Another light of domestic products was rumored to have disappeared: he once beat Wahaha and once appeared on Forbes

Author|Deep Krypton New Consumption Mu Jiujiu

If youth is a big net, then my big net must be full of countless empty milk drink bottles.

The most is AD calcium milk, nutrition express, and a wonderful love with a little foreigner.

Today, AD calcium milk and nutrition express have followed the huge empire built by Wahaha all the way to the present, and the wonderful love of the only little foreigner has been "left" in their youth.

Let's put it this way, it may not be easy to grab AD calcium milk after Zong Lao's death, but if you want to find the figure of the little foreigner on the shelf, it is even more difficult than ascending to the sky.

On social platforms, there are often two voices that accompany the little foreigners: one is youthful and nostalgic, and the other is questioning its closure and discontinuation.

Although the little foreigner is still "alive" today, in the past 30 years from 1994 to the present, the taste of wonderful love has also been washed away more and more faintly.

It's so faint that I can't even remember what it smells like.

01

小作坊变小洋人

In 1992, Chen Shiyong and Dai Xiufen, who were born in Cangzhou, Hebei Province, raised 3,000 yuan to build a small dairy workshop in their hometown of Liying Village.

At first, due to the couple's lack of experience, the small workshop had to rely on popular dairy products in the copycat market to make a profit. In the process of crawling, the two not only have a deeper understanding of the dairy market, but also establish their own dealer system.

In 1994, the small workshop was officially upgraded to Xiaoyangren, and two years later registered its trademark.

In 1996, Xiaoyangren's first product, Life Egg Milk, was successfully developed.

Image source/Xiaoyangren official website

Although the name of the product seems a bit old-fashioned now, it is in line with the development situation of society at that time. Wu Xiaobo wrote in "Thirty Years of Turmoil" that "the Chinese business world in 1994 was full of the madness of the Three Plants, the Flying Dragon, and the passion of Shi Yuzhu."

At that time, food and beverage factories related to nutrition and health care abounded. Little foreigners are naturally no exception.

But in the middle of such a fanatical and gunpowder-flavored market, it is also destined that the bow and arrow of the little foreigner will not be easy to draw.

After the production of the product was completed, the little foreigner life egg milk encountered the problem of unsalable. Due to the high price of the product and the limited understanding of it, few consumers are willing to buy, and many dealers dare not buy more.

On this basis, Chen Shiyong made a bold decision - to advertise on Hebei TV.

But after experiencing the double pressure of product development and sales difficulties, the little foreigner at this time has long been at the end of the road, and its founder can only get 5,000 yuan, less than one-sixth of the advertising cost.

Chen Shiyong, who couldn't come up with the money, could only discuss with the TV station to advertise first and then pay, but finally waited for people to relent, and the little foreigner encountered the problem of shooting commercials again.

At first, Chen Shiyong originally planned to ask the Hebei TV camera crew to help shoot and record, but the other party was too busy, and the product could not be delayed, so after some thought, he decided to go into battle in person, as a director and copywriter, found a few children in the kindergarten, and hired a cameraman to shoot the first commercial film of the little foreigner.

Since then, the advertising slogan "The teacher told us to drink the eggs and milk of the little foreigner's life, smart and healthy" has been broadcast on Hebei TV every day.

At first, the effect of the commercial was not obvious, and there was not a single phone call for 20 days after the advertisement was placed. It wasn't until the 21st day that the little foreigner life eggmilk ushered in the first phone call that symbolized the turning point of its life. Since then, there has been an endless stream of customers ordering goods, and the business of the little foreigners has also ushered in an explosion.

It's a pity that it didn't take long for a large number of copycats to target the little foreigner, their packaging is close to the little foreigner's life egg milk, the price is lower, but the quality is far inferior to the latter, which seriously damages the reputation of the little foreigner. As a result, Xiaoyangren had to be busy with production and supply, and at the same time, he was busy setting up an anti-counterfeiting department and starting an anti-counterfeiting operation.

Fortunately, after successfully cracking down on counterfeit and shoddy products, Xiaoyangren not only gained a high reputation, but also gradually expanded its production scale and established a modern factory.

In this process, Xiaoyangren has also successfully developed its own representative product - Xiaoyangren Miaolian.

02

Little foreigner love, the feeling of first love

In 2003, the story of a Japanese child who grew taller because of drinking milk was still spread by word of mouth in China, and led to a big explosion of domestic milk. In that year, Mengniu's sales exceeded 5 billion yuan, and Yili surpassed Bright Dairy with a revenue of 6.299 billion yuan.

On the other hand, with the explosion of Huiyuan's new category of fruit juice drinks, the juice market is poised to take off, including Uni-President, Nongfu Spring, Coca-Cola, etc., all of which have laid out juice business.

But those who can follow are not as good as those who know how to innovate, and those who understand innovation are not as good as those who can combine.

As a result, between the two major categories of milk and juice markets, there is a "third party".

In response to people's consumption habits of drinking milk and juice, Xiaoyangren combined the two and launched a new generation of fruit milk drink - Miaolian.

To be precise, it should be called fruit milk, fruit milk with fruit juice and milk.

As soon as it was launched, the little foreigner Miaolian drink conquered the market because of its unique taste, sweet and sour taste.

In 2005, the "Little Foreigner" trademark was rated as a well-known trademark in China.

In 2006, Xiaoyangren was selected as one of the "100 Most Promising Enterprises in China" by Forbes in the United States. In the same year, the brand value of Xiaoyangren was assessed at a high price of 1.36 billion.

At that time, whether it was a shopping mall or a small store, there was a place for small foreigners.

Of course, the unique taste alone is not enough to support it to become a 1.3 billion yuan brand, the key is to use and exert the imagination of consumers to the best of their ability.

First of all, on the packaging. At that time, there was a general consensus in society that milk or milk beverages had to be packaged in a light-proof film in order to guarantee quality in storage.

But the packaging of Little Foreigner's Love is transparent, so transparent that you can see the shape and thickness of the milk inside, and thus give it a silky taste and a nutritious and healthy imagination.

This is more imaginative than the cold light-proof film packaging, and it also makes people more willing to try.

Image source/network

Secondly, in brand marketing. Back then, there must have been no friend who didn't pay for Zhang Nara's sweet smile.

In 2005, Xiaoyangren signed Korean superstar Zhang Nara as the brand spokesperson of Miao Lian, relying on Zhang Nara's sweet, pure and lovely appearance, as well as an advertising song of "Actually, I have been in love with you for a long time!", Miao Lian's "first love-like feeling" quickly took root among teenagers, and led to the increase of Miao Lian's market share.

In fact, whether it is the image of the spokesperson or the "advertising slogan like first love", while conveying the brand positioning, Xiaoyangren is actually "using" the emotional resonance of the public, and creating a sense of imagination by making people involuntarily think of their "first love", so as to further stimulate the desire to consume.

Judging from the actual sales performance later, this kind of imagination did give vitality to the Miaolian products, and soon the total sales of Miaolian products exceeded all the product items under the Xiaoyangren brand at that time, and the Xiaoyangren entered the era of Miaolian.

Until today, when it comes to little foreigners, the first thing that comes to mind is the wonderful love of little foreigners.

It's a pity that two years later, the era of the little foreigner's wonderful love was overshadowed by "real life".

In 2005, Wahaha imitated the little foreigner Miaolian and launched the Nutrition Express, which is not only a fruit milk product, but also uses transparent packaging on the packaging. A few years later, with Zhang Nara being banned, the sense of first love was abandoned, and the imagination that Miao Lian had built at the beginning was also worn out little by little.

In addition, drawing on the packaging of sports drink large bottles, Wahaha took the lead in opening a large package of milk drinks when the little foreigner Miaolian was still stuck at 250ml, and its nutrition express line used 500ml breakfast milk positioning, plus 1.5L of family milk Sasuke, successfully broke through in the dense milk drinking circle.

Of course, the most critical point is that Wahaha, as a beverage giant, can borrow its strong popularity and channel system to help promote Nutrition Express, so as to quickly occupy the market, and even squeeze the pioneer Miaolian out of the first line.

There is unconfirmed data showing that in the ten years since its launch, Nutrition Express has sold a total of 39.4 billion bottles.

Although the sales of Nutrition Express are declining due to the impact of Internet celebrity brands, it is undeniable that its situation is much better than that of Xiaoyangren.

After the death of Zong Lao, Nutrition Express set off a rush to buy, and the wonderful love of the little foreigner was still trapped in the whirlpool of "thinking it was out of business".

03

The little foreigner is busy everywhere

Although it seems to be unknown in the market, in fact, the little foreigners have worked hard in recent years.

For example, in terms of products, in response to the consumption trend of sugar-free and healthy, Xiaoyangren not only launched products such as sugar-free lactic acid bacteria and yogurt, but also launched enzyme fruit juice drinks, focusing on organic acids and dietary fiber. In addition, in order to provide consumers with a new visual experience, Xiaoyangren is also focusing on packaging design. For example, Xiaoyang Renzhi Duomei lactic acid bacteria children's drink is a patented design.

In terms of marketing, in the face of changes in the social environment, Xiaoyangren put forward a new marketing idea in 2017 - "micro-marketing, cloud terminal", that is, using WeChat groups for marketing, and everyone orders and feedback information through WeChat groups.

When facing consumers, Xiaoyangren has indeed tried to customize short videos, as well as hold music festivals.

Unfortunately, judging from market feedback, most of these measures have received a mediocre response.

It can only be said that the competition in the food and beverage market is really too fierce, so fierce that if you are one step slower, you will miss by a millimeter.

For example, it is also about feelings, Dayao soda has come out, and other domestic soda is still spinning.

For example, if you are also making sugar-free tea drinks, the benefits and commercial value of the Oriental Leaves made in the early years are different from those of the brands you are doing now.

For example, the little foreigners who are also creating products and engaging in marketing, but are working everywhere, still don't catch anything in the end.

So the metaphysical saying is that the little foreigner is more or less unlucky.

The realistic way to say it is that small foreigners need to be active.

Compared with cutting-edge brands, what Xiaoyangren lacks is never popularity, but activity. An opportunity to stand in front of the public, brush up on the sense of existence, and let people know that it is still there.

Perhaps, after going through youth, the little foreigner in his thirties is still confused, but do something before waiting for the opportunity to come, whatever is fine.

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