With the recovery of consumption power and the continuous expansion of diversified demand, the catering industry has shown a momentum of diversification and vigorous development, and China's fine dining industry has also grown steadily on a large scale. On January 25, the 2024 Black Pearl Restaurant Guide list was released, with 341 restaurants on the list, covering 30 cities around the world, and according to Meituan's internal data, the scale of China's fine dining industry will increase by 12% in 2023, which shows that consumer demand for fine dining is still strong.
2024 Black Pearl Restaurant Guide Release & Awards Ceremony.
For the third year in a row, VOSS has been the only officially recommended water in the Black Pearl Restaurant Guide.
The Black Pearl Restaurant Guide is the first gastronomic guide released by Meituan to propose a standard for Chinese taste buds. The guide is based on three judging criteria: culinary level, experience and experience, and inheritance and innovation, and is anonymously visited, scored and selected by many food experts. As the name suggests, the restaurants on this list are as rare as black pearls and are considered to be the pinnacles of local food culture.
As a symbol of the fine dining industry, Black Pearl Restaurant has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. Fine dining restaurant, the pursuit of quality, detail and service, for customers to "moisturize things silently" way, to create a refined and elegant dining experience. Just like the first glass of water served to customers in a restaurant, people often do not deliberately observe the presence of water, but the high quality and product attributes of the water used to accompany the meal have been integrated into the overall service and atmosphere of the restaurant, which reflects the pursuit of excellence in details in fine dining.
VOSS was a partner at the "Black Pearl" ceremony.
As the only officially recommended water, voss and the Black Pearl Restaurant Guide have renewed their relationship, achieving the cooperation between the two parties for three consecutive years. VOSS, a high-end natural drinking water from Norway, comes from deep artesian springs deep underground and is filled without any contact with the air and has a low total dissolved solids content (TDS). With its soft and comfortable taste, as well as the unique bottle design carefully created by Neil Kraft, the former design director of Calvin Klein, and the high-end brand tonality, it has become an indispensable "soul supporting role" at the table.
voss is a celebration of fine table culture.
Zhong Hao, Head of China Marketing at voss, said, "In addition to bringing a high-quality dining experience to Black Pearl Restaurant, VOSS has also doubled the brand's overall sales in the catering channel by using Black Pearl Restaurant as a channel starter. This year, we will continue to leverage our partnership with Black Pearl Restaurant Guide to further expand the market, cover more emerging cities, integrate innovative product experiences and services, empower F&B customers, and continue to provide emotional value to consumers. ”
Two-way empowerment Doubling sales of catering channels
According to the "2024 Black Pearl Restaurant Guide List", a total of 341 restaurants stand out, including 270 one-diamond restaurants, 60 two-diamond restaurants, and 11 three-diamond restaurants, and it is obvious from the top 5 dimensions of the mention rate of fine dining consumers that 82% of consumers attach great importance to taste and texture, followed by 61% value service attitude, and 51% mention the environmental atmosphere. In the future, fine dining will continue to move towards high-quality development.
Meituan's internal data presents the top 5 dimensions of consumer mentions rate of fine dining.
As the only officially recommended water for the Black Pearl Restaurant Guide for three consecutive years, voss has pushed the fine dining industry towards a more "sophisticated" level with its soft and crisp water quality, unique bottle design, and innovative product experiences and services.
voss "a flowing feast".
In 2023, VOSS will cooperate with Black Pearl Restaurant Guide and Black Pearl Diamond Restaurant Celebrity Chef to carry out a series of "Flowing Feasts" activities. By exploring the local culture, regional temperament and new consumption trends of different cities, consumers can experience the unique life aesthetics in the feast. It is reported that since the cooperation with the Black Pearl Restaurant Guide, the number of restaurants on the Black Pearl Restaurant Guide list that VOSS has entered has nearly tripled.
While empowering Black Pearl Restaurant, Voss also improved the penetration of catering channels and expanded the brand's influence with the help of in-depth cooperation with Black Pearl Restaurant. According to the data of 2023, VOSS has cooperated with nearly half of the restaurants on the Black Pearl list in the country, and the overall sales of the brand in the catering channel have nearly doubled year-on-year. The person in charge of voss China market said that through the cooperation with Black Pearl Restaurant Guide for three consecutive years, all parties in the fine dining industry chain have recognized the voss brand more quickly and frequently, thus effectively releasing the market potential.
Strong demand for high-quality consumers and expansion of market territory
According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, the total retail sales of consumer goods from January to November 2023 will reach 4279 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 72%。Among them, the retail sales of services, including catering, increased by 19% year-on-year5%, with the implementation of various policies and measures to promote consumption, China's consumer market has shown an accelerated upward trend.
A number of institutions jointly pointed out that the steady recovery of consumer demand has also shown a "K" shaped structure. The rising part of the "K" represents consumers' pursuit of high quality, unique value and experience, which also brings market space and growth opportunities for brands that can provide "beneficial" products and services.
Specific to the packaged drinking water market, with the improvement of the epidemic situation, the increase in consumers' outdoor travel and the improvement of health awareness, the scale of the packaged drinking water market has rebounded significantly. Among them, VOSS, as a representative brand of high-end drinking water, has conveyed high-quality products and the emotional value and ritual sense of the brand to consumers through cooperation with the Black Pearl Restaurant Guide, cooperation with high-end conferences and events, and the layout of five-star hotel channels.
In 2023, VOSS will continue to accurately understand market demand and expand emerging markets, and with the expansion plan of the Black Pearl Restaurant Guide, VOSS will simultaneously deepen its cooperation with fine dining outlets in 8 cities: Nanjing, Yangzhou, Wuhan, Shantou, Taizhou, Ningbo, Changsha and Wuxi. Through a series of cooperation, with the help of fine dining channels, we have seized the opportunity to lay out emerging markets, and at the same time promoted the growth of fine dining in new first-tier cities.
In 2024, the Black Pearl list shows that the rise of second-tier cities is accelerating, Fuzhou and Nanchang are opening for the first time in six years, and the number of Wuxi, Xiamen, and Taizhou on the list continues to grow.
Meituan's internal data presents a city analysis of China's fine dining market.
The latest data also shows that leading cities continue to develop steadily, and cutting-edge cities perform well, further releasing growth potential, among which East China cities represented by Wuxi, Suzhou and Changzhou have driven the growth of the region, which shows that there is still a lot of room for development in the cutting-edge market. In 2024, the voss brand will further expand its footprint and cover more emerging markets through its partnership with Black Pearl Restaurant Guide.
Innovate cooperation models and consolidate channel competition barriers
At a time when the channel competition in the FMCG industry has become very mature, it has become one of the core competitive strategies of brands to establish a differentiated channel layout through accurate customer insight and form competitive barriers with innovative business models.
Since entering the Chinese market, voss has drawn accurate user portraits and launched targeted brand promotion and channel marketing initiatives while laying out corresponding channels. In addition to the cooperation with Black Pearl Restaurant and the cultivation of fine dining channels, voss has also cooperated with high-end hotels such as InterContinental Hotels Group, Hyatt Hotels Group, Marriott International, Hilton Group, Shangri-La Hotels Group, etc., raising the competitive threshold of the industry. On the retail side, voss also selects high-quality terminals such as Sam's Club, Freshippo, OLE, and FamilyMart to more accurately reach the scenarios where target users are likely to make purchases.
In addition to horizontally developing multiple channels, how to tap more growth points in an innovative way on the existing channels has also become the key to channel competition that VOSS focuses on. It is understood that in 2024, VOSS will innovatively try to cooperate with Black Pearl Restaurant and launch it in many cities across the country"VOSS Black Pearl Restaurant Collaboration**"., for a wider range of consumer groups, to provide consumers with exquisite and elegant quality dining experience. This is a new model for voss to explore as the official partner of Black Pearl in 2024 and cooperate with customers in the catering channel, and it is also a necessary measure for voss to consolidate its leading brand position in the fine dining channel and fulfill its corporate responsibility and mission.