Strange flavors, national trend elements, cross-border combinations...
How "volatile" are the mooncakes in 2021?
"Qing Dynasty Painted Enamel Pattern Lid Jar" Pattern Forbidden City Mooncake Brocade Box
Jinsha Ruins Museum's "Xingyue" gold foil mooncakes
Unexpectedly, even the mooncakes are rolled up!
Museum co-branding, cultural and creative gift boxes, blind boxes... During the Mid-Autumn Festival, mooncakes have become a hot commodity again. Major mooncake brands are doing their best to compete for beauty. This year, there is a trend of cultural and creative co-branding in the mooncake industry. But they never expected that this year's biggest competitor would be "spiritual cakes" printed with the hospital's exclusive logo.
"A box of spiritual cakes will make you energetic all day long." This is a "code" often used by netizens in the circle to ridicule themselves. In the past two days, the mooncake gift box they said was originally sold for 78 yuan a set - "Mooncakes at No. 600 Wanping South Road", was sold online for 1,288 yuan.
is out of stock every year and has to be sold every year because mooncakes are really profitable. The annual report of a listed company shows that its gross profit margin is as high as nearly 60%. Therefore, analysts believe that even if the cost of raw materials increases this year, mooncakes are still a good business.
The mooncake industry with high gross profit margin has attracted competition from major companies and formed different factions. “The competition for mooncakes is now far more intense than imagined.” A company said in an interview with reporters.
In the mooncake industry,
, mooncake merchants are trying their best to create a variety of mooncakes. Mooncakes are seasonal fast-moving consumer goods, and every second in the market is a race against time. Various mooncakes have been on the hot searches. In the "involution" of the mooncake industry, consumers will never know the next popular one. What are mooncakes.
Shape and flavor flowers
"Ice cream" and "baby bottle" have various shapes, "snail noodles" and "crayfish" have different tastes
Tianyancha App shows that there are more than 10,000 patent application information related to "mooncakes" in my country, and some of them are currently in valid status. There are more than 1,800 patents, most of which are appearance patents, and the baby bottle-shaped mooncake is one of them. The patent introduction shows that the "baby bottle mooncake" is shaped like a baby bottle. In addition, there are also weird mooncake patents such as "River Crab Mooncake" and "Ice Cream Mooncake". As appearance patents, the shapes of these mooncakes are crab-shaped and ice cream-shaped. In addition, there are hollow ring-shaped mooncakes, separable multi-layer mooncakes, etc. There are many varieties to mention.
In addition to these mooncakes with strange shapes, there are also many mooncakes with a variety of ingredients. Snail powder flavor, crayfish flavor, mustard salmon flavor, hairy crab flavor, fresh meat flavor, milk tea flavor...all kinds of weird mooncakes are available.
A Hu spicy soup mooncake. According to an e-commerce platform, 6 pieces of beef Hu spicy soup flavored mooncakes cost about 109 yuan to buy, and 8 pieces of ordinary Hu spicy soup flavored gift box cost about 230 yuan. I like spicy soup and mooncakes. Put spicy soup and moon cakes together, this wonderful collision and combination is definitely the taste of Henan. The product introduction of
shows that its ingredients include beef, fungus, mushrooms, peanuts, gluten, etc. According to the merchant, the merchant behind this mooncake is originally an authentic Hu spicy soup restaurant in Henan, and the taste is absolutely authentic. Despite this, reporters found that this mooncake has not yet had much sales.
This year, the most "destructive" snail powder mooncake was born, with fillings made of sour bamboo shoots, snail meat, tribute vegetables, rice noodles, etc. Judging from the product introduction, the skin of the snail powder mooncake is black and shiny, much like an asphalt road under high temperatures. According to the merchant, this is due to the addition of squid ink to the skin. How does
taste? According to comments from customers who have eaten it: "The skin is thin, the fillings are rich, the taste is very unique, and a little spicy." It is not at all the horrible taste that some netizens who have not tried it speculated, "Chang'e and Wu Gang don't want to come down to earth after eating it."
In addition, there are also hairy crab and meat-popped mooncakes sold online, which are filled with hairy crabs, vinegar beads and fresh meat. You can feel the vinegar beads popping on the tip of your tongue when you bite them; Spicy crayfish mooncakes filled with meat; sushi salmon mooncakes with salmon, fish roe, seaweed and wasabi seasoning... There are various fillings that you can't think of, and no store can do it.
Cross-border fun
The hospital and museum started a joint venture with mooncake merchants, and there are many blind box games
"Overnight, it seemed that the whole of Shanghai was looking for mooncakes at No. 600 Wanping South Road." No. 600 Wanping South Road refers to the spirit of Shanghai Health Center, this year’s Mid-Autumn Festival, this mooncake from the hospital has become an “Internet celebrity”.
Shanghai Mental Health Center, also commonly known as Shanghai Mental Hospital, has its own topic and popularity, making this mooncake full of "self-deprecating attributes". This mooncake is printed with the words "Shanghai Mental Health Center" and "SMHC 1935" and comes in various flavors such as milk cheese, green apple and green plum, coffee chocolate, etc. According to media reports, the mooncakes launched by the Shanghai Mental Health Center are not for sale to the public. They are priced at 78 yuan and are only available to internal employees. They must be purchased in the canteen with a meal card, but this does not prevent them from becoming popular. On September 11, according to the "Kankan News" video, this mooncake from the Shanghai Mental Health Center was sold on a second-hand platform with prices of 599 yuan and 699 yuan. Some netizens even reported that they saw a price of 1,288 yuan, which is one of them. 16.5 times the original price.
In addition, perhaps because of the dividends brought by the "national trend" trend to shoes, clothing, cosmetics and other brands in the first half of the year, mooncakes, a traditional food, have also been labeled as national trend this year. In Hema stores, national trend mooncakes Become one of the sales categories.
When it comes to packaging creativity and cultural connotation, major museums undoubtedly have considerable advantages - for example, the Palace Museum, which is far ahead in the field of cultural creativity, has launched the "My Heart" brocade box series, "Forbidden City Architecture" in one go " series and the Forbidden City Skills Inheritance Series, etc., each piece is gorgeous and grand. The National Museum, Shaanxi History Museum, Shanghai Museum, Jinsha Site Museum, etc. are not to be left behind, and have launched their own unique cultural and creative mooncakes to compete with each other.
This year’s mooncake merchants have also introduced more new ways to play. Cross-border product combinations such as moon cakes × silk scarves, moon cakes one. On September 16, the person in charge of the Aida Le brand told reporters that this year the company and Changhong and others have jointly launched a joint brand. The purpose is to give customers some freshness and jointly promote the spread of Sichuan cultural customs.
While continuing to launch Dunhuang co-branded mooncakes, BESTORE has also added the popular blind box method. According to reports, the special blind box launched by the company includes mobile phone lanyards, wooden seals, note pads, sachets and other items. These small items are also the same peripherals of Dunhuang Academy's cultural and creative products.
Due to fancy marketing, the prices of mooncakes from some manufacturers have also increased. The reporter saw at the Haagen-Dazs Tmall flagship store that a mooncake in a gift box co-branded by Haagen-Dazs and the Louvre was priced as high as 998 yuan. Even with coupons, the price was as high as 798 yuan. And this one is not the most expensive among the mooncakes co-branded by Haagen-Dazs and the Louvre.
Catering to new needs
Merchants focus on the health track. Low-sugar mooncakes trigger a consumer boom
From "five-nut mooncakes" to this year's "low-sugar mooncakes", the taste and marketing methods of mooncakes are constantly updated. In this regard, Daoxiangcun said in an interview with reporters that the scale of the mooncake market continues to expand, and the trend of brand concentration is becoming increasingly obvious. In addition to price, consumers pay more attention to the taste and quality of mooncakes. Especially affected by the epidemic, consumers' demand for "healthy mooncakes" has increased. Zhu Danpeng, a Chinese food industry analyst, believes that the development trajectory of mooncakes follows the economic development trajectory of China as a whole.
Some merchants have taken a fancy to the hot health track this year and launched health-focused mooncakes including plant-based meat and low-sugar mooncakes. Especially low-sugar mooncakes, although not launched for the first time this year, have triggered a consumer boom under this year's health trend.
Daoxiangcun told reporters that this year’s mooncakes, based on years of efforts to reduce oil and sugar, launch sugar alcohol mooncakes and low-sugar mooncakes, which are favored by consumers with a "healthy and low-sugar" lifestyle. In addition, Cantonese mooncake brand Maxim’s also launched a low-sugar series of mooncakes this year.When a reporter from
visited a Hema store in Chaoyang District, Beijing, store employees told reporters that the best-selling product in the store is the low-sugar mooncakes launched by Maxim's. The employee said that young people prefer to buy low-sugar mooncakes for health reasons. An employee of another Wumart supermarket also said that the buyers of low-sugar mooncakes are mainly young people, and some young people buy them as gifts for their elders for health reasons, while older consumers are not inclined to buy them due to price considerations. More expensive low-sugar mooncakes.
However, in early September, some netizens became a hot topic because they developed diarrhea after eating a mooncake gift box sent by Zhihu. Whether low-sugar mooncakes are really healthy also aroused consumer concerns. On September 8, Zhihu stated in an apology letter that the factory products had been tested by the manufacturer and independent third-party institutions and met the relevant quality standards of the food industry, but it ignored that the maltitol used to replace sucrose may cause intolerance to some people. , causing physical discomfort, we have been contacted to recall all mooncakes.
Plant-based meat mooncakes have not been accepted by most consumers since their launch. On August 3, Shanghai’s time-honored brand Shen Dacheng posted on Weibo that it would launch a plant-based meat mooncake that uses soy protein and wheat protein to simulate the texture and taste of meat. It also said that “compared to ordinary mooncakes, it has a higher protein content and is more saturated.” The fatty acid content is lower and the calories are lower..." The Weibo post caused controversy among consumers. Currently, the relevant Weibo has been deleted from Shen Dacheng's official Weibo.
reflects the "anxiety" and "involution" of mooncake companies
According to iiMedia Research data, China's mooncake sales increased from 13.18 billion yuan in 2015 to 20.52 billion yuan in 2020, showing an upward trend. As epidemic prevention and control normalizes and people pay more attention to traditional festivals, the demand for visiting relatives and friends will continue to recover. It is expected that China’s mooncake sales will reach 21.8 billion yuan in 2021. The 21.8 billion yuan mooncake industry can accommodate many factions and enterprises of all kinds.
Enterprise/high gross profit margin
Some enterprises rely on selling mooncakes
to support "half of the country's revenue"
Regarding mooncake production companies, some netizens commented: "Two months of hard work, you can earn a whole year."
The mooncake sales window is short , only two months before the Mid-Autumn Festival, but many companies can support "half of their revenue" every year by selling mooncakes alone.
In the A-share market, there are relatively few companies with a high proportion of mooncake production in revenue, including Guangzhou Restaurant (603043.SH), Yuanzu Shares (603886.SH), Taoli Bread (603866.SH), and *ST Maiqu (002719.SZ) etc.
According to the financial report, from 2017 to 2019, Guangzhou Restaurant’s revenue from selling mooncakes alone was 898 million yuan, 1.038 billion yuan, and 1.192 billion yuan. In 2020, Guangzhou Restaurant's revenue from selling mooncakes was 1.378 billion yuan, accounting for 41.9% of the total revenue, with a gross profit margin of 58.37%. It can be seen that just by selling mooncakes in the two months before the Mid-Autumn Festival, Guangzhou restaurants can bring in 40% of their income.
Yuanzu Co., another mooncake giant, had revenue of 618 million yuan from mooncake gift boxes in 2017, accounting for 35.64% of the company’s total revenue, with a gross profit margin of 67.83%. Revenue from mooncake gift boxes in 2018 and 2019 was 695 million yuan and 829 million yuan respectively. By 2020, Yuanzu Co., Ltd. sold more than 40 million boxes of Chinese and Western pastry gift boxes including mooncakes, rice dumplings, etc., with revenue reaching 1.388 billion yuan, a gross profit margin of 55.96%, and a revenue ratio of approximately 56%.
In 2020, *ST Maiqu's "festival food" revenue was 70.482 million yuan, with a gross profit margin of 53.16% and a revenue share of 8.05%. Taoli Bread's mooncake sales revenue last year was 118 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 11.19%, and its gross profit margin was 34.43%.
According to CCTV Finance, Dong Kezhi, director of the overseas business department of Suzhou Daoxiangcun Group, said that the company exported more than 20 containers and more than 5 million mooncakes in 2021. Mooncake exports this year increased by 70% compared with 2020.
Market/Fierce Competition
The market share is concentrated and has seasonal attributes
The competition is particularly fierce in a short period of time
At present, small mooncakes have supported a market value of tens of billions, and the market size continues to increase. iiMedia Consulting data shows that from 2015 to 2020, China’s mooncake sales showed an upward trend, from 13.18 billion yuan to 20.52 billion yuan. It is expected that China’s mooncake sales will reach 21.81 billion yuan in 2021.
According to the "2020 Mooncake Data Consumption Report", domestic Mid-Autumn Festival mooncake sales have continued to increase. In 2015, the output of mooncakes was 328,000 tons, with sales of 13.18 billion yuan. In 2019, the output of mooncakes was approximately 364,000 tons, a year-on-year increase of 1.4%; the sales were approximately 19.67 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 7.9%. In 2019, my country's mooncake sales reached 1.38 billion, which means that every Chinese can get one.
At the same time, market share is increasingly concentrated in the head market, and a large number of small and medium-sized enterprises have been eliminated. Data from
Tianyancha shows that in 2020, the number of registered mooncake companies was 2,522, a year-on-year decrease of 11.5%; currently, there are 23,000 mooncake-related companies operating and existing in my country, which is a decrease from the end of 2020. From January to August 2021, the number of newly registered mooncake companies was 783, a year-on-year decrease of 51.3%.
On the other hand, due to the seasonal nature of mooncakes, there is no market for them once the Mid-Autumn Festival is over, and competition is particularly fierce in a short period of time. The endless emergence of weird flavors of mooncakes also shows the "anxiety" and "involution" of mooncake companies.
Currently, mooncake players are mainly divided into three camps: established catering companies, baking/pastry companies, and cross-border companies. In recent years, there have been more and more cross-border players, such as Heytea, which sells milk tea, Nayuki's tea, Bestore, which sells nut snacks, etc., all trying to get a piece of the pie.
Compared with the first two, cross-border enterprises have their own traffic, have a certain brand effect and topicality, and are more likely to become "Internet celebrities". However, the "2020 Mooncake Data Consumption Report" pointed out that cross-border enterprises generally Using the OEM model often does not have advantages in terms of technology and formula. (Reporters Yu Yao, Qiang Yaxian, Peng Xiangping, Dai Jiajia, intern Guo Wenyi, Comprehensive Daily Economic News)
Source: Chengdu Business News
