"Afraid of fire, drink Wang Laoji"
This sentence once resounded all over the streets, and festive red cans cans can be seen everywhere from large supermarkets to convenience stores.
But years later, the slogan quietly became "Afraid of fire, drink JDB, or the original recipe or the original taste!" ”
The melon-eating masses in the unknown are confused, are Jiaduobao and Wang Laoji not one family? Why did you change from drinking Wang Laoji to drinking Jiaduobao?
It all started with a man named Chen Hongdao.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="11" > the origin of Wang Laoji herbal tea</h1>
Tracing back to the source, Wang Laoji and Chen Hongdao have nothing to do with each other, as early as the Qing Dynasty, there was already Wang Laoji herbal tea.
During the Daoguang years of the Qing Dynasty, a doctor named Wang Zebang developed a herbal tea prescription, which can not only prevent malaria, but also relieve the heat in the hot summer, defeat the fire and help the righteous qi, and is widely welcomed by the people.
One passed ten, ten passed hundred, Wang Zebang's great name spread to the palace. The Daoguang Emperor ordered someone to invite Wang Zebang into the palace, and after some talk, he was sure that he was not a mediocre person, and he tasted Wang Zebang's herbal tea again, and the Daoguang Emperor was very pleased, so he named Wang Zebang the hospital order.
In order to carry forward the herbal tea business, Wang Zebang opened his first herbal tea shop in Guangzhou in 1828 and named it "Wang Laoji".
At that time, Wang Zebang could not have imagined that Wang Laoji would be famous all over the world after more than a hundred years and go out of the country to shock the world.
In 1839, Lin Zexu went to Guangdong to carry out a tobacco sales campaign, and because of the humid and hot climate in the south, Lin Zexu was unsatisfied with the water and soil and suffered from heat stroke.
His subordinates searched all over the city and did not let Lin Zexu's symptoms improve, and finally recommended to Wang Laoji Herbal Tea Shop.
Speaking of magic, Wang Zebang prescribed several pairs of herbal tea formulas to drink, and Lin Zexu quickly recovered his health and refreshed.
In order to express his gratitude, Lin Zexu specially visited Wang Zebang at the herbal tea shop and gave a large copper gourd engraved with the words "Wang Laoji".
"Herbs can be found everywhere, seemingly ordinary, but when cleverly combined, they can cure diseases and save people, so why not boil these herbs into herbal tea for the crowd to quench their thirst?" Lin Zexu mentioned Wang Zebang with a word.
Since then, Wang Laoji herbal tea shop can drink boiled herbal tea at any time, and can also buy herbal tea bags that you carry with you for self-brewing.
The business of Wang Laoji Herbal Tea Shop is becoming more and more prosperous, and it is slowly forming a huge family business.
In 1883, Wang Zebang died. Although Wang Zebang had three sons, only Wang Guifa inherited and carried forward the herbal tea secret recipe.
Wang Guifa founded Hengyuanji on the basis of his father's herbal tea shop, and led his three sons Wang Hengyu, Wang Hengrui and Wang Henghui to jointly run the herbal tea shop.
With the efforts of Wang Guifa and his sons, herbal tea spread out more than a hundred times and went out of Guangzhou to all parts of the country.
After Wang Guifa's death, Wang Hengyu's family left Hong Kong, and Wang Hengrui and Wang Henghui inherited the Hengyuanji herbal tea shop. Since then, Wang Laoji herbal tea has had one market in Hong Kong and one in the mainland.
After Wang Hengrui and Wang Henghui took over Hengyuanji, they did not forget the ancestral precepts, scrupulously abided by their original intentions, and the herbal tea business was doing well.
In 1925, Wang Laoji herbal tea went abroad and participated in the London Exposition in the United Kingdom, becoming the first national brand to go to the international stage.
Subsequently, Hengyuanji was inherited by the fourth generation of Wang Yuanzhen. The wheel of history rolled forward, and after the founding of the People's Republic of China, hengyuanji became a state-owned enterprise.
After several changes, in 1996, "Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Group Wang Laoji Pharmaceutical Company" was formally established, and Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Group has the right to operate the Wang Laoji trademark in the mainland.
Wang Hengyu, who left Hong Kong, did not go so well, and had to close his doors because of the sluggish herbal tea business.
In the 1990s, the secret recipe of Hong Kong's Wang Laoji was inherited by Wang Jianyi, the fifth generation of Wang Zebang.
This is not far from Chen Hongdao leading Hong Kong Wang Laoji into the mainland market.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="91" > herbal tea king to create a sales myth</h1>
Originally from Guangdong, Chen Hongdao is a battle-hardened businessman who knows the way of doing business.
In the 1980s, Chan established the Hung Dao Group in Hong Kong. In order to expand the business territory, Chen Hongdao looked for business opportunities everywhere. By chance, Wang Laoji herbal tea caught his attention.
Because Chen Hongdao himself also loves to drink herbal tea, when he saw the decadence of Hong Kong Wang Laoji, he deeply regretted it, so he came up with the idea of doing herbal tea business.
To make herbal tea, it is better if there is a well-known and historic brand, and the words "ancestral secret recipe" are better than any publicity.
Therefore, Chen Hongdao found Wang Jianyi, and after some discussion, signed a secret agreement with Wang Jianyi to obtain the exclusive secret recipe of Wang Laoji herbal tea.
In order to operate Wang Laoji herbal tea, Chen Hongdao established JIADUOBAO Company on the basis of Hongdao Group.
Chen Hongdao named herbal tea "qingliang tea", although it is marketed hard, but the Hong Kong market is so large that it is far from Chen Hongdao's expectations.
Chen Hongdao thought of developing the mainland market, but as mentioned earlier, Wang Laoji of the Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Group monopolized the right to operate in the mainland, and Jiaduobao's herbal tea was not eligible to enter the mainland market.
To Chen Hongdao's delight, due to the fierce competition from beverage brands, wang laoji herbal tea in the mainland is also a mediocre response, and Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Group has even focused on the development of drugs, and Wang Laoji herbal tea is in a worrying situation.
Under such circumstances, Chen Hongdao found the leadership of Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Group and proposed to cooperate in the development of WangLaoji herbal tea market and rent Wanglaoji's mainland trademark to achieve a win-win situation.
The leaders of Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Group agreed without much thought, and a trademark that was about to be abandoned could be rented out for the benefit of the enterprise.
In 1997, Chen Hongdao's JDB Group signed a lease agreement with Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Group, in which Chen Hongdao paid 4.5 million yuan per year for a lease period of 15 years.
The two sides agreed that the herbal tea of Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Group would be packaged in green boxes, and JDB's herbal tea would be packaged in red cans. Since then, there have been two kinds of Wang LaoJi herbal tea on the market at the same time.
Due to the pleasant cooperation, Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Group signed another contract with Chen Hongdao in 2000 to extend the lease period to May 2, 2010.
The trademark has been there, and the market has also been, but Wang Laoji's sales volume is far from reaching the "red fire" situation that Chen Hongdao expected.
"Herbal tea products, the most important thing is a clear positioning, first of all, you have to let consumers understand whether it is medicine or tea!" In 2002, a professional's words made Chen Hongdao feel enlightened.
Therefore, in view of the positioning of Wang Laoji herbal tea, Chen Hongdao made a hard effort.
In 2004, during the Athens Olympic Games, JDB Group filmed a group of advertising videos, and the loud slogan of "afraid of fire, drink Wang Laoji" caused a sensation throughout the country.
Relying on this sentence, the Red Can King Lao Ji quickly broke through the siege. While the iron was hot, Chen Hongdao developed a unique terminal sales model and cultivated a large number of Wang Laoji terminal sales talents.
In those years, even in the commissaries in remote areas and the sparsely populated gas station convenience stores, the Red Can King Lao Ji was placed in the most eye-catching position.
In 2007, Wang Laoji's sales reached 9 billion yuan, beating Coca-Cola, Pepsi And Red Bull, becoming the first beverage canned brand in China.
In 2010, wang laoji's brand value valuation reached 108 billion, becoming a leader in the Chinese beverage market.
By 2011, Wang Laoji's total sales reached 18 billion, of which more than 16 billion yuan was the contribution of the red can Wang Laoji, and Chen Hongdao was known as the king of herbal tea.
But on the other hand, this also means that of Wang Laoji's 18 billion sales, the green box of Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Group accounts for less than 2 billion.
At the moment when Wang Laoji Herbal Tea stood at its peak, Chen Hongdao and Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Group were mixed with tastes.
Chen Hongdao is worried that the herbal tea brand that is now on fire in the sky is rented by himself, and what if people change their minds and do not rent.
The Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Group is angry, with more than 10 billion in sales, and it only has a rental fee of 4.5 million yuan a year, and the gap is too big.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="96" > trademark dispute, losing both</h1>
In the end, Chen Hongdao was a businessman who was good at drilling camps in advance, and in order to eliminate the doubts and hunger in his heart, he had long come up with countermeasures.
From 2002 to 2003, Chen Hongdao paid a bribe of more than HK$3 million to Li Yimin, then the general manager of Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Group, and signed two supplementary agreements on the base hill of the original lease agreement, and JDB's service life of Wang Laoji could be extended to 2020.
The Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Group is also very worried, and such a large difference between sales and leasing costs is really confusing. As a result, a self-correction and self-examination was carried out within the Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Group, and Li Yimin's bribery incident occurred.
In 2004, Li Yimin was sentenced to 15 years in prison for accepting bribes, and Chen Hongdao was arrested and investigated on suspicion of bribery.
In 2005, Chen fled to Hong Kong on bail pending further investigation and never returned to the mainland. However, because there are many controversies in Chen Hongdao's case, Chen Hongdao has not been arrested.
Since then, the trademark war between Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Group and Jiaduobao Group has begun.
Seeing that the red can Jiaduobao was rampant in the market, in 2011, a lawyer letter from Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Group was sent to Jiaduobao to reclaim the trademark of Wang Laoji.
Jiaduobao took out the two supplementary agreements signed by Chen Hongdao, and according to the regulations, Jiaduobao can use the trademark until 2020.
Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Group naturally can't swallow this breath, and the agreement obtained by the former leader of the bribe can be counted. As a result, Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Group approached the China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission.
In 2012, the International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission ruled that JDB's supplementary agreement was invalid and that the use of the Wang Laoji trademark must be stopped immediately. Although JDB appealed many times, they all ended in failure.
In desperation, Jiaduobao gave up the trademark of Wang Laoji, but did not give up the red can packaging that was deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, but replaced the "Wang Laoji" on the packaging with "Jiaduobao".
Then, the slogan also changed, "The country's leading sales of red can herbal tea changed its name to Jiaduobao, or the original recipe, or familiar taste, afraid of fire, drink Jiaduobao!" Once upon a time, this slogan was broadcast in turn in major variety shows and deeply rooted in people's hearts.
After some operation, the sales of JIADUOBAO herbal tea have not decreased, but also become increasingly popular.
Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Group was not satisfied with 10,000, and one complaint after another pointed directly at Jiaduobao, and Jiaduobao was more and more frustrated and courageous, constantly challenging the bottom line.
He even pulled out Wang Jianyi, a descendant of Wang Zebang, and announced that he had authorized the ancestral formula of herbal tea to Jiaduobao.
In this way, JDB hypes its own "exclusive formula", implying that the Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Group is not authentic.
Not willing to show weakness in the face of slandering Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Group, in 2015, Jiaduobao was sued in court, and it was expected that Jiaduobao lost again and also lost 5 million infringement fees.
In the past few years, one complaint after another has hollowed out the mind to the position, and JDB and Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Group have played 21 rounds intermittently.
Busy filing lawsuits and busy competing, the performance of the two companies is also a lose-lose situation. JDB lost its position as the king of herbal tea, and the company's internal scandals were frequent and chaotic.
Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Group took back the wang laoji trademark, but also created a surprise out, and the sales were cut in half.
While JDB and Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Group were busy with the trademark war, other rising stars rose to catch up and take their place. Today's Wang Laoji can no longer return to the glory of that year.
Wang Zebang created the only Wang Laoji herbal tea that is famous all over the world, but in the end, the inheritance of the two secret recipes is endlessly fighting, and now there is no winner, but it is a loss.
Some people say that if Chen Hongdao had not used illegal means to extend the right to use the trademark, it might have been a different scene.
It's just that in business, there are no ifs. I can only sigh, Wang Laoji, who was born from the same root, why can't he break into the world in peace and win-win results!
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Author: Heart to Wu Tong