What are Shanghai time-honored brands thinking?, There are fewer "wonderful flowers", and Zongzi tastes more and more white rice dumplings | Zongzi | Shanghai
The Dragon Boat Festival is coming, and Zongzi is in the sales season of the year. Although they have strong seasonal characteristics, their national culinary status has not been affected. Under the wave of "domestic economy", they are increasingly attracting the attention and love of the younger generation.
In this trend, various businesses are placing bets and increasing their own research and innovation efforts, hoping to create explosive products to help brands break through boundaries. Some insiders have noticed that at the moment when the taste of Zongzi is becoming more and more popular, the number of "wonderful flowers" has decreased. What are developers thinking?
Zongzi tastes new continuously
In Shao Wansheng's store on Nanjing East Road, the staff behind the Zongzi counter is busy packing the guests. As a Chinese time-honored brand with a hundred years of Zai Zui technology, this year's stores launched a total of ten Zongzi products, including alkaline water zongzi, white rice zongzi and Meigan cai zongzi.
"We came from Cai's side in the north of Pudong. I heard that the Zaoxiang Zongzi here is good, so I bought some for my relatives and friends to taste." Aunt Cai picked up several packages of Zaoxiang big meat dumplings in front of the counter.
By combining the century old technique of drunkenness with traditional food, Shao Wansheng has become a familiar figure. Zhai Drunken Lobster, Zhai Drunken Moon Cake, etc. have been successively launched to the market and won good reputation. In 2020, they will focus on Zongzi. Based on the core technology, they will develop a unique flavor of Zhai flavor meat dumplings.
"This Zongzi is made of Taizhou Xinghua glutinous rice, which has a high glutinous property, while the pork with streaky pork is preferred to retain its skin. After they are cooked, they are fully soaked in the bittern, which has sufficient moisture to avoid the shortcoming that meat zongzi is easy to be 'sandwiched', and tastes delicious but not greasy," said Shen Chao, manager of Shao Wansheng's e-commerce department.
This year, the R&D personnel focused on replicating the taste in the memory of Shanghainese, developed alkaline water and white rice Zongzi, and specially prepared soybean powder for white rice Zongzi as a dip. The familiar taste shows a "cordial" flavor.
Zongzi, Meigan cai, is also a hot sale this year. "The secret of the delicacy is that this Zongzi is willing to put materials, 20% of Meigan cai and rice are mixed together, and the taste is very good." Shen Chao introduced that this Zongzi is steamed to avoid the possible appearance of light outside and salty inside when cooked, as well as the situation of mixed rice grains. Zongzi does not even need to be heated, and cold food is glutinous. He told reporters, "If the sales of the tail are included, we can sell about 1 million Zongzi during the whole Dragon Boat Festival."
Online, Zongzi sales have also been popular. According to the takeout data from Meituan, in Shanghai, the sales volume of Zongzi takeout in the recent week increased by 60% on a weekly basis. Many users will buy Zongzi when they choose to buy takeout. From the perspective of sales ranking, Pudong New Area ranks first in sales, with more than 30% of Zongzi sent to office buildings, parks and other areas.
Meituan Optimization data shows that since June, the sales of Zongzi in Shanghai have increased by 90% over the previous month and 110% over the same period last year; The most popular flavors are egg yolk meat zongzi, chestnut meat zongzi, and fresh meat zongzi. In addition, Shanghai residents prefer Jiaxing style meat zongzi products, which rank high in sales volume. In addition to Zongzi with various fillings, this year's vegetarian zongzi and white rice zongzi are also popular with consumers around the country, and their sales have increased by more than 700% compared with last year on the eve of the Dragon Boat Festival.
In order to cater to young people's preferences, the e-commerce platform also launched a variety of innovative flavors of Zongzi. On the "Zongzi List" released by Dingdong Buying Vegetables, there are 15 kinds of Zongzi with various brands and flavors. Its own brand, "Cai Changqing", not only launched the traditional rice dumplings, big meat dumplings and salty egg yolk meat dumplings, but also wrapped ribs into Zongzi and launched a 7cm long hand grasping fresh ribs dumplings.
"We also have some innovations in raw materials, such as the integration of Jiangnan featured black rice and lily, and the launch of black rice and lily bean paste dumplings and black rice and lily egg yolk meat dumplings. There is also the Durian ice dumplings integrated with Sultan Durian, which are popular with young users because of their small size and cool taste." Teng Yue, the head of the commodity development of Dingdong Zongzi, told reporters that since June, the sales of Dingdong Zongzi, a food shopping site, have increased rapidly, about 2-3 times more than last month. As of June 20, the sales of Dingdong Zongzi, a vegetable shopping category, had reached 850000. It is expected that the Dragon Boat Festival will usher in a peak consumption of Zongzi, and the overall sales of Zongzi this year will exceed one million.
Returning to the origin is a major trend
In the research and development kitchen of Dingdong Maicai, the aroma is permeated and the heat rises. The chefs from the food research and development team are busy on-site. Also in this kitchen, Teng Yue and his team members made hundreds of Zongzi, including not only ribs zongzi and black rice zongzi, but also the eliminated coriander zongzi and Stinky tofu zongzi.
"When tasting, only more than 90% of the members feel delicious, the Zongzi we developed will enter the production process." In Teng Yue's view, Zongzi tastes more and more voluminous now, and the "wonderful" Zongzi with various strange tastes is less and less.
Businessmen "roll" healthy, delicious, consumers are willing to pay, return to the source, improve the quality of Zongzi is the major trend of the market. "For example, the black rice dumplings we made have a fresh flavor than the common glutinous rice dumplings, and taste softer and glutinous than glutinous rice. And the ribs dumplings, which were newly launched this year, because the meat of ribs is more fragrant than bacon, we also try to integrate the flavor of ribs into Zongzi. After tasting, it is really more delicious."
General Manager Shao Wansheng, Wang Weijie, also has a similar experience. "The rejuvenation of time-honored brands is not just a combination with other brands, but also a true chemical reaction with the products, forming a representative of Shanghai cuisine that embodies the characteristics of inclusiveness and diversity." In his view, making things that people think are impossible possible is not just selling gimmicks, but also considering the marginal effects of consumers trying new things, inheriting the most valuable genes of the enterprise, and injecting endogenous power into the brand.
Shao Wansheng and Jinjiu Coffee collaborated to launch the 1.0 version of Zaixiang Coffee, which simply sprays premium mash onto specialty coffee. Later, version 2.0 was developed, which deeply immerses Yunnan small coffee beans in the mash, allowing the coffee to emit its own aroma of mash. Not only that, they also launched small packaging of fermented grains flavored ear hanging coffee, allowing consumers to taste its unique flavor at home.
Research and development is one of the links in innovation. The vitality of the product is determined by the control of raw materials, as well as the promotion of "even the aroma of wine should be frequently shouted".
Shao Wansheng belongs to the Huangpu District Supply and Marketing Cooperative System. In recent years, he has promoted the integration of production, supply and marketing, shifting from external procurement to cultivating his own production base and controlling the quality of products at the source. On the sales side, it builds a channel matrix that combines online and offline channels. Enterprise stores have been opened on major e-commerce platforms, and flagship products have entered emerging channels such as Hema and Dingdong. Live streaming rooms have also been opened to promote products. In addition, the community group buying model is fully continued, leveraging the trust bridge of community group leaders to narrow the distance with consumers. This channel alone has an annual sales revenue of about 10 million yuan.
Actively adhering to integrity and innovation has won market popularity for time-honored brands. Last year, Shao Wansheng's sales reached 230 million yuan, and this year it is expected to reach another level, reaching 300 million yuan. "This month we just launched Zaoxiang small pot stickers, which attracted many diners to taste. A cherry cake is also under development and is expected to meet you next year." At present, Wang Weijie and his team members are working hard to make the time-honored brand known and loved by the new generation.
