As the competition in the infant formula market becomes more and more fierce, major dairy companies have begun to look for a second growth curve, and children's powder, which is not restricted by the "registration system", has become a place for major dairy companies to compete for layout. Since the first children's powder came out in 2019, in just 5 years, the children's powder market has shown a blowout development trend, and the market size is expected to exceed 50 billion yuan in 2025.
Children's powder is suitable for children over 3 years old, at this stage children are in the golden period of growth and development, if lack of nutrition, it will cause a series of health problems such as children's height, vision, brain power, immunity, etc. Therefore, parents have very high consumer expectations for the market to provide professional and reliable child nutrition solutions. Although there are many players in the market, the trend of product homogenization is serious, and there are also exaggerated publicity.
The market is 50 billion, but the products are mixed
"A can of milk powder leverages a market, and a brand leads an industry." For the children's powder market, April 26, 2019 is a milestone historical node, a children's growth milk powder called Gaoji (hereinafter referred to as children's powder) was born in a different way.
In the next 5 years, children's powder has been growing vigorously and has become one of the few incremental markets in the maternal and infant industry. According to the data of the Scout Research Institute, the market size of children's powder will reach 20 billion yuan in 2021, and it is expected to exceed 50 billion yuan in 2025, becoming a high-profile segment in the industry.
The vigorous market development has attracted the attention of a number of dairy companies, and leading companies such as Yili, Junlebao, Beinmei, Feihe, Wyeth, Danone, etc., have taken the lead in entering the game, occupying the minds of users, and continuously deepening the market layout, making the branding trend of the children's powder track obvious, and the matrix of large single products is gradually improving.
Compared with infant formula, children's powder is not subject to the restrictions of the formula registration system and has a low market entry threshold, so it has attracted a large number of innovative brands and cross-border brands to enter, but it has also led to mixed product quality. Thanks to the earlier layout and the guarantee of brand reputation over the years, the market dividend shows a tendency to tilt towards the head brand. However, small brands of children's powder are still competitive, and the author has learned from multiple channels, "The new generation of mothers may not necessarily choose big brands when buying children's powder. "Therefore, the children's powder giant cannot be completely equated with the infant formula giant.
However, while the children's powder market is growing rapidly, it is also facing many challenges. First of all, the problem of product homogeneity is serious, and there is a lack of obvious differences between products, resulting in a situation of "many but not strong". Secondly, the education of consumers is insufficient, and many consumers lack basic understanding of the nutritional value and selection criteria of children's powder, and it is difficult to distinguish the false claims of some brands. In addition, the market also lacks a mature regulatory system, and the low entry threshold has caused some poor quality or even substandard products to enter the market, posing a potential threat to children's health.
In the face of many market challenges, enterprises also need to continuously strengthen their R&D and innovation capabilities, optimize the quality of products, and meet the diversified needs of consumers for scientific nutritional formulas. The industry also needs to unite to popularize market education, strengthen supervision and supervision, and promote the development of the children's powder market in a healthier and more orderly direction.
Innovative formulations are the next "decade of debate"
As we all know, children's milk powder is suitable for children over 3 years old, and it belongs to the non-essential stage of milk powder. From the perspective of children's growth cycle, children over 3 years old mainly take complementary food nutrients, and milk powder is not the main source of nutrition. Children's powder only plays an auxiliary role, according to the child's physical development, to supplement the lack of nutrients in the child's growth and development.
Therefore, the publicity and selling points around children's powder are also mainly focused on the nutritional bias of the product, and most of the children's powder also directly reflects the selling point and nutritional bias of the product in the name, such as "Liangjingjing", "Jucong Ming", "Yizhigao" and so on. According to statistics, the main ingredients involved in the nutritional bias of children's powder on the market include: calcium, vitamin D, DHA, lutein, lactoferrin, hydrolyzed egg yolk powder, colostrum alkaline protein, fructooligosaccharides, OPO and galacto-oligosaccharides, etc., and the corresponding five dimensions are attention, brainpower, vision, growth height, self-care and digestion and absorption.
Among them, calcium is the most common substance added to children's powder. Since the emergence of the first high-bone children's growth milk powder on the market, consumers' attention to children's height growth and development has been high. However, according to industry insiders, "in recent years, consumers' demand for children's powder has focused more on digestion and absorption." "Although there is a growing variety of children's powders on the market, the nutritional needs that are met are only a drop in the ocean.
At a time when the concept of refined feeding is becoming more and more profound among parents, new needs are gradually being born, especially in the addition of characteristic nutrients, there are still a lot of market gaps. At the moment when the competition in the children's powder market is becoming increasingly fierce, breaking through differentiated formulas will be the only way for brands.
In this direction, the author also sees that many brands are constantly studying and trying new formulas, such as Juchen Dairy recently launched a children's milk powder with γ-aminobutyric acid hydrolyzed egg yolk powder, and said that it can promote the secretion of growth hormone, and it can be seen from the publicity that the main function is to help children grow taller.
Propaganda chaos continues
As an ingredient in recent years γ, aminobutyric acid, which has become popular in recent years, often appears in various children's nutritional supplements, and the accompanying promotional selling points are often inseparable from growing taller and sleeping well. But does γ-aminobutyric acid really work wonders?
It is understood that the main effect of γ-aminobutyric acid is actually to reduce the excitability of nerves, help relieve anxiety, improve sleep, reduce depressive symptoms, relieve premenstrual syndrome symptoms, improve the concentration of ADHD patients, lower blood pressure, increase growth hormone levels, and may also have some effects on brain learning, memory, neurodevelopment, etc. However, according to industry insiders, "exogenous supplementation of γ-aminobutyric acid can indeed promote the secretion of growth hormone, but it cannot be determined that it can promote height growth."
In fact, as early as 2022, the black rhinoceros exposure platform under the mother and child frontier received the news from consumers: Quanertong double growth γ-aminobutyric acid powder deceived consumers under the banner of making children grow taller and selling simultaneously with hospitals. After research and research, Frontier of Mother and Child has concluded that taking products containing γ-aminobutyric acid does not mean that you can grow taller.
Juchen Dairy's promotion of γ-aminobutyric yogurt milk powder actually reflects the chaos of publicity in the children's powder market. In order to quickly occupy the market, some brands and distributors exaggerate and mislead the ingredients and functions of children's powder, which not only disrupts the market order, but also damages the legitimate rights and interests of consumers.
In fact, just taking the hottest "growing taller" latitude in the children's powder track as an example, you can find that many brands are promoting the miraculous effect of milk powder on helping children grow taller. Gao Gu publicized on the Tmall platform with "children rubbing and growing", and listed a number of cases of growing taller.
Part of the details page content of the Tmall flagship store
But the question is, in the growth stage of children's rapid growth, how much role does high-band milk powder play in it? How much utility is to pay for the "IQ tax"? You should know that before the age of 3 and adolescence are the two stages of the fastest change in children's height, girls start at the age of 10~12, boys start at the age of 12~14, and the height will increase suddenly in puberty, and the annual growth rate can reach 7~12cm per year.
In addition to Gaojiao, slogans of children's powder brands suspected of exaggerating the publicity effect abound. So, is children's powder a good product, and is its nutritional value "real" or packaged "embroidered pillow"?
According to statistics, more than 90% of the children's powder on the market contains more than 15 kinds of nutrients, in addition to containing the basic nutrients calcium, iron and zinc necessary for children's growth, but also added DHA, lactoferrin, hydrolyzed egg yolk powder and other high-end nutrients, a good children's powder product is rich in nutrients can even be as high as more than 30 kinds, is worthy of the name of the "trump card" good thing.
"The aroma of wine is not afraid of deep alleys", the same is true for children's powder, the better the product, the more down-to-earth every step, the core of brand communication is to present the brand identity and brand meaning, if only for immediate interests, due to small losses, the loss of brand reputation will be immeasurable.