Valentine's Day Chocolate Brands Urgent to Break Out

Valentine's Day is approaching and the chocolate market is booming. The "roses + chocolates" gift structure, despite its clichés, is also a classic collocation. In particular, chocolate makers have made innovations in gift packaging, adding to the old-fashioned gifts a lot of freshness. The reporter’s recent interview with the chocolate market in Beijing has revealed that the fertile year of the fiery sales can't conceal the strong smell of gunpowder—the competition between Chinese and foreign chocolate brands has become even hotter during the sales season.

At the chocolate counters of Beijing Zhuangsheng Sogo Department Store, Huatang Shopping Mall, Wal-Mart Shopping Plaza, Wumei Chain, Beichen Shopping Mall and other large shopping malls, the most colorful gift boxes are the most eye-catching. The shapes of these gift boxes have their own characteristics and they are so beautiful that people can hardly put it down. Dove, Golden Emperor, Cadbury and other brands of chocolate, in addition to exquisite packaging, but also with a cartoon plush bear, lucky dog ​​and other toys, popular with children and young women welcome. A salesperson told reporters that since the beginning of Christmas, chocolate has been selling well, and this year's holiday is still particularly concentrated. After Christmas, it is New Year's Day. The Spring Festival is also January, and the golden week has not yet passed. It will be Valentine's Day, gifted chocolates are especially good for sale.

Foreign brands have strong local brands

When we look closely at the chocolate counters in major shopping malls, we will find foreign brands such as Dove, Cadbury, and Ferrero occupying more than half of the country. Only domestic brands can match King Di. In many shopping malls, promoters of foreign brands and domestic brands are often face-to-face and face-to-face and “drink”: If you send a cartoon dog, I will send a stuffed bear; you have a tin gift, and my bear-packing kids love it. ... But compared to Dove, Cadbury, Ferrero and other foreign brands of "war group" promotion offensive, the gold emperor appears to be somewhat more or less alone.

Among the consumers interviewed by the reporters at random, only some middle-aged and old people can recall Yili chocolate once in the Beijing market. The kind of wafers that are wrapped in red deeply remain in the memory of many old Beijingers. in. A middle-aged man who lives in Shijingshan told reporters, “It's really hard to eat that now.” In the first two years, the simplest small carton packs and cheap chocolates can still be found at the bottom of supermarket shelves. Can't find it. "True benefits, you can buy that box for 20 dollars," but he also admitted that, compared with the chocolate on the market, "the taste is indeed a little worse."

When a reporter asked whether he would choose domestic chocolate as a gift to send a friend, most of the consumers' responses were negative. Some think that the packaging of domestic chocolate is not enough grades, while others think that there are too few varieties, and some think that the taste is still delicate and mellow. In fact, from the perspective of brand marketing, the emotional appeals of local brands such as Jindi’s “only for the most loved ones” and the “spicy feelings” of the foreign brands Dove, “Kitqiao moments, sweet moments” of Nestle’s kitsaws are no longer On the other hand, people are already deeply rooted in the people's minds. However, there is still a big gap between varieties, packaging, and tastes.

Among domestic brands, only Golden Emperor's product line is longer, but compared with Dove, it is still less, packaging patterns are similar to foreign brands, and the price is about 20% cheaper. Other domestic chocolate brands, such as Jinsha and Jinhou, are only available in one or two varieties at most stores. Some shopping malls are even hard to find. In the bulk candy market, the reporter also saw Ma Dajie and Xu Fuji’s two domestic brands of chocolate. The price was less than half that of Dove, but it was not as good as Dove. In particular, Dove had a gift box, and consumers could choose. Weighing, into the gift box, that is, affordable and face. In Wal-Mart, the reporter also discovered a Tianjin-made high-daisy milk chocolate, three pieces of 53 grams of chocolate bars to sell only 3.9 yuan, but a closer look, the ingredients actually only on behalf of cocoa butter instead of cocoa butter, according to National standards cannot be called chocolate.

The reporter tasted most of the chocolate products on the market, and it is fair to say that the taste of foreign brand chocolates is indeed slightly better. Take Ferrero, the Italian chocolate brand that has just won the "fake" lawsuit, its flagship product, round hazelnut-flavored chocolate, can find many similar "domestic" domestic brands in the market, but the taste is obviously worse than a grade.

Domestic chocolates need urgent attention

According to industry insiders, China ranks second only to the United States in the world candy market and is the second largest candy market in the world. At present, China's annual chocolate production capacity exceeds 100,000 tons, actual production is less than 60,000 tons, and the average per capita consumption of chocolate in China is only 1% compared with the world average. This huge contrast makes the prospect of the Chinese chocolate market widespread. It is optimistic that the average annual growth rate is expected to be close to 10%. However, at present, domestic chocolate still has a small brand and a single taste; improper selection of chocolate processing equipment and incomplete supporting facilities; weak product development power, slow product replacement and other issues, the overall image can not always get rid of the quality taste is not satisfactory, The embarrassing situation can only be found in the low-end market.

The industry believes that the Chinese chocolate market will develop rapidly, which is an excellent opportunity for domestic chocolate manufacturers. However, in the face of foreign brands’ predominance, domestic chocolate manufacturers have only continuously improved the quality of their products, conducted raw material selection and equipment upgrades, and are technically in line with international standards. They also pay attention to market innovation, build marketing networks, and strengthen brand management. In order to break through the oligopolistic status of the chocolate industry, we can compete and blend with international chocolate companies on a single platform.