This year’s 315 “Tukeng Sauerkraut” really made people feel stomachache for a long time. After the collapse of Laotan Sauerkraut, the market value of Master Kong and Uni-President evaporated by tens of billions. Every day, the products were removed from the shelves, resulting in losses of hundreds of millions. This wave will cause the skin to peel off even if it is not dead.

It is precisely because of this influence that every year 315 will become a day when many corporate public relations are so nervous that they cannot sleep. Many brands will also choose to keep silent during this period to avoid being scandalized and slapped in the face.

But in the current, there are always those who go against the trend. Products with excellent quality are naturally not afraid of review. On March 15, the domestic high-end pet food brand Bile specially chose this day to hold its own brand upgrade conference. In addition to a comprehensive upgrade of its brand image, it also announced many new brand strategies and substantial progress in product research and development.

The sixteen years that Bile has gone through are also the process of the entire pet industry from the gestation period to the rapid development period.

On the one hand, the urbanization rate and national income level continue to increase. With reference to the experience of Japan and the United States, the growth of these two data is the direct driving force for the development of the pet market;

On the other hand, It is the change in the demographic structure. Judging from the two groups with the fastest growth rate at present: one is single young people under 35 years old; the other is two-person families over 45 years old with no children around. The reason behind this is that as the birthrate declines and the population ages, the rise of the “loneliness economy” has brought about a surge in emotional needs such as “companionship”.

Based on this, after experiencing the enlightenment and gestation period in the 1990s and 2000s, the pet track has entered the fast lane since 2010. In the past four or five years alone, the pet market has expanded has more than doubled, growing into a golden track with a scale of over 200 billion and an overall growth rate of around 20%.

Although the overall growth has slowed down during the epidemic, judging from the keeping rate, China’s pet household keeping rate is still less than half of that in mature markets such as Japan and the United States, and there is still room for exponential improvement in the future.

In recent years, due to channel dividends, capital boost, and national self-confidence, the disenchantment of imported brands has made domestic brands almost the biggest beneficiaries of this round of growth. The market share of domestic brands continues to increase. Last year, domestic brands already occupied 5 of the top 10 pet consumption categories on Tmall’s Double Eleven.

But the problem is that most of this wave of domestic substitution of pet consumption relies on marketing and cost-effectiveness to undertake consumption transfers. The entire market is still dominated by international brands represented by Mars and Nestlé. Especially in the high-end market, consumers’ recognition of high-end and high-quality products is mostly linked to imported brands.

The reason is not complicated. The domestic pet market is still in a relatively early stage. Many pet owners have not yet had the habit of buying professional pet food. They even have the most basic needs of dogs eating dog food and cats eating cat food. None of them are fully satisfied, and most users have poor judgment about the quality of the product and the understanding of the price system.

Under such circumstances, it is indeed a rational choice from a commercial perspective to first make replacements and basic models to meet basic needs, and then proceed with professional segmentation and high-end customization based on the growth of user needs.

This is also a timing issue that many companies will emphasize. For mass consumers, as long as it is highly palatable and meets basic nutritional needs, it is enough. In the early stages, mid-to-high-end positioning will be better than other products. Brands are having a harder time.

But Bile has his own thoughts on this, "Essentially, do you choose to do the current business or the future business? If you want to do the future, you have to invest."

Huang Li has emphasized "worthy of reputation" many times. This strategy makes the growth pace of Bile's entire brand seem relatively conservative, but she also requires herself to be the best in products if conditions permit. Even if the consumer's current feelings are not obvious, when he starts to pursue higher-level needs, it may become an inevitable mental choice in the first place.

This is why, from 2006 to 2015, Bile was willing to spend nearly ten years laying out the foundation of the brand.

On the one hand, in the process of growing domestic supply from scratch, we have completed the construction of supply chain and technical infrastructure;

On the other hand, as a brand born out of a manufacturer , the accumulation of channels also started from scratch. By running to stores every day and communicating face-to-face with store owners and consumers, Bile gradually completed the integration with market demand, and also laid the foundation for becoming a "high-end pet food intelligent manufacturing expert" today.

After 2015, Bile spent more than five years exploring brand culture and establishing initial recognition. In this era of impetuous involution, Bile seems to have a unique purity. There is nothing that is eager to grasp and nothing that cannot be missed.

“Why is matching important? Today, many excellent video teams can allow you to place an order within 3 seconds of watching, but can the products and services you provide support and be worthy of such sales capabilities? ? Of course, many consumers are only willing to look at you for 3 seconds and leave without spending more time to understand you. What should I do at this time? Should you pursue it? ”

Buddha. The marketing of the system is based on reputation, and the advanced product research and development layout is also based on reputation. However, in this seemingly contradictory two sides, Bile has slowly become the "leader" he expected, in the high-end market. Occupied a place.

Fortunately, the entire industry has come to this day, and the domestic mid-to-high-end products are almost coming to an end.

As the market gradually matures, the growth of low-end positioning has begun to slow down, and the growth rate of the mid-to-high-end market has reached more than twice that of the former. It is also possible to finish the hard-to-gnaw bones in the early stage. Bile seemed more calm in the changing situation.

This round of brand upgrade is also a worthy result for Bile.

“A lot of internal data tells us that at this point, we must upgrade. The feedback from the 500,000 fans of the official account and Tmall flagship store also encourages us to implement consumption. Investors are well prepared for your expectations, including the basic conditions of the supply chain and omni-channel layout.”

As pet consumption becomes increasingly anthropomorphic, healthy, functional, and palatable. Demand in other aspects continues to be refined, and the entire market is transforming from horizontal quantitative demand expansion to vertical high-quality growth. Faced with the homogeneous supply of domestic products and imported brands that are not grounded enough, the market is calling for the emergence of a local expert brand.

Based on this, in this brand upgrade, Bile released a new brand positioning: expert in high-end pet food intelligent manufacturing, and also released a new brand super symbol: %.

“Our new slogan is: Comparing past and future, it’s still better than having fun. On the one hand, comparison is the daily state of everyone’s choice of pet food. We hope to become a model for consumers to compare nutrition, food ingredients, and safety. On the other hand, the super symbol also includes the attitude of our R&D team, quality control team, technical team and marketing team, which need to use data percentage improvements every day to prove the progress of the brand.”

100% service, experience and happiness represent Bile's ideals, goals and persistence. It is also Bile's R&D spirit and production attitude, and it is Bile's new starting point.

Many of Bile’s practices seem too ideal, but in fact, it’s just that the dividends on channels and traffic in the past two years have been too dazzling, and everyone has become accustomed to paying attention to innovations in routines and models. High-end thinking is often not based on any profound psychological marketing routines. The most fundamental thing is the product.

Represented by Bile, private brands born out of manufacturers have never been favored by people, and there are indeed few successful cases on the market.

“We have been questioned for a long time that Fubai cannot be a brand. Of course there will be a gap, but every brand will experience setbacks, so just keep trying. I think the most important thing is You still have to persevere. Sooner or later you have to face many things. Just like we have to make up for marketing lessons now, many brands also have to make up for their shortcomings in research and development."

Encounter setbacks and adjust different methods. Then going on is the norm that every brand has to face. Including the marketing of many brands today, the marketing methods are becoming more and more homogeneous. When everyone is doing similar things, whether they can persist and do everything better will be the final test. place.

For example, during this press conference, Bile reached a strategic cooperation with Focus Media. Compared with the online traffic investment that many people value, the direct GMV that this kind of offline building elevator media can bring is minimal, but What Bile needs more at this stage may be to convey the core of the brand. The situation of each brand is different, and you still need to have your own thinking when planning for the future.

There is also Bile’s Tmall flagship store. It was also very difficult to build at the beginning. Many early entrants thought that Bile could not succeed, but in the end it slowly reached the top of the pyramid and became the top store in 2021. It ranked first among many items in Tmall’s Double Eleven dog food pre-sale list.

Many people will ask Huang Li, why can Bile play even though everyone has the same rules and gameplay? The answer is to persist. Others use TP to operate, and Bile's own team will do it themselves. Just keep trying and try out the method that suits you.

“In every dimension and detail, do something different in a down-to-earth manner. As long as you have the right direction and do it deeper and more professionally than others, you will always have flowers.” The new benchmark for domestic pet brands set by Bile also allows us to see the new future of domestic brands in terms of high-end, technology and intelligence.

Short-term traffic strategies may create some ten-fold or hundred-fold growth myths, but the market rewards long-termists, and the long-term development of the brand will still return to your fundamentals and cognitive level.

Branding is ultimately a long-distance race. You don’t have to pursue winning every 100 meters, because the only real opponent in this race is yourself.