Dismantling Japan’s Top1 infant and child supplementary food brand and GUANGTANG: how to make the market share of infant and child supplementary food reach 55%?
“ what is there to learn about heguangtang in Japan? ”Recently, the children’s Institute club has written many articles on baby food. We can see that the growth momentum of this track continues under the fierce competition. According to the latest pre-sale data of double 11 in 2021, the top 10 baby supplementary food brands are Xiaopi, Grandpa’s farm, espay, Yingshi, Heinz, heyangyang, baby greedy, BabyCare, Jiabao and wo Xiaoya.The top 10 baby snack brands are: Dr. cheese, baby greedy, deer blue, heyangyang, Xiaopi, Yingshi, autumn full, Jiabao, BabyCare and Xibei.Although it is only pre-sale data, it can still be seen that there are new cutting-edge brands in this market every year. At the same time, the ranking advantage of foreign brands such as Heinz and Garbo is no longer.In 2019, the scale of China’s infant supplementary food consumption market will reach 40.4 billion yuan, with a compound annual growth rate of 23%. It is conservatively estimated that the scale of China’s infant supplementary food market should be more than 100 billion in the future, and there is at least 60 billion space to be explored.With the gradual change of infant complementary food from “optional” to “just needed”, the track has been paid more and more attention by investment institutions because of the rising heat of the market.But it is not easy to divide a piece of this cake.Today, China’s infant and child zero complementary food market is undergoing rapid changes. Nevertheless, there are few high-quality infant complementary food brands in the domestic market, showing a pattern of “short supply”. Moreover, from the overall structure, due to the late start, there are some problems in the industry, such as fierce brand competition, product homogenization, insufficient product strength, lack of standards and so on.Today, let’s dismantle heguangtang, which can be called Japan’s No. 1 food brand for infants and children – a 100 year old infant and child supplementary food brand that accounts for 55% of the market share of the whole Japanese market.Birth: “father of Pediatrics” Create heguangtang pharmacy Throughout the entire Japanese infant and child product market, it is found that there has been full competition in each market segment, and it can even be said that each market segment is monopolized by the corresponding leading enterprises.In the infant food market, heguangtang, Chubi and Meiji holdings are the leading enterprises.According to the historical data of heguangtang, the history of heguangtang began at the same time as the development of Pediatrics in Japan. According to official data, the predecessor of heguangtang was heguangtang pharmacy, which was founded in Meiji 39 (1906). Heguangtang pharmacy was first established at Imperial University of Tokyo (now the University of Tokyo) Dr. hiroda, who founded the pediatric discipline, is both the father of heguangtang and the father of Japanese pediatrics.At that time, the infant mortality rate in Japan was very high. Dr. Hongtian, who witnessed this situation, had been thinking about how to reduce the infant mortality rate. He realized that it was not only necessary to treat children’s diseases, but also important to understand how to prevent diseases. Therefore, he began to import childcare products from the most advanced Germany at that time, and founded and promoted products in order to better guide the sales and promotion of products GUANGTANG pharmacy.The products distributed by heguangtang pharmaceutical bureau are “nourishing sugar” for infants and young children, “cough candy” with malt extract as raw material, and “malt extract” for infant defecation nutrition, which have been widely praised in Europe and America In addition, while importing products, the pharmaceutical bureau also began to sell self-developed siccarol and other products, which also has the story of the first can of formula milk powder in Asia.In fact, the earliest infant supplementary food product “grismael” also came from heguangtang.At that time, the infant mortality rate in Japan was very high, with 106.8 deaths per 1000 births. Although this was lower than the rate of 150 ~ 160 deaths per 1000 births at the beginning of the founding of heguangtang, it was still very high compared with European and American countries.In addition to pneumonia and other diseases, the causes of death include malnutrition, indigestion, bacterial digestive organ diseases, etc. it can be seen how important it was to provide children with nutritious and hygienic food at that time. The earliest supplementary food for infants and young children and gelatinized porridge “grismael” in Japan was born with the important task of solving this problem In 1937, grismael, the first infant supplementary food, was listed, establishing the leading position of heguangtang in Japanese parenting products.However, shortly after the outbreak of World War II, the supply of rice as raw material became very tight. Heguangtang originally wanted to ensure the procurement of raw materials by identifying the “grismael” application as pharmaceutical products, so as to ensure that high-quality food can continue to be provided to children in extraordinary times. However, “grismael” Finally, it was not approved as a pharmaceutical product. Due to the inability to purchase rice, the “grismael” recognized by the majority of mothers had to stop production. It was not until 1949, that is, the 24th year of Showa, that heguangtang resumed the production of supplementary food products for infants and young children.Heguangtang has opened up a new field with supplementary food After 1949, heguangtang’s deep cultivation in supplementary food showed that infant and child food itself was a completely new field. And in the following decades, it has been deeply cultivated. At present, “heguangtang” has developed a series of perfect industries around the cause of infant health. In 2012, heguangtang ranked first in the share of Japanese infant food market (milk powder + supplementary food), and its infant supplementary food accounted for 55% of the market share of the whole Japanese market. It is a leading manufacturer with absolute advantages in the field of infant food.The absolute leading position of heguangtang in the field of complementary food for infants and children is not only due to its long history, but also its dedication to the brand.1） Extreme attention to qualityIn Japan, there are many century old brands, and even only one single product is sold for a century. Their survival is mainly due to the inheritance of ingenuity.The survival of heguangtang, which has a history of 100 years, also stems largely from its control over quality.Their enterprise’s declaration is also: Forever infant quality.This quality is reflected in all aspects of product design:For example, combined with the different needs of the baby’s growth stage, it is designed for the uniqueness of children, and has different requirements for the size, hardness, amount of food and the original flavor of food materials. As shown in the figure below: Although there is a difference of 2 months between 7 months and 9 months, the product form has changed greatly.2） Raw material controlAt present, many domestic brands are also playing the concept of origin and organic. Heguangtang’s requirements for raw materials have been made for decades.It is understood that heguangtang is very strict in screening raw material suppliers. In addition, it also selects traceable raw materials. Vegetables have been confirmed from pesticide spraying, cultivation management of harvest to final inspection methods, and their pesticide residues and other safety problems have been inspected since the harvest of agricultural products, Only raw materials that meet food safety standards can be processed and produced.In order to ensure the safety of product quality of raw materials, the quality of raw materials and products will be supervised and inspected regularly.3) Control the product processing process and supply chainInfant products are special foods. Both production line design and hygiene standards are many times higher than adults.At present, heguangtang’s products involve a wide variety of raw materials and complex production processes. Because of this, many links of production and manufacturing are equipped with manual or cutting-edge testing equipment.There are up to ten processes in the infant food processing site of heguangtang.It is understood that in 2004, heguangtang obtained ISO14001 certification in the company headquarters Tokyo, Tochigi factory and Shizuoka factory. In addition, heguangtang also processes and produces in high-quality areas of foreign raw materials, such as Netherlands fislan CAMPINA Dairy Co., Ltd., which is currently one of the top five dairy companies in the world.Although heguangtang has the right to speak in Japan, few people know it in China. In fact, as early as 2008, heguangtang began to sell infant milk powder to mainland China.However, due to different product standards, such as iodine content of milk powder, its sales situation is not ideal. In 2013, heguangtang milk powder announced that it plans to establish a joint venture in Shanghai with Master Kang to operate the import and sales of infant milk powder. It is worth noting that before the exposure of the joint venture information, the milk powder of Meiji just announced that it was temporarily withdrawing from the Chinese mainland market, and the marriage between Guang Tang and Kangshifu, the main purpose should be to fill the market gap left by the withdrawal of other foreign milk powder.However, it still failed to overcome the “acclimatization” of Japanese dairy enterprises in the Chinese market. At present, no Japanese infant formula dairy enterprises have registered in China, and heguangtang cannot enter China through general trade. Meiji, heguangtang, moriyong and other Japanese enterprises have successively withdrawn from the Chinese infant formula market.Despite repeated setbacks in the Chinese market, we still can not deny the position and direction of heguangtang in its local market. For example, after reaching a certain stage of development, heguangtang’s general direction in sku expansion: milk powder, infant supplementary food (instant fresh food, seasoning, raw materials), functional infant and child snacks, infant and child care products, basic drugs, etc.At present, China’s infant supplementary food brands are still in a fierce battle in the red sea of brands. In order to occupy a place in the supplementary food market, we must firmly grasp the pass of product quality, which is also the basis for the success of heguangtang.In addition, under the current z-era users and the Internet environment, the brand should continue to increase scientific research investment, create more high-quality products, create fun and interesting products, and integrate parent-child interaction and cultural communication into the brand.In the past, it may take 10 years for a brand to become popular. Today, this speed may be shortened to one month, but the original intention of building a century old brand cannot be changed.Author: Liu Huansha; Source: Children’s Institute Club (ID: eransuoclub), reprint has been authorized. Reprint authorization and media business cooperation: Amy (wechat: 13701559246); join the community: Cherry (micro signal: 15240428449). 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