Edited by: Du Yu
On May 8, the topic # Coconut Tree was fined 400,000 yuan # for the side advertisement, which rushed to the hot search.
According to the Qichacha APP, on May 6, Coconut Tree Group Co., Ltd. was administratively fined 400,000 yuan by the Longhua Branch of Haikou Market Supervision and Administration Bureau, and the illegal facts show that Coconut Tree Group Co., Ltd. published promotional graphics and texts on its own website, and used advertising slogans such as "rubbing milk with coconut" and "South Pacific beauties rarely 'airport'", and the behavior of the parties violated Article 9, Item 2 of the Advertising Law of the People's Republic of China. In accordance with the provisions of Paragraph 1 of Article 57 of the Advertising Law of the People's Republic of China, the Coconut Tree Group shall be punished.
Image source: Video screenshot
The coconut palm was sold for 5 billion yuan last year
According to Hainan Special Zone Daily, on February 20, the Coconut Tree Group's 2024 New Year Opening Conference was held in Haikou. It is reported that in 2023, Coconut Tree Group will achieve a total annual sales volume of 700,000 tons, a year-on-year increase of 10.26%; sales of 5 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 3.08%; The tax paid was 682 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 15.39%.
It is understood that Coconut Tree Group has achieved rapid development by relying on measures such as enterprise reform and severe punishment of cadre corruption, and has ranked second in the output value of industrial enterprises and third in tax revenue in Haikou for 14 consecutive years (2010-2023).
Image source: Screenshot of the video of Nanhai.com
According to Jiemian News, this is the fourth consecutive year that Coconut Tree Group has achieved revenue growth. According to the data of the list of top 100 enterprises in Hainan Province over the years, from 2019 to 2022, the revenue of Coconut Tree Group will be 4.328 billion yuan, 3.989 billion yuan, 4.616 billion yuan, and 4.719 billion yuan respectively. In fact, since 2013, the operating income of Coconut Tree Group has been hovering around 4 billion, and the growth rate has slowed down significantly, and even has been negative in five years. It wasn't until 2021 that the coconut tree really began to fight back.
According to the data of Coconut Tree Group's internal magazine "Coconut Tree People", Coconut Tree will achieve sales growth against the trend for two consecutive years in 2021 and 2022. The sales volume in 2021 increased by 16.82% over 2020 and 7.71% over 2019; In 2022, sales increased by 5% on top of the double-digit growth in the same period in 2021.
Although the coconut tree has a strong counterattack, there are many problems in front of it. Coconut Tree Group previously mentioned in the announcement that in 1994, Coconut Tree ranked first in sales among beverage enterprises in the country. In 1999, the market share of coconut palm coconut water reached 75%, and in 2019, its market share fell to 26.3%, a decline of 48.7 percentage points in the past 20 years.
The controversy over "rubbing edges" continues
In recent years, Coconut Tree has been on the hot search or fined for marketing many times, most of which are due to the suspicion of vulgar advertising and false publicity.
In February 2019, in an advertising video of Coconut Tree Group, several female models in swimsuits were running on the beach, with the text "A cup in the morning and evening, white and tender" and "Drink from childhood to adulthood", which was accused by netizens of vulgarity and false advertising. The Coconut Tree Group stated that the advertising slogan "I have drunk it since I was a child" does not refer to coconut water breast enlargement, but refers to drinking it from children to adults, so as to promote consumers' trust in coconut water of the Coconut Tree brand and does not violate the Advertising Law.
Subsequently, the regulatory authorities determined that the advertisement violated good social customs and issued a fine of 200,000 yuan to Coconut Tree, but Coconut Tree still retained the slogan "Drink from small to large" on the packaging.
In March 2021, Coconut Tree was caught in a public opinion storm because of the recruitment advertisement, and was finally fined 400,000 yuan for "obstructing social public order or violating good social customs". And this recruitment advertisement slogan in 2022 deleted last year's 8 words, "There must be beautiful women and handsome guys chasing".
On April 14, 2022, Coconut Tree Group was also on the hot search for similar advertisements.
The color matching is red and rhubarb, and the black and bold art words are all over the shop, and the enrollment advertisement of a general manager and deputy general manager school: Coconut Tree Group cultivates the general manager and deputy general manager to enroll again! If you go to school, you will have a car, a house, a high salary, a future, and you will be able to get rich.
Image source: Coconut Tree Group's official Weibo
At that time, the media commented that the Coconut Tree Group regarded vulgar advertising as a "propaganda style", which was really incredible. Creativity can be there, but the bottom line can't be without. Business also belongs to the "attention economy", and it is understandable to attract attention through high-quality creativity, but no matter how free the creativity is, there is a bottom line that cannot be touched.
CCTV commented on the Coconut Tree Group's advertisement not only used exaggerated expressions, but also followed its spicy red and rhubarb, black and bold "little yellow station" visual style, which is highly consistent with some unhealthy websites, and it can be said that the "healthy expression" and legal obligations of the advertisement are thrown out of the clouds, criticizing the Coconut Tree Group as "the 'old fritter' in the vulgar advertising industry".
Previously, in March 2023, Coconut Tree's live broadcast room invited a group of sturdy male anchors, and the live broadcast content was dancing and fitness. During the e-commerce event "618", the live slice video of the male anchor was widely spread on social media, which made Coconut Tree another hot search.
Screenshot from Coconut Tree Douyin
In October 2022, the coconut tree live broadcast room exploded on Douyin, attracting 350,000 fans in 10 days, and the number of Weibo topic readings exceeded 180 million, ranking first in the hot search. Some people think that the coconut tree marketing methods are vulgar, while some netizens said, "The female anchor in the live broadcast room is dressed tightly and has normal movements, is it just a good figure to wipe the edges?" ”
According to Jiemian News, Hainan Remember Happy Culture Media Co., Ltd. is a new media company incubated by Coconut Tree Group, mainly responsible for the publicity of Coconut Tree, and its person in charge, Yin Dandan, once recalled that before 2021, Coconut Tree also made many short films and promotional videos to distribute to channels such as public accounts, but because the content style is very official, the communication effect is not good. Until Yin Dandan stumbled upon the traffic password of the coconut tree model.
Image source: Coconut Tree Group's official website
In March 2024, the 2 Consumer Goods Channel Marketing Innovation Summit was held in Shanghai, with the theme of "Making Consumption Happen Better". The summit gathered many well-known guests in the retail and consumer fields and representatives of retail supply enterprises to conduct in-depth dialogues on core topics such as "Consumer Goods and Channel Observation", "New Consumer Brand Channel Marketing", "Refined Operation of Consumer Goods Channels", and "Incremental Breakthrough of Consumer Goods Channels", and jointly discussed the future trend of retail consumption development.
At the moment when the live broadcast room is crowded, why can the coconut tree live broadcast room frequently go out of the circle and be unique. In this regard, Yin Dandan, the person in charge of the coconut palm coconut water live broadcast room, shared, she believes that for the old brand, it is necessary to jump out of the original inherent publicity method and do another marketing and publicity, inject a new model into the old brand, and glow with new vitality.
The daily economic news integrates Hainan Special Zone News, Jiemian News, CCTV Network, Daily Economic News, and public information
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