I. Overview of market development
Beverage originated in the United States, and began to enter the industrial production in Japan and Taiwan Province Province of China in the late 1970s, and gradually became popular in the beverage market. Although Chinese mainland's tea drinks began in the middle and late 1980s, and mass production was late, China's tea drinks market was introduced before 1998. During this period, China's tea drinks industry has not yet formed economies of scale, with small market share and high price. Since 1999, China has entered the growth period, and its output and consumption have expanded. During the five years from 1997 to 200 1, the output of tea drinks in China has increased by 2.8 million tons, with an average growth rate close to 100% (see figure1). At present, there are about 40 tea drink production enterprises in China, including large and medium-sized enterprises 1)20067.00000000066 More than 100. At the same time, the development speed of China tea consumption market is even more alarming, with an annual growth rate of almost 300%, accounting for 13% of China's beverage consumption market share, surpassing juice drinks, ranking among the "hundred flowers blossom" in the beverage market, and it is likely to catch up with carbonated drinks. Facing the rapid development of tea beverage industry in China, related industries predict that tea beverage will set off the third wave of drinks in China, even replacing the status of drinking water and competing for market dominance with carbonated drinks that have been developed for many years.
Second, the market competition analysis
Competition pattern: the top three stand out.
The tea beverage market in China is different from the fruit juice beverage market. The market is mainly controlled by several major brands. According to the survey results of tea beverage brands that consumers in seven cities, such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Shenyang, Xi and Wuhan, the market share of Master Kong, Uni-President and Sunrise is 85.2%, of which Master Kong is 36.9% and Uni-President is 28.4%. Judging from the current market competition areas of the top three, Sunrise's sales areas are mainly concentrated in North China, Northwest China and Northeast China, while Uni-President and Master Kong occupy 80% of the market share in Guangdong, Xi and Wuhan. Although rising stars such as Suntory, Wahaha and Tiandi are catching up, it will take some time for other brands to catch up with Master Kong, Uni-President and Sunrise, because they entered the market earlier and invested heavily, and have formed a relatively complete sales network and mature market concept, especially Master Kong's national sales network.
Competitive environment: the wind is high and the waves are urgent, and the undercurrent is surging
From the perspective of large-scale industrial production, Rising Sun is the "originator" of China tea drinks. Rising Sun Group's "Rising Sun" iced tea was listed on 1994, which earned millions of yuan in the market that year. Its sales reached 50 million yuan in 1995, soared to 500 million yuan in 1996 and reached 3 billion yuan in 1998, creating an "iced tea myth". Rich market returns make all kinds of "heroes" salivate. 1998, Ding Xin International abandoned the pure water of Master Kong in the national drinking water industry and invested heavily in the tea beverage market. At the same time, Uni-President Enterprise (China) Investment Co., Ltd. also invested in the tea beverage market, and achieved rapid success with its 30-year tea beverage experience and strong capital strength in Taiwan Province Province. Later, Wahaha, Robust, Suntory, Huiyuan, Jianlibao, Wellcome, Kirin, Coconut Tree, Ipoh, Want Want, Chundu, Unilever and other heavyweight enterprises also kept pace with the times and launched their own tea beverage series. Last year, the biggest news of China's tea beverage was the leader of domestic beer industry, and Coca-Cola, the world's carbonated beverage giant, also entered the tea beverage market. Its biggest attraction is not here. Tsingtao Brewery Tsingtao Asahi Beverage Co., Ltd. was established by a joint venture between Tsingtao Brewery Tsingtao Brewery and Japan Asahi Company. In the first phase, it invested 1 100 million yuan to produce oolong tea, and it was proposed that the sales volume and market share should be the first in the country within that year. Coca-Cola, on the other hand, is playing the banner of diversification in China for the first time, and it has the potential of "total annihilation". It seems to be involved in all kinds of tea drinks in China, including oolong tea, jasmine tea, iced lemon tea, and has launched a high-grade "Lanfeng" honey green tea with Japanese flavor. It can be said that Tsingtao Brewery and Coca-Cola set off a new wave of competition in China tea beverage market. Who will be next? Wouldn't it be surprising if Haier entered?
Advertising war: see who sucks loudly.
As China's tea beverage market is not yet mature, consumers' brand consumption concept is getting stronger and stronger. Many tea beverage enterprises not only increase their advertising investment, but also hit TV advertisements one by one (see Table 2), and they are also painstaking in selecting topics. In terms of advertising investment, Master Kong aimed at local TV stations and cable networks and took carpet bombing, covering 56 channels in 26 cities across the country. Tea beverage advertisements accounted for more than half, making it the most widely advertised brand. Unify the strategy of "strong loading and light touch", focusing on the central and southern regions. While adhering to CCTV, it also launched on 35 channels in the national 16 city. Both Sunrise and Humboldt "cracked down" and put almost all advertisements on CCTV, which has a wide coverage and high ratings. On the topic of advertising, many brand advertisements of tea drinks are seated by popular stars: for example, Alec Su explained the infatuation of "Master Kong Green Tea" with a series of love stories; Richie Jen used his summer favorite to put down the thick "unified iced black tea"; Stephen Chow's classic interpretation of "Wahaha Tea" that loves you for 10,000 years, Yu Quan's "The Rising Sun" is cruel to the end, and so on.
Market competition strategy: Eight Immortals cross the sea, each showing its abilities.
Facing the increasingly fierce market competition, various tea beverage manufacturers have recently taken actions to gain more market share:
● Master Kong: Committed to brand management. Constantly improving and enriching the connotation of brand management is the magic weapon for Master Kong to win. In terms of brand image, we not only invested heavily in advertising, but also often made breakthroughs in the theme of advertising appeal: in 2000, we seized the "year of green tourism" and launched large-scale theme activities throughout the country to let people know "the healthiest nature, the green tea with the best mood"; On 200 1, Richie Jen, the superstar of the heavenly king, was invited as the image spokesperson of iced black tea to show the "ice-cool" image of Master Kong's iced black tea. In terms of brand connotation, relying on its more than 65,438+00 years of production experience and world-advanced production equipment, we will develop new products in time to meet the needs of market development, strengthen marketing efforts, and establish a good interactive relationship with consumers to create the status of "the boss" of tea drinks.
● Unity: "Two legs" walk at the same time. Strong product research and development capability and strong market distribution system are two magic weapons for unity's rapid rise. In product research, in the words of Li Shide, manager of the planning group of Uni-President (China) Investment Company, "There are five products on the market, so we have five more on hand, ready to cope with market competition". On the market distribution system, Uni-President has established a powerful market distribution system, so as to timely and accurately grasp the market reactions of all "nerve endings" in the market. Uni-President has more than 65,438+000 business offices in China, including four in Shanghai alone, each with hundreds of people. Each business hall is mainly aimed at large supermarkets, and other small terminals are handed over to dealers.
● Rising Sun: From brand sales and low-cost expansion to rebuilding the distribution system. The rising sun, which rose rapidly because it was half a step faster than its competitors, relied on brand sales and low-cost expansion at the beginning of market development. However, with the sudden emergence of Master Kong and Uni-President, the famous "iced tea" patent gradually lost its innovative advantage, which reduced the market share of Rising Sun from 70% to 20%, and the ice tea front was shrinking day by day. To this end, Sunrise quickly adjusted its strategy, actively strengthened its product lineup, and launched tea rhyme series of green tea, oolong tea and iced black tea. At the same time, it strengthened its own natural beverage characteristics, constantly subdivided the market, and strived to create a new market distribution system.
Market opportunity: Can I have a piece of the action?
The existence of huge market opportunities and risks makes many enterprises that want to enter the tea beverage market endlessly ask, can I have a piece of the action? How high is the market entry threshold? Dongfang Xing Enterprise, although the tea beverage market in China has a high degree of monopoly and fierce market competition, does not mean that new entrants have no room for survival and development in the market. From the perspective of per capita consumption, in 2000, the per capita consumption of tea drinks in China was only 0.3kg. If compared with the per capita annual consumption of 20-30kg in Japan, there is still more than 50 times room for growth of tea drinks in China. Even from the current per capita consumption of 10kg, the market capacity of tea drinks in China is at least130,000 tons, while the actual output of tea drinks in China is only 1.85 million tons. There is still room for market growth of 65,438+065,438+065,438+05,000 tons, and the current sales volume is only concentrated in key cities, and the rapid growth period is estimated to be at least 3 years. Look at the market opportunities of new entrants through the following specific obstacles in production and sales:
● Production barriers: According to Mr. Sun, chief engineer of Beijing Oriental Food Industry Technology Company of Beijing Nutrition Research Institute, the direct cost of tea beverage production is not high. A set of filling equipment needs to invest 400,000-500,000 yuan, and the PET bottle blowing machine production line needs to invest 300,000 yuan. The raw material cost of a bottle of beverage is only about 0.3 yuan. If all the expenses are included, the cost of a bottle of beverage is about 1.2 yuan, although the price of tea beverage has been lowered by 6% at present-therefore, the production barrier of tea beverage is not high for merchants.
● Sales barriers: Although the monopoly of tea beverage market is relatively high at present, major tea beverage companies have made great efforts in advertising and high brand awareness, which has caused some market barriers to new entrants, but it also reflects that tea beverage in China is still in the growth stage. On the one hand, the success of major tea beverage companies in the current market is due to their commercial success, but on the other hand, it is also because they entered the market earlier and "ate fast", which is aimed at new entrants. From the consumer's point of view, the tea beverage market has not reached as high brand loyalty as the cola market, and the taste of the product is the real selling point of the market. Judging from the factors affecting consumers' purchase of tea drinks in seven major cities, 67.9% of consumers think that taste is the most important factor affecting their purchase of tea drinks, while for brands, it only accounts for 29.9% (see Figure 2).
Third, market product analysis
1. Product category analysis: Tea drinks in the existing market can be divided into three categories: pure tea, flavored tea and steamed tea. Master Kong, Uni-President, Robust, Wahaha, Coca-Cola and other manufacturers mostly focus on flavored tea. Specifically, it can be divided into iced black tea, iced green tea, milk tea, peach tea, iced tea, American ginseng flower, grape tea, winter melon tea, lemon tea and so on. Judging from the different kinds of tea drinks that consumers buy, the scented tea that people loved in the past has been robbed of a lot of scenery by green tea and oolong tea. The three favorite tea drinks of consumers are green tea, black tea and oolong tea, accounting for 36.4%, 28.4% and 17.2% of the respondents respectively, while scented tea, which once occupied a large market share, has been declining all the way, accounting for only 4.9% of the respondents (see Figure 3). From the perspective of development trend, Oriental Qi Xing believes that there will be several key points in the tea beverage market in China in the future: First, green tea will become the leading product in the market. Second, the development space of health tea is huge; Third, with the further development of green consumption, the market potential of organic tea can be expected.
2. Product taste analysis
There is a word in China called "tasting tea", which shows the importance of the taste of tea drinks to consumers. However, judging from the taste of the existing products on the market, they are relatively simple, mainly low-sugar and light, and the launch of many products only stays in the concept hype. However, judging from the development trend of the market, the dispersion of taste is an inevitable trend, and the flavor tea will further develop and the fruit taste will be more diversified. Recently, the mixed tea made of more than a dozen kinds of tea leaves invented in Japan is very popular in Japan, which shows that it is not the preferences of consumers but the continuous innovation of manufacturers that dominate the taste of tea drinks in the market. Only in this way will the market space of tea drinks continue to expand.
3. Product packaging analysis
From the packaging materials of products, there are mainly paper-plastic aseptic packaging and hot-filled plastic bottles, among which paper-plastic aseptic packaging includes Tetra Pak and Kangmei bags, and the earliest use of sunrise cans is rare in the market. Judging from the development trend, although many manufacturers mainly promote PET packaging at present, the packaging has poor compression resistance and will be deformed, especially for small brands. Only Master Kong and the unified blown PET polyester bottle have good compression resistance. With the continuous renovation and low cost of paper-plastic packaging styles, the development prospect is very broad. In terms of packaging capacity, bottled packaging capacity is mainly 490ML, 500ML, 1200ML and 1500ML, and large packaging is mainly for household use. The packing capacity of cartons is mainly 330ML and 375ML.
4. Product price analysis
Although the tea beverage market in China has not been impacted by the price war, the price has also shown a downward trend. At present, the retail price of 500 ml bottled tea drinks on the market is mostly around 3-5 yuan, which is about 20% lower than when tea drinks are newly introduced into the market. On the one hand, this phenomenon is due to the reduction of production costs, on the other hand, it also shows that there has been a silent price war in the tea beverage market. For example, in the wholesale link, the price difference of different brands of the same type is about 20%-30%. Compared with bottled water and carbonated drinks, the profit margin of tea drinks is still very large. With the re-entry of new manufacturers, perhaps the price war of tea drinks is just around the corner.
Fourth, the characteristics and habits of consumers.
1. Consumer characteristics
● Women are slightly higher than men. The survey shows that the proportion of women who drink drinks most often is higher than that of men (see Figure 4), which is not unrelated to the fact that female consumers value the healthy and fashionable characteristics of tea drinks. In addition, drinking tea drinks without getting fat is one of the main reasons why women choose tea drinks more than men.
● Age: Young people are the main force. The survey shows that consumers aged 15-25 are the main target consumers of tea drinks, followed by consumers aged 26-35, accounting for 69.5% of the total (see Figure 5), becoming the main consumers of tea drinks.
2. Consumer habits
● Frequency of drinking: The survey data show that in seven major cities, most tea beverage consumers are light consumers (1 drinking less than three times a month), accounting for 55.9% of consumers, while the proportion of heavy consumers (drinking every day) is only 6.8% (see Figure 6), which shows that there is still a large market development space in China's tea beverage market at present.
● The most frequent occasions for drinking tea drinks: From the occasions for consumers to drink tea drinks, "when they are usually thirsty" is the most frequent occasion for consumers to drink tea drinks, accounting for 68.9% of the respondents (see Figure 7), followed by when they are out/traveling, and fewer consumers usually drink tea drinks.
Note: The seven major cities are Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Wuhan, Chengdu, Shenyang and Xi 'an.