Viral love song sweetens online sales of jam

The love song Dark Plum Jam by Chinese singer Li Ronghao has gone viral recently, triggering a wave of purchases of related products and bringing sweet gains to jam makers nationwide.

Li's song has made "dark plum jam" one of the top 10 searched phrases on e-commerce platform Taobao, with the number of searches surging 200-fold in the first week of the song's debut, with sales of apple and blueberry jam products on the platform surging 100 percent year-on-year.

"Sweetness doubled when the song sweetened my ears and the jam sweetened my taste buds," said a fan surnamed Wang in an after-sales comment.

Currently, on Taobao, the price of a jar of dark plum jam ranges from 20 yuan ($2.9) to 140 yuan, with many such products carrying tags cueing Li's song, which offers a "taste of love".

Prior to the song's debut, however, jam sales were quite different. In 2021, among all condiment consumers in China, 79.8 percent of them purchased salt and 76.5 percent bought soy sauce, while only less than 5 percent of them bought jam products, according to the Shenzhen, Guangdong province-based Qianzhan Industry Research Institute.

The dining habits of Chinese consumers may be attributed to a relatively lower proportion. Yu, a 35-year-old housewife in Beijing, said, "My family seldom has jam during dinner and the annual purchase of such products is more or less four to five jars."

Enterprises, however, consume more jam. Official data showed that in 2020, jam purchased by enterprises including Yili Group, Mengniu Dairy and Guangming Dairy surpassed 300,000 metric tons, while that by chain stores was nearly 4 million tons.

In terms of flavor, cherry, blueberry and cranberry have become the most popular flavors in the past three years, the institute said.

"It is not difficult to develop new flavors. What is difficult is finding a balanced point between large-scale production and product quality," said Wu Shaoge, a consumption analyst at market information observer Xinlingshou, which operates on WeChat.

Wu said domestic jam manufacturers should improve product quality, including taste, appearance and flavor. Meanwhile, they should enhance the food safety and nutritious benefits of their products and avoid adding additives.

Wu said: "New flavors, such as dark plum, are a good way to reach more consumers. They may also work with other enterprises to jointly develop new products."

However, he warned that "the increase in popularity brought by the song can only last for a limited period. To achieve long-term development, domestic jam manufacturers should make efforts in quality, flavor and marketing".