Brand Positioning Strategy of Wang Laoji in Red Pot —— This case was invited by Harvard Business Review.

The brand-released herbal tea published in its Chinese version in October, 2114 is a kind of "medicinal tea" made of Chinese herbal medicines in Guangdong and Guangxi, which has the functions of clearing heat and removing dampness. Among many old-fashioned herbal teas, Wang Laoji is the most famous. Wang Lao Ji herbal tea was invented in the light years of the Qing Dynasty, and has been recognized as the ancestor of herbal tea for 175 years, and is known as the "king of medicinal tea". In modern times, Wang Laoji herbal tea has spread all over the world with the footprints of Chinese.

In the early 1951s, due to political reasons, Wang Laoji Herbal Tea Shop was divided into two branches: one completed the public transformation and developed into today's Wang Laoji Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., producing Wang Laoji Herbal Tea Granules (National Medicine Zhunzi); The other was brought to Hong Kong by descendants of the Wang family. In Chinese mainland, Wang Laoji's brand is owned by Wang Laoji Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.; In countries and regions outside Chinese mainland, Wang Laoji brand is registered by Wang's descendants. Jiaduobao is a Hong Kong-owned company located in Dongguan. It is licensed by Wang Laoji Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. and the formula is provided by the descendants of Wang in Hong Kong. The company exclusively produces and operates Wang Laoji brand canned herbal tea (food name) in Chinese mainland. Background Before 2112, on the surface, red canned Wang Laoji (hereinafter referred to as "red canned Wang Laoji") was a very good brand, with stable sales in Guangdong and southern Zhejiang, good profitability and a relatively fixed consumer group. The sales performance of red canned Wang Laoji beverages remained at more than 1 billion yuan for several years. After developing to this scale, the management of Jiaduobao found that a series of problems must be overcome to make the enterprise bigger and go to the whole country, and even some of its original advantages have become obstacles to the continued growth of the enterprise.

among all the troubles, the core problem is that enterprises have to face a realistic problem-whether the red jar of Wang Laoji is sold as "herbal tea" or "beverage"? The first real problem is that consumers in Guangdong and southern Zhejiang are confused about Wang Laoji. In Guangdong, traditional herbal tea (such as granule, home-cooked, herbal tea shop-cooked, etc.) is generally taken as "medicine" by consumers because of its remarkable effect of fire, so it is unnecessary and impossible to drink it often. The brand of "Wang Lao Ji" with a history of hundreds of years is synonymous with herbal tea. It can be said that when talking about herbal tea, I think of Wang Lao Ji, and when talking about Wang Lao Ji, I think of herbal tea. Therefore, Wang Laoji, a red can, is tired of the brand name and can't be accepted by Cantonese people as a drink that can be drunk frequently, so the sales volume is greatly limited.

On the other hand, the formula of Wang Laoji, a red jar produced by Jiaduobao, originated from the descendants of Wang in Hong Kong. It is a food brand product approved by the state. Its smell, color and packaging are very different from the traditional herbal tea in Guangdong consumers' concept, and its taste is sweet. According to the traditional concept of "good medicine tastes bitter" in China, consumers naturally feel that its medicine is insufficient to reduce fire. When there is a demand for "fire", it is better to go to cold tea. Therefore, for consumers, it is not a good choice among the most "efficacy" herbal teas.

In Guangdong, Wang Laoji in Red Pot owns the brand of Wang Laoji, the ancestor of herbal tea, but he has a face of beverage, which makes consumers feel that "it is like herbal tea and like a drink" and falls into cognitive confusion.

in another major sales area of jiaduobao, south Zhejiang, mainly in Wenzhou, Taizhou and Lishui, consumers compare "Wang Lao Ji in a red jar" with Kangshifu tea, Wangzai milk and other drinks, and there is no taboo that is not suitable for long-term drinking. In addition, there are many local Chinese abroad, and under their guidance, the red pot Wang Laoji quickly became the best-selling product in the local area. Enterprises are worried that the red jar of Wang Laoji may become a fashion that comes and goes in a hurry. Just like the coconut palm juice that was a smash hit in southern Zhejiang, it was quickly replaced by new fashionable products and disappeared in the streets overnight.

In the face of consumers' confused cognition, enterprises urgently need to provide a strong guidance through advertisements, clarify the core value of Wang Laoji in Red Pot, and distinguish it from competitors.

The second problem is that Wang Laoji, a red jar, can't go out of Guangdong and southern Zhejiang.

Outside Guangdong and Guangxi, people don't have the concept of herbal tea, and even the opinions that "herbal tea is cool and boiled" and "we don't drink cold tea, we make hot tea" frequently appear in the survey. The concept of educational herbal tea is obviously expensive. Moreover, the demand of mainland consumers for "reducing fire" has been filled, and most of them are solved by taking drugs such as Niuhuang Jiedu tablets.

it is difficult to make herbal tea, and it is also dangerous to make drinks. If we look at the whole beverage industry, carbonated drinks represented by Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola, tea drinks and juice drinks represented by Master Kong and Uni-President are in an unshakable market leading position.

Moreover, the red jar of Wang Laoji is made of herbs such as honeysuckle, licorice, chrysanthemum, etc., which has a faint taste of traditional Chinese medicine. For the beverage with the highest taste, there is indeed no small obstacle. In addition, the retail price of the red jar of Wang Laoji in 3.5 yuan, if Jiaduobao cannot distinguish Wang Laoji from its competitors, it will never walk out of the shadow of the "great power" in the beverage industry. This makes the red pot Wang Laoji face an extremely embarrassing situation: he can neither stick to the two places nor promote it nationwide.

The third problem is that the concept of popularization is vague.

If we use the concept of "herbal tea" to promote it, Jiaduobao is worried that its sales volume will be limited, but as a "beverage" promotion, it has not found a suitable division, so it has to be ambiguous in advertising. Many people have seen such an advertisement: a very cute little boy kept rubbing the refrigerator door with his ass in order to open the refrigerator and get a can of Wang Laoji. The slogan is "Healthy family, always accompany". Obviously, this advertisement can't reflect the unique value of the red pot Wang Laoji.

in the promotion of Wang laoji in the red jar a few years ago, consumers didn't know why they bought it, and enterprises didn't know how to sell it. In such a state, Wang Laoji, a red pot, actually spent several years in peace. The external reason for this phenomenon is that the China market is still immature and there are many market gaps. The internal reason is that the product itself is irreplaceable and can just fill this position. In China, such a group of small and medium-sized enterprises are allowed to make a lot of money in a muddle. But after developing to a certain scale, if an enterprise wants to be big, it must find out a question: why do consumers buy my products?

repositioning

At the end of 2112, Jiaduobao found Chengmei Marketing Consulting Company (hereinafter referred to as "Chengmei"). The original intention was to shoot an advertising film for Wang Laoji with the theme of sponsoring the Olympic Games, and to promote it with the slogan of "sports and health" in order to promote sales. After a preliminary study, Chengmei found that the sales problem of Wang Laoji in red cans can't be solved simply by advertising-this problem is particularly typical in China enterprises at present: once the sales volume is blocked, the most common measure is to operate on the advertising film, or to change it beyond recognition, or to quickly create a "big creative" new advertisement-brand positioning is the primary solution to the sales problem of Wang Laoji in red cans.

Although Wang Laoji in Red Cans has been sold for 7 years, its brand has never been systematically and rigorously positioned. Enterprises can't answer what Wang Laoji in Red Cans is, let alone consumers, and they have no idea why they want to buy it. This is caused by Wang Laoji in Red Cans' lack of brand positioning. If this fundamental problem is not solved, it will be useless to shoot any kind of "creative" advertising film. As david ogilvy, an advertising guru, said: The effect of an advertising campaign depends more on the positioning of your products than how you write advertisements (creativity). After a round of in-depth communication, Jiaduobao finally accepted the suggestion, decided to suspend the production of commercials, and entrusted Chengmei to brand the red can Wang Laoji first.

according to the conventional practice, brand building is based on the needs of consumers, so everyone's conclusions and practices are similar, so just meeting the needs of consumers can't make the difference between Wang Laoji. The formulation of brand positioning is to meet the needs of consumers and put forward different opinions from competitors by understanding their cognition.

and because consumers' cognition is almost unchangeable, brand positioning can only conform to consumers' cognition but not conflict with it. If people have a clear view of Wang Laoji in the red jar, it is best not to try to offend or challenge him. Just as consumers think Maotai can't be a good "beer". Therefore, the brand positioning of Red Pot Wang Laoji cannot conflict with the existing cognition of consumers in Guangdong and southern Zhejiang, so as to stabilize the existing sales and create opportunities for enterprises to survive and expand.

in order to understand consumers' cognition, Chengmei's researchers, on the one hand, studied the information spread by Wang Laoji and competitors, and on the other hand, conducted a large number of interviews with Jiaduobao's internal, distributors and retailers. After completing the above work, they hired a market research company to investigate existing users of Wang Laoji. On this basis, the researchers conducted a comprehensive analysis to clarify the position of Wang Laoji in consumers' minds-that is, in which market segment he participated in the competition.

In the research, it is found that consumers in Guangdong mainly drink Wang Laoji in red cans on occasions such as barbecue and mountain climbing. The reason is nothing more than "eating barbecue is easy to get angry, drink a can to prevent it first" and "it may get angry, but there is no need to eat Niuhuang Jiedu tablets at this time".

In southern Zhejiang, drinking occasions mainly focus on "eating out, gathering and family". In the process of understanding the local food culture, the researchers found that consumers in this area are more worried about getting angry than those in Guangdong. For example, preserved plum and Coca-Cola on the table of consumer seminars are all described as dangerous goods that will get angry, and no one cares. (The follow-up study later confirmed this point, and found that the sales of Coke in Wenzhou and other places were always low. In the end, the two music companies almost gave up the market and generally did not advertise. ) and their evaluation of the red pot Wang Laoji is "will not get angry", "health, children and the elderly can drink, will not cause fire." These ideas may not have scientific basis, but this is the idea in the minds of consumers in southern Zhejiang, which is the "only fact" that needs attention in research.

These consumers' cognition and purchasing behavior indicate that consumers have no "treatment" requirements for Wang Laoji in red cans, but buy it as a functional drink. The real motivation for buying Wang Laoji in red cans is to "prevent getting angry", such as hoping to reduce the occurrence of getting angry when tasting barbecue. After getting angry, they may use drugs, such as Niuhuang Jiedu tablets and traditional herbal tea for treatment.

Further research on consumers' views on competitors reveals that the direct competitors of Wang Laoji in red cans, such as chrysanthemum tea and refreshing tea, only penetrate the market at low prices, and do not occupy the position of "drinks to prevent getting angry" due to lack of brand promotion. Coke, tea drinks, juice drinks, water, etc. obviously do not have the function of "preventing getting angry", but only indirect competition.

at the same time, the establishment of any brand positioning must be what the brand is most capable of occupying, that is, there is evidence to follow. For example, Coca-Cola says "authentic cola" because it is the inventor of Coca-Cola. Researchers have studied the cognition of enterprises and products themselves in consumers' minds. The results show that Wang Laoji's identity as "the ancestor of herbal tea", mysterious Chinese herbal medicine formula and the history of 175 are obviously capable of occupying the position of "a drink to prevent getting angry".

Because "preventing getting angry" is the real motivation for consumers to buy the red jar of Wang Laoji, it is naturally beneficial to consolidate and strengthen the original market. Whether it can meet the expectations of enterprises for the new positioning of "entering the national market" has become the next step of research. Through the research of second-hand materials and expert interviews, it is shown that the Chinese medicine concept of "clearing away heat and eliminating fire" in China for thousands of years has been widely popularized in the whole country, and the concept of "getting angry" has also been deeply rooted in people's hearts in various places, which makes Wang Laoji in Red Pot break through the geographical limitation of herbal tea concept. The researcher thinks: "With the transfer of this propaganda concept, as long as there is a place for China people, the red pot Wang Laoji can live."

at this point, the research on brand positioning has been basically completed. After more than a month of research, Chengmei submitted a brand positioning research report to Jiaduobao. First, it was clear that Wang Laoji, a red can, was competing in the "beverage" industry, and his competitors should be other beverages. The unique value of its brand positioning-"drinks to prevent getting angry" lies in that drinking Wang Laoji in a red jar can prevent getting angry, so that consumers can enjoy life without worry: eating fried, spicy food, barbecue and watching football all night ... This positioning of Wang Laoji in a red jar is based on the overall consideration of the realistic situation, with four main benefits:

First, it is conducive to Wang Laoji in a red jar going out of Guangdong and southern Zhejiang

.

Second, avoid the direct competition between Wang Laoji in red cans and beverage giants at home and abroad, forming a unique division

Third, successfully turn the disadvantages of Wang Laoji in red cans into advantages

a faint taste of traditional Chinese medicine, and successfully turn it into a powerful support for "preventing excessive internal heat";

The retail price in 3.5 yuan is no longer "unattainable" because of the function of "preventing getting angry";

the brand name and long history of "Wang Lao Ji" have become a powerful support to prevent the "authentic" fire.

Fourthly, it is beneficial to the cooperation between Jiaduobao and domestic Wang Laoji Pharmaceutical

It is precisely because the red jar of Wang Laoji in Jiaduobao is positioned as a functional beverage, which is different from the "medicine" of Wang Laoji Pharmaceutical, so it can better promote the cooperation between the two companies to build the "Wang Laoji" brand. The two companies jointly funded a TV series "Lingnan Medicine Man" about the founder of Wang Laoji herbal tea practicing medicine.

in the report submitted, Chengmei also pointed out that diet is an important reason for getting angry in consumers' cognition, especially "spicy" and "fried" diet, so it is suggested that on the basis of maintaining the original sales channels, efforts should be made to open up catering channels and build the image of flagship stores in a number of restaurants. Focus on Hunan restaurant, Sichuan restaurant, hot pot restaurant, barbecue field and so on.

with rich experience and keen market intuition in the beverage market, Chen Hongdao, chairman of Jiaduobao, made a decision on the spot, accepted all the suggestions in the report, and decided to immediately promote Wang Laoji in a comprehensive way according to the brand positioning.

"creating new categories" is always the first choice for brand positioning. If a brand can position itself as a different choice from its strong competitors, its advertisements only need to convey new category information, and the effect is often amazing. As the first drink to prevent getting angry, Wang Laoji in a red can was introduced to the market, which made people know and accept this new drink. In the end, Wang Laoji in a red can will become the representative of the drink to prevent getting angry. With the growth of the category, it naturally has the greatest benefits.

when the brand positioning of Wang Laoji in Red Pot is established, the direction of marketing promotion is defined, and the advertising standard is also established, so all communication activities are evaluated.