Reporter | Wu Rong
Edited by | Zan Huifang
On June 27, Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Group and Guangzhou Sibu Group reached a cooperation and launched the joint Wang Laoji "Beep Hi Beer" beer brand, which currently has two flavors of Ayr craft beer and craft whole wheat beer, and the product introduction emphasizes the whole wheat brewing process, without adding other additives and excipients.
According to public information, Sibu Group is a micro-business enterprise whose main business includes skin beautification, daily chemicals, and big health. Sibu Group's public account "Sibu Hi Purchase" said in a push content about cooperation with Guangzhou Pharmaceutical that the goal of 2021 is to achieve sales of 1 billion yuan, and in the next 1-2 years, the "Beep Hi Beer" beer will achieve a scale of 10 billion yuan in the country.
In May this year, Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Group also cooperated with Guangzhou Onion Group to launch new products of Wang Laoji Fuchao, including new products of bubble herbal tea and sugar-free herbal tea. The launch of these new products is focused on the rapid growth of sugar-free and sparkling beverages in recent years, and can cover multiple scenes such as catering, staying up late, and nightclubs.
Partner Onion Group was established in 2015, the main business includes cross-border direct sales of e-commerce, global brand incubation, etc., in May this year in the United States new york stock exchange listed.
Earlier this year, Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Group also launched a liquor product "Wang Lao Ji Nian Nian Niu Jiu" with a company in Henan called Huichuan Trading Co., Ltd.
Although new products are frequently launched through foreign cooperation, these products cannot be found in Wang Laoji's WeChat public account, official website and Tmall flagship store. These new products are not produced by Wang Laoji Company, but are products authorized by Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Group.
According to past reports, there are many member enterprises of Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Group, which have famous brands such as "Baiyun Mountain", "Wang Laoji", "Pan Gaoshou" and "Chen Liji". For Wang Laoji and the Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Group behind it, authorization is an action they have always existed.
"Beijing Business Daily" previously reported that as early as 2011 and 2012, Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Group has begun to license its brand in large quantities, and there are many "Wang Laoji" products on the market, in addition to loquat sugar, sour plum soup, turtle paste, Guyuan porridge, lotus juice and cordyceps drink and other food and beverages, including shower gel, toothpaste and other cross-border products. The Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Group can get a lot of licensing fees from it. Take an authorized company as an example, the brand licensing period signed between the company and Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Group is 2013-2028, and the annual premium is 5 million yuan.
The reason why Wang Laoji frequently authorizes the brand to partner enterprises to produce products other than herbal tea is not unrelated to the slowdown in the growth rate of the herbal tea market in recent years.
According to the Tianyancha APP, the market size of the domestic herbal tea industry in 2017 was about 57.8 billion yuan, with a growth rate of only 9.1%, which is far from the 15% growth rate ten years ago. In the past two years, it is difficult to make a breakthrough in the scale of the herbal tea market, coupled with the development of new tea drinks, the competition pattern of the beverage market is increasingly intensifying.
Wang Laoji's parent company, Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Baiyunshan, reported that its annual revenue was 61.674 billion yuan, down 5.05% year-on-year, and a net profit of 2.915 billion yuan, down 8.58% year-on-year. Among them, the revenue of Wang Laoji's "Big Health" sector was 7.859 billion yuan, a year-on-year decline of 25%.
For the licensor Wang Laoji, in addition to the commercial benefits brought by the authorization, it seems that it can also achieve the intention of multi-scene coverage through cross-border promotion. The reason why the licensee is willing to spend money to buy brand use rights is also to use Wang Laoji's brand value to enhance their influence.
However, Wang Laoji, as a synonym for herbal tea, has a long history of precipitation, and extends the brand value too widely for a long time, which can easily lead to the cognition of the Wang Laoji brand in the hearts of consumers being continuously diluted, and once the brand genes are excessively consumed, it is tantamount to "suicide".
In fact, Wang Laoji has also tasted the "bitter head" brought about by brand licensing before.
In 2014, Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Group licensed the Wang Laoji brand to Hunan Jizhi Food Co., Ltd. to produce lactic acid bacteria drinks and cereal beverages under the functional beverages Ji Power and Ji You brands. In 2019, Jiyou products were accused of suspected pyramid schemes, which directly affected the brand image of Wang Laoji. The explanation given by Wang Laoji subsequently was not very convincing, "Jiyou products have nothing to do with Wang Laoji herbal tea, although they have been authorized to use the Wang Laoji brand, but they have expired." ”