CBO reporter Peng Shi
After years of cultivation, the Lotus brand has grown into a daily chemical star based on the radiation of central China.
In Wuhan's large supermarkets such as Zhongbai Supermarket, Wushang Vendor, carrefour, etc., the sales volume of "Lotus Sister-in-law's washing liquid" once exceeded that of many international brands. "Can't wash it, find a sister-in-law!" The slogan of advertising has long been a household name in Wuhan.
As a Chinese family life care brand, Lotus currently has a laundry detergent bottle series, laundry detergent bag series, special laundry series, household washing series, kitchen series, dish soap series, toilet cleaning series, hand sanitizer series, and 8 ace series products. With its unique functions, accurate market positioning and high-quality service, the products have attracted the attention and love of consumers.
△Founder of Hexin brand, general manager of Hexin (Wuhan) Biotechnology Co., Ltd
Zhang Jin
A few days ago, the "Cosmetics Finance Online" reporter walked into the parent company of the Lotus brand Hexin (Wuhan) Biotechnology Co., Ltd., interviewed chairman Zhang Jin, and visited how this woman, who once made many international famous products feel "headache" in supermarket stores, how will she lead the Lotus brand born in the millennium to keep pace with the times in the new consumption era?
01
Wuhan sister-in-law went to the sea to start a business
Rather than saying that Zhang Jin is a strong woman, it is better to say that she is a "negotiation" master.
In 1997, as a professional manager of asia-pacific washing and dyeing factory, Zhang Jin entered the cleaner track with 10,000 yuan of start-up capital and 3 tons of imported cleaners, and founded Shenzhen Providence Daily Chemical Wuhan Branch (later renamed Wuhan Star Daily Chemical Co., Ltd.).
At that time, almost all of Wuhan's professional cleaner markets were gathered in hotels, restaurants, factories and other places, and there were dozens of daily chemical factories for supply. The small market capacity and fierce competition among peers made Zhang Jindun, who had just entered the industry, feel difficult.
"Civilian laundry detergent only sells for 20 kilograms a box for tens of yuan, while we sell 20 kilograms of special laundry detergent for hotel laundry rooms to sell for hundreds of yuan." Zhang Jin recalled that at that time, the cleaners were mainly powders, fines, and soaps, which were monopolized by international brands such as tides and mysteries, and there was no leading brand in the professional cleaning agent market.
It is also the gap in the market's cognition of professional cleaners, which has become an important entry point for Zhang Jin to get the admission ticket to the cleaner market.
Zhang Jin, who has a strong learning ability, starts from the formula ingredients of the detergent and learns little by little. Subsequently, Zhang Jin walked into a five-star hotel with the professional theoretical knowledge of detergents, and while explaining, he personally demonstrated the use of different grades of cleaners to clean carpets and wipe glass, and persuaded the department heads of major hotels with obvious effects.
In this way, in just one year, she monopolized the professional cleaning agent market of three-star hotels and large factories and mining enterprises in Hubei Province.
The saturated high-end market allows Zhang Jin to look at the broader mass market. In 1998, Zhang Jin found through market research that there was still a large market potential in the household cleaner category, and she decided to switch tracks. A year later, she registered the "Lotus Sister-in-law" trademark and vigorously promoted the "Lotus Sister-in-law" detergent and collar net.
02
"Put the famous products in the corner"
"If you use it, you will forget the cat"
At the beginning of the establishment of the Lotus sister-in-law brand, Zhang Jin set himself the goal of benchmarking or even surpassing the mainstream international Jiaqing brand.
In 2000, when there was no so-called "product manager", Zhang Jin, who was ahead of his thinking, began to take the product manager's thinking to gain insight into consumer needs, so as to find the differentiated selling point of products and similar competitors, and enlarge this selling point and implant it into the hearts of consumers through marketing.
For example, Zhang Jin found in his own use of laundry detergent and observation of consumers that many housewives will suffer from the situation of "secondary pollution" of clothes because the washing machine itself is not cleaned regularly. In this regard, lotus sister-in-law launched a laundry detergent to prevent secondary pollution of laundry and resist hard water, and the differentiated selling points attracted many consumers.
It is not enough to have differentiated products, Zhang Jin, who is good at "negotiation", once again used his wisdom to help the Lotus sister-in-law brand in the highly competitive hypermarket and get the best position in the store.
When Zhang Jin communicated with the manager of a well-known store, he proposed that he hoped that the other party would put the lotus brand in the central shelf position, rather than in the corner, and was questioned by the other party that "famous products can be placed in a good position, and your brand is not yet famous."
Zhang Jin retorted wittily: "Since it is a famous product, put it in the corner, people who will buy it will naturally look for it everywhere to buy, and it will not affect sales." Putting a small brand like ours in a prominent place can attract new customers and boost overall sales. The store manager was persuaded by her and gave the best position to "Lotus Sister-in-law".
Zhang Jin's confident, flexible, and language-arts behavior when negotiating with the store has made his salesmen grow rapidly under the influence of the ears.
Zhang Jin recalled an interesting incident. At the beginning of the expansion of the market, in the major supermarkets, in addition to competing with international famous products, it was also necessary to compete with the well-known local brand white cat veneer at that time. At one time, when negotiating, the company's salesman said humorous golden sentences such as "if you use the lotus sister-in-law, you will forget the cat" and "the animals are all following people", which left a deep impression on the store manager.
03
Looking at your opponent head-on
Dare to "send in vain"
In addition to being good at trade negotiations with major stores, Zhang Jin also has his own set of unexpected ways of playing in terms of moving sales.
When the lotus sister-in-law was first listed, because it was a "Chinese product", the product price was even higher than that of international famous products, which was once coldly watched by some local consumers, and the promoters complained: "The mouth is dry, and the other one does not buy."
In the face of a number of international famous products, Zhang Jin did not look up, but chose to look up. Zhang Jin told the promoters: "In the future, when you encounter customers who say that The Chinese goods are not good, you will say, don't send money for free." Use it well, turn around and make a phone call and say it, use it badly, and lose it. ”
In this way, the promoters really began to "give away" in the supermarket. But a week later, their feedback was that none of the bottles were delivered, and instead, the customer bought them all. It turned out that the promoter said that people felt that such a confident product would certainly not be bad, but it caused the desire to buy the product.
In 1999, the lotus sister-in-law's collar net was put on the cabinet at a price of 27.8 yuan per bottle, while a flower was sold for 7.8 yuan a bottle during the same period. For a long time, this price discouraged customers. As a result, Zhang Jin took the lead in launching "buy one get one free" and "buy one get two free" and other dynamic sales activities in the store, attracting Wuhan housewives to buy.
"Consumers are greedy, not cheap." Zhang Jin believes that the psychology of consumers is to buy high-quality products at preferential prices, rather than buying at low prices. In this regard, the positioning of Dutch products is not low compared with international mainstream brands, and the retail price of some products is higher than that of international brands.
Behind this, it also stems from the sister-in-law's confidence in the quality of the product. Zhang Jin told the "Cosmetics Finance Online" reporter that at present, the Lotus brand cooperates with China's top enterprises and factories in raw materials and production, and cooperates with multinational companies in core technologies to adjust the best formula according to the needs of Chinese consumers.
04
Secondary entrepreneurship
Fire it again in new channels
As the main battlefield of the lotus sister-in-law, supermarkets and store channels, have faced challenges such as declining passenger flow in recent years, Zhang Jin began to set his sights on new channels. As more and more consumers begin to favor online instant delivery shopping, Hejie has settled in hema fresh in some areas, and has also settled in many community group buying platforms.
In order to reach consumers across the country more widely, Hejie also plans to open official flagship stores on major e-commerce platforms.
The first step of "electrocution", Zhang Jin locked in Pinduoduo, which is still in the dividend period of brand growth and can leverage the sinking market. On the eve of 618, he was officially opened in the official flagship store of Pinduoduo and joined the promotion of 618. Judging from the order data, Hubei buyers account for less than 10%, and more consumers from all over the country.
The reporter noted that in less than a month after opening a store in Pinduoduo, the lotus sister-in-law collar net suit has spelled more than 80,000 pieces in Pinduoduo, bottled laundry detergent spelling more than 70,000 pieces, bagged laundry detergent spelling order more than 50,000 pieces, go to the oil bully set to spell more than 50,000 pieces, and the star products have generated considerable sales.
In addition to Pinduoduo, the opening of hejie's Tmall and Jingdong's official flagship stores has also been put on the agenda. At the same time, Douyin is also a new channel that Zhang Jin is extremely interested in and optimistic about.
On the one hand, Douyin e-commerce is in a dividend period, and although he has a high reputation in Hubei as a brand based in central China, the low-key lotus sister-in-law is still a "new brand" for consumers across the country. On the other hand, Douyin has given the soil for the growth of new brands At the same time, the precipitation of Lotus Sister-in-law for more than 20 years is an endorsement of product quality, dispelling consumers' concerns about the uneven quality of some products sold on Douyin.
According to the user data reached by the Lotus sister-in-law brand on Douyin, the population under the age of 50 accounts for 65%, of which 15% are 18-23 years old, and 12% are 24-30 years old, which is more concerned by young groups and middle-class groups. At the same time, the main reach users are distributed in Guangdong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and other economically developed areas.
In addition to introducing his sister-in-law into a new channel, Zhang Jin also created a new brand for the younger generation of consumers, "Hi It".
"Hi" harmonic wash, focusing on the field of washing, the first product is bubble hand sanitizer. This hand sanitizer integrates the concept of skin care into handwashing, positioned as an amino acid foaming hand sanitizer, while cleaning and sterilizing, caring for the hands and skin of consumers, and developing four fragrance series products based on rose essential oil, lemon, tea tree essential oil and oatmeal ingredients.
Entering 2021, in the face of the new consumption era, Zhang Jin, who ushered in the "second entrepreneurship", is full of energy every day. Her mental thinking, personality charm, work methods and attitudes also bring confidence to the team, attracting talents from e-commerce, marketing and other fields to join the company. In the future, Zhang Jin will continue to promote the online and offline, national and omni-channel market layout, and also plans to use the Ali platform to bring the Lotus brand to the global market.
Proofreader proofreader proofreading | Wang Yiyu