This summer, eating ice cream no longer seems to be a simple thing. With more and more categories starting at five or ten yuan, the era of affordable ice cream seems to be ending. This reminds me of Xi'an Bell Tower Milk Cake...
Ice cream is getting more and more expensive as it sells
Being ridiculed: "Don't take it easily if you don't know it"
Nowadays, when you walk into a convenience store, all kinds of novelty ice cream are filled with the freezer: there are Some are successful because of their special taste, some are popular because of their creative styling, and some are eye-catching because of their health and low-fat... They have replaced the summer-relieving thing that many people remember as "popsicles".
However, the ice cream industry has been upgraded as a whole, and the price has been rising in line with the trend. A bottle of 66 yuan is as high as Zhongxue Gao, and the same price is Moutai ice cream... Faced with Internet celebrity ice cream that often starts at ten yuan and costs tens of yuan for a small cup, netizens ridiculed it as " Don’t take it lightly if you don’t know it.”
Huashang Daily reporters visited four chain convenience stores in Xi'an's Beilin District and Yanta District last week and found that each store had more than a dozen different brands and flavors of ice cream in the freezers. Among these ice creams, there are 6 types under 5 yuan, about half of them are between 5 and 10 yuan, and about 30% are over 10 yuan. Among them, the most expensive rum and grape ice cream sells for 32 yuan.
A cold drink shop opened near an elementary school. Six freezers display dozens of ice cream categories. There are common ice creams such as Keiduo, Qiaolezi, , etc., as well as new Chinese ice creams such as Zhong Xuegao. The prices range from a few yuan. It ranges from tens of yuan to tens of yuan.
"With the recent high temperatures, the sales of ice cream have increased significantly." The person in charge of the store said. Nowadays, there are many types of ice cream and ice cream for about ten yuan, but because there are many students coming to buy cold drinks, the ice cream for about five yuan is the most popular.
Industry insiders said the increase in ice cream prices was due to rising costs and marketing expenses. Low-priced ice cream does not have high profits; the more expensive the category, the more profitable it is.
Mr. Yu, who has been engaged in cold drink wholesale for a long time, said that the cost of ice cream production mainly depends on the ingredients. For example, the most basic ingredients of milk-flavored ice cream are milk, water, sugar and additives. In theory, the higher the price, the better the ingredients and the better taste. . But even if you add pure cream and high-strength cheese, or use imported raw materials and relatively high-end raw materials such as blueberry , raspberry , the cost can be controlled to a few yuan.
In Mr. Yu’s view, the key to the serious premium on ice cream is marketing. In order to adapt to the market competition in the traffic era, merchants are competing to provide ice cream with high-end raw materials and unique packaging, causing product prices to rise. If it is an online order, cold chain logistics is also required to cooperate with the distribution, storage and transportation system. This part of the cost is also passed on to the selling price of the ice cream.
Zhong Xuegao continues to be controversial but sells well
Some dealers claim that the repurchase rate after sinking into the market is average
The great master of institutional economics Veblen proposed the "Veblen effect" in "Theory of the Leisure Class": The higher the price of some commodities, the more favored they are by consumers. This peculiar law of
not only applies to luxury goods, but can also be found in the originally low-priced ice cream consumption field. For example, Zhong Xuegao was jokingly called by netizens as "punching Haagen-Dazs and stepping on Mengniu Yili".
The outside world complains about Zhong Xuegao about whether it is worth the money. In 2021, its founder Lin Sheng revealed that the most expensive one was sold for 66 yuan a piece, which caused quite a controversy at the time, and Zhong Xuegao even became a hot search topic.
In fact, 66 yuan is not the price ceiling for Zhong Xue. In his online flagship store, the products are sold in combinations. The most expensive Ghana black gold series is priced at 256 yuan for a pack of 8 pieces. Zhong Xuegao’s cake series ice cream starts at 156 yuan for two boxes.
Despite constant controversies, in the just-concluded 618 promotion, Zhong Xuegao ranked first in Tmall’s ice products for three consecutive years, and also ranked first in sales of ice products in JD.com POP store, and Douyin ice cream brand’s self-broadcast sales Uh first.
In addition, judging from monthly sales data, higher-priced categories such as , Menglong, , and Xujinhuan have also achieved good results on e-commerce platforms. Some analysts at
believe that despite the economic downturn caused by the epidemic, ice cream has been thriving, which actually implies the principle of the "lipstick effect". Because ice cream is a non-essential item that is absolutely cheap but feels relatively luxurious.
But according to Lei Hongzhen, dean of the International Business School of Shaanxi Normal University, the popularity of high-priced ice cream is the result of market stratification after consumption upgrades. On the one hand, there was a gap in the mid-to-high-end domestic ice cream market in the past; on the other hand, most ice cream consumers are young people, who are more willing to pay for face and sharing, and pay more attention to the "appearance" of the product. Ice cream thus embodies a certain social function.
However, although many high-priced ice creams, such as Zhong Xuegao, are selling well on e-commerce platforms, some dealers revealed to the media that Zhong Xuegao’s repurchase rate was average after the market was dropped, and because of poor sales, they had to lose money in the end. .
In the "Ten Yuan Era" of ice cream, many people think of Bell Tower Milk Cake
Some people say that this year can be called the "Ten Yuan Era" of two commodities, one is the price of oil, and the other is ice cream.
When the freezers of convenience stores are occupied by a large number of high-priced ice creams, many people in Xi'an begin to think of the summer decades ago - at home, some bell tower milk cakes are always frozen in the refrigerator. There is no difficulty in choosing, but simple and happy.
From the 1970s to the beginning of the 21st century, Bell Tower Milk Cake was popular in Shaanxi, and also entered the market in Gansu, Hubei, Shanxi and other places. At its peak, there were more than 30 wholesale outlets and direct-operated stores in Xi'an alone. There are many small vendors selling in the streets and alleys.
Later, more and more cold drink brands began to compete in Xi'an, but the glory of Bell Tower Milk Cake was no longer the same. After 2010, Bell Tower Milk Cake was almost difficult to find in the market in Xi'an, and was even rumored to be "discontinued."
Facing the "blue ocean" with huge potential in Xi'an, foreign ice cream brands such as DQ and Haagen-Dazs are rushing to open stores, and domestic dairy giants such as Mengniu and Yili are also making plans.
Faced with the financial and scale advantages of foreign brands, the sales channels of Bell Tower Milk Cake were greatly affected. Therefore, it faded out of the Xi'an market and turned to sinking markets inside and outside the province.
As a manufacturer of Bell Tower milk cakes, Xi'an Bell Tower Cold Food Co., Ltd. has undergone relocation and reconstruction during this period. The factory was first moved to Daxing Road and then to Banpo Road. In 2016, there was news that it was moved to Hanzhong , with a company Co-production.
According to the industrial and commercial registration information guidelines, a reporter from the Chinese Business Daily saw a building near Banpo Road in Xi'an last week with the logo of Xi'an Bell Tower Cold Food Co., Ltd. and an auto repair shop. After contacting a staff member by phone, the other person said that currently the administrative offices and cold storage are mainly at the Xi'an company, and part of the ice cream production is completed outside.
Later, the reporter saw from the packaging bag of the Bell Tower Milk Cake that the reporter saw that the production address was shown as Xingping Food Industrial Park.
However, compared to many years ago, Bell Tower Milk Cake has also undergone changes. For example, product lines are divided into premium series, ordinary series, etc. In addition, in terms of sales channels, in recent years, Bell Tower Milk Cake has expanded into e-commerce and special logistics delivery.
Why didn’t Shaanxi’s local ice cream circle develop “ Bingfeng ”?
More than 20 years ago, the distance was far away, cold chain transportation was underdeveloped, and most of the ice cream everyone ate was locally produced: Beijing Yili "Double Stick", Shanghai Guangming Milk Brick, Guangzhou Wuyang Ice Cream, Lanzhou 504 , Bell Tower Milk Cake is one of Xi’an’s representative brands.
Xia Qiang, executive director of Xi'an Beilin Characteristic Street District Construction and Development Co., Ltd., is an old Xi'an native. In his impression, ice cream sales used to have distinct regional characteristics, with multiple brands even in the same city. In addition to the famous Bell Tower Milk Cake, there were also Hongqi, Ice Dog, Hawaii, Snow Ice, etc. in the Xi'an market back then, but some of them have disappeared over time. Why does the ice cream in
memory disappear? Xia Qiang believes that first, the market is reshuffled, and leading companies have the advantage of capital and resources. For example, in previous years, Luxue, Yili, Mengniu, etc. provided dealers with freezers to dominate the market; second, consumers have more choices and are not interested in the taste of ice cream. , packaging, etc. are constantly putting forward new requirements; the third is business decision-making. Many brands failed to choose to stick to it after encountering difficulties.
At the end of the 20th century, foreign brands such as Heluxue, Nestlé , and Haagen-Dazs entered the Chinese market. In an era when ice cream could be bought for just a few cents, they quickly became synonymous with mid- to high-end products.
This is quite similar to when domestic beverages were crushed by foreign capital.The difference is that the ice cream market is divided more carefully, and domestic leaders such as Yili and Mengniu have performed well and taken more shares. According to data from the
Forward-looking Industry Research Institute, from 2015 to 2021, the market size of my country's ice cream and ice cream industry has increased from less than 90 billion yuan to 160 billion yuan, with a cumulative increase of more than 90% in six years.
An important reason for this is the continued rise in retail prices of ice cream.
Ice cream is a seasonal product in most areas of our country, which is equivalent to the manufacturer having to sell it in one quarter to make a full year's profit. Therefore, many small ice cream companies that only produce a single product and a single area are gradually eliminated by the market.
In addition, changes in production costs also have an impact on the ice cream market and pricing strategies.
According to industry insiders, Xi'an's small milk cake market once formed fierce competition among Zhonglou , Miqi , Snowball and other brands. These brands have not raised prices much, but the rising costs have squeezed corporate profits and are not conducive to product upgrades. " Coupled with the high barriers to entry in the ice cream industry, many factors combined have resulted in the failure of Shaanxi's local ice cream manufacturers to persist like Bingfeng. "
Taste and price are still the core competitiveness behind the increasingly expensive ice cream.
Domestic established brands. Enterprises, foreign brands, and strong regional brands once constituted the "three pillars" of my country's ice cream market. However, this three-part world situation changed due to the intrusion of a group of "unicorns".
Zhongjie 1946, established in 2016, has set its sights on the high-end ice cream market that has long been occupied by foreign brands. Because of its differentiated features such as focusing on natural raw materials and limited flavors, it quickly attracted a group of young consumers. After a year, the "dark horse" Zhong Xuegao suddenly emerged and won success in new innovations and marketing.
Speaking of Zhongjie 1946 and Zhong Xuegao’s “out of the circle” promoters, Lin Sheng is indispensable. As the founder of Zhongxuegao, Lin Sheng has a background in advertising planning. He has also packaged Madier, and he understands the importance of building a brand under the traffic dividend.
Therefore, when Zhong Xuegao was first established, Lin Sheng drove the ice cream truck downstairs of Xiaohongshu and invited people to try it. In less than three months, he got more than 2,000 grass-growing notes—and won the "Marketing Highland" Xiaohongshu. In the red book, Zhong Xuegao's name gradually spread.
China Food Industry Analyst Zhu Danpeng believes that Zhong Xuegao and others are the result of favorable blessings such as consumption upgrades and domestic ice cream industrialization. Of course, the increasing price of ice cream is related to the increasing number of Internet celebrity brands in this track.
In today's traffic era, not only do consumers perceive the price of ice cream to rise linearly, but with the rise of new brands such as Zhong Xuegao, competition in the ice cream market has become lively again. Traditional brands have followed the consumption trend one after another, and have continued to make co-branding and cross-border moves. For example, in May this year, Mengniu and Kweichow Moutai jointly created Moutai ice cream.
In addition, many museums, tourist attractions, etc. also use it as a marketing carrier and have successively launched cultural and creative ice cream. At the end of May, the Xi'an City Wall Scenic Spot launched 12 types of "City·One Three Seven Four" ice cream, including cartoon characters such as "City Young General" and architectural shapes such as "Millennium Wild Goose Pagoda"; Shanxi Museum follows the " Bird Statue " After the ice cream, there is a new "鸮卣" ice cream. On June 1, Huangshan scenic spot officially launched a new and upgraded version of the "Welcoming Pine" cultural and creative ice cream...
However, in Zhu Danpeng's view, consumer preferences and needs are constantly changing. As far as ice cream is concerned, taste and price are still the core competitiveness. If there is no guarantee of quality and experience and only relies on gimmicks and marketing, there is still a question mark on how long it will be popular.
This means the opportunity for affordable ice cream to find its own position in cost performance. After all, pricing is not a zero-sum game for and . Huashang Daily reporter Li Cheng Text/Picture
