"The first share of milk tea" is trapped in the flow

"Investor Network" Ge Fanmei

"More than 300 million cups are sold a year, and the cups can circle the earth when connected."

This familiar advertising slogan used to be spread by TV, entering thousands of households and deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. Now, an "accident" once again makes the increasingly lonely fragrance fluttering (603711. SH) returned to the public's field of vision and ascended to the center of the field of public opinion.

However, if you are interested in traffic, you may also be limited by traffic. Traffic comes and goes fast. After "pouring wealth and wealth", Xiangpiaopiao's sales plummeted. When the heat is no longer and the onlookers disperse, how to retain traffic and maintain sales?

Excited about traffic

In the eighties and nineties of the last century, driven by the boom of doing business in the sea, a large number of young people abandoned the "iron rice bowl" to start a business.

In 1985, Jiang Jianqi, who was born in Huzhou, Zhejiang Province in 1964, resigned from his job at the railway bureau that he had entered since graduating from junior college, and started his business with his wife Lu Jiahua, and successively tried a variety of food businesses such as pastry factories and steamed bun shops.

In 2005, Jiang Jianqi and his wife aimed at the brewing milk tea track, and jointly established Xiangpiaopiao with Jiang Jianqi's younger brother Jiang Jianbin and innovatively launched the first brewed cup milk tea product.

In order to enhance brand awareness, just one year after its establishment, the distribution has not been completed, Xiang Piaopiao spent 30 million yuan to advertise on Hunan Satellite TV, spent 250 million yuan to invite a film director from Hong Kong, China to personally take charge of the shooting of the advertising film, and also invited the popular star Chen Hao to endorse. With the help of advertising, Xiangpiaopiao products quickly became popular, and the hot sales swept the north and south of the country.

This has also opened the "outlet" of the brewed milk tea industry, and established solid beverage companies have also entered the game. For example, Guangdong Xizhilang Group Co., Ltd., which was established as early as 1992, launched "Yoremi" milk tea in 2007; Unilever's brand Lipton and Zhejiang Dahaoda Food Co., Ltd.'s brand Xiangyo are both involved in the brewing milk tea business.

Despite the emergence of rising stars, Xiang Piao Piao still established its leading position in China's cup milk tea market, and in 2008, just three years after its establishment, Xiang Piaopiao's annual sales exceeded 1 billion yuan for the first time; In the 7 years since its establishment, it has exceeded 2 billion yuan in revenue and 182 million yuan in net profit in 2013.

As a leader in cup brewed milk tea, Xiangpiaopiao has maintained the first market share for 12 consecutive years since 2012. In 2017, Xiangpiaopiao knocked on the door of the capital market and was successfully listed, becoming the "first stock of milk tea".

However, in recent years, with the rise of ready-to-eat milk tea brands such as Heytea, Naixue, and Mixue Bingcheng, the milk tea industry has gradually changed, realizing the transformation from powder brewing to new tea drinks, and consumers' choices are more diverse. Brewing milk tea with non-dairy creamer as the main raw material is no longer the first choice, and the influence of Xiangpiaopiao among consumers is declining.

In this case, Xiang Piaopiao is becoming more and more lonely, the performance is sluggish, and the scenery is no longer the past. Since Xiangpiaopiao reached the peak of performance in 2019, achieving revenue of 3.961 billion yuan and net profit attributable to the parent company of 347 million yuan, the overall revenue and net profit have shown a downward trend, and have not returned to the high point of performance.

The wave of new tea drinks is sweeping, and the fragrance that is spinning in place is also looking for a way to break the situation.

Stuck in traffic

Perhaps, young people understand consumer needs better. The second-generation entry has injected fresh blood into the enterprise.

In 2016, Jiang Jianqi's daughter Jiang Xiaoying joined Xiangpiaopiao as the general manager of the Internet Innovation Center. According to public information, Jiang Xiaoying was born in 1993. Jiang Xiaoying, who was 23 years old at the time, had the relatively independent decision and voice of the Xiangpiaopiao Internet Division, and was responsible for the entire chain from R&D to sales.

In the second year, Xiang Piaopiao launched its sub-brands "Meco" milk tea and "Lan Fang Yuan" stockings milk tea; In 2018, the "Meco" juice tea was launched. As a result, on the basis of the solid brewed milk tea business, the ready-to-drink business has become the second growth curve of Xiangpiaopiao.

Since then, the brand matrix of Xiangpiaopiao is still composed of three major brands: "Xiangpiaopiao", "Meco Honey Valley" and "Lanfangyuan". However, in the following years, the sales of ready-to-drink businesses represented by Meco Honey Valley and Lan Fang Yuan have always hovered around 1 billion yuan.

In 2023, the revenue of Xiangpiaopiao's ready-to-drink business will be 901 million yuan, and as early as 2019, the company's ready-to-drink business revenue has reached 1.005 billion yuan. This also means that after 4 years of development, the ready-to-drink business has not improved substantially.

In fact, Xiang Piaopiao tried to continue the early promotion experience, spending a lot of money on marketing, and over the years, it has selected Zhong Hanliang, William Chan, Wang Junkai, Wang Yibo and other celebrities with high popularity and influence as its spokesperson at different times, so as to enhance the brand's market attractiveness and consumer awareness. Although Xiangpiaopiao has spent more than 8 billion yuan in sales expenses in the past 12 years, from the perspective of performance, the results are average.

Unintentionally planted willows, but the willows are shady. Recently, an "unexpected" "irony" incident brought a temporary "splash of wealth" to Xiang Piaopiao.

At the beginning of May, Xiangpiaopiao Meco juice tea attracted the attention and heated discussions of netizens because it was suspected of being exported to Japan because the cup sleeve of the product was suspected of being exported to Japan, and the words "Japanese politicians were invited to drink the nuclear sewage" and "there can be no Japan, and there can be no ocean". On the evening of May 4, Xiang Piaopiao said on its official Weibo, "Our employees are good." On the morning of May 5, #香飘飘董事长现身机场接赴日回国员工#的词条出现在微博热搜上.

There is no shortage of reversals in the Internet. Later, there was news that Xiang Piaopiao's packaging "Irony Day" was suspected of being an employee's personal behavior; The picture is suspected to be a posed shot, and there is no Meco juice tea with a cup sleeve in Japanese stores.

Traffic comes and goes fast. Xiang Piaopiao has experienced the soaring and plummeting of sales, and the ups and downs of stock prices.

According to the estimated data of Feigua Monitoring, a short video big data analysis platform, on May 4th and 5th, a total of more than 10 million netizens poured into the Douyin live broadcast room of Xiangpiaopiao's official flagship store to buy products, and the daily sales of the store's live broadcast soared from 2,500 yuan to 1 million yuan, an increase of up to 400 times. "Wealth" is unsustainable, and sales are back to silence. On May 7, sales had fallen to more than 6,000 yuan.

In terms of stock price, as of May 7, Xiangpiaopiao's share price has risen for two consecutive days, with a cumulative increase of nearly 20%. The heat dissipated, and the stock price immediately declined, and then on May 8 and 9, the daily decline was 2.73% and 4.29% respectively.

As of May 9, Xiangpiaopiao's share price was 18.09 yuan per share, with a price-to-earnings ratio (TTM) of 24.80 and a market value of 7.43 billion yuan.

How to achieve the long-term development of the brand?

Seeking "retention"

"In this day and age, people's memories are like goldfish. Some things are forgotten before they are finished. Some left the venue before the curtain could be closed. ”

From online traffic to conversion sales, Xiang Piaopiao's "splashing wealth" at this time is fleeting. However, after the traffic carnival, how to realize the transformation from "Internet celebrity" to "long-term popularity", from "traffic" to "retention", to alleviate performance anxiety? For Xiang Piaopiao, it is very tested. Even in the face of huge traffic boosters, if enterprises want to be popular, they have to rely on product strength.

Now, in the face of the many tests of the market, Jiang Jianqi has handed over the responsibility of Xiangpiaopiao's development to Yang Dongyun, a professional manager. In December 2023, Yang Dongyun assumed the position of general manager of Xiang Piaopiao. At the same time, Jiang Jianqi transferred 5% of the shares of Xiangpiaopiao to Yang Dongyun, retaining talents, and enabling Jiang Jianqi to have more voice and decision-making power in the company.

According to public information, 53-year-old Yang Dongyun has a rich personal background, and he has held senior positions in many well-known companies such as Guangzhou Procter & Gamble, Triumph Group, and Yida Group, including project manager, large regional manager, category director, etc. In addition, he served as Senior Vice President of Rusu 8 Hotel and CEO/Vice President of White Elephant Food Group.

After Yang Dongyun joined the company, Xiangpiaopiao's senior management is continuing to change blood. On March 30 this year, Jiang Jianbin Xiangpiao, the "No. 2 person", also submitted a resignation report and resigned as director and vice chairman "due to personal reasons".

At present, the market competition is fierce and the strong enemy is on the side, Jiang Jianqi invited "foreign aid" Yang Dongyun, or hopes that Yang Dongyun can lead the team to create a blockbuster. In 2023, Xiangpiaopiao has just established a new team for the ready-to-drink business to help existing distributors transform and recruit new distributors at the same time.

And Xiang Piaopiao still hopes to use money to make a way for new categories. In 2023, sales expenses will reach 860 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 53.4%. At the same time, Xiang Piaopiao said that in 2024, the launch cost of the ready-to-drink business will maintain a certain strength.

New executives and new teams, and see how Xiangpiaopiao can find new growth points, retain consumers, and achieve long-term development of the brand. (Produced by Thinking Finance)■