Brand going to sea continues to heat up, food and beverage ushered in the era of great navigation

Once upon a time, those foreign brands from across the sea have been warmly sought after by Chinese consumers, becoming the absolute king of the consumer market, and spent more than a decade of highlights.
In recent years, with the rapid development of China's economy and the rapid promotion of the country's comprehensive strength, the people have gradually established a strong national confidence in its culture, business and brand confidence.
From "Made in China" to "Chinese brand," today's domestic products are not only all-powerful in the local market, but also playing overseas.
Such as SHEIN (Greek), together with Ali Express, Pinduoduo Temu and byte TikTok, which is known as the "four little dragons" in the industry, In 2022, with a valuation of 400 billion yuan, it is the fifth largest unicorn enterprise in the world, only after Douyin, SpaceX, Ant Group and Stripe. It is the world's largest shopping app downloaded in that year, with 229 million installations.
As an important part of China's economic system, the food industry has also made great progress and development in the past few decades, and many well-known brands have followed the trend of the times and gone abroad.
So, how do our food and beverage players fare on the international stage? This piece of people in droves, wave upon wave of overseas, really is the brand heart of the ideal country?
40 years of brand history: opportunities and challenges
In 1978, with the sound of reform and opening up, a spring thunder woke up sleeping China, and Chinese enterprises also opened a journey to the sea for more than 40 years.
Looking back at this period of "going out" process, it can be roughly divided into three stages.
At first, Chinese enterprises went to sea mainly to use their own cheap labor advantages, to OEM, distribution and sales, etc., and products need to reach consumers through a long channel. At this stage, the enterprise has not formed its own brand, lacks brand awareness, and can only obtain the meager profit in the whole value chain.
After entering the Internet era, the second stage of "going out" has also been opened. At that time, many domestic enterprises use foreign models to build their own brands, in the design, research and development, production, quality control and other aspects of hard work, gradually realized the need to use product power to promote brand power, which also emerged many consumers are familiar with the brand.
However, in order to attract more new users and expand brand influence, in the context of rising traffic costs, brands have to solve problems such as how to do a good job in marketing, arouse consumers' attention, and cope with increasingly dispersed consumer access channels.
Until 2020, with the development of the world's digital economy, China's science and technology, consumption and other industries are also constantly promoting development with innovation, showing the ambition and strength of building an international brand. On the other hand, with the rapid development of cross-border e-commerce, it provides the most appropriate time window for many cutting-edge Chinese brands to go to sea, and the multimedia coverage advantage of e-commerce platforms also allows brands to deal with the dispersion of channels more calmly.
For these brands, the biggest problem is how to win the recognition and trust of consumers in the global market and build their own brand moat.
It is undeniable that with the continuous advancement of globalization and the gradual transformation of domestic competition from an incremental game to a stock game, Some subdivision tracks have been upgraded to a more brutal reduction game early on. In the face of an increasingly inward-looking market environment, the sea is not only a vent, but also a necessary option for many companies to do.
After all, expanding overseas can not only increase sales and brand awareness, but also help companies gain access to resources and opportunities such as new markets, new channels, new customers, new suppliers, new technologies and new knowledge. At the same time, with the upgrading of consumption and the continuous innovation of products in the food industry, Chinese food brands can also expand into new markets and diversified business models to meet the growing needs of overseas consumers.
In recent years, with the continuous improvement of overseas consumers' awareness of Chinese culture and products, they have a strong interest in Chinese food brands, which provides opportunities for Chinese food brands to go abroad.
On the other hand, the Belt and Road Initiative provides powerful policy support and the economic base construction for Chinese food brands to go abroad, lowering the threshold for brands to enter overseas markets.
However, opportunities often go hand in hand with challenges.
Brand building and cultural awareness is one of the biggest challenges for domestic food brands in the process of going overseas.
In overseas markets, Chinese food brands need to be positioned and branded according to local culture and consumption habits, and also need to face competition from brands from other countries. For Chinese food brands, to adapt to the local market requires extensive and in-depth market research and strategic planning. This means that it takes a lot of time and effort and needs to be tailored to the specific needs of different countries and regions.
At the same time, Chinese food brands need to pay special attention to quality and safety issues when entering overseas markets. Although the Chinese government has introduced a series of strict food safety standards, companies still need to further strengthen their own supervision.
In addition, international trade barriers and trade protectionist policies have also posed a significant obstacle to the expansion of Chinese food brands. In overseas markets, Chinese food brands often face an endless stream of trade barriers and policy restrictions.
However, no matter what the road ahead, Chinese brands have arrived in the era of navigation, food and beverage brands are also fearless, have begun to set sail.
Food to the sea, from grasping the "Chinese stomach" to seize the "world stomach"
Just like Chinese brands, in fact, in this round of "overseas fever," China's food to the sea has also gone through three development periods. In this regard, Whole Foods Online has made the following summary in the relevant article:
The first period is from the founding of New China to the period before the reform and opening up; During this period, the main force of China's grain exports was the China Grain and Grain Import and Export Corporation, which created a large number of grain brands and formed a larger influence in the world. Local professional trading enterprises have also cultivated a large number of internationally renowned brands.
The second period is the period after the reform and opening up. During this period, there have been a number of brand companies worth more than 10 billion yuan, who use the brand effect to enhance the competitiveness of their products and expand their market share.
In the third period, brands have been adhering to the road of "specialization" since they went to sea. With the continuous strengthening of self-brand marketing, technological innovation, industrial chain extension and so on, it has gradually grown into a leader in different fields.
In fact, for a long time, food and beverage going out to sea was only the exclusive game of well-known brands. Whether it is the first batch of "sexy goddess" goddess Lao Gan Ma, Qingdao in the beer industry, or Mengniu, Yili, Qiaqian, etc., are the absolute kings of their respective tracks.
On the other hand, it is not difficult to find that in the past, many brands only stayed at the physical level when they went overseas. Even if they crossed the ocean and went to the ocean, the final audience group was still a group of homesick overseas travelers, which did not really open the situation and narrowed the distance with non-Chinese consumers.
Back to the present, in addition to the head brand, more and more new dark horses have also joined the sea army, while Chinese power continues to infiltrate the world, these brands have also played different tricks in the matter of going out to sea.
Innovation is the cutting edge, vitality forest opens overseas challenges
In recent years, more and more domestic brands have begun to test the waters of overseas markets.
However, the overseas actions of many of these brands are more about shaping brand influence than actual sales contribution. In contrast, Yuanqi Forest has adopted a more "hard-working" strategy.
As a "dark horse player" in the beverage market, Yuanqi Forest began an ambitious global expansion after gaining a foothold in the local market. Since 2019, this expansion plan has successfully entered the consumer markets of more than 40 countries, including the United States, Australia and Singapore, offering more than 20 beverage products and achieving good results.
In May 2021, Yuanqi Forest launched in the United States for six months, and its bubble aquatic products jumped from 380th to the top 10 in the best-selling list of Amazon, the largest e-commerce platform in the United States, and once swept the new bubble water list Top3, according to Yuanqi Forest in a media interview.
In terms of the product itself, the banner of "low-calorie and low-fat" in Yuanqi Forest perfectly accords with the concept of healthy living advocated by developed countries, and has achieved its natural friendly gene of going out to sea.
However, it is not so easy to open up the international market, and Yuanqi Forest is also faced with various challenges in the process.
First of all, in order to quickly improve brand awareness, Yuanqi Forest is extremely active in overseas marketing and actively interacts with young consumers around the world. On TikTok, the number of followers of Yuanqi Forest has reached 150000, and most of the contents such as "how to make bubble drinks suitable for local tastes" are closely combined with foreigners' lifestyles such as three meals a day and shopping, which has attracted the attention of foreign consumers.
In the channel laying strategy, for people with different consumption habits, Yuanqi Forest chose to walk on both online and offline. Especially based on the fact that overseas offline channels account for a larger proportion, Yuanqi Forest continues to dig deep and penetrate under the line, and has repeatedly announced its progress in the laying of overseas channels.
In mid-July 2022, Yuanqi Forest landed in Indonesia chain Super Grandlucky; in August and reached a cooperation with Malaysian local enterprise Berjaya Group (Malaysia success Group) to complete the laying of 80% of Malaysia's CVS sales channels and enter more than 2000 7-11 and more than 350 MyNews channels. In mid-September, it announced the full launch of Indomaret, Indonesia's largest chain channel, which has more than 20, 000 stores and accounts for nearly 40 per cent of Indonesia's Hyundai channel. As for the online aspect, in addition to Amazon, the main online sales channel, Yuanqi Forest also has its own DTC site.
In addition, in order to solve the problem of long transportation cycle and high cost, Yuanqi Forest changed the soda sold overseas from bottled to aluminum cans, increasing the shelf life of the products from 270 days to 540 days, providing more flexible logistics time for beverages to be transported abroad. At the same time, the company is also actively planning the strategy of building overseas factories, trying to solve the problem fundamentally.
Finally, Yuanqi Forest also flexibly adjusts its products and packaging according to the cultural habits and market needs of different overseas markets, and by training local talents to better understand the local market conditions and consumer needs, so as to promote the international development of the company.
In a word, Yuanqi Forest always takes innovation as its core strategy and constantly challenges overseas markets. Through globalization strategy, China's promising spirit and depth to participate in innovation, and constantly adjust and improve products and services. While marching into the overseas market, Yuanqi Forest will also carefully study the local market beverage development trend and consumer preferences, feed the domestic market, and constantly innovate and improve the domestic mature products to make the products more international.
The Dark Horse King Tea Ji, carrying out a large-scale "cultural invasion".
In 2023, a national style new tea brand originated in Yunnan has completed the strategic layout of simultaneous expansion in 17 provinces within five years of its establishment, and has become the first place in the national style tea race track with more than 1000 + stores, which is the overlord tea concubine.
But who would have thought that as early as when there were less than 100 stores in China, the overlord Tea Girl went out to fight in overseas markets with a decisive vision, and the first store was opened in Malaysia in 2019, followed by Singapore and Thailand. Today, the overlord Tea Girl now has more than 70 overseas stores, ranking among the top four tea brands in Malaysia, ranking second in total performance and first in GMV, and is known as "Oriental Starbucks".
In the end, what kind of business model can this store always maintain a stable source of customers and go against the trend?

Product differentiation is the key.

At that time, the main popular instant tea overseas was the traditional pearl milk tea, which tasted sweet and greasy, and the original leaf tea with refreshing taste was almost impossible to find.
As a result, the overlord Tea Girl does not do localization adjustment, adhere to the middle and high-end positioning, with the same menu with the domestic, with Chinese taste, price and decoration style, through differentiation to instantly attract the attention of a large number of overseas consumers. It is reported that. In August 2019, the first overseas store of overlord Tea Ji officially landed in Malaysia and sold more than 1000 cups of milk tea on the same day.
At the same time, the overlord Tea Ji did not forget to continue to cultivate the original leaf fresh milk tea in the market, such as launching an one-liter large cup of milk tea, which is often played by domestic milk tea shops. Of these, 2/3 are milk tea, and the other 1/3 are designed in the form of a blind box lottery, including big-name perfumes, lipstick, discount coupons and other small prizes.
In addition to product differentiation, Mr. Zhang Junjie, the founder of Tea King, once said that location is also a very critical point.
It can be seen that the location of the overlord tea concubine is usually based on the shopping mall. Get a good place in the location, so that consumers can buy more valuable products, more social space and flavor experience services at the same price, in order to establish brand potential energy and enhance brand awareness and tonality. By the end of 2022, Tea King accounted for more than 30% of shopping malls in Malaysia.
When it comes to the overlord tea concubine's success at sea, the most key factor lies in its business model.
Overlord Tea Ji set up "overlord Tea Ji International" as the parent company in Hong Kong, and set up local companies in various countries to operate in a joint venture mode, the purpose of which is to pursue localized management. This is due to the lack of understanding of local resources and culture by cross-nationality teams, which can not achieve site development, operation management and brand marketing.
In addition, the overlord tea concubine is only a joint venture, not a franchise, agent or direct camp, mainly because it is difficult to expand its scale and will leave it alone; the direct camp is easy to conflict with local interests; and the agency does not last well, once it becomes big, it will form a vassal.
It is by virtue of the profound strategy that the overlord tea concubine's overseas expansion is going faster and farther and farther. It is reported that in 2023, the overlord Tea Ji plans to open 100 overseas stores, and while continuing to cultivate the two markets of Singapore and Thailand, the next step will be to enter the North American and European markets.
Inside the wall blossoms and outside the wall, Jin Duoduo deduces the return of the king.
In the ranking of the world's top 100 confectionery companies released by confectionery industry magazine confectionery Industry in 2023, Jin Duoduo from Shenzhen became the first Chinese mainland confectionery company to appear on the list in nearly three years, with sales of 1.03 billion yuan in 2022. It has reached the 95th place on the list, even surpassing established sugar companies such as licorice in the United States.

Domestic consumers may not know much about Jinduo and its brand Amos, but the brand enjoys a high reputation and is deeply loved by consumers in the United States, Canada, Japan and other countries and regions.
No one would have thought that the invisible champion, who made $1 billion this year, was once a small contract manufacturer.
Since the beginning of in the 20th century, Guangdong has been the largest sugar-producing province in China, accounting for more than 45% of the country's total output, and has become the most developed province in the confectionery industry in the country. In addition, Guangdong has the largest number of export-oriented enterprises in the country. Confectionery trade is also the easiest to do in Shenzhen.
In this context, Jin Duoduo, as the first enterprise to show candy supply and export at the Canton Fair, mainly focuses on the Middle East, Africa and other low-end markets for foreign trade. Because of the low threshold and large orders, money is naturally quick.
With more frequent contacts with overseas companies, Jin Duoduo soon realized that there was no point in rolling in the low-price market, so he decided to build the core competitiveness of the enterprise and make the products irreplaceable.
How to build core competitiveness?
First of all, Jinduoduo is to build its own factories and production lines, which can improve the profits of independent production; second, it is to enter the middle and high-end market.
When entering the mid-and high-end market, Jinduoduo chose the United States as its first stop. In order to meet the high food safety standards of the United States, Jinduoduo has established high standards from the very beginning of its factory. At present, it has obtained three major food certifications in the world (HACCP Hazard Analysis and critical Control Point system, BRC Food Global Standard Certification, ISO 22000 Food Safety Management system), so that its confectionery products have strong international competitiveness. On the basis of international standards, Jin Duoduo also actively complies with the development and changes of the market, innovates constantly and establishes a whole set of brand matrix.
In Jinduoduo's brand matrix, each brand cuts in from the subdivision of demand, making boutique popular styles, focusing on the identification characteristics of the brand, thus occupying the minds of consumers.
For example, Amos has produced a series of holiday candy for Valentine's Day, Easter, Halloween and Christmas, each of which has fun styling and creativity. In addition, Jinduoduo Biobor is positioned as a nutritious candy brand with active probiotic fudge, while Blink Binglik is a high-end functional mint brand that provides the new generation with personalized, stylish and stylish portable mint candy.
In addition to the careful building of the brand, Jinduo also attaches great importance to the construction of channels, and has two market strategies that are commendable: First, attack the market and channels with high potential energy, occupy the commanding heights, and then do dimensionality reduction to cover new markets; Second, the global brand, localization operation; International and domestic unity, online and offline integration.
First, is to attack the high potential energy market head channels, such as Walmart, and gradually to other regions of expansion. Jin Duo found that taking the high potential market head channel business cooperation, and then accompanied by the head channel business to penetrate the market of other countries, is a very effective expansion strategy. Because of the high potential energy market head channel support, Jinduo brand awareness and market share will be able to continue to grow.
Secondly, Jinduo combines global brands and localized operations to achieve international and domestic unification as well as online and offline integration. Through the establishment of a localized sales team in various markets around the world, we have a deep understanding of the needs and characteristics of local consumers and launch products suitable for the local market. And it has opened up online and offline channels on a global scale, so that consumers can easily buy Jinduo's products through different channels.
In addition, Jinduo also attaches great importance to scientific and technological innovation, using artificial intelligence, big data and other technologies to optimize production processes and product development. For example, they use advanced 3D printing technology to produce candy molds, and use big numbers to analyze consumer taste preferences to launch products that better meet market demand.
epilogue
The "14th Five-Year Plan" clearly states that we need to take the lead in building a number of high-end independent brands in the field of consumer goods and enhance their influence and competitiveness. Only by achieving these goals can we truly gain a firm foothold, ride the wind and waves, and achieve greater success in the international market.
Today, Yuanqi Forest, Bawang Bieji, Jinduo and other food and beverage brands have landed in foreign markets and achieved some success, which is undoubtedly a positive beginning. But it is worth emphasizing that this is only the starting point of "going out," and future development still requires more courage and efforts.
The overseas market is not only an important factor for the growth and development of Chinese brands, but also a place full of great challenges. Here, we need to embrace different cultures, thinking and needs, with new ideas and attitudes to interact and communicate with the international market. This is a process from quantitative change to qualitative change, but also requires long-term and arduous efforts.
Therefore, let us jointly pick up the future mission, gather wisdom and energy, promote the development of independent brands to a higher level and a wider range of fields, and provide solid support for the leap of Chinese manufacturing from "big country" to "powerful country."