At the same exhibition, four "Wang Laoji" appeared, which is rare in the domestic beverage industry. A few days ago, the Beijing Business Daily reporter learned that 4 enterprises from Henan and Shandong exhibited "Wang Laoji" products at the China Sugar Cloud Merchants Wanshang Conference, including bubble tea flavored salt soda, honey grapefruit tea, pomegranate juice drinks, mango juice drinks, etc. However, these product licenses do not come directly from the owner of the Wang Laoji brand, Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Group, but from the enterprises that have obtained authorization from Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Group. Industry insiders believe that the development of herbal tea categories has encountered bottlenecks, and through authorized expansion of categories, to a certain extent, the influence of Wang Laoji's brand can be expanded, but it is also easy to appear suspected pyramid schemes of Wang Laoji's "Jiyou Pai Oil King", affecting the brand reputation. Therefore, Wang Laoji brand authorization urgently needs to be standardized.
Four "Wang Laoji" are exhibited together
At the Hua Sugar Cloud Merchants Wanshang Conference, four "Wang Laoji" products came from different enterprises. Wang Laoji brewed tea flavored salt soda is produced by Luoyang Longmen Guangmao Food Co., Ltd., and Luoyang Chundu Health Drink Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Luoyang Chundu") is generally distributed nationwide. Wang Lao Ji Qin Ming Shan Honey Grapefruit Tea is produced by Henan Hanrong Beverage Co., Ltd., Hubei Futian Food Co., Ltd. and other enterprises. Wang Laoji pomegranate compound juice drink is produced by Shandong Murad Industrial Co., Ltd., Chuzhou Huaguan Beverage Co., Ltd. and other enterprises. Wang Laoji "Ah! Mango" compound juice drink is produced by enterprises such as Henan Fermented Fruit Zhi Beverage Co., Ltd.
According to the person in charge of each booth, they all got the relevant authorization of Wang Laoji to use the trademark of "Wang Laoji".
The Beijing Business Daily reporter noted that the above-mentioned product filling label shows that the bubble tea flavored salt soda is commissioned by Guangzhou Baiyunshan Xingqun (Pharmaceutical) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Xingqun Pharmaceutical"). Qin Ming Shan Honey Yuzu Tea, Pomegranate Compound Juice Drink and "Ah! "Mango" is commissioned and produced by Guangzhou Baiyun mountain and Huangda Health Products Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Hehuangda Health").
Chinese food industry analyst Zhu Danpeng believes that Wang Laoji herbal tea has become a phenomenon-level product, speaking of herbal tea, people think of Wang Laoji, the brand comes with its own traffic and popularity. Therefore, Wang Laoji constantly authorized the launch of new products and expanded categories.
It is understood that in 1995, Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Group leased the Wang Laoji brand to Jiaduobao, but due to illegal acts in the process of signing the contract between the two parties, after a series of lawsuits, in 2012, Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Group recovered the Wang Laoji brand.
In December 2018, Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Group transferred all the rights and interests such as the exclusive right to use the trademark related to "Wang Laoji" to Guangzhou Baiyunshan Pharmaceutical Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Guangzhou Baiyunshan"), a listed company, for a price of 1.389 billion yuan.
Authorized to reauthorize
After the recovery of the Wang Laoji trademark from JDB, Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Group authorized the Wang Laoji trademark. According to the official website of Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Group, Xingqun Pharmaceutical and Huangda Health are all authorized enterprises of Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Group and can use the Wang Laoji brand.
According to the data of Tianyancha, Xingqun Pharmaceutical is an enterprise invested by Baiyun Mountain and internal employees of Guangzhou Pharmaceutical. Hehuangda Health is 100% controlled by Guangzhou Baiyunshan and Guangzhou Hutchison Whampoa Chinese Medicine Co., Ltd., a joint venture between Guangzhou Baiyunshan and Guangzhou Hutchison Whampoa Chinese Medicine (Hong Kong) Investment Co., Ltd.
In addition to the above products, Xingqun Pharmaceutical and Huangda Health have also licensed a number of products. Among them, Xingqun Pharmaceutical has authorized Dengzhou Nanyang Yibao to produce and sell Xingqun Xia Sangju beverage, and HuangDa Health has authorized the production of Wang Lao Ji Ji Power Vitamin Drink and "Wang Lao Ji Ji You Oil Drain King" and other products.
A person familiar with the matter revealed to the Beijing Business Daily reporter that when Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Group authorized the Wang Laoji brand downwards, it did not restrict the authorized enterprises, so it led to the current chaotic use of the Wang Laoji brand.
Regarding the authorization management of the "Wang Laoji" trademark, a person in charge of Xingqun Pharmaceutical told the Beijing Business Daily reporter that Xingqun Pharmaceutical obtained the right to use the Wang Laoji trademark and did not understand the matter of downward authorization.
However, a person in charge of Huangda Health told the Beijing Business Daily reporter that Huangda Health obtained the right to use Wang Laoji, but it did not have a factory, and by entrusting other enterprises to produce, the products belonged to Huangda Health, but authorized a third party to sell.
"The entrustment of the production and sale of products by authorized enterprises to a third party also constitutes a substantial authorization. This continuous authorization, itself only charges a license fee, resulting in the use of the Wang Laoji brand chaos. It further dilutes Wang Laoji's cognition in the minds of consumers, which is a kind of harm to Wang Laoji. Xu Xiongjun, a strategic positioning expert and founder of Jiude Positioning Consulting Company, said.
Brand use to be regulated
With constant licensing, it can be harmful to a mature brand. Xu Xiongjun believes that Wang Laoji is synonymous with herbal tea and cannot easily change its inner culture. "For a brand with a brand value of more than 100 billion yuan, it is particularly important to prevent the brand value from being damaged and to maintain the continuous expansion of the value."
According to the data, as early as 2010, the value of the Wang Laoji brand after being appraised by the asset appraisal company reached 108.015 billion yuan, exceeding Haier's 85.5 billion yuan.
It is understood that brand authorization has caused "harm" to the Wang Laoji brand. In 2019, the sales model of "Jiyou" operated by Jiangsu Jizhi authorized by Huangda Health to produce Jiangxi Jizhi Food and Jiangsu Jizhi was questioned as a pyramid scheme. Subsequently, the relevant person in charge of Wang Laoji Herbal Tea said: "Jiyou products have nothing to do with Wang Laoji Herbal Tea, although they have been authorized to use the Wang Laoji brand, but they have expired. ”
However, Jiyou repeatedly emphasized its own "legitimacy" at that time, and said, "Jiyou is a product of the Wang Laoji brand of Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Group, produced by Guangzhou Pharmaceutical and Huangda Health Products Co., Ltd." ”
Xu Xiongjun believes that although authorization can expand Wang Laoji's influence and income, it is rare for well-known food companies to do brand authorization. Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Group should also standardize the licensing behavior, continue to cultivate around herbal tea, and expand related categories, otherwise brand authorization may affect the development of the main product.
For authorization, the relevant person in charge of Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Group said that there is no problem with the authorization itself, and many brands around the world have their own authorized series of products, but not all products can immediately reach the height of Wang Laoji and the product popularity of the people. Beijing Business Daily reporter Li Zhenxing/Wen And photographed