Since more than a decade ago in the 1990s, China’s leisure food market has been undergoing sweeping changes. Supermarkets, the base camp for convenience food and leisure food, look beyond big coastal cities and set their eyes on the country’s middle and western regions. Meanwhile, the composition of consumers has been through some changes. While children remain the primary consumers of leisure food, young people are joining in, further diversifying the market.
Young people have become another major group of leisure food consumers
Surveys show that young women between 18 and 28 are trend leaders in the leisure food market, and that men aged 28 to 35 care more about nutritive value and brand name instead of price. At the same time, this group of men are keen in trying out new brands and products, particularly healthy foods rich in vitamins and other functional foods.
Currently, well-known leisure food manufacturers at home and abroad are going to great lengths to try to convince customers that leisure food can be part of a healthy diet. For this reason, manufacturers are pooling their resources to develop new products that are low in calories, fat and sugar. For example, dilated food is very popular today, and in the attempts to attract more consumers, manufacturers keep pushing for new products with various nutrients according to different demands from targeted groups. That is why it can be expected that healthy, nutritious leisure food will win the favor of both the supermarkets and the consumers. For now, leisure food has already stood out, winning the heart of young people with its convenience, good taste and dazzling packaging.
The dominance of healthy food
In western countries nowadays, potato food low in oil and other leisure food rich in fruits and vegetables are especially popular, and sell very well. This shows that in the escalating market competition, leisure food which is healthy becomes people’s first choice. With the improvement in people’s living standards and the development of the leisure food industry, leisure food has long been part of people’s life. For a long time, however, due to unhealthy eating habits, the preference for food high in calories and fat, and lack of exercise, many people suffer from obesity, and child obesity has even become a great headache for many urban families. In the middle of all this, leisure food is a target of the blame. That is why presently, healthy and functional food is in the mainstream of the leisure food market.
1 Leisure food which serves as staple food, like bread, cakes and biscuits have been widely accepted
Statistics reveal that among all kinds of leisure foods, bread and cakes are most popular with families in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. More than half of the families in these cities buy bread or cakes on a regular basis. Biscuits are also their choice. Because these are staple foods, they have a special advantage over other leisure foods in allaying hunger. Many families have milk and bread for breakfast, and for some white-collar workers, some biscuits with a cup of coffee or juice make good high tea at 3 or 4 pm.. Besides, at the weekends, on birthday parties and in traveling, bread, cakes and biscuits are even popular in that they are convenience foods as well.
2 Chewing gum and dried fruits are becoming mainstream leisure foods
In all kinds of leisure foods, apart from staple food, chewing gum and dried fruits are favored by many families.
Compared with other leisure foods, chewing gum has been in the life of the Chinese people for relatively a short time. Nevertheless, it has caught up with many other leisure foods in the market and is a preferred choice for many, especially the high-income families. A survey reveals that 43% of the high-income families (with a monthly income of more than 5000 yuan) are regular buyers of chewing gum. This, of course, has to do with the successful market development of several chewing gum brands.
While chewing gum is a new phenomenon, dried fruits are traditional leisure foods. Melon seeds and peanuts are cheap and liked by all, old or young. Walnuts, pistachio and pine nuts, though of relatively high prices, are favored by many thanks to their high nutritive value.
3 The market potential of jelly, dried meat slices and preserved fruits is yet to be tapped
Though there are huge varieties of dried meat slices and preserved fruits, yet no brand is influential enough to lead and explore the market. The potential is yet to be tapped by competent and far-sighted manufacturers.
New products keep cropping up
Leisure food is a symbol of fashion. In the fast-paced society, new leisure foods keep cropping up at a speed higher than any other foods. Different tastes and dazzling packaging help attract many fun-seeking city residents.
New brands and products keep springing up
Since consumers are always ready for new brands and tastes, manufacturers never hesitate to develop new products that cater to different tastes. This has led to a co-existence of traditional and modern leisure food, and of popular and local flavored leisure food. The market is increasingly diversified and expanded.
In addition to traditional leisure foods like preserved fruits and peanuts which are still liked by the average consumers, foods with foreign brands such as chocolates, potato crisps and kernels are being embraced by young Chinese consumers. In the meantime, local foods with distinct local flavors manage to hold stable market shares.
Taste is a key factor that influences consumers in their choices. Be it a foreign brand or a domestic one, as long as it has good taste that meets the needs of the consumers and is well-processed, it is very likely to grab market shares. That explains why many domestic leisure food manufacturers keep developing products with new tastes to cater to different groups of customers. Take “Wrigley Chewing Gum” as an example: there is Wrigley's Doublemint Chewing Gum, Wrigley's Spearmint and Juicy Fruit. Not long ago, several different tastes of Cool Air chewing gum were launched to meet the different needs of customers. These varieties of Cool Air have the flavors of super cool mint, lemon, orange, and Blackcurrant.
The China subsidiary of Shanghaojia, a renowned Philippine leisure food manufacturer has been going to great lengths in developing the varieties of their products. Up to now, the company has nearly a hundred product varieties under thirteen categories such as seafood flavored, green series, and popcorn, etc. In addition to its main product plain potato crisps, the company also produces crisps with twelve different tastes, with flavors of onion, cheese, beef braised in brown sauce, beef curry, mutton, and mustard, etc.
Dazzling packaging
Domestic leisure food manufacturers have been keen in designing brand-new packaging. Not only are new materials used, but the shapes, colors and patterns all become areas that manufacturers work on in order to make their products more attractive to customers.
The packages of leisure foods are not just ordinary packages, but can be divided into two categories: big packages and small ones. While the former is mainly targeted at families, the latter is designed for office workers. The most common small packages at present are used for melon seeds and biscuits, etc.
Besides, the packaging styles of leisure foods can also be categorized. In one category are foods with foreign brands and their packaging looks fashionable and modern. Another category is mainly represented by domestically-produced leisure foods whose packaging is designed to look more traditional. The packages of Qiaqia dried melon seeds present a good example. They are made of paper, and are envelop-shaped, with handwritten characters recounting a legendary story of its birth. The design of the package is traditional, simple, elegant, and inviting to the eye, which is a perfect match for the product.
With the rapid economic development, people in China live a better-off life. Naturally, the demand for leisure foods rises, together with increasingly diversified demands in their tastes, varieties and health value. This has, to a great extent, contributed to the rapid development of the leisure food market. More and more varieties spring up, some of which are strong flavored, some nutrient-oriented or functional in their nature. The landscape of the leisure food market changes with each passing day.