Editor’s Note
The story of Chicecream’s rise and fall serves as a cautionary tale in the competitive consumer market. Its signature high-priced “ice cream assassin” strategy initially captured attention but ultimately proved unsustainable. This piece examines how a brand built on premium shock value melted away when consumer priorities shifted, highlighting the enduring importance of genuine value over fleeting novelty.
In the scorching heat of July, the cold drink market enters its peak sales season. Chicecream, a once-silent ice cream brand, has made headlines again. Seven years ago, its “Ecuadorian Pink Diamond” ice cream bar, priced at 66 yuan, shocked the market. So expensive that even Häagen-Dazs paled in comparison, it was dubbed the “ice cream assassin” by consumers. Now, news of its bankruptcy has thrust it back into the spotlight. To the outside world, this not only marks the collapse of a high-price myth but also signals a new transformation in this summer’s cold drink market.
On a summer afternoon, several adjacent ice cream wholesale shops on Fenghuang West Street in Nanjing’s Gulou District were deserted. Over ten freezers were lined up inside. Randomly opening a few revealed no trace of Chicecream. A subsequent search on platforms like Hema and Dingdong for “Chicecream” yielded no related products for sale. Even on the brand’s flagship store on Taobao, only three products were available. A social media platform shows that Chicecream’s official account updates stopped in March this year.
Why has the once high-priced ice cream “melted”? In the view of many ice cream operators, Chicecream’s situation is lamentable and serves as a wake-up call for the industry. The memory of founder Lin Sheng selling sweet potatoes live last year, with “2.5 kg for 42.9 yuan” mocked as a “sweet potato assassin,” is still fresh. The rise and fall of the “ice cream assassin” is a profound warning against a high-price model reliant on marketing gimmicks and detached from intrinsic value.
It’s found that Chicecream’s predicament is not an isolated case; the entire premium ice cream market is currently experiencing an unprecedented “cooling off.” The primary reason is the imbalance between cost and positioning. Layers of marketing investment, packaging costs, and channel fees force terminal prices too high, far exceeding the value of the raw materials themselves. When consumers return to rationality and question “why should an ice cream bar cost dozens of yuan,” the foundation of high pricing has already been shaken.
In stark contrast to the plight of high-priced products like Chicecream, consumers are voting with their wallets, pushing affordable ice cream back to the industry mainstream. Priced around 5 yuan, budget-friendly ice creams firmly dominate the market. Visits to multiple ice cream shops revealed that classic ice creams carrying public memory, such as Yili Bitter Coffee, Mengniu Green Mood, and Bright Brick Ice Cream, have reclaimed top spots on the season’s bestseller lists in supermarket freezers and street-side cold drink shops, thanks to stable quality, familiar taste, and undeniable cost-effectiveness.
Data from Qichacha shows that since the beginning of this year, 2,204 ice cream-related enterprises have been registered, indicating sustained market heat. Within this wave of growth, products for mass daily consumption that are affordable and offer good value have become the absolute main force. Consumers’ choices clearly convey a signal: for the core need of relieving summer heat, practical, reliable, and unpretentious affordable ice cream remains the irreplaceable first choice.
Speaking about the current ice cream sales situation, Wang Ying, who has been in the cold drink wholesale business for over five years, lamented that this year’s sales have dropped by about one-third compared to previous years, especially for high-end brands, whose overall sales are not very promising. The same situation is occurring in other ice cream shops. In a summer absent of high-priced ice creams, can affordable ice creams support the entire market?
The relative chill in the ice cream market stems not only from consumer resistance to inflated prices but also from the impact of the food delivery “business war.” Under powerful subsidy offensives, “spend X, save Y” coupons have “ignited” sales, leading to a collective surge in orders for many chain new tea drink shops. Staff at a Mixue Bingcheng store in Nanjing’s Jianye District admitted frankly:
On one side are constantly exploding drink orders, and on the other are disappearing high-priced ice creams. Both undoubtedly pose a huge impact on the ice cream market. In several convenience stores in Nanjing, it was found that high-priced ice cream bars priced at 9.9 yuan and above accounted for up to 68% of the freezer stock. In mid-July, during a “spend 100, save 50” super discount campaign at 7-11 convenience stores in Jiangsu, shelves in many stores were already “empty” around 3 p.m., with only the ice creams in the freezers remaining unmoved. The best-selling product on that shelf was actually a 3.5 yuan ice cup. Meanwhile, with platform discounts like “spend 15, save 10” and “50% off milk tea/coffee coupons,” an originally 20-yuan cup of iced milk tea or iced coffee could be obtained for only 10-12 yuan. A freshly made icy drink that can be enjoyed slowly and offers longer-lasting thirst-quenching effects holds a crushing advantage in cost-effectiveness and convenience compared to a quickly consumed high-priced ice cream bar.
Facing the dual pressure of sluggish sales for high-priced products in traditional offline channels and the fierce competition from food delivery drinks, the ice cream market, caught between a rock and a hard place, must find ways to recapture some of the market share taken by delivery drinks. Seeking change is the only way out.
Differences in consumption preferences between younger and middle-aged/older groups are fracturing the ice cream market’s foundation. However, a closer look reveals that with growing consumer health awareness, healthy elements like low sugar, low fat, and no additives have become mainstream market trends, with more attention paid to ingredient lists. Many manufacturers have already moved with the “wind.” An industry insider revealed:
Simultaneously, freshly made ice cream is rapidly capturing the market with its “freshness” advantage. “Mr. Savage” is one example. In just four months, its store count has risen from 400 to 900, spread across major commercial complexes in Nanjing.
In the process of seeking change, cultural and creative ice creams have also emerged as a bright spot in the market with their unique value proposition. Whether it’s the Nanjing Museum’s treasured plum vase ice cream, Suzhou’s Humble Administrator Garden’s Jian Shan Lou ice cream, or Changzhou Dinosaur Park’s cute dinosaur ice cream, they have evolved from simple “thirst-quenching and cooling” items into composite carriers of “emotional memorabilia + social sharing,” becoming a “must-have” for tourist check-ins.
When it comes to the top cultural and tourism activity this summer, “Su Chao” (Jiangsu City Football League) is undoubtedly it, and the cultural and creative ice cream craze has spread here too. Currently, the Jiangsu City Football League is in full swing, with city-themed cultural and creative ice creams launched at event sites, becoming a new favorite for fans to express a sense of belonging. Even with prices as high as 15-30 yuan, the deep empowerment of cultural IP and specific scenarios support emotional consumption impulses that justify pricing higher than affordable ice creams, attracting a large number of consumers to pay.
Chicecream’s bankruptcy restructuring marks the end of a noisy era in the ice cream market. But this summer, the fierce competition in the cold drink market is also making the future development landscape of the industry increasingly clear.