The development trend of snack food and the suggestions for enterprises to deal with it

Snack foods generally refer to snacks that people eat during their leisure time, and they are also a type of fast-moving consumer goods

However, while ushering in development opportunities, China's snack food industry also faces many challenges.

stricter regulation

Safety is the lifeblood of food companies, but in the past few years, some companies, in pursuit of profits, lacked responsibility for themselves, society and consumers, resulting in food safety problems in the industry

At present, some manufacturers of snack food production and processing have problems such as backward technology, poor production environment sanitation, weak quality control ability, and inability to control key food safety nodes in the production chain, which has become a high-risk area for food safety

Food quality and safety is an issue that consumers and relevant departments attach great importance to.

Product upgrade

There are many types of snack foods on the market.

First of all, in the current situation of increasingly fierce competition in the snack food industry, continuing to focus on one category, anchoring a style, seizing a market segment, and carrying out continuous and in-depth vertical research and development of products may be the way to break the game for snack food companies.

Secondly, in order to gain a firm foothold in the rapidly changing market, snack food companies must continue to innovate, adjust product line structure, optimize product quality, and promote product upgrades

Third, in order to break the industry development barrier of product homogeneity, snack food companies in the future must continue to innovate and upgrade products and iterate themselves in the fierce market competition in order to obtain higher brand premiums

demand health

Eating safe, healthy and nutritious food has gradually become the consensus of consumers.

Therefore, on the one hand, on the basis of ensuring the original taste and flavor of snack food, snack food companies should further innovate and improve, optimize the overall production process, improve the nutrition of snack food, ensure nutritional balance, and make snack food gradually become healthy, The direction of functional development is also the main development direction of snack food enterprises in the future

　　On the other hand, snack food companies need to accurately locate the crowd.

Marketing channel synergy

　　The market is booming, but some second- and third-tier cities have a single distribution channel

　　The retail format of snack food in first-tier cities is mainly manifested in the diversified competition of channels, with a relatively high degree of concentration

　　The distribution channels in second- and third-tier cities are mainly regional food retail chain stores, and the categories are mainly concentrated in domestic food, which is relatively simple.

　　However, with the improvement of information infrastructure and modern logistics system, online channels have gradually solved the pain points of small batches and high frequency of snack foods, greatly reducing sales costs and logistics costs, while improving transportation efficiency

　　In terms of attracting customers, offline channels are significantly lower than online retail channels due to the time and space constraints of the store’s location.
However, in terms of experience, offline channels can provide consumers with more direct product display and sales services.
, and better than online channels
.
Therefore, the omni-channel expansion of online and offline integration is one of the methods for the construction of marketing channels for snack food companies.
Companies that attach importance to offline channels will cooperate with third-party e-commerce platforms or build their own e-commerce platforms to expand their online and offline channels.
The influence of consumers, and snack food e-commerce companies have also begun to gradually deploy offline business, to get closer to consumers through offline physical stores, and to understand consumer needs in an all-round way while rebranding
.

Industrial integration

　　The industrial chain of snack food industry includes upstream planting and breeding, midstream food processing, warehousing and logistics, and downstream terminal consumption
.
Different enterprises have different degrees of participation in each link of the industrial chain, forming a variety of business models
.
The production of snack food is closely related to agricultural resources.
Different regions have completely different resources, and the industry concentration is high
.
However, from the perspective of market competition, the brand concentration of snack foods is relatively weak.
Due to the influence and constraints of many upstream factors in the industry chain, many companies are difficult to produce products that meet the diverse needs of consumers, leaving a huge market gap
.

　　In order to improve product quality and strengthen product quality control, snack food companies should strengthen supply chain integration, lay out the entire industry chain, use data and supply chain management capabilities, and build a "production based on sales" procurement model to ensure the rapid transformation of consumer demand into products
.

organizational control

　　At present, the management level of snack food enterprises is generally backward, and the competitiveness is poor
.
First of all, the snack food industry has a seasonal cycle, and most categories have high consumer demand in the low temperature weather in the first and fourth quarters
.
However, enterprises generally lack food management strategies for seasonal changes, and talents are generally scarce, making it difficult to find professional management talents
.
Secondly, the snack food industry has regional characteristics.
Due to the vast territory of our country, the climatic conditions and geographical conditions are different, and the raw materials of food are quite different, and the different eating habits of different regions also make the tastes of consumers vary greatly, and the income levels of different regions are Differences also lead to large differences in people's spending power
.
Therefore, from the perspective of the industry as a whole, the human resources of enterprises are in the stage of "personnel management", showing the characteristics of low overall quality, lagging human resource management, lack of enterprise talents, lack of effective incentive mechanisms, and lack of a sound performance appraisal system
.

　　In this regard, on the one hand, organizational management should conform to the "small community" and "collaborative" management orientation, shape an open organization, actively implement technological innovation strategies, consolidate the "characteristic" ability of enterprise management, and strengthen enterprise competitiveness
.
On the other hand, attention should be paid to improving the quality of entrepreneurs, absorbing talents through multiple channels, strictly controlling the proportion of professionals in food enterprises, actively carrying out training on professional ethics, safety awareness and legal education for food employees, and formulating the development of human resources in enterprises.
strategic planning and the establishment of a post target management model
.

　　(Xiong Shishi)

　　"China Food News" (version 07, June 21, 2022)

　　(Editor-in-charge: Gu Yufei)