In March this year, the Coconut Tree Group, which caused heated discussions for publishing advertising content such as "there is a car and a house, and there are beautiful women and handsome men chasing", was recently punished, and the Hainan Provincial Market Supervision Bureau determined that the advertising content conveyed a vulgar view of marriage and love that worshiped gold, misled the social value orientation, and there was false publicity, and fined the Coconut Tree Group 400,000 yuan.
It is worth noting that this is not the first time that Coconut Tree Group has been penalized for advertising problems. Consumer Report combed through public reports and found that in recent years, it has caused controversy over vulgar advertising on many occasions, and has also been suspended from advertising many times, and the company has also been investigated.
Another fact that cannot be ignored is, "The font must be large!" The color must be brilliant! The logo must be conspicuous! "The packaging design style of Coconut Tree brand coconut juice has always been criticized by consumers.
In response to the above-mentioned fine of 400,000 yuan for advertising by Coconut Tree Group, as well as the repeated controversies in advertising, the concept and policy of marketing, etc., Consumer Report sent an interview letter according to the mailbox stored by Tianyan, but as of press time, no relevant response had been received.
On March 25, Coconut Tree Group released a picture advertisement directly promoting enterprises, products and enrollment on its official Weibo, which introduced the content of enrollment in white characters on a black background: "There is a car, a house, a high salary, and there must be beautiful and handsome men chasing after enrollment", and also introduced the enterprise and products with white characters on a red background: "China's top ten beverage enterprises, ranked second in industrial output value and third in taxation in Haikou City for 11 consecutive years, coconut brand coconut juice is a famous brand in China" and other content.
The relevant staff of the Coconut Tree Group said in response to the media that the admissions information they released in the spirit of seeking talents is true, there is no false publicity, and it is not deliberately hyped. "We don't have to attract attention, this is the propaganda style that our company has always adhered to."
On March 29, the law enforcement personnel of the Hainan Provincial Market Supervision Bureau inspected the advertisements published by the Coconut Tree Group according to the network public opinion, and found suspected illegal advertising clues. At the same time, the relevant person in charge of the Coconut Tree Group was also interviewed.
After the investigation of the advertisement case released by the Coconut Tree Group was concluded, on April 26, the Hainan Provincial Market Supervision Bureau served the "Notice of Administrative Penalty Hearing" to the Coconut Tree Group, informing the Coconut Tree Group of the facts, reasons, basis and punishment content of the proposed administrative punishment, and informing the Coconut Tree Group that it has the right to make statements, defenses, and can also request a hearing, but the Coconut Tree Group did not make a statement, defense, or request a hearing.
The Hainan Provincial Market Supervision Bureau believes that the advertisements issued by the Coconut Tree Group for "there are cars in school, there are houses, high salaries, and there must be beautiful women and handsome men chasing" convey a vulgar view of marriage and love that worships gold, misleads the social value orientation, and violates the good social customs. Violating the provisions of the Advertising Law that "advertisements shall be truthful and lawful, express the content of advertisements in healthy forms of expression, and conform to the requirements of the construction of socialist spiritual civilization and the promotion of the excellent traditional culture of the Chinese nation", constitutes an illegal act referred to in "obstructing social public order or violating good social customs". At the same time, in order to introduce enterprises and products, Coconut Tree Group released "China's Top Ten Beverage Enterprises", "ranked second in industrial output value and third place in tax in Haikou City for 11 consecutive years", "Coconut Brand Coconut Juice is a Famous Brand in China" and other advertising content, without indicating the institution that issued the honorary certificate, the source of the statistical data used, and the award period of the honorary certificate, etc., which is also an illegal act in violation of the provisions of the Advertising Law.
On April 30, the Hainan Provincial Market Supervision Bureau fined The Coconut Tree Group 380,000 yuan for publishing advertisements that violate the good social customs, and at the same time imposed a fine of 20,000 yuan on the coconut tree group for publishing advertisements that did not indicate the institutions that issued the honorary certificates, the provenance of the statistical data used, and the award period of the honorary certificates. The two fines totaled $400,000.
On May 22, the Hainan Provincial Market Supervision Bureau began to publicize the administrative penalty letter of The Coconut Tree Group in the "National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System".
"Consumer Report" combed public reports and found that it is not uncommon for Coconut Tree Group to publish vulgar advertising, and in recent years, it has caused controversy due to vulgar advertising issues many times, and it has also been suspended from advertising many times, and the company has also been investigated.
In 2008, Coconut Tree Group was listed as one of the "Typical Cases of Cracking Down on Counterfeiting and Rights Protection" by the Jilin Provincial Bureau of Industry and Commerce for allegedly fraudulent and reward sales.
In 2009, the products of the Coconut Tree Group had played advertising slogans such as "Afraid of not being able to do it, drink the coconut brand pomegranate juice" and "papaya is full of me full". In this regard, consumers have called for coconut tree advertising to be included in the category of sweeping pornography and cracking down on pornography. In the same year, because the coconut tree printed on the bus in Haikou City with advertising words such as "wife likes her husband to drink coconut brand pomegranate juice" and "papaya is full and I am plump", it was found by the local industry and commerce department to be published in violation of the law, and ordered to stop immediately and impose a fine of 1,000 yuan.
In 2016, Coconut Tree Group launched a chest mold bottle of mineral water, which was disputed as soon as it was put on the market. Later, in an interview with Hainan Daily, Coconut Tree Group responded that the chest mold bottle is to show female beauty, and it is competitors who see that the product is popular with consumers and become jealous, and carry out unreasonable complaints and malicious attacks.
In 2017, Coconut Tree Group was suspected of vulgar marketing because it mentioned in the advertisement that "coconut water contains vitamin E, which can improve sexual desire and promote the development of young girls".
At the beginning of 2019, Coconut Tree brand coconut juice was pushed to the forefront of public opinion because it continued the previous "big-breasted beauty" style in the new packaging of 2019. The newly packaged bottle is printed with beautiful pictures with copywriting "from small drink to large", which was questioned by netizens as vulgar and false publicity.
On March 18, 2019, the State Administration of Radio and Television issued a notice to immediately suspend the broadcast of some versions of advertisements, which pointed out that some versions of the "Coconut Palm Juice" advertisement one-sidedly pursue sensory stimulation, promote vulgar content, violate social customs, and there is a deviation in value orientation, which is easy to mislead the general audience, especially minors.
On March 27, 2019, the Bureau of Industry and Commerce of Longhua District of Haikou City found that Coconut Tree Group's advertisements obstructed social public order or violated good social customs, and imposed an administrative penalty of 200,000 yuan on Coconut Tree Group Hainan Coconut Beverage Co., Ltd.
In addition, a recruitment message of Coconut Tree Group in 2020 has also been questioned by netizens for "promising to use real estate as collateral, leaving to repay with real estate" and "lifelong service" as a "modern deed of sale". Subsequently, Coconut Tree Group apologized for its "lax review of recruitment information and improper use of words".
In August 2020, the official WeChat public account of the Hainan Human Resources Market "Hainan Direct Recruitment" released the news that Hainan Coconut Tree Group's "Training Professional Manager School" openly recruited professional managers, in addition to requiring a bachelor's degree, it was also required to practice in the Coconut Tree Group for 16 years, including 4 years in the workshop, 7 years on the market, and 5 years in the group team. After the first two periods of practical experience, you can be promoted to vice president, and after three periods of experience, you can be promoted to general manager candidate. Among them, the general manager has a million annual salary, villa award, dividend stock award, sea view room award.
Behind the luxurious rewards, there are a series of restrictions. Including requiring candidates to be "loyal and not selfish, regardless of career and family", but also to promise to serve in the coconut tree for life, and use the property as collateral, leaving the coconut tree to repay the property. At that time, the coconut tree said that the requirement to use the property as collateral was to prevent the "coconut tree" from being used as a springboard to learn from the experience and change jobs.
In response to the above-mentioned Coconut Tree Group was fined 400,000 yuan for advertising the vulgar concept of marriage and love and false publicity, as well as the repeated controversy over advertising issues, the concept and policy of marketing, etc., on the afternoon of June 17, Consumer Report sent an interview letter according to the mailbox stored by Tianyan, but as of press time, no relevant response had been received.
"Consumer Report" searched for "Coconut Coconut Juice" on multiple e-commerce platforms and found that Coconut Tree Group did not have an official flagship store. In the coconut tree Jingdong self-operated flagship store, the magazine found that most of the products in the store maintained a certain sales volume, and many products showed that they were out of stock. Among them, the first most popular product in the store has more than 500,000+ product evaluations, with praise as high as 99.4%, and has been selected as the top 20 of the beverage gold list.
From the perspective of consumer feedback, coconut palm juice is also widely praised in terms of taste. "Coconut palm juice yyds!!!" "Fresh and delicious in the mouth", "Mellow and slightly sweet in taste", "Smooth in taste, rich in coconut water", etc.
However, a fact that cannot be ignored is that "the font must be large!" The color must be brilliant! The logo must be conspicuous! "The packaging design style of Coconut Tree brand coconut juice has always been criticized by consumers.
Consumer Report found on Weibo that it is not uncommon to post about the packaging design of coconut palm juice. Many netizens said, "Attention is all attracted by its earthy and cottage color style like a street advertisement." "The packaging of coconut palm juice is so ugly, like a copycat." "Every time I drink it, I feel this cover is so embarrassing." "This is probably the only product that has made the genuine product into a cottage effect."
It is understood that the design style of coconut juice is from the hand of Wang Guangxing, chairman and founder of Coconut Tree Group.
The different product packaging design style has also made coconut coconut juice suffer a lot of "copycats". "Consumer Report" found that many coconut milk products on the market also use a bottle decoration design similar to coconut brand coconut water, which is very easy to confuse consumers.
"Consumer Report" noted that on Weibo, many consumers shared their experience of buying cottage coconut water. Some consumers said, "Drink a flavorful smell, think about how the coconut brand coconut juice becomes difficult to drink, look at half a day only to find that this is actually a miscellaneous brand 'Coconut Mud Bay'" There are also consumers who directly point out that they hope that coconut palm juice provides an official way to report counterfeit copycats.
According to the information retrieved by Consumer Report, there are 37 judicial analysis records of the Coconut Tree Group involved in the case as "unauthorized use of the unique name, packaging and decoration dispute of well-known goods", and 32 judicial analysis records of the "trademark infringement dispute", of which the Coconut Tree Group is the plaintiff or appellant.
Tianyancha information also shows that Coconut Tree Group is the largest natural plant protein beverage manufacturer in China and the only well-known enterprise in the beverage industry to win the "China Patent Invention and Creation Gold Award". The head office has 18 companies and 7,000 employees. Coconut brand coconut juice and mineral water have been honored at state banquets for 20 years and won the title of "China Famous Brand Product"; As a special drink for national leaders to receive foreign guests, it has received heads of state, political dignitaries and important guests of more than 200 countries. In 25 years, "Coconut Tree" has paid a total of 2.7 billion yuan in taxes, and is a large taxpayer in Hainan Province.