Small Lime: Reflecting New Elements of Juice Market Demand

The search volume has been increasing for several consecutive days, and there are endless brand new products.

Little Lime's popularity is not accidental

A small lime juice in Sam's supermarket sells for 8 bottles of 49.

"Made of fresh lime juice, zero additives, refrigerated storage" has become the main propaganda slogan of many brands.

In January this year, the "2021 Insight Report on the Consumption of Vitality Forest Sparkling Water" released by Yuanqi Forest pointed out that among consumers who buy zero-sugar sparkling water in 2021, the post-95 generation will account for 50% of the total, and most of them are "component parties".

Therefore, health has become the primary reason for the popularity of small limes

Secondly, it is highly recognizable.

The other is the high price positioning.

High pricing can bring consumers a sense of authenticity.

From the perspective of products, prices and channels, the popularity of Xiao Lime is not accidental, but a blockbuster carefully directed by a brand owner or brand design company

Lemon Track continues to be hot

The frequent presence of social platforms, hot offline sales, and strong product topicality make Lime one of the hottest drinks in 2022

It is the continued popularity of Lemon Circuit

Starting in 2020, lemon juice beverages will rely on offline tea brands to come out of the circle.

The reason why lemon juice is popular is because lemon itself has a healthy factor, and secondly, lemon drink has the effect of relieving greasy, giving people a fresh feeling, and it has become the drink of choice in hot pot and barbecue scenes

Is it really?

On the surface, although the sales volume of Lime Drink has increased, it has actually faced a serious homogenization, which has become a more embarrassing situation that Lime is currently facing

In addition, the processing and production cost barriers of small limes are not high, and with a large number of mature OEM factories, although OEM production makes it easier for brands to enter the game, it also accelerates the homogenization of products

Therefore, in today's serious homogeneity of products and packaging, there are only two purposes for brands to launch Lime - one is to quickly occupy new markets with the help of Internet celebrity products, which are suitable for small and medium-sized brands, emerging brands and regional brands; the other One purpose is to expand the market position of the brand and enhance its influence by creating Internet celebrity products, which is suitable for mature brands

In the face of the highly competitive beverage track, whether there is still a chance to become a topic for brands to explore
.
It can be found that finding the right subdivision track is the key for new drinks to get out of the circle
.
Small limes occupy the market segment of lemon juice beverages
.
Of course, the subdivision track here is not a maverick niche market, on the contrary, it is a business that subdivides consumer demand in the mass market
.

Secondly, pricing has become the key to whether beverage brands can get out of the circle
.
In terms of price positioning, the price band of 6-8 yuan for small lime beverages is obviously at the high end of similar categories, but this does not affect sales
.

　　Aside from the cost, from a marketing point of view, a high pricing strategy can quickly increase the brand's influence and enter more precise channels, so that the market and consumers can recognize the product in a short period of time
.

　　In other words, as long as the product meets the mainstream consumer demand, high-priced products within the expectations of consumers can also be accepted, and this part of the premium will be used by the brand in more marketing scenarios to achieve a closed-loop growth
.
Finally, back to packaging, in fact, in the domestic market, more and more investment in packaging in recent years, especially in the snack food industry, packaging can be said to be a key factor in determining whether a product can sell well
.

　　In the beverage industry, although the packaging is not progressing as fast as the snack food, it is indeed progressing.
The portable design of the small lime is the key to improving the quality of the product
.
Packaging is no longer just the key to appearance, but to practicality and quick search
.

The consumer side reflects the new demand for fruit juice drinks

　　The popularity of small lime also reflects the new demand for fruit juice drinks in the consumer market
.
The raw material characteristics of fruit juice have led to the similarity of brand slogans in the past - "natural" and "zero added"
.
This approach did work a decade ago, helping the product become more competitive in a range of low-concentration juices
.

　　But now, with the rise of NFC juice and HPP cold-pressed juice, the production process of juice has been greatly shortened.
For example, Nongfu Spring NFC juice is known as "48h from picking to processing"
.
If the juice product list promotes "freshness" and does not magnify other attractive points, it will have little effect on the consumer side
.

　　On the consumer side, there must be new "stimulus" elements, such as functionality, such as "purity"
.

　　At the beginning of the 21st century, the phrase "more C, more beautiful" opened the door to the fruit juice category for the unified fresh oranges.
"Rich in vitamin C" and "fruit grains" made this juice sell 1 billion yuan a year
.
In the next few years, this category has successively assembled many brands such as Coca-Cola Minute Maid, Master Kong, Nongfu Spring and so on
.

　　In December last year, OriLab of the Origen Research Institute launched its first product, a compound juice drink blueberry anthocyanin juice with eye protection function.
The brand applet shows that the product has a size of 200mL in a single box, and the equivalent price is 9 yuan per bottle
.
The added function is the reason why this blueberry juice is "expensive"
.
According to the product introduction, each bottle of this juice contains more than 36 mg of anthocyanins, which is about equal to the content of 26 blueberries
.
In addition, the juice ingredients are also quite "clean", only juice and blueberry anthocyanin powder, juice content ≥ 99%
.

　　There is also "KAGOME Wild Vegetable Life 100" from Japan that uses high health added value as a juice selling point
.
This product is aimed at the needs of consumers to supplement vegetables.
Each raw material uses 14 kinds of vegetables and 3-5 kinds of fruits.
It is composed of 60% vegetable juice and 40% fruit juice, and does not add sugar, shaping the health of fruit and vegetable juice.
image
.

　　Juice is waiting for new entrants to subvert the concept of traditional juice drinks and bring new juice categories and brands to the market
.
New entrants must conform to the general trend of glycation reduction and functionalization, making fruit juice an indispensable presence in consumers' hearts, and which "innovative" methods are effective will be left to the market to test
.

　　(Comprehensive arrangement by Luo Chen)

　　"China Food News" (April 04, 2022 Edition 07)

　　(Editor-in-charge: Luo Chen)