The core logic of the Internet celebrity economy is the realization of traffic, and traffic is the seven inches of the Internet celebrity economy.
On May 9th, three squirrels of China’s Internet celebrity food generation group were notified by the State Administration of Market Supervision and sent to a long-awaited hot search due to the non-compliance of the peroxide value of the open pine nuts. Then the three squirrels responded that the non-compliance of the product was caused by the dealer’s failure to store the product in accordance with the packaging labeling requirements during the transportation link. The product involved has been recalled.
Actually, it is not the first time that the three squirrels have had food problems. Acrylamide exceeded the standard in October 2020, the walnut kernel mold project was unqualified in September 2020, and the pistachio mold severely exceeded the standard in August 2017…
Interestingly, the time when food safety problems occurred coincided with the peak search popularity of Baidu Index in recent years. It is worth noting that the three squirrels that have been controversial in food safety issues have both stagnated in the past three years in terms of revenue and net profit. The growth rate of the two core indicators has stalled, even in 2020 when online retail “food” has grown substantially. Negative growth.
Taking the bitterness of “net celebrity” has become the fate of every generation of internet celebrity food. Weilong, a global “hard currency”, has just completed the Pre-IPO after fading out the Internet topic until 2021; the vitality forest has been mentioned 5 times in 3 years, and the popularity of “net celebrities” will fall into “0” after the popularity of “net celebrities” recedes slightly. In the storm of sugar” and “IQ tax”.
The three squirrels, Weilong, and Yuanqi Forest have generations of Internet celebrity foods. Their highlight moments are as short as one year and only three years long. In sharp contrast, Coca-Cola’s century-long rule of the world , There are also food brands such as Nongfu Spring and Wahhaha in China. What is the difference between the three squirrels and other Internet celebrities? Why can’t we break the curse of “the rich are not for three generations”?
1
The twisted melon is not sweet but it quenches thirst, but have you ever thought that if the melon is not ripe, it will not only quench your thirst, but will also cause diarrhea? The current predicament of Internet celebrity foods is also caused by the backlash of the “traffic” of strong drinking.
In 2011, Zhang Liaoyuan, then general manager of Anhui Zhan’s, flew to Hangzhou to participate in the Tmall Think Tank Business Annual Meeting. After a few days of the meeting, Zhang Liaoyuan was “brainwashed” by the innovation of Ali employees, and he was firm in his heart. thinkE-commerce is the future of retail. After the end of the annual meeting, Zhang returned to Zhan’s and eagerly expressed his idea-full e-commerce.
In the same year, Zhang created the “Shell Shell Fruit” sub-brand of Zhan’s network nuts, focusing on e-commerce. To this end, the chapter also “invented” the sub-category brand and the concept of 15-day fresh nuts. Zhang achieved impressive results in the last battle of Zhan’s. The new e-commerce brand sold more than 10 million in just 8 months, which is called Tianhu. But even so, Zhang’s idea of fully e-commerce for Zhan’s was still unanimously opposed by the management. At that time, an executive of Zhan’s recalled afterwards: “Zhang’s idea was too advanced and too risky. Everyone felt that it was too advanced and too risky. Brands can do e-commerce, and you can’t put all your eggs in one basket.”
The encounter with Zhan’s made Zhang had to face a choice: whether to choose a stable, high-paying job or venture to start a business. Zhang, who had been restless since he was a child, chose the latter. In February 2012, Zhang led a small team of 4 people who “coaxed and deceived” to set up three squirrels in a humble office in Anhui.
The three squirrels were deeply tied to e-commerce at the beginning. The back-end abandoned self-built factories and chose the foundry model to go into battle. The front-end opened an online store to weaken the role of the supply chain. This is no different for other players in the snack food industry in China. In order to reduce dimensionality, most practitioners at the time believed that it was deviant. After all, there were nearly 55 million users who used mobile phones to shop online in 2012. However, not only Zhang Liaoyuan but also idg capital are optimistic about the development prospects of e-commerce. Soon after Zhang came out to start his own business, IDG’s “young strong” and later founder of Fengrui Capital, Li Feng, took the initiative to find the door and gave the three squirrels a $1.5 million round A novice gift package.
The early bird catches the worm, and the three squirrels who chose the e-commerce early also received two waves of traffic. In 2012, Alibaba just spun out its Taobao Mall to establish Tmall Mall, and supported the traffic of TO C to the B end. The three squirrels, a native Taobao brand, became the object of support.
At the same time, the dual-brand strategy of Tmall under Taobao’s management has allowed Ali e-commerce to enter the fast lane of development. The combined GMV of Taobao and Tmall on Double Eleven in 2012 reached 13.2 billion, a year-on-year increase of 298.25% compared to 2011. The three deeply bound squirrels therefore handed in a good report card of 7.66 million GMV on Double Eleven in 2012.
Zhang Liaoyuan wants to thank Taobao for this platform, and he should also thank the e-commerce era, which has given new brands the most needed traffic. In 2012, the number of mobile phone online shopping users in China was only 55 million, and the penetration rate among netizens was less than 20%. However, after 2012, two major events in China have completely opened the dyke for online shopping. One is that new e-commerce platforms such as JD.com, Jumei Youpin, and Vipshop have exchanged subsidies for the market, accelerating the cultivation of online shopping habits; In the 3G era, smart phones have become popular in China, and domestic smart phones such as China Kulian have created material conditions for the popularization of online shopping. According to the report of China Business Industry Research Institute, in 2013, China’s mobile phonesThe number of online shopping users has increased by 161.81% compared with the previous year, and its growth rate has remained above 50% in the following years.
The three squirrels have quickly grown bigger and stronger and created brilliant achievements by relying on the foundry model to quickly become bigger and stronger under the influence of the e-commerce traffic dividend. Public data shows that the compound growth rate of the three squirrels from 2014 to 2016 was as high as 118.72%, and the sales exceeded 5 billion yuan in just four years of establishment (2016).
If the three squirrels were matured by the e-commerce traffic dividends, then Weilong and Yuanqi Forest have more of the video traffic dividends. Weilong, relying on the rumors of “American luxury goods”, the marketing plan of Zhang Quandan from the comic strip and the Lotte incident, transformed from the “junk food” in his father’s mouth into the second generation of Internet Red Food; the vitality forest, riding punk Relying on the marketing strategy of “0 fat, 0 calories, and 0 sugar”, the health-preserving style, with the pursuit of KOL and capital, has rapidly grown into a 40 billion-valued beverage giant.
2 Development stall
“Last year, 7000 orders were sold on New Year’s Day, but I don’t know why 4000 orders were not sold this year.” The post of Red Star (pseudonym) on Baidu Tieba still stays on January 5, 2017.
Red Star is an entrepreneur of a 4-star online store on Taobao. It mainly deals in 50 SKU snacks including nuts, biscuits, and candies. According to him, the sales of each type of snack are different from season to season, but the nuts are still the best-selling throughout the year, with three squirrels accounting for nearly 70% of the sales of Red Star Nuts. However, after 2017, Red Star discovered that the sales of its three squirrels did not rise but fell. Instead, the sales of snail noodles that had only been added to the product column surged.
The owner of the franchise store has the same feelings as Red Star (a pseudonym). Anonymous revealed that there are currently two kinds of offline stores of Three Squirrels. One is a three-squirrel direct store. Because of the branded square pockets that can synchronize online activities, it’s better to have a better life; the other is its own. Franchise shop. At first, I watched the people around me carrying it every year and holidays, and I was fooled into the pit. Later I found that not only did I have to bear the high rent and reluctantly beat the price station (usually in the mall), but also lost on the SKU. However, in the Supermarket, except for the two days of opening, the GMV of the store can exceed 10,000 per day. Now the GMV per day has dropped to less than 2,000 all the way, and I regret that I am dead.
The sales of related products in third-party online stores are declining, and the number of customers in franchise stores is decreasing. The three squirrels are reflected in the ugliness of various data. threeSquirrel’s prospectus & financial report shows that its revenue has grown from 4.42 billion in 2016 to 10.17 billion in 2019, but in 2010 the situation has taken a sharp turn, and the growth rate has changed from a sharp increase in the previous year to a sharp drop.
At the revenue level, the three squirrels may only be regarded as pressing the pause button, but they are really in a state of “stagflation” in terms of profit margins. The data shows that from 2017 to 2019, its net profit margin has declined year by year, respectively 5.44%, 4.34%, and 2.35%. The net profit in 2020 will slightly increase to 3.07%, but it is also at a historical low compared to previous years.
Vital Energy Forest, which is not completely depleted, is troubled by “growth”. After reaching a monthly sales peak of 260 million yuan in May 2020, the sales volume of Vital Energy Forest will increase again. After all, Vital Energy Forest will have a full year in 2020. With sales of less than 3 billion, Internet celebrity food has stalled.
The development of Internet celebrity food is inevitable. Take three squirrels as an example. In 2020, two new “net celebrities” were born in the industry. One is the “live e-commerce” that includes Taobao, Jingdong, Douyin, and Kuaishou. Although the live e-commerce Taobao is in the first echelon, the three squirrels are also Taobao is deeply bound (Tmall channels accounted for 52% of total sales in 2020), but the three squirrels did not receive the first wave of bonuses on the new outlet of live e-commerce. Currently, the three squirrels are watching in Taobao live broadcast room The number of people is only more than 4,000; the other is the rise of the new king of Internet celebrity food snail noodles, which has divided the traffic of other categories of food. Tmall Taobao data shows that in 2021, snail noodles topped the list of the most popular new year products, and its sales increased by as much as 15 times.
Failed to catch up with live broadcast e-commerce outlets in time, snail noodles and other emerging Internet celebrity foods have been diverted again. In the final analysis, everything is caused by traffic.
3 Stuck in traffic
Prescribing the right remedy is logically the right way, but it does not rule out the possibility of getting into headaches and foot pains. Internet celebrity foods are trapped in a dead end of traffic. bingo.
“Grasp the new traffic entry and create a ‘1+N’ multi-brand matrix”, the three squirrels gave out these 16 words as soon as they encountered traffic backlash Policy response, the author here divides it into two lines: marketing and business.
At the business level, the three squirrels are actively exploring new tracks on the one hand, and will accelerate their efforts in The brand’s incubation will expand the product line to subdivided tracks such as baby food and pet food. It is hoped that the three squirrels’ brand effect will be used to recover the increase in traffic on the new track. After all, the market for children’s snacks is increasing by 10% to 15%. The compound annual growth rate continues to grow, and the pet industry has also ushered in a blowout era. Judging from the financial report of the three squirrels, the progress of the three squirrels on the new track is not fast, and the six-month cumulative revenue of the four sub-brands is only 76 million.
On the other hand, the three squirrels are still accelerating the layout of offline stores. In 2016, when the popularity of the three squirrels was still in full swing, Zhang was thinking about a question: “Online users are particularly expensive, how to integrate traffic”, and the answer he got after a few days of discussion was to open a “food shop”. Regarding the food investment store, Zhang said: “It does not emphasize the function of buying and selling, but emphasizes experience and interaction, in order to enhance the sticky relationship with users.” In the end, there is only one purpose: drainage.
However, there is a problem with the food store. The cost of opening is high. The high cost is not only the decoration but also the time cost. The drainage effect is limited. Therefore, in 2018, the three squirrels opened the franchise channel and wanted to use the more easy The way of franchise stores for its drainage. On September 1, 2018, the first franchise store of Three Squirrels opened in Zibo, Shandong. The passenger flow reached 1,300 people on that day. However, as of 2020, the number of franchise stores of Three Squirrels nationwide was only 872, of which 641 were new in 2020. Opening a store, the traffic behind the three squirrels eager to open a store is eager for everyone to know.
At the marketing level, the three squirrels are slowing down and are accelerating to new traffic. New traffic refers to the newly emerging traffic pools such as live e-commerce, short video, Chinese video, and social media. The three squirrels also made it clear in the 2020 financial report that the company is actively deploying social e-commerce such as Douyin, Xiaohongshu, and Kuaishou, and new channels such as live e-commerce, which will increase the marketing expenses of the three squirrels by 41.77% in 2020.
Where is Weilong? Judging from its public actions, it is also desperate marketing in new trafficThe same is true for the vitality forest, the new flow has become the life-saving straw in the eyes of Internet celebrity food. But if we look at Coca-Cola, which has dominated the beverage market for more than 100 years, we can find that traffic is not the secret of its success, but culture.
In 1942, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor and the United States was forced to join the war. At this time, the American people not only suffered from the poverty brought about by the Great Depression, but the Pacific Fleet was almost paralyzed, one word: miserable. Against this background of pessimism, Coca-Cola marketing guru Robert Woodruff saw an opportunity instead. Soon after the war, an order was issued: No matter where our army is, and no matter how much the company’s price is, we must ensure that every soldier can buy a bottle of Coca-Cola for only 5 cents. From this moment on, Coca-Cola has a cultural attribute, that is, the spirit of optimism in a difficult environment. With the footsteps of American soldiers on the battlefields of the Pacific, Asia, Europe, and Africa, Coca-Cola and Coke culture have also been brought to the world to flourish.
Only when the tide recedes to know who is swimming naked, and as the traffic dividend subsides, the lively Internet celebrity food has also become flat. The past few generations have been reduced to large gift packages for corporate holidays. Only Coca-Cola stands high. Smiled: Look, it’s illiterate, it’s terrible.