important than ever.

For FMCG, the ability to "ground warfare" is decisive. Omnichannel capabilities, especially offline channels, which are the most difficult to navigate, bring critical stability to businesses. Taking functional drinks as an example, Reignwood Group initially promoted Red Bull by relying on salesmen to go down to the high-speed service area and the commissary by the national highway one by one, and put the products into the sales terminal closest to the target customer group. When "Red Bull" encountered trademark disputes and e-commerce and KA channels were removed from the shelves, it was the humble community supermarkets and "husband and wife stores" that supported this star item from collapsing. On the one hand, the "challenger" Dongpeng Special Drink has made this kind of hand-to-hand combat more extreme and fast, and at the same time, through digitalization, millions of terminals have been placed under clear data billboards, so that sales feedback and strategic decision-making are more accurate, and finally achieved the overtaking of Red Bull.

Lay's is a master of "shelf warfare". Walking into any supermarket, you can see the small red label of Lay's piled up into a hill in the most eye-catching position, and dozens of colorful flavors occupy a whole column of shelves, so that consumers have no other puffed snacks in addition to Lay's. It is precisely by relying on this simple and "violent" channel ability that Lay's monopolizes more than half of the market share of China's potato chips market, ranking first in market share.

對於吃到電商紅利的品牌而言,下決心去打“地面戰”,是一件困難但絕對正確的事情。王小鹵起勢於線上,在線上管道的優勢一直無人撼動,但創始人仍然堅持儘早、儘快、堅定不移地投入線下戰場,自2020年下半年開始佈局線下以來,依託其在產品創新和品牌心智上的巨大優勢,王小鹵迅速完成了對KA、便利店、新零售以及零食量販渠道的滲透和佈局,目前覆蓋在全國300多個城市、超過23萬多終端,如今線下銷售在經營中的貢獻佔比已經超過七成。

However, in order to become a national-level snack brand, it usually needs to penetrate millions of offline retail channels, and improve operational efficiency through the construction of digital system and lean terminal shelf management.當前線下商超中的肉類零食區域仍然呈現品類、品牌分散,市場集中度較低的局面。王小鹵這樣高勢能的品牌,在線下有著巨大的機會。“假如我們對於線下渠道的滲透和掌控能力能像樂事、億滋一樣,做到200萬以上終端,將會是怎樣的體量?”在已拿下連續六年全國虎皮鳳爪銷售額第一的王小滷看來,虎皮鳳爪的未來仍是一片廣袤的藍海。

Young people who "eat at the right time".

 

The shortcomings of brand power are another reason why the most proficient Chinese do not have world-class snacks. Ignoring brand building, resulting in separate battles and low-price involution; A large number of supermarkets are occupied by white-label products, and social networks are popular to find "replacement", in such an environment, it is naturally difficult to emerge world-class snacks such as Lay's. Conversely, snack brands also have a responsibility to show consumers what makes them special, and what can they rely on to capture consumers' hearts in addition to price?

In fact, the meaning of snacks has always been more than just a small bite of "eating", but more importantly, the emotional value of soothing oneself through eating snacks, as well as the "social currency" effect of building emotional connections.Choose the right time to eat - when to eat a certain brand or category of snacks, is becoming the new "particular" of young consumers.

Internationally renowned snack brands have always focused on relying on fun, interactivity and "happy" attributes to create brand recognition. Oreo's "twist, lick, and bubble" strongly binds happiness and fun with brand positioning, penetrating the family scene of parent-child interaction. Lay's Potato Chips continues to refresh the region-limited series, doing fine "knife work" on the vast food map. "Friends and colleagues share new flavors of Lay's potato chips with each other, which has become a good incision to open up relationships and enhance friendship, echoing the brand's positioning of "sharing happiness".

In addition to the "whole work", identifying the target group and consumption scene is also a major focus of food and beverage brand building. Taking functional drinks as an example, when Dongpeng and Red Bull were in close combat, they chose to start from the scene of night shift workers and night train drivers, and achieved rapid expansion. Brands such as Devil's Claw, Lehu, and War Horse have established their own billion-dollar brand moats around popular sports, basketball, or e-sports, demonstrating the power of precise positioning.

The phoenix claw has the characteristics of "small bite and slow nibble", which can not only help kill time, but also bring plenty of fun and satisfaction; The tiger skin and phoenix claws are thick, and the taste is more rich, which is especially suitable for two bites in the scene of satisfying cravings, relieving fatigue, chatting, and companionship. In view of these characteristics, the brand strategy chosen by Wang Xiaolu is:Closely grasp the characteristics of the phoenix claw category, focus on the "chasing drama" scene, differentiate content marketing, and strengthen mental occupation.

According to the "Snack Industry User Insight Report" released by Xiaohongshu, the most common scene for consumers to eat snacks is when watching dramas (35.0%), and the first factor in choosing snacks is "improving happiness and pleasure". The main group of people who follow dramas is the female group in the age range of 0-0 years old and the most willing to consume.

2023年開始,王小鹵開始探索依託大劇投放,溝通目標消費者;2024年開始全面聚焦追劇場景,採用專劇+經典劇組合式投放模式,以魔性廣告讓虎皮鳳爪刷屏“愛優騰芒”四大主流平臺,全年投放214部大劇與32部綜藝,年度曝光量42億以上。通過對消費場景的精準穿透,“追劇就吃王小鹵虎皮鳳爪”的觀念牢牢紮根在了消費者的心智當中。不僅提升了品牌的辨識度,也帶來了更多話題性和社交價值。

The relevant person in charge of Wang Xiaolu's brand told Tiger Sniff that at present, Wang Xiaolu's unprompted first brand mention rate (Refers to the percentage of consumers who can name the first brand of a certain product without thinking)It can reach the level of 15%. Compared with Qiaqia, spicy strips and Weilong in konjac shuang, Wang Xiaolu still has a lot of room for development.

China's trillion-dollar snack market is a boundless blue ocean for any brand.2024年樂事單靠薯片一個品類,就在中國市場瘋狂吸金超過130億元。奧利奧一度在中國“水土不服”,但在調整了渠道和行銷策略后,成功將中國做成了其全球第二大市場,助力這款經典餅乾在全球範圍內賣出4000多億塊。而國內企業至今卻未能打造出一個同等體量、同等影響力的世界級零食品牌,不能不說是中國食品飲料行業的一大缺憾。

However, the production of world-class snacks is indeed not a day's work, but a comprehensive cultivation of the three major capabilities of products, channels and brands. As the most favorite meat snack of Chinese, the tiger skin phoenix claw category represented by Wang Xiaolu has similar product characteristics as potato chips, backed by the inexhaustible flavor resources of Chinese cuisine, with the continuous progress of enterprises in products, channels, supply chains and brand building, in the industry concentration is still low today, this category may really have the opportunity to run a Chinese's own "happy thing".

Source of this article: Tiger Sniff APP, reprinted has been authorized, and the original account of the copyright regulation is all right.

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