Editor's introduction: Yuanqi Forest once went out of the circle with bubble water, but with some recent storms, the subsequent explosive creation of Yuanqi Forest seems to be somewhat insufficient. In the future, where should Yuanqi Forest find new brand growth points? In this article, the author has made an interpretation of the follow-up development of the Yuanqi Forest, let's take a look at it together.
The Explosive Methodology of Genki Forest is failing.
In mid-September last year, the imposing Yuanqi Forest launched a full score of micro bubbles, with "99% juice content + micro bubbles" as the selling point, claiming to fill the gap in the domestic market.
At the beginning of June, Yuanqi Forest announced that Ni Ni had become the first spokesperson for the full score micro bubble. Before the official spokesperson, in the official Little Red Book and Weibo of Yuanqi Forest, there were very few propaganda content about full score micro bubbles. After the official announcement of the spokesperson, about one-third of the content posted on the official account of the Yuanqi Forest Little Red Book is a grass post with a full score of micro-bubbles, far exceeding other products. Xiaohongshu users also generally find that they frequently see notes about micro-bubbles with full scores in the recommendation column.
The surge in promotional notes and advertising advertising shows that after nearly 9 months of launch, the full score micro bubble was selected by Yuanqi Forest as the fourth generation of main products for explosive creation.
However, at present, the market response of this product is not satisfactory, and it is frequently complained about in terms of product formula and positioning, and the road to explosive models is full of resistance.
The emergence of full score micro bubbles is unfavorable, and the brand vitality attributed to Yuanqi Forest is constantly decreasing. From last year's "pseudo-Japanese" questioning to the "pseudo-sugar-free" questioning at the beginning of this year, Yuanqi Forest's proudest brand packaging and health concepts have been hit by wave after wave of precision.
The road to true sugar-free drinks is out of reach, and Yuanqi Forest, which has been forced to switch to a low-sugar label, has begun to follow the trend, focusing on juice products containing natural fructose. Although it alleviates the embarrassment of the pseudo-sugar-free storm to a certain extent, it also dilutes the established brand tone.
In addition to the full score of micro bubbles, Yuanqi Forest has launched a number of products in recent years, but none of them can reproduce the glory of soda sparkling water. In this case, Yuanqi Forest's strategy of driving brand development with explosive products is also destined to be affected.
Yuanqi Forest has placed the new growth point of the brand in mergers and acquisitions, research and development and going to sea, but in the new direction of strength, Yuanqi Forest still has many difficulties to face.
<h1 toutiao-origin="h2" > first, to create a fourth generation of blockbusters, there is a lot of resistance</h1>
Yuanqi Forest's most out-of-the-loop product is undoubtedly soda sparkling water. However, before the sparkling water of soda came out of the circle, the first product on the market of Yuanqi Forest, burning tea, has already gone out of the circle, laying a brand foundation for Yuanqi Forest.
In June 2018, Yuanqi Forest launched sparkling soda water. After more than a year of brainwashing marketing and heat fermentation, Soda Sparkling Water successfully went out of the circle in the first half of 2020, and Yuanqi Forest also successfully ranked among the Internet celebrity brands.
After two generations of explosive drinks of burning tea and sparkling water, Yuanqi Forest launched milk tea with "0 sucrose" as the selling point at the end of 2019, specializing in the minds of milk tea audiences.
Three generations of explosive drinks from Genki Forest
In terms of product attributes, burning tea and sparkling water soda are more suitable for spring and summer drinking, and milk tea is more suitable for autumn and winter drinking. After experiencing the first half of 2020, which was dominated by sparkling water soda, entering the second half of the year, milk tea finally has a popular trend and has become the third generation of explosive drinks in Yuanqi Forest.
However, milk tea with cute and pleasant Japanese packaging has not enjoyed the explosive dividend for a long time, and it has fallen into a huge "rollover" accident. In January this year, some review bloggers questioned whether Yuanqi Forest Milk Tea was really sugar-free, causing consumers to pay attention. In the midst of a huge whirlpool of public opinion, Yuanqi Forest publicly apologized in April, saying that it would change the "0 sucrose" on the product packaging to "low sugar" in the future.
However, the "pseudo-sugar-free" storm did not end with Yuanqi Forest's apology, which not only triggered consumers' doubts about whether other products of Yuanqi Forest were really sugar-free, but also discounted the brand value of Yuanqi Forest, which in turn affected the promotion of new products.
The flat market response of full score micro-sparkling juice is the afterglow of the "pseudo-sugar-free" storm. In fact, yuanqi forest launched juice drinks, to a certain extent, it is a reverse whitewash of the "pseudo-sugar-free" storm.
The vast majority of fruits contain fructose, sucrose and glucose, which means that microbubbles with a full score of "99% fruit juice content" have legitimate sugary reasons. In this way, the adverse impact of the "pseudo-sugar-free" storm on the brand image of Yuanqi Forest can be eliminated to a certain extent, and brand labels such as "natural" and "healthy" can be preserved.
At the new product launch in September last year, Yuanqi Forest emphasized the use of NFC juice (non-concentrated reducing juice) for full score micro-sparkling juice, but "new entropy" observation found that in addition to one NFC juice, there are also a number of concentrated juices in the full score micro-bubble series juice ingredient list.
Two full-score micro-sparkling juice ingredient lists
Concentrated reduced fruit juice refers to the product obtained after the concentrated juice is added with the same amount of water as the natural water lost when the juice is concentrated. In the process of concentration, the juice will lose a certain amount of nutrition and taste. The counterpart to concentrated reduced juices is the unconcentrated and reconstituted NFC juice, which is also the former's biggest competitor in the market.
After the "pseudo-sugar-free" incident, some consumers are also a little more wary of the marketing concept of Yuanqi Forest. Under the notes related to the Little Red Book with full score of micro-bubbles, some users pointed out sharply that instead of choosing a full score micro-bubble containing concentrated juice and adding additional vitamin C, it is better to choose NFC freshly squeezed juice directly.
In addition to the "99% juice content", there is also a big selling point for micro bubbles, that is, micro bubbles. Using the concept of two or more subdivisions to superimpose to create a new product is the product methodology of Yuanqi Forest as always. But in fact, this methodology is also copied from foreign beverages, before the birth of full score micro bubbles, there are already the same type of products abroad, such as Australia's Bundaberg soda juice, Bulgaria's Rosadoli sparkling juice and so on.
On the domestic side, there are also more and more fierce enemies with full score micro bubbles. In April this year, The Second Hankou Factory launched the 99 juice series, which also played the banner of "99% juice" and competed with the micro-sparkling juice with full score. In addition, there are many emerging domestic brands that have played similar "high juice content" soda gimmicks to encircle and suppress micro-sparkling juices with full scores.
In the face of a large number of NFC juices and the same type of sparkling juices, full score micro bubbles do not have a price advantage. The retail price of 300 ml of NFC juice on the market is generally about 7 yuan and 8 yuan. And 380 ml of full score micro-sparkling juice, the retail price is about 10 yuan. The unit price of NFC juice is still cheaper than micro-sparkling juice.
As for the sparkling juices such as Hankou No. 2 Factory, due to the use of glass bottles, its cost and price are higher than the full score of micro-bubbles, but glass bottles also make it easy for products to open up more scenes. In occasions such as bars, glass bottled drinks are more popular than plastic bottled drinks because they look similar to products such as champagne and pre-mixed cocktails.
The full score of micro-sparkling juice, in the appearance of the product has the consistent level of the lost vitality of the forest, neither the atmosphere of burning tea, nor the freshness of soda sparkling water, nor the cuteness of milk tea, the whole appearance does not have a distinct memory point.
The micro-bubbles that do not have the characteristics of the Yuanqi Forest in the past seem to be difficult to carry the banner of the fourth generation of explosive drinks. In the Yuanqi Forest, which has always prided itself on the speed of research and development and the frequency of new innovations, it seems that there is no better product that can make consumers shine.
<h1 toutiao-origin="h2" > second, the surface to create a hit, but in fact to create a brand matrix</h1>
Few people have noticed that many products of Yuanqi Forest do not have an obvious Yuanqi Forest logo, and if you look closely, its trademark is not Yuanqi Forest, but a sub-brand of Yuanqi Forest, such as the brand of full score micro bubble is "full score", and the brand of alien energy drink is "alien". Some practitioners in the fast selling industry told "New Entropy": "On the surface, Yuanqi Forest is constantly new and constantly creating explosive products, but in fact, what it does is to continuously launch sub-brands, so as to create a brand matrix." ”
In the flagship stores of sub-brands, the brand name of the product is no longer Yuanqi Forest
Yuanqi Forest has reproduced its own rise methodology to the sub-brand, that is, to first create a blockbuster product, and then through this explosive product, pull the development of the entire brand. Soda sparkling water has made Yuanqi Forest famous, and similarly, Yuanqi Forest also hopes that in the subsequent generations of explosive products, there will be explosive models that will pull the development of a single sub-brand. For example, the full score micro bubble that Yuanqi Forest currently focuses on promoting shoulders the heavy responsibility of pulling up the sub-brand of "full score".
Therefore, while creating sub-brand explosive products, Yuanqi Forest has also laid the foundation for the popularity and subsequent expansion of sub-brands. The interconnection between sub-brands within the brand matrix can eventually become the moat of the parent brand.
In the Tmall mall, in addition to the official flagship store of Yuanqi Forest, Yuanqi Forest has also opened a flagship store of burning tea, an alien flagship store, a flagship store of Yuanqi Breakfast and a flagship store of full score. Among them, in addition to aliens, the rest of the sub-brand products are still available in the official flagship store of Yuanqi Forest. The products of the alien sub-brand have been sold completely independently, but at the beginning of the sub-brand's birth, its products were also sold in the official flagship store of Yuanqi Forest.
At present, there are 8 products in the official flagship store of Yuanqi Forest, in addition to 7 products belonging to Yuanqi Forest and multiple sub-brands, the remaining 1 product is countermeasure lactic acid bacteria beverage. Countermeasure lactic acid bacteria are new products that were only launched at the end of May this year and need further inspection in the market. Once the market reflects well, it is destined to set up its own flagship store like other sub-brands, and then break away from the Yuanqi Forest flagship store, like the sub-brand of aliens, completely independent sales.
Burning tea specializes in tea drinks, aliens specialize in energy drinks, Yuanqi breakfast specializes in soy milk drinks, full score and countermeasures Of the two sub-brands of product strategies are not clear, but it can be inferred that the two will specialize in juice drinks and lactic acid bacteria drinks respectively. In addition, Yuanqi Forest also has a sub-brand Beihai Ranch that does not rely on the parent brand at all and operates directly and independently, focusing on yogurt drinks.
It can be seen that Yuanqi Forest has been marching into different beverage categories. The establishment of different vertical categories into different sub-brands has two advantages, one is to keep the brand tone of the parent brand Vitality Forest still distinct. At present, the two products directly belonging to the parent brand of Yuanqi Forest, Yuanqi Forest Soda Sparkling Water and Yuanqi Forest Milk Tea, are based on low sugar as the core selling point, while the core selling point of tea drinks, energy drinks, lactic acid bacteria drinks and other categories is not low sugar, so it is necessary to set the large beverage category as a sub-brand.
The second benefit of setting up a sub-brand is that it is convenient for the brand to expand more SKUs across vertical categories, thereby stimulating market consumption. Taking Yuanqi Forest's yogurt brand Beihai Ranch as an example, the brand that launched its first product in June 2018 has launched 8 products such as LP28, daily detox, and cheese pudding in more than three years, and the taste of each product ranges from 1 to 3. In the flagship store of Yuanqi Forest, there are only 8 products in total. It can be seen that building a sub-brand can quickly roll out the vertical market and expand product diversity.
However, expanding the territory in various vertical categories also means that the Yuanqi Forest is making enemies on all sides.
In the field of yogurt, the living space of Beihai ranches is very limited. Yogurt is a typical high-profit category in beverages, Mengniu, Yili and other major dairy giants have made the yogurt category to the extreme refinement, a variety of price points, categories of products are complete. In the yogurt track, which has become saturated, the sub-category of sucrose-free high-end yogurt was selected as the entry point. However, in the context of the dairy giants having their own milk sources and channels, it is still not easy to break out.
In addition to the resource advantage, competitors in various tracks of Yuanqi Forest are also targeting the sugar-free market. Energy drink Dongpeng Special Drink and Lactic Acid Bacteria Drink Yakult have both launched sugar-free or low-sugar versions, impacting the two sub-brand products of Alien and Countermeasures, respectively. There are more sugar-free tea drinks that compete with tea, because tea drinks themselves are the places where the beverage industry must compete.
On the whole, in the process of expanding sub-brands and product categories horizontally, although there is an aura of Internet celebrity brands, it is still full of unknowns.
<h1 toutiao-origin="h2" > third, the explosive strategy is weak, seeking a new flashpoint</h1>
The heat of the full score micro bubble is always insufficient, reflecting the current situation of the failure of the Yuanqi Forest explosive methodology. Yuanqi Forest no longer relies too much on marketing, but bets on multiple routes and strives to play a set of combination punches.
After the completion of the latest round of financing in April this year, Yuanqi Forest clearly stated that this round of funds will be mainly used in four aspects: overseas mergers and acquisitions and the introduction of overseas products, construction of factories, increase investment in scientific research and continuous internationalization.
For Yuanqi Forest, factory construction and scientific research are crucial. As a FMCG brand that has been valued at $6 billion, without its own factory, the brand is no different from a castle in the air.
Scientific research helps Yuanqi Forest continue to expand its audience. At present, Yuanqi Forest's products generally take the sugar-free (or low-sugar) route. In low-sugar products, sucrose is not used, but brown sugar mosol is used as a sweetener, but the poor taste is always criticized by consumers. After several iterations, Coca-Cola's sugar-free version of Coca-Cola has approached the regular version, allowing it to further attract sugar-free beverage consumers. How to overcome the problem of poor taste of sugar-free beverages through scientific research means is a long-term proposition on the road of research and development of Yuanqi Forest.
In terms of continuous internationalization, Zong Hao, vice president of Yuanqi Forest, publicly revealed the brand's overseas process at the end of last year, and on the Tmall overseas platform, Yuanqi Forest has been sold to 40 countries and regions around the world. But for overseas consumers, the current Yuanqi Forest is more like an occasional brand, after all, the production line of Yuanqi Forest is still in China, and the amount of products that rely on e-commerce platforms to deliver overseas has always been limited.
In terms of overseas publicity, the performance of Yuanqi Forest is not as smooth as that in China. On Instagram, there are currently only more than 1,000 posts with the Yuanqi Forest hashtag, and the number of interactions is mostly ten digits and single digits.
Genki Forest's data and posts on Instagram
At present, carrying out overseas mergers and acquisitions and introducing overseas products is the fastest way for Yuanqi Forest to achieve the second outbreak of the brand.
After the products of Yuanqi Forest are put on the market, they usually have to be tested for a period of time, and only if the market response is good, they will be retained and vigorously promoted. This shows that Yuanqi Forest's products have a certain time cost in testing. In the case of brands that are difficult to continue to create explosive products, acquiring a brand that already has a market foundation is undoubtedly a shortcut.
Yuanqi Forest was rumored to buy Dongpeng Special Drink and Lele Tea this year, but in the end they were denied. On the whole, in terms of acquisition strategy, Yuanqi Forest still holds a wait-and-see attitude towards the acquisition of domestic brands, but it is not resistant to the acquisition of overseas brands and the introduction of overseas products.
Search for "sugar-free drinks" on e-commerce platforms such as Taobao, and among the products with high sales, in addition to Yuanqi Forest, most of them are domestic and foreign brand products. It can be said that in the track of sugar-free drinks, the main opponent of Yuanqi Forest is still a number of overseas brands. These overseas brands form a line of defense, hindering the continuous breakthrough of Yuanqi Forest at home and abroad.
In this way, yuanqi forest's merger and acquisition options are actually not many. Among the overseas brands with outstanding sugar-free beverage products, large brands such as Nestlé and Coca-Cola have strong strength, and overseas small and medium-sized brands with the nature of Internet celebrities are the best choice for mergers and acquisitions in Yuanqi Forest. However, the reputation of some overseas small and medium-sized brands is not stable. For example, thai elephant soda, which has a hot sales volume on the e-commerce platform, has been exposed to process problems, resulting in excessive carcinogens in the product. Therefore, in terms of overseas mergers and acquisitions and the introduction of overseas products, the choice space of Yuanqi Forest is not large.
The implementation of scientific research, going to sea and mergers and acquisitions all require irrigation of time and money. In the context of the failure of the explosive methodology and the obstruction of the brand matrix, the Yuanqi Forest, which has been running in small steps and growing rapidly, has to enter a slow era.
Author: Yu Songye, Editor: Ming Fei, WeChat public account: Xin Entropy
This article was originally published by @新 entropy and is not reproduced without the author's permission.
The title image is from Unsplash and is based on the CC0 protocol