And its herbal tea Spring Festival promotional season "lost its voice"

And its herbal tea Spring Festival promotional season "lost its voice"

Whether it can occupy a place in the Spring Festival gift market is crucial for herbal tea companies, and the two major herbal tea giants, Jiaduobao and Wang Laoji, have launched New Year gift boxes and Spring Festival advertisements. However, the well-known herbal tea brand and its zheng have "lost their voices" in this year's Spring Festival promotion season, not only did not launch spring festival advertisements, but also did not have gift boxed products. Industry insiders believe that as the owner of the hezheng brand, Dali Food did not build heqizheng as a key product, missed the best development opportunities, coupled with the slowdown in the development of the herbal tea market, and its future is afraid that it will have the opportunity to shake the status of Jiaduobao and Wang Laoji.

Follow the tactics

In the major supermarkets in Beijing, the piles of Spring Festival gifts are placed in the most conspicuous position. Among them, Jiaduobao and Wang Laoji gift box products are put together, and the price is also fiercely fought. Beijing Business Daily reporters in the United States and other supermarkets found that the price of 24 cans of Jiaduobao per box is 66 yuan, and the price of the same specifications of Wang Laoji products is 65 yuan. Not only that, Jiaduobao and Wang Laoji have also launched New Year gift boxes. In particular, on January 1, 2019, advertisements for the two brands also appeared before and after the CCTV news network.

However, compared with the high-profile packaging and promotional advertisements of Jiaduobao and Wang Laoji, Heqi, who once ranked second in the herbal tea category, is somewhat low-key: there is neither a New Year gift box nor advertising investment. Beijing Business Daily reporter learned that and its current packaging mainly has 1.5l bottles, 550ml bottles and 310ml cans of 3 products, each bottle price of 8.5 yuan, 3.9 yuan and 3.6 yuan respectively. In the scene of supermarkets such as Jingkelong, Supermarket Fa and Mei Lian Mei, there is no promotional pile and advertisement.

Some consumers told the Beijing Business Daily reporter that during the Spring Festival, they would sometimes buy a few boxes of red cans of herbal tea for a festive occasion, mainly Jiaduobao and Wang Laoji. In addition, during the Spring Festival, there are many "rice bureaus", which are easy to catch fire, and they will also drink some herbal tea, but they rarely buy it and its positive.

Industry insiders said that the sales of herbal tea Spring Festival gifts accounted for 20%-30% of the annual sales. For why it has not been promoted on a large scale in the Spring Festival gift market, the relevant person in charge of Dali Food told the Beijing Business Daily reporter that "Dali Food, as a listed company, is temporarily inconvenient to disclose relevant issues due to the needs of supervision."

Marketing expert Lu Shengzhen believes that if he competes for the market through large-scale advertising, the marginal effect of the market will be very low, with large input and small output. And what it is currently adopting is to follow the tactics and not be forgotten by consumers.

The scenery is no more

And its current low profile contrasts with its former glory. In 2007, Dali Foods first ventured into the herbal tea industry, launched and its positive herbal tea, before Jiaduobao and Wang Laoji completely "separated", and its annual income has approached 2 billion yuan, followed by Wang Laoji, becoming the second brand in the field of herbal tea.

Lu Shengzhen believes that the reason why he was able to become the second brand in the field of herbal tea at that time was due to the channel and financial advantages of Dali Food, "and it is able to use The thousands of distributors of Dali Food itself to achieve national coverage in the short term, and at the same time improve its visibility through price reduction strategies and expand advertising investment."

After the launch of Heqi Herbal Tea, Dali Food also used Chen Daoming as the spokesperson of Heqizheng, and related advertisements quickly spread on CCTV and local satellite TELEVISION, among which the advertising slogan of "bottled more enjoyable" was also deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.

"Before 2012, the Wang Laoji brand was still operated by Jiaduobao, and Jiaduobao and Wanglaoji were still one, and the pressure it was facing was not great." Xu Xiongjun, a strategic positioning expert and founder of Shanghai Jiude Positioning Consulting Company, analyzed that coupled with its use of bottled packaging, it is competing with Wang Laoji, the price is relatively low, and it has the opportunity, so it can become the second brand of herbal tea.

However, after years of development, and its positive sales situation has not increased significantly. In 2017, its positive revenue was only 2.521 billion yuan, and it fell by 7% year-on-year, an increase of only 500 million yuan compared with 2012.

At the same time, Wang Laoji's income has grown rapidly. WangLaojida Health Industry Co., Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Baiyun Mountain's red can herbal tea business, had an operating income of 6.465 billion yuan and a net profit of 227 million yuan in 2013. According to the statistics of FMCG caliber, Wang Laoji's sales exceeded 15 billion yuan in 2013 and reached 8.574 billion yuan in 2017.

According to the data of the Prospective Industry Research Institute, in 2017, the market size of China's herbal tea industry was about 53 billion yuan, and the herbal tea market share of Jiaduobao and Wang Laoji was 52.6% and 42.4% respectively, and the combined market share of the two accounted for up to 95%, and its positive market share was less than 5%.

Share shrinks

"And it's a chance to take its place." Xu Xiongjun told the Beijing Business Daily reporter.

From 2012 to 2017, Wang Laoji and Jiaduobao launched a tug-of-war lawsuit for several years over the ownership of the "Wang Laoji" brand and the use of red cans. In the end, the Wang Laoji brand belonged to the Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Group, and the right to use the red can was also determined in a shared manner. In recent years, the competition between Wang Laoji and Jiaduobao has continued to be white-hot.

At the same time as the tug-of-war between Jiaduobao and Wang Laoji, and his use of Chen Daoming's words, but he was sued by consumers, this negative news also made him and he was in prison. At the same time, Dali Foods has not invested heavily in support and its positives.

During the litigation period of Jiaduobao and Wang Laoji, although Heqizheng also invested in advertising in many cities, there was no targeted and precise investment, and the effect was not ideal. In 2017, Darley Foods focused on building brand products such as Dali Garden, Lehu and Doubendou, which in turn was marginalized. Xu Xiongjun analyzed, "After Jiaduobao and Wang Laoji launched pet bottled products, the advantages of their positive bottled products are no longer there." Jiaduobao and Wang Laoji also competed from the channel and terminal aspects, both sides invested a lot, and in the case of not investing with it, and its positive market share was gradually eroded. ”

The data shows that functional drinks and beans bring more benefits to Dali Foods. In 2017, Dali Food Functional Beverage revenue was 2.675 billion yuan, an increase of 31.4% year-on-year, and vegetable protein and milk-containing beverage revenue was 2.192 billion yuan, an increase of 32.9% year-on-year. In the first half of 2018, he's positive herbal tea revenue was 1.565 billion yuan, an increase of only 2.1% year-on-year, and its revenue was less than Lehu's 1.899 billion yuan, an increase of less than 72% of plant protein beverages.

From the perspective of the industry, the herbal tea field has also entered a period of slow growth. From 2011 to 2015, the average annual compound growth rate of China's herbal tea industry market was 12.34%; after 2016, the growth rate of market size fell to single digits. In 2017, the market size of China's herbal tea industry was about 57.8 billion yuan, an increase of only 9.1% over last year. Some brands such as Shangqing herbal tea, Taiji herbal tea, and Guizhou Bailing's Huotuo have gradually been eliminated by the market.

"Unlike JDB and Wang Laoji, who only grasp one product, it is only a product under the umbrella of Dali Foods. And it is not forming a brand concentration breakthrough such as Wang Laoji. In addition, Wang Laoji relies on the positioning of 'de-fire' to form a brand advantage, and he has not found such a breakthrough. Lu Shengzhen said, "From the current situation, and its positive is also more embarrassing, it will not withdraw from the market, but the opportunity to rise is not large, the pattern is basically stable." Consumer perceptions have solidified and brands have entered a state of equilibrium. ”

(Editor-in-charge: Zhang Qianrong)