"Protect your throat, please use a golden voice, Guangxi golden voice!"
Speaking of this advertising slogan, it will definitely evoke many childhood memories of the post-80s and post-90s, when the advertisement was broadcast every day when I came home from school to watch TV.
More importantly, this advertisement was endorsed by Ronaldo, who was the whole football world at that time, so it can be said to have left a deep impression on these two generations.
In the picture, Ronaldo holds a box of oriental throat tablets, showing two rows of teeth and smiling, and the clothes are printed with a striking red logo "Golden Throat Throat Tablets".
With the superstar of football and the vigorous investment in the golden time of the CCTV channel, the golden throat throat film quickly became popular all over the country, conquering a generation of Chinese people and becoming a national hit alongside the brain platinum.
To this day, golden throat tablets still occupy about 25% of the market share, with annual sales of more than 100 million, which is enough to see how deeply rooted this Chinese medicine is!
But life is like a "pig killing knife", once Ronaldo has now become a middle-aged fat uncle, and once the group of teenagers who watched the advertisement have long grown up to run around for life, even the "Guangxi Golden Throat" that once spread all over the north and south of China's great rivers has now lost its former glory and is gradually decaying!
Recently, Golden Voice announced that the Founder Group and the private equity fund Yafu Group, led by Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors Zeng Yong, proposed to take private of $2.8 per share, representing a 25.6% premium to the company's closing price of $2.22 before the suspension of trading on August 5 and a premium of about 55.6% over the closing price of the shares of HK$1.80 per share on the undisturbed date. The privatization involved 189 million shares and about $530 million.
The proposal of the privatization plan also means that golden throat is about to complete the delisting process!
For privatization, Kim said that the main reason is to be prepared to work with excellent partners to transform the business in a challenging market environment.
So, how did Golden Throat get to this step of the field today?
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Marketing ghost - Jiang Peizhen!
At that time, many products liked to print the founder's head in the most conspicuous position on the front of the product, such as Lao Ganma and Thirteen Xiang. It is also for this reason that many people think that the founder of "Golden Voice" is the man who looks like a very learned man on the package.
But in fact, it is not, the founder of "Golden Voice" is a woman with strong marketing ability - Jiang Peizhen!
Jiang Peizhen's family was poor since childhood, and at the age of 13, she went to work in Liuzhou Candy No. 2 Factory, was elected as the deputy director at the age of 18, and officially became the director of a state-owned enterprise at the age of 33. It can be seen from this that Jiang Peizhen's extraordinary personal ability!
But no matter how strong the ability is, it cannot compete with the changes in the market pattern. Affected by counterfeit goods and imported foreign goods in the market in the 1990s, the confectionery factory led by Jiang Peizhen was once on the verge of bankruptcy.
But at this critical time, Jiang Peizhen's one action completely saved the entire factory.
At that time, Jiang Peizhen met a professor at East China Normal University in Shanghai, who had a unique prescription for the treatment of chronic pharyngitis. And Jiang Peizhen thought, many people have chronic pharyngitis, if you can make this pharmacy into a kind of "candy", then the market will be unlimited.
In 1994, the "Golden Throat Throat Treasure" was born, in order to reflect the health care effect of this throat lozenge, Jiang Peizhen specially printed Professor Wang's head on the package!
As soon as it came out, the "golden voice" became a blockbuster, and the sales exceeded 60 million in the first year. By the end of 1998, the company's output value has approached 200 million, becoming one of the top 50 enterprises in Guangxi and one of the top 100 pharmaceutical enterprises in China.
Why did Golden Throat get market recognition so quickly? In the final analysis, the product is effective, the effect of moisturizing throat and phlegm is good, and it combines the health care function of traditional Chinese medicine and the appearance of candy, which is very easy to accept.
But the reason why "Golden Throat" can become a well-known brand in china is related to Jiang Peizhen's ghostly marketing talent!
As mentioned earlier, the real popularity of the "golden voice" began with Ronaldo's endorsement. But what no one expected was that Ronaldo was not the spokesperson of "Golden Voice" at all, and the reason why he appeared on the "Golden Voice" advertisement was completely deceived by Jiang Peizhen!
In 2003, it happened to meet Real Madrid's trip to China. After multiple relationships, Jiang Peizhen finally had to feast on Ronaldo, and at the banquet, relying on Jiang Peizhen's eloquence, Ronaldo changed into the clothes prepared by Jiang Peizhen in advance and took a photo with a box of golden voices.
And it is with this photo of Ronaldo holding a golden throat treasure in his hand, Jiang Peizhen has been advertising on CCTV for four years. It wasn't until four years later that Ronaldo learned that he had endorsed the Golden Voice advertisement and threatened to sue the Golden Throat Company.
This matter also became the focus of national discussion at that time, but the popularity of the golden voice was also growing in controversy. What's more, Jiang Peizhen not only settled the matter in the end, but also spent 14.3 million endorsement fees to sign the young Brazilian star Kaka at the time and replace Ronaldo, who was at risk of infringement.
With Kaka's endorsement, Golden Voice is on fire again, creating a miracle of maintaining the first sales in the country for more than 20 consecutive years, and also selling well in more than 20 countries overseas!
In July 2015, Golden Throat was listed on the Main Board of Hong Kong, and Jiang Peizhen also sounded the glorious moment of her life!
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Since the listing, Jiang Peizhen has also retreated to the second line and handed over the company to her son Zeng Yong. But from that time on, the "golden voice" gradually declined!
Although the "golden voice" is good, it is indeed a bit monotonous for a listed company if it is only this one product. Especially with the gradual saturation of market demand, it is difficult for the "golden voice" to have a breakthrough.
This can be seen in the performance of the "golden voice". According to the financial report, from 2015 to 2020, "Golden Throat" achieved revenue of 707 million yuan, 768 million yuan, 624 million yuan, 694 million yuan, 797 million yuan, 647 million yuan, and the net profit attributable to the mother was 155 million yuan, 103 million yuan, 61.38 million yuan, 102 million yuan, 168 million yuan, 154 million yuan, and the profit increase was negligible!
In addition, as when Jiang Peizhen faced the collapse of the candy factory, with the changes of the times, user needs are also changing, the market pattern is also undergoing great changes, if the enterprise and products do not change, then they can only wait for death!
But it is clear that after Zeng Yong took over, "Golden Voice" also saw this problem, so it has been trying to diversify its development. For example, in 2016, "Golden Throat" launched a golden throat herbal drink, divided into two series, sugar and sugar-free, focusing on the function of throat clearing and moisturizing throat.
In order to attract market attention, Golden Throat Company first carried out a month-long crowdfunding on JD.com, and then sponsored variety shows such as "Heroes of the Gestapo" and "The Masked Singer Will Guess Guess".
But for this product, consumers do not pay for it, and have complained that the new herbal drinks taste bad and can be called dark drinks. Some people also complained that this product has no highlights, the taste is almost the same as the "golden throat" throat tablet, and the effect is similar, which is meaningless at all.
It is also for this reason that in the diversified development, the "golden throat" is not only unsuccessful, but also loses a lot of money, which directly leads to the first decline in the company's performance.
After diversification does not work, in order to increase profits, the "golden throat" has made a cruel move - price increase.
Since its listing in 2015, Golden Throat has been gradually increasing the price, and netizens who have complained about the price increase too fiercely have long been countless: "Before five yuan a box, four bags inside, a bag of 5, now a box of ten yuan has eight!" ”
"A few days ago, I had a bad throat, Bought a box, the price doubled by more than 23 yuan, that is, I replaced the carton with an iron box, the effect was not bad, and I would never buy it again."
You know, consumers are also quite sensitive to the price of non-essential goods such as throat candy, and the reason why they can quickly seize the market is precisely by virtue of the low-price advantage, but the "golden throat" after the listing is the opposite, why is there no reason to be undefeated?
So, again, there is no eternal giant in this world, only enterprises that meet the times!