Edit | Siqi
"Reviving old Chinese goods" has become a small outlet in the field of consumer goods marketing.
On the one hand, "the resurgence of domestic products" stepped on the childhood memory points of the post-80 s and post-90 s and played the "emotional realization card"; On the other hand, in the cognition of younger post-90s and post-00s consumers, these "cool" domestic products also represent a trendy way and attitude. From "China Li Ning" to "Leaping sneakers" without exception. In the field of food and beverage, 36Kr's recently exposed "Hankou No.2 Factory Soda" is also a player in the field of retro tide.
The soda in Hankou No.2 Factory originated from an offline flash purchase on 20 17. The quick sale of the "replica" old soda made the team realize that this might be a good business, so they quickly threw themselves into it.
According to the data provided by the team of Hankou No.2 Factory, the annual sales of this brand was 90 million yuan in 20 18, and this year the sales of this brand is expected to reach 300 million yuan.
Consumer goods entrepreneurship is a cross-border practice of the founding team of Hankou No.2 Factory. From the data level alone, this approach has taken the first step of success, and the soaring popularity on social networks has also made Hankou No.2 Factory a new online celebrity. Founder Kimi has his own thoughts on the development of the brand. She told 36Kr that "taking off the hat of online celebrities" is the next important task of the team.
Before the establishment of "Hankou No.2 Factory", the founder Kimi and Li Minghe's own team operated a lifestyle experience store "Ming 19th-Lifestyle Suggestions Store". This team, composed of advertising practitioners, lifestyle buyers and fashion life museum partners, transformed an old house of the Republic of China in Wuhan, and the birth of Hankou No.2 Factory was also related to it.
2065438+August 2007, Ming 19- Lifestyle Advice Store launched the "Soda Rebirth Plan of No.2 Factory". In fact, the theme of this flash event is the urban culture of Wuhan, so the core goal of the "Rebirth Plan" is not simply to "re-carve" this old-fashioned soda.
Strictly speaking, the full name of "No.2 Factory Soda" in the memory of Wuhan locals is "Riverside Soda", formerly known as Heli Soda, which was founded by British businessmen in Wuhan, and its history can be traced back to 192 1 year. Because the manufacturer of Binjiang brand soda is the State-owned No.2 Wuhan Beverage Factory, it has also been nicknamed "No.2 Factory soda". This is why the team chose to grab the label of "Soda in the Second Factory" as an activity to awaken the memory of the city.
To the team's surprise, the activity of "Re-engraving No.2 Factory Soda" was a great success: the first batch of 654.38+00000 bottles were sold out quickly.
A replica of the classic "No.2 Factory Soda"
"Reshaping old brands and returning disappeared products to the market" has its own traffic topic attribute.
In 20 17, the "Mohji Peach Juice" beverage launched on the Tiantian Fresh Platform also screened the circle of friends of "Beijing Children", and the "canteen" sold all kinds of snacks from the student days, which was the key word of the online celebrity store newly launched in 20 18.
The "feelings" behind retro can easily catch the eye of old-school nostalgic customers, and behind the success of this activity, the power of "new retro hipsters" can not be underestimated.
In this "unexpected" success, the founding team found that although there was no "second factory soda" in the childhood of young people after 1995 and 00, for them, "old age" was a novelty, so young people actually bought emotional products for their social interaction and communication, and the second factory soda also refreshed the social platform.
After the flash marketing activities, the team quickly plunged into the creation of the brand of "Hankou No.2 Factory". Four months later, this brand that pays tribute to lifestyle and urban memory was officially born.
This also means that after "emotional marketing" turned on the switch of consumers' emotions, "Hankou No.2 Factory" also began to materialize from a flashing event theme to a product. If the popularity of the "Second Factory Soda Rebirth Plan" is due to stepping on the urban memory of local consumers in Wuhan, as a consumer product, it is obviously unsustainable to rely solely on feelings.
A toast to the market: transmitting "Wuhan flavor" to the whole country
Before I contacted Hankou No.2 Factory, one of my puzzles was that "Hankou No.2 Factory" belonged to the Wuhan family. How can we inspire consumers in more regions to share the same memories? For example, a consumer in Xi 'an who embraces "Bing Feng" may not have much recognition of "Hankou No.2 Factory".
Kimi's answer is that if we want to arouse consumers' feelings, regional identity is a dimension, an experience of the "Second Factory Soda Rebirth Plan" activity, and a dimension around a certain cultural label, which refers to the "Hankou Second Factory" Soda. Kimi also stressed that Hankou No.2 Factory is not simply trying to "resurrect" an old product.
Before discussing Hankou No.2 Factory in detail, let's take a look at the basic situation of the domestic beverage market:
According to the statistical data of Forecast and Analysis Report on Production and Marketing Demand and Investment of Soft Drink Industry in China by Forward-looking Industry Research Institute, in the quarter of 20 18+0-3, the national beverage output showed an increasing trend, with a cumulative sales income of 204 billion yuan, up 9% year-on-year. The number of enterprises in the beverage manufacturing industry has reached 6745, just like all FMCG products: many brands and low concentration.
Consumers change too fast, but most companies' products are relatively single. At present, they are generally still in the situation of "eating all over the world with one move". By the end of 20 18, the leading companies in the industry lacked storage capacity in category saving and development, which led to performance bottleneck and weak innovation. At the end of 20 19, China Resources Ipoh only sold 19 SKUs. At present, we can see the unified "Xiao Ming Classmate" and Nongfu Spring's "Tea π" and "Oriental Leaves", and the prices are around 5 yuan.
Another trend is that "category segmentation" is becoming a new track in the beverage industry, and the market performance of vegetable protein drinks, soda water and coconut water represented by soybean milk is also quite good. In 20 15, Vitazico's sales in China reached 10 billion yuan, as early as 20 14, which was a coconut water brand owned by Coca-Cola Company. It is not difficult to find that these popular categories are also linked to "health". In addition, the high-end products of 10 yuan are mainly occupied by foreign brands entering China.
The Core Products of "Hankou No.2 Factory"
Upgrade quality conforms to the general trend of health, and at the same time be a lifestyle vane.
In Kimi's own words, although the team is still an emerging new player in the field of FMCG, it is also a group of "professional consumers". From the consumer's point of view, Kimi's "Hankou No.2 Factory" is a product that conforms to the aesthetics of young people and matches the lifestyle of young people: delicious, healthy and fashionable soda.
The product upgrading team first embodies in taste innovation and raw material optimization.
Carbonic acid is a product flavor that young people can't give up, but it violates the general trend of health. Consumers who can't give up Coca-Cola will take the initiative to choose the "Zero" series, and Hankou No.2 Factory will upgrade the raw materials to ensure the taste and make those carbonic acid lovers "more assured". In terms of raw materials, the team chose real concentrated juice instead of essence. The juice content of orange juice soda is 60%, which is strictly an aerated juice.
Looking at the price positioning, Hankou No.2 Factory sets its own price of 6~ 10 yuan. The prices of domestic brands are mostly below 6 yuan, while those of imported brands are above 15 yuan, and there is a price gap between them. The price positioning of 6 ~ 65,438+00 yuan helps the brand avoid competition from both sides. From the price point of view, Hankou No.2 Factory also fits the essence of "more expensive, better" consumption upgrade.
In addition, another reason for choosing this price range is that the team needs to ensure product quality and subsequent channel planning from the perspective of cost.
"Retro tide" is the key word of Hankou No.2 Factory.
Under the theme of "the revival of domestic products", the cultural trend of retro rejuvenation is also worthy of attention. After all, curiosity and recognition at the value level are also one of the driving forces of consumption. For example, the new pants band, which has just been known to the public through "Summer of the Band", is not only engaged in rock music, but also promoting domestic culture. In 2008, founder Pang Kuan founded ByeDisco to promote China's retro culture through stores, products and exhibitions.
In addition to the glass bottle material, the label style of the products returned to Hankou No.2 Factory is also easily reminiscent of the old Shanghai-style advertising posters in the 1920s.
If health is the pursuit of young people on the quality level, then from the brand value attribute, from the perspective of "retro trend", Hankou No.2 Factory directly points its target customer base to "young hipsters" and then begins to build a brand image of "unwilling to be mediocre".
Marketing and promotion is the sector that the founding team is good at, and the brand's "flash" marketing is naturally brought into full play, which attracts both eyes and gold: in terms of market actions, a series of activities in line with the brand's tonality make the brand image quickly take shape and quickly open its popularity among the target "young hipsters". For example, cooperate with Li Ning to launch customized drinks, participate in offline activities such as music festivals, and invite female rap groups to endorse brands.
Cross-border cooperation between Hankou No.2 Factory and Li Ning
Channel layout: guided by accurate user groups, offline first and then online.
Although Hankou No.2 Factory was born in Wuhan, it concentrated on first-tier cities such as Shanghai, Beijing, Hangzhou and Shenzhen, followed by cities with tourism attributes such as Xi and Chengdu. In these urban areas, the team also focused on high-end retail channels such as convenience stores, Box Horse Fresh Life and China Resources Ole.
As mentioned earlier, Hankou No.2 Factory has targeted customer orientation as a "young hipster". At the same time, these people also pay attention to product quality, have knowledge and are willing to pay a certain premium for high-quality products. Their consumption and lifestyle determine their purchase channels, so Hankou No.2 Factory chooses to enter these channels to contact its potential users.
Of course, whether it is the choice of cities or the layout of channels, we can also answer the question of "how Wuhan flavor goes to the whole country" mentioned earlier.
The reason why we can enter these channels is that the price positioning of 6~ 10 yuan actually enables Hankou No.2 Factory to give dealers higher profits, even higher than the products of FMCG giants.
After completing the offline exposure and accumulation, on June 24th this year, the official flagship store of Hankou No.2 Factory was officially launched, and the team started its own online layout.
It is not difficult to find that emerging beverage brands seem to be taking a channel path from offline to online. Before another emerging beverage brand "Yuanmian Forest" entered the online market, its channel laying efforts were also concentrated in the chain convenience store system in first-and second-tier cities, such as convenience bee in Beijing and convenience store today in Wuhan.
New Consumer Brands' Demands of "Going to Internet Celebrities" and "Traffic Anxiety"
We regard the above-mentioned cross-border marketing and flash as an attempt at the brand level of Hankou No.2 Factory, with the goal of strengthening consumers' recognition of brand value. For FMCG, beyond the branding level, the more practical appeal is, how to generate more exposure and reach?
"Flow" is an unavoidable problem in the current consumer brand entrepreneurship. Hankou No.2 Factory is no exception.
Although born with "internet celebrity gene", "internet celebrity" not only means enough attention, but also implies the risk of limited life cycle and unsustainable brand potential. Therefore, Kimi told 36Kr that "going to an online celebrity" has always been the team's recent goal.
The "de-online celebrity" of Hankou No.2 Factory is more about how to strengthen the product strength, which is not in contradiction with the "flow anxiety" of the new brand. After all, the difference between new consumer brands and traditional giants is that they can quickly find their own accurate crowd and use some "levers" to "intelligently" complete the transformation of users.
In fact, the relatively unique product design provides the first-Mover advantage for Hankou No.2 Factory, and further divides the product line of Hankou No.2 Factory into two categories: mobile type and regular type. The team hopes to gain consumers' continuous attention to the whole brand of "Hankou No.2 Factory" by constantly introducing "flow-money" products with their own topics and communication ability, and finally form their minds and drive the sales of conventional products.
From inspirational soda to cheering litchi, orange soda as a city souvenir, to love soda as a confession bottle, and then to meow soda as a face-changing bottle, this month, the brand listed a bottle with steam that can be drawn by lot. Obviously, this series of new products meet all the elements of "network celebrity products" in terms of design, product interaction and social communication. The compact speed of new products and event marketing enable Hankou No.2 Factory to maintain a high retention rate for its social media popularity.
The continuous introduction of traffic products not only represents the product ability and control of the team in the supply chain, but also helps the brand to play an active role in marketing, exposure and communication. For normal SKUs such as "inspirational soda" (litchi soda), the team will not promote too many topics.
Rapid innovation is not only to win "attention" for the brand, but also to consider from the perspective of product optimization: in the "Research Report on New Consumption Power" of 36Kr, we also mentioned that entrepreneurs of new consumer brands began to iterate products like Internet products.
Traditional beverage enterprises inevitably encounter the problem of slow product iteration, which is behind the mismatch between the whole process mechanism and the offline consumption environment. My understanding is that in the product combination of "flow money" and "term money", "flow money" can also be regarded as a "public beta" link before the product is officially launched.
Of course, the more novel brand image also gives "Hankou No.2 Factory" the advantage of entering emerging channels. After all, the powerful communication properties of products can also bring in-store traffic to offline channels.
In order to prove the rise of new consumption power, we have brought a research report | 20 19 New Consumption in China.
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I'm Siqi, 36Kr, and I'm concerned about everything related to new consumption. Welcome everyone to have comments and communicate with me. (Please specify name-company position-purpose), WeChat, HannahHQ723.