"Don't run, don't be bad, don't cowardice", "Even if you sell sweet potatoes, you have to pay off your debts!"
Unexpectedly, this sentence said by the founder of Zhong Xuegao was actually on the hot search.
Although it is a joke that the founder of a well-known brand abandoned by the times wants to "sell sweet potatoes" to pay off debts, the plight of the "ice cream assassin" is real.
Two years ago, Zhong Xuegao was still the smash hit "Hermes in the ice cream industry", with a remarkable record of exceeding 100 million yuan in revenue after only 16 months of establishment.
I didn't expect that now, Zhong Xuegao would fall off the altar so quickly!
However, Zhong Xuegao's Internet celebrity attribute is also the envy of all consumer brands.
Even if you are on the verge of bankruptcy and fall into the abyss, you are still full of topics, and every once in a while, you can always be on a hot search:
For example, salary arrears, product price reduction, founder's height limit, and even a like and retweet from the founder's good friend can also make Zhong Xuegao's last hot search.
But in the eyes of many people in the industry, as a former new consumer star company, Zhong Xuegao walked step by step to the deep pool, and it seems that he is not surprised.
"Hermes in the ice cream world", I can't hold it!
The founder, who was limited in height, "took a green train to Beijing overnight", wanted to sell sweet potatoes to pay off his debts;
But sweet potato, are you willing to become the next "upstart"?
Could it be that the non-accidental "death" of a star company should be counted from the boss who started "selling sweet potatoes"?
01
The people who eat melons have been suffering for a long time!
Zhong Xuegao, an Internet celebrity ice cream brand, really fills up the Internet celebrity attributes.
Even if he fell off the altar and stood on the verge of "bankruptcy", there were still constant topics, which was not a hot search again.
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".
According to the information of the China Enforcement Information Disclosure Network, in March this year, Lin Sheng was restricted from high consumption, mainly because Zhong Xuegao was involved in an arbitration case, and in February this year, Zhong Xuegao was forced to pay 818,100 yuan for this case.
That night, the topic "Zhong Xuegao's founder said that he would also repay his debts when selling sweet potatoes" rushed to the hot search, and it was hot for a long time.
Lin Sheng, the founder of Zhongxuegao, took advantage of the situation to earn another wave of traffic, and he must carry out the responsibility to the end!
was limited in height, took a green car to Beijing overnight, and sold sweet potatoes to repay debts, which is really good!
However, it is obvious that netizens have a lot of complaints about this:
Also, I have seen too much of "The Wolf is Coming", and I will no longer be deceived by the "old lai" of "Jia Yueting" and "Xu Jiayin"!
There are even many people who eat melons and shout, Mr. Lin must not sell sweet potatoes, otherwise he will not be able to eat sweet potatoes in the future!
Will sweet potatoes, which have always been high-yield and simple, be willing to become the next "upstart"?
In addition, don't underestimate the green train, the green train also has hard sleeper and soft sleeper, long-distance soft sleeper is much more comfortable than high-speed rail.
So, is Lin Sheng sitting on a hard seat, a hard sleeper, or a soft sleeper? It can't be Zhou Hongyi's Maybach!
Now everyone knows that the words of the "old man" who owe money are not credible, and perhaps everyone has experienced that people who owe money will always say:
I'm sure I'll pay it back, trust me, it'll be there next week.
Repeatedly, is there an infinite number of "next weeks" in debt?
But Zhong Xuegao's brand is not poor at all!
02
Once, Zhong Xuegao was known as the "Ice Cream Assassin" because he sold ice cream too expensive.
This brand takes three hundred surnames as a collection, with the homonym of "Chinese ice cream" as the name, the shape design is inspired by the traditional building tiles, the top forms a "Hui" character pattern, and the sticks also use a unique composite straw material, Zhong Xuegao is trying to highlight his domestic label and authentic Chinese ice cream brand from the inside out.
However, in terms of price, Zhong Xuegao has reversed the characteristics of traditional domestic goods with high quality and low price, and has been "high, really high".
In 2018's "Double 11", Zhong Xuegao won 20,000 sales in only 15 hours with a 66 yuan "Ecuador Pink Diamond" ice cream, and "expensive" has become Zhong Xuegao's most prominent label.
After that, Zhong Xuegao has been running at high speed.
In 2019, Zhongxuegao's sales exceeded 100 million yuan, in 2020, the sales exceeded 48 million, and the sales exceeded 100 million in only half a year, in 2021, the revenue doubled to 800 million yuan compared with the previous year, and in just 5 months in 2022, Zhongxuegao's ice cream shipment will be 220 million pieces.
During the period from 2019 to 2022, the sales revenue of similar items on the whole network ranked first, the unit price of customers ranked first, and the repurchase rate ranked first...... "Internet celebrity ice cream" deserves its name!
However, these can be regarded as Zhong Xuegao's last highlight moments.
In 22 years, Zhong Xuegao was questioned for too many additives because one of his sea salt ice cream did not melt at 31 degrees at room temperature for 1 hour, which caused heated discussions, and at the same time, many consumers have since lost their trust in the former Internet celebrity ice cream;
Propaganda is hard to rely on luxury goods, but the raw materials use cheap additives. "Spend the most money and eat the most glue", this huge psychological gap may be the fundamental reason why Zhong Xuegao is gradually abandoned by consumers.
In 2023, Zhong Xuegao has repeatedly exposed problems such as salary arrears and employee turnover;
It is worth mentioning that in the face of various public opinion controversies, many of the company's official accounts have been suspended for more than half a year and have not made any reply!
Zhong Xuegao, a star company is experiencing a non-accidental "death"!
Tianyan risk information shows that Zhongxuegao Company also has a number of information on equity freezing, execution and consumption restriction orders. Its founder, Lin Sheng, eventually became the person to be executed.
This once incomparable Internet celebrity ice cream brand is now in such a bleak situation, and all of this is related to Lin Sheng's experience!
03
"Influencers are the only way to a brand."
Lin Sheng was born in advertising, and before founding the brand Zhongxuegao, he had helped Modern and Zhongjie 1946 to create a successful marketing plan, which gave Lin Sheng the confidence to make ice cream by himself.
Regarding Lin Sheng's early study experience, there are very few records in public information, only that Lin Sheng studied history in college and had a good academic performance. In the course of many subsequent interviews, Lin Sheng also deliberately avoided mentioning his experience as a student, and the most talked about was Zhong Xuegao and his own experience in the advertising industry.
After graduating from university, Lin Sheng first worked in an advertising company for 5 years, and then established Shanghai Shengzhi Advertising Co., Ltd. (Shanghai Shengzhi Management Consulting Co., Ltd.) in 2004.
In 2015, Lin Sheng took advantage of his own history study, coupled with his advertising talent, to bring Modern Ice Cream, a local ice cream in Northeast China, to the capital Beijing, and the brand became popular in the market.
Later, another Northeast ice cream brand "Zhongjie" was not to be outdone and also found Lin Sheng, "Zhongjie 1946" came into being, and Lin Sheng also had a bottom on the ice cream industry in his heart:
It turns out that the ice cream industry is so easy to "deceive"!
The success of the past forced Lin Sheng to be China's "Häagen-Dazs", but he did not expect to become the "Hermes of the ice cream industry" in the end.
Nowadays on the market, the high price of Zhongxuegao's products has begun to be unsold, and the expiring products are even as low as 2.5 yuan.
Not long ago, the topic "Zhong Xue's high price dropped from 60 yuan to 2.5 yuan" rushed to the first place in the hot search!
For the price comparison of Zhongxuegao in the past few years, the word "premium" is no longer enough to express, and because Zhongxuegao did not put an independent freezer like Häagen-Dazs, but put it together with affordable ice cream, many consumers did not find that the price of ice cream in their hands far exceeded consumer expectations until they paid the bill, and they felt cheated.
If 2 yuan is Zhong Xuegao's cost, then Zhong Xuegao used to be even more profitable than the medical beauty industry!
Zhong Xuegao, who has repeatedly fallen into controversy, is the rise of the national tide or a cut of leeks in disguise?
Lin Sheng should reflect on himself the most, obviously a good hand, why did he play it badly in the end?
04
One of the reasons is that the market environment no longer supports the continued popularity of high-priced national tide products;
It is difficult for Internet celebrity brands to get rid of the fate of a flash in the pan, "so theoretically, don't pursue gimmicks and selling points excessively, and the brand can't be too arrogant, otherwise it will be difficult for consumers to recognize it for a long time."
the other is the disconnect between the company's product positioning and the market;
Fooled by the illusion of a brand explosion, it leads to a failure to take effective action to seize the opportunity and turn the crisis into an opportunity.
However, the reason for Zhongxuegao's fall is not only related to the market environment.
Lin Sheng felt that when the enterprise developed to a certain extent, it could let go and let the brand grow on its own, but unfortunately Lin Sheng trusted the company's senior management too much, so that the company was full of mountains and could not deal with the problem in time in the face of a public relations crisis.
Zhong Xuegao's official micro and official blogs have been suspended for several months, employees have not received wages for several months, and dealers can only clear their warehouses at half price if they can't sell......
The word "Ice Cream Assassin" will most likely no longer exist from now on!
After 2023, "low price" seems to have become the core keyword of e-commerce platforms, and low-price promotion of goods has become the main means of customer acquisition for merchants.
Behind this change is the increasingly rational expression of the Chinese people's consumption concept, and it is also the change of the market towards rationality. Since the beginning of this year, some brands with a certain "label" and a story have suffered a "Waterloo" in terms of word-of-mouth and sales.
Blindly raising prices, marketing is greater than products and services, and in the end, without exception, they may be separated from the real consumption environment, so they will be counterattacked.
Complying with market demands and meeting different levels of consumer demand ahead of consumers is the secret of long-term growth of enterprises.
In the end, we must admit that Zhong Xuegao's glory has come to an end.
For a long-term company, how to slow down and survive has become the most important challenge at the moment!
Who will be the next "Zhong Xuegao"?
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"The founder of a well-known brand was "limited in height", "take a green train to Beijing overnight"!