Zong Qinghou, chairman of Wahaha, said in an interview why Wahaha has not had a big single product in recent years, and why is it so difficult to cultivate ace products?
Background: Wahaha's biggest super item is the Nutrition Express, with a peak sales of 12 billion, which once accounted for nearly one-fifth of Wahaha's total annual sales! More than 10 years have passed, there is no such product again, and now it is not necessary to say that there are tens of billions of beverage products, and there are not many new beverage products with more than 2 billion.
Zong Qinghou said: In the past, if a product wanted to open up the market, as long as there was a dozen advertisements and a shop of channels, it would be possible to make a large product in a few months, but now it is not possible.
Zong Qinghou said that it is difficult to push new products now, in the past, as long as there was a dozen advertisements and a rollout of channel terminals, it could be done in a few months and make large products. But now it is not ok, the offline investment is very large, the input and output are not proportional, and the effect of advertising is also very poor! So it's hard to make explosives now.
But he also said that Wahaha is not in a hurry, because their employees have cars and houses, life is very comfortable, not in a hurry! But at the same time, he said that if he wants to get closer to e-commerce, he also plans to build an e-commerce platform by himself, and some time ago he also collected the name of the e-commerce platform online and participated in an interview with CCTV.
He said that only one month in Wahaha's history was a loss, that is, in February last year, the most severe moment of the epidemic, but Wahaha did not lay off employees, and the salary was still paid.
Wahaha's products have indeed lagged behind in recent years.
Zong Lao believes that marketing has gone backwards, consumers like things with grades, and the communication has also changed, and the consumer psychology is different, that is, Wahaha's joint sales body is also being tested.
Of course, a basic view of the industry is that Wahaha's brand is aging.
Marketing regression and brand aging are actually false propositions.
The dimensions of marketing and the path of thinking are changing.
Tools and methods are changing, not marketing regression, but relying on the previous set of models and methods has failed, or the effect has dropped significantly, such as joint sales, products are not good, or there is no explosive product every year, large single products, it is difficult to maintain.
As for the aging of the brand, I still have that point of view: the Forbidden City has been hundreds of years, not old, do a super IP, the Forbidden City Taobao, attracted a large number of young consumers, Wahaha is only more than 30 years, very old?
There is no problem of brand aging, it is caused by no change in thinking, tools and methods.
Wahaha is not that it does not want to change, and it is not that new products have not been launched, why are there no super big items and explosive products?
After Zong Fuli took over the marketing department, the first thing was to change the spokesperson, Wang Lihong endorsed Wahaha pure water for 20 years, which was replaced, because Zong Fuli said that she did not like Wahaha's advertising, it was too earthy, and she liked the advertisement of Nongfu Mountain Spring.
She also created a creative signature area on Wahaha's new packaging bottle, I don't know what this means, is social, interaction is done? Is this the big idea of the second generation of managers?
I think the reason why innovation is difficult is because the times have changed, and we can't rely on the old routine of imitating and leading the second blow to the market, and we need original products.
Wahaha is nothing to do with the platform, the problem is mainly: the problem of stock thinking and the problem of what to do product innovation, to solve these two core problems, to achieve a scale of 100 billion is not difficult.
But how difficult it is to abandon the original system and thinking.
In fact, the Internet is to decentralize, reshape the business pattern, the era of channel fragmentation, the era of consumer sovereignty is coming, there is a big opportunity, depending on whether you dare to do it, how to do the problem?
Nongfu Spring has been listed, Zhong Sui once became the richest man in China, and if it does not change, Wahaha even has more than 40 billion sales!
In fact, all of Wahaha's problems are product innovation problems, not brand aging, management, marketing problems.
For example, the explosion of the Yuanyi Forest is a good example.
In 5 years, a super product has been made, in fact, it has begun to be hot in 2019, with sales of only 280 million in 2018, 880 million in 2019, and 3 billion in 2020.
This is the method of new product innovation and the way of detonation. It's about finding the secret to drinking.
There is cognition, a large market, no need for education, in line with consumer trends, category innovation to achieve production alienation.
The ultimate difference is that the scene is a life that opens up under the tone, precise positioning and innovative categories, plus the lifestyle advocated by the brand.
Some people say that the Motoki Forest is the health of the appeal, 0 calories, 0 fat, 0 sugar, packaging wins, and some people say that it is a victory of the pseudo-Japanese system.
I think this is not what packaging wins, packaging is just a part of tonality and precise positioning, the most successful is that for the psychological insight of young people, such as the two-dimensional culture, it is not what sugar-free, healthy, healthy drinks so much, why can't it be done? Why choose you, because you are close to your own life, the tone is consistent, and the lifestyle is the same.
What to do with food and beverage?
What to do with beverage super items and blockbusters? Take the Meta-Forest as an example:
First, imitation must not work.
Accurate positioning, the trend of psychological consumption of the crowd, this is an overall system, single point breakthrough, system wins!
Relying solely on advertising and channels, the era of terminals has passed.
Second, the first principle of the product, creating new increments
What is Meta Forest? A way of life for young people!
Product innovation and category innovation.
Third, Internet +, to start from the origin.
Self-media is the main battlefield and core of communication.
Why many traditional drinks do not do well, the reason is: the stock thinking is too heavy, there is no Internet gene, the ship is difficult to turn around, resources, manpower, thinking, are not matched.
Internet thinking is the change of channels and communication, and it is also the Internetization of business and organization.
Some people say that the packaging is done well, but it is not the packaging that wins, the packaging is only a part of the tone and precise positioning, the core is: for the psychological insight of the young people, such as the two-dimensional culture, it is not what is sugar-free, healthy, healthy drinks so much, why can't many do it? Why choose you, because you are close to your own life, the tone is consistent, and the lifestyle is the same.
For so many years, few traditional drinks have been able to make this product.
Some people say that this is a pseudo-Japanese system! On a drink, no matter what he is, the market recognizes, consumers like, not illegal, you can, unconvinced, you make a come out to try.
How to achieve consumer trends and lifestyle innovation, in fact, is to capture the hearts of young people at that point in time.