Yangcheng Evening News reporter Hang Ying Li Zhiwen

  The phenomenon of "wild consumption" has once again been staged on domestic brands!

  After the 3.15 Tukeng sauerkraut incident, Baixiang instant noodles became the biggest winner.

As a brand that has never cooperated with the flag-raising vegetable industry, a search in the White Elephant Taobao flagship store found that the top three best-selling products are all 10w+ monthly sales, which is at least 3 times that of Master Kong and Uniform.

In Baixiang Jingdong self-operated stores, most products are also out of stock.

  This is not the first time Baixiang has been on the instant noodle hot search list this year.

During the Winter Paralympics, White Elephant was searched because one-third of its employees were disabled.

In addition, in many disaster-affected events such as the Henan epidemic last year, Baixiang participated in donations and donations. For a while, Baixiang instant noodles went out of the circle, and the sales soared, reaching the point where demand exceeded supply.

Under the downward trend of the overall output of instant noodles, can the popularity of Baixiang save the decline?

Faced with the phenomenon of "overnight success" of domestic brands, how should consumers, businesses, and the industry respond correctly, instead of being a flash in the pan?

  Sales increased 6.5 times daily

  The popularity of the white elephant did not happen overnight. It became a small hit during the epidemic in Henan last year.

It's just that Hongxing Erke was too sharp at that time and didn't cause too many splashes.

During the Beijing Winter Paralympics on March 4th, because one-third of the employees were disabled, the white elephant began to appear in front of consumers with a strong attitude, and on the evening of March 15th, a piece of paper never planted the flag. The vegetable industry has culminated in a statement of cooperation.

  According to the Baidu Index, searches related to white elephants showed explosive growth on March 6 and March 16; and on Sina Weibo, topics related to white elephants were also frequently searched for.

On March 9, Baixiang said that the number of orders has increased sharply recently, and the factory has launched an emergency plan to produce and deliver products with full force, striving to deliver Baixiang products to thousands of households in need as quickly as possible.

By March 18, almost all products in the official flagship store of White Elephant Tmall were out of stock, and the pre-sale period was as long as 15 days.

  In the Taobao and Douyin live broadcast rooms, the screen is all about "support Baixiang". According to the data of Cicada's mother, before March this year, the single-day sales of Baixiang's official flagship store in the Douyin live broadcast room were basically All are below 100,000 yuan; on March 6, the single-day sales of the live broadcast room reached 670,000 yuan, an increase of 650% over the previous day; on March 16 and March 17 after the March 15 party, The single-day live broadcast sales of Baixiang's official flagship store exceeded 2 million yuan.

  The love of consumers has always been simple and rude, and "buy, buy, buy" is the biggest support for the brand.

At present, the quality of Baixiang's products is also worthy of the love of consumers.

According to the food safety information of the Tianyancha APP, Baixiang’s affiliated enterprises have been sampled more than 60 times for the products of Baixiang Food Co., Ltd., and the results are all qualified; its investment companies and branches have also been involved in nearly 300 random inspections, and the results are all qualified.

Compared with his peers in the "crowd rotten", the white elephant has excellent strength.

  Flowers do not have a hundred days of red, and the prosperity will turn into decline.

It became popular overnight, and the white elephant is not the first, nor will it be the last.

Hongxing Erke, Bee Flower and other domestic brands are all popular predecessors.

While delighted in a free marketing campaign, it is also worried about the dissipated enthusiasm, how can Baixiang not become the next declining "light of domestic products".

  Difficult to recover from the market downturn

  On March 6, Baixiang posted a video on Douyin calling for rational consumption.

In the rapidly declining instant noodle industry, long-term attention may be much more important to Baixiang than the instant boom.

  Data from the National Bureau of Statistics shows that from 2018 to 2020, China's instant noodle production has declined for three consecutive years.

In terms of demand, data shows that in 2019, the demand for instant noodles in my country was 41.45 billion servings. In 2020, due to the impact of the epidemic, the demand increased to 44.27 billion servings. However, from a long-term perspective, the demand for instant noodles has declined for four consecutive years from 2013 to 2016.

  Statistics from another agency show that in 2017-2018 alone, my country's instant noodle production dropped from 11.032 million tons to 6.995 million tons; it has continued to decline year by year since then.

In the first half of last year, my country's instant noodle production was 2.065 million tons; the overall sales growth rate of the instant noodle industry dropped by 7.3%.

  In China's instant noodle circle, Master Kong and Uni-President occupy half of the country.

According to data from the Instant Food Conference, in 2020, in the instant noodle market in mainland China, the sales of Master Kong and Uni-President will account for 46% and 15%, respectively, occupying the top two positions.

The share of white elephants is only 7%, ranking fourth.

With the decline in production and demand year by year, the life of the white elephant is getting harder and harder.

  Can the popularity of the white elephant change the current market pattern, and can it save the declining market?

Zhu Danpeng, an analyst in China's food industry, believes that at present, the new Internet celebrity brands cannot shake the foundation of traditional instant noodles, but they have done a lot to nibble on medium-sized enterprises in the instant noodle industry.

"In recent years, medium-sized enterprises like White Elephant have been unsuccessful in their diversification approach. From brands, channels, teams, to customers, they are facing aging. If the essential problems are not solved, patriotism alone will not be enough to support their future."

  In the view of Wang Peng, associate professor at the Gaoli Research Institute of Renmin University of China, Baixiang assumes corporate social responsibility, makes donations, and employs disabled people, which more reflects the public welfare and social responsibility, which is a bonus item for enterprises.

But for FMCG brands, the core element is the product itself. Is there any innovation in the product?

Does the taste meet the market demand?

Does the distribution system and logistics system occupy the market?

This is a question that businesses need to answer.

  The reporter visited a number of supermarkets in Guangzhou and found that most of the instant noodles sold in the market are the two brands of Master Kong and Uni-President, and it is difficult to find the trace of Baixiang instant noodles.

A salesperson of a chain of convenience stores even told reporters that he had never seen instant noodles of the brand Baixiang.

 Product innovation can last

  From Hongxing Erke, Fenghua, to Baixiang, how should the next domestic brand respond to and retain the sudden enthusiasm of consumers?

  Wang Peng told reporters that this explosion is both accidental and inevitable.

The accidental factor is that when there is no accidental event and the social responsibility and corporate value of the enterprise cannot be reflected, it may be ignored by everyone; it must be that in the process of continuous accumulation, the so-called explosion may suddenly appear in a certain period of time. payment.

"As for whether it is sustainable, I think it can be the same as the original Hongxing Erke donation event, there will still be a very high exposure in a short period of time, one or two months, or there will be a lot of sales, but in the long run, it may be With the passage of time, the emergence of social hot issues and public opinion issues reduces attention and brand awareness, and finally returns to a normalized development situation.”

  When talking about the essential problem of the white elephant, Zhu Danpeng said: "In fact, the white elephant is an aging as a whole. From the brand, the channel, the team, the customer, the whole aging phenomenon is full of the whole white elephant. If you don't solve these things in the bones, Feelings alone, patriotism alone, and helping the disabled alone are not enough to support his future."

  In fact, the white elephant has been seeking breakthroughs in recent years, but has not found a suitable path.

After realizing that the performance of its main instant noodles was difficult to increase, Baixiang Foods began to expand its layout in the main business categories.

Baixiang has successively increased its weight in the fields of "soup" and "noodles". After the noodle store failed, he added quick-frozen food to his product list.

It is little known that in 2012, White Elephant also began to develop the beverage market, and it has also launched a variety of beverage products in the past ten years, but it seems difficult for consumers to see the presence of White Elephant beverages in the market.

Beverage products could not be found in White Elephant Tmall and Jingdong flagship stores.

  As the darling of venture capital, whether it is Baixiang or the next popular domestic brand, how to continue the "favorite" of consumers?

Wang Peng said that whether it is Baixiang or Hongxing Erke, if they want to convert their advantages into corporate interests, they must first do brand marketing that matches their own tonality. They can play hometown and local brands to reflect their sense of social responsibility and sponsor related public welfare activities; secondly , doing a good job in product innovation is still the best choice.

"Although Baixiang's products are qualified, they are still lacking in innovation. Whether they can take this opportunity to develop products that are more suitable for healthy life and fast fashion is an important factor for Baixiang's development."

  In the next step, Wang Peng believes that Baixiang must ensure quality and product safety, adapt to the needs of the Z era in the digital era, and spread a good brand image.

At the same time, adapt to the current social and economic development situation, and do a good job of its own distribution and logistics system.

  The reporter tried to contact Baixiang to find out his views on the explosion during this period and his next business plan, but as of press time, no reply has been received.