2 Cola and herbal tea speed up mutual rolling

source ： Xiaguang Society （ID：Globalinsights） author ： Maji

Following vegetable milk 、 After low alcohol , Coca Cola has set its sights on the mainland herbal tea market . 

In recent days, , Coca Cola has a product called “ self-heal ” Of herbal tea products on Weibo hot search . Some netizens left comments after drinking “ The taste is similar to that of Wanglaoji ”, But more eager netizens see the price at the moment “ The heart is cold first ”.

The herbal tea produced by Coca Cola , Currently, it is only sold on tmall platform in boxes . A box 24 Bottled herbal tea , The initial selling price is 297 element , It has now dropped to 257.4 element , At the price of each bottle 10.7 element , However, the price of Wanglaoji's herbal tea products with the same capacity is still close to that of Wanglaoji 3 times .

Coca Cola was in 2005 A short test of the mainland herbal tea market , But under the attack of Wanglaoji and other giants , The product has no splashes . With the reduction of carbonated beverage market in recent years , Coca Cola offered “ Full category expansion ” Big recruit , Expand beyond carbonated beverages “ New battlefield ”. And herbal tea , Has become its latest “ weapons ” One of .

Picture source ： Coca Cola tmall flagship store

Just this herbal tea product since this year 6 After the official launch in , The market reaction was mediocre . Tmall platform shows , So far, its sales volume is only 400+. 

01

Test the mainland herbal tea market ,“ self-heal ” Lead the way

Coca Cola's new herbal tea has just been launched , Then he rushed to the microblog for a hot search . But it is not the expectation of this new product that has aroused the heated discussion among netizens , But to its name “ misunderstand ”.

Some consumers who do not have the habit of drinking herbal tea describe , I don't know what Prunella vulgaris is , I have only heard of highly toxic pesticides “ Paraquat ”, This makes their first impression of Coca Cola herbal tea not good ,“ Look at the name and color , Have begun to fear ”.

According to the introduction of Coca Cola tmall flagship store , This herbal tea is made with water 、 White granulated sugar 、 self-heal 、 Momordica grosvenori 、 licorice 、 Sophora japonica , No artificial flavors and colors are added , Traditional herbal tea with herbal formula . And the Prunella vulgaris , It can clear the liver and brighten the eyes 、 Diuretic and hypotensive effects .

The herbal tea was launched by Hong Kong Health workshop , Its predecessor was founded in 1989 Tongzhi Church in Hong Kong . Under the changing times , The health workshop is 2000 In, it replaced Tongzhi hall , The product is also made of traditional herbal tea , Turn into a health drink that meets the different needs of modern urban people .2005 year , The production line of Health workshop was purchased by Coca Cola company .

The list of products on the official website of Health workshop shows , Except for Prunella vulgaris , Its herbal tea products also include tuckahoe 、 Chicken bone grass 、 Twenty four flavors and so on “ taste ”, In addition, there are such as black wolfberry mulberry juice 、 Sea coconut, scallop and snow fungus dew 、 Shouwu sesame tea and other drinks with richer flavors .

Picture source ： Screenshot of the official website of Health workshop

On the label of the bottle , It is marked with the liver clearing and detoxification corresponding to different drinks 、 Soothing the liver and benefiting the gallbladder 、 Dispelling dampness and purging fire , And the viscera of its function , It also indicates that the beverage is hot 、 Flat or cold .

Now , Coca Cola uses Prunella herbal tea “ Lead the way ”, Involved in the mainland herbal tea market , The meaning of water testing is very obvious .

02

The latest puzzle of the whole category strategy

Coca Cola enters the herbal tea market , There are already traces to follow . in fact , Many years ago, when the herbal tea industry was the hottest , Coca Cola is already rubbing its fist .

Time to go back to 20 Years ago , The sales volume of herbal tea drinks represented by Wanglaoji in the Chinese market has increased dramatically . Public data display ,2002 - 2005 year , Wang Laoji's sales soared 10 times .

Naturally, Coca Cola can't ignore this beverage category which is rising rapidly in the Chinese market .2005 year , Coca Cola cooperates with Chinese Academy of traditional Chinese medicine , Research and develop Chinese herbal medicine formula beverage , In the same year, it acquired the Hong Kong herbal tea brand “ Health workshop ” The production line .

At the time , The impact of herbal tea drinks on Cola has been overwhelming .2006 year , The total sales volume of herbal tea enterprises such as Wanglaoji in the Chinese market exceeded that of Coca Cola for the first time . Pressure from competitors , Let Coca Cola in 2007 In, the R & D investment in herbal tea products was accelerated , Set up a research center with the Chinese Academy of traditional Chinese medicine , And put in 6 Billion yuan is used to develop Chinese herbal medicine drinks represented by herbal tea .

But in the face of herbal tea brands such as Wanglaoji, which occupy an absolutely repressive position in the herbal tea industry , Coca Cola herbal tea has not made a breakthrough in the mainland market .  According to media reports , After Coca Cola completed the acquisition of Health Workshop , It has brought its products to some inland cities , But no water spray , There has been no further substantive progress since then . 

now , In Coca Cola “ The whole category ” Under strategy , Herbal tea products “ Reappear the Jianghu ”, Become the latest piece of puzzle for its category expansion .

Coca Cola from 1886 The year was born , From the initial “ Medicinal drinks ” It has evolved into a carbonated beverage that is popular all over the world , And with this “ Happy fat house water ”, Dominate the global soft drink market for many years .

Soft drinks are those that contain less alcohol than 0.5%（ mass ratio ） Natural or artificial beverages , Mainly including packaged drinking water 、 Instant tea 、 Carbonated drinks 、 Fruit juice beverage 、 Energy drinks 、 Sports drinks 、 Instant coffee, etc .

In recent years, , Influenced by the concept of healthy diet , Carbonated beverages are still the largest segment of soft drinks , But the market share is declining year by year . According to the Euromonitor data ,2020 year , Carbonated beverages occupy the global soft drink market 35.28% Share , Among them, Coca Cola has occupied the market share of soft drinks 14.9%.

Because of this , Faced with the shrinking of the overall consumption market of carbonated beverages , Coca Cola had to plan ahead .2016 year , Coca Cola proposed “ To be a full range beverage company ”, After that, through research and development 、 New products are launched intensively in different markets by means of acquisition , Test the markets other than carbonated beverages , To consolidate their dominant position in the beverage industry .

Picture source ： Coca Cola official website

Coca Cola's official website shows , Its full range of beverages in the Chinese market has exceeded 40 Kind of , Including coke 、 Sprite 、 Classic carbonated drinks like Fanta and their sugar free versions , And soda water 、 drinking water 、 Sports drinks 、 Tea beverage 、 Fruit juice 、 Plant protein 、 Coffee and other categories . 

Other than soft drinks , Coca Cola also took advantage of the hot market of low alcohol liquor , A breakthrough in selling alcoholic beverages .2021 year , It has successively introduced in the Chinese market “ Topak ” and “ Lemon path ” Two low alcohol products , And before that , The two products have achieved good sales in Japan and other overseas markets .

For many years “ The whole category ” Expansion strategy , What brings Coca Cola is a visible increase in sales .

Coca Cola company 2021 Annual financial report , With Zero sugar 、 Drinks with health labels such as nutrition , The growth rate exceeds that of its traditional carbonated soda . among , Zero sugar Coca Cola achieved double-digit growth , Drive Coca Cola's overall soda business to realize the whole year 9% The growth of

Besides , Nutritious beverage 、 Fruit juice 、 Sales of dairy products and plant-based beverages increased 12%; And the tonic drink 、 Sports drinks 、 Coffee and tea business , It has also been realized. 7% The growth of . 

03

Herbal tea products are difficult to stir up trouble

Coca Cola is expanding its new categories , What logic is followed ？

At a meeting held a few days ago , Zhan kunjie, chairman and CEO of Coca Cola, said , Coca Cola is not interested in simply dabbling in a category , Will not expand for the sake of expansion , And pay more attention to whether the products have large-scale market potential .

Coca Cola is 2019 Bought the British coffee brand in COSTA, And launched “ Instant coffee ” Series of products .COSTA At the beginning of this year, the president of China said , Ready to drink coffee business is developing very rapidly ,“ Sales are well above expectations , And the repurchase rate is very high ”.

However, the same logic cannot be simply applied to the herbal tea market .

A dozen years ago , The Chinese herbal tea market is still hot .2007 year , JDB 、 Wang Laoji's herbal tea sales surpass Coca Cola , Become the first in the mainland canned beverage market , Create a miracle in China's beverage industry .

But times have changed ,2022 year , When Coca Cola finally cut into the mainland herbal tea track , The market is no longer as hot as it used to be .

Forward looking Industry Research Institute report shows that ,2012 The growth rate of herbal tea market in 16.7%, Since then, the growth rate has slowed down year by year , To 2017 Annual decline 9.1%.2018 year , The market scale of herbal tea is only 470 Billion , Year-on-year decline in 18%.2020 year , Affected by the epidemic , The market share of ready to drink herbal tea in Asia has dropped even more 27.1%.

The growth rate of the industry slows down , Each leading enterprise mainly engaged in herbal tea is facing the dilemma of declining revenue .

2015 year , JDB created 250 Sales of 100 million yuan , But after the peak , This is followed by successive years of decline in performance . data display ,2015 - 2017 year , The main business income of JDB group is 100.42 One hundred million yuan 、106.34 One hundred million yuan 、70.02 One hundred million yuan ; Net profit is -1.89 One hundred million yuan 、14.89 One hundred million yuan 、-5.83 One hundred million yuan .

A similar situation is also reflected in Wanglaoji 、 And its brand of herbal tea .

In addition, the new tea drink which is more popular with young people in recent years 、 Coffee and other drinks , Wang Laoji and JDB, who were expected to catch up with Coca Cola , The market share has dropped significantly .

Eurui data shows ,2019 In, Coca Cola ranked first in the market share of domestic soft drink companies （9.1%）, Wanglaoji and JDB ranked ninth and tenth respectively , The market rate is only 2.5% and 2.3%.

The sales volume of traditional herbal tea is growing sluggishly , Relevant brands have to seek transformation , Launch more new products that conform to the consumption trend of young people .

Looking through the product catalogs of Wanglaoji and other brands, we can find ,“0 sugar 0 fat 0 card ” Become the key word , There are even those launched in response to the popular upsurge of bubble water “ Bubble herbal tea ”.

What's more interesting is that , Wanglaoji also launched “ Cola flavored herbal tea ”. Some consumers leave comments after buying ：“ Taste ok , But it's not Wanglaoji's herbal tea , It's kind of like diet coke .” But apparently this cola flavored herbal tea , It can't change Coca Cola's market share in China , Just coke “ degree of heat ” An attempt to drive the sales of herbal tea .

Now , Coca Cola is “ The whole category ” Officially enter the mainland herbal tea market under the strategy , No doubt to Wanglaoji 、 Another impact of herbal tea enterprises such as JDB .

It goes without saying that Coca Cola has strong brand and channel advantages , But return to the product itself , Although its main target is “ Sugar free ”“ No addition ” And other concepts have been welcomed by consumers in recent years , But compared with other herbal tea brands, they are not original , In terms of price, it has no advantage , It is more than twice as expensive as other brands of herbal tea in the market .

In the herbal tea market, there are already “ Gradually cool ” Under the background of , If Coca Cola herbal tea can no longer find its own characteristic positioning , It will be difficult to get rid of the fate of the overall contraction of the industry .