The “Yellow Beam Dream” of Plant Milk

From artificial meat to vegetable milk, behind the social trend is the power of capital to fuel the flames. New Entropy Original Author | Yipage Editor | Xiangyang The capital predators of Wall Street have long been vegetarian. In 2019, Beyond Meat, the “first share of artificial meat”, struck the bell on Nasdaq. The stock price soared by 163% on the first day of the IPO. The stock issue price of $25 has recently been fixed at about $137. Today after the epidemic, healthy eating has once again become a hot spot. OATLY, an old-fashioned oat milk company in Sweden, has reported an IPO with a valuation of up to 10 billion U.S. dollars. In the eyes of financial traders, vegetable milk seems to be better than artificial meat. Investors before Beyond Meat’s listing include American food giant Tyson, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, famous movie star Leonardo, and former McDonald’s CEO Don Thompson. The current shareholder lineup behind OATLY is also exceptionally luxurious, including Belgian private equity funds Verlinvest, China Resources, Blackstone, former chairman of Starbucks Howard Schultz, Academy Award winner Natalie Portman, famous American rapper Jay-Z. Financial giants, top businessmen, and artistic stars have almost gathered all kinds of faces from the mainstream elite. Whether it is artificial meat or plant milk, it is labeled as environmental protection, health, technology, and nutrition, which to a certain extent represents the trend of future dietary development. The turmoil of international finance naturally cannot escape the eyes of domestic capital. A re-engraving movement is staged in the domestic investment and financing circle in 2020. According to the company’s data, the plant protein track will usher in an outbreak in 2020. A total of 15 financing events occurred throughout the year, with a total amount of 1.563 billion yuan, accounting for 83% of the total amount of financing in the history. It has become the development of domestic plant protein. The most rapid year. Among the total scale of 1.5 billion yuan, OATLY is also the leader. Its domestic main body, Ouli Beverage, received a total of 1.323 billion yuan in financing throughout the year. In contrast, the total financing scale of all artificial meat projects is only 225 million yuan. The taste preferences of capital are exactly the same. However, unlike foreign plant-based foods, which focus on environmental protection and green concepts, consumers in the domestic market place more emphasis on functionality. Known as the “gospel of lactose intolerance” and “favorite of fitness enthusiasts” plant milk, first started a dietary revolution from offline cafes and e-commerce platforms. In this wave of capital, what should OATLY and its domestic followers, as well as the long-established brands of the plant protein beverage track, go from? 01 Leading the market driven by marketing OATLY was born in the School of Nutrition at Lund University in Sweden in the 1990s. Two laboratory professors invented a special enzyme. Almost all the nutrients in oats can be extracted through this enzyme and converted into liquid form. Rickard ste, one of the founders, is a disciple of Arne Dahlkvist, the discoverer of “lactose intolerance”. His original intention for developing oat milk products was to give people who suffer from lactose intolerance the freedom of “milk” products. But this small company, which has been established for nearly 30 years, has been in a state of obscurity in the market. In the early days, beverage products for niche groups were not recognized by the mass market, and distributors would not invest enough resources and energy to help the brand grow. The positioning of “functional milk substitutes” has been madly suppressed by the traditional dairy industry. OATLY, which has suffered from the enemy, has focused on a single product track and has been silent for twenty years. Until 2014, the younger brother of Rickard Ste, a partner living in the United States, discovered that more and more young people are forming new lifestyles and market trends through social media. OATLY decided to take the initiative, targeting millennials and the new middle class, transforming into a lifestyle brand that leads an environmentally friendly and healthy life and spreads the concept of green and sustainable development. After introducing the young CEO Toni Petersson, OATLY changed its past low-key posture and started a marketing counterattack. Toni is well versed in the brand mentality implantation of young people, introducing a large number of creative talents, and fitting the audience’s capabilities in brand packaging and promotional copywriting. Since black advertising slogans, touch porcelain traditional dairy giants, a maverick, unruly brand tone, deeply loved by anti-traditional, anti-authoritative young consumers. The CEO himself also appeared on the scene to shoot the video advertisement for the Super Bowl in 2021. The lack of sound has the effect of an unexpected ghost animal “debut” by the founder of a domestic Internet giant. After entering the domestic market, OATLY’s marketing strategy continued its quirky style. The original Chinese characters added a “艹” above the word “Milk” to show the essence of green plant raw materials. It is really refreshing and an impressive impression. point. The marketing methods on the surface are novel and interesting, and the corporate culture and brand story inside are also a place where OATLY has a lot of ink. For example, the company promises to fully comply with the highest environmental standards during the entire production process until the product is distributed to customers. Brainstorming is the first to print the product’s greenhouse gas emissions on the packaging box. For example, producing the same amount of OATLY oat milk can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 80% compared with milk. And through cooperation with the Swedish transportation and logistics company Einride, the use of electric-driven trucks to transport raw materials and products to reduce carbon emissions. Such a trinity marketing strategy that integrates products, brands, and companies has successfully created a highly unified image of green and environmental protection. At the time when the “white left” trend in Western countries is flooding, oat milk quickly defeated its opponents and occupied a considerable amount. Drink market. However, excessive marketing has also caused misfortune. In 2014, the Swedish dairy group LRF Mj lk sued OATLY on the grounds that its advertising content damaged the image of milk. Losing the lawsuit, fines, and not allowing negative information about milk to be mentioned in advertisements and publicity, did not stop the OATLY market from becoming hot. Domestic dairy industry experts have also stated that according to the protein content of OATLY’s product oatmeal is only 1 gram, it does not meet the relevant regulations of the “Plant Protein Beverage Soy Milk and Soy Milk Beverage” standard: each 100 grams contains more than 2 grams of protein to be weighed. For soy milk. One hundred grams of protein with less than 2 grams and more than 1 gram can only be called soy milk beverages. Oat milk is a far cry from the word “milk” in its name. This branded product that emerged from the laboratory started out in technology and in marketing, and is now being lifted to the “peak” by capital. But the long-term market is by no means a company driven by marketing alone that can stand out from the crowd. Returning to the essence of the product and the original intention of science and technology are the issues that OATLY should consider after obtaining capital assistance. 02 The local old brand is self-proclaimed Oat milk has become a new diet choice for the younger generation, consumers who are pursuing a healthy and quality life. But on the track of plant protein drinks, the products and brands of domestic companies have never been absent. Plant protein drinks, as the name implies, refer to liquid foods that are processed by separating the protein substances contained in plants by artificial means. According to legend, during the Western Han Dynasty, Huainan King Liu An invented soy milk and became a traditional drink of the Han nationality in China. Common plants that can squeeze protein, in addition to soybeans as raw materials for soy milk, almonds, coconuts, walnuts, and oats have also made their appearances through technological advancements. In the 1970s, Japan had already imported almonds from China. Based on the “Apricot and Butter Congee” in the “Tai Ping Sheng Hui Fang” of traditional Chinese medicine, Japan developed the earliest almond milk product and used it to entertain the then Minister of State Agriculture and Reclamation. Wang Zhen who went abroad to visit and inspect. After Minister Wang Zhen returned to China, he instructed Hebei Chengde Canned Food Factory to speed up the development of almond juice beverages and food, and finally contributed to a generation of national beverage brands, Chengde Lulu’s market story. Almonds are abundant in the north, and Hainan Island, the southernmost island, is famous for its coconut trees. Recently, the coconut palm juice, which has been frequently searched for by adhering to the controversial advertising and marketing style for decades, is actually a time-honored brand of domestic plant-based protein drinks. Visiting relatives and friends during the Chinese New Year, corresponding to the indispensable melatonin for visiting the elderly, the six favorite walnut drinks of the children next door are also in the same family as OATLY’s oat milk. What is puzzling is that in the Oriental diet market, which should be dominated by agricultural fiber foods, brand products of plant milk type have never been able to reach the height of Western OATLY. Exploring the logic behind it can not only help local time-honored brands rejuvenate and regenerate, but also help to penetrate the barriers of capital and see the essence of the oat milk market. Looking at plant protein beverages such as almond milk, coconut milk, and walnut milk, their birth in the domestic market has not encountered resistance to the traditional eating habits of western residents, which mainly rely on meat foods, but they have lost a stimulus. Opposition, the tipping point of social topics. In the secular Eastern market, manufacturers unanimously choose functionality rather than substitution as the selling point of their products. Such as the nutritional value, taste effect, and even the “drinking from childhood to large” of coconut palm juice and the brain-building effects of six walnuts. This was indeed effective in the 1980s and 1990s, when the market was in the early stage of chaos, when the average level of consumer scientific literacy was not high, and sales were once a rainbow. But in the new century, for young people with a higher education level, marketing advertisements that can be broken with one click have become a joke and are worthless. The long-established brands that once relied on a trick to eat fresh food all over the world, due to the high loyalty of the niche market, lying on the corner of the credit, lack of ambition to challenge the carbonated beverage giants, product development progress has also stalled. The six walnut parent company Yangyuan Drinks has a market value of around 30 billion yuan, and the main product is even a series of six walnuts. The product introductions on the official website can only be used to make up the number of fine-quality, refined, selected, classic and other styles. However, the rise of the plant milk market in Europe and the United States has allowed domestic plant protein beverage manufacturers and traditional dairy giants to continue to follow up the pace. After the six walnuts, Yangyuan Beverage finally launched its second major product series-Daily Yangyuan; Yili Zhixuan and Mengniu “Yiduomai” have been put on supermarket shelves one after another. The global leader in carbonated beverages does not intend to sit on the sidelines. Coca-Cola recently released its first oatmeal grain beverage and soy milk plant-based protein beverage, officially deploying the plant-based beverage market in China. PepsiCo also announced a partnership with Beyond Meat, the first artificial meat company, to launch new plant protein products. Under the domestic capital boom driven by OATLY, local new brands such as Aomay Planet, OATOAT, and Plant Label have received financing scales in the tens of millions, and they do not put a lot of industry predecessors and bigwigs in their eyes. It can be inferred, OATLY’s explosive market logic at home and abroad, on the surface, is the innovation of marketing and channels, but the deep level is that the root needs are very different. This is also one of the reasons why the capital of the domestic plant milk industry is churning and entering the game continuously. The future market status is far from settled. 03 The hot track may be short-lived According to the “2020 Plant Protein Beverage Innovation Trends” published by Tmall New Product Innovation Center, the plant protein beverage market will grow by 800% in 2020. In the beverage market, growth contributes 15.5%, which is a high-speed engine for the growth of the beverage market. The root cause of the unusually hot market performance is related to the rapidly increasing demand for healthy eating and online shopping habits of consumers in the post-epidemic era. At the beginning of 2018, the first batch of OATLY products arrived in Shanghai from Sweden. Zhang Chun, President of Asia, stood at the port with confidence, looking forward to continuing the boom in the European and American markets in China. As a result, before and after the Spring Festival, he watched his own products on the shelves without anyone interested. The traditional domestic plant protein drinks are classified into the milk beverages of Nutrition Express, which are distinct from pure dairy products. The first battle of OTALY, which tried to replace milk, fell on the battlefield of offline convenience stores. Moving to the third space for offline beverage preparations such as Starbucks and Hey Tea, and OATLY, which is an e-commerce channel such as Tmall, will finally break out after two years. The inevitable market mutation is the impact of the epidemic. After the pandemic, consumers’ caution in importing food and the development of online consumption habits have contributed to the outbreak of the plant milk market from the side. According to the report, among the current consumer portraits of plant protein beverages, generation Z people aged 18-24 account for approximately 23%, ranking first among all concerned groups. From the perspective of identity, delicate mothers and young white-collar workers in high-tier cities have a higher degree of acceptance of the concept of “plant-based”. From the consumer perspective, users with high consumption and high net worth are the main consumers of plant milk, and the resulting high premium can just make up for the cost of crazy marketing. However, with the economic downturn, the signs of K-shaped recovery are obvious, and the gap between the rich and the poor has further widened. The saturation of penetration in first- and second-tier cities has led to how new brands such as OATLY enter the sinking market and penetrate into the hinterland of local time-honored brands, which has become the biggest suspense in the future of the track. The current main audience, although willing to try new things and follow suit, is “played” by brand companies familiar with modern social network communication marketing techniques. However, compared with the older generation of consumers, its loyalty is also greatly reduced. It is only a matter of time before the mirage of excessively exaggerating marketing is restored. For example, “the vast majority of Chinese people do not have the lactase gene and cannot digest lactose in the stomach and intestines. Therefore, Chinese people are not suitable for drinking milk. Drinking it will only cause diarrhea and flatulence.” Untenable. According to the recommendations of the Chinese Residents’ Dietary Guidelines, as long as an adult’s intake of milk reaches 300g per day, the nutritional value of calcium and animal protein in milk is far from comparable to that of the dietary fiber in plant milk. Zhu Hao’s native family was deeply influenced by religion. After entering society, he embraced environmentalism and became a staunch vegetarian. But he sneered at the Vegan group abroad (do not eat meat, milk, eggs, etc., and some do not use animal products). One of the OATLY investors mentioned above, the American actress Natalie Portman, once called for veganism among thousands of young people in public, saying that “eating eggs and drinking milk is a squeeze of women.” This remark was criticized by the domestic Weibo blogger “War History Research WHS”: “Young students who are in need of nourishment promote a vegetarian diet, just like Jiang Song Meiling’s hard work to promote the new life movement in Beiping. The main reason is stupid, stupid. Lead to bad.” Zhu Hao, who runs a vegetarian restaurant on the bank of West Lake, has observed and tried processed plant-based products of many domestic and foreign corporate brands and concluded: “It may be due to cost or technology constraints. The processed vegetarian products currently on the market, Artificial meat plant milk contains a large number of industrially added ingredients, and the original health intentions of vegetarians have not been reflected at all.” A friend of his who is good at fitness also has a similar view: “We in the fitness circle know that the more natural the food, the healthier, the more processed the more harmful. These vegetarian foods and beverages are processed products, and the taste and taste are good because of various additives. It is to attract so-called fitness enthusiasts with weak willpower.” Therefore, Zhu Hao chose to run a vegetarian restaurant with a barely balanced profit and loss to practice and promote healthy vegetarianism. Naturally, he would not be treated differently by any business or capital. Although Qi Fei is recognized and questioned, it is an indisputable fact that OATLY and its plant-based milk track have become the “Pearl of the Hand” of the capital. The long-established domestic traditional plant protein drinks, Yangyuan Drinks and Vitasoy International are also gearing up to rejuvenate their second spring. But the race against time is not just the companies and capitals in the plant milk industry, but the increasingly sober consumers, no matter how difficult it is to be deceived by concepts, advertising, channels, and marketing. It is only a momentary thing that a brand has been promoted quickly and negative word-of-mouth is boosted by social media. The last person who issued a statement apologized to Yuanqi Forest. Can OATLY be far behind? (*The characters in the text are all pseudonyms)