On August 5 this year, Golden Throat issued a suspension announcement, the market value of the day was 1.649 billion, down more than two-thirds from hk$6.143 billion at the peak of the listing period, not only that, Golden Throat announced that the company would be privatized at HK$2.80 per share of the planned shares.
As the first brand of throat lozenges in China, what has Golden Throat Throat Treasure experienced in the past few years? What does it succeed on? And why did it lose power? What is the future?
Advertising peaks
"Protect the throat, please use the golden throat throat treasure, Guangxi golden throat!", Ronaldo's version of the golden throat throat treasure advertisement should exist in everyone's memory. This was the beginning of the peak of the golden voice.
Golden Throat started out as an ordinary candy factory, and the sandwich candy and chocolate it created were once sold well, but the good times were short-lived, and a large number of imitators poured in, making the company lose its competitive advantage in an instant. Later, Jiang Peizhen got inspiration from Zhu Rongji's speech that "science and technology" can make an enterprise irreplaceable. By chance, Jiang Peizhen received an exclusive formula given by Professor Wang Yaofa of Central China Normal University free of charge, and after combining it with candy, throat lozenges (over-the-counter drugs) came into being.
At the end of 1994, Guangxi Golden Throat Pharmaceutical Factory was officially established, and Golden Throat Throat Treasure received widespread attention as soon as it was launched. In 2003, after CCTV rolled out the "brainwashing advertisement" endorsed by Ronaldo for four years, Golden Voice truly became a household name and the brand was deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.
The influence of CCTV TV at that time need not be said, and although the advertising endorsement of Ronaldo + throat lozenge is a pair of relatively contrary combinations in the present, in the era when traditional TV channels were king, a national spokesperson was the most used.
It just so happens that in 2002, when the World Cup was first introduced to China, the strong Brazilian football player Ronaldo, who has "Ronaldo's body, Messi's technology", is in the limelight and is extremely well-known in China. It can even be said that in China, the street mothers who never watched the ball knew that "the big toothed Rhone ear that played football", and the streets and alleys were full of posters and jerseys of Luo. Although Messi and C Luo are now popular, their popularity in China is far from catching up with the big Luo of that year.
And it is precisely like this that Ronaldo, a small pharmaceutical factory from Guangxi, on what basis did he sign a contract?
This depends on Jiang Peizhen's small schemes. In 2003, when Jiang Peizhen took advantage of Ronaldo's visit to China to participate in the exchange competition, she spent $300,000 to invite Ronaldo to a meal, but Ronaldo's self-perceived "entrance fee" became an "endorsement fee". Compared to Ronaldo's endorsement fee of at least 3 million euros, this is a fairly cost-effective "deal".
Although Jiang Peizhen's behavior has been criticized, this does not affect the fact that Golden Throat Throat Treasure has become China's first national brand of throat lozenge. On July 15, 2015, Golden Throat Throat Treasure also successfully rang the bell and went public, becoming the first stock of Throat Lozenge in China.
However, the "free patent" that fell from the world only cost 300,000 US dollars to get Ronaldo's endorsement in disguise, and then the smooth bell rang and went public... There seems to be a "god-blessed" open-and-hung life, and it does not last long.
Have been eating "old Ben"
After the listing, the performance of Golden Throat has been poor, in order to maintain a good gross profit margin of 70% on the books, Golden Throat Throat treasure has tried to improve by raising prices. According to zebra consumption statistics, from 2015 to 2020, the unit price (box) of throat tablets was 5.0 yuan, 5.4 yuan, 5.5 yuan, 6.0 yuan, 6.4 yuan and 6.4 yuan, respectively, an increase of 1.4 yuan, and in the same period, the unit cost (box) was 1.2 yuan, 1.3 yuan, 1.4 yuan, 1.4 yuan, 1.4 yuan and 1.5 yuan, respectively, an increase of 0.3 yuan.
But sales have been declining. From 2015 to 2020, it was 129 million boxes, 124 million boxes, 101 million boxes, 104 million boxes, 113 million boxes and 91 million boxes, which also led to the annual sales revenue falling from 649 million yuan in 2015 to 582 million yuan in 2020, while the net profit attributable to the mother was 155 million yuan, 103 million yuan, 61.38 million yuan, 102 million yuan, 168 million yuan and 154 million yuan, respectively, and the revenue in 2020 was basically the same as that in 2015.
The problem of double sales and sales is not only brought about by price increases, but also because the entire brand and products of Golden Throat have been aging and cannot keep up with the rhythm of the times.
Over the years, Golden Throat Food has been nibbling on the old book of "Golden Throat Throat Treasure". According to the latest financial report of Golden Throat Enterprises, Golden Throat's fist products are Golden Throat Throat Treasure (over-the-counter drugs) and Golden Throat Throat Tablets (food), which even account for 89% of total sales. Its products are single and almost unchanged, and related throat products are not enriched.
In the industry of throat lozenge, there are many products similar to Golden Throat Throat Treasure, and in the case of similar efficacy, the competitive advantage of such golden throat throat tablets is gradually weakening.
Its increasingly strong rival Nian Ci'an in recent years has clearly done a better job of catering to consumer demand than Golden Throat. Among the top ten brands of throat lozenge released by the buying and shopping network, the first place is not the first-selling Golden Throat Throat Treasure, but the old brand Nian Ci'an from Hong Kong. Compared with its product line, Nian Ci'an not only explored the taste of throat lozenges more abundantly, but also began to sell "consumption upgrade" health bags of tea, and also chose Li Yifeng, who was loved by young people, as a spokesperson.
Diversification fails
In contrast, The path of diversification of Golden Voice is very unreliable.
First of all, Jiang Peizhen chose the track of herbal drinks. The track itself is "not fun" because there are already overlords like JDB, just like the golden throat in the position of throat lozenge.
But the bigger problem is that the product positioning itself is wrong.
Let's take a look at the golden throat herb drink concept: quench thirst and clear throat, good voice every day, and Wang Laoji is: detoxification and heat removal, prevention of fire.
Wang Laoji's main positioning of "detoxification and heat removal, prevention of fire" is appropriate, and the positioning of a bottle of drinks that can "quench thirst and clear throat" is somewhat "biased". "Quenching thirst" can drink water, and the role of "throat clearing" is more reliable than bottled drinks, or throat lozenges.
Not only that, but it is also very important that from drugs (lozenges) to food (beverages), consumers value different factors. For throat lozenges over-the-counter drugs, the first and second third functional rankings are brands and channels, while in the beverage field, the importance of taste has been greatly improved.
However, the "spicy throat" of golden throat lozenges will cause its herbal drinks to be "too cool and too spicy" negative perception, such a congenital disadvantage is doomed to be a drink that can not be recognized by consumers, and it is difficult to open the market.
The results are pretty clear. Golden Throat Beverage, which began mass production and marketing in 2016, spent approximately $319 million on sales and distribution, a thousand miles away from its revenue of $44.5 million. Not only that, due to the disproportionate overall input and output in the end, Golden Throat Food also owed 50.76 million yuan in advertising fees invested by Starry Sky Chinese in the music programs "The Masked Singer Will Guess Guess" and "Gai Shi Yinxiong", and was sued in court. The Golden Voice has been in a crisis of trust again since the Ronaldo affair.
Diversification failed, Golden Throat lacked a growth engine, coupled with no dividend strength, Golden Throat was naturally not welcomed by investors, the stock fell all the way, and Golden Throat eventually chose to delist is foreseeable.
End
Overall, the golden throat has a lot of common problems of old domestic goods. The product can not keep up with the young people, there is no way to really optimize from the needs of young consumers, the overall company organization is also relatively solidified, the idea is still the traditional set of play.
In recent years, the development of China's throat lozenge market has maintained a continuous trend. From the perspective of market size, the market size of China's throat lozenge has developed from 750 million yuan in 2010 to more than 3 billion yuan in 2019, and the market has developed rapidly.
However, from the perspective of the competitive landscape, in addition to domestic brands, foreign brands have also accelerated the layout of the domestic throat lozenge market in recent years. In the face of a huge consumer population, the competition between various brands is extremely fierce, although the golden voice is still the boss, if you want to survive in the competition, you still need to treat the "transformation" more carefully, after all, the old ben is no longer fragrant.
This article originated from the financial breakfast