Since 2010, Binggrae’s banana-flavored milk has become a staple in China’s dairy market. Its unique moon jar shape stands out from other dairy products and has gained fame for being a design that even China, known for its imitation products, cannot replicate.
According to Binggrae, in the first half of 2023, the sales of banana-flavored milk in China reached $138 million, achieving significant profits. This is a more than 64% increase from $84 million in sales recorded in the same period in 2022.
Although the COVID-19 pandemic led to a 23% decrease in sales to around $168 million due to travel restrictions to China, the sales have since rebounded.
China’s market represents 36% of the 30 countries where Binggrae exports its banana-flavored milk. The product accounts for about 70% of Binggrae’s sales in China, in contrast to other countries where ice cream Melona is the main export item.
Binggrae started small-scale exports of banana-flavored milk to China around the 2008 Beijing Olympics and continued expanding its export activities after establishing a local subsidiary in 2014.
Banana-flavored milk is credited with creating a new beverage category in the Chinese market, primarily focused on tea and with a smaller market size. Most dairy products in China were plain milk, and many experts predicted that processed milk, like banana-flavored milk, would struggle to succeed.
However, Binggrae built a distribution network centered around Lawson, a convenience store chain with many franchises in Chinese cities like Beijing and Shanghai, and expanded its distribution channels to FamilyMart and 7-Eleven.
In addition, Binggrae developed a strategy to raise awareness of the unfamiliar banana-flavored milk among Chinese tourists visiting Korea. They began displaying Chinese advertisements at significant tourist spots in Korea, promoting it as Korea’s No. 1 Banana-Flavored Milk, to encourage recognition and purchase of the product upon their return to China.
The timing of banana-flavored milk’s entry into China coincided with the Korean Wave, boosting its popularity. Notably, a scene in the drama Rooftop Prince featuring actor Park Yoo Chun from TVXQ drinking banana-flavored milk left a strong impression on Chinese consumers.
Afterward, the product gained a loyal fan base in China, being featured in travel guidebooks as a must-try Korean food and receiving positive word-of-mouth reviews on Chinese social media.
Some analysts suggest that the Chinese culture’s preference for the color gold contributed significantly to the popularity of banana-flavored milk.
A Binggrae representative explained that before Binggrae entered, the Chinese market was primarily focused on plain milk and tea. The traditional Chinese preference for gold and yellow colors and the Korean Wave are essential to banana-flavored milk’s popularity.”
After achieving sales of $126 million in 2015, banana-flavored milk continued its upward trend, surpassing $168 million in 2019, and even soared to $219 million in 2021, when the COVID-19 pandemic began to subside.
While imitation products have emerged in China following the success of banana-flavored milk, they have been unable to copy Binggrae’s unique moon jar bottle design.
The product requires a more complex manufacturing process than other containers, resulting in higher costs. Unlike the injection or pressing methods commonly used by manufacturers, a high-tech process involves spinning separate top and bottom cups at high speed to join them through friction heat.
Currently, only Binggrae exclusively produces this jar-shaped container.
A Binggrae representative explained, “Because the equipment manufacturer has disappeared, no other company in the world can produce containers in this way except for Binggrae.”
This means that other companies wanting to produce beverages in this specific model simply cannot, making it impossible even for China, known for its imitation products, to produce jar-shaped banana-flavored milk.
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