“现在客人拿雪糕过来结账，我们会提前告诉客人这个雪糕比较贵。”
上海浦东新区一家罗森的店员，最近多了这个小习惯，她看见客户手里拿着单价10元以上的雪糕，都会善意地提醒客户，避免消费者遇上“雪糕刺客”风险。雪糕刺客——这个今年夏天流行起来的词，指的是看似平淡无奇、结账时却因价格过高让消费者在心理上有被“刺”感的一类雪糕。它大多出现在这样的场景：消费者随机走进一家便利店、随手拿了一支雪糕，结账时才发现价格高达十几二十元，甚至更贵。一些面子薄的消费者也不好意思再将它放回原处，只能忍痛购买。
随着气温抬升，这个词热度也不断高涨。小红书上已经有超过一万篇笔记，官方还专门创建了“雪糕刺客”同名话题，鼓励用户晒出自己遇上的“雪糕刺客”。
根据小红书用户的统计，马迭尔夹心雪糕、德式故宫文创系列、伊利须尽欢系列、东北大板与每日黑巧的联名冰淇淋，价格均逼近20元一支，此外还有大量15-20元价格区间的产品。
小红书用户整理出的代表性“雪糕刺客”。
上述罗森店员真实地遇到过“被刺”的客户，面对客户的惊讶和退款申请，她和同事都会协助操作，“多一分理解嘛。”
平淡无奇却有着超出认知的价格，“雪糕刺客”引发了品牌营销是否过度、产品品质是否对得起价格等诸多讨论。钟薛高作为第一个把超过15元的雪糕普及开来的品牌，也在一定程度上成为了“众矢之的”。
但定价本质上是一个市场行为，一件商品的价格，是由生产商及渠道商综合成本、利润并平衡供需关系后的决策。如果以这样的底层逻辑来复盘“雪糕刺客”的出现，它背后的商业考虑更加值得关注：为什么“雪糕刺客”出现的地方多是便利店而非家门口的小超市？为什么市场上高价的雪糕越来越多？未来还会有更多的“雪糕刺客”吗？
我们对“雪糕刺客”的溯源，就从便利店和雪糕这两个因子来展开。
便利店雪糕的价格都标哪儿了？
在关于“雪糕刺客”的讨论中，缺少显眼的价格标示是其“槽点”之一。便利店雪糕的价格标在哪里了？
答案是冰柜的玻璃上。便利店的冰柜通常有向两侧拉开的门，门的接缝处或者两侧，就是贴着价格的地方。罗森与全家的雪糕价签，都印着雪糕的图片与价格，相关促销活动也会贴在冰柜或门上方。
罗森便利店冰柜上的雪糕价签。|拍摄：施歌
全家便利店冰柜上的价签。| 拍摄：施歌
一位全家店员表示，一旦有雪糕新品面世，他们都会在冰柜上增加新的价签，凡是销售的都能找到。如果雪糕不再销售，价签也会随之撤下。
但确实，比起冰柜里的饮料——它们的价签就放在对应商品前，雪糕的价格实在有些不显眼，需要弯腰、低头，在密集的价签里寻找到自己想要的那一个。有些便利店价签的底色做成了透明的，又增加了识别的难度。而一个大汗淋漓、想要通过吃一支雪糕来降温的消费者，很有可能是没有那么多耐心仔细辨别的。
至于为什么雪糕的价格要贴在这里、以这样的方式呈现，几家便利店都没有给出官方回答。随机访问的便利店店员给出了一个信息：冰柜的网格通常只有18个，混装着超过30种雪糕，有时候多种雪糕会装在一个网格里，而且因为消费者拿取行为的随机性，不能保证它们始终在同一个位置，这就很难用贴在网格上的价签一一对应。
便利店里的冰柜里，不同雪糕经常混在一个网格里时常出现。
冷饮则向来有着整齐的“排面”，价格标示清楚也是自然。近两年单价10元以上的饮料也多了起来，不过消费者挑选时很容易根据价签做出价格过滤的决策。而这一过程在购买雪糕上被延迟到了结账时。
其实，除了以销售盒装、家庭装雪糕为主的大型超市会将雪糕价格贴在对应商品旁边，大多数超市——普通连锁、家门口的小超市、士多、“烟纸店”里的雪糕价格，都要询问老板才能知道。还记得小时候小卖部的雪糕怎么标价吗？有些老板会将雪糕外包装保留下来并贴在墙上，上面用水彩笔写上价格，有小布丁、绿色心情、纯脆、伊利苦咖啡……
一些小卖部会将雪糕包装保留并贴出价格 | 图片来源：小红书用户 Elaine
在“雪糕刺客”这一话题在网络热议后，有媒体发文称，近期市场监管总局将对“雪糕刺客”出手、“雪糕刺客”被拿下等，则实属有些“标题党”了。报道中提到的《明码标价和禁止价格欺诈规定》实际上发布于2022年4月、自7月1日起生效，并不仅仅针对雪糕品类。文件指出“明码标价应当根据商品和服务、行业、区域等特点，做到真实准确、货签对位、标识醒目”适用于全部商品。而究竟怎么样才算“标示清楚”，可能还有很多可以“进一步规范”的空间。
便利店为什么爱卖“贵”的雪糕？
这和便利店的定位有关系。便利店的主要客群为二三十岁的年轻消费者，他们对猎奇情有独钟，便利店推新、推抓眼球的新品，向来是一条营销之路。
夏天，冷饮和冰淇淋毫无疑问是便利店的主流商品，也是提升销售最为关键的品类。在回顾“雪糕刺客”的前世今生时，2018年售价9元的“椰子灰”的走红也是一件绕不过的事，它甚至带动了肯德基与麦当劳相继推出了类似的冰淇淋产品。依靠小红书等社交平台，“椰子灰”在当时收获了足够的热度，也为销售它们的便利店带来了客流。
虽然这个初代雪糕“网红”只火了一个夏天，但它给这个市场留下了一个可以复刻的路径：面对雪糕这个愉悦型消费品，消费者似乎是愿意多花一点钱体验一个具备话题性、拥有一些新体验的产品的。而这一度是符合消费品进化的大环境的。新消费品牌近两年以高速迭代和强话题性在年轻客群中培养了一种似乎可以略微不计成本的打卡式消费的习惯。颜值、口感、形式，一款产品可能以其中一个点引爆网络，从而带动销量。在此氛围下，便利店也开始更青睐高频上新，尽可能网罗潜在的“引爆点”商品。
为了在冰柜给新品留出更多空间，罗森便利店告诉《第一财经》YiMagazine，其去年就已经取消了进场费的传统模式，采用新品6周考核制模式，6周的消化率达不到60%的话，那该商品就会面临淘汰，这样也可以给一些优秀的小众品牌在罗森平台竞争和尝试的机会。
但事情的另一面是，大量上新导致了消费者在面对这些一无所知的新品牌时，大多也没什么价格概念。消费心理学中有一个名为“价格锚点”的概念，它是消费者用来对比商品价格的标杆。以雪糕为例，伊利、蒙牛的常规产品通常在3-4元、“可爱多”价格在5元左右，对雪糕价格心理预期的上限可能就是单支10元左右的梦龙。钟薛高走红后，价格上限被推高至15元，但在大多数消费者心中，这可能也只是钟薛高的“个例”。
对于便利店品相不错的新品，消费者对它的价格预期可能会再抬高一点，但至于可接受的价格上限，就因人和产品而异了。所以，当面对一个从未见过的新品牌却有着超出“价格锚点”的售价时，原本只想随便拿一根稍微好看点的雪糕消暑解渴的消费者就容易感到“被刺”。
别忘了，梦龙为了塑造品牌形象，投入了大量的宣传资源，用来告诉消费者自己是一个让成年人“开启愉悦瞬间”的产品。即使如此，依然后很多消费者觉得它的价格略高。而今天便利店里的不少雪糕刺客，几乎是“招呼都不打”就理直气壮地走上了十几、二十元甚至更高的价位。“哈根达斯的消费场景和人群认知是餐饮，但刺客是在便利店里，‘人群心智’是东北大板。“在网络上关于“雪糕刺客”的讨论中，一则回复如是说。
当然，消费者心智和市场判断有时存在错位。有时，一些品牌的成功尝试会被当成新趋势而被追捧。具体到雪糕这个门类中，一些品牌带起的高客单价潮确实也影响了整个市场的走向。最显著的就是，冰柜显眼位置中，那些5元左右的人们耳熟能详的传统雪糕大牌子，例如伊利、蒙牛、光明、和路雪的空间被挤掉了一部分。
水果棒冰品牌“鲜果鲜语”的创始人鲁发明记得，2019年他和团队带着15元左右的水果冰棍与便利店谈判的时候，“比想象中要轻松。”
“正好赶上了便利店也要变一变的时间点，冰柜里肯定会保留几个巨头的常规品牌，但也腾出1/3的位置给创新的产品。”鲁发明说。
“鲜果鲜语”和传统水果雪糕的区别是，将整片或整块水果放进了棒冰中，并以透明盒子包装。因为水果颜色鲜艳，这些雪糕在冰柜中更容易被消费者注意到。“颜值就是正义，而且年轻人消费的时候，也是借它来社交。很多人会把去便利店购买某个商品作为一种打卡行为。”鲁发明如此分析“鲜果鲜语的产品逻辑。
“鲜果鲜语”水果棒冰。| 图片来源：品牌官方公众号
鲁发明这两年再去接触便利店、精品超市时，感觉到他们的态度更加开放了，甚至会说“如果可以做出更多热度，我们能提供更多展示位置”。品牌与便利店的互动也不再停留在过往单纯的采购关系上。
最早，“鲜果鲜语”只是一个小手作店，单支冰棍价格10元左右。当时还在成都兼职卖冰棍的鲁发明已经感觉到了市场对水果冰棍的欢迎，哪怕价格高了些，也有很多人排队买。在通过品牌营销的主业获取到水果供应链资源后，他投入了雪糕创业这件事。
虽贵却好卖——“雪糕刺客”其实有着自己的市场。不论是出于求新还是复购，在夏天这个窗口期，在同一时间为“雪糕刺客”释放的消费者共同把供需曲线又往更高价格的交点处抬动了。
雪糕的价格为什么越卖越贵？
不过，新品一定要贵吗？从成本端来看，在当前的产品创新中，这的确难以避免。
以“鲜果鲜语”为例，为了高颜值，就不得不投入较高的原料成本。鲁发明说，要把水果完整地放入雪糕中的“鲜果鲜语”，就需要挑选“熟得恰到好处”的水果作为原料，为此冷链车会直接开入水果基地，采摘并运输到上游工厂加工。每个环节都比传统雪糕有着更高的成本开支。目前，“鲜果鲜语”的草莓棒冰定价为15元一支，其他产品都在12至14元的价格区间内。
如果单独销售水果，果农往往在水果五分熟时摘下，这样经过运输及储存的水果上市时能拥有最饱满的果肉和鲜艳的颜色。鲁发明介绍，五分熟的水果不适合用在冰棍里，香气和甜度还没有达到最佳，他们曾经以此制成的冰棍尝不出来明显的水果味。
老品牌“东北大板”今年则与每日黑巧联名，推出了单价19.9元的“双棍”雪糕——一半为东北大板经典的牛奶，另一半则为黑巧克力混合开心果。同样采用黑巧克力为原料的德芙黑巧脆皮榛子牛奶冰淇淋也定价17.9元。
一位雪糕行业从业者分析，黑巧克力价格会比普通牛奶巧克力要稍高一点儿，品牌在联名时，还需要兼顾联名品牌的定价范围。“联名也要参考原先的客群、价格带，做出合理的定价。”该从业者说。这次与东北大板联名的每日黑巧，一盒60g的价格在29.9元左右，德芙252g的碗装黑巧只要39.9元。
东北大板与每日黑巧联名的“黑巧厚乳撞味冰淇淋”。| 图片来源：品牌官网
另一个在“雪糕刺客”的讨论中鲜少被提及的是异形冰淇淋生产的难度。钟薛高的瓦片形、文创雪糕的故宫造型和樱花、鱼尾造型等，都属于异形的范畴，它们生产难度更大，传统产线很难批量化生产，生产效率也相对更低。简而言之，产量有限，没法通过扩大规模摊平成本，价格也不得不维持在相对更高的水平。
“雪糕刺客”会越来越多吗？
此次“雪糕刺客”发酵，背后也隐藏着一种消费者的情绪：价格上涨，而且涨得太夸张了。
作为雪糕行业创业者，鲁发明觉得这多少与疫情大环境下“消费降级”的心态有关——消费者没有以前敢花钱了，哪怕仅是为了尝鲜、偶尔消费单价较高产品的动力也下降了。中国人民银行今年3月发布的2022年一季度城镇储户问卷调查报告显示，54.7%的居民更倾向于“更多储蓄”，比上季度增加2.9个百分点。相反，倾向于“更多消费”的居民比上季度减少1.0个百分点。
但鲁发明仍然看好雪糕行业，他觉得冰淇淋行业距离细分、跑出新品牌还有很大的空间。
从“东北大板”与“每日黑巧”的联名中，也能发现一些品牌发展的思路。最早，东北大板的主流渠道是小店门口的独立冰柜；四五年前，它开始了便利店和线上渠道的布局；如今，它联名的对象显然是更年轻的消费者。全家也给了东北大板更多的“排面”：在全家App上积分到一定点数，就能半价换购这款新产品。
“市场、消费者、渠道在变，品牌肯定要跟着变。”上述雪糕行业从业者说。当然，变的过程难免需要更高成本——新产品没办法像积累多年的品牌那样摊薄研发、采购、供应链和渠道成本。
近几年在新消费领域流行的一句话是“所有品类都值得再做一遍”。但是重新做品牌、打磨产品，是否只能通过“高价”这一种形式？已经吹了好几年的“消费升级”的风，或许会反噬一部分只是为了升级而不注重产品的品牌。现实点说，大家还记得前两年的夏天流行的网红雪糕是什么吗？
实际上，客群的多样性便利店也无法只靠高价产品生存，便利店同样也有多种5元上下的雪糕。罗森也在采访中提到，目前雪糕品类在强化低单价的水冰类产品。不管是渠道还是品牌，面对消费市场，都在尝试用多种方法让自己的竞争优势维持得更久一些。
Ice cream assassin, a term that has become popular this summer, refers to a kind of ice cream that seems mundane but makes consumers feel psychologically stabbed by the high price. It mostly appears in such a scene: consumers randomly walk into a convenience store, grab an ice cream and find that the price is as high as ten or twenty yuan or even more when they check out. Some consumers with low face are also ashamed to put it back in the same place and have no choice but to buy it in pain.
As the temperature rises, so does the popularity of the word. There are more than 10,000 notes on Little Red Book, and officials have created the topic of “ice cream assassin” of the same name, encouraging users to post their encounter with “ice cream assassin.”
According to the statistics of Little Red Book users, the prices of Madiel sandwiched ice cream, German-style Imperial Palace cultural creation series, Yili Xuanhuan series, northeast Daban and daily black ice cream are all close to 20 yuan each, in addition to a large number of products in the price range of 15-20 yuan.
The representative “ice cream assassin” sorted out by Little Red Book users.
The above-mentioned Rosen clerk has really encountered “stabbed” customers, in the face of customer surprise and refund applications, she and colleagues will help operate, “a little more understanding.”
It is insipid but has a price beyond cognition. “Ice Cream Assassin” has triggered many discussions such as whether the brand marketing is excessive and whether the product quality is worthy of the price. Zhong Xuegao, as the first brand to popularize ice cream with more than 15 yuan, has also become a “target of public criticism” to a certain extent.
However, pricing is essentially a market behavior, and the price of a commodity is a decision made by producers and channels after integrating costs and profits and balancing supply and demand. If we look back on the emergence of “ice cream assassin” with such low-level logic, the business considerations behind it are even more noteworthy: why do ice cream assassins appear in convenience stores rather than small supermarkets on their doorstep? Why are there more and more high-priced ice cream in the market? Will there be more ice cream assassins in the future?
We trace the origin of the “ice cream assassin” from the convenience store and ice cream to these two factors.
Where are the prices of ice cream in convenience stores?
In the discussion about “ice cream assassin”, the lack of conspicuous price tag is one of its “trough points”. Where is the price tag for ice cream in the convenience store?
The answer is on the glass of the freezer. The freezer in a convenience store usually has doors that open to both sides, and the seams or sides of the doors are affixed to the price. Rosen and his family’s ice cream price tags are printed with pictures and prices of ice cream, and related promotions will also be posted above the freezer or door.
The price tag for ice cream on the freezer at Rosen convenience store. | & nbsp; shooting: singing
The price tag on the freezer at the family convenience store. | | shoot: singing |
A family clerk said that once a new ice cream product is available, they will add a new price tag on the freezer, and anything on sale can be found. If the ice cream is no longer on sale, the price tag will be removed.
But indeed, compared with the drinks in the freezer, whose price tag is right in front of the corresponding item, the price of ice cream is a little inconspicuous, you need to bend over, bow your head, and find the one you want in the dense price tag. In some convenience stores, the background color of the price tag is made transparent, which makes it more difficult to identify. And a sweaty consumer who wants to cool down by eating an ice cream is likely to be less patient to distinguish carefully.
As to why the price of ice cream is posted here and presented in this way, several convenience stores have not given an official answer. The randomly interviewed convenience store clerk gave a message: there are usually only 18 grids in the freezer, mixed with more than 30 kinds of ice cream, and sometimes multiple ice creams are installed in one grid, and because of the randomness of consumers’ behavior, it is not guaranteed that they are always in the same place, which makes it difficult to correspond with the price tags affixed to the grid.
In the freezer in the convenience store, different ice creams are often mixed in the same grid.
Cold drinks always have neat “layout”, and it is natural for the price to be clearly marked. In the past two years, there have been more drinks with a unit price of more than 10 yuan, but it is easy for consumers to make price filtering decisions according to the price tag. The process was delayed until checkout when buying ice cream.
In fact, in addition to large supermarkets that mainly sell boxed and home-packed ice cream, the prices of ice cream in most supermarkets– ordinary chains, small supermarkets in front of their homes, Stores, and “cigarette paper shops”– have to ask the boss to know. Do you remember how to mark the price of ice cream at the snack bar when you were a kid? Some bosses will keep the outer package of ice cream and paste it on the wall with a watercolor pen to write down the price. There are small pudding, green mood, crisp, Yili bitter coffee.
Some commissary will keep the ice cream package and post the price | Photo Source: Elaine, a user of Little Red Book.
After the hot discussion on the topic of “ice cream assassin” on the Internet, some media published an article saying that in the near future, the General Administration of Market Supervision will take down the “ice cream assassin” and so on. The “clearly marked pricing and prohibition of price fraud” mentioned in the report was actually released in April 2022 and came into effect on July 1, and is not just for ice cream categories. The document points out that “clearly marked prices should be true and accurate, label alignment and eye-catching markings according to the characteristics of goods and services, industries and regions” is applicable to all commodities. And exactly how to calculate “clearly marked”, there may be a lot of room for “further standardization”.
Why do convenience stores like to sell “expensive” ice cream?
It has something to do with the location of the convenience store. The main customers of convenience stores are young consumers in their twenties and thirties, who have a passion for novelty hunting. Convenience stores introduce new and eye-catching new products, which has always been a marketing road.
In summer, cold drinks and ice cream are undoubtedly the mainstream items in convenience stores, and they are also the most critical categories to boost sales. In reviewing the past life of “Ice Cream Assassin”, the popularity of “Coconut Ash”, which costs 9 yuan in 2018, is also inevitable, and it has even led KFC and McDonald’s to launch similar ice cream products one after another. Relying on social platforms such as Xiaohongshu, Coconut Ash gained enough popularity at that time and brought passenger flow to the convenience stores that sold them.
Although this first generation of ice cream “Internet celebrities” has only been popular for one summer, it has left a path that can be replicated in the market: in the face of ice cream, consumers seem to be willing to spend a little more money to experience a product with topic and some new experience. And this was once in line with the environment of the evolution of consumer goods. In the past two years, with high-speed iteration and strong topic, the new consumer brand has cultivated a clocking-in consumption habit among young customers who seem to be able to clock in at a slight cost. Appearance, taste, form, a product may detonate the network with one of the points, thus driving sales. In this atmosphere, convenience stores also began to prefer high-frequency up-to-date, as far as possible to capture potential “tipping point” goods.
In order to make more room for new products in the freezer, Rosen convenience store told YiMagazine that it had abolished the traditional mode of admission fee last year and adopted the new product 6-week examination system, and if the digestibility of the new product reached less than 60% in 6 weeks, the product would face elimination, which could also give some excellent minority brands a chance to compete and try on the Rosen platform.
But the flip side of the story is that a large number of new brands have led consumers to have little concept of price in the face of these unknown new brands. In consumer psychology, there is a concept called “price anchor”, which is the benchmark that consumers use to compare commodity prices. Take ice cream as an example, the regular products of Yili and Mengniu are usually 3-4 yuan, and the price of “lovely more” is about 5 yuan. The upper limit of psychological expectation for the price of ice cream may be a dream dragon of about 10 yuan per unit. After Zhong Xuegao became popular, the price ceiling was pushed up to 15 yuan, but in the minds of most consumers, this may only be Zhong Xuegao’s “case”.
Consumers may expect a higher price for a new product that looks good in convenience stores, but the acceptable price ceiling varies from person to person and product to product. Therefore, when the price of a new brand that has never been seen before exceeds the “price anchor point”, consumers who only want to use a slightly better ice cream to quench their thirst will easily feel “stabbed”.
Don’t forget that in order to create a brand image, Menglong has invested a lot of publicity resources to tell consumers that it is a product that allows adults to “open a happy moment”. Even so, many consumers still feel that its price is slightly higher. Today, many ice cream assassins in convenience stores have gone up to a price of more than ten or twenty yuan or even higher without even saying hello. “Haagen-Dazs consumption scene and crowd perception is catering, but the assassin is in the convenience store, the ‘crowd mind’ is the northeast board. In an online discussion about the ‘ice cream assassin’, one reply said.
Of course, consumers’ minds and market judgments are sometimes misplaced. Sometimes, the successful attempts of some brands will be pursued as a new trend. Specific to the category of ice cream, the high price tide brought by some brands has indeed affected the trend of the whole market. Most notably, in the conspicuous position of the freezer, some of the traditional ice cream brands familiar to people around 5 yuan, such as Yili, Mengniu, Guangming, and Road Snow, have been squeezed out.
Lu Xianyu, founder of fruit popsicle brand Xianyu, remembers that when he and his team negotiated with the convenience store with fruit popsicles of about 15 yuan in 2019, it was “easier than expected.”
“just in time for a change in convenience stores, there will certainly be regular brands of several giants in the freezer, but there will also be room for innovative products.” Lu Xin said.
The difference between “fresh fruit and fresh words” and traditional fruit ice cream is that the whole piece or piece of fruit is put into a popsicle and packed in a transparent box. Because the fruit is brightly colored, these ice creams are more likely to be noticed by consumers in the freezer. “appearance is justice, and when young people spend money, they also use it to socialize. Many people will go to the convenience store to buy something as a sign-in behavior. ” Lu invents this way to analyze the product logic of Xianguo Xianyu.
“fresh fruit fresh words” fruit popsicle. | | Image Source: brand official account |
Lu found that when he came into contact with convenience stores and boutique supermarkets in the past two years, he felt that their attitude had become more open, and even said, “if we can make more heat, we can provide more display places.” The interaction between brands and convenience stores no longer stays in the simple purchasing relationship in the past.
At first, “fresh fruit Xianyu” was just a small handmade shop, and the price of a single popsicle was about 10 yuan. Lu Xin, who was still part-time selling popsicles in Chengdu at that time, had already felt the welcome of fruit popsicles in the market, and even if the price was a little higher, many people lined up to buy them. After obtaining the resources of the fruit supply chain through the main business of brand marketing, he invested in the ice cream business.
It’s expensive but easy to sell-“Ice Cream Assassin” actually has its own market. Whether for innovation or repurchase, in the summer window, consumers released for the ice cream assassin at the same time jointly moved the supply-demand curve to the intersection of higher prices.
Why is the price of ice cream getting more and more expensive?
But does the new product have to be expensive? From a cost point of view, this is indeed inevitable in the current product innovation.
Take “fresh fruit and fresh language” as an example, in order to have a good appearance, we have to invest a higher cost of raw materials. Lu said that to put the fruit completely into the “fresh fruit” of the ice cream, it is necessary to select the fruit that is “ripe just right” as the raw material, so the cold chain truck will drive directly into the fruit base, pick and transport it to the upstream factory for processing. Each link has a higher cost than traditional ice cream. At present, the price of strawberry popsicles in Xianguo Xianyu is 15 yuan each, while other products are in the price range of 12 to 14 yuan.
If the fruit is sold separately, farmers often pick it when the fruit medium, so that the fruit that has been transported and stored can have the fullest flesh and bright colors when it comes to the market. According to Lu, medium’s fruit is not suitable for popsicles, the aroma and sweetness have not yet reached the best, and the popsicles they once made from it can not taste the obvious fruit flavor.
This year, the old brand Northeast Daban has jointly launched a 19.9 yuan “nunchaku” ice cream-half of which is classic milk and half of which is dark chocolate mixed with pistachios. Dove Black Crispy Hazelnut Milk Ice Cream, also made of dark chocolate, is also priced at 17.9 yuan.
According to an analysis by a practitioner in the ice cream industry, the price of dark chocolate will be slightly higher than that of ordinary milk chocolate, and brands need to take into account the pricing range of joint brands when co-signing. “the joint name should also make reference to the original customer base and price band to make a reasonable price.” The practitioner said. This time, the daily black Qiao, which is co-signed with Northeast Daban, costs about 29.9 yuan for a box of 60g and 39.9 yuan for Dove 252g bowls.
The northeast big board and the daily black skillful joint name “black thick milk collides the flavor ice cream”. | | Image source: brand official website |
Another rarely mentioned in the discussion of “Ice Cream Assassin” is the difficulty of producing alien ice cream. Zhong Xuegao’s tile shape, the Imperial Palace shape of Wenchuang ice cream and the shape of cherry blossoms and fish tails all belong to the category of abnormal shapes, and their production is more difficult, the traditional production line is very difficult to mass production, and the production efficiency is relatively low. In short, production is limited, costs cannot be offset by scale, and prices have to be maintained at a relatively higher level.
Will there be more and more “ice cream assassins”?
The “ice cream assassin” fermentation, there is also a hidden consumer sentiment: prices are rising, and the rise is too exaggerated.
As an entrepreneur in the ice cream industry, Lu believes that this has something to do with the mentality of “consumption degradation” in the epidemic environment-consumers do not dare to spend money before, even if it is just to taste fresh and occasionally consume higher-priced products. A survey of urban depositors in the first quarter of 2022 released by the people’s Bank of China in March showed that 54.7% of residents were more likely to “save more”, an increase of 2.9 percentage points over the previous quarter. On the contrary, the number of residents who prefer to “spend more” fell by 1.0 percentage points compared with the previous quarter.
But Lu is still optimistic about the ice cream industry, and he thinks there is still a lot of room for the ice cream industry to be subdivided and run out of new brands.
From the joint names of “Northeast Daban” and “Daily Black Qiao”, we can also find some ideas for brand development. At first, the mainstream channel of Dongbei Daban was a separate freezer in front of a small store; four or five years ago, it began the layout of convenience stores and online channels; today, it is clearly aimed at younger consumers. The whole family also gave the northeast board more “noodles”: if you score a certain point on the App of the whole family, you can buy this new product at half price.
“the market, consumers and channels are changing, and the brand must change along with it.” The above ice cream industry practitioners said. Of course, the process of change inevitably requires higher costs-new products cannot dilute R & D, procurement, supply chain and channel costs like brands that have accumulated over the years.
In recent years, a popular saying in the new consumer field is “all categories are worth doing again.” But is it only in the form of “high price” to re-brand and polish products? The wind of “consumer upgrading”, which has been blowing for several years, may counter some brands that only upgrade and do not pay attention to the products. To be realistic, do you still remember what was the popular Internet celebrity ice cream in the summer of the last two years?
In fact, the diversity of customer groups convenience stores can not only rely on high-priced products to survive, convenience stores also have a variety of ice cream around 5 yuan. Rosen also mentioned in the interview that the current ice cream category is strengthening water ice products with low unit prices. Whether it is the channel or the brand, in the face of the consumer market, are trying to use a variety of ways to maintain their competitive advantage for a longer time.
