Fragrance, open up the cup market of milk tea

"I heard that an asteroid may hit the earth recently, what should I do?"

"It's okay, there are three circles of Xiangpiao Piao milk tea outside the earth blocking it!"

This is a popular online article It is a popular joke, and behind this joke is the famous advertising slogan - "Xiang Piao Piao milk tea sells 1 billion cups a year, and the cups can circle the earth three times when connected."

Xiang Piao Piao, since 2004, has successfully opened up the Chinese cup milk tea market. Today, cup-packed milk tea has become a product category with considerable market size, and Xiangpiaopiao has also grown from zero to the current scale of more than 2 billion sales, and has naturally become the leader of this market. By.

"The devil quietly entered the village" and became famous at one time

"Before I made Xiang Piao Piao, I had been working hard in the food industry for many years," Jiang Jianqi, chairman of Xiang Piao Piao, told reporters at the beginning of the interview. I mainly make products such as small drinks. Summer is the peak season, and there is basically nothing to do in winter, so I was thinking, can I make another product suitable for winter sales, and I came up with a cup of milk tea by chance.”

However, in 2004, cup-packed milk tea was still a novelty in China, and Jiang Jianqi was not quite sure whether it could be accepted by the market. In order to listen to the feedback from the market, Jiang Jianqi decided to find a few spots to test sales of Xiangpiao Piao milk tea. "Beginning in the second half of 2004, we selected several markets, including Wenzhou, Wuxi, Huzhou and Suzhou, and found several locations for trial sales in some universities and middle schools in these cities. At that time, I specially sent a car to be responsible for We will deliver the goods to these distribution points, even if only five or ten boxes are needed, and the distributor will sell it first, and then pay when it is sold out. But my only requirement is that the distributor should tell me the daily sales data. At that time, we specially sent a person to call every day to inquire about the sales volume, and then conduct statistical analysis." Jiang Jianqi told reporters.

Jianqi Jiang has his own unique insights into why he wants to conduct test sales in schools: on the one hand, young people are the target audience for Xiangpiao Piao milk tea; more importantly, young people accept new things fast, but they cannot throw them away. Soon, once Xiangpiao Piao milk tea can be accepted by young consumers and has maintained relatively stable sales since then, it is enough to prove that this is a product with sufficient vitality.

The whole trial marketing lasted from the second half of 2004 to the first half of 2005. When it comes to this process, Jiang Jianqi couldn't help but introduce one of his experiences to reporters: "When testing new products, you must be as low-key as possible. It's called 'The devil quietly enters the village'. There is only one purpose at this stage, which is to obtain data. Don't make a big splash. Once the news leaks and is noticed by the industry leaders, the opportunity that originally belonged to you may be taken away by them."

The one-year trial sales proved that Xiangpiao Piao milk tea is a product that can be continuously accepted by the market. Jiang Jianqi decisively ordered to attack across the board. At the National Sugar and Liquor Order Fair held in Jinan in 2005, Xiangpiaopiao received widespread attention as soon as it appeared on the stage. At the same time, it was a large-scale advertising campaign. All resources are invested in Hunan Satellite TV. Soon, under the bombardment of this round of advertisements, Xiangpiao Piao milk tea appeared in front of consumers across the country, and its "great cause around the earth" also began.

Strong enemy pressure, positioning to win

Jiang Jianqi still remembers the scene when Xiangpiaopiao was first introduced to the market: "In 2005, Xiangpiaopiao can be said to be a top performer, without any Our opponents compete with us." However, such good times did not last long. In 2006, Dahao Group launched "Xiang Yue Milk Tea", and Xizhilang Group launched "Xizhilang CC Milk Tea". Their goal is very clear, that is, to share the blue ocean that Xiangpiao Piao has just opened up.

As for Dahao Da, Jiang Jianqi felt that his strength was mediocre and did not take it seriously. What really made him jealous was the Xizhilang Group. "In terms of strength comparison, we and Xizhilang were not equal at that time. Whether it was the scale of the company, the sales network, or the team structure and marketing experience, Xiangpiaopiao was at a disadvantage." Jiang Jianqi analyzed.

However, it may be that God Bless Xiang Piao Piao, the powerful Xizhi Lang made a big mistake when he set foot in the cup milk tea market. For the newly launched cup milk tea products, Xizhilang has not used the current "Youlemei" brand, but has used the name of "Xizhilang CC Milk Tea".

"Xizhilang, who is famous for its jelly brand, makes jelly in the eyes of consumers. The jelly maker also makes milk tea. There is definitely no authentic fragrance that specializes in milk tea. The law of extension mentioned in the "Two Rules of Commerce" is the reason why Xizhilang did not have much impact on Xiangpiaopiao in 2006." Jiang Jianqi said.

But Xizhilang then realized the crux of the problem and quickly adjusted the brand name to launch Yolomei Milk Tea. Relying on the advantages of Xizhilang Group in the marketing network for many years, Youlemei Milk Tea began to aggressively attack, which gradually made Jiang Jianqi feel the pressure.

"In 2007, the real competition began. The difficulty at that time was that our market sales network was not as good as Yolomi's, and the quality of our dealers was not as high as its. Most importantly, we were positioned in It was not very clear at the time, which was a crucial point." Jiang Jianqi told reporters for example, "Our slogan at that time was 'Milk tea needs to be fragrant', 'Fragrant milk tea, milk tea is fragrant'. The advertising slogan of Youlemei is 'milk tea, I like Youlemei'. Therefore, there is no difference in the public image of the two companies, and the advantages of our brand are not reflected from it."

So, by the end of 2007, Youlemei The sales volume of the United States is almost close to that of Xiang Piao Piao. In order to reverse the predicament, Jiang Jianqi found Trout (China) Strategic Positioning Consulting Company (hereinafter referred to as "Trout China") for help.

"At that time, I also saw some information about Trout China by chance, and thought it was quite reasonable. With the idea of giving it a try, I found them." Jiang Jianqi said. After some investigation and research, Trout China gave a prescription: To be a brand, we must clarify the advantages and disadvantages of ourselves and our opponents, find the core competitiveness of our own brand, and then seize this point and dig deeper. Combined with the situation of Xiangpiaopiao, Trout China has extracted two core concepts for it - the pioneer and the leader of the industry.

“‘Xiang Piao Piao, the pioneer of cup-packed milk tea’, this is a very important concept, which is very helpful for consumers to accept us.” Jiang Jianqi said, “In general, consumers are more Be willing to identify with the creator of a product, such as Coca-Cola."

In addition to the concept of product creator, Trout China also excavated the concept of industry leader for Xiangpiaopiao. Regarding the value of this concept, Jiang Jianqi explained: "People often have a herd effect when they make consumption behaviors: in the face of many products in front of them, most consumers will choose the one that sells the best, that is, buy what others buy. Therefore, we began to use advertising slogans such as 'how many cups are sold in one year, how many circles around the world each year', and 'the national sales leader for many years in a row', the message to consumers is that Xiangpiao Piao sells every year 1 billion cups of milk tea are produced, and more than 1 billion people consume my milk tea. Since everyone is buying mine, why don't you buy mine, but buy my opponent's? This is actually in line with the principles of psychology. "Finding her own advantages, Xiang Piao Piao quickly took the market dominance into her own hands. For this victory, Jiang Jianqi attributed it to the positioning theory: "The power of positioning theory is really great. What is the most important thing for an enterprise? Strategy is the most important, it is a question of route and direction. And the core of strategy is Brand positioning. Mr. Trout's positioning theory is precisely to help us solve this problem and find the direction of development."

Avoid the temptation of the outside world, and focus on making milk tea

In fact, when Youlemei was born When the milk tea army was under pressure, Xiang Piao Piao himself also tried to make some adjustments, including developing new product lines and seeking multi-directional development, such as investing about 30 million in the convenience rice cake project.

However, this practice was quickly rejected by Trout China, who told Jiang Jianqi that it violated the law of focusing in Trout's specific theory. In order for Xiang Piao Piao to succeed, it must focus all its energy on the field of cupped milk tea.

Thinking again and again, Jiang Jianqi decided to adopt this opinion and stop all businesses including instant rice cakes and real estate. In fact, some people inside the company did not agree with such a choice at that time, and Jiang Jianqi was under enormous pressure to do so.

The final result proves that Jiang Jianqi's choice is correct. Now when he talks about this decision, he is quite enlightened: "Actually, being a person and running a business are the same. Don't be greedy, you must resist the temptation and be patient. Lonely. If there is still room for development in a market in the next three to five years, you should not divide your troops to go to other battlefields. Otherwise, you may be picking up sesame seeds and losing watermelons. Because creating a new category is actually not easy. You If the market is not good enough in front of us, we will make other products, maybe 30 to 50 million in the first year, and 1 to 200 million in the second year, which is already very good. However, if you focus on In this industry that I have been working on before, it is not difficult to do it well and grow by 300 million to 500 million a year. It is not difficult to divide troops and fight, funds and teams cannot be concentrated. If you are in a dominant position, if others let you die, you have to die."

However, when the reporter asked, once the cup milk tea market enters a relatively stable stage in the future, and Xiangpiao Piao firmly occupies the leading position in the market, whether it will When stepping into other industries, Jiang Jianqi did not hide his ambition: "A real enterprise is to build a brand with the help of a product, and build a platform through a brand, which includes a platform for talents, a platform for knowledge, and a platform for capital. . In the future, when Xiang Piao Piao has achieved a dominant position in the cup milk tea market, and this product category is also in a relatively mature and healthy development stage, we will also make some other products. Then, through such a path, we will create a Brands, make another 'Xiang Piao Piao'. But the premise is that this process must be steady and steady, and don't do other things when one thing has not been done well." sidebar

The law of extension

More is less. The more products, the bigger the market, the longer the front line, and the less money you make. After the brand is successful, with the help of brand awareness and familiarity, it will enter the multi-category field and carry out brand extension. This can win a wave of attention for the newly launched products and gain some sales in the short term, but in the long run, it will be suppressed and blocked by expert brands in the new category, and eventually even damage the brand's existing status. sidebar

Law of Focus

Enterprises should focus their brands in a relatively controllable range, and fully interact with customers so that they can understand and appreciate the value of brands and categories. Do not enter more markets, attract more people, and launch more products when the brand is initially successful. This is a typical brand generalization, which makes the brand lose its focus, lose its representation, and make the brand value inconsistent.