/PRZWT/February 5, 2025 SHANGHAI - The domestic short-term bread industry is undergoing earth-shaking changes in the tide of booming new consumption. Brands are springing up like mushrooms after a rain, production technology is changing with each passing day, and consumer demand is also changing rapidly. The entire market is showing a trend of rapid expansion, and the industry is making great strides towards the 2.0 era. In this highly competitive Red Sea, traditional brand strategies are gradually losing their effectiveness, and companies urgently need to find another way to explore new growth paths.
And peach plum bread, a "veteran" who has been deeply involved in the industry for 30 years, has undoubtedly uncovered the "password" for the continued growth of short-term bread companies for us.
As of 2023, the size of China's pre-packaged short-term bread market is growing rapidly, reaching 13.37 billion yuan, and it is likely to surpass medium and long-term bread to become the mainstream of the market. From the overall perspective, China's short-term bread market is making steady progress, and consumption is ushering in a new chapter. From the perspective of consumption decisions, consumers have become aware of big health, pursuing high-quality, healthier and more personalized experiences, and promoting the market to make progress steadily. Low-fat, low-sugar, and zero additives have become the focus of consumers, and consumption scenarios have also expanded from main meals to daily snacks and other diversified scenarios.
In this context of intense competition in the industry and changeable consumer demand, Taoli Bread relies on the "troika" of product power, channel power, and marketing power to systematically enhance its competitiveness and meet market challenges.
Product force: from leading to technology leading, brand equity core elements continue to optimize
Products are the core of a brand, and a solid product power can not only meet consumers' taste and quality needs, but also enhance the added value of the brand. The starting point for building a solid product power strategy should come from consumers, from the insight into consumer demand: product quality and value meet consumer demand, and consumer demand also drives the continuation of product innovation. Together, the two promote the improvement of brand connotation and the vigorous development of industry technology.
Aiming at the improvement of product strength, what homework has peach plum bread done?
Building a solid product force cannot be separated from hard-core technology as support. The continuous increase in R & D investment in recent years can be seen from the determination and strength of Taoli bread in technological innovation. The report of Taoli bread joint stock company in the first half of 2024 shows that the R & D expenses during the reporting period were about 33.70 million yuan, an increase of 6.71% year-on-year. The significant increase in R & D expenses is relatively rare in the short-term bread industry, which shows that Taoli bread is building product competitiveness from the perspective of R & D, so as to take the lead in the increasingly fierce market competition.
In order to strengthen product innovation and iteration capabilities, Taoli Bread has established three R & D centers in Shanghai, Tianjin and Shenyang to build a strong R & D network. Each center closely focuses on market demand, flexibly adjusts product strategies, introduces new technologies, new equipment and new processes at home and abroad, continuously optimizes product structure, and continuously promotes new product research and development and old product technology upgrades through continuous talent introduction and training, and an efficient R & D management mechanism, providing continuous impetus for the company's long-term and stable development.
The continuous breakthrough of technology brings about the innovation of products. While creating popular products, peach plum bread is also constantly iterating products and launching new categories. Rapidly expand the market with the product strategy of "one super and many strong". With the help of the national classic single product that is already well known to the public - the form of mellow short-term sliced bread expands the product matrix, and more star single products such as milk bars and egg fragrant pine are launched, becoming the most popular short-term bread products in people's minds.
Even though it already has a good market and mass base, peach and plum bread has not stopped moving forward. After keenly understanding the needs of consumers for diversification, multi-scene consumption, and seeking emotional value, it has launched products such as Qiaole croissant and Iwaki toast with richer flavors, as well as holiday delicacies such as moon cakes and zongzi that promote traditional Chinese culture. It is committed to keeping up with consumer needs in every link of quality, flavor, situation and emotion. The optimization of product structure and a solid product matrix "foundation" have promoted the continuous optimization of the core elements of brand equity, forming a positive brand energy circulation system.
Channel power: channel mix optimization, create efficient links, empower enterprises to jump
Channel is the key path for a product to flow from the production end to the consumer market, and it is also the core ability of a brand to get close to and deeply understand consumer needs and preferences. With the advent of the digital age, "instant satisfaction" has become the new normal. Only by accelerating the rate of product circulation, shortening the chain from production to consumption, and ensuring that products reach the target consumer group at the fastest speed can we quickly win the trust of the market and consumers. Building an efficient, flexible and consumer-friendly channel network is a crucial strategic choice for any brand seeking long-term development and market expansion.
Analyzing the development of peach and plum bread channels, it is not difficult to find that long-term development brands have already achieved the optimization of online and offline channel combinations, creating efficient conversion channels, and helping enterprises build higher barriers in the process of expanding the market.
In terms of offline channel layout, Taoli bread has established more than 320,000 retail end points in the national market, which is the enterprise with the most retail outlets in the industry. The channel sinking depth and single store sales are higher than the industry average, and the huge end point scale has improved the product exposure and penetration rate.
Shelf life is the life of short-term bread. If you want to compress the shelf life, you need to speed up the speed of the product from the production line to the shelf. Therefore, the short-term bread industry is more like a "game" on the time track. In order to ensure that the product can reach the point of sales at the fastest speed, enterprises need to build factories close to the market, preferably nationwide, and increase logistics construction accordingly. These all force short-term bread enterprises to face the problem of high production capacity and high logistics investment. How to build an efficient supply chain system empowers channels, reduces costs and increases efficiency has become a compulsory course for short-term bread enterprises.
Taoli Bread has spared no effort to increase hard cost investment in heavy infrastructure, established 22 production bases across the country, and adopted the model of "central factory + wholesale", with a radiation range of 200-300 kilometers, which is equivalent to the city and a circle of surrounding towns. While expanding production capacity, the mechanized large-scale production model has realized a retail end point covering the maximum radius from point to surface. Taoli Bread has also established a complete operation system of "self-built logistics + tripartite logistics" to ensure that products are delivered to consumers in the first time, so that consumers have a fresher product experience.
From suppliers to final consumers, the game of optimizing resource allocation, reducing costs and increasing efficiency, and completing the race against time is perfectly realized.
In terms of online channels, Taoli Bread has integrated digitalization into the development of the industry and continuously enriched its business model. Not only has it entered various e-commerce platforms and O2O channels earlier, but it has also been deeply rooted in content-based e-commerce platforms such as Douyin, Kuaishou, and Xiaohongshu. While establishing closer contact and interaction with consumers through creative content marketing and interactive marketing, it uses big data to accurately portray and personalize recommendations for consumers, and in-depth understanding of consumers' shopping behaviors and preferences, so as to provide more personalized products and services.
Marketing Power: Multi-ecological marketing to capture consumers' minds and expand brand influence
With the continuous expansion of the market scale, emerging brands and traditional brands have shown their respective capabilities to jointly promote the formation of a diversified market structure. Consumers' choice space has been greatly broadened, no longer limited to the scope of traditional brands, but can find resonance in a broader brand ecosystem according to personal preferences and needs. On the other hand, young consumers will seek emotional value in food. There are many food-related youth communities on social media, and "food networking" has become increasingly popular. "People" and "food" have a wider connection and interaction.
Faced with these changes, the user as the core, to explore the global era of new marketing model, is to enhance the brand power of the only way. Enterprises need to more accurate, personalized marketing means, to seize consumers' minds, to achieve emotional attachment.
In the marketing territory, Taoli Bread has been committed to expanding the diverse brand communication scene. On the one hand, it actively seeks cross-border cooperation and conducts in-depth cooperation with music, sports and other fields to jointly create a diverse marketing ecosystem. From the stunning appearance of the Rose Music Festival to providing "energy" for runners at the Shenyang Marathon... Taoli Bread not only showcased its rich product line and excellent quality, but also successfully attracted the attention of consumers, deepened their awareness and love of the brand, shortened the interaction link with consumers, and opened up the "last mile" of communication with consumers.
"Brand-based theory" holds that a brand is not only the logo of a product, but also has its own content, the logo of its basic content, and a brand is a symbol representing a specific cultural significance. Therefore, in-depth content marketing, entering consumers and talking to consumers can help brands achieve effective occupation of consumers' minds and strengthen the emotional connection between brands and consumers. Accordingly, the development of peripheral products launched by Taoli Bread not only enriches the product line, but also shapes a recognizable identity consensus.
Co-branded with Dingdong Maicai, Zhixuan and other trendy brands, with the help of multicultural collision and integration, whether it is to let consumers re-understand the "taste of childhood" or to deeply embed the concept of "breakfast selection" in consumers' minds... A series of creative and interesting interactions, socializing with consumers, accurately conveying the core values of the brand, and establishing a strong and stable emotional connection.
In addition, Taoli Bread has also achieved differentiated content marketing on new media platforms such as Bilibili, Douyin Kuaishou, and Xiaohongshu, which has enhanced consumers' sense of identity and loyalty to the brand. This has also helped to better understand market demand and gain insight into subtle changes in consumer preferences.
The multi-ecological marketing system established by Taoli Bread demonstrates how to effectively close the distance with consumers in a rapidly changing market environment, win consumers' trust and loyalty, and enhance brand influence.
conclusion
Enterprises seeking stability in uncertainty and wanting to become a long-lasting brand need to carry out long-term "system layout". How to continuously upgrade product power, channel power, and marketing power in the context of the new era, and build a deeper brand moat, is an important proposition for them to think about under the new consumption wave. And the winning "password" of Taoli Bread undoubtedly explains to us again: Only by adhering to the "long-term" enterprise driven by marketing power, channel power and product power can we have the confidence and motivation to cross the cycle....
