Brand name

Herbal tea is a kind of herbal medicine boiled in Guangdong and Guangxi, which has the effect of clearing heat and removing dampness and other "medicinal tea". Wanglaoji herbal tea was invented in the Daoguang period of the Qing Dynasty, 175 years ago, recognized as the originator of herbal tea, and known as "King of Medicinal Tea". In modern times, Wanglaoji herbal tea has spread all over the world along with the footprints of Chinese people.

In the early 1950s, due to political reasons, Wanglaoji Herbal Tea Shop was divided into two branches: one of them completed the transformation of public ownership, and developed into today's Wanglaoji Pharmaceutical Company Limited, which produces Wanglaoji Herbal Tea Granules (State Pharmaceutical License); the other was brought to Hong Kong by the descendants of the Wang family. In mainland China, the Wanglaoji brand is owned by Wanglaoji Pharmaceutical Company Limited; in countries and regions outside mainland China, the Wanglaoji brand is registered to descendants of the Wang family. Gadobao is a Hong Kong-funded company located in Dongguan, which is licensed by Wang Lao Ji Pharmaceutical and provided with the formula by the descendants of the Wang Clan in Hong Kong; the company exclusively produces and operates Wang Lao Ji brand canned herbal tea (food size) in mainland China.

Background

Before 2002, on the surface, the red canned Wanglaoji (hereinafter referred to as "red can Wanglaoji") was a very good brand, with stable sales and good profitability in Guangdong and southern Zhejiang, and a relatively fixed consumer base, and the sales of the red canned Wanglaoji beverages remained at more than 100 million yuan for several years. The sales of red-can Wanglaoji beverages have been maintained at more than 100 million dollars for several years. After developing to this scale, Gadobao's management found that to make the enterprise bigger and go nationwide, it had to overcome a series of problems, and even some of its original advantages became obstacles that plagued the enterprise's continued growth.

And all the trouble, the core of the problem is that the enterprise has to face a realistic problem - red pot Wanglaoji as "herbal tea" to sell, or as a "beverage" to sell?

The reality of the problem is manifested in one: Guangdong, Zhejiang South consumers on the red can Wanglaoji cognitive confusion.

In Guangdong, the traditional herbal tea (such as granules, home brewing, herbal tea store brewing, etc.) because of the significant effect of the fire, consumers generally take as a "medicine", no need to also can not often drink. Wanglaoji", a brand with a history of hundreds of years, is a synonym for herbal tea, and it can be said that when we talk about herbal tea, we think of Wanglaoji, and when we talk about Wanglaoji, we think of herbal tea. Therefore, the red can of Wanglaoji by the brand name, and can not be very smooth for the Guangdong people to accept it as a regular drink, sales are greatly restricted.

On the other hand, the red can of Wanglaoji formula produced by Gadobao originated from the descendants of the Hong Kong Wang family, is approved by the national audit of the food products, its smell, color, packaging and the concept of Guangdong consumers in the traditional herbal tea has a great difference, and the taste of sweet, according to the traditional concept of China's "good medicine is bitter", consumers naturally feel that its "fire-reducing". According to the traditional concept of "good medicine tastes bitter" in China, consumers naturally feel that its "fire-reducing" power is not enough, and when there is a demand for "fire-reducing", it would be better to buy it from herbal tea stores or to decoct it at home. So for consumers, it is not a good choice among the herbal teas that are most concerned about "efficacy".

In Guangdong, the red can of Wanglaoji has the brand of Wanglaoji, the originator of herbal tea, but has a face of beverage, so that consumers feel that "it seems to be herbal tea, but also seems to be a drink", and fall into cognitive confusion.

And in another major sales area of Gadobao, South Zhejiang, mainly Wenzhou, Taizhou, Lishui, consumers will be "red can of Wanglaoji" and Kangshifu tea, Wangzai milk and other beverages, there is no taboo that is not suitable for long-term drinking. In addition to the local Chinese outside the large number of their guidance, led by the red can Wanglaoji soon became the local best-selling products. Enterprises are worried that the red can of Wanglaoji may become a fashion that comes and goes in a hurry, just like the red-hot Coconut Tree Coconut Juice in the south of Zhejiang Province, which was soon replaced by a new fashionable product and disappeared cleanly in the streets and alleys overnight.

In the face of these confusing consumer perceptions, the company urgently needs to provide a strong guide through advertising to make clear the core value of red-can Wanglaoji and differentiate it from competitors.

Realistic problem performance two: red can Wanglaoji can not get out of Guangdong, southern Zhejiang.

Outside Guangdong and Zhejiang, people do not have the concept of herbal tea, and even in the survey frequently appear "herbal tea is cold white water", "we do not drink cold tea, make hot tea" these views. The cost of educating the concept of herbal tea is obviously staggering. Moreover, the mainland consumers' need to "lower the fire" has been filled, and they mostly take medicines such as ox-huang detoxification tablets to solve the problem.

It's difficult to make herbal tea, but it's also dangerous to make beverages. If you look at the entire beverage industry, Coca-Cola, Pepsi as the representative of carbonated beverages, Master Kong, unified as the representative of the tea drinks, juice drinks is in the unshakeable market leadership.

And, the red can of Wanglaoji to "honeysuckle, licorice, chrysanthemum, etc." herbal boiled, there is a faint taste of traditional Chinese medicine, for the taste of the first beverage, there is indeed not a small obstacle, coupled with the red can of Wanglaoji 3.5 yuan retail price, if Gadobaos can not make the red can of Wanglaoji and competitors differentiate itself, it will be Never get out of the shadow of the beverage industry, "the Great Powers". This makes the red can Wanglaoji face an extremely awkward situation: can not stick to the two places, but also can not be promoted nationwide.

The reality of the problem is manifested in three: the promotion of the concept of fuzzy.

If the concept of "herbal tea" to promote, Gadobao is worried that its sales will be limited, but as a "beverage" to promote and did not find a suitable partition, therefore, in the advertisement and publicity had to be ambiguous. Many people have seen this advertisement: a very cute little boy keeps rubbing his butt against the refrigerator door in order to open the refrigerator to get a can of Wanglaoji. The tagline is "Healthy family, always with you". Obviously, this ad does not reflect the unique value of the red can of Wanglaoji.

In the first few years of Wanglaoji's promotion, consumers didn't know why they should buy it, and companies didn't know how to sell it. In such a state of red can Wanglaoji actually still peacefully through several years. The external reason for this phenomenon is that the Chinese market is still immature, there are many market gaps; the internal reason is that the product itself has a kind of irreplaceability, just to fill this position. In China, a group of small and medium-sized enterprises are allowed to make a lot of money in a confused manner. But after developing to a certain size, companies wanting to get bigger must figure out one question: why do consumers buy my products?

Repositioning

Toward the end of 2002, Gadobao found Chengmei Marketing Consultants (hereinafter referred to as "Chengmei"), which initially wanted to shoot an advertisement for the red can of Wanglaoji with the theme of sponsoring the Olympic Games, with the slogan of "Sports, Health". The initial intention was to make an advertisement film for Red Can Wanglaoji with the theme of sponsoring the Olympic Games, with the slogan of "Sports, Health", in order to promote sales. After a preliminary study, Chengmei found that the sales problem of red can Wanglaoji could not be solved by simply shooting advertisements - this kind of problem is particularly typical of Chinese enterprises: once sales are blocked, the most common measure taken is to operate on the advertisement film, either to change it to a completely different form or to make a "big idea" in a hurry. The "big idea" of the new ads - red can Wanglaoji sales problem is the first solution to the brand positioning.

Red can Wanglaoji although sales of seven years, its brand has never been systematic, rigorous positioning, companies are unable to answer the red can Wanglaoji exactly what consumers, not to mention, completely unclear why to buy it - this is the red can Wanglaoji lack of brand positioning due to. This fundamental problem is not solved, shoot what kind of "creative" advertising will not help. As advertising guru David Ogilvy said: the effect of an advertising campaign depends more on the positioning of your product than on how you write the ad (creative). After a round of in-depth communication, Gadobao finally accepted the proposal and decided to pause the shooting of the commercials and commissioned Chengmei to

position the brand of the red-can Wanglaoji first.

According to conventional practice, brand building is based on consumer demand, so the conclusions and practices are similar, so just meeting consumer demand does not differentiate Wanglaoji from other brands. Instead, brand positioning is formulated on the basis of meeting consumer needs, and through understanding consumer perceptions, a different proposition is made from that of competitors.

And because consumer perception is almost unchangeable, brand positioning can only conform to consumer perception and not conflict with it. If people have a clear perception in their minds about Red Can Wanglaoji, it is best not to try to offend or challenge it. Just as consumers think Maotai cannot be a good "beer". Therefore, the brand positioning of red can Wanglaoji should not conflict with the existing perception of consumers in Guangdong and southern Zhejiang, in order to stabilize the existing sales and create opportunities for the company's survival as well as expansion.

In order to understand consumer perceptions, Cheng Mei's researchers, on the one hand, studied the information disseminated by Red Can Wanglaoji and competitors, and on the other hand, conducted a large number of interviews with Gadobao's internal, distributors, retailers, and after completing the above work, hired a market research company to conduct a survey on the existing users of Wanglaoji. Based on this, the researchers conducted a comprehensive analysis to clarify the position of the red can of Wanglaoji in the minds of consumers - i.e., in which segment of the market to compete.

In the study, it was found that consumers in Guangdong mainly consume red cans of Wanglaoji at barbecues and hiking. The reasons for this are: "barbecue is easy to catch fire, so drink a can to prevent it" and "it may catch fire, but there is no need to take ox-huang detoxification tablets at this time". In South Zhejiang, the drinking occasions are mainly concentrated in "dining out, party, family". In the process of understanding the local food culture, the researchers found that consumers in the region are more worried about "catching fire" than in Guangdong, such as plum preserves on the table of consumer forums, Coca-Cola are said to be "catching fire" dangerous products and No one asked for them. (This was confirmed by a follow-up study, which found that Coke's sales in Wenzhou and other places were always low, and in the end, the two colas almost gave up on the market, and generally refrained from advertising.) Their comments on the red can of Wanglaoji are "it won't cause fire" and "it's healthy, children and the elderly can drink it, and it won't cause fire". These perceptions may not be based on science, but they are the perceptions in the minds of consumers in southern Zhejiang, which is the "only fact" that the study needs to focus on.

These consumer perceptions and purchasing behaviors suggest that consumers are not looking for a "cure" for Wanglaoji, but rather are buying it as a functional beverage, and that the real motivation for purchasing Wanglaoji is to use it for the "prevention of fire", e.g., in the hope of The real motive of buying red can Wanglaoji is for "preventing fire", such as hoping to reduce the occurrence of fire when tasting barbecue, etc. After the real fire, medicines, such as ox-huang detoxification tablets and traditional herbal teas, may be used to treat it.

A further study of consumer perceptions of competitors reveals that the direct competitors of Red Can Wanglaoji, such as Chrysanthemum Tea and Qingliang Tea, are only penetrating the market at low prices due to a lack of branding, and have not taken up the position of "preventive beverages for preventing fire". Cola, tea drinks, fruit juice drinks, water, etc. obviously does not have the function of "preventing fire", only indirect competition. At the same time, the establishment of any one brand positioning, must be the brand's most capable of occupying, that is, there is evidence to rely on. For example, Coca-Cola says "authentic Coke" because it is the inventor of Coke. Researchers have studied the perception of enterprises and products in the minds of consumers, and the results show that the identity of Wanglaoji's "originator of herbal tea", its mysterious herbal formula, and its 175-year history are the most important factors that have contributed to the success of Coca-Cola. The results show that with its "originator of herbal tea" status, mysterious herbal formula and 175-year history, Wanglaoji is clearly capable of occupying the position of "beverage that prevents fire".

Since "preventing fire" is the real motivation for consumers to buy red cans of Wanglaoji, it is naturally conducive to consolidating and strengthening the original market. The next step in the study was to find out whether the company could fulfill its expectations for the new positioning of "entering the national market". Through secondary data, expert interviews and other research, it was shown that the concept of "clearing heat and eliminating fire", which has been a Chinese traditional medicine concept for thousands of years, is widely popularized throughout the country, and the concept of "fire" is also y rooted in people's hearts, which makes the red pot of Wanglaoji break through the geographical limitations of the concept of herbal tea. The researcher believes that "after doing a good job of transferring this concept of publicity, as long as there are Chinese people, the red pot Wanglaoji can live."

So far, the study of brand positioning was basically completed. More than a month after the study, Chengmei submitted a brand positioning study report to Gadobao, first of all, it is clear that the red can of Wanglaoji is competing in the "beverage" industry, and the competitors should be other beverages; and its brand positioning - "the beverage that prevents Its brand positioning - "the drink that prevents fire", the unique value lies in the fact that drinking Red Can Wanglaoji can prevent fire and allow consumers to enjoy life without worry: eating fried and spicy food, barbecue, and watching soccer all night long. ...... This positioning of Red Can Wanglaoji is based on the reality of the situation, and it is the first step in the development of the brand. Wanglaoji, from the reality of the pattern of overall consideration, the main benefits are four:

One of the benefits of red cans of Wanglaoji out of Guangdong, Zhejiang and South

Since the "fire" is a national universal concept of traditional Chinese medicine, and is no longer limited to two areas, such as the "herbal tea", this is a very good idea. As the "herbal tea" is a national universal Chinese medicine concept, and no longer like the "herbal tea" is limited to the two regions, which for the red pot Wanglaoji to the whole country completely removed the obstacles.

Secondly, it avoids direct competition with domestic and foreign beverage giants, forming a unique distinction

Thirdly, it successfully transforms the disadvantage of red-can Wanglaoji products into an advantage

The light flavor of traditional Chinese medicine has successfully been transformed into a strong support for "preventing fire"; the retail price of 3.5 yuan has been transformed into a strong support for "preventing fire"; and the retail price of 3.5 yuan has been transformed into a strong support for "preventing fire". The retail price of 3.5 yuan is no longer "unattainable" because of the function of "preventing fire"; the brand name of "Wanglaoji" and its long history have become a strong support for the prevention of "authentic" fire. The brand name of "Wang Lao Ji" and its long history have become the "authentic" support for the prevention of fire.

Fourth, the benefit of Gadobao enterprises and domestic Wanglaoji pharmaceutical cooperation

Just as Gadobao's red can of Wanglaoji positioning in the functional beverage, different from the Wanglaoji pharmaceutical "medicine", and therefore can better contribute to the cooperation between the two **** build "Wanglaoji" brand. "brand. The two companies *** with funding to film a TV series about the founder of Wanglaoji herbal tea practice medicine "Lingnan medicine man".

Chengmei also proposed in the report submitted by the consumer perception, diet is an important cause of fire, especially "spicy", "fried" diet, so it is recommended that in addition to maintaining the original sales channels, increase efforts to Open up catering channels, and create the image of flagship stores in a number of restaurants. Focusing on Hunan restaurants, Sichuan restaurants, hot pot restaurants, barbecue venues, and so on.

With rich experience in the beverage market and keen market intuition, Gadobao Chairman Chen Hongdao on the spot, all accept the report's recommendations, decided to immediately launch a comprehensive promotion of the red can of Wanglaoji according to the brand positioning.

"Creating a new category" is always the first choice for brand positioning. If a brand can position itself as a different choice from its strongest rivals, all it needs to do is to convey a new category message, and the results are often amazing. Red Can Wanglaoji was introduced to the market as the first beverage to prevent fire, so that people knew and accepted this new beverage through it. Eventually, Red Can Wanglaoji would become the representative of the beverage that prevents fire, and naturally have the greatest benefits as the category grows.

Establishing the brand positioning of Red Can Wanglaoji clarifies the direction of marketing promotion and establishes the standard for advertising. All communication activities will have a standard for evaluation, which will be followed by all marketing efforts, thus ensuring that every promotion, while boosting sales, builds up on the brand value (positioning). This is the time to start the advertising creative and shoot the commercials.

Promotion of Brand Positioning

After clarifying what positioning the brand is going to occupy in the minds of consumers, the next important task is to promote the brand so that it really gets into the hearts and minds of the people, so that everyone knows about the brand's positioning, and so that it will have a lasting and powerful impact on the consumers' purchasing decisions. Immediately after, Chengmei decided on a promotional theme for the red can of Wanglaoji: "Fear of fire, drink Wanglaoji", and tried to emphasize the nature of the red can of Wanglaoji as a beverage in its communication. In the first phase of the advertising campaign, the red can of Wanglaoji appeared in a relaxed, cheerful and healthy image, avoiding the negative appeal of symptomatic medicine, so as to distinguish the red can of Wanglaoji from the "traditional herbal tea".

In order to better evoke consumers' needs, the TV commercial uses five scenarios that consumers consider to be the most fire-prone in their daily lives: eating hot pot, watching football all night, eating deep-fried food and fries, barbecuing, and summer sunbathing, and shows people enjoying the above mentioned activities while drinking red cans of Wanglaoji. Combined with the fashionable, dynamic advertising song that repeatedly chants "Don't be afraid of anything, enjoy life to the fullest, drink Wanglaoji if you're afraid of fire", consumers are prompted to naturally associate red cans of Wanglaoji with hot pots and barbecues, which can lead to purchases.

The red Wanglaoji TV media selection mainly locks the national coverage of the CCTV, and combined with the original sales area (Guangdong, Zhejiang, South) of the strong local media, in just a few months in 2003, in one fell swoop invested more than 40 million yuan in advertising costs, sales immediately, get a rapid increase. In November of the same year, the enterprise to catch up with the victory, and then spend a huge amount of money to buy the CCTV 2004 prime advertising time. It is this kind of stormy put in the way to ensure that the red can of Wanglaoji in a short period of time quickly into people's minds, to give people a deep impression, and quickly spread all over the country.

In early 2003, the total budget for the promotion of Wanglaoji red can was only 10 million yuan, which was allocated based on the actual sales volume in 2002. At that time, the sales of red can Wanglaoji were mainly concentrated in Shenzhen, Dongguan and southern Zhejiang, the three regions, so the amount of investment is relatively sufficient. With the first round of positioning advertising, sales rose rapidly, giving the company great confidence, so it continued to add promotional costs, rolling development. By the end of 2003, only the cumulative advertising more than 40 million yuan (excluding the purchase of 2004 CCTV advertising time), annual sales reached 600 million yuan - this capacity, rolling development model is very suitable for many domestic aspirations of the national market, but the power of the temporary lack of enterprises.

In the ground promotion, in addition to emphasizing the traditional channels of POP advertising, but also with the development of new food and beverage channels, food and beverage channels designed and arranged a large number of terminal materials, such as the design and production of electronic displays, lanterns, and other catering establishments are happy to accept the practical items, free gifts. In the choice of communication content, full consideration of the terminal advertising should directly stimulate the consumer's desire to buy, the product packaging as the main visual elements, focusing on publicizing a message: "Fear of fire, drink Wanglaoji drinks." The on-site prompts in the catering establishments most effectively complemented the TV commercials. It is this kind of targeted promotion that gives consumers a stronger and more intuitive understanding of what Red Can Wanglaoji is and what it is good for. At present, the food and beverage channel has become one of the most important sales and communication channels for Red Can Wanglaoji.

In the frequent consumer promotions, the same theme is centered on "Drink Wanglaoji for fear of fire". For example, in a promotional activity, Gadobao company held a "hot summer Wanglaoji, green water and green mountains, I'm going" scratch card activity. Consumers can get two tickets to the local summer resort and two days' free accommodation in the local resort by scratching the words "Wanglaoji for summer vacation". This promotion not only achieves the purpose of immediate promotion, but also strongly supports the consolidation of the brand positioning of the red can of Wanglaoji as "the drink that prevents fire".

At the same time, in the promotional activities for intermediaries, Gadobao, in addition to continuing to consolidate the traditional channels of the "Gadobao Sales Elite Club", also fully considered how to strengthen the development and control of food and beverage channels, the implementation of the "hot pot store market" and "cooperative hotels", the "hot pot store market" and "cooperative hotels". In addition to the traditional channel "Gadobao Sales Elite Club", Gadobao also fully considered how to strengthen the development and control of the catering channel, and implemented the "Hotpot Shop Market" and "Cooperative Hotel" programs, selecting major hotpot stores and restaurants as "Wanglaoji Sincere Cooperative Shops", and invested funds to carry out the holiday promotional activities with them***. Because of the affordable benefits provided to the merchants, the red can of Wanglaoji quickly entered the catering channel and became the main recommended beverage.

Promotional effect

The successful brand positioning and communication of Red Can Wanglaoji brought great benefits to this 175-year-old product with strong Lingnan characteristics: in 2003, the sales of Red Can Wanglaoji increased nearly four times compared to the same period of last year, surging to 600 million yuan from more than 100 million yuan in 2002, and rushed out of Guangdong in a lightning fast speed, in 2004

Conclusion

Red Can Wanglaoji can achieve great success, in summary, the following aspects are the key to the success of Gadobao:

- Accurate positioning for the brand of Red Can Wanglaoji;

- Advertisements to the brand positioning in place of the dissemination of the brand, which has two main points:

Accurate expression of the advertisements;

Sufficient amount of investment. ensure that the brand positioning enters the minds of consumers.

- Accurate judgment and bold decision-making power of corporate decision-makers;

- Excellent execution, strong channel control;

- Measure for Measure, rolling development, to ensure that the marketing efforts are in a relatively advantageous position in the region.

Appendix: Wanglaoji related data

Appendix 1: Sales volume of Wanglaoji beverages in previous years

180 million yuan in 2002

600 million yuan in 2003

1.43 billion yuan in 2004

2.5 billion yuan in 2005 (including boxed)

approximately 4 billion yuan in 2006 (including boxed)

2007 About 9 billion yuan (including boxed)

2008 About 12 billion yuan (including boxed)

Appendix II: Gadobao's investment in building factories over the years

1995, Gadobao was established and invested in a factory in Changan Town, Dongguan, Guangdong Province, with a first-phase investment of 20 million U.S. dollars.

In 1999, it invested in the expansion of the second phase in Chang'an Town, Dongguan, Guangdong Province, with an investment amount of 30 million dollars.

In 2003, we invested in the Beijing Economic and Technological Development Zone with an investment amount of 30 million dollars.

In 2004, we invested in a factory in Robejiang Industrial Zone, Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province, with an investment amount of US$25 million.

In 2005, we invested in a factory in Xiangyi Town, Shishi City, Fujian Province, with an investment amount of USD 30 million.

In 2006, we invested in a factory in Nansha Development Zone, Guangdong, with an investment amount of USD 100 million.

In 2007, we invested in a factory in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, Xiasha Economic Development Zone, with an investment amount of about 25 million US dollars.

Invested in a factory in Wuhan Economic and Technological Development Zone, Hubei Province, with an investment amount of US$99.8 million.

Edit the evolution of brand strategy approach unique sales proposition When the market is in oversupply, companies do not need brand strategy, how to produce more quickly and economically is the core of business operations. Such as Ford Motor in the early 20th century, due to the use of "assembly line" operation, production efficiency greatly improved, and became the leader of the United States industry. However, with the development of social production, new technologies are constantly being developed, the supply of more and more products, the inventory of many enterprises increased, and there was an oversupply in the market. At this time, Rouse Reeves put forward the unique selling proposition (USP) theory, this brand strategy approach emphasizes - the product itself unique selling point (USP) spread, with the help of a strong selling point, you can be the fastest and best sales, and establish their own brand with a unique personality.

For example, M&M's chocolate in the 50's was the first chocolate candy with a sugar coating, so it was "only melted in the mouth, not melted in the hand" as a unique selling point, and quickly became a leading brand.

Jack Trout, the father of positioning, comprehensively updated and developed USP according to the changes in the competitive situation, and pushed USP into the brain of consumers, forming a brand new brand strategy method based on mind. Beijing Mind Sunshine Strategic Positioning Consulting Company (team members under the supervision of Mr. Deng Delong, partner of Trout in China) has organized this new achievement of Trout into the keynote speech "Positioning: the first or only reason for customers to choose in the period of homogenization", and shared it with entrepreneurs, which has been well received by entrepreneurs.