On April 21, according to Sina Finance CEO Deng Qingxu's Weibo content, Lin Sheng, the founder of Zhongxuegao, took a green train to Beijing overnight after being "restricted".
It was sold for 66 yuan a piece
It is "Hermes of ice cream"
According to public information, Zhong Xuegao was established in 2018 and used the three surnames "Zhong", "Xue" and "Gao" in the hundred surnames to form a brand name, which means "Chinese ice cream".
Image source: Zhong Xuegao Weibo
At the beginning of its establishment, Zhongxuegao established to take the high-end route, pursuing less and refining, and its conventional ice cream products were basically priced between 13-18 yuan.
In 2018, Zhong Xuegao launched the "Ecuador Pink Diamond" ice cream, the price was 66 yuan / piece, limited sale, on the day of Double 11, the launch of 20,000 copies of "Ecuador Pink Diamond" ice cream was sold out within 15 hours of being put on the shelves. Zhong Xuegao also became an instant hit and became a representative of high-end ice cream, known as the "Hermes of the ice cream industry", and became an Internet celebrity ice cream that young people rushed to check in.
In 2021, Zhong Xuegao proposed to redefine ice cream with a dessert strategy, and launched four new products that year: "Zhimei Longli", "Xingyu Nian", "Heyou Cheese" and "Pear Blossom Fall", of which "Zhimei Longli" is priced at 88 yuan / box, "Xingyu Nian" is priced at 68 yuan / box, "He You Cheese" is priced at 88 yuan / box, and "Pear Blossom Fall" is priced at 78 yuan / box, and this series of products has been fried by the scalper market to 160-200 yuan a box due to limited sales.
The sales of Zhongxuegao products, which attract consumers' attention with high prices, national style, and limited sales, have risen rapidly. 16 months after the establishment of Zhongxuegao, the revenue exceeded 100 million yuan, in 2021, Zhongxuegao sold a total of 152 million ice cream, and in 2022, in just 5 months, Zhongxuegao's ice cream shipped out of the warehouse will be 220 million pieces.
However, because of the high price, Zhong Xuegao has repeatedly fallen into the whirlpool of negative public opinion such as "ice cream assassin" and "sky-high ice cream", and has almost become the target of public criticism.
Trapped in public opinion events such as "Ice Cream Assassin".
Push affordable products into "stinky chess"?
Trapped by public opinion events such as "Ice Cream Assassin" and "Sky-high Ice Cream", Zhong Xuegao began to take action starting in 2022.
In July 2022, it was reported that Panzhen Youxi (Shanghai) Biotechnology Co., Ltd. applied for the registration of a number of trademarks of "Zhongxue Low", "Zhongxue Not Low", "Zhongxue Not High", "Zhongxue Xiaogao" and "Zhongxue Backgammon", covering 45 international classifications such as convenience food, beer and beverages, education and entertainment, and advertising sales. Shareholder information shows that the company is wholly owned by Zhongxuegao Food (Shanghai) Co., Ltd.
In March 2023, Zhongxuegao will substantially launch affordable products. On March 29 last year, Zhongxuegao held its annual new product launch conference in Shanghai, and launched a new AI-led product series "Sa'Saa" and "Zhongxuegao's cake" new dessert "Dansheng". According to Lin Sheng, the Sa'Saa series is priced at 3.5 yuan, representing a young and fashionable brand image.
As a growing new brand, Zhongxuegao does not want to be bound by past products and cognition, and the launch of Sa'Saa is to broaden the product line on the basis of maintaining high quality.
At that time, Zhong Xuegao had not yet encountered a real business crisis. At that time, Lin Sheng said in an interview with reporters that Zhong Xuegao started online and has basically maintained the first position online. He said that since 2021, the proportion of Zhongxue's high offline has been expanding, and by 2022, offline has surpassed online.
Lin Sheng told reporters at the time that there are different consumption scenarios online and offline, and in 2023, Zhong Xuegao hopes to make product differentiation more open, so that there are not only products suitable for online multi-scenes, but also products suitable for offline stores, convenience stores and other retail scenarios, "More hope to use the innovation of the product itself to plan our channel strategy." At that time, Lin Sheng also mentioned that offline, Zhong Xuegao also had more city penetration and more channel exposure.
For Zhong Xuegao, who started to position himself in the middle and high-end, is the launch of affordable products a help or a harm to the brand?
"We think it is a bad move to launch low-cost products, because Zhongxuegao's positioning is high-end, and low-cost products should not be launched, which has caused great damage to Zhongxuegao's brand reputation, price and channels. Senior dairy analyst Song Liang said.
Song Liang told reporters that after experiencing a major crisis incident, Zhong Xuegao did not deal with it well. In addition, in terms of product positioning, Zhongxuegao has also shifted. In terms of channel layout, Zhong Xuegao overstrengthened the horizontal channel layout and lowered the threshold, causing a large number of products to sprint to the market for a time, channeling goods and prices, and finally causing long-term contradictions.
Source: Daily Economic News Editor: Hu Yiyi Editor: Lai Ting Review: Lu Hongmei
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