Key Points of This Article
List Screening Rules: Brands with over 20 million yuan in sales in the category of snacks/nuts/specialties in Q1 2022, with a year-over-year growth exceeding 100%.
Summary of Reasons for Brands' High Growth:
1. The trend towards healthier and functional snacks is evident, and user health demands are highlighted.
2. Snacks that evoke childhood memories easily resonate with consumers born after 1990 and 1995, showing a clear role in customer acquisition for retro-flavored snacks.
3. A predilection for aesthetics, novelty, and "guochao" (national trend) has become the mainstream "snack view" among Generation Z consumers, making them the target for various emerging brands, with traditional brands closely following suit.
4. Meat snacks occupy the "center stage" of leisure snacks, with a combination of regional flavors, leading brand endorsements, and live-stream marketing forming a new strategy for brands.
Future Trends: Young people of Generation Z have become the main force in snack consumption, and the functionalization and health orientation of snacks precisely target the current health "pain points" of Generation Z. Functional leisure food may become a new growth point for the industry.
With the improvement of living standards and lifestyle changes, leisure snacks have become a "new basic need" in everyday life. For many people, eating snacks is a way to relieve stress and quickly gain happiness and satisfaction. Currently, China's leisure snack market has shifted from incremental competition to stock competition, and entering niche markets is a direction and opportunity in the current stage of the leisure snack market. Tracks like children's snacks, meal-replacement snacks, and meat snacks already have brands participating, and a new round of competition has gradually begun.
At present, China's snack market is in the early mature stage of rapid development, with a huge market size; the category of snacks/nuts/specialties alone achieved sales exceeding 93.816 billion yuan on the Taobao Tmall platform in 2021. Today's Moojing Market Intelligence highlights the high-growth brands in the snack/nut/specialty category with sales over 20 million yuan in the first quarter of 2022, to see which brands are growing rapidly with their distinctive products?
Summer is approaching, and temperatures are getting higher. Beauty-conscious and refined people are once again engaged in the "battle" of weight loss. But some find it hard to resist the temptation of delicious food.
Emerging brand KKN launched in December 2021 White Kidney Bean Carb Blocker Dietary Fiber Candies, with product slogans that instantly trigger consumer urges: "Eat without gaining weight," "Carb blocking," "Enjoy eating without fear," "Savior for big meals" ... The core component, white kidney bean extract, blocks "starch from converting into sugar for the body to absorb," which is its most enticing feature for ordinary consumers.
Moojing Market Intelligence data shows that in the first quarter of 2022,Taobao Tmall KKN white kidney bean candy sales reached 78,000 units, with sales exceeding 20 million yuan.
Brand King of Soldiers' Cooking Squad is a local healthy snack brand that relies on selling points such as low-fat, oil-free, satiating whole grain, improved taste, as well as people-friendly prices. Its meal-replacement products such as whole wheat bread, whole wheat European bread, and konjac cake are very popular. Its zero-fat whole wheat bread achieved sales of 16.4 million yuan in the first quarter of 2022, with sales exceeding 490,000 units.
Next, let's look at brand innovations in the candy/gelatin track . Traditional candies and gummy snacks, once limited to children's consumption, are gradually becoming loved by consumers of all ages, and the consumption scenarios are becoming more diverse. Gelatin, which in the past seemed closely linked to children's consumption, has in recent years been expanding in the consumer market through innovations in production materials, food packaging, and more, taking the form of konjac gelatin.
As early as 1996, jelly old-timer "Xizhilang" had already established a leading position in the jelly market. At the end of last year, Xizhilang reintroduced the cute new jelly – Konjac Squeezable Jelly, which not only has cute and appealing packaging with its low-fat, low-calorie konjac plant base but also contains more fruit juice (content ≥25%) and is designed with a T-shaped pouch. The "squeeze and bite" eating method is suitable for more consumption scenes.
The so-called konjac jelly refers to jelly made mainly from konjac (also known as glucomannan) powder, which is rich in dietary fiber, various amino acids, and trace elements, making konjac jelly relatively healthier and nutritious while meeting the low-fat, low-calorie snack consumption demand.
Moreover, konjac jelly has changed from the traditional cup packaging to T-shaped pouch packaging, with a "squeeze and eat" style, which not only avoids splatters and drops when tearing the jelly and the embarrassment of sucking, but the new appearance and packaging style also weaken the age boundaries of jelly consumption. It's suitable for snacking in scenarios such as school, office, and home.
In recent years, many foodies have noticed that Ovaltine , which has long accompanied everyone's childhood, is active in a new form before our eyes, with Ovaltine ice pops, waffle cones, bursting balls, cakes... From milk tea to ice cream, from puffs to cakes, Ovaltine's presence is everywhere, and its rich taste feast has captured the "fancy" of many young consumers.
Brand Xianchang Houmai obtained the trademark authorization for Ovaltine in July 2021, and in cooperation with Ovaltine, developed Ovaltine Cake Roll that quickly became popular on various e-commerce platforms. The cake roll uses 10% of Ovaltine malt protein cocoa solids, combining both cocoa and Ovaltine flavors. Additionally, Xianchang Houmai also developed Ovaltine Magic Square Chocolate Coated Cake, which has been well received by the post-90s generation and Generation Z consumers.
As Ovaltine brand general manager Du Gang stated, "The cooperative licensing model can enrich Ovaltine's category, while choosing high-quality local brands for collaboration can achieve the goal of a win-win for brands, allowing more products named with the Ovaltine flavor to appear on the packaging of local brands."
Public data shows that in 2021, China's Generation Z population reached 280 million, with a total consumption exceeding 4 trillion yuan, contributing an astonishing 69% of the consumption increase. In the huge consumption market, Generation Z has become the focal point of consumption in the era of normalizing pandemic conditions, and whichever brand finds the "interest bond" with Generation Z means they can embrace the market with the most growth potential.
On December 15, 2021, leading chestnut brand Granulate Emperor announced at the 4th Chestnut Roasting Competition that it was breaking the barrier between dimensions, combining traditional chestnut roasting culture with "second dimension" entertainment marketing, capturing over a billion traffic in one fell swoop, and was dubbed “the chestnut that understands Generation Z” the most.
Well-known stand-up comedian Guo Jiafeng and Bilibili upmaster Shixin presented the "Chestnut Divine Song" "Mary Loves Chestnuts, Chestnuts, Chestnuts; Mary Loves Chestnuts, Summon Oh, Granulate Emperor." Simple lyrics, an addictive melody that went viral in just a few days, allowing Granulate Emperor to break out of the circle.
The cross-layered Generation Z, with a strong desire for social interactions, can only keep breaking out of the circle if they join in the fun together. In addition to the distinctive "meh meh meh" Cantonese-Mandarin version that went viral, there are also creations by netizens, such as Northeastern versions, Sichuan versions, foreign language versions, etc., which swept across hot searches for a time, with topics such as #Guangzhou Chestnut Roasting Competition#, #First Chestnut Theme Song#, #Mary Loves Chestnuts#, etc., quickly surpassing one billion traffic worldwide.
In this phenomenal marketing campaign, Granulate Emperor continuously narrowed the distance between Generation Z consumer groups, deepened their brand consumption recognition, and saw a continuously rising sales trend in Q1 2022.
As we can see, the sales in January and February 2022Q1 significantly surpassed last year's Singles' Day, with multiple package deals being the main push in various shop livestreams to stimulate the consumption of New Year’s goods and stockpiling by both new and old customers (as shown in the chart above, explaining the surge in sales volume in January and February 2022).
Last year, 8 meat snack track brands received a total of 10 rounds of financing, including the currently popular braised flavor products and chicken breast meat. Looking at the consumption data for 2022, meat snacks are still maintaining strong growth momentum.
Brand Uncle Sauce & Braised is a brand under Ningbo Sauce & Braised Uncle Food Co., Ltd., a holding subsidiary of Liangpin Shop, and is a new professional braised meat snack sub-brand created for the 18-30 years old Generation Z and new white-collar segments. With strong support from Li Jiaqi’s livestream room, the Q1 Tmall Taobao sales exceeded 22.3 million yuan, an increase of 248.7% year-over-year. Data Source: Moojing Market Intelligence
Quanrun Duck Manor Lady is a deboned duck feet product brand recently introduced by Quanrun Food. "Shifting from selling fresh duck to processed products was a transformational development strategy set by the company in 2016 based on market demands. Currently, the leisure food meat snacks produced by Quanrun Food are very popular among young white-collar workers in the Yangtze River Delta region, and have become stable suppliers for leading restaurants chains such as Guoquan and Juewei," said Lin Qingyu, the person in charge of Quanrun Food. Image Source: Internet
Data Source: Moojing Market Intelligence
