Even if you sell sweet potatoes, you have to pay off your debts!
Chu Xiaoqiang丨Text
The "Hermes" in the ice cream and the "roasted sweet potato" in the roadside stall were originally two incompatible pictures, but now they are linked by "Lin Sheng, who is determined to repay his debts".
A few days ago, Lin Sheng, the founder of Zhongxuegao, rarely publicly stated that even if "you sell sweet potatoes, you have to pay off your debts", and related topics once rushed to the hot search on Weibo, causing widespread discussion among netizens.
In February this year, Zhong Xuegao was forced to pay 818,100 yuan. In March, Lin Sheng and the company were again restricted from high consumption. Prior to this, a series of negative news such as fire failure, salary arrears and layoffs, lawsuits, account suspension, and price reduction and clearance were staged on Zhong Xuegao in turn.
Now, judging from Lin Sheng's remarks of "selling sweet potatoes to pay off debts", Zhong Xuegao and Lin Sheng himself are in a difficult moment. However, their situation did not arouse the compassion of netizens, but once again attracted criticism. In the comment area of related hot search topics, the messages that rank in the forefront and have the highest likes are mostly ridicule and sarcasm.
Once the "top stream" in ice cream, why did it fall to this?
01
The statement of "repaying debts" was ridiculed by the masses
"Unexpectedly, a promise between my friends was on the hot search on Weibo. Although Zhong Xuegao is currently facing many difficulties, our determination to strive for change and take responsibility has not changed. Make every effort to make the country prosperous, shoulder the responsibility to employees, partners and society!" At 22:48 on April 21, after Zhong Xuegao fell into trouble, the founder Lin Sheng rarely made a public statement on Weibo to reveal the company's recent situation.
Prior to this, the topic of "Zhong Xuegao's founder said that selling sweet potatoes would also pay off debts" rushed to the hot search on Weibo, with more than 210 million reads, and the highest once ranked first on the hot search list.
At first, the news of "selling sweet potatoes" came from the "friend" mentioned in Lin Sheng's speech - Deng Qingxu, CEO of Sina Finance. At 19:43 on April 21, Deng Qingxu posted on Weibo, "My good brother, Lin Sheng, the founder of Zhongxuegao, was limited in height, and he took a green train to Beijing overnight, and told me during dinner that he had to pay off his debts even if he sold sweet potatoes!"
Two hours later, Lin Sheng also publicly released a blog post of the same style, reiterating, "Although the height is limited, I am still not afraid to take a green train to Beijing overnight." Even if I sell sweet potatoes, I have to pay off my debts!"
In response to whether "selling sweet potatoes" is a joke for a while, and what difficulties the company is currently facing, Shanhai New Finance tried to contact Lin Sheng to understand the situation, but failed to get a response from the other party as of press time.
From the words of Lin Sheng's article, we can see his firmness and determination to repay debts. Lin Sheng said, "On behalf of all private entrepreneurs who have encountered difficulties, I want to say: 'Don't run, don't worry'." This is the background color of our Chinese private enterprises!"
However, Lin Sheng's affectionate statement did not usher in the recognition of netizens, but caused a lot of ridicule and sarcasm. Among them, one comment with 17,000 likes and the first one is: "Sweet potatoes are also going to be sold for 40 yuan, right?"
There are even netizens who shouted: "Is the sweet potato assassin coming?"
It is not difficult to see from the reactions of netizens that they are still concerned about the high price of Zhongxuegao ice cream. Zhongxuegao is positioned as a high-end ice cream brand. Once upon a time, an ice cream could be sold for tens or even tens of dollars.
However, even though the price is high, in the early days, with its advantages in appearance design and product materials, and with various marketing actions, Zhong Xuegao also ushered in a highlight moment, and even debuted as a "top stream".
In 2018, when the brand was just established, Zhong Xuegao launched an ice cream priced at 66 yuan on "Double Eleven" this year, called Ecuador Pink Diamond, known as "Hermes in the ice cream industry".
Although this price far exceeds people's perception of ice cream pricing, more than 20,000 pieces were sold on the day of Tmall's "Double 11", and related topics rushed to the hot search on Weibo. Since then, Zhong Xuegao has made a name for himself in the ice cream industry.
In the following years, Zhongxuegao has made great progress all the way, and its sales have repeatedly reached new highs, and it has ranked first in the sales of the same category in the "Double Eleven" for many times. Specifically, in 2019, Zhongxuegao's sales exceeded 100 million yuan, with sales exceeding 15 million, in 2020, the sales exceeded 34 million, and from May 2021 to May of the following year, Zhongxuegao sold 152 million ice creams again, an increase of 176%.
After successfully getting out of the circle, this rising "new star" in the new consumer field has also attracted the attention of a lot of capital. From 2018 to May 2021, Zhong Xuegao received a total of 4 rounds of financing, and there are many well-known institutions such as Zhen Fund, Jingwei Investment, Tiantu Investment, and Yuansheng Capital.
However, under the prosperity scene, the crisis is also accumulating.
02
It all started with "Ice Cream Assassin"
In 2021, Zhong Xuegao, who has achieved success online, began to be eager to try the offline market. At first, Zhongxuegao's offline products were placed in the same freezer as other brands of ice cream. When consumers casually pick up an ice cream and go to the checkout, they find that the high price of more than ten or even dozens of yuan far exceeds the psychological expectation of ordinary people "a few dollars a piece of ice cream".
Some consumers were embarrassed to put it back and could only pay the bill, which caused disgust at Zhongxue's high price, and the name of "Ice Cream Assassin" became popular on the Internet. Similarly, those consumers who eventually put the ice cream back will not have a good impression of Zhong Xuegao. Originally, I just wanted to eat an ice cream, but I was ruthlessly "stabbed back" by the high price, and I was embarrassed and somewhat unhappy.
"I've seen it sell for forty or fifty dollars more than a few times in the supermarket, and I didn't stab it because I was cheeky enough to take it back. If you are willing to eat, please support yourself, but the only conscience ice cream in my heart is the old popsicle. A consumer said.
Just when the outside world questioned Zhong Xuegao's high price, founder Lin Sheng's remarks on a talk show "It's at that price, do you like to buy it or not" made the company's situation worse again. Although Zhong Xuegao explained that it was maliciously edited, many netizens did not buy it, and their impression of Zhong Xuegao was lowered again.
Some netizens said, "Consumption downgrade, where can the market support the high price of Zhong Xuegao." ”
Seeing that public opinion is intensifying, Zhong Xuegao also tried to make changes to save the brand image. On the one hand, in order to maintain the high-end positioning of the brand, Zhongxue efficiently imitated the practice of Häagen-Dazs to provide its own freezers to supermarkets and other sales terminals, and on the other hand, it launched the affordable ice cream brand "Sa'Saa" for the sinking market, priced at 3.5 yuan a piece.
However, instead of changing the status quo, the strategic realignment has been counterproductive. First of all, since the second half of 2021, Zhong Xuegao has not received new institutional financing, and the launch of new brands and a large number of self-owned freezers undoubtedly require a lot of "burning money". This is undoubtedly a great test of capital for a brand that is in the midst of expansion.
Secondly, after the launch of the highly-anticipated affordable brand "Sa'Saa", it did not make a splash in the market, but was somewhat self-defeating, making some consumers who had bought high-priced ice cream call it "leeks cut" before.
A former employee of Zhongxuegao revealed to the media, "The launch of the Sa'Saa project is to make up for the losses of some companies through small profits and quick turnover, but the market response is not good. ”
It is worth mentioning that in the ice cream parity market, Yili, Mengniu, Guangming and other dairy companies have been deeply cultivated for many years, and Zhongxuegao competes with these traditional giants, and the results speak for themselves.
03
The core foundation is shaken
The roof leak happened to rain overnight. The shadow of the "Ice Cream Assassin" has not yet been shaken off, and the storm of "fire does not burn" has followed one after another.
In July 2022, a video of Zhongxuegao ice cream standing at room temperature at 31°C for up to 1 hour without completely melting spread on the Internet, causing widespread heated discussions among netizens. Later, some people tried to "burn" Zhongxuegao ice cream, but the result was unsuccessful.
At that time, Zhong Xuegao explained this, saying that the company's products were produced in accordance with relevant national standards...... It is not scientific to judge the quality of ice cream by baking, drying or heating ice cream.
Even so, the outside world still has doubts about the quality of ice cream that "can't be burned". In addition, Zhong Xuegao was later revealed to have been punished by the regulatory authorities as early as 2019 for false propaganda involving product ingredients. For example, one of the products it sells claims to "not add a drop of water", but the ingredient list clearly shows that it contains drinking water, the ice cream that claims to use premium red grapes is not actually super red grapes, and the sticks that claim to be baby-grade standards are also revealed to be just general production standards. Negative news such as this has lowered the outside world's favorability of Zhong Xuegao again and again.
If the "Ice Cream Assassin" is a disagreement with Zhongxuegao's price in the context of consumption downgrade, then the "fire does not melt" and the punishment due to the inconsistency of ingredients and publicity undoubtedly make consumers doubt the quality of Zhongxuegao's products. As a new consumer brand focusing on high-end, the two core foundations of price and quality have been shaken, and the consequences can be imagined.
Nowadays, the ice cream industry "Hermes", which used to sell more than ten yuan or dozens of yuan a piece, is now as low as about 5 yuan, and the expiring product is even only sold for 2.5 yuan. Behind the huge gap between the front and back, Zhong Xuegao is currently facing a financial dilemma.
According to the enterprise investigation, in February this year, Zhong Xuegao was forced to be enforced by the People's Court of Jiading District, Shanghai, involving a total amount of 818,100 yuan. On March 11, the court issued a consumption restriction order to Zhong Xuegao, and the company and its founder Lin Sheng were restricted from high consumption, including not being allowed to take planes, soft sleeper trains, high-speed trains and other means of transportation.
Lin Sheng, who returned to Beijing in a green car a few days ago, also publicly admitted that "Zhong Xuegao is currently facing many difficulties", among which the debt dilemma is undoubtedly the most obvious problem at present. According to media reports, Zhong Xuegao owes not only money to suppliers, but also to employees. A number of suppliers, logistics and service providers have taken Zhong Xuegao to court due to contract disputes.
You must know that Lin Sheng is an advertising background and has served FMCG brands such as White Rabbit and Weiquan. Before founding Zhong Xuegao, he had successfully turned two ice cream brands, "Madeir" and "Zhongjie 1946", into explosive products, and he was a genius in advertising and marketing.
Now in the face of Zhong Xuegao, who is deep in mud, can Lin Sheng, who has always been good at marketing, perform a commercial drama of "making a comeback"? Will he really "sell sweet potatoes" to pay off debts?
The answers to these questions will be tested by time.