The New Era Of Consumption Is Here! How Did 'Zongzi King' Wufangzhai Go Viral With Its Packaging Strength?

The new era of consumption is here! How did 'Zongzi King' Wufangzhai go viral with its packaging strength?

On September 18-19, the 2025 Printing and Packaging Industry Economic Forum and National Printing Managers Annual Conference were held in Hangzhou, Zhejiang. At the meeting, many industry leaders presented wonderful sharing, inspiring new thinking and new directions for the participating colleagues. Next, we will sort out the highlights of the annual meeting one after another, and more exciting things are worth looking forward to!

This issue selects Xu Lifeng, visual director of Zhejiang Wufangzhai Industrial Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Wufangzhai), with the theme of "Responding to Consumer Trends, Innovative Integration of Paper Packaging and Brands".

In the context of printing and packaging, paper packaging is extremely important as one of the carriers of corporate brand communication concepts. It can be both a symbol and a designer's creativity, and it can also become a special memory point for the brand to convey to consumers. Taking Wufangzhai as an example, I will share the ideas and specific practices of terminal enterprises around the theme of paper packaging integration and innovation.

Changes in the consumer market in the "stock era"

According to the data of the "2025 White Paper on the Consumption and Brand Status of China's Zongzi Industry", 75% of consumers will buy because of affordable price, 60% of consumers will buy because of exquisite packaging, 63% of consumers will buy because of good taste, 40% of consumers will buy because of creative advertising, and 25% will buy because of good brand reputation. It can be seen that the importance of exquisite packaging for the sales of rice dumpling products.

In addition, according to e-commerce data, rice dumpling gift boxes account for about 80%, mainly for gifts and mid-to-high-end family consumption, and gift box packaging with both ceremonial and practical design is more favored. With the development of new consumer trends, young people are more environmentally friendly, healthy and personalized. In the packaging style of rice dumplings preferred by China's "Generation Z" group, the simple style ranks first (70%), followed by the national tide style (60%), while the young group pursues healthy and low-fat rice dumplings, and simple and environmentally friendly packaging has become the main tone.

From small to big, the changes in the consumer demand for rice dumplings reflect the current situation of China's consumer market to a certain extent. Focusing on the three cores of the consumer goods market - "people, goods, and fields", let's analyze the current changes in consumers and how should brands and printing and packaging companies respond?

In the old consumption era, whether it is Wufangzhai or other brands, as long as the goods are put in the shopping mall, consumers will buy them. Many first-tier brands previously relied on advantageous offline traditional channels, coupled with brand influence, and reaped generous dividends in the past few years. Now that we have entered the stock era, the domestic market has become saturated, and many companies have proposed to enter overseas markets. From the incremental competition of the old consumption era to today's stock competition, "people, goods, and fields" are undergoing changes and adjustments.

From the perspective of "people", it is mainly reflected in six dimensions. First, diversification, in the past, consumers pursued branding, but now young people pursue diversification, pursuing design, quality, cost performance, and service; second, self-pleasing, consumers' choices have changed from focusing on mainstream well-known labels to pursuing self-expression and value recognition; the third is experiential, from shopping for shopping to shopping for experience; Fourth, flattening, in the past, consumers believed in the information conveyed by big brands, but now due to many information touchpoints, consumers look at six ways and listen to all directions; fifth, impulsive, from thoughtful to scenario-based consumption, buy out of impulse; Sixth, the purchase channel is seamlessly connected from offline to online and offline.

All in all, with the change of new consumer values, young consumers are more willing to use the shortest time and the least amount of money to get the strongest experience, and they are becoming more and more sensitive to price.

From the perspective of changes in the "field", on the one hand, new channels, new consumption scenarios, and new consumer groups are rising; On the other hand, more and more enterprises are joining the ranks of price competition, hoping to rely on the advantages of supply chains or channels, customers and other advantages to create a low-price profit model, and enterprises, brands, channels, buyers, and anchors with differentiated positioning, commodity screening capabilities and screening capabilities are becoming more and more popular.

From the perspective of changes in "goods", changes in consumer trends and markets have also brought new development opportunities to brands. In the past two years, Wufangzhai has actively engaged in in-depth exchanges with customers in terms of surrounding cultural creation, product and category innovation, so that consumers can deepen their understanding of the brand. For example, the state has always advocated the weight reduction of rice dumpling packaging and opposed excessive packaging. We have done a lot of work in packaging recycling and reuse, and have also developed low-cost, experience-oriented, and homogeneous packaging products. Wufangzhai has also expanded many mass-market membership stores and customized customers, such as hotels and personalized cultural and creative companies, to cater to the changes of consumers through personalized customization.