The author | Cat brother
Source | Big Cat Finance
Not long ago, the Hong Kong listed company Golden Throat issued an announcement that it will arrange privatization, and after the privatization transaction is completed, Golden Throat will be delisted on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
On 1 September, Golden Voice again announced that it would extend the latest date for sending planned documents to a date no later than 19 October 2021. As of September 30, Golden Throat's share price was HK$2.629 per share, with a total market capitalization of HK$1.937 billion.
This once popular national brand, the product has been "endorsed" by the top stars in the world, but now it is going to decline.
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Everything starts with the boss lady Jiang Peizhen.
She is also called an iron lady, doing things is really capable, 13 years old into the candy factory as an apprentice, 18 years old as a deputy director, 33 years old into the factory director, 69 years old to lead the company to go public...
In 1964, in just five years, Jiang Peizhen went from an apprentice to deputy director of the Second Candy Factory in Liuzhou City (the predecessor of Golden Throat). At the time, she was only 18 years old.
At the age of 33, Jiang Peizhen was elected as the director of the factory, and when she took office, she began to carry out a drastic reform of the candy factory, and her performance quickly reached the forefront of the whole industry. In 1988, the output of the second candy factory was nearly 20,000 tons, the output value reached 97 million yuan, and 10 economic indicators ranked first in the same industry in the country.
However, later, the country's candy production increased, the demand changed little, the market went inward, consumer preferences also changed, and the sales of the second candy factory fell sharply. In 1992, Jiang Peizhen went north to seek a way to change and met Wang Yaofa, a professor of biology at East China Normal University at the time. The following year, after visiting the factory, Wang Yaofa gave Jiang Peizhen the self-developed formula for the treatment of chronic laryngitis free of charge, and taught her to combine the formula with the unsalable throat lozenge in the candy factory to produce the first throat care product of the throat lozenge dosage form - Golden Throat Throat Treasure.
Jiang Peizhen also did not forget her kindness, and changed her hand to print Wang Yaofa's head on the packaging box of the Golden Throat Treasure.
This color is really at the forefront of the trend, and it can compete with the coconut tree
In 1995, Jiang Peizhen spent 5 million yuan to advertise on CCTV, and the golden throat treasure soon became famous and became a household name. In 1996, the revenue of Golden Throat exceeded 100 million yuan, and its market share ranked first in throat products.
With the "traffic password" of CCTV advertising, Jiang Peizhen began her own marketing history of "black and red is also red".
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In 1998, Guangxi Golden Throat Pharmaceutical Factory and Liuzhou Candy No. 2 Factory were restructured into Guangxi Golden Throat Co., Ltd., and Jiang Peizhen and her son Zeng Yong became the actual controllers of the company. This year, the total output value of Golden Throat approached 200 million yuan, becoming one of the top 50 enterprises in Guangxi and the top 100 pharmaceutical enterprises in the country.
Earn a lot of money, others will also be hungry, more and more enterprises into the throat medicine industry, three gold watermelon lozenges, Jiangzhong grass coral lozenges, Huang's sound pills and other products are to grab the cake with the golden throat to eat.
At this time, Jiang Peizhen decided to engage in a bigger marketing.
It just so happened that in 2002, the national football team reached the World Cup for the first time. Although the ending still makes people want to "refund the ticket", it is a wave of football fever in the country.
Taking advantage of this residual heat, in 2003, real Madrid club hit iron while it was hot and came to China with a group of superstars led by Ronaldo, which caused a huge sensation.
At that time in Beijing, Ronaldo, who was still at the peak, was allowed to pay a lot of money, invited to a private banquet, not only recognized a Chinese "mother", but also ate and took pictures for more than an hour.
However, the photo was not enough, and the middleman also had the trouble to let Ronaldo wear a jersey printed with the words "golden throat tablets" and take a picture with a box of small yellow pills.
At that time, Ronaldo left a heart eye, deliberately confirmed with the person in charge whether he wanted to sign an image endorsement contract, and after receiving a negative reply, he took a photo with confidence.
However, shortly after the Real Madrid and their party returned to China after their trip to China, the golden voice advertisement endorsed by Ronaldo turned out to be broadcast on major television stations:
The quality of the painting is really touching
With the blessing of football superstars and the broadcast of the CCTV channel in prime time, Golden Voice soon became a product that went hand in hand with Brain Platinum. The advertising slogan of "Protect the throat, I use the golden voice, the golden voice of Guangxi" is the same as the advertising slogan of "receiving gifts only brain platinum".
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The spokesperson, Ronaldo, learned of the matter four years later.
In January 2007, it was reported that Golden Throat's endorsement advertisement was not approved by Ronaldo himself, and that Ronaldo had not signed any contracts with Golden Throat.
In other words, Ronaldo made $300,000 for a meal, but Golden Voice used his photos to advertise for four years. At the same time, Ronaldinho signed a contract with Lenovo for only half a year, and the endorsement fee was as high as 15 million yuan; and Ronaldo in 2004 was a double footballer, and the weight of Xiao Luo was not equal, 300,000 on behalf of 4 years, obviously a big loss. For a time, many Chinese fans were upset with Ronaldo and angrily rebuked Jin's voice.
However, Jiang Peizhen's "divine operation" was not punished for being exposed, but on the contrary, it increased the popularity of the golden voice.
Emma, since she succeeded in white prostitution, or there is no punishment, there are people imitating, such as the Kaiying network that has caught fire through the short video Dongfeng, not only relying on "touching porcelain" to make Gu Tianle and Zhang Jiahui into their own legendary spokesmen, even Jackie Chan Jet Li has not escaped.
As a result, Jiang Peizhen and Jin Throat simply did not apologize, but in August of the same year, they quickly signed Kaka, who was also a football star, as a spokesperson. The Kaka version of the commercial differs little from the Ronaldo version, and the grinning action design is the same.
There is a saying that this time the appearance value is a little higher, the expression is more natural, and the smile is like advertising toothpaste.
This time, the advertising cost is not too expensive. According to the prospectus issued by Golden Throat, from 2012 to 2014, Golden Throat paid a total of about 14.3 million yuan in endorsement fees to Kaka.
Yes, it was with cheap advertising fees and the excellent sales of Golden Throat Throat That Ms. Jiang was listed in Hong Kong in 2015.
Probably overwhelmed by the joy of victory, the exaggerated movements when banging the gong also made a big news.
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However, the singleness of the product also left hidden dangers for the development of Golden Throat.
According to the financial report data, from 2012 to 2015, the revenue of golden throat tablets accounted for 92.4%, 92.4%, 90.6% and 91.8% respectively. Even the company itself has admitted in the prospectus that if the company fails to effectively promote and promote the brand, especially the "Golden Throat" brand, the company's business, financial condition and operating performance may be significantly adversely affected.
The solution that Jin Throat could think of at that time was nothing more than to open source the packaging price increase and shrink the amount of medicine.
From 2013, Golden Throat upgraded the main product throat tablets, and its core is to replace the packaging, changing the classic version of 20 pieces/box that has been selling well in the past into an upgraded version of 12 pieces/box, the amount has become less, and the price has increased.
The announcement shows that in 2013, the classic version and the upgraded version of the company's throat tablet products were sold at the same time, and the classic version was priced at 4 yuan / box, while the upgraded version was 4.4 yuan / box. This change alone has raised the company's gross profit margin level by one step, stepping into more than 70%.
The change in product packaging specifications has also changed the company's cost structure. In 2012 and 2013, the cost of packaging materials of the company accounted for 38.1% and 36.3% of the operating costs, respectively; raw materials accounted for 31.0% and 25.4% respectively.
But the price can't always go up, right? What's more, the market share of Golden Throat in throat products has not reached an absolute monopoly position, at least it cannot be compared with ejiao.
In 2016, Golden Voice shifted its sights to the beverage industry. In May of the same year, the Golden Throat Herb Drink was launched, divided into two series, sugary and sugar-free, focusing on the function of throat clearing and moisturizing the 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".
Although some results were achieved at the beginning, the company's income outside the main products increased significantly by 143% to 44.5 million yuan in the year, and then not only quickly fell back, but also continued to decline, and the resulting large expenditure became the main driver of the subsequent decline in performance.
Word of mouth is not bad, it is a dark drink. Some netizens said that drinking like a strong version of herbal tea and urgent syrup, the medicinal taste is so heavy that it is difficult to swallow; the subsidiary responsible for the beverage business has been unable to make ends meet since its inception, and has been in a state of huge losses since 17 years.
The entry into the beverage industry was ultimately unsuccessful, and the new business not only led to an overall decline of 30% in golden throat revenue, but also sent his boss into the list of lao lai because of the amount of promotion costs invested.
On September 19, 2019, the China Enforcement Information Disclosure Network released information on the untrustworthy execution of Guangxi Jin Zi and the actual controller Jiang Peizhen. At present, the court restricts them from taking planes, train soft sleepers, and ships in second-class or above classes; they are not allowed to engage in high-consumption behavior in hotels, nightclubs, golf courses and other places above star rating.
In 2016, Guangxi Golden Throat signed an advertising agency contract with Star Media and Beijing Vientiane Media Advertising Co., Ltd. with a total price of 80 million yuan, agreeing to place herbal beverage brand advertisements in "Gaishi Hero" and "Masked Singer Will Guess", and agreed on the relevant ratings.
According to the information provided by Starry Sky Chinese, the ratings of "The Masked Singer Will Guess Guess" exceeded expectations, Guangxi Golden Voice had to pay 40 million yuan in advertising fees, "Gai Shi Yinxiong" had a rating of 1.80, the actual rating was 1.07, and according to the conversion, minus the 13 million yuan that Had been paid in the early stage of Golden Throat Food, and 10.76 million yuan had to be paid.
On April 1, 2017, Starry Sky Huawen sent a reminder letter to Guangxi Golden Throat, requesting that all arrears of 50.76 million yuan be paid within 10 days. After that, a lawyer's letter was sent, demanding that Guangxi Jinzi pay the arrears and liquidated damages. After that, the untraceable Starry Sky Huawen sued the court.
But then again, with the experience bonus of arguing with Ronaldo in the past, the golden voice in the face of advertising fee litigation disputes is very sophisticated:
First of all, whether the contract is true or false, it is not stamped or signed anyway, this trick is called preemptive strike;
Taking a step back, even if the contract is true, the ratings may be fake, right? Bite the ratings are not up to standard, money can not be given, this trick is called retreat to advance.
Therefore, the more than 50 million advertising expenses, if you say that you don't give it, you won't give it, and it will drag on for two years.
In this way, Jiang Peizhen became the executor, but calmly said that in 2020, the Group will enter a stage of rapid development. It seems that it is indeed a rapid development, which is about to be delisted.