Table of Contents
Overview
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- What you need to know
- Covered in this Report
Executive Summary
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- The consumer
- Traditions remain strong
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- Figure 1: Attitude towards traditional festive foods (is a must-have), by age, December 2017
- Chinese New Year and Mid-Autumn Festival are key gifting festivals
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- Figure 2: Festivals on which consumers buy food as gifts for others, December 2017
- Choices of gifts vary with the recipients
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- Figure 3: Choices of festival gifts, by recipient, December 2017
- Different occasions require different solutions
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- Figure 4: Product features of festive foods, by occasion, December 2017
- Consumers vote for familiar brands
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- Figure 5: Interested brands to launch traditional Chinese festive foods, December 2017
- Spending on festive foods is increasing
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- Figure 6: Spending trends on festive foods, by occasion, December 2017
- The young are less fond of digital gifting
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- Figure 7: Gifting preference, by age, December 2017
- What we think
Issues and Insights
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- Explore opportunities behind more festivals
- The facts
- The implications
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- Figure 8: Examples of gifting products for children with interactive features, UK, 2017
- Brands need to be a teacher and protector of festival traditions
- The facts
- The implications
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- Figure 9: Example of Häagen-Dazs mooncake, China, 2017
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- Figure 10: Example of Tmall’s Chinese New Year audio posters, China, 2018
- Are traditional brands losing ground?
- The facts
- The implications
The Market - What you need to know
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- The power of tradition, facing the threat of lifestyle changes
- Competition heating up
Market factors
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- Shopping is the main leisure activity during festivals
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- Figure 11: Total retail and catering sales during the CNY holiday (from Lunar New Year's Eve to the sixth day of the first Lunar month), China, 2014-18
- Food is a big spending focus of traditional festivals
- Online shopping festivals further unlock consumers’ purchase enthusiasm
- Virtual gifting vouchers make gifting easier
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- Figure 12: Virtual Mid-Autumn Festival gifting voucher of Starbucks, China, 2017
- More festival spending may go to travelling
Trends in the market
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- Traditional festive foods welcome non-traditional flavours
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- Figure 13: Examples of new flavour Daoxiangcun mooncakes, China, 2017
- Figure 14: Examples of fruit and vegetable flavour rice dumplings, China, 2017
- Brands start to seek deeper cultural engagement
- Newcomers stir up competition
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- Figure 15: Examples of mooncake launched by non-food and drink companies, China, 2017
Who’s Innovating?
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- Build on snack influence
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- Figure 16: Example of Oreo mooncake, China, 2017
- Figure 17: Example of Be&Cherry nut Zongzi, China, 2017
- Personalised gifting products
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- Figure 18: Example of personalised Kit Kat from Chocollabo, Japan
- Figure 19: Example of Our/Infusions Kit, West Europe, 2016
- New advent calendar ideas
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- Figure 20: Examples of Christmas chocolate advent calendar, Hong Kong and US, 2017
- Figure 21: Ilchester Cheese Advent Calendar, UK, 2017
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- Figure 22: Examples of tea and coffee advent calendar, Germany and UK, 2017
The Consumer – What you need to know
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- Mooncake, Zongzi and rice dumplings are festival must-haves
- Father’s/Mother’s Day becomes an important festival to gift foods
- Different gifts for different recipients
- Different criteria for different spending
- Not very open to crossover brands
- Two thirds increased their household spending on festive foods
Attitude towards Traditional Festive Foods
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- Overall, traditions remain powerful
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- Figure 23: Attitude towards traditional festive foods, December 2017
- Age differences
- Mooncake and Zongzi still important to the young
- 50-year-olds are the key target of alcoholic drinks
- 25-39-year-olds most likely to celebrate Valentine’s Day
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- Figure 24: Attitude towards traditional festive foods (is a must-have), by age, December 2017
Gifting Habits
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- Gifting food on Chinese New Year and Mid-Autumn Festival most common
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- Figure 25: Festivals on which consumers buy food as gifts for others, December 2017
- On which festivals are consumers gifting more?
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- Figure 26: Festivals on which consumers buy food as gifts for others, 2017 vs 2015
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- Figure 27: Festivals on which consumers buy food as gifts for others, by spending trends, December 2017
- Who’s gifting more?
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- Figure 28: Festivals on which consumers buy food as gifts for others, by age (compared with average), December 2017
Gifting Product Preference
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- Choices of gifts vary with the recipients
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- Figure 29: Choices of festival gifts, by recipient, December 2017
- Females gift more food; males gift more drinks
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- Figure 30: Popularity index^ of festival gifts, by gender, December 2017
- Food as festival gifts for friends/colleagues is not ideal
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- Figure 31: Rankings of festival gifts for friends/colleagues, by age, December 2017
- Business owner/management have stronger business gifting needs
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- Figure 32: Festival gifts for business partner, by employment type, December 2017
Purchase Factors
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- Good value for money dominates consumers’ spending philosophy
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- Figure 33: Product features of festive foods, by occasion, December 2017
- Classic festive foods are preferred…
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- Figure 34: Product features (brand and flavour-related) of festive foods, by occasion, December 2017
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- Figure 35: Example of Hsu Fu Chi New Year Candy, China, 2017
- …but the young seek trendiness for self-consumption
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- Figure 36: Product features (brand-related) of festive foods, by occasion, 20-24-year-olds, December 2017
Brand Preference for Traditional Festive Foods
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- Being conservative towards cross-category brands
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- Figure 37: Interested brands to launch traditional Chinese festive foods, December 2017
- Supermarkets/hypermarkets get the most attention
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- Figure 38: Consumers who are interested in buying traditional Chinese festive foods from supermarkets/hypermarkets, by demographics, December 2017
- Foodservice has potential to attract young consumers
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- Figure 39: Interested brands to launch traditional Chinese festive foods, by age, December 2017
- Online shoppers express more interest in coffee houses
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- Figure 40: Gaps between consumers who prefer buying gifting festive food in-store and who prefer buying online (as benchmark) in terms of interested brands to launch traditional Chinese festive foods, December 2017
Purchasing Trends
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- Spending on festive foods are increasing
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- Figure 41: Spending trends on festive foods, by occasion, December 2017
- 25-29-year-olds spend more for self-consumption; over-50s increase gifting spending
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- Figure 42: Spending trends on festive foods, by age, December 2017
- Higher potential in lower tier cities, especially for gifting
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- Figure 43: Spending trends on festive foods, by city tier, December 2017
- Gifting with actual products and in person still more common
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- Figure 44: Gifting preference, by age, December 2017
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- Figure 45: Muskoka Brewery Winter Survival Sampler Beer, Canada, 2017
- Figure 46: Example of Mengniu’s gift cards, China, 2017
Meet the Mintropolitans
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- MinTs gift significantly more on Western festivals
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- Figure 47: Gaps between MinTs and Non-MinTs (as benchmark) in terms of festivals on which they buy foods as gifts for others, December 2017
- MinTs buy more alcohol gifts
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- Figure 48: Gaps between MinTs and Non-MinTs in terms of products as festival gifts for different recipients, December 2017
- MinTs express more interest in festive foods from luxury hotels
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- Figure 49: Gaps between MinTs and Non-MinTs in terms of interested brands to launch traditional Chinese festive foods, December 2017
Appendix – Methodology and Abbreviations
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- Methodology
- Abbreviations
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