Text | Lu Jiu Finance
The new generation of consumer goods Yuanqi Forest, it is also difficult to escape the fate of plagiarism, it seems to be helpless in the face of the national plagiarism of the beverage industry.
Doesn't the old iron of the sinking market deserve to drink the Yuanqi Forest?
I have only heard that Coca-Cola has been copied, and I have never heard of domestic drinks being copied, but Yuanqi Forest has opened a precedent for this "cottage".
In the past year, Lu Jiu Finance and Economics visited many places and found that the Yuanqi Forest is currently not high in many sinking markets, many rural small shops are filled with cottage version of sparkling water, the taste and packaging are highly similar to the Yuanqi Forest, and the Yuanqi Forest seems to have no way to stop this kind of piracy.
This situation of frequent copycats reflects the weakness of the Yuanqi Forest in the channel from the side, the products of this cutting-edge enterprise, do not have the ability to cover the sinking market, even so it has attracted coca-Cola, Nongfu Spring and other beverage giants to encircle and suppress, last week, the media exposed that Coca-Cola executives have released harsh words inside, and must kill the Yuanqi Forest in 2022.
In the midst of crisis, how long will this phenomenon of channels and brands hanging upside down continue?
There is nothing they can do in the face of plagiarism
The world's business is a big copy, even if it is a new brand Yuanqi Forest, it is difficult to escape the fate of plagiarism, it seems to be helpless in the face of the national plagiarism of the beverage industry.
Lu Jiu Finance found in Jiaozuo, Henan Province, that Zhengxin Chicken Steak, known as one of the two giants of the sinking market, also began not to do business, and launched the "Little Bear and Tree" zero sugar zero fat zero calorie sparkling water and milk tea, which is very obvious to the meaning of the benchmark Yuanqi forest sparkling water and cow milk tea.
Not only that, Lu Jiu Finance found during the visit that in many small street shops, there are many products that resemble the Yuanqi Forest, such as light sparkling water, Yuanqi bursting soda sparkling water, Shenzuo's tea 0 sucrose low-fat original milk tea, etc., these products are comprehensively wrapped in the Yuanqi Forest from the aspects of packaging, name, and taste.
Why can so many similar products be sold?
First of all, sugar-free sparkling water has become a separate category because of the fire in the Yuanqi Forest.
Secondly, the crazy entry of big brands has endorsed the brand on the track, traditional giants such as Coca-Cola, Wahaha, and Nongfu Spring have seized the track, as well as cutting-edge brands such as Hey Tea and Naixue's Tea, and sugar-free sparkling water has become synonymous with fashion and health for a time.
Third, cutting-edge brands are gradually eating away at the market perception established by yuanqi forest with the psychology of wool.
John, the head of the supply chain of a supermarket in Zhengzhou, revealed a data, when their supermarket opened, there was a bottle of sugar-free sparkling water with a promotional price of one yuan, all customers who entered the door would carry a bottle with their hands, and customers who loved to drink drinks were directly moved home in whole boxes, and no one paid attention to the brand problem.
For the imitators who are currently on the market, Lu Jiu Finance and Economics have made some exchanges with Yuanqi Forest.
Yuanqi Forest revealed to Lu Jiu Finance that the earliest was in May 2019, and it was found that a number of counterfeit and copied Yuanqi Forest products appeared on the market, such as Jubilee, Yuji, and Pro-Yuanqi. These products imitate Yuanqi Forest in terms of product names, trademarks, packaging, etc., deliberately cause consumer confusion, and also "intercept" by purchasing Yuanqi Forest brand keywords in the bidding ranking system of e-commerce platforms.
Later, in many sinking markets, a large number of unknown similar products appeared, and the commissaries that filled various township markets were highly similar to Yuanqi Forest products from design to taste.
Capable of fighting back?
The weak channel layout of the Yuanqi Forest gives other players on the track great opportunities.
The offline channels of Yuanqi Forest, compared with the old enterprises in the beverage industry, are small witches.
At present, the channels of Yuanqi Forest are mainly cities, focusing on the chain convenience stores that are preferred by young users, missing the vast sinking market.
According to Lu Jiu Finance through some beverage channel providers to understand, Yuanqi Forest from 2021 only began to really build offline channels, the current coverage capacity is still very weak, and in the FMCG industry, to make the scale bigger, relying only on the channels of first- and second-tier cities is far from enough, must sink.
John said: "In fact, the sinking market is the largest market in China, but conquering offline channels is actually the work of the iron army, which needs to be conquered one by one, supermarkets, convenience stores, local retailers, etc. are different systems, and different ways of playing are needed." Traditional brands such as Coca-Cola and Nongfu Spring have already opened up channels in the local area, and the model is quite mature, so for new brands like Yuanqi Forest, it will be more difficult to enter, but Yuanqi Forest still has to do offline, so as to be able to stabilize its jiangshan. ”
Last year, the battle between beverage giants such as Nongfu Spring and Coca-Cola and Yuanqi Forest continued, and at one point there was even a scramble war in the refrigerator, which showed the fierce competition.
And last week, the media exposed that Coca-Cola's internal executives released harsh words, and 2022 must dry up the Yuanqi Forest.
In addition, the lack of solid user cognition is also an important reason for the existence of various yuanqi forests in the sinking market.
In the process of visiting, many consumers reflected: "I really can't make much difference about the taste of the drink, two dollars of qingting and five dollars of yuan of yuan qi forest are the same for me, as long as it can achieve the purpose of stimulating my tongue." The money is not blown by the wind, and I am sure which one to choose cheaper. ”
It can be seen that in the vast sinking market, everyone still lacks brand recognition of Yuanqi Forest, and consumers mainly look at the price, which actually gives other brands a great opportunity to "copy" Yuanqi Forest.
"In fact, everyone should also feel that basically every place has its own local retail brands, and these brands are still very moist." Because the following tastes may not be the same as those in first-tier cities, everyone is more sensitive to price, and there is actually not so much attention to taste. A friend of mine only made a glucose flavored drink in Luohe, Henan Province, and made more than 30 million yuan in revenue in half a year last year. John said.
From the current point of view, although the Yuanqi Forest has played its own difference card in the sparkling water and 0 sugar 0 card labels, its products do not seem to have an absolute moat in any one dimension, which has attracted many cottages to try to reproduce the Yuanqi Forest.
Will you sit still?
The Yuanqi Forest brand conveyed its internal attitude towards the plagiarism problem to Lujiu Finance.
Intellectual property rights are an important part of the long-term development strategy of Yuanqi Forest, which is equipped with a special intellectual property protection team to advocate and implement the mechanism of "everyone reports, everyone is a supervisor" internally, and encourages all colleagues to give timely feedback after discovering fake goods. Establish a full set of mechanisms from all aspects of discovery, feedback, management, and treatment, form a combination of fists, and resolutely crack down on counterfeit products and other infringements.
As a result, there has been a series of legal proceedings.
According to public information, in 2019, Yuanqi Forest sued Zhejiang Quanshui Dingdong Food Co., Ltd., a manufacturer of "pro-Yuanqi", and won, and in 2021, the second instance trial of the case upheld the original judgment, and Yuanqi Forest was compensated with economic losses of 650,000 yuan and 70,000 yuan of rights protection expenditure.
At the end of 2021, Yuanqi Forest (Beijing) Food Technology Group Co., Ltd. sued Shandong Leda Beverage Co., Ltd., Qingdao Dream Shanshui Beer Co., Ltd., Hongxingyuan (Xi'an) Beverage Co., Ltd., and Shaanxi Yuanqi Forest Food Technology Co., Ltd. for infringement of trademark exclusive rights and unfair competition, and pronounced a judgment at the Intermediate People's Court of Qingdao Municipality, Shandong Province. The court ordered Shandong Leda Beverage Co., Ltd. to compensate 500,000 yuan, and Qingdao Dream Shanshui Beer Co., Ltd., Hongxingyuan (Xi'an) Beverage Co., Ltd., and Shaanxi Yuanqi Forest Food Technology Co., Ltd. each bore joint and several liability within the range of 100,000 yuan.
It can be seen that in the face of encirclement and suppression from all sides, Yuanqi Forest is not sitting still, but using its own strength to start a war against encirclement and suppression.
Food industry insiders revealed to Lu Jiu Finance that products such as food and beverages can also take legal procedures to protect brand rights and interests if they look exactly the same, but there are many similar but play the edge ball, in fact, there is no way to solve, which is also a very headache for brands such as Yuanqi Forest.
When asked how he planned to counter the encirclement and suppression in the future, Yuanqi Forest responded as follows.
First of all, "cracking down on counterfeiting" is a long-term and arduous task, and the formation of the phenomenon of counterfeit goods has many internal and external factors, and it is difficult to completely eradicate it in a short period of time.
Secondly, Yuanqi Forest mainly exerts long-term efforts from the two general directions of intellectual property management system construction and brand building, reducing the phenomenon of counterfeiting and reducing its impact. Through the intellectual property team of Yuanqi Forest, we formulate and improve the relevant systems of intellectual property management, excavate and apply for corporate trademarks and patents, collect and deal with infringements, etc.
Finally, it is also necessary to strengthen marketing and continue to enhance consumer awareness of brands and products, helping them to identify counterfeit products more quickly and accurately and prevent being deceived.