The 2020 National Health Insight Report shows that young people have become the most anxious group about their own health. The post-90s generation is the most representative group. Ali data shows that in the past three years, "post-90 s" has become the backbone of online purchase of nourishing nutrients. For this group of consumers, "anti-sugar", "fat reduction", "whitening", "anti-aging" and "brain strengthening" have become important keywords in the consumption scene.
In this context, functional food has built a market of 100 billion in China. According to the consulting data of Ai Media, the market size of functional products in China is expected to increase from 222.7 billion yuan in 20 19 to 330.7 billion yuan in 20021year, with a growth rate of nearly 50%. During the period of "double 1 1" in 2020, there are 20 functional nutrition retail brands among the top 100 brands in food and beverage sales.
In the past two years, the functional food brands represented by BuffX have been very active and won the favor of capital. From June 5438 to February 2020, LemonBox received a multi-million-dollar Pre-A round of financing; In March, 20021,minayo completed Pre-A financing10 million RMB, which was invested exclusively by Northern Lights Venture Capital.
This is a promising market, but it is also a vague market.
At present, there is no concept of functional food in Chinese laws and regulations. Experts from the Nutrition Society of China held relevant discussions. Generally speaking, functional food refers to foods that have the functions of enhancing the body's defense function, regulating the circadian rhythm, preventing diseases, and promoting health. This definition is more like a barrier between ordinary food and health care products.
Experts pointed out that traditional health care products are actually rejected by most young people, but young people have health needs, and functional foods have also complied with this demand to some extent. At the same time, for some mature health care products companies, they often face huge cost and regulatory pressure, and the introduction of new products is relatively conservative, but it is different for functional foods that are not completely in the track of health care products.
Different from traditional health care products, functional foods look more like' snacks'. Experts mentioned that many functional foods are now made into jelly, soft candy, drinks and other forms. These products look similar, but in fact, in different market segments, the effect is different.
From the efficacy point of view, functional foods can be roughly divided into three categories: one is mainly to protect the liver and help sleep, such as chocolate to help sleep, OLLY melanin removal and so on. ; One is to reduce fat and lose weight, such as bioe pumpkin enzyme, BuffX pre-meal blocking, meal replacement energy ball and so on. The other kind tends to nourish the stomach and moisten the intestines, such as mayonnaise probiotic yogurt tablets.
According to public information, functional products in small packages are more easily accepted by consumers when they are fragmented. Therefore, at the packaging level, most functional foods are packaged in small bags, and the packaging design is more personalized, which meets the aesthetic needs of young people aged 18-30.
At the level of marketing channels, with the rise of new traffic platforms, the multiple layouts of content ecology have become the styles of many functional food brands. The little red book and Tik Tok are two important positions. Taking Xiaohongshu as an example, the brand promotes product recognition and transformation by choosing middle-waist KOL and celebrities deeply planting grass. For example, many people planted bioe pumpkin enzyme in Andrew's little red book notes before.
At the same time, brands are constantly improving their brand power and product power. Take WonderLab as an example. WonderLab was founded on 20 19, and became the first new consumer brand of meal replacement one year later, with sales reaching 60 million. Since then, WonderLab has been selected as a super rookie brand of Tmall by signing a new product "Drinking Fat Milk Tea Research Institute" with Xicha. In September 2020, the first brand spokesperson Vin was officially announced. At that time, Weibo read more than 250 million topics.
In February of this year, WonderLab's oral hyaluronic acid fudge was put on the shelves of Tmall, becoming the first brand in China to sell oral hyaluronic acid fudge.
"The needs of consumers are constantly diversified, and products should also be diversified. Young consumers are becoming the main consumers of functional foods and drinks, and instantaneity and functionality are the future development direction. In the future, food technology will continue to improve, and the supply chain and channels will be improved. In this case, functional foods may become just needed in the future, but it is difficult because strictly speaking, there are few relevant regulations. " The above experts mentioned.
In fact, the contents of relevant laws and regulations are being improved. 202 1 1 7, National Health Commission announced 15 kinds of "three new foods". Three new food raw materials, such as sodium hyaluronate, have passed the examination and can be applied to ordinary food additives.
In February, 20021year, the General Administration of Market Supervision issued the Provisions on the Available Accessories and Their Use of Health Food Filing Products (version 202 1 year) and other related documents, pointing out that powdered and gelatinous candy was included in the health food filing dosage form, and it was implemented from June, 20021year to June, 20021year.
"When the image of health care products is reversed, we dare to say that we are doing health care products." Le Kang, the founder of BuffX, once mentioned it.
Liu Ying | Wen