Author: Chopper Knife
There are things in the world that can and cannot be tolerated, and there are three things in the latter, including cutting off people's business.
It is reported that Coca-Cola has made harsh remarks inside, "This year it is bound to eliminate the steaming water of the Yuanqi Forest."
Yuanqi Forest continued to publicize the unhealthiness of sugary drinks, objectively accelerating the disintegration of the basis of Coke's consumption concept.
For Coca-Cola, if this generation gives up Coke, they will further control their children's drinks, and eventually Coke will be completely erased from consumers' memories. Therefore, Coca-Cola is "tolerable or intolerable".
However, choosing to speak harshly at this moment is not blind. In the fourth quarter of 2021, Coca-Cola's revenue increased by 10% year-on-year to $9.46 billion, giving it a hard time. On the other hand, the Yuanqi Forest, after setbacks in 2021, entered 2022, and fell into a blockade and siege, and the overall momentum fell behind.
At this time, "the enemy is weak and we are strong" is obviously good for Coca-Cola, and naturally any bit of wind and grass may trigger an attack.
On January 21, Yuanqi Forest announced that Yi Qianxi, the "Third Son of the Empire", had become its spokesperson for sparkling water. Last year, Wang Junkai, who is also one of the three sons, just became the spokesperson for Coca-Cola.
No matter how others interpret it, for Coca-Cola, this move is no less than a public call. In the fourth quarter of the favorable revenue trend, it is not unusual for Coca-Cola to take advantage of the trend.
The problem is that both Coca-Cola and Yuanqi Forest are traders and competitors, and the end of their struggle is always "rotten meat in the pot". Therefore, "who gets what", that is, who wins and who loses, although it is the first question, is a secondary question. And "who pays the bill in the end", although not the first question, is an important question. Important questions deserve to be asked.
01
A dog has his day
At present, the domestic consumer market is undergoing a conceptual transformation, which is typically characterized by the popularity of the concept of health.
Specific to the beverage market, the sugar-free trend not only opens up a special track, but also the annual growth rate of the track far exceeds the overall growth rate of the industry.
At the same time, this trend has also spawned unicorn companies such as Yuanqi Forest. In 2021, Yuanqi Forest overpowered traditional drinks such as Coca-Cola and Pepsi Cola, and won the first place in sales at the time of Singles' Day. At the same time, its annual sales volume also ranked 13th in the "2021 Most Growing China New Consumer Brands TOP100 List", with a scale of nearly 3 billion.
With this trend, Yuan Qi sen went to the scenery without difference, so that Coca-Cola also temporarily took the lead. However, the feng shui took turns, things quietly changed, and the good days seemed to start to reverse.
It is reported that the year-end awards of the main department of yuanqi forest have not been issued, and the amount received by other employees has also been greatly reduced.
The reason may be related to the fact that the entire 2021 Yuanqi Forest is not smooth. Yuanqi Forest was not only exposed to operational accidents, but even once because it was deliberately suppressed in the supply chain, it encountered foundries stopping cooperation, resulting in a shortage of goods and a crisis of supply cuts.
It was under the pressure of various pressures that Yuanqi Forest launched a major organizational restructuring in December last year. Founder Binsen Tang is said to focus more on channels, sales management and product development. This means that the Yuanqi Forest will also expand to the line in a large area. Objectively, Yuanqi Forest's move triggered its hostility with Nongfu Mountain Spring. Increased the number of enemies you make.
In addition to the change in the focus of the task, Tang Binsen's move was also interpreted as a negative situation in the Yuanqi Forest. In the past few years, Yuanqi Forest has maintained continuous high growth, so can it achieve rapid growth again in 2022? In this regard, Tang Binsen's statement is extremely intriguing, "I can guarantee 50-60% annualized growth in the next three years - I don't ask for two or three times every year." ”
02
In the middle of the night, the deep pool is near
The mall is like a battlefield, and the difficulties will not appear one after another after being solved. Throughout the history of business, crises are often the appearance of occasional clusters. To paraphrase a common saying, "The blind man rides a blind horse, and in the middle of the night he comes to a deep pool", and the degree is not less than that.
Taking the Yuanqi Forest as an example, in addition to dealing with the overall unfavorable situation, it also has to face other difficulties.
First of all, an embarrassing fact is that in addition to the sparkling water as a hit, Yuanqi Forest has not yet had other explosive or phenomenon-level products successfully occupy the market or even card slots. In fact, for the sparkling water alone, Yuanqi Forest has paid a lot of price in marketing.
Secondly, the more fatal problem is that the Yuanqi Forest has not taken the road of a single character in the world. Yuanqi Forest has begun to sell bodybuilding light tea, coffee latte milk tea and other products. In addition, it is reported that it has also dropped the freezer and opened the retail road. This is counter-evidence.
Finally, and especially fundamentally, the sparkling water threshold as the main product is extremely low, and it is difficult to establish a moat. To exaggerate, it is not excluded that Yuanqi Forest will do a good job in market education, but others will follow the product and the probability of winning the result.
In the sparkling water subdivision track, Coca-Cola is catching up with the Yuanqi Forest. In February 2021, Coca-Cola also introduced sparkling water AHA into China, named "AH!HA! Small Universe". The transformation of Coca-Cola has produced relatively good results. According to Zhan Kunjie, chairman of the board of directors and CEO of Coca-Cola.
"Strong quarterly growth in the Chinese market", "especially the zero-sugar Coca-Cola doubled compared to the fourth quarter of 2019." ”
In addition to the interception of Coca-Cola, other tea brands also ran and squeezed in to besiege the Yuanqi Forest.
Last year, PepsiCo launched the sparkling water "bubly smile fun bubble", and Nongfu Spring also launched its own soda sparkling water, which also created an annual sales volume of more than 600 million yuan.
If Coca-Cola and Pepsi Are direct rivals, and Nongfu Springs is caused by enemies, then Wahaha and so on are purely profitable.
Also last year, Wahaha launched a new product "Small Light Smoked Sparkling Water"; waited until June, and made another effort, not only its beverage brand KellyOne launched sparkling water "Angry", but also invited Wang Yibo as a spokesperson for publicity. Going back in time, in 2020, Heytea and Nesher's teas have also launched bottled sparkling water drinks.
It can be said that sugar-free drinks are already a scuffle among nations. Therefore, from the perspective of the situation of the Yuanqi Forest, Tang Binsen's conservative treatment is reasonable.
03
Who pays in the end?
In 2022, whether Yuanqi Forest can win depends on product and channel capabilities.
However, both Coca-Cola and Yuanqi Forest are traders and competitors, and the victory or defeat between them is only a matter of who gets more and who gets less.
At this point, the question to be asked is, who is really paying the price? Who pays the cost of the wars of the nations? Is it a trader and competitor such as Genki Forest and Coca-Cola?
On the surface, these are the objects. In 2022, the overall beginning of new consumption is not beautiful, and the news of the wave of layoffs, the shrinking of year-end awards, and the closure of stores has come out.
Among them, Yuanqi Forest and Xicha are still head enterprises. A little earlier, the tea face was also exposed to salary civil unrest. This has led to the story of sugar-free drinks becoming increasingly difficult to tell. Correspondingly, the enthusiasm of the capital market has decreased overall.
As a result, these companies suffered certain losses. However, this is only the sequelae of frequent expansion under excessive marketing. Taking Yuanqi Forest as an example, Tang Binsen continued the arrogance of "we dare to spend 1.8 billion yuan to do advertising when making games", and has been spending a lot of money in marketing.
In the promotion of bubble water, the marketing means of Yuanqi Forest include but are not limited to inviting Zhang Yuqi to be an ambassador when "Sister Riding the Wind and Waves" is in full swing in 2020. In order to create the next blockbuster, as early as last year, Ni Ni, Chen Feiyu, and Zhao Lusi were invited to serve as spokespersons for full-score juice, burning tea, and milk tea.
But in terms of who gets what, it must be noted that before the after-effects appeared, at the time of marketing expansion, these objects were already in the pocket. On the other hand, the source in its pocket has always been the consumer, and it is the consumer who pays behind. Even, still spend money to buy bitter food.
First of all, Coca-Cola, the so-called "fat house happy water", the more you drink the more "fat house", the cycle harvests consumers.
Even the so-called sugar-free Yuanqi Forest cannot stand up to verification. Its 0 calorie 0 sugar "Phillips" includes red fresh sugar alcohol and sucralose, of which sucralose is the more commonly used non-sugar sweetener. Another erythritol. Excessive intake can also lead to obesity, diabetes, etc.
All in all, as traders and competitors, whether it is Coca-Cola or Yuanqi Forest, their victory or defeat is internal. However, consumers are always external beings. If you follow their marketing, then you basically can't get rid of "spending money to buy hard food".
Perhaps, Coca-Cola's harsh words are also a kind of marketing performance, and if you are serious, you will lose.