Now the ice cream is so wild.
Editor’s note: This article comes from the WeChat public account “Love Fan” (ID: ifanr) , author: Fang Jiawen.
Since the “May 1st”, “Summer” has suddenly ushered in many places across the country. Guangzhou issued a high temperature warning on May 4th, the first year that a high temperature signal was issued in more than a decade.
The sultry weather combined with the “insulation” of the mask makes people want to stay in front of the freezer even when they walk into the convenience store.
If you tentatively turn over the refrigerator, you will find that the freezer is no longer the world of childhood, “simple” flavors such as vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, etc., but is filled with “Yangzhou fried rice” and “Northeast iron pot stew”. When you don’t think about it, you can even make ice cream products.
01 Behind “Everything is ice cream”, there is a fierce ice cream war
Ao Xue, who created the “double-yellow egg” salted egg yolk ice cream that was popular in the circle of friends last year, the most eye-catching of the salted ice cream launched this year is the “Northeast iron pan stewed ice cream” that looks like instant noodles .
A half-handed wafer “iron pan” is filled with milk-flavored ice cream, meat floss, chives, carrots and seaweed.
Picture from Weibo user @ 是 还 开心 开心
Kang Yi of Jiangxi also used milk ice cream as a base, with meat floss, seaweed and sea salt to create a “Yangzhou Fried Rice Ice Cream”.
picture from Weibo user @pawpaw 瓜瓜 酱
If you still feel that it is not exciting enough, Ao Xue, “Ao Xue Mustard Green”, which is often mistaken by careless netizens for the taste of matcha, will make you awaken with tears and experience the wonder of spicy ice.
picture from Weibo user @ 奔 老师 _ 不是 老师
Zhongjie 1946, which has made “popsicles” “advanced” in recent years, launched “crab fat” at the end of last year. It uses a crab-shaped shell to hold ice cream in half, which can be easily divided into two. It is more convenient to eat by yourself or to share.
picture from Weibo user @ 东 慕尼
Shandong Enterprise Huayin, known as the “scallion province”, this year launched “True Onion Popsicle Milk Ice Cream”, which combines the classic combination of spring onion and floss with milk ice cream, wrapped in crispy skin.
picture from Weibo user @ 零食 少女
When the mustard flavor comes to Huayin’s hands, it becomes a “mustard crunch” wrapped in green onion flesh in milk ice cream.
In fact, the trend of “salty ice cream” that made “dishes” into ice cream started to emerge last year.
The “2019 Online Ice Cream Consumption Insight” released by the First Financial Data Center pointed out that salted egg yolk, sea salt flavored and other salty ice cream has achieved rapid growth. Behind this growth is consumer demand for niche ice cream other than traditional flavors.
If you like to look at the freezer when you are shopping at a convenience store like me, I believe you can understand that most ice cream in summer is an impulsive consumption. As soon as curiosity comes, you may buy a new product with a strange taste, but the unit price is not too high.
Curun Data has teamed up with Mintel to investigate the reasons why Chinese consumers buy ice cream, and the most popular reason is “tasting new flavors.”
At the same time, competition in the ice cream market is particularly fierce. Since there is not much technical threshold, once a taste is hot, other companies can quickly copy it. Just like last year, after the “Double Yellow Egg” became popular, a large number of salted egg yolk ice creams from different brands also appeared in the market.
Pictures come from beans and fruits
The person in charge of Aoxue once said in an interview with Business Daily that, on average, an ice company has to launch more than 20 new products every year.
Therefore, many ice companies will start with the tastes that have been successful in the catering market and experiment with new ice cream flavors.
Online evaluation of salted egg yolk taste snacks, the picture is from Chengdu cuisine
Pearl milk tea and the salted egg yolk flavors that burst into popularity last year are regarded as innovative niche flavors in ice cream, but these two flavors themselves have been widely recognized in the diet and snack food category. Naturally, the status of pearl milk tea needs no elaboration. A variety of snacks such as salted egg yolk-flavored potato chips, biscuits, and fish skin have been popular in the past few years.
02 Ice cream became the “dark horse” during the epidemic
picture from “Nikkei Asia Watch”
In most people ’s impression, ice cream is a summer happiness, a seasonal summer dessert, but this concept has now begun to change.
During the Spring Festival this year, ice cream ushered in a wave of growth.
The Kantar Consumer Index survey showed that between February 8 and February 21, Chinese households ’spending on packaged ice cream increased by 38% year-on-year, which was higher than the overall food sales growth. On the other hand, the online sales of Zhong Xuegao’s online sales grew by 230% and 500% in January and February this year.
Because the epidemic stays at home, it is difficult to come to the supermarket. You have to buy some snacks to be happy. Ice cream feels healthier than puffed food.
Ms. Qiu in Beijing is an ice cream lover, she said so in an interview with Caijing.
In Kurun Data and Mintel ’s reports on the reasons why Chinese consumers buy ice cream, “treat yourself” is the second largest reason behind “try new tastes”. In addition, “reward / soothe children” and “ “Decompression” is the reason for the list, and they are all related to soothing emotions. On the contrary, there is no reason for “Xieshu” to enter the top ten.
picture from Giphy
When the United States experienced a 2008 economic recession, local ice cream sales ushered in a 20% increase, because when the economy is down, the ice cream that can be bought can bring a lot of happiness. Therefore, some people call ice cream a “resistance to economic recession” products. When the economic situation improves, ice cream can still be used as a reward for the celebration.
In the most severe month of the New Crown Outbreak, the increase in the number of purchases, frequency, and single purchases has become a growth engine. This also shows that the role of ice cream at home is becoming more important under the influence of the need to ease negative emotions, the emergence of classes / offices at home, and the time spent with family members. —— Kantar consumption index
At the same time, the number of Chinese consumers who view ice cream as “after-meal desserts” is also increasing. These are all planting seeds for ice cream to become a regular snack.
Compared with other countries, the habit of Chinese consumers eating ice cream at home is not yet widespread. Less than half of Chinese urban households will eat ice cream at home in a year, which shows that the market still has a lot of room for development.
03 The ice cream with a peculiar taste is fun, but health may be the biggest trend
Although the sales of ice cream ushered in during the epidemic today, looking back at the SARS outbreak 17 years ago, ice cream lags behind other snacks and the entire food category in the snack circle.
Behind this, in addition to innovative tastes, there are more critical cold chain developments that can break down geographical boundaries.
picture from China Economic Net
Last year, Jingdong Cold Chain reached a cooperation with Mengniu Dairy to open a nationwide cold chain network for Mengniu Ice Products; Alibaba ’s Reindeer Cold Chain reached a cooperation with Zhonghe Aoya Industrial Co., Ltd. Merged into Cainiao Logistics; as early as 2018, SF Express and Xia Hui announced the establishment of a cold chain logistics joint venture “New Xiahui”.
Even so, the postage for online ice cream purchases is still high, or you have to pay a high postage of 60 yuan, otherwise you have to order more than one hundred or two hundred orders in exchange for free mail, that is, one time I bought more than ten and twenty.
However, during the last “618” period, Tmall still sold more than 10 million ice creams, and online ice cream brands have grown from more than 60 in 2018 to more than 140 in 2019.
In order to attract new users, many businesses will launch multi-flavor matching products, or support single order placement, allowing consumers to pick different tastes to make up the order.
But according to “Online Ice Cream Consumption Insight 2019”, although the early adopters mainly after 90 and 95 have accounted for 30% of the online ice cream consumption, it is the consumers after 70 to 85 that have the highest spending People, this usually means that they are buying ice cream for the whole family, including children.
picture from Freepik
For this group of people, delicious and healthy may be the most important purchasing factor.
Zhong Xuegao, one of the “net celebrities” in recent years, has always emphasized the product “no addition” and given the special shape of ice cream “tiles”, meaning “each tile has a home, everyone has “The story belongs to the family”, the goal is to capture the “family storage scene” to make ice cream a standing snack across the seasons.
Pictures will automatically point technology
Zhongjie 1946, which is also highly recognizable in appearance, also emphasizes the concept of “no addition” and health, and shortens the shelf life of the product to 30 days, creating a “fresh” feeling and also promoting the frequency of repurchase. According to official reports, currently 85% of online purchase users’ mailing addresses are households.
Picture from the world ’s online business
In addition, just like beverages, ice cream that wants to play a healthy brand is also developing “functional”. Lactic acid bacteria, high fiber, and low calories can be seen in ice cream.
Yili ’s “Suzuhuan” ice cream focuses on “yogurt fermented by live bacteria as a milk core” plus “100% pure fresh fruit and vegetable juice soft hanging skin”; and Lu Xue ’s So Good emphasizes High protein and low calories.
Now, the summer is just beginning. In the ice cream universe of 2020, who would you pick?