"Don't pick up ice cream you don't recognize when you go to the supermarket" "Ice cream assassins lurking in convenience store freezers" "Who is paying for ice cream worth tens of yuan"... The topic of high-priced ice cream has been frequently searched recently, expressing consumers' concerns. “Cold Drink Anxiety.”
A reporter from the Beijing News recently visited the market and found that cold drinks under 5 yuan are hard to find in chain convenience stores, and products over 10 yuan account for half of the market. In traditional channels such as supermarkets, cold stores, community stores, and street stores, ice cream and ice cream priced at 2 to 5 yuan are still the mainstream, while the number of products below 1 yuan has significantly decreased, and there is a trend of fading out of the market.
Someone in the industry calculated an account for the Beijing News reporter. In order to ensure the gross profit margin of each link, the terminal price of an ice cream with a factory price of 3 yuan will reach 8 yuan to 10 yuan. Even with price adjustments, some small and medium-sized cold drink companies are still hovering on the edge of profit and loss amid rising costs. Dealers and channel dealers have shifted from the past "small profits but quick turnover" to "large profits but small sales", which plays a "filtering" role in product prices. Nowadays, it is difficult for products under 4 yuan to enter chain convenience channels, which is also difficult for some consumers to see. One of the main reasons for affordable products under 3 yuan.
"Ice Cream Assassin" hurts consumers
"'Ice Cream Assassin' lurks in the freezer, ready to give those who take it to check out a severe blow."
Regarding the "Ice Cream Assassin" that has been hotly discussed on the Internet recently, Beijing consumers Ms. Wang remembered that when she was shopping for ice cream in a convenience store, she could not find any product with a unit price of less than 4 yuan. The most expensive one, Haagen-Dazs , sold for 35 yuan. "I was stung by the price at that time." After tasting a certain type of Taiyaki ice cream priced at 9.9 yuan, she thought that the texture and taste were not as good as the "Sunday square cake" that costs 2 yuan a piece in her hometown in Northeast China, and decided not to buy it again.
In a multi-point convenience store in Beijing, the proportion of products under 5 yuan is relatively small. Photo by Guo Tie, chief reporter of the Beijing News
From last year’s “fairy price” of Northeastern ice cream and Zhong Xuegao’s “66 yuan most expensive ice cream” to this year’s “Ice Cream Assassin” “Who is paying for ice cream worth tens of yuan?”, ice cream Prices are a hot topic time and time again. Many netizens lamented that ice cream and ice cream are getting more and more expensive, and some stores do not have clearly marked prices. When paying, they have to pay for the high-priced ice cream that they "just pick up" due to their dignity. Some consumers even said that it is difficult to buy affordable cold drinks below 3 yuan in first-tier cities such as Beijing and Shanghai.
A Beijing News reporter visited a convenience store in Fangshan, Beijing on June 21 and found that the prices of ice cream and ice cream sold in the store ranged from 3 yuan to 27.8 yuan. Randomly counting 34 products, only one is priced below 5 yuan, 13 are priced between 5 yuan and 10 yuan, and as many as 20 are priced at 10 yuan and above. Among them, the most expensive one is the "Little Seven" original milk ice box, priced at 27.8 yuan/box (250g). The prices of BKK super alloy deformation trolley and Zhongxue Gaomi wine Meimei also touch the 19 yuan range.
At a convenience store in Beijing, half of the sales are cold drinks priced at more than 10 yuan. Photo by Guo Tie, chief reporter of the Beijing News
iiMedia Consulting survey data shows that it is difficult to see prices of 50 cents or 1 yuan in the ice cream market today. Instead, there are products priced at 3 yuan or more, and some ice cream products with Internet celebrity attributes are sold for Most of the prices are more than 10 yuan, or even more expensive. Among the consumers surveyed in 2022, more than 60% believe that the current high price premium of ice cream is too high and is caused by " marketing costs "; 18% of the respondents believe that it is "good value for money" because of the materials high cost.
In terms of price acceptance, in 2022, the accepted price of a single ice cream by netizens is mostly between 3 yuan and 5 yuan, accounting for 37%; followed by 5 yuan and 10 yuan, accounting for 33.9%; the accepted price is between 10 yuan and 10 yuan. The total price of 20 yuan is 16.3%; the proportion of those who accept the price of 1 yuan to 3 yuan is 11%; the acceptance rate of more than 20 yuan is only 1.8%.
mainstream price band raised to 3 yuan - 5 yuan
It is undeniable that the price band of ice cream is indeed moving upward.
According to Zhu Baowei, editor-in-chief of "China Ice Cream" magazine, the mainstream price of ice cream in 2021 is between 2 yuan and 3 yuan. The price range of core products in first-tier cities and major cities has exceeded 3 yuan, and the price in the convenience store system is higher.By 2022, he found that the ice cream price band was moving towards 5 yuan, and products between 3 yuan and 5 yuan had become mainstream. The main factors affecting the price included consumption upgrades, rising costs, improved raw material quality, marketing investment by start-up brands, and sales radius. Expansion, channel grading, etc.
"We have launched about 20 products this year, with prices ranging from 3 yuan to 5 yuan. The price is indeed a bit higher than in previous years." Liu Bo, the sales manager of a cold drink company in Northeast China, confirmed to the Beijing News reporter that since 2021 Starting from the second half of the year, the prices of main raw materials for ice cream such as milk powder, coconut oil, and sugar began to rise, and packaging materials increased by 5%-8%.
"Many companies can no longer produce products worth 1 yuan." Lin Haicheng, general manager of a cold drink company in Sichuan, told the Beijing News reporter that compared with the beginning of this year, the prices of raw materials such as milk powder, edible oil, sugar, and flavors have increased by 30% - 40%, labor and transportation costs are also rising. " products in Sichuan used to be 2 yuan, but now all products are priced at 1 yuan. At present, cold drink products of 1 yuan to 3 yuan are absolutely mainstream in channel terminals in the southwest region, and products with 5 yuan to 6 yuan account for roughly 30%."
Lin Haicheng calculated an account for the Beijing News reporter. From the factory to the end of an ice cream, the manufacturer's gross profit margin is about 20%, the dealer's gross profit margin is about 30%, and the terminal's gross profit margin is 40%- About 60%. This means that an ice cream with a factory price of 3 yuan will have a terminal selling price of 8 yuan to 10 yuan. "This is normal. If you lower the price, you will lose money. At present, the price increases of first-tier brands can cover costs. Second-tier brands with annual revenue of 300 million to 500 million yuan are on the edge of profit and loss, and many small companies are losing money."
Regarding the high-end cultural and creative ice cream that has become popular in recent years, Lin Haicheng said frankly that the manufacturing company can only earn 50 cents for one ice cream, which is just enough for labor costs, while a set of 3D grinding tools costs 60,000-80,000 yuan. Yuan, and easy to damage, "If you only OEM 100,000 pieces, there is no place to spread the cost."
iiMedia Consulting research data shows that there are many reasons why ice cream is becoming more and more expensive, and the cost of raw materials is one of them. From 2008 to 2020, the cost of raw materials such as milk and whipping cream has increased by approximately 80%. In addition, from product design, packaging, use of raw materials, to seeking out novel flavors and co-branding, ice cream manufacturers have come up with extraordinary tricks. For example, matcha comes from Japan, milk comes from Australia, cocoa powder comes from Ghana. In the era of traffic, it is inevitable that some businesses will harvest consumers’ “IQ tax” through false propaganda, celebrity endorsements, etc., and the unit price of ice cream will naturally increase.
Liu Rui, secretary-general of the Green Agriculture and Food Nutrition Professional Committee of the China Green Food Association, believes that ice cream has transformed in recent years from a traditional summer-relieving frozen drink into a snack food that pursues health, pleasure and a high-quality lifestyle. Due to the rising costs of raw materials, labor, transportation, packaging materials, etc., the selection of seasonal, regional, and high-quality raw materials further increases the cost, coupled with the costs of regional cultural collision, IP co-branding, cultural and creative ice cream and other brand building and marketing methods, resulting in ice cream , Ice cream prices continue to rise. "This is a reflection of free competition and diversified development in the market. Ice cream products of different grades, different flavors, different qualities, and different packaging meet the needs of different consumer groups and give consumers more choices."
Channels shift to "high profits, low sales" ”
Among the many factors that push up the prices of ice cream and ice cream, the “filtering” role of channels cannot be ignored. Lin Sheng, founder of
Zhong Xuegao, said in a previous interview with a reporter from the Beijing News that the high premium brought by the high quality of ice cream leaves more room for gross profit for the channel and promotes the channel to play the role of "gatekeeper" in the market. Nowadays, it is difficult to buy products below 3 yuan in Shanghai. "The logic behind this is that online brands have raised the upper limit of China's ice cream market, and offline brands such as double yolk egg have raised the lower limit of the market." The entire industry is upgrading, and the market cake is getting bigger.
A marketer for an imported ice cream brand told the Beijing News reporter that there are two main reasons for the increase in ice cream prices in the past two years. First, the improvement in the quality of ingredients and the increase in logistics costs caused by the epidemic have raised product costs.Second, in recent years, convenience store channels have introduced a number of low-cost, high-margin, and expensive Internet celebrity products, which in turn has driven up the overall price. “However, the repurchase rate of such products is not high, and consumers will not buy them after trying them once. ".
A reporter from the Beijing News recently visited various channels and found that the price of ice cream and ice cream sold in chain convenience stores in Beijing is generally more than 5 yuan, and products with more than 10 yuan account for half of the sales. Compared with convenience stores, the number of affordable products priced at less than 3 yuan per item has increased significantly in community stores, cold drink wholesale, and ordinary supermarkets. This is not the "unavailability" complained by netizens.
The owner of a community supermarket in Fangshan, Beijing, told the Beijing News reporter that the prices of ice products sold in his store range from 1 yuan to 10 yuan, but the most popular products are the affordable products of 2 to 3 yuan, and the ice cream for about 10 yuan is only There are two brands: Nestlé and Magnum . "Someone came to sell ice cream for more than 10 yuan, but after we sold a few, we stopped asking for it because the sales were slow." The boss also emphasized that the lowest-priced ice product in his store is the "Lao Popsicle" for 1 yuan. " and "smoothie", but products at this price have become less and less popular in the past two years. "The ones that cost a few cents are no longer available."
High-end ice cream represents "Menglong", and some products are sold for more than 9 yuan each. Photographed by Beijing News chief reporter Guo Tie
In a Yonghui supermarket in Beijing, you can also find "affordable" ice cream and ice cream, and many products are on sale. For example, Mengniu's "Ice+" (70gx6), originally priced at 9.5 yuan, sells for about 1.3 yuan per piece after discount; Yili's "Very Panda" ice cream (65gx6), originally priced at 29.9 yuan, sells for about 3.3 yuan per piece after discount. In addition, the store also has "Lao Popsicle" priced at 1 yuan each, and Menglong priced at 9 yuan. The only "inconvenience" is that most of the products can only be purchased from retail stores, which indirectly increases the unit price per customer.
html On June 21, Yonghui Supermarket sold two "affordable" cold drinks. Photographed by Guo Tie, Chief Reporter of the Beijing News "There are many channels in the cold drink industry, such as home batch channels, where products of any price range can be purchased. If you go to chain convenience channels, it is difficult to enter products under 4 yuan. This is a procurement communication Everyone in the industry knows that convenience stores need to generate more value per unit area, and low-priced products cannot meet their gross profit needs," Liu Bo told the Beijing News reporter. At present, supermarkets, community supermarkets, mom-and-pop stores, and street stores. Traditional distribution channels such as Ice Cream account for more than 80% of ice cream sales, but chain convenience channels have maintained a high growth rate and have also targeted "young people", a high-quality group of ice cream consumers.
Lin Haicheng mentioned another change in dealers and channel dealers, that is, from "small profits but quick turnover" to "large profits but small sales". "They pursue profits more than before. Now the overall sales volume of ice cream is declining, but Profits need to be kept there, basically starting with 2-yuan products, with 5-6 yuan products focusing on quality and distribution. Next year, it is expected that no one will make 1-yuan milk-containing products. "
iiMedia Consulting report believes that among various brands." Factors such as the intensification of the involution of into and the seasonal attributes of ice cream determine the low-frequency consumption characteristics of ice cream. The traditional road of small profits but quick turnover is becoming increasingly difficult to follow. "If ice cream brands want to survive, they must innovate, and the deployment of high-end products seems to have become the path of change for many brands."
It is difficult for ice cream to enter the "10 yuan era"
China Green Food Association's Green Agriculture and Food Nutrition Professional Committee and others recently released The "China Ice Cream Industry Trend Report" shows that my country's ice cream market maintains a growth trend, reaching 147 billion yuan in 2020 and exceeding 160 billion yuan in 2021, ranking first in the world in terms of market size. According to Tianyancha data, there are currently 45,000 ice cream-related companies in my country, of which more than 4,720 will be newly registered in 2021, with a registration growth rate of 12.5%.
Lin Sheng said in a previous interview with a reporter from the Beijing News that my country’s ice cream market began to change in 2016. Among the "Four Kings of Northeastern Ice Cream", Madier, Northeastern Dashan and Zhongjie sub-brand "1946" have successively "touched the Internet", breaking the "1 yuan" of domestic ice cream in terms of taste, price, channels and marketing methods. "Cheap impression. Subsequently, domestic Internet celebrity ice creams such as Zhong Xuegao, Tian Mu, and Orange Planet emerged, and the price of a single ice cream even exceeded that of foreign brands such as Nestlé, Heluxue, and Menglong.
However, according to industry insiders, it is too early to say that the ice cream industry has entered the "10 yuan era". Excluding the cost impact, companies still have concerns about price increases.
Lin Haicheng said, "Currently, many small manufacturers dare not raise prices in order to maintain the market. They only follow the price increase when big brands raise prices. For example, big brands used to charge 2 yuan, and small factories sold 1 yuan. Now big brands do 3 yuan. Small factories mention 2 yuan. Once small factories raise prices too quickly, they will compete head-on with big brands. "A few years ago, Lin Haicheng's company also launched products with more than 10 yuan," but it did not do well and the market was in trouble. It is relatively small, its consumption power is not as good as that of first-tier cities, its marketing expenses are high, and its products cannot be sold.”
Liu Bo also said that although some of the company’s new products have increased the price range this year, some traditional basic products “cannot move the price” and “most cold drinks. All brands have basic products, and the market response is very sensitive, because we are not the only one making such products, and if we change the price, it will create opportunities for others. For a company like us that makes a full range of products, we don't want to see that. ”
Regarding high-end products above 10 yuan, Liu Bo believes, “Everyone had no chance to see the high-end cold drink market before, until we saw the rise of foreign brands such as Heluxue and Menglong, and they all invested in marketing. In terms of cost, there are still many new products that use price to differentiate between consumer groups and are not sold to the general public. Many consumers either think that ice cream is expensive or that it is not worth it. They paid a higher price than before but did not get the same amount. Value will ultimately be voted with your feet."
As a representative of high-end Internet ice cream brands, Zhong Xuegao has been at the forefront of "high-priced ice cream" in the past two years. Last year, he was on the hot search for "the most expensive ice cream" at 66 yuan. The 68 yuan "Xing Yu Nian" ice cream was sold to 200 yuan by scalpers and attracted attention again. The data from the just-concluded “618” promotion shows that Zhong Xuegao also took the top spot in sales of Tmall fresh food category and JD.com POP store’s ice cream category.
Regarding product pricing factors and profit margins, Zhong Xuegao responded to the Beijing News reporter on June 21, saying, "Zhong Xuegao strictly controls quality in a series of processes from material collection, research and development, production, storage to transportation, etc., and in building The investment cost in the flexible supply chain is hundreds of millions.” He also said, “Since 2020, Zhong Xuegao has not increased the price.”
Note: Liu Bo and Lin Haicheng are pseudonyms in the article.
Chief reporter of Beijing News Guo Tie
editor Zhu Fenglan
proofreader Lu Qian
