Swot Analysis Of Chinese Milk Powder

BEINGMATE INFANT MILK POWDER:

The Next Step for Chinese Domestic Milk Powder

XIAOLIN LIU

Abstract

BEINMATE, is one of the most famous Chinese domestic milk powder brand, but its sales was hit a brutal decline after the SANLU milk powder scandal in 2008. Even after seven years, the Chinese has still lost confidence in the domestic milk powder, and the imported milk powder has enjoyed a great potential in Chinese market since then. In this article, I will use ethnographic theory and method, including “participant observation” and “interview”, to find out solutions for BEINGMATE in order to rebuild confidence for Chinese domestic brand among customers.

BEINGMATE Introduction

BEINGMATE，established in 1992 and headquartered in Hangzhou, is a

In order to reduce the high inventory, the company has done lots of promotion in the terminal market, leading to higher marketing expenses and thus affecting the bottom line. However, the situation in BEINGMATE is just a miniature of Chinese diary market, and shows the subsequent influence of SANLU scandal. SANLU milk scandal, occurred in 2008, was a serious food safety and incident in China. SANLU was exposed that its infant formula has adulterated with melamine, which resulted in an estimated 300,000 victims with six infants’ death. Chinese customers have totally lost confidence in Chinese dairy industry, even seven years past after the sanlu

Last April, I spent my study break in a local supermarket, working as a part-time sales assistant and charging the dairy products. There are three shelves for infant milk powder, one of them are imported milk powder, including MeadJohnson, Augood, Wyeth, and the other two are domestic brand, like BEINGMATE, YASHILY and FIRMUS etc. the products of BEINGMATE are in the middle of the shelves where are very attractive, which shows that the terminal market has much confidence in its products. The shelves are always decorated with some promotion advertisements, in which the toys and textiles are the most popular. In my one month’s observation, I noticed that even in the terminal market, like supermarkets, the sales for domestic brands are still lower than imported one, though the price of the imported products are much higher. The sales of BEINGMATE are general, which shows that there is a certain consumer base for BEINGATE. Also, the customers for milk powder are usually young couples and they usually spend less time on selecting, instead they always buy a specific brand. Even though sometimes I will come up to talk with them in order to give them some suggestions, especially for some promotions, they would listen and most of them would still insist on their original ideas. This shows that customers usually have strong brand loyalty and don’t care too much about the costs for the milk