What’s hot, noteworthy and innovative on the shelves in food and beverage in China this month.
For our gallery this month, The Silk Initiative took to the streets in Shanghai to spot the latest trends and tactics in food and beverage branding and product offerings on supermarket and convenience store shelves.
We bring you our take on what’s new and noteworthy from both local and international brands.
Bright Dairy Momchilovtsi mixed fruit and veg yogurt drink
Catering to rising Chinese demand for healthier beverages, this offering from Bright Dairy’s Momchilovtsi brand promotes a concept of balanced nutrition with its two fruit and three vegetable flavours. Pack design visual cues are also more prominent, with multiple flavour offerings in comparison to ‘single’ flavour offerings from Western brands such as Danone. The product has mass appeal with its marketing, leveraging the Smurfs to gain as much awareness and entice a younger consumer.
We see innovation from local dairy brands at breakneck speed with local brands such as Bright Dairy providing many more flavours and product options compared with their Western counterparts.
Positioning tactic from Bright Dairy
Bright Dairy is leveraging Danone’s brand visual identity equities to their benefit by having their similarly designed, green-packaged yogurts positioned alongside Danone in store. The local brand offers greater value for money as well as a more diverse selection for the consumer.
Milpo brand combining milk and soda in one beverage
Increasingly, convenience stores (CVS) are catering to the demand for nutritional on-the-go meals – here we have one CVS own brand’s muesli and yogurt offering to meet the commuting consumer demand for a healthier breakfast.
Premiumisation of local Chinese yogurt brands
Local yogurts are now competing in the premium yogurt category with new pack deigns that don’t look out of place with the likes of Yoplait, and by drawing attention to the purity of the product itself, as well as its healthier manufacturing process, such as containing zero additives.
Wacky flavors, shapes, and colour are appearing in stand out from crowd combinations which don’t abide by traditional flavour to colour/shape formats.
Pink spicy chicken flavour Bugles
Chupa Chups tropical drink beer-shaped lollipops
The trend of functionally flavoured health beverages is going more mainstream now with more and more offerings no longer priced at a premium, however, these cheaper beverages don’t always clearly specify their benefits.
O’Nutty Protein drink
Ginger-flavoured Coca Cola
Hot Coca-Cola and fresh ginger is considered a common cold remedy
Tomato water and yogurt water from Japanese brand Suntory
Doctor Berri pure berry juices in a can
Snacks and beverages targeted at children are relying heavily on licensing as main point of difference. This is increasingly true for both local and foreign brands, however, despite generating immediate interest, this does little to build brand equity.
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