The instant chicken breast event enters the "endurance" stage

Walking into any convenience store in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, instant chicken breast can almost occupy the C position
of the freezer.
The brand may have changed a few rounds, but the variety is increasing - chicken breast pieces, meat sausages, meatballs.
.
.
Ready-to-eat chicken breast has become a daily choice
for urban white-collar meal replacements and hunger in the past two years.
This popular track has also attracted many entrants, and at a time when the new consumption wave seems to be ebbing, the instant chicken breast event has entered the "endurance" stage
.

Industry reshuffle accelerated

Supplier brands may gain a catch-up advantage

Driven by the wave of consumption upgrading, Chinese users are upgrading
their quality consumption.
According to Nielsen's survey data, 82% of Chinese consumers are willing to spend more on healthy food and beverage products, much higher than the global average
of 68%.
Compared with red meat such as pork and beef, chicken has high protein, low fat and low calorie attributes
.
At the same time, as a traditional chicken production and consumption country, China's broiler has a high degree of industrialization, and the stable and sufficient supply makes chicken food have cost-effective advantages
.

Data show that in 2020, the market size of China's deeply processed chicken food was about 28.
6 billion yuan, and the market size is expected to reach 70.
4 billion yuan by 2025, with a compound growth rate of 19.
7%
from 2020 to 2025.
Instant chicken breast is a new category of deep-processed chicken food, based on the estimated revenue of 230 million yuan and a market share of about 13% in 2020, the market size of ready-to-eat chicken breast food in 2020 is about 1.
8 billion yuan, accounting for only about 6% of the deep-processed chicken food market, and the category is still in its infancy
.

Despite the huge market prospects, per capita consumption is still low, and the category penetration rate needs to be continuously improved
.
In 2020, the annual per capita consumption of chicken in China reached 10.
8 kg, lower than the global 18.
4 kg/person
.
In 2020, China's deep-processed chicken products accounted for only 14% of the country's total chicken consumption, which is far lower than the average of
40%-70% in developed countries.

The analysis of "New Domestic Category Report: Instant Chicken Breast" (hereinafter referred to as the "Report") pointed out that on the whole, with the growth of user health and quality consumer demand, the penetration rate of chicken as a high-quality protein and the increase in product brand premium, the market size of instant chicken breast has high growth potential
.

Instant chicken breast, a fairly segmented track, has many competitors
.
At present, there are two main forces in the domestic ready-to-eat chicken breast category track: one is the online health brand represented by shark fit, and the other is the traditional broiler production enterprises such as Fengxiang, Shengnong, Chunxue, etc
.
In addition, many new players have also begun to pour in: including some big catering labels testing the waters, such as KFC and McDonald's; Some related enterprises crossover, such as KEEP, Leke, Genki Forest and Baicao Wei
.
Industry insiders believe that for now, the competitive landscape of this category is not yet mature
.

It is worth noting that the capital "pushers" that drive the track to heat up are gradually receding
.
Ene cattle data shows that chicken breast, which continued to be at the peak of investment and financing from 2020 to 2021, has significantly reduced its capital popularity in 2022
.
According to CICC's 2021 calculations, the industry concentration of ready-to-eat chicken breast food is much higher than that of deep-processed chicken food
.
As the competition of the former is still in its infancy, entrepreneurial brands with a keen sense of smell have won considerable market share by virtue of their first-mover advantage, but the competitive landscape is not yet mature
.
It is foreseeable that with the ebb of capital and the acceleration of industry reshuffle, the future instant chicken breast event will enter the stage of "fighting endurance"
.

Industry insiders believe that the upstream chicken supplier brand may gain catch-up advantages in the industry reshuffle, on the one hand, it can reuse the solid and stable supply chain foundation, brand and channel resources of the parent company; On the other hand, the strong strength of the parent company also makes the brand have a stronger full-link integration advantage
.

Zhou Jinying, vice president of Xinfengxiang Group and vice president of Fengxiang Co.
, Ltd.
, introduced Youshape's "3D R&D system" in detail, and described in detail the innate advantages given to Youshape as the parent company: "Fengxiang's market foundation in Japan enables Youshape to obtain the most cutting-edge food information in Asia; The R&D center in Shanghai can not only accept cutting-edge information from Tokyo, but also integrate domestic consumer trends; Shandong, where Fengxiang's base camp is located, is an 'arsenal' that can undertake the incubation and production
of all products.
In addition, as a supplier of KFC and McDonald's, Fengxiang can also timely feedback the wind direction of the consumer side to the upstream of the industrial chain, becoming an important source of
product innovation.
”

Similar to Youshape, the rhythm of the C-end brand layout of major chicken suppliers is also similar
.
The frozen product lines of each brand are the main SKUs on the e-commerce platform; Chunxue, Youshape, and Tyson's products have successively entered the convenience store channel; Many brands have also deployed instant retail channels
such as Hema and Dingtone Grocery Shopping.
Channel advantage is also an innate advantage that chicken supplier brands are difficult to surpass compared with online brands - the latter is almost the only battlefield in addition to snack brands such as Three Squirrels that have offline store resources, and it is precisely because of channel capabilities, frozen and room temperature are the main SKU types
of chicken breast brands.

Avoid homogenization

Marketing expression needs to be optimized

With the succession of players, the competition in the chicken breast track has inevitably fallen into homogenization, from taste, product type to specification, packaging, pricing are all trending similar
.
The "Report" pointed out that this requires brands to build technical research and development barriers on the product side to enhance the added value
of products.

On the one hand, instant chicken breast explosive products gradually tend to be standardized, and the product systems of various brands are seriously homogenized, mostly instant chicken breast pieces, chicken intestines, chicken balls and other single products
.
At the same time, the taste and quality of chicken breast are still often criticized by consumers, and on social media, "unpalatable", "salty, high sodium content", "fishy and woody", "bloodshot" and other evaluations frequently appear, which also restricts the possibility of instant chicken breast penetration to a wider range of
consumers.

In essence, most brands currently adopt an asset-light operation model and entrust OEM production, and the control of the supply chain link is not in place or the ability is lacking, which can easily lead to product quality problems
.

On the other hand, compared with the cost performance that the older generation pays attention to, young consumers are more concerned about the high value
of the product.
According to Nielsen data, 64% of consumers in China will buy products with more attractive packaging, and nearly 50% of them are post-90s
.
At the same time, based on the social needs and circle culture of the current young group, the importance of product functional value and social value is increasingly prominent
.

Comprehensive product lines and rich shelves are the advantages of supplier brands over other chicken breast brands, but in order to "shake off" similar competitors and win in the homogenization competition, it is also necessary to push the differentiated advantages in front of
consumers through effective marketing.

Compared with OEM brands, the biggest advantage of supplier brands is product strength, which is not only reflected in the stability of the quality of chicken raw materials, but also in the quality and content
of additives during processing.
"Several of Youxue's products have real curry and cheese added instead of cheese flavor and curry flavor, and the added olive oil is also high-quality olive oil
.
However, in the process of communicating with consumers, we have not been able to effectively reach this information about cost and quality
.
Zhou Jinying said
.

Pricing is one way
to differentiate the quality of chicken.
At present, the price difference of different brands of instant chicken breast on the market is very different, and the difference can be more than
double.
4 yuan/100 grams is the mainstream price segment, and it is also the price segment
with the most fierce brand competition.
A closer look at the product details shows that chicken breasts in the 8 yuan/100 gram price range mostly use chicken small breasts with more tender meat, while chicken breasts in the 4 yuan/100 gram price range rarely emphasize the chicken parts and quality
.
However, just looking at the packaging, consumers basically cannot distinguish the difference
in quality.

"At present, the marketing methods of consumer brands can be described as strange, traffic costs are also rising, and the correction of marketing strategies is necessary
.
" Zhou Jinying said
.
The ever-changing marketing landscape is a problem
for all consumer brands.
In the face of the ebb of capital, the rise of online brands using the momentum of capital may accelerate the face of difficulties
.
With the solid marketing capital of "product power", the opportunity for supplier brands to break and overtake is coming
.

The "Report" believes that the brand connotation should be deepened at the marketing end, and the promotion should be strengthened to enhance brand awareness
.
At present, the ready-to-eat chicken breast category is still in its infancy, and the category education of users and consumers' awareness of the brand need to be deepened
.
In recent years, domestic enterprises have increased their investment in brand marketing, through online and offline instant reach and operation, to enhance brand awareness, and to deepen the healthy and safe product image of instant chicken breast into the daily life
of the public.
In addition, there are also some professional brands that vertically focus on the category of ready-to-eat chicken breast, deriving brand connotations such as fitness and plasticity, and shaping professional brand influence to meet the consumption preferences of the target group and enhance the stickiness between
the brand and users.

Compete across categories

Brand power injected into modern agricultural development

As an agricultural product, chicken is limited in the category division in the consumer goods system, but once it enters the field of deep processing, the category ownership is quite diverse
.
Taking Youshape as an example, instant chicken breast can be classified as light food, chicken breast oatmeal fried rice can be classified as instant meal replacement, chicken breast meatballs, chicken breast potato chips can be classified as snack food, last August, Youshape also launched the "Daily Youyou" series of children's chicken food products, each product will face differentiated consumers and competitors
in each category.

Regarding the category attribution of Youshape, Zhou Jinying frankly said that he does not avoid cross-category competition, on the contrary, multi-category layout will be the future direction
of Youshape.
"The whole product line of Youshape will be laid out around the dietary needs of consumers 'delicious and low burden', but it will grasp the rhythm of strength, so Youshape chose to suspend the expansion of the 'Daily Youyou' children's series product line and give priority to consolidating the foundation
in the field of snack food.
" Zhou Jinying said
.

The processing link of agricultural products has a lot of room for expansion, and when chicken suppliers enter the C-end market, how to step on the market outlet in the changes and how to grasp the rhythm of business rollout will be a big test
.

The brand development of agriculture, one leg lies in the branding of the original agricultural products themselves, and the other leg is to achieve value-added
benefits through the processing of agricultural products.
According to CICC's calculations, the gross profit margin of the downstream of the poultry breeding industry can be 20 percentage points higher than that of the upstream and downstream, but the enterprises that walk on two legs at the same time are still a minority
.

Taking the pork field as an example, Shuanghui and Jinluo have opened up the brand voice by selling ham sausages, so that more consumers are familiar with Shuanghui and Jinluo as pork brands; On the other hand, due to the feedback of performance, Fengxiang began to shift its business focus to the field of deep-processed chicken in 2020, and Youshape achieved a year-on-year sales increase of 111.
8% from 2020 to 2021, supporting half of the company's new retail business
.

Chinese demand for agricultural products is still in its infancy, and the space for agricultural product processing market is also quite broad
.
Meat is already an agricultural product category with a relatively high degree of branding and deep processing development in China
.
If we focus on the entire agricultural field, the upgrading space of China's agricultural product consumption market will be considerable
.
The formation of a mature and three-dimensional modern agricultural development pattern will wait for more brand forces to join
.

(Han Songyan, comprehensive arrangement)

China Food News(2023.
01.
03.
02)

(Responsible editor: Han Songyan).