Unexpectedly, even ice cream freedom has appeared now... The era of one dollar for a popsicle in childhood has passed. With the ice cream industry rising and sky-high prices, should the sky-high price ice cream be brought down from the altar and given to the majority of consumers? Ice cream freedom?
Although ice cream is a small category, it has also experienced three important transitions. The earliest industrially produced ice product in the Chinese market dates back to the "Beauty Brand" ice cream decades ago. In 1932, Haining Matheson Company, founded by Americans, introduced ice cream production equipment and built China's first ice cream factory. It also gave it a very glamorous name - "Beauty Brand".
In order to promote ice cream, this ice cream factory bought 500 refrigerators and rented them to major shopping malls, theaters, and cinemas in Shanghai. The only condition for rent-free is that they only sell their cold drinks in the refrigerators. For a long time since then, the Beauty brand has dominated the Chinese ice cream market. It was not until 1950 that the domestic product "Guangming Brand" was born, and this situation was broken. However, the categories and flavors of ice cream at that time were relatively simple, and the ingredients used were not very particular.
Until the 1990s, foreign brands represented by , Luxue and Haagen-Dazs officially entered the Chinese market. In 1996, Haagen-Dazs opened its first store in mainland China. At that time, the per capita GDP was only 5,569 yuan, and the average monthly salary of employees nationwide was 539 yuan. In an era when domestic ice cream generally only cost about 1 yuan, the cheapest ice cream balls from Haagen-Dazs cost 25 yuan, and a luxurious themed ice cream easily cost hundreds.
Haagen-Dazs' entry into China is positioned as a "luxury product", completely subverting people's imagination of ice cream.
At this stage, the domestic ice cream industry presents a "three-legged" situation: foreign brands represented by Haagen-Dazs, Nestle , Heluxue, Baxi , etc., are firmly in the C position of the high-end market; Yili Domestic brands such as , Mengniu , Guangming, and Deshi occupy 45% of the mid-range market; the rest are local hot-selling products such as Wuyang, Northeast Dashan , Daqiaodao , etc.
But in 2018, the launch of a coconut ash ice cream stirred up the originally peaceful ice cream world. This ice cream, which sells for about 9 yuan in convenience stores, is cement gray in color. It quickly became popular on Douyin because the color stains your lips and teeth when you eat it.
Internet celebrity ice cream comes out of the circle, three major killers
Internet celebrity ice cream is in the fifth year, and there are more and more new tricks. Whatās even more interesting is that, driven by these old and new brands, more and more big ice cream brands have opened Tmall stores one after another, hoping to upgrade their brands online.
However, not all Internet celebrities can become famous. What makes people particularly curious is how the popular new ice cream brands have managed to break through step by step.
1. The ānewerā the taste is, the more popular among young people
Internet celebrity ice creams that have successfully emerged from the industry are all because of sufficient product differentiation.
In the traditional ice cream market, product flavors are mainly milk-flavored, among which vanilla milk flavor and chocolate milk flavor are recognized by mainstream users. However, in the past two years, user tastes have been further differentiated, and many niche flavors are growing rapidly.
Internet celebrity ice creams mostly enter the market with niche tastes, but niche does not mean seeking novelties. The key is to tap into the taste buds of young people.
For example, the "German Dark Beer" that has appeared many times on social networking sites is very popular. The rim design is full of a retro flavor similar to rim chocolate .
Zhong Xuegao and Luzhou Laojiao first launched the fragmented ice cream, selling more than 1,600 copies in just four days. Another example is the "cheese ice cream" launched by Zhong Xuegao. Traditional ice cream flavors are all sweet, but the fusion of aged cheese and ice cream brings a salty taste, breaking users' inherent perception of ice cream.
2. The higher your appearance, the more powerful you will be in the industry.
The weapon of appearance is also another major killer feature that many internet celebrity brands struggle with.In the case of and products being homogenized, if a brand wants to stand out from the competition, it needs to work hard on personalization. For example, Zhong Xuegao launched a āsubversiveā product designāpure Chinese tile design.
uses the representative "tiles" of traditional culture as the creative prototype, and introduces products with purely Chinese design to users, showing the unique charm of "Chinese style ice cream" and forming a unique brand recognition.
Firstly, the unique tile design forms a marketing barrier for the brand, effectively avoiding imitation by peers. Secondly, it highlights the "high value" of the product and makes the brand image of new national fashion and new domestic products deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.
3. The bigger the imagination, the higher the excitement.
As a mainstream consumer group, what young people want is not brands that blindly "cater" with a low profile, but CPs that can resonate and express attitudes.
In order to have a better dialogue with young people, the new ice cream brand is playing more and more wildly across borders. The small White Rabbit toffee merges with Guangming and transforms into White Rabbit Ice Cream . It brings not only an innovation in taste, but also a nostalgia for childhood. Northeastern Daban and Little Yellow Duck jointly launched the "Duck Lives with You" ice cream, making traditional brands instantly trendy.
This " cross-border marketing " strategy, in layman's terms, is a very effective breakthrough for brands to face the young consumer groups that dominate the market.
In addition, due to different channels, each brand can cover different groups. Through cross-border marketing, these Internet celebrity brands can break through traffic scenarios, open a window to communicate with the new generation of people, and cover more target groups. . At least, we are very happy to see local Chinese brands launching an impact on the high-end and challenging foreign companies. Internet celebrity is the only way to become a brand, so we need to have more patience.
Ice cream is no longer the ice cream itself, it is all calculations and interests behind it. However, if virtue is not matched, there will be disaster. If you pay too much IQ tax, you will wake up one day. All the bubbles blown out cannot escape the fate of dissipating into the invisible. This is probably the fate of internet celebrity ice cream.
There is no shortage of internet celebrities in Chinaās ice cream market. We will wait and see who can go from internet celebrity to long-term celebrity.
