To ride on the trend of New Normal and grow beyond Pandemic
In 2020 Taiwan avoided the worst of the impact of COVID-19 compared to the rest of Asia. The latest FMCG Brand Footprint ranking shows that many winning brands thrived in this unique year. Brands won through agile adaptation and disruption, catering to growing demand for convenience and by accelerating innovation to win new consumers.
In an era driven by data, Kantar is uniquely placed to connect the dots through the consumer journey and link everything back to real purchases to uncover your next growth opportunity.
Taiwan
Spotlight on Taiwan:
Safe & Healthy, Convenience, Local Power and Retailer Rises are the key themes for 2020 in Taiwan.
#LocalGiants Seven out the top 10 in the Brand Footprint ranking are local brands, successfully reaching more homes than their international rivals, especially within Dairy and Beverage. While 1% penetration represents 87,300 households, the top brand, I-Mei, won over 7.8M TW households in 2020. In retaining its No. 1 spot, I-Mei also managed to grow +8% in CRP year on year.
#ConvenienceWins Covid-19 brought uncertainty to our lives and this year’s ranking puts frozen food brand Laurel at No. 9 with +7% CRP growth, thanks to the trend for convenience. Laurel not only expanded its frozen food portfolio with many innovative offerings, but also gained from the desire for healthy and safe food trend reflected in its communications.
Spotlight on Taiwan：
#RetailerRises Retailers drove growth in consumer purchases via a digital approach – apps, payments and CRM to link the consumer journey. The top three fastest-growing brands were retailers. This demonstrates that private label is are now able to meet consumers expectation and get the balance between quality and price right. In 2020 they were able to recruit and drive repeat purchases.
#InnovationTrials The most successful Food and Beverage brands are those with a strong innovation pipeline. Coke is particularly good in this area with initiatives such as the city bottle campaign, Yuan Cui has a strong NPD pipeline every year, and salty snacks brand Cadina, launched worldwide flavour and premium products to catch impulsive purchasers.
Coca-Cola Coca-Cola launched new campaign in 2020 focusing on Taiwan’s cities using local languages to build strong engagement with consumers. CRP was up 14% year on year.
I MEI As the No. 1 for Brand Footprint in Taiwan, I MEI delivered a rise in CRP of 13% year on year in Dairy categories, including Plant-based Dairy and Fresh Milk.
Laurel As the leading frozen food manufacturer in Taiwan, Laurel helped consumers cook happily and easily especially during COVID-19. The brand saw impressive growth with CRP+7% year on year.
Sofy Thanks to aggressive marketing communication in the Femcare category, Sofy attracted news shoppers. CRP was up 3% thanks to innovation in pads, liners and tampons.
Andante Andante has a portfolio of tissue paper, kitchen paper and wipe products at a reasonable price. Also newly launched innovation product – kitchen towel in interfold type wins attention. Overall, the brand boosted CRP by 22% in 2020.
Fast Growing Retailer Brand within Consumer Choices
FamilyMart is the second largest CVS Retailer with more than 3800 stores in Taiwan and was top for CRP growth in 2020.
The company has done a lot of innovative work in recent years offering a membership system, online stock shopping with offline pick-up in order to challenge 7-11.
Its private label covers most food and non-food categories and has driven penetration up from 21.1% in 2019 to 27.2% in 2020, boosting CRP by 57%.
In addition, FamilyMart has applied CLEAN LABEL, which uses less additives to its private label since 2018. This fits with the health trend which is becoming more and more prominent in Taiwan.
Fast Growing Beverage Brand in Consumer Choices
Yuancui (Real Leaf) is a RTD tea brand launched by Coca-Cola in Taiwan in 2013. It started as the first “no-food additive and flavouring substances” tea brand to build a healthy image in the food and beverage market, including the sugar-free tea segment. Yuancui reached more than 32% households in 2020 with 11% CRP growth thanks to its product line extension.
Starting from green tea with Japanese high-quality image, Yuancui now has nearly 10 flavours, creating a fruitful product portfolio that can satisfy shoppers’ diverse preferences.
Yuancui launched a new series “Cold Brew” in 2020, which positions the brand as premium and features a smaller pack size. Cold Brew successfully reaches a different shopper profile to existing products but retains Yuancui’s core “real taste” strengths. It is endorsed by Abe Hiroshi, a famous Japanese actor, creating a strong leading player in the sector with a healthy and tasty image.
Now
What makes FamilyMart & FamilyMart Collection a unique/successful brand for consumers? Based on our business philosophy of putting our customers’ satisfaction first, we believe we can grow with our customers in mind. FamilyMart originated in Japan and has successfully developed deep roots in Taiwan.
Since the first store was established in Taiwan in 1988, we have infused the spirit of “dare to change” into our corporate culture to face the fierce competition in Taiwan’s retail market. We innovate with a focus on improving our management, services, products and the application of new technology. Over the past 30 years, we have been dedicated to differentiating ourselves from our competitors as a revolutionary leader in the retail industry.
Looking forward, FamilyMart will utilise technologies and data to address consumer needs quickly. In addition to providing physical experiences, we will create an online platform for customers to use anytime, anywhere. Without a doubt, FamilyMart will play a significant role in people’s lives and become a leader in the technology-led retail industry.
What was your biggest success in consumer communications in 2020 and why? At 2:00 PM on April 16, 2020, Taiwan’s Central Epidemic Command Center announced for the second time that there had been zero COVID-19 cases reported in a single day. At 4:00 PM on April 16, FamilyMart immediately readied our app to push a “Buy One Large Coffee, Get the Second for Free” members-only promotional deal in celebration. Members could purchase their coffee in bulk and pick them up at any store. The event sparked a rush to buy, selling 800,000 cups in just eight hours. Not only was this a successful use of current events to stir up internet publicity, it also drew in the highest number of new members in FamilyMart’s history. This entire campaign was only possible due to the digital infrastructure that we started to lay down in 2016, which enabled us to quickly communicate with consumers through our app.
Challenge
What consumer behaviour changes surprised you before or after COVID-19? Thanks to the COVID-19 epidemic, low-touch shopping has become the new post-pandemic normal. As a result, physical stores have been rapidly digitalizing their sales platforms, moving them online, and the growth of e-commerce sales has defied expectations, increasing by 16.1%. Online shopping is slowly becoming common place and consumers are now accustomed to a new consumption model that alternates between online and offline transactions. For convenience stores, that means it is necessary to break free of the mindset of physical stores and to focus on consumers by connecting online and offline commerce to create an Online-Merge-Offline (OMO) experience.
What did you do differently during or after the COVID-19 pandemic to reach your consumers? Convenience stores are the retail outlets closest to consumers and COVID-19 has not negatively affected the number of walk-in customers. But, after the pandemic, LINE groups for regular customers run by store managers have become a new sales weapon. There are more than 3,000 FamilyMart store managers running LINE groups for their stores. Managers can handpick products tailored to their store customer preferences and organize group buying deals, which can be paid for online through My FamiPay. Managers can also directly allocate member points and receipts. Frozen desserts and snacks are the most popular in business districts, whereas frozen home-cooked dishes or semi-cooked products are favored in residential areas. When officials called for the public to buy Taiwanese pineapples in March 2021, we ended up selling more than 5,000 boxes of pineapples in just one day through our store manager-run LINE groups.
Future
How did you see the potential for eCommerce development in your industry? Due to the sheer number of stores and our proximity to customers, convenience stores have acted as the final stop for online shoppers to pick up their purchases. The store-to-store logistics model, made possible by Taiwan’s dense logistics network, has also been used by various online shopping platforms and small business sellers, allowing buyers to collect their goods at a nearby location, anytime. In addition to this, convenience stores have also begun to establish their own online shopping platforms in recent years to provide one-stop logistics, cash flow and information flow services for small sellers. These developments have energized and expanded the overall market for community eCommerce.
Where/ which area you see opportunity or innovation for your brand, category? In response to the long-term trends of population ageing and the shrinking family structure, as well as stay-at-home orders due to last year’s epidemic, consumer demand for frozen food has grown rapidly. FamilyMart’s overall frozen food sales increased by 30% in the last year. In 2021 Q2, we launched an eCommerce platform dedicated to frozen products and began offering frozen food in-store shipping and pick-up services. At the same time, we will continue to seek out co-operative opportunities with large-scale e-commerce platforms to satisfy the cold-chain logistics demands of consumers and small frozen goods sellers.
Fast Growing Beverage Brand within Consumer Choices
What makes Coca-Cola a unique/successful brand among consumers and what was your biggest communications success in 2020 and why?
The most beautiful way that Coca-Cola embraces and unites people in Taiwan
Coca-Cola is the leader of the sparkling drinks category in Taiwan, leading the expansion of market with consecutive growth for years. Coca-Cola Taiwan has been keeping its ambition to recruit consumers broadly and increase brand love. In 2020 summer, once again, the company launched an impressive culturally resonating campaign – City Pack and Taiwan Pack to uplift Taiwan people with wonderful results. Despite the fact that Taiwan has been divided by different points of view, Coca-Cola believes its role is to uplift and unite what divides local people in a beautiful way. These efforts start with a well-known saying: “The most beautiful scenery in Taiwan is its people.” The campaign saw Coca-Cola embrace the differences of Taiwanese via the diverse beauties of 10 different cities and united them all through the beauty of the “human warmth” its people all share.
“Different Cities, Different Beauty. Cities are Beautiful Because of You.”
A city is not just a collection of landmarks, food, or arts; instead, it is made up of the people living there. People are the ingredient that makes culture happens. Every city has a unique flavour of its own, created by the diverse people living there. The City Pack Series includes a total of 10 cities, captured and personified.
Trendy Taipei, Diverse Taoyuan, Diligent Hsinchu, Generous Taichung, Genuine Chiayi, Foodie Tainan, Passionate Kaohsiung, Lively Yilan, Dainty Hualien, and Optimistic Taitung. Every pack design has hidden elements for consumers to explore.
A dynamic brand needs to involve different voices and engage with people to make this approach a cultural success. For this campaign, initiatives included a rap song to highlight local insights and we co-created a new map full of local insights. Both attracted positive feedbacks from consumers.
“Taste the Shared Beauty of the Human Warmth. Taiwan is Beautiful Because of You.”
Living on the same island, people share the same traits. “Human warmth” is the essential beauty of the people living on the island and its most beautiful scenery. An anthem film describing the most beautiful scenery received enthusiastic responses and went viral in two weeks with a reach of five million. One of the organic posts inviting consumers to share their “human warmth” stories also went viral with 1,500 comments in a week with no incentive.
We achieved an extraordinary result, =with double digits market value growth up to June 2020. Coke still leads the category for Brand Love, while frequency and recruitment both increased to reflect the good health of the brand.
