"Laughing at middle age, understanding middle age, becoming middle age" is the only way for all young people.
According to the current public opinion on China's definition of 35 years old as middle age, the post-80s generation has basically become middle-aged, and next year, even the first batch of post-90s will usher in middle age.
In China, there are many reports on the consumption of young people under the age of 35, but there is almost no data on the consumption of middle-aged people over 35, especially middle-aged men. Because some people say that men are inferior to dogs in consumption.
But in fact, the number of middle-aged men is very large, according to the statistics of Tsingshan Capital, there are about 268 million middle-aged men over 35 years old, which is a huge and non-negligible market, if you can grasp their consumption concept and meet their consumption needs, you can also create a market that cannot be ignored.
Middle-aged people have their own consumption views, they are more rational, will no longer be attracted or flickered by advertising, they consume faster, will not spend too much time shopping, fancy the brand they want, quickly complete the purchase, they pay more attention to cost-effectiveness and practicality, no longer pursue bells and whistles, the goods that are not useful.
They began to like to drink oriental leaves, wear Uniqlo, and watch Zeng Guofan, and they became more and more mature and steady in consumption.
01 Drink Oriental Leaves: Be a pure, transparent person
In 2011, Oriental Leaf made its debut in the market, it adopted an aseptic production line and aseptic cold irrigation technology with "no sugar, no additives" as its selling point, creating a new standard of "0 sugar, 0 fat, 0 calories, 0 flavor and 0 preservatives" (these five zeros can be many years earlier than the three zeros of the later Genki Forest).
However, in the market at that time, consumers did not have enough demand for sugar-free tea, like the post-80s generation, did not experience particularly rich material conditions, more people still prefer sweet drinks and sugary tea drinks.
This is also in line with human nature, from the perspective of genetic selection, humans like to eat sugar because nutritious, high-energy food preferences allow ancestors to better adapt to the environment and reproduce, and those ancestors without such preferences are difficult to survive.
Sugary drinks conform to the selection of human genes, of course, it will make people feel delicious, and the oriental leaves of 0 sugar, 0 fat, 0 calories and 0 flavor are naturally not popular, and most of China's tea beverage market at that time was occupied by sweet tea represented by iced tea. The market looks hard to change, and one year Oriental Leaves was voted the hardest drink.
But Nongfu Springs did not give up on oriental leaves, and after studying Japanese data, they thought that the population of tea drinkers would grow up, and one day they would choose sugar-free tea drinks.
In 2019, a milestone data is that China's per capita GDP reached 10,000 US dollars, and after years of economic surging, many incomes have risen, and the problems of young and middle-aged people with better and better conditions have also changed from not being able to eat well, lack of nutrition, to eating too well, becoming more and more obese.
It was in this year that Oriental Leaf began to usher in an explosive increase in sales. In the first half of 2023, Nongfu Spring announced its results: revenue of 20.462 billion yuan and profit of 5.775 billion yuan, an increase of 23.3% and 25.3% respectively over the same period last year; Among them, the revenue of the tea beverage segment (Oriental leaves, tea π) reached 5.286 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 59.8%. According to Nielsen's data, the annual retail sales scale of Oriental Leaves may reach 10 billion.
As Nongfu Spring expected, those young people who drank sweet tea drinks eventually grew into middle age and became consumers of oriental leaves.
In the comment area of social networks, you can often see many middle-aged people recounting the choice of oriental leaves, some may be jokes, but you can see that middle-aged people intentionally or unintentionally associate them with oriental leaves, and some oriental leaves become "east gates", oriental leaves seem to have become the faith of middle-aged people.
Middle-aged people begin to like oriental leaves for two reasons:
The first is that oriental leaves are healthy and additive-free.
People are middle-aged, more and more bored about sweet things, do not want to become middle-aged greasy men, you have to control weight, oriental leaves as a sugar-free tea drink, in line with their needs for healthy drinks. Looking at the ingredients of oriental leaves, there is nothing else except water, tea, vitamin C and sodium bicarbonate, and drinking is a pure.
Secondly, oriental leaves give middle-aged men a low-key and tasteful feeling.
Although the oriental leaves are not high-end, but the sense of quality is not low, its packaging design is from the world-renowned design agency Pearlfisher, the design of the bottle body is presented in the shape of "upper circle and below", the traditional Chinese concept of "heavenly round place" is contained in it.
It is not like the round bottle design of most other drinks, but like a middle-aged man sharpened and indisputable, only immersed in his own favorite comfortable living state.
At the same time, the oriental leaf design of the bottle body to be transparent on both sides also has ulterior motives. Generally speaking, tea extracts are easy to see photooxidation, so most tea drinks are packaged with labels to wrap the entire bottle as much as possible to avoid sunlight. Oriental Leaf has developed a unique antioxidant technology, so only the label is attached to the front and back of the bottle, so that consumers can intuitively see the color and clarity of the tea beverage through the transparent bottle.
This is mainly a transparency, and middle-aged people live a transparency.
Oriental Leaves is not as youthful as the Yuan Qi Forest, more like a simple, low-key but middle-aged man with his own taste, he lives pure and transparent.
02 Wear Uniqlo: Be a "fast man"
There is a joke about the difference between men and women going to the mall, women spend more than 3 hours shopping, spending thousands of yuan, buying a lot of clothes, while men spend a few minutes, go straight to GAP, spend 200 yuan to buy a pair of pants.
The way men consume here is more like middle-aged men, and in China GAP was replaced by Uniqlo, not that GAP can not meet the purchase needs of middle-aged people, but Uniqlo as a Japanese brand knows more about Chinese.
Uniqlo has a label in the market - straight male brand, which is especially popular with middle-aged straight men, because Uniqlo's clothes have several characteristics.
First of all, Uniqlo's clothes are mostly basic, such as spring and autumn shirts, winter sweaters, summer T-shirts, etc., they are generally simple in style, better matched, and the fabric is mostly cotton, which is more comfortable to wear.
Middle-aged men pay attention to everything fast (except fishing), you will know it by watching "Life Remote Control".
Shopping for 3 hours, no, too slow, pick a few clothes, but also try on for half an hour, no, too slow, even on the e-commerce platform, they are too lazy to spend time to brush, is it bad to have that time to play a game? Their consumption habit is to look at the brands and products they have always chosen, take them directly, and pay at the cashier without leaving a cloud.
Come to Uniqlo, take a few pieces with your eyes closed, no need to pick and choose, people who come often, they are already familiar with how big number they wear, and they don't even need to try it on. They can buy a few well-fitting clothes without spending too much time and energy, which is one of the best brands for middle-aged men who are not sensitive to fashion and do not like to pamper themselves.
More importantly, Uniqlo often reduces prices and discounts, which is simply the favorite of middle-aged men. Middle-aged men buy things rationally and pay attention to cost-effectiveness, bells and whistles, things without cost-effectiveness, middle-aged men are all spurned.
Uniqlo discounts all year round, often spend a lot of effort to beat their own prices, 599 down jacket can give you 399, 299 price can give you 199, 199 shirt can give you 99. Uniqlo has always been considered cost-effective by middle-aged men, and with a discount, they did not hesitate to make a move.
There is a joke about not dating a boy wearing Uniqlo, and there have been reports in Japan that a Japanese girl is dating a boy who wears a Uniqlo, which disappoints her.
If any lady is dating a middle-aged man, be prepared to meet you dressed in Uniqlo, but remember that it's not that they don't have money to buy clothes, they're just going for fast.
03 Look at Zeng Guofan: Be a person with spiritual pursuits
It is said that every middle-aged man has a set of Zeng Guofan on his bookshelf, this statement I have not verified by big data, but my middle-aged uncle has two sets of books on his bookshelf, one is indeed Zeng Guofan and the other is Wang Yangming.
Zeng Guofan is the idol of a generation of middle-aged people, because his Dacheng also started in middle age.
Zeng Guofan achieved almost nothing before the age of 30, he had taken the Xiucai exam seven times, all of the first 6 times failed, and the 7th time he was admitted to the Xiucai exam. During this period, he experienced many setbacks and difficulties, and even wanted to give up at one point. After the entrance examination, Zeng Guofan's great talent was displayed, and he almost made progress in the career path. Zeng Guofan achieved even more success after the age of 40, he formed the Xiang Army, and thus quelled the Taiping Rebellion.
Zeng Guofan's influence on middle-aged men also lies in his achievements in self-cultivation, family harmony, and governance.
In terms of self-cultivation, Zeng Guofan advocated taking the Confucian "inner saint and outer king" as the goal of life, "loyalty, filial piety, propriety, righteousness, honesty and shame" as the basic virtues, and "guarding humility", "gritting teeth and inspiring one's mind", and "storing one's strength and growing its wisdom" as the method of self-improvement. In terms of the Qi family, we advocate the family style of "filial piety", "diligence and thrift", "reading" and "good neighborliness".
In terms of career, Zeng Guofan is well versed in officialdom and interpersonal relationships, saying: "Think big, start small; Live in groups and keep your mouth, live alone and keep your heart".
The world of middle-aged men is a world that pays attention to efficiency and practicality, how to deal with good relationships with colleagues, how to do a good career, how to make family harmony, become the harbor of their careers, how to strengthen and cultivate their hearts, these are the three major issues they are most concerned about. Zeng Guofan's self-cultivation, family, and governing practice and philosophy are undoubtedly the best examples for middle-aged men.
Behind the liking of Zeng Guofan is actually a symbol of middle-aged men gradually shifting their focus from material consumption to spiritual consumption, and similar consumption that meets their spiritual needs, such as coiling, collecting calligraphy and painting, etc., is also popular.
You will find that middle-aged men are very willing to spend money on spiritual consumption, they may search for daily necessities, but buy more than 1,000 Zeng Guofan hardcover full set hands do not shake, they may not spend thousands of dollars to buy a trench coat, but will spend thousands of dollars to buy a string of beads.
In essence, this is still in line with their practical view of consumption, a set of Zeng Guofan's complete works can benefit for a lifetime, and every day to look at the bookshelf to feel solid, a string of beads can be plated every day, plate for 5 or 10 years, not a problem.
04 Meet the consumption concept of middle-aged people
It can be seen that the middle-aged male market is vast, they do not consume, but have their own consumption views and preferences, Oriental Leaves, Uniqlo, Zeng Guofan's books prove that meeting this consumer group, can also create a huge market, specifically, should meet their following needs.
- Meet the needs of health and wellness.
Middle-aged men are an increasingly health-conscious consumer group, and when choosing goods, they must not only consider the function of the goods, but also consider the safety and health of the goods. Therefore, the market and businesses should pay attention to the health needs and health needs of middle-aged men, such as sugar-free tea drinks, organic food, nutritional health products, etc. can meet these needs.
For example, the huge tea market, in addition to small pots of tea, there are really not many brands, such as goji berries, and there is no real brand.
- Meet the needs of fast, practical and cost-effective.
Middle-aged men are a busy and nervous consumer group, they do not like to spend too much time and energy when buying goods, and they are not willing to waste money on some low-quality or useless goods. Therefore, markets and merchants should pay attention to their needs for fast, practical and cost-effective goods. Fast fashion brands like Uniqlo are typical representatives.
In China, there must be many companies that have a certain design, production capacity, and meet the needs of fast and practical, but there is no Uniqlo in China, and it has to be said that this is an opportunity.
- Meet spiritual needs.
Middle-aged men have lower and lower desire for material things, eager to be spiritually full, and they are willing to spend a lot of money on goods that can bring them spiritual satisfaction, because the satisfaction brought by these things is not temporary but long-term, such as hardcover books, liquor, literary play, tea, etc., these goods are not only the use of attributes, middle-aged people often think that they represent a culture and spirit.
Sooner or later, young people will one day move towards middle age, and according to the current population trend, the future middle-aged market will become larger and larger, for brands and businesses, thinking about doing a good job of youth is of course important, but the vast middle-aged market can not be discarded.