After Li Ning Co. Ltd. registered the trademark of "Ning Coffee", sold coffee in offline stores, and Wanda registered the trademark of "Wancha" to enter the tea race track, another traditional industry giant set its sights on the new consumer track.

On May 19, the first ice cream shop in Maotai opened in the lobby of Maotai International Hotel in Zunyi. All its products were mixed with Maotai Liquor at a price of 39 yuan per serving. "Maotai-flavor ice cream" has also sparked a heated discussion on social platforms.

"at present, the downward pressure on the economy is increasing, and the main business of enterprises is impacted by multiple factors, and their growth stalls. In order to alleviate the negative impact of the main business growth stall on the development of enterprises, (enterprises) are considering cross-border growth breakthroughs. Shen Meng, executive director of Xiangsong Capital, said.

While milk tea, coffee, tea and other racing tracks have low barriers to entry, the model is easy to replicate, the scale is simple, and the turnover period is short, so the risk is relatively small, which makes them the most common species for traditional enterprises to explore new businesses.

However, blindly doing new business across the border will also face new tests-- if you squeeze into the competition of the new track that is already the "Red Sea," it will be very difficult to make an advantage in the short term, and when the business front is lengthened, it will also be a burden for the main business. it is easy to cause the dispersion of resources, difficult to persist through the early difficulties and other problems.

"many Xinfengkou seem to have very good prospects, but it is actually a trap," Zhu Danpeng, a Chinese food industry analyst, told all-weather Technology. "if its main business is not strong and its sideline stretches the battle line too long, there will be too many problems. "

The development of cross-border business, whether Maotai, or Li Ning Co. Ltd., Wanda, may need to be cautious.

Cross-boundary "mash-up" is becoming more and more intense.

The ice cream Maotai launched this time has three flavors: original flavor, vanilla and Tira Misu. A certain amount of Maotai liquor is added to each ice cream. According to Zhongxin Financial report, the ratio of milk to wine is 50g / 1kg milk mixed with 53 degrees Feitian Maotai.

Because of the alcohol content, officials also responded that Maotai ice cream is not currently sold to minors and is advised not to drive after eating it.

It is understood that Maotai ice cream is a product jointly launched by Maotai and Mengniu. At present, the prepackaged products are expected to be introduced to the Guiyang market on May 29 and gradually spread to the whole country. Consumers can place an order on the "I Maotai" APP and distribute it through the cold chain, and consumers in other cities also have the opportunity to buy Maotai ice cream.

In the future, dealers in Maotai can also open ice cream franchises.

Cross-border ice cream making by wine companies is not actually the first of Maotai. As early as 2019, Luzhou laojiao partnered with Zhong Xuegao to launch "fragment" ice cream, which sold more than 1000 pieces on the first day. In addition, Xi Tea has also launched Wuliangye ice cream.

Not only wine companies, in August last year, Wuling Hongguang also launched three car-shaped ice cream products, mainly used as a tool for summer publicity and drainage in stores.

From the perspective of research and development, the cost of research and development of ice cream is not high, enterprises in cooperation with Mengniu, Yili and other dairy enterprises, often only need to lend IP and provide a small amount of raw materials to complete mass production. Moreover, the shape of ice cream can be integrated with the brand symbol, which makes it easy to meet the publicity needs of enterprises. This is why ice cream is so popular when it comes to cross-border choices.

In addition to ice cream, milk tea and coffee track are also two popular options.

Just last month, Wanda Group registered a number of "Wancha" trademarks. Wanda Film said on the investor interactive platform that "Wancha" is an own-brand cinema special drink project launched by the company at the end of 2019 and is currently sold in about 140 cinemas of the company.

The brand name of "Wancha" has existed for a long time. In 2019, Wanda opened its first "Wanxiao Tea" milk tea shop in Wanda Cinema, Zengcheng, Guangzhou. Then, Wanda launched a fusion model with COSTA-Wancha and COSTA Quick selection, which was quickly rolled out in many Wanda cinemas across the country.

In the cross-border coffee business, what has attracted much attention recently is the news that Li Ning Co. Ltd. began to provide coffee service in stores. According to Tianyan data, Li Ning Co. Ltd. Sports (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. applied to register the trademark "Ning Coffee NING COFFEE".

Li Ning Co. Ltd. responded to the media that the company pays attention to the consumer purchasing experience of retail terminals and hopes to improve customers' comfort and experience by optimizing in-store services. Providing coffee service in the store will be an innovative attempt by Li Ning Co. Ltd. for retail terminal consumption experience.

From the current point of view, coffee is only an additional service for consumption at the store. A Li Ning Co. Ltd. clerk said, "Coffee drinking is not open to the public at present, and customers who come to the store can buy a free drink after buying 499 yuan." And at present, only large stores can provide coffee, and most smaller stores do not have this service for the time being.

From this point of view, in the short term, the coffee business may not directly create business income for Li Ning Co. Ltd..

As for the layout of coffee, Petrochina Company Limited and China Petroleum & Chemical Corp left earlier and took a bigger step.

In 2018, Petrochina Company Limited founded Kunlun Hospitality Coffee and began to set up freshly ground coffee in its convenience store. According to Carmen, there are currently more than 120 coffee shops and more than 8000 retail coffee stores, with total sales of coffee products exceeding 100 million yuan in 2021.

China Petroleum & Chemical Corp launched EasyJet Coffee in 2019. In order to fit the gas station scene, EasyJet Coffee launched its unique menu: 9 coffee (black and white coffee), 9 coffee (fashion specialty drink), 9 coffee (boutique series), and was ridiculed as "petroleum coffee" by netizens.

In February this year, China Post also stepped into the coffee race, opening its first post office coffee in Xiamen. In the mode of operation, post office coffee is similar to post oxygen tea, which is operated by China Post in cooperation with third-party companies.

"Postal oxygen Tea", launched by China Post last year, was once a hot search, sparking discussions inside and outside the industry. At that time, the media speculated that if the milk tea shop opened at the post office, its 54000 outlets, once opened, would be the first in the country, or it would become a strong competitor to Xi Cha, Nai Xue's tea, Michelle Ice City, and other brands.

However, as of May 25, according to Dianping, there are only five tea companies in the country, with a score of only 3.74.1, which is far from expected at that time.

As the byte beat of the Internet giant, the attention to the tea race track has also existed for a long time. Last year, Byte launched the tea brand "Taoyuan Yuye" in Douyin, invested in the local tea brand "Lemon season" in Changsha, and registered trademarks such as "byte tea" and "ByteTea". In May this year, it was reported that byte beat is setting up a food and beverage team in Beijing, and the products are mainly new-style tea drinks.

Not only China Post, but also beverage giants Wa and Wang Laoji have already explored this "tuyere".

Why cross the border?

Why do milk tea, coffee and ice cream become popular cross-border options?

From the perspective of business model, the entry threshold of milk tea, coffee and ice cream industry is low, the model is easy to copy, and the scale expansion is simple. As a consumer product, its turnover period is shorter, compared with the lower input cost, so the risk is relatively low, and the fault tolerance rate is higher.

Moreover, these businesses meet the core needs of the new generation.

"the core demand of the whole new generation has become an area that the industry has to invest in. Milk tea, coffee and ice cream are the categories with the highest participation and consumption frequency of the new generation. "said Zhu Danpeng.

In addition to the high consumption frequency, ice cream, coffee and milk tea also have the characteristics of relatively low unit price, which is also a low threshold choice for traditional enterprises to reach the population.

Take ice cream as an example, industry insiders believe that the main purpose of Maotai ice cream business is to interact with young people than to increase revenue.

According to data released by Roland Berger, a consultancy, Chinese consumers under the age of 30 consume only 8% of alcohol, far less than low-alcohol drinks such as beer, wine and pre-blended drinks. Moreover, in the eyes of many consumers, the collection value and investment value of Maotai is much higher than that of drinking, especially for young people.

For Maotai, it is more and more necessary to reach young people with products.

In fact, Maotai has been trying to get close to young people. In 2019, Maotai launched mellow blueberry craft, cut into the fruit wine race track. However, in terms of price, the price of this wine in JD.com Maotai self-operated flagship store is 279 yuan, which is still on the high side compared with similar fruit wine.

In contrast, 39 yuan of Maotai ice cream is not only a loud gimmick, but also further lowers the consumption threshold.

On the other hand, Maotai's prepackaged ice cream will be sold on the "I Maotai" APP, which may also be intended to attract users for the "I Maotai" APP.

Li Ning Co. Ltd. 's coffee service in stores is, to a certain extent, an exploration to save offline stores.

In terms of sales channels, from 2019 to 2021, Li Ning Co. Ltd. 's domestic offline sales accounted for 75.6%, 70.5% and 70.3% of the total sales, showing a downward trend year by year; the proportion of online channel sales in the same period was 22.5%, 28% and 28.4%, increasing year by year.

While the proportion of offline sales has declined, the number of Li Ning Co. Ltd. 's stores has been growing year after year. By the end of 2021, Li Ning Co. Ltd. had a total of 7137 stores, including dealers, which also means that the efficiency of its offline stores is getting lower and lower.

In the 2021 financial report, Li Ning Co. Ltd. said that during the year, the company continued to optimize channel construction and layout, focus on shopping malls, continue to promote the landing of flagship stores and other efficient stores, and at the same time continue to optimize the store structure. accelerate the processing of loss-making, inefficient and small stores.

In order to improve offline efficiency and attract consumers to shop, it is necessary to improve the service of stores.

Unlike Maotai and Li Ning Co. Ltd., the current performance pressure of Wanda Cinema is greater.

In 2019 and 2020, Wanda Film's operating income was 15.435 billion yuan and 6.295 billion yuan respectively, and its net profit was-4.722 billion yuan and-6.841 billion yuan respectively. It was not until 2021 that it was able to turn a loss into a profit, with a net profit of about 106 million yuan.

However, in 2022, affected by the epidemic, the performance of Wanda Cinema fell into another trough in the first quarter of this year. According to its financial report, its first-quarter net profit was 45 million yuan, down 91.42% from the same period last year.

On the other hand, Wanda Film has always occupied the top three in revenue from merchandise and catering sales in the past few years, with a gross profit margin of 63.49% in 2021.

The use of idle cinema space to develop milk tea business can not only turn the advantages of offline space into commercial benefits, but also increase revenue for cinemas when the industry is in a recession.

It's just that the new tea circuit has long been a red sea, and it is still unknown how much value-added revenue the milk tea brand can bring to Wanda movies.

The trap of new business

In fact, there have been successful cases in cross-border new business.

Take quack feeding as an example, it launched the sub-brand "hot pot" in 2016, taking the lead in experimenting with the leisure experience format of "hot pot + tea". Many kinds of milk tea have become popular on the Internet, and the hot pot business of Jiaoliu has also developed rapidly. At a time when the business of quack-feeding has been frustrated, milk tea and its derived milk tea brands are also regarded as an important trump card.

After the cooking, hot pot + milk tea was also emulated by the industry, and Haidilao International Holding also added self-service milk tea to the service.

But by contrast, there are still relatively few cases of cross-border success.

Shen Meng told all-weather technology: "and either companies put all their eggs in one basket, burn their bridges, or enter industries where competition is relatively weak, and can quickly and strongly grab share by virtue of their own accumulated capital advantages." "

For example, the leisure experience format of "milk tea + hot pot" is relatively successful because it occupies the advantage of the first launch of the industry, and the competition in the tea industry at that time is not fierce, and brands like tea and Nai Xue have not yet risen.

At present, when enterprises layout cross-border business, they often only see that they have certain cost advantages, such as the original store network, the original brand influence, and the current low per capita consumption of target consumption business. but the real consumer demand and competition should not be ignored.

From the track competition, whether it is coffee, tea, or ice cream, the competition has reached a white-hot stage.

Some data show that the number of brands on the ice cream line in China in 2018 is only about 60. By August 2021, the number had grown to more than 300.

In the past, domestic and foreign giants such as Yili, Mengniu and Haagen-Dazs firmly controlled the domestic low, medium and high-end ice cream market. However, with the rise of Zhong Xuegao, Aoxue and other new consumer brands, the ice cream market has also ushered in changes.

Almost every once in a while, a popular style of ice cream has become popular on the Internet, from the original "double yellow eggs", "coconut ash" to "Zhizhi peach", none of which can last forever. Although Maotai ice cream detonated the flow and topic in a short time, it is not easy to keep the heat going.

At the tea race track, by the end of 2021, there were 378000 new tea stores, with a chain rate of 36 per cent. Among them, there are Honey Snow and Ice City with 20, 000 stores, ancient tea from coco,4500 stores with 12000 stores, and tea dishes from 4200 stores. There are also two tea companies that are highly sought after by capital, such as Xi Tea and Nai Xue Tea.

Under the fierce competition and blind expansion in the early stage, a series of events such as price cuts, shop closures, layoffs and persistent losses have been staged in the head enterprises of New Tea since the end of last year.

In this context, can cross-border tea really create a "blood road"? It will take time to answer.

Coffee track competition is even more serious, Starbucks Corp, Ruixing standing, MANNER, Seesaw, Mstand, Tims and other brands have also got financing, courageously catch up. Li Ning Co. Ltd. may still have a long way to go if he wants to generate direct commercial income from his coffee business.

As Zhu Danpeng said, many new air outlets seem to have very good prospects, but they are actually a trap. Scattered resources, difficult to persist through the early difficulties, and so on will become new problems.

Once upon a time, dairy giant Yili also tried to cross the border. In August 2019, Yili officially entered the mineral water market through the acquisition of Alshan Water know Mineral Water Co., Ltd. (now renamed "Alshan Yili Natural Mineral Beverage Co., Ltd.").

Relying on Yili's distribution network and sales channels, it should not be difficult to launch mineral water products. However, this is not the case. Yili's mineral water business is not as good as expected. according to its financial report in 2021, the recoverable amount of the asset group in which the goodwill belongs is lower than the book value of the asset group containing goodwill. After impairment testing, the goodwill is reduced by 55.26 million yuan in the current period.

Separated by mountains, even if they have offline store resources, channel advantages, or other advantages, traditional enterprises will still face new challenges when they enter new industries across the border, and the market will not give too many opportunities for trial and error.

The development of cross-border business, no matter what the size of the industry giant, is to feel the stone to cross the river, every step, we must be very careful.