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Brand Positioning Strategy of Wang Laoji in Red Pot

-This case was invited by Harvard Business Review.

Published in Chinese version 10 in 2004 165438.

Interpretation of brand name

Herbal tea is a kind of "medicinal tea" made of Chinese herbal medicine in Guangdong and Guangxi, which has the function of clearing away heat and promoting diuresis. Among many old herbal teas, Wang Laoji is the most famous. Wang Lao Ji herbal tea was invented in the Qing Dynasty, and it has been 175 years. Is recognized as the ancestor of herbal tea, known as the "king of medicinal tea." In modern times, Wang Laoji herbal tea has spread all over the world with the footprints of China people.

In the early 1950s, due to political reasons, Wang Laoji Herbal Tea Store was divided into two branches: one completed the public transformation and developed into today's Wang Laoji Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., producing Wang Laoji Herbal Tea Granules (National Medicine Zhunzi); The other was brought to Hong Kong by descendants of the Wangs. In Chinese mainland, Wang Laoji's brand is owned by Wang Laoji Pharmaceutical; In other countries and regions, the trademark of Wang Laoji is registered by Wang's descendants. Jiaduobao is a Hong Kong-owned company located in Dongguan. Authorized by Wang Lao Ji Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., the formula is provided by the Queen of Hong Kong. The company exclusively produces and operates Wang Lao Ji brand canned herbal tea (food name) in Chinese mainland.

background

Before 2002, on the surface, Wang Laoji in Red Pot (hereinafter referred to as "Wang Laoji in Red Pot") was a very good brand, with stable sales, good profitability and relatively fixed consumer groups in Guangdong and southern Zhejiang. The sales performance of red can Wang Laoji beverage has remained above 654.38 billion yuan for several consecutive years. After developing to this scale, the management of Jiaduobao found that a series of problems must be overcome to make the enterprise bigger and go to the whole country, and even some of its original advantages have become obstacles to the continuous growth of the enterprise.

Among all the troubles, the core problem is that enterprises have to face a realistic problem-is Wang Laoji's red cans sold as "herbal tea" or "drinks"?

The first practical problem is that consumers in Guangdong and southern Zhejiang are confused about Wang Laoji.

In Guangdong, traditional herbal tea (such as granule, home-cooked, shop-cooked herbal tea, etc. ) Because of its remarkable fire-reducing effect, it is generally taken as a "medicine" by consumers, and it is unnecessary and impossible to drink it often. The brand of "Wang Lao Ji" with a history of over a hundred years is synonymous with herbal tea. It can be said that when I talk about herbal tea, I think of Wang Laoji. When I talk about Wang Laoji, I think of herbal tea. Therefore, Wang Laoji, a red can, is tired of the brand name and cannot be accepted by Cantonese as a drink that can be drunk frequently, so the sales volume is greatly limited.

On the other hand, the formula of Wang Laoji, a red jar produced by Jiaduobao, originated from Wang descendants in Hong Kong and is a food brand product approved by the state. Its smell, color and packaging are very different from the traditional herbal tea in Guangdong consumers' concept, and its taste is sweet. According to the traditional concept of "good medicine tastes bitter" in China, consumers naturally feel that its "fire-reducing" medicine is insufficient. When there is a demand for "reducing fire", it is better to go to a herbal tea shop to buy it, or therefore, it is not a good choice for consumers among the most "effective" herbal teas.

In Guangdong, the red pot Wang Laoji owns the brand of Wang Laoji, the ancestor of herbal tea, but he looks like a drink, which makes consumers feel "both like herbal tea and like a drink" and falls into cognitive confusion.

In another major sales area of Jiaduobao, south Zhejiang, mainly Wenzhou, Taizhou and Lishui, consumers compare "Red Pot Wang Laoji" with drinks such as Master Kong tea and Wang Zi milk, and there are no taboos that should not be drunk for a long time. In addition, there are many local Chinese abroad. Under their guidance, the red pot Wang Laoji quickly became a local best-selling product. Enterprises are worried that Wang Laoji red cans may become a fashion that comes and goes in a hurry. Just like coconut juice, which was a smash hit in southern Zhejiang, it was quickly replaced by new fashion products and disappeared in the streets overnight.

In the face of consumers' confused cognition, enterprises urgently need to provide a strong guidance through advertising, clarify the core value of the red pot Wang Laoji, and distinguish it from competitors.

The second manifestation of the real problem: Wang Laoji, a red pot, can't go out of Guangdong and can't go out of southern Zhejiang.

Outside Guangdong and Guangxi, people don't have the concept of herbal tea, and even the views of "herbal tea is cold and cooked" and "we don't drink herbal tea, we make hot tea" frequently appear in the survey. The concept of educational herbal tea is obviously expensive. Moreover, the demand of mainland consumers for "reducing fire" has been filled, and most of them are solved by taking drugs such as Niuhuang Jiedu tablets.

It is difficult to make herbal tea, and it is also dangerous to make drinks. From the perspective of the whole beverage industry, carbonated drinks represented by Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola, tea drinks and juice drinks represented by Master Kong and Uni-President are in an unshakable market leading position.

Moreover, Wang Laoji's red jar is made of honeysuckle, licorice, chrysanthemum and other medicinal materials, which has a faint taste of traditional Chinese medicine. For the beverage with the highest taste, there is indeed no small obstacle. In addition, the retail price of 3.5 yuan's Wang Laoji red cans, if Jiaduobao can't distinguish Wang Laoji from its competitors, will never get out of the shadow of the "big country" in the beverage industry. This makes the red pot Wang Laoji face an extremely embarrassing situation: he can neither stick to the two places nor promote it nationwide.

The third problem in reality is the vague concept of popularization.

If we use the concept of "herbal tea" to promote it, Jiaduobao is worried that the sales volume will be limited, but as a "beverage" promotion, it has not found a suitable division. Therefore, we have to be ambiguous in advertisements. Many people have seen such an advertisement: a very cute little boy got a can of Wang Lao Ji in order to open the refrigerator and kept rubbing his ass against the refrigerator door. The slogan is "Healthy family, always accompany". Obviously, this advertisement can't reflect the unique value of the red pot Wang Laoji.

A few years ago, consumers didn't know why they bought the red can Wang Laoji, and enterprises didn't know how to sell it. In such a state, Wang Laoji, a red pot, actually spent a few years calmly. The external reason for this phenomenon is that the China market is still immature and there are many market gaps. The internal reason is that the product itself is irreplaceable, which can just fill this position. In China, such a group of small and medium-sized enterprises are allowed to make big money in a muddle. But after developing to a certain scale, if an enterprise wants to be big, it must find out a question: why do consumers buy my products?

relocate

At the end of 2002, Jiaduobao found Mei Cheng Marketing Consulting Company. The original intention was to shoot an advertisement for Wang Laoji with the theme of sponsoring the Olympic Games. In order to promote sales, the slogan "Sports and Health" was used for publicity. After a preliminary study, Mei Cheng found that the sales problem of Wang Laoji in red cans can't be solved by advertising alone-this problem is particularly typical in China enterprises at present: once the sales volume is blocked, the most common measure is to cut the knife on the advertising film, or change it beyond recognition, or quickly create a "big creative" new advertisement-brand positioning is the primary solution to the sales problem of Wang Laoji in red cans.

Although Red Wang Can Laojiao has been sold for 7 years, its brand has never been systematically and rigorously positioned. Enterprises can't answer what Wang Can Laoji is, let alone consumers, and they don't know why they want to buy it. This is due to the lack of brand positioning of red Wang Can Laojiao. If this fundamental problem is not solved, it is useless to shoot any "creative" advertisements. As david ogilvy, an advertising guru, said: The effect of an advertising campaign depends more on your product positioning than how you write an advertisement (creativity). After a round of in-depth communication, Jiaduobao finally accepted the suggestion, decided to suspend the production of advertising films, and entrusted Mei Cheng to brand Red Wang Can Laoji first.

According to the conventional practice, the establishment of brands is based on the needs of consumers, so everyone's conclusions and practices are similar, so just meeting the needs of consumers does not make Wang Laoji different. Brand positioning is formulated to meet the needs of consumers, and put forward different opinions from competitors by understanding their cognition.

Because consumers' cognition is almost unchangeable, brand positioning can only conform to consumers' cognition but not conflict with it. If people have a clear view of Wang Laoji in Red Pot, it is best not to try to offend or challenge him. Just as consumers think that Maotai can't be a good "beer". Therefore, the brand positioning of Red Pot Wang Laoji cannot conflict with the existing cognition of consumers in Guangdong and southern Zhejiang, so as to stabilize the existing sales and create opportunities for the survival and expansion of enterprises.

In order to understand consumers' cognition, on the one hand, we studied the information spread by Wang Laoji and competitors, on the other hand, we conducted a lot of interviews with Jiaduobao, dealers and retailers. After completing the above work, we hired a market research company to investigate the existing users of Wang Laoji. On this basis, a comprehensive analysis is made to clarify the position of Wang Lao Ji in the eyes of consumers-that is, in which market segment he participates in the competition.

In the survey, it is found that Guangdong consumers drink red cans of Wang Laoji mainly in barbecue, mountain climbing and other occasions. The reason is nothing more than "eating barbecue is easy to get angry, drink a can first to prevent it" and "it may get angry, but there is no need to eat Niuhuang Jiedu tablets at this time".

In southern Zhejiang, drinking occasions are mainly "eating out, gathering and family". In the process of understanding the local food culture, the researchers found that consumers in this area are more worried about getting angry than those in Guangdong. For example, the plum and Coca-Cola at the consumer seminar table are all described as dangerous goods that will get angry, and no one cares. (Subsequent research later confirmed this point, and found that coke sales in Wenzhou and other places have always been sluggish. In the end, the two music companies almost gave up the market and generally did not advertise. ) and their evaluation of the red pot Wang Laoji is "it won't get angry", "healthy, children and the elderly can drink it, and it won't cause fire." These ideas may have no scientific basis, but they are the thoughts of consumers in southern Zhejiang and the "only fact" that needs attention in the research.

The cognition and purchase behavior of these consumers show that consumers have no "treatment" requirements for Wang Laoji in red cans, but buy them as functional drinks. The real motive of buying a red can of Wang Laoji is to "prevent getting angry", for example, hoping to reduce the occurrence of getting angry when tasting barbecue. After getting angry, you may take drugs, such as Niuhuang Jiedu tablets and traditional herbal tea for treatment.

Further research on consumers' views on competitors shows that the direct competitors of Wang Laoji, such as chrysanthemum tea and refreshing tea, only penetrate the market at low prices because of the lack of brand promotion, and do not occupy the position of "drinks to prevent getting angry". Coke, tea drinks, juice drinks, water, etc. Obviously, it does not have the function of "preventing getting angry", but only indirect competition.

At the same time, the establishment of any brand positioning must be the most capable brand, that is, there is evidence to follow. For example, Coca-Cola says "authentic Coke" because it is the inventor of Coca-Cola. The researchers studied consumers' perceptions of the enterprise and the product itself. The results show that Wang Laoji's identity as the "ancestor of herbal tea", the mysterious Chinese herbal medicine formula and the history of 175 years are obviously capable of occupying the position of "preventing a cup from getting angry".

Because "preventing getting angry" is the real motivation for consumers to buy red cans of Wang Laoji, which is naturally conducive to consolidating and strengthening the original market. Whether it can meet the expectations of enterprises for the new orientation of "entering the national market" has become the focus of the next study. The second-hand data research and expert interviews show that China's concept of "clearing away heat and removing fire" for thousands of years has been widely popularized throughout the country, and the concept of "getting angry" has also been deeply rooted in people's hearts in various places, which makes Wang Laoji, a red can, break through the geographical limitation of herbal tea concept. The researcher believes: "With the transfer of this propaganda concept, as long as there is a place for China people, the red pot Wang Laoji can survive."

At this point, the research on brand positioning is basically completed. After more than a month's research, Mei Cheng submitted a brand positioning research report to Jiaduobao. First, it is clear that Wang Laoji, a red can, is competing in the "beverage" industry, and his competitors should be other beverages. The unique value of its brand positioning-"drink to prevent getting angry" is that drinking Wang Laoji in a red can can prevent getting angry and let consumers enjoy life carefree: eating fried, spicy, barbecue and watching football all night ... This positioning of Wang Laoji in a red can is based on the overall consideration of the reality and has four main benefits:

First, it is conducive to Wang Laoji going out of Guangdong and southern Zhejiang.

Because "getting angry" is a common concept of traditional Chinese medicine in China, it is no longer confined to Guangdong and Guangxi like "herbal tea", which completely removes the obstacle for Wang Laoji to go to the whole country.

Second, avoid direct competition between Wang Laoji and domestic and foreign beverage giants and form a unique division of labor.

Thirdly, the disadvantages of the red pot Wang Laoji products have been successfully transformed into advantages.

The faint taste of traditional Chinese medicine has been successfully transformed into a powerful support for "preventing excessive internal heat";

The retail price in 3.5 yuan is no longer "unattainable" because of the function of "preventing getting angry";

The brand name and long history of "Wang Lao Ji" have become a powerful support to prevent the "authenticity" of getting angry.

Fourth, it is conducive to the cooperation between Jiaduobao enterprises and domestic Wang Laoji Pharmaceutical.

It is precisely because Jiaduobao's red can Wang Laoji is positioned as a functional drink, which is different from the "medicine" of Wang Laoji Pharmaceutical, so it can better promote the cooperation between the two companies to create the "Wang Laoji" brand. The two companies jointly funded a TV series "Lingnan Medicine Man" about the founder of Wang Laoji herbal tea practicing medicine.

In the submitted report, Mei Cheng also pointed out that because diet is an important reason for consumers to get angry in their cognition, especially "spicy" and "fried" diets, it is suggested that on the basis of maintaining the original sales channels, efforts should be made to open up catering channels and create a flagship store image in many restaurants. The focus is on Hunan restaurant, Sichuan restaurant, hot pot restaurant, barbecue field and so on.

With rich experience in beverage market and keen market intuition, Chen Hongdao, chairman of Jiaduobao, made a decision on the spot, accepted all the suggestions in the report, and decided to promote Wang Laoji in an all-round way according to the brand positioning immediately.

"Creating new categories" is always the first choice for brand positioning. If a brand can position itself as a different choice from a strong competitor, its advertisement only needs to convey new category information, and the effect is often amazing. As the first drink to prevent getting angry, the red pot Wang Laoji was introduced to the market, which made people know and accept this new drink. Wang Laoji, the last red can, will be the representative of drinks to prevent getting angry. With the growth of categories, the natural benefits are the greatest.

The establishment of the brand positioning of Red Pot Wang Laoji has clarified the direction of marketing promotion and established the advertising standard. All communication activities have evaluation standards, and all marketing efforts will follow this standard, thus ensuring that every promotion will accumulate brand value (positioning) while promoting sales.

At this time, you can start advertising creativity and shoot commercials.

Promotion of brand positioning

It is clear what position the brand should occupy in the minds of consumers. The next important task is to promote the brand, let it really enter people's hearts, and let everyone know the positioning of the brand, thus permanently and powerfully influencing consumers' purchase decisions.

Then, Mei Cheng formulated the promotion theme of "Fear of getting angry, drink Wang Laoji" for Wang Laoji in red jar, trying to highlight the essence of Wang Laoji in red jar as a drink in communication. In the first stage of the advertisement, Wang Laoji in red pot appeared as a relaxed, happy and healthy image, avoiding the negative appeal of the right medicine, thus distinguishing Wang Laoji in red pot from "traditional herbal tea".

In order to better arouse consumers' needs, TV advertisements choose five scenes that consumers think are most likely to get angry in daily life: eating hot pot, watching football all night, eating fried food and chips, barbecuing, and taking a bath in the summer sun. In the picture, people enjoy the above activities while drinking the red jar of Wang Laoji. Combined with fashionable and dynamic advertising songs, we repeatedly sang "Don't be afraid of anything, enjoy life to the fullest, and drink Wang Laoji if you are afraid of getting angry", prompting consumers to naturally think of Wang Laoji in red cans when eating hot pot and barbecue, thus promoting purchase.

(film and television advertising)

The TV media choice of Wang Laoji in Red Pot is mainly CCTV covering the whole country, combined with the local strong media in the original sales area (Guangdong and southern Zhejiang). In just a few months in 2003, Wang Laoji invested more than 40 million yuan in advertising, and the sales volume was immediate and improved rapidly. In June of the same year, 1 1, the enterprise pursued the victory, and then spent huge sums of money to buy the golden advertising time of CCTV in 2004. It is this stormy way that made the red pot Wang Laoji deeply rooted in the hearts of the people in a short time, which left a deep impression on people and quickly swept the country.

At the beginning of 2003, the total promotion budget of Red Pot Wang Laoji was only 6.5438+million yuan, which was distributed according to the actual sales volume in 2002. At that time, Wang Laoji's sales of red cans were mainly concentrated in Shenzhen, Dongguan and southern Zhejiang, so the quantity was relatively sufficient. With the first round of targeted advertising, the sales volume rose rapidly, which gave the enterprise great confidence, so it continued to add promotion expenses and developed in a rolling way. By the end of 2003, advertising alone had accumulated more than 40 million yuan (excluding the time spent on CCTV advertising in 2004), and the annual sales reached 600 million yuan-this rolling development model based on one's ability is very suitable for many domestic enterprises aiming at the national market, but their strength is temporarily insufficient.

(Outdoor advertising)

In the ground promotion, in addition to emphasizing traditional POP advertisements, we also cooperated with the development of new catering channels to design and arrange a large number of terminal materials for catering channels, such as designing and making practical items that catering places are willing to accept, such as electronic display screens and lanterns, and giving them away for free. In the choice of communication content, we should fully consider that terminal advertising should directly stimulate consumers' desire to buy, and focus on product packaging as the main visual element to publicize a message: "Be afraid of getting angry and drink Wang Laoji's drink." On-the-spot tips in restaurants are the most effective way to cooperate with TV advertisements. It is this targeted promotion that makes consumers have a stronger and more intuitive understanding of the "what" and "what's the use" of the red pot Wang Laoji. At present, the catering channel has become one of Wang Laoji's important sales channels.

(advertising materials)

In the frequent consumption promotion activities, it is also carried out around the theme of "afraid of getting angry and drinking Wang Laoji". For example, in a promotional activity, Jiaduobao held a card scraping activity of "Wang Laoji in summer, green mountains and green waters in Ren Woxing". As long as consumers scratch the word "Wang Lao Ji", they can get two tickets for the local summer resort and stay in the local resort for two days for free. This kind of promotion not only achieved the purpose of instant promotion, but also strongly supported and consolidated Wang Laoji's brand positioning of "drinking to prevent getting angry".

(Wang Laoji Wenzhou "Student Love" Activity)

At the same time, in the promotion activities for middlemen, in addition to continuing to consolidate the traditional "Jiaduobao Sales Elite Club", Jiaduobao also fully considered how to strengthen the development and control of catering channels, carried out the "hot pot restaurant market" and "cooperative hotels" plans, selected major hot pot restaurants and restaurants as "Wang Laoji sincere cooperative stores" and invested funds to carry out holiday promotion activities with them. Because it provided rich benefits to the merchants, Wang Laoji quickly entered the catering channel and became the main recommended drink.

(advertising materials)

This kind of high-profile, intuitive appeal "afraid of getting angry and drinking Wang Laoji" advertising campaign directly hits consumer demand and drives sales in time; At the same time, with the promotion of the brand, consumers' cognition is also constantly strengthening, and gradually establish a unique and long-term positioning for the brand-truly establish the brand.

Promotion effect

Wang Laoji's successful brand positioning and communication in Red Pot has brought huge benefits to this product with a history of 1.75 years and strong Lingnan characteristics: in 2003, the sales of Wang Laoji in Red Pot increased nearly four times year-on-year, from 1 100 million yuan in 2002 to 600 million yuan, and rushed out of Guangdong with lightning speed. In 2004, despite the continuous expansion of production capacity, the supply still could not meet the demand. Orders poured in like snowflakes, and the annual sales exceeded 65.438 billion yuan. In 2005, the annual sales were stable at more than 2 billion yuan. In 2006, the sales of boxed boxes reached nearly 4 billion yuan, and in 2007, the sales reached 9 billion yuan.

label

Wang Lao Ji can achieve great success. To sum up, the following aspects are the key to the success of Jiaduobao:

Accurately locate the brand of Wang Laoji in Red Pot;

Advertising brand positioning in place, there are two main points:

Accurate advertising expression;

Enough investment to ensure that brand positioning enters consumers' minds.

Accurate judgment and bold decision-making power of enterprise decision-makers;

Excellent execution and strong channel control;

Do what you can, develop by rolling, and ensure that marketing is in a relatively advantageous position in the region.

Appendix: Relevant data of Wang Laoji

Attachment 1: Annual sales of Wang Laoji beverages

6543.8+800 million yuan in 2002

600 million yuan in 2003

654.38+430 million yuan in 2004

2.5 billion yuan in 2005 (including boxed)

Nearly 4 billion yuan in 2006 (including boxed)

Nearly 9 billion yuan in 2007 (including boxed)

Annex II: Investment and Construction of Jiaduobao Company over the Years

1995, jiaduobao company was established and invested in Chang' an town, dongguan city, Guangdong province, with an initial investment of 20 million us dollars.

1999, invested in the second phase expansion of Chang 'an Town, Dongguan, Guangdong, with an investment of 30 million US dollars.

In 2003, we invested 30 million US dollars in Beijing Economic and Technological Development Zone.

In 2004, he invested and built a factory in Paojiang Industrial Zone, Shaoxing, Zhejiang, with an investment of 25 million US dollars.

In 2005, we invested 30 million dollars to build a factory in Xiangyi Town, shishi city, Fujian.

In 2006, it invested and built a factory in Nansha Development Zone, Guangdong, with an investment of 654.38 billion US dollars.

In 2007, he invested in Xiasha Economic Development Zone in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, with an investment of about 25 million US dollars.

Invested in Wuhan Economic and Technological Development Zone, Hubei Province with an investment of 99.8 million US dollars.