Pushing new products and going to the Spring Festival Gala, Wahaha's brand "Very Coke" has obvious intentions to re-appear on the stage. In the domestic carbonated beverage market many years ago, Very Coke was divided with Coca-Cola and Pepsi Cola, and then fell into an embarrassing situation due to the marketing strategy of the sinking market. Labeled as a national tide, catering to the sugar-free trend, the return of the old brand very cola is also seen as one of the initiatives of Wahaha's rejuvenation. Industry insiders believe that the future development of very Coke also depends on Wahaha's follow-up operation strategy, the current "two music" status is difficult to attack, the new brand is popular, Wahaha relies on very Coke to win back the hearts of young people.
"Return" spring festival gala
This year's Spring Festival, bid farewell to the 17-year-old cola on the Spring Festival Gala stage, and displayed it in front of consumers across the country as the "designated drink of the 2022 CCTV Spring Festival Gala".
During the Spring Festival Gala in 2022, advertising slogans such as "In the Spring Festival, drink Chinese your own Coke" and "2022 CCTV Spring Festival Gala Designated Drink Wahaha Group Wishes the Global Chinese a Happy New Year" were broadcast in turn, bringing the very coke that had been quiet for a long time back to the consumer's vision. At the same time, Wahaha's official Weibo released the ultimate challenge of "Finding New Year's Atmospheric Water", adding another fire to the promotion of very Coke.
The high-profile return of Very Coke today reveals Wahaha's intention to find new development opportunities. Chinese food industry analyst Zhu Danpeng told "Consumption Titanium" that drinking Coke is a pleasant enjoyment for young people, and as the new generation of demographic dividends continue to stack, the carbonated beverage market will grow. In this context, Wahaha will have a brand accumulation and development foundation of the very Coke, to create another major single product, may bring new growth points to Wahaha. ”
In fact, as early as June 2019, there was news that Very Coke was attracting business and seemed to be about to re-emerge. At that time, Wahaha denied to the media the news of a very Coke investment. But Wahaha revealed that very cola has actually been in the production state, but the sales area is only concentrated in the central and western regions of the country, so it is difficult to buy in other cities.
The re-appearance of Very Coke on the screen is a new product that has been newly upgraded in the taste packaging. In October 2021, Wahaha voted four new products of very cola through the Internet, including ginseng, oil mandarin, plum and original flavor, corresponding to "staying up late and fighting", "gathering time" and "fat loss time" in the drinking scene. The new cola products are mainly "sugar-free", and the packaging is designed with a national trend.
Very cola new products listed for more than three months, offline supermarkets still rarely appear, the main sales path is still online. "Consumption Titanium" found through the Tmall Wahaha creative flagship store that the price of 4 bottles of 530ml bottled very Coke is 21.8 yuan, and the price of 330ml very cola 12 is 38.8 yuan, and the monthly sales total is about 2,000.
In this regard, Zhang Guangyang, an analyst in the food and beverage industry, told "Consumption Titanium" that the actions of very cola to re-appear at the Spring Festival Gala and redesign the packaging are only at the level of publicity, and the future development of very cola depends on wahaha's follow-up operation strategy. The beverage industry pays attention to the extensive and rapid distribution of offline channels, and if it is not convenient to buy, even if it is recognized by consumers, it is difficult to form a sales scale. In this way, there is still a long way to go from the "popularity" of very cola. ”
Peak to decline
Nowadays, there is no sense of existence of very cola, and it has also splashed a lot in the domestic carbonated beverage market.
In 1998, Wahaha linked the product to the rise of national brands, launching Very Coke with the slogan of "Chinese their own Coke". In order to avoid head-to-head confrontation with Coca-Cola and Pepsi, Wahaha has sunk the market for very Coke to third- and fourth-tier cities and rural areas, and the pricing is also 0.5 yuan cheaper than "two le".
At that time, the sales strategy of "rural encirclement of the city" made very cola the best-selling cola product in the domestic market in addition to "two music". According to media reports, in 2001, very cola accounted for 12% of the domestic carbonated beverage market, and this figure increased to 16% to 17% in 2006. At its peak, The market share of Very Cola in second- and third-tier cities was as high as 30%, and it once contributed more than 2 billion yuan of annual revenue to Wahaha.
However, at present, Very Coke is in a marginalized position in the core market of domestic carbonated beverages. The industry believes that the red packaging of Coke and Coca-Cola, which is very similar to Coca-Cola, has brought the illusion of "copycat" to many consumers, and users have resisted. "Consumption Titanium" found that many consumers said on social platforms, "I have always thought that very Coke is a pirated Coca-Cola" "Looks too similar, the taste is similar, often mistaken for Coca-Cola" "Sent a new product to know that it is Wahaha's"...
In addition, with the siege of Coca-Cola and Pepsi, the marketing strategy of "rural encirclement of the city" of very Coke has also changed from an advantage to a disadvantage of its development. Zhang Guangyang said, "At that time, very Coke paid attention to the sinking market with little layout of 'two le', which can indeed bring benefits in the short term, but with the 'two le' offensive to the domestic market, it is difficult for very cola to enter the first-line mainstream market, and it is only a matter of time before it is cannibalized." ”
Xu Xiongjun, a strategic positioning expert and founder of Jiude Positioning Consulting Company, told Consumer Titanium that Cola was originally an imported product, and Coca-Cola and Pepsi Cola had inherent advantages in brand and consumer mental cognition. "When it comes to Coke, I think of Coca-Cola and Pepsi Cola, which is the biggest embarrassing point and difficulty of Coke in consumers' mental cognition."
Nowadays, the development of domestic soda is very rapid, the carbonated beverage market is no longer the monopoly of the "two music", yuanqi forest, nongfu spring under the sparkling water latecomers, Hankou Second Factory, Arctic Ocean, Huayang 1982 and other "old soda" return, but also to a certain extent to seize the market. Industry insiders believe that at this moment, very Coke chose to "return", and it is difficult to continue to write the legend again.
Can you still impress young people?
This time, The return of Very Coke to the mainstream stage is regarded as one of the important measures for Wahaha to enter the rejuvenation.
At the new product launch at the end of December 2021, Wahaha proposed "four major measures" for the brand marketing plan in 2022, indicating that in 2022, through the two major IPs of AD calcium milk and very cola, the brand should be rejuvenated and the star product of Wahaha should be created.
The pressure to rush to rejuvenate may come from Wahaha's declining performance in recent years. According to public data, from 2014 to 2017, Wahaha's operating income was 72.8 billion yuan, 67.7 billion yuan, 52.9 billion yuan and 45.6 billion yuan, respectively, with a five-year contraction of more than 30 billion yuan, a decline of 42%.
Since then, Wahaha has focused its development on "hunting" young people. The relevant person in charge of Wahaha has publicly stated: "Zong Fuli, who is the director of the brand public relations department, tested the broken circle of the brand, brought a series of cross-border innovation attempts such as nutrition express makeup, haha brown, blind water, AD calcium milk ice cream, etc., and established in-depth cooperation with platforms such as B station and League of Legends Professional League LPL, and successfully entered the circle of two-dimensional, e-sports, tide play and so on." ”
Since 2018, Wahaha has successively launched products such as AD calcium milk flavored mooncake, AD calcium milk flavored "juvenile ice cream", AD calcium milk peripheral and newly packaged nutrition express. However, Wahaha's youthful actions have not won back the hearts of young consumers. Wahaha's revenue data also proves this view, Wahaha's 2020 financial report shows that Wahaha's operating income was 43.98 billion yuan, becoming its lowest performance in a decade.
Wahaha this time will be "very cola" re-built into a new product that fits the young people's pursuit of national tide and sugar-free consumption trends, indeed has gained a high degree of attention, but for whether very cola can become the key point of Wahaha's promotion, Xu Xiongjun said, "The difficulty is a bit large, Wahaha has done a lot of new product research and development in recent years, and it is also making efforts in reviving large items such as cool crookedness, Ad calcium milk, and nutrition express, but it has not fundamentally changed the decline of Wahaha." ”
Zhu Danpeng believes that "in recent years, the overall development of Wahaha has not been satisfactory, and the return of very cola is conducive to strengthening the stickiness between Wahaha and the new generation, but the products for first- and second-tier cities should be the focus of Wahaha's efforts to launch products that meet the needs of the new generation of consumers, on this basis, choose the right sales path, and carry out corresponding marketing activities to complement each other." ”