Prospect

News

2016 CHINA FOOD & BEVERAGE

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TREND AND
CONSUMER INSIGHT

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By Ipsos

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On April 8th, Mr. Alick Zhou, CEO of Ipsos

China attended the food innovation summit
themed 2016 global food & beverage
innovation tasting in Shanghai. From 10
aspects: food safety, health, green /organic,
packaging information, globalization,
innovation, new channels and energy
supplement, snacks, personalization, he
explains the emerging trends of Chinas food
& beverage consumption and consumer
insight.

Prospect

In 2011, China surpassed the United States to become the worlds largest food market.

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As China keeps taping into its potentials in consumers demand, and peoples consuming idea keeps changing,
Chinese consumers have become the VIP of almost the whole worlds food manufacturers.

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Therefore, when it comes to eat, drink, cooking and food shopping, no matter on which side of the equation we
are standing, nothing is the same as that of decades ago. This time we conducted an online research upon 900
consumers.

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Through data collection and analysis, we found several major trends among Chinese consumers on food &
beverage: safety, health, green and organic, personalization, tradition and innovation.
These trends are shown in dierent aspects of peoples life.

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This is not so much the status quo of Chinas consumption upgrading, as the vast majority of these trends is to
make us better in diet.

Food Safety

Over the past few years, all kinds of food safety

scandals are testing the endurance of consumers.

All these scandals are making consumer fears so

86

much about food safety.

According to the survey, food safety has become

the most important factor when consumers are

>>

choosing and buying food. 86% of the consumers

Consumers would consider

food safety when they are

purchasing food

when choosing and buying food would consider

the factor of food safety. 52% of the consumers said

food safety is the primary factor when they choose
and buy food. Food safety scandals have seriously
frustrated consumers confidence in the brand

52 >>
%

reputation. Whenever a branded food scandal

happens, 81% of the consumers said their trust in

the brand declined. And 59% of the consumers even

said their trust in the whole category of the food

Consumers see food safety

as their FIRST priority when

they are purchasing food

declined.

In addition, nearly ninety percent (88%) consumers

in first and second-tier cities hold an antagonistic
attitude towards food additives, with nearly a

quarter said they can accept higher price but not

food additives.

Food Health

Food, getting into humans body system, is vitally related to peoples health.

With the improvement of peoples living quality, health has become an inevitable need.

The survey found, next only to food safety, consumers have further increased their attention to food health. 82% of the
consumers in the first and second-tier cities when choosing and buying food would prefer healthy food.

At the same time, 53% of the consumers said they are very sensitive to their body weight. 47% of the consumers said
when they eat, they would pay special attention to food calorie.

Therefore, more and more food companies launched healthy food product with no artificial additives, organic
material, low calorie and diet function, to meet the demand of dierent consumer groups.

02

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Green/Organic Food

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In the survey, more than ninety percent of the consumers in the first and second-tier cities said they would

buy green/organic food at ordinary times. 32% of them will buy green/organic food in a more frequent way.

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Families with higher income/ children show a significantly higher purchase frequency than those with lower

income/without children. And they are more willing to pay higher prices to buy green/organic food. What we
say green/organic food, we are not talking about those green/natural labels on food in markets. In fact there
is a variety of worrying problems about counterfeit products with green/natural labels, which is the main
reason why 73% of the consumers said they would not buy green/organic food at ordinary times.

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The Packing Information

green/organic

Theres no doubt that more and more consumersattitude towards what will get into our body system has

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changed.

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Paying special attention to food packaging information has become a habit of quite a number of consumers.
Production date/shelf life (88%) is the main focus of food packaging information for consumers in the first
and second-tier cities, followed by ingredients/nutritional information (67%) and green/organic product

88

ID (47%). In addition, during the journey of the food packaging innovation, food manufactures have been

exploring the use of consumer habits: from tetra pack tin, tetra pack pillow, tetra pack cup, to holding bottle
shape, convenient bags, mini pack, healthy eco pack, all these have become the innovative directions what
food manufactures are actively exploring and where their continuous eorts go to.

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ingredients/
nutritional

information

Production date/
shelf life

Globalization

Globalization helps breaking the barriers between countries, enable a lot of global food entering the global market.

And therefore the traditional diet and taste is being challenged. The vast majority of Chinese consumers (81%) think food globalization is something
good instead of bad to happen. More than eighty percent (81%) of the consumers in the first and second-tier cities often/sometimes buy imported
food products. Families with higher income show a significantly higher purchase frequency than those with lower income.

Dairy products (49%) is the most bought imported food category by consumers, followed by childrens food (40%), nuts (36%), alcohol (27%)

and beverages (24%) and candy/pastry (19%). The frequency to buy imported dairy products (51%) and childrens food (49%) by consumers with
children is significantly higher than those with no children.

49

Dairy products

40

Childrens food

36

27

Nuts

Alcohol

03

24

Beverages

19

Candy/pastry

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Energy Supplement

The popularity of running and fitness lifestyle stimulates the demand of

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functional drinks.

34

51

34% of the consumers in the first and

And 51% of them said almost every

running lifestyle at ordinary times.

drink sports functional beverage.

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second-tier cities said they are having a

time when they run, they would

Innovation

Demand is the mother of innovation. In fact,

Sinian_Flower series Rice Dumplings

for food and beverage.

and taste preferences demand, Synear group launched the petal Tangyuan series for young female

most innovations are made because of our love

Compared with many other countries of the

world, Chinese consumers are more willing to try

new style food.

For example, after an in-depth insight research into segmented market consumers psychology

consumers aged 25 to 35 who enjoys dessert and with the spirit of trying new stu. Thus Synear who
is specialized in traditional taste food has kept up with the trend of product innovation and created
something new and awesome for the subdivided market.

Over half (53%) of the Chinese consumers think

McDonalds_I create my taste

first to try new food. A growing number of brand

bringing a personalized, closer to human nature and digitalized future-style dining experience to its

among all his/her friends, he/she is usually the

manufacturers have been trying so hard about

the transformation, breakthrough and innovation

McDonalds launched a campaign titled I create my taste, which is not only bold but also innovative,
consumers.

of their products.

The New Channel

Online shopping is no longer something new to consumers. More and more consumers have switched to the online food shopping mode.
According to the Chinese EC Fresh Market Research Report, the GMV of Chinese EC fresh market has reached RMB 28.98 billion Yuan in

2014, increasing by 122.6% from a year earlier. The GMV number is expected to exceed RMB 140 billion Yuan in 2017. Research shows that
nearly eighty percent of the consumers in first and second-tier cities choose to buy food/beverage products online. At the same time, EC

channels are further bolstering local food market. The popularity of EC and Wechat business in rural area has set up a new path between
rural and urban consumers.

Alibaba 2016 Spring Festival Shopping Event covers special local products categories of 359 cities from 31 provinces and regions across the
country, among which, food product accounts for most of the share.

28.98

billion
RMB

China Fresh E-commerce Market

Size in 2017 (predicted)

122.6

Growth compared to
last year

04

140

billion
RMB

China Fresh E-commerce

Market Size in 2014

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Snacks

Snack has become a new developing trend of food industry, as snacking has become a way of lifestyle for people.
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New concept that spreads across the traditional categories of food makes it more convenient and quick for people to eat.

Constantly-created new niche and category, single-package for travel use, and snack food is no longer confined to any time period.
Gradually it has become a popular afternoon snack and meal replacement.

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Personalization

More than ever, consumers are hoping to express themselves by food they are taking.
80% of the Chinese consumers prefer personalized food brands while 72% of the consumers are willing to pay more for attractive food brand image.

Coca Cola

Oreo

in Israel launched to the local market two million

3D-printing function helps its customers to create

shout out to the world that they take personalized

their own preferences.

bottles of diet coke with dierent packaging, to

food culture very seriously. Coca Cola did this by

personalized color and special avor according

combining dierent colors and shapes, and let

Chocomize

Consumers can choose from a variety of

ingredients, and decide the type and shape

of chocolate on their own. We can say that,

personalization or customization is not only a

beautiful appearance that protects the product

the computer automatically generate millions of

from the loss of customers; it is much more

identical bottle labels, hoping to deliver the concept

important in terms of marketing for lots of

that everyone who chooses diet coke is unique.

enterprises, to impress potential consumers,

make them fall in love with the brand.

We can say that, personalization or customization is not only a beautiful appearance

that protects the product from the loss of customers; it is much more important in
terms of marketing for lots of enterprises, to impress potential consumers, make
them fall in love with the brand.
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