Agriculture & Food

In the beverage industry, you have always sang and I will appear on the stage. No one can solder the top spot. The carbonated drinks in the 1980s and bottled drinking water in the 1990s were once kings.

The same goes for brewing milk tea. Since the emergence of new tea drinks, Xiang Piao Piao, as a milk tea carrying handle that used to run 3 times around the earth, has been slower and slower.

From 2017 to 2020, Xiangpiaopiao’s operating income was 2.64 billion yuan, 3.251 billion yuan, 3.978 billion yuan, and 3.761 billion yuan, with an increase of 10.49%, 23.13%, 22.36%, and -5.46% respectively;

The net profits attributable to shareholders of listed companies were 268 million yuan, 315 million yuan, 347 million yuan, and 358 million yuan, respectively, and the percentage increase was 0.63%, 17.53%, 10.39%, and 3.15%.

It can be clearly seen that in the past two years, Xiang Piao Piao has been declining in terms of revenue growth and profitability.

In the first half of 2021, in an environment where the impact of the domestic epidemic is relatively slow, Xiangpiaopiao has a revenue of 1.088 billion yuan and a net profit loss of 62.26 million yuan.

In contrast, Nai Xue's tea achieved revenue of 2.126 billion yuan in the first half of the year, an increase of 80.2% over the same period last year; net profit changed from a loss of 63.5 million yuan in the same period last year to a profit of 48.2 million yuan.

The same is milk tea, the fragrance is even cheaper, but it flows from the top of the milk tea and withdraws from the front line. So, how will Xiang Piao Piao save herself? In the future, does Xiang Piao Piao still have a chance?

Lost incense wafts

Regarding the decline in revenue growth, Xiang Piao Piao has not thought of a solution.

First, go to sea

In 2018, Xiang Piao Piao established an independent overseas business department. However, although it is an export business, it still earns Chinese money.

Its sales areas are mainly in Southeast Asian countries such as Thailand and Vietnam, which have similar dietary habits to those in China. It was then adjusted to be dominated by developed countries such as the United States, Canada, South Korea, and Singapore, which have the largest number of Chinese and higher spending power.

In the retail terminal, the Chinese channel is obviously more important. Mainstream Chinese buying channels such as Great China, Good Luck, Yami, weee, and oscart have all been assigned to overseas main positions by Xiang Piao Piao.

This manual operation is exactly the same as Starbucks going to Australia to open cafes to sightseeing areas where Americans and Chinese would visit.

In 2020, overseas friendly forces contributed 29.11 million to Xiang Piao Piao, a year-on-year increase of 67.53%. But the fragrance of the Chinese purse has not really penetrated the local market.

In the first half of 2021, a wave of overseas students and Chinese returning home hit the country. As some areas were unable to deliver goods due to the impact of the epidemic, Xiangpiaopiao’s overseas revenue plummeted by 62.97%.

Second, broaden the product line

In 2015, after acquiring the Hong Kong Lanfangyuan brand, Xiangpiaopiao began to develop the liquid milk tea business, and launched MECO Honey Valley Juice Tea Ready-to-Drink products in 2017.

But as of the first half of 2021, ready-to-drink products achieved revenue of 412 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 3.25%; brewed products achieved revenue of 660 million yuan, an increase of 20.06% year-on-year, and revenue accounted for 60.69%, which is still the company The main product.

But the brewing milk tea market has not been smooth sailing. After Xiang Piao Piao sent away Youlemei in the price war in the early years, in recent years, he has to face the raid of new tea drinks represented by tea beauty and Lujiaoxiang.

There are many similarities between the brewed milk tea in Lujiaoxiang and Xiang Piao Piao. In addition to the characteristic brown sugar ginger, tea bags and the price higher than Xiang Piao Piao, the same non-dairy creamer, milk powder, tea powder, and small material packets .

Compared with Lujiaoxiang's direct introduction of brewing milk tea, Cha Yan Yue's offensive method is more euphemistic, only the introduction of instant tea powder. For Xiang Piao Piao, it is not easy to directly judge him as an enemy.

But in theory, you can get a cup of milk tea by mixing instant tea powder into milk powder. There is no technical difficulty in operation.

The main reason why new-style tea drinks jumped into the course of brewing milk tea is that new-style tea companies make milk tea on the spot, using a catering model, and operating costs are higher.

Jumping back to the retail model of brewing milk tea can not only reduce operating costs; and because of the simple raw materials for brewing milk tea and the formula is easy to imitate, the migration cost is not high due to the brand advantage.

In addition, the production process of brewing milk tea is standardized and easy to replicate. It can be distributed across the country through e-commerce platforms or offline retail channels, breaking the curse that new tea companies cannot get out of first- and second-tier cities.

The changing milk tea market

The addition of new tea drinks makes the milk tea market different.

First, the audience is expanded.

In the first cup of milk tea, most of the post-90s are brewed milk tea, and the post-00s are fresh milk tea. Nowadays, the entry of freshly made tea brands will bring and nurture a new generation of milk tea lovers to the brewed milk tea market.

On the other hand, the well-known names of Internet black tea drinks will also increase the popularity of the milk tea industry and bring more consumers and media attention.

In addition, the social and trendy attributes of the current milk tea will also be transferred to the brewed milk tea, making it a drink that is more in line with modern social work, life rhythm and tune.

While opening up more consumption scenarios for the industry, it also provides companies in the industry with greater room for development and improvement.

Second, product competition is escalating.

No one would want to escape in an era when it was rolled up. Brewing milk tea is no longer: holding a cup of vanilla-flavored creamer, dare to say to customers "so that I can hold you in the palm of my hand".

Combining creativity, "congee", and a wide variety of milk tea and fruit, it is worthy of a cup of qualified milk tea.

Take Xiangpiaopiao as an example. In the past two years, its new products have not only developed soy milk Shuangpin, sweet taro Shuangpin, peach and peach oolong, black sesame blood waxy and roasted quinoa barley, etc., but also launched the main products. 0 Sugar-controlled milk tea with added sucrose", a self-heating pot with cartoon-style packaging to make the brewing process more ritual.

The self-confidence of "I am young and I can still play" is revealed all over, trying to harvest young people.

Thirdly, it is more difficult to maintain the dominance of one family.

With distracted attention and increased consumer voice, the factors that determine brand influence are increasing day by day.

Celebrity endorsements, hot searches on Weibo, Douyin hot lists, Xiaohongshu KOL recommendations, and offline marketing events may all become important opportunities for brands to get out of the circle.

Under the siege of Lujiaoxiang, Yibao Life, Miss Yu, Xiangyue, Lipton and other brands, Xiang Piao Piao is able to maintain the number one title of milk tea brewing, which is directly related to its large investment in marketing.

In addition to holding hands with Wang Yibo and Zhu Zhengting as brand spokespersons, Xiang Piaopiao also invited Wang Junkai platform and Deng Lun to live broadcast the goods, and cross-border cooperation with "Tmall Guochao" to launch a blind box event, and co-branded famous IPs such as Tomb Raiders and Red Beans. Models, etc., marketing tricks refurbished.

In the first half of the year alone, its sales expenses reached 342 million.

Fragrant Piaopiao active in the county seat

Another factor that supports Xiang Piao Piao's top position in milk tea brewing is the market sinking strategy.

In the first half of the year, more than half of its sales came from the sinking market, and the revenue of classic products for this market increased by 32.21% year-on-year.

In the country's 3000 districts and counties, and tens of thousands of towns and villages, due to the limited consumption level, even the low-priced Michelle Ice City, dare not enter easily.

And Xiang Piao Piao, with a price of 5 yuan a cup, which is a bit lower than Michelle Ice City, has entered the village and town mom-and-pop store.

At present, Xiangpiaopiao covers more than 80% of retail terminals nationwide, with more than 1,000 dealers and more than 10,000 distributors.

Specifically, Xiangpiaopiao's development and management of the sinking market are as follows:

1. Based on the comprehensive population base, the past sales performance of products, the precipitation of brand potential and other factors, around the "Thousand Counties and Ten Thousand Towns" plan, 147 core cities have been screened out across the country, and by increasing the number of districts, counties and townships, the channel terminal outlets Coverage, with the help of refined operation management, build a channel offensive focusing on sinking markets.

2. Aiming at the sinking city and county markets, tap FCL sales and gift sales opportunities in offline markets.

In 2020, Xiangpiaopiao selected more than 200 counties and county-level cities across the country, built more than 50,000 plots, and recruited more than 10,000 temporary promoters to be responsible for terminal interception.

3. Focus on high-potential energy terminal stores to create a hot-selling atmosphere.

Concentrate resources on the construction of high-potential energy stores. Among the selected more than 200,000 high-potential energy stores, through product display and brand promotion, a hot-selling atmosphere is created to stimulate store distribution and stimulate consumer purchases.

4. Optimize the dealer team system and evaluation system.

In the process of expanding the scale of dealers, reduce small-scale single-category dealers and promote the development of all-category dealers.

At the same time, it implements the management requirements of the flushing goods management system and the price system, optimizes the "Distributor Inventory Management Measures", implements an in-event tracking mechanism, and establishes an early warning mechanism for the age of goods.

5. Promote the management optimization of the sales organization.

By optimizing resource allocation, promote the transformation from single-category and single-brand operation to multi-category and multi-brand operation;

Through the sinking of related functions of sales management (including dealer management, channel management, sales promotion, sales manpower, sales finance, etc.), promote the transformation of the sales organization from individual combat to organized overall combat;

Through channel informatization, especially the entry of mobile phone visit system and dealer logistics and distribution receipt data, promote the transformation of terminal management from extensive management to fine management.

end

The world does not lack rich people, nor does it lack wealthy people.

When "expensive" becomes the mainstream, "cheap" becomes a virtue.

And when Nayuki's core users are willing to spend a few hundred yuan a week for this season's new products, there are also many who are willing to spend five yuan a week for a cup of fragrance.