However, what is even more unexpected is that in this storm, an instant noodle brand that has been away for a long time has held its head high and kept drawing a beautiful arc in the public eye.
It made a high-profile response on Weibo:
Figure 1: White elephant responds to netizens' concerns.
Many stories about it surfaced by this opportunity, and the white elephant, which was originally facing brand aging, was suddenly rejuvenated. As the saying goes:
There is no way to go because of the winding water flow in the mountains, and a mountain village suddenly appears in the willow-green flower bay.
So, what did the 3 15 party reveal? What's the story of the white elephant?
All this should start from Huarong County on the northern border of Hunan Province:
Huarong county is a famous mustard production area in China, with rivers, wasteland and beaches all over the country, and sufficient hydrothermal conditions. Huarong mustard tuber is a famous geographical indication brand, which is light yellow in color and slightly sour and crisp in taste after pickling.
But at the 3 15 party in 2022, the mustard here became a nightmare for the people of the whole country.
CCTV's lens reproduces such a scene for us:
On the edge of the endless mustard field, there are artificially dug pits. Every early spring, after the mustard is ripe, the unsalted and washed mustard is thrown into these pits at will. After the ragged mustard has slept in the soil for several months, the rusty truck will come to buy it.
At this time, the farmers rushed in and stepped on mustard. The platform scale is placed on the food pile, cigarette butts are thrown into the food at will, and impurities such as feathers and feet are common.
When asked who collected this dish, the old farmer beside him flicked the ashes and said slowly
Flag planting
These two words can't help but make people gasp, because the pickles in flag-planting vegetable industry will be sold to many downstream manufacturers such as Master Kong. Through these well-known enterprises, the pickles in the pits will reach consumers all over the country.
Flag planting is not an isolated case. The person in charge of another altar food is even more complacent and outspoken in the office.
"I know the products we are making now. I (preservative) put it in, but it is not up to standard. 」
The problem sauerkraut is implicated in many vegetable enterprises. It was a sleepless night for Huarong.
The law enforcement officers watching the program put down their chopsticks and went out without looking back. At 9 o'clock that night, the first team arrived at Qieqi Vegetable Industry and Jin Rui Food, and the other team called the heads of more than 30 pickles enterprises in the county for a meeting overnight.
Not only the law enforcement officers and vegetable enterprises in Huarong County didn't sleep, but also the heads of instant noodle enterprises and public relations teams got out of bed.
Because while burning eyebrows in Huarong County, the whole network has fallen into great panic and anger. Consumers' fire is naturally aimed at the instant noodle enterprises that have the closest relationship with them, and poor supervision cannot be exempted.
"Unified Apology" and "Apology of Master Kong" have successively topped the hot search list, and e-commerce platforms such as Taobao and JD.COM urgently blocked the entry "Old altar instant noodles".
Figure 2: Taobao and JD.COM block "Laotan Pickled Noodles"
After the opening of 16 in March, the share prices of Master Kong Holdings (00322, HK) and Uni-President China (00220, HK) plummeted, both exceeding 10% for a time.
It is in this cry that the white elephant enters the consumer's field of vision.
Burden tends to get old.
In today's instant noodles, White Elephant is a brand that many young people don't know, but in fact, its ancestors are too rich.
About 20 years ago, Baixiang and diamond cut diamond, now Lang Mai, were caught in a low-price war. However, at that time, Lang Mai has not changed its name, so it should be called Hualong.
Figure 3: How many people remember "Hualong noodles, see you every day"
At that time, there was a fairy fight in the urban instant noodle market. Many star enterprises fought in the venue, and the prices basically started in 2 yuan. Master Kong and Uni-President of the first echelon are desperately running around in big cities. It is not the best policy for junior players to rush into the market.
Hualong's swordsmanship is unique, and it can be called rural encircling the city.
The first form of this swordsmanship is a low-cost strategy. The instant noodles produced by Hualong are kept below 1 yuan, which is the basis for cutting into the 800 million rural population market and the guarantee for many children to spend their pocket money.
"Holding crumpled paper money, I ran to the grocery store, took a pack of Hualong noodles from the counter higher than myself, crushed them through the bag, tore open the salt bag and sprinkled it into the noodles, stood at the back of the house, and happily caught them one by one. Finally, don't forget to bump, look up and let the last residue pour into your stomach along the bag "-this is a memory that many people will never forget."
The second form of swordsmanship is multi-brand strategy, which is different from the outstanding functional differences of brand families today. Hualong has its own way, taking regional differences.
For example, in the three northeastern provinces, the face of Hualong is called "Dongsanfu", and countless northeastern people regard this as their own local brand; In the eastern coastal towns and villages, Hualong used the Japanese name "Liudingmu" to cater to popular Japanese culture. Some cities in the south, because of their relatively developed economies, have introduced "Hualong Well-off Society" and become noodles for people who live a well-off life!
Figure 4: The transvestite of Hualong noodles
The white elephant can become an opponent who loves to kill Hualong, naturally because it bets on the country track.
American scholars Al Rees and Jack Trout once summed up a rule of offensive warfare in the commercial field: attack in a narrow area as much as possible. The essence of this principle is to gather all forces to build fist products to occupy the market and expand the market based on fist products.
In the rural market, low prices are standard, and profits can't be lower. If the latecomers want to recreate the miracle, they must enter through a unique and ingenious gap, but they can't fight on all fronts, because the white elephant can't stand all fronts, so this gap must be perfect.
The white elephant really found a gap to meet these harsh conditions.
In 2003, Baixiang introduced "noodle soup with bones", creatively focusing on "bones" and "soup".
On the one hand, bone soup is a nourishing drink in the traditional concept of most people in China. On the other hand, the research results of Harvard Medical School in the United States show that the key to the healthy growth of bones is the continuous protection of collagen.
Many ordinary people hear this kind of propaganda is a brief encounter. You used to advertise it every day. I didn't know I cared more about that soup.
Even if more and more people begin to refute the view that "nutrition is in soup", there is still one thing that cannot be denied: drinking soup is a wonderful thing!
Figure 5: The big bone surface of the white elephant.
The reaction of the big bone face of the white elephant in the market, in the words of now, is madness.
In 2005, the sales of white elephant bone noodles reached 570 million yuan, and the single product supported the whole white elephant food.
This is the highlight moment of the white elephant, but the market situation is changing rapidly, and soon, the pace of the white elephant is a little behind.
The white elephant can successfully cut into the rural market from the narrow strip, thanks to the distraction of products and Yu Hualong. Because Hualong wanted to go up, he went to wrestle with Master Kong.
Hualong catered to the name of xx Lang, which was popular at that time, and launched the middle and high-end Jinmailang.
In April 2004, Hualong Group and Japan Nissin Food Co., Ltd. jointly established Hualong Nissin Food Co., Ltd., and Nissin invested 65.438+55.4 million yuan, holding 33.4% shares. (20 15, Nissin withdrew from the instant noodle joint venture business in China, holding about 8.6 billion yen. )
The founder of Nissin Food Company, Yasuo Ando, invented instant noodles in a shed of 10 square meter in Osaka, so Nissin is the first enterprise to produce instant noodles in the world, which also determines the leading position of Japanese enterprises in this field.
Figure 6: Most of China's early equipment was imported from Japan.
Thanks to Nissin's technology, experience and management model, Jinmailang's development entered the fast lane and began to enter the urban market.
The white elephant, which has never introduced foreign capital, has always been an authentic Henan enterprise.
The watershed of fate appeared in 2008.
Seeing many opponents going up, the white elephant suddenly "self-destructed the Great Wall".
With the preparations for the Olympic Games in full swing, Baixiang Group has developed a special instant noodle product for the Tibetan mountaineering team-Baixiang 8848 Daguhuang, which will climb Mount Everest together with the first torch of the 2008 Olympic Games.
This was originally a punk marketing, but unfortunately, through this, when the North Sea froze in late winter, Yao Zhongliang, chairman of Baixiang, told reporters:
"completely withdraw from the low-end noodle market, that is, no longer produce instant noodles below 1 yuan. 」
Figure 7: White elephant cooperates with Tibetan mountaineering team.
It seems that none of the products with the name 8848 have been successfully promoted to the high end, and the spring of white elephant has never come again.
In the mid-to-high-end market, White Elephant has been slow to launch amazing products, fresh noodles are bland and drinks are a mess. After the melee, Master Kong and Uni-President attacked the rural market on a large scale, and the white elephant fought alone.
In this cruel battlefield, after all, the white elephant's qualifications are still shallow, and no giants mentioned it. In the lost decade, there were fewer and fewer products on the shelves.
When more and more young people have never heard of the white elephant, the brand image of the white elephant is also facing aging.
Unity is hard to close.
The white elephant of the second echelon and the wonderful chess of Jin are one after another, and Master Kong and unity of the first echelon are even more fatal.
Uni-President and Master Kong are both enterprises from Taiwan Province Province. In Taiwan Province Province, Uni-President is the industry leader, but when he went to the mainland to develop, he was robbed by Master Kong.
Can push the boss to the corner, master kong used the method of old Beijingers:
Tunnel!
Uni-President sells its trump card: instant noodles with shrimp flavor in mainland China's Taiwan Province Province, but this taste is really bland to most people. In that era of insufficient materials, food was tasteless, and rice was tasteless. It was not easy to buy instant noodles, and it was also a light mouth. Who will be a repeat customer? Unity obviously didn't learn to empathize.
And what is the answer sheet handed in by Master Kong?
Braised beef noodles!
The name of braised beef sounds very atmospheric, and the publicity pictures make people drool. More importantly, the sauce package was creatively added to the braised beef noodles, which was half a position ahead of all competitors in the instant noodles in the 1990s.
Heavy taste, sufficient material, heavy oil and heavy salt. Watching the sauce spread out in the bowl filled my heart with happiness.
For a long time, Master Kong braised beef noodles dominated the standard of instant noodles industry, that is, a package of instant noodles was put with three seasonings: vegetable beef package, seasoning package and sauce package.
Figure 8: Master Kong's classic braised beef noodles
Unification can't keep up with one step, and it can't keep up with one step.
In the following years, Uni-President made every effort, from children to adults, from low-end to high-end, to wage an all-round war against Master Kong.
But as we said earlier, we can't fight on all fronts in offensive warfare because the attackers can't afford it.
As a leader in the industry, Master Kong occupies half of the instant noodle market, and everything that is unified imitates-
Unified launch of raccoon pastry, Master Kong launched Little Tiger pastry;
Unify the "unification 100" of each package of 2 yuan, and master kong engages in "noodle bar120";
Unifying the "good track" of each package of 0.8 yuan, Master Kong launched the "Fumando" of each package of 0.7 yuan;
Unified racking their brains to launch "Tang Daren", Master Kong copied "Tang Daren".
This is the "Li Guang is hard to seal" in the rivers and lakes of instant noodles.
After a few years, reunification always figured it out, so we had to concentrate the strength of the whole regiment on one point to break through.
Looking at the whole product line, I found that I have a product that has a good response in the southwest and has the potential to be promoted nationwide.
The old altar kimchi noodles were born.
In order to grasp the minds of consumers, but also for the sake of Yin and Yang Master Kong, Uni-President specially made such an advertisement:
"Someone imitate my face, someone imitate my face? Imitation is not the unity of the old altar. 」
The flavor of sauerkraut once again caters to the consumers' love in the new era, giving a shot in the arm to the long-lost instant noodle market, which quickly swept the country north and south.
Fig. 9: Uniform advertisement for instant noodles in the old altar.
Laotan sauerkraut mouth has become a life-saving straw for unity, which is as important as white elephant. Under the constant promotion of unification, analysts believe that the taste of Laotan sauerkraut may also account for more than 20% of the whole instant noodle taste.
But reunification always seems unlucky and ill-fated.
On March15, 2022, the sky collapsed.
Defeat Huarong Road
In 208 AD, Cao Cao defeated Chibi and led his troops back to Jiangling from Huarong Road (now northwest of Jianli, Hubei Province), leaving a bridge for later novelists and storytellers to "lose Huarong Road".
More than a thousand years later, on the mustard road in Huarong County, instant noodle giants such as Master Kong and Uni-President fell down again.
This fall also pushed the white elephant that is easy to get old and the unity that is difficult to seal into the spotlight.
Although Uni-President denied the cooperation with flag-cutting vegetable industry and invited 1000 people to visit his sauerkraut factory, the first announcement issued that night still recognized the cooperation with the problem enterprises in Hunan.
In fact, it doesn't matter whether it is unified or not, because the anger of the whole network has declared the end of this industry. After the credit crash, consumers will look at everything with suspicion, and this category is likely to withdraw from the historical stage.
It is difficult to rebuild the trust of the market.
Figure 10: unified statement on the use of pickled cabbage packaging raw materials (first edition)
Although Master Kong's plate is bigger and his dependence on Laotan sauerkraut is lower than that of Uni-President, until the broadcast of the program, Master Kong cooperated closely with the flag-cutting vegetable industry and was located in the center of the whirlpool, so he couldn't wash it if he wanted to.
Figure 1 1: Master Kong's statement on the use of raw materials for pickled cabbage packages.
In extreme anger, other categories of Master Kong will be affected in the short term, but in the medium and long term, Master Kong will be more calm than Unification.
When Kang Tong's huge body slipped, people suddenly found a white elephant shrouded in a huge shadow. It has never left and has been quietly working in the industry.
In fact, as early as the closing of the Winter Paralympics, CCTV highly praised the integrity of the white elephant.
Shandong Jining Baixiang Food Company has 237 disabled employees, accounting for 30. 15%.
Hunan Branch has 485 employees, 1 17 disabled employees, accounting for nearly 25%.
……
White elephants never called them disabled employees, but replaced them with self-improvement employees, who have quietly helped disabled people integrate into society for so many years.
Photo 12: white elephant "self-improvement employee"
Not only that, in terms of public welfare, the little white elephant is always at the forefront.
Donated100,000 yuan to the Soong Ching Ling Foundation of Henan Province to set up the White Elephant College Student Relief Fund.
Donate 3 million to support the Wuhan epidemic,
Donate 5 million yuan in cash and 200 thousand yuan in materials to support Zhengzhou's flood fighting and emergency rescue.
……
They are also giants of action and dwarfs of language.
More importantly, in terms of product strategy, Baixiang thought clearly about his own advantages, once again picked up the secret recipe of "soup", and took "soup is delicious" as the leading factor, and solidly built a family of instant noodles with complete categories, explaining the meaning of thick accumulation and thin hair.
Figure 13: White Elephant Instant Noodles Family
The development of the commercial market is changing with each passing day, which makes people look too anxious and breathless. When 3 15 thunder announced that the instant noodle lake had entered a dark moment, we only had a little time to review the fetters along the way.
Perhaps, it's not that white elephants get old easily, but that our days pass too fast.
References:
Uni-President Group official website
Baixiang Food official website
China instant noodles have been struggling for 30 years. Shangyinshe
China instant noodle industry research report. Analysys international analysis
Record number: YX 1 1P53nmXd