1. The birth of a miracle

The protagonist of the miracle. Li Jingwei, the former chairman of Jianlibao, was born in Sanshui District, Foshan City, Guangdong Province in 1939. His father died in the war, and his mother was unable to raise him, so he grew up in an orphanage in Dongshan District, Guangzhou. He was poor when he was young. He polished shoes and worked as a printer, but he never went to school. In the 1970s, he was promoted to deputy director of the County Sports Committee. In 1973, he was excluded and transferred to Sanshui Winery as the director. After painstaking efforts, the workshop and factory of several rice wine tanks actually developed a beer production line, and the strong beer produced was gradually recognized locally.

The beginning of the story. In 1983, Li Jingwei went to Guangzhou on a business trip and drank Coca-Cola for the first time. It is said that this first gave him the idea of ??producing carbonated drinks. At that time, Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola had completed their preliminary layout in first-tier cities. There were more than 2,000 domestic beverage factories of various sizes, including Arctic Ocean, Gaocheng, Tianfu Cola, Shaolin Cola, and West Lake Cola.

A chance encounter. Li Jingwei’s cousin serves as the head coach of the Guangdong Provincial Table Tennis Team. During a drinking session, my cousin mentioned that Ouyang Xiao, a researcher at the Guangdong Institute of Sports Research, had developed a sports drink that "can help athletes quickly recover their physical strength, and ordinary people can also drink it." It is actually a drink containing alkaline electrolytes.

Li Jingwei invited Ouyang Xiao to form a research team with technical staff from Sanshui Winery to trial produce this drink. It is said that it was very difficult to drink at first, and Li Jingwei spit it out after taking the first sip. After 120 trials, this orange-red orange honey-flavored drink finally succeeded.

Dragon

The door jumped. The product has just come out, how to sell it? Li Jingwei bet on the AFC meeting to be held in Guangzhou a week later. Before that, he did three things. One product was named "Jianlibao", which means "health and vitality". 2. For trademark design, please ask the county advertising company to design the trademark. I asked my brother, who loves calligraphy, to write the words "Jianlibao". Three sample production, using cans. Cans were synonymous with high-end beverages at that time, and there were no can manufacturers in China. Finally, through relationships, Shenzhen Pepsi-Cola Company was able to produce 200 boxes of Jianlibao on behalf of the company.

The eye-catching Jianlibao finally appeared at the AFC meeting as scheduled, surprising Chinese football officials. In June of that year (1984) Jianlibao became the drink of choice for the Chinese Olympic delegation.

Soaring into the sky. In 1984, Xu Haifeng achieved China's "zero breakthrough" in Olympic gold medals in shooting. The Chinese Olympic delegation won 15 gold medals, ranking fourth in total. The enthusiasm and democratic pride of the whole people were suddenly aroused. A report in the "Yangcheng Evening News" titled ""Chinese Magic Water" Popular in Los Angeles" made Jianlibao famous overnight.

In 1984, Jianlibao’s sales reached 3.45 million yuan, 16.5 million yuan in the second year, and 130 million yuan in the third year. For the next 15 years, it has been the "No. 1 brand of national beverages." At the peak of demand, a truckload of Jianlibao strips was sold for NT$20,000.

Extraordinary marketing. After soaring into the sky, Li Jingwei seized market opportunities and made a series of marketing strategies that were amazing at the time and even now.

In 1987, 2.5 million yuan was spent to buy the exclusive rights to drinks for the Sixth National Games in Guangzhou. Launched the first TV commercial, "Good health in the new year, please drink Jianlibao".

In 1989, more than 10 million yuan was used to sponsor the Beijing Asian Games.

In 1990, it sponsored a series of events named "Jianlibao", including the National Go Player Invitational Tournament, the National Diving Championship, etc. Titled sports teams

Guangdong Provincial Bingbing Team, Guangdong Provincial Track and Field Team, Guangxi Gymnastics Team, etc. Launched a new version of the TV commercial "If you want good health, drink Jianlibao" to highlight its health care effects.

In 1991, prize-based rewards were launched.

The prizes were worth 1 million yuan in 1991, 2 million yuan in 1992, 3 million yuan in 1993, and 8 million yuan in 1994. (Until around 2000, the "Jianlibao tab" was still a prop used by rural swindlers)

In 1993, he planned a photo of the first lady of the United States, Hillary Clinton, drinking Jianlibao. Sponsored the China Jianlibao Youth Team to study in Brazil. Jianlibao became the first Chinese beverage brand to enter the United Nations.

In 1994, with the approval of the International Committee on Asteroid Nomenclature, the Purple Mountain Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences named the asteroid No. 3509

it discovered as "Sanshui Jianlibao Star". This is the first star in the world named after a company.

2. The Decline of the Miracle

In 1997, Jianlibao reached its peak of glory, with annual sales exceeding 5.5 billion yuan. Although the domestic soft drink market has since surged with an average annual growth rate of 20%, Jianlibao, the former leader, has embarked on a long road. Three years later, sales dropped to 3.1 billion yuan, down 43% from 1997. The reasons are: restructuring difficulties, chaotic management, and blind diversification.

Restructuring dilemma. In 1997, Guangzhou Jianlibao Building was completed. As the largest source of local fiscal revenue, the construction of Jianlibao Building was not approved by the Sanshui Municipal Government. The government suspected that Jianlibao had the idea of ??moving out.

In 1997, the H-share listing and the management's purchase of shares were rejected by the Sanshui Municipal Government. In 1998, the government tightened the authority to manage Jianlibao's funds.

In 1999, the Sanshui Municipal Government changed its leadership, and a group of old officials who were familiar with Li Jingwei retired. The management team proposed a 450 million yuan MBO plan but was rejected by the Sanshui Municipal Government.

In 2002, the Sanshui Municipal Government transferred the equity of Jianlibao 75 to Zhejiang State Investment Corporation for a price of 338 million yuan. Jianlibao enters the Zhang Hai era.

In 2004, Beijing Huizhong Tianheng acquired the shares of Zhang Hai, Zhu Weisha and Ye Honghan, and indirectly held 91.1% of the shares. The government seized the company's accounts and established Jianlibao Trading Company.

In October 2005, Uni-President Group acquired Jianlibao Trading Company and obtained the Jianlibao brand.

In 2002, Li Jingwei was dismissed from his post as deputy to the National People’s Congress. In 2011, the Foshan Court of Guangdong Province convicted Li Jingwei of corruption and was sentenced to 15 years in prison and 150,000 yuan of personal property was confiscated.

Management

Confusion. Jianlibao was founded by Li Jingwei, who has been the chairman and general manager for a long time. A keen mind and a good sense of the market brought huge benefits to this enterprise in the early stages of development. Success is Xiao He, failure is also Xiao He. The company has never completed the construction of a modern organizational structure. The main executives are veterans who followed Li Jingwei to start a business, and there is a lack of follow-up team training. The lagging marketing and marketing of Jianlibao in the later period is all related to this. At the same time, in order to achieve the employment rate, the local government requires that 45 Jianlibao employees must be from Sanshui. The government appoints people and nepotism is prevalent. From 2002 to 2005

The ownership continued to change, management was absent, and the company was completely out of control.

Blind diversification.

The rise of miracles in the 1980s brought about a sharp expansion of confidence. Li Jingwei began a series of diversified investments, involving real estate, medicine, fast food, sportswear, car maintenance, hotels, securities, tourism, media, etc. It borrowed 1 billion yuan

to build the 39-story Jianlibao Tower in Guangzhou. Due to lack of funds, Jianlibao was strategically strangled by "Liangle" in terms of brand and channels, and subsequent marketing and promotion was weak.

After Zhang Hai took over, he made a series of acquisitions in just one year from

2002-2004

at the beginning of 2004. Baofeng Liquor Industry , Huayi Electric Appliances, Shuanghuan Technology, invested in three football clubs, and Jiangxi Jingdezhen Health Industrial Park, etc. In 2004

Jianlibao Group experienced a financial crisis, defaulting on payments to suppliers, factories suspending production, and dealers being forced out of business.

In 2004, Jianlibao claimed to have total assets of 4.7 billion yuan and liabilities of nearly 3 billion yuan, of which short-term debt was 1.5 billion yuan. The assets were very high, and the actual asset-liability ratio exceeded 70.

When the industry environment undergoes drastic changes, these reasons directly lead to the company's weak sales and insufficient product innovation. Before 1996, multinational companies such as Coca-Cola had just completed their layout in central cities and had not yet gone national. Outside big cities, there were only a few national brands such as Jianlibao and numerous local small businesses. But after 1996

China's beverage industry has seen numerous heroes vying for the top spot. Wahaha, Robust, and Yangshengtang have entered the purified water market in a big way, Master Kong has launched tea drinks, and Uni-President Group has launched low-concentration juice drinks. Although Jianlibao also launched

"Tianlang" brand purified water and "Chaodeneng" functional drinks, the investment was insufficient and the products were silent.

Due to the best-selling products in the past, Jianlibao has always been a "seller", adopting the traditional multi-level dealer agency system, with too long distribution channels

and no need for end product promotion, advertising and promotion. Product placement lacks proper guidance and control. When the market has changed, it can no longer adapt to the market. During this period, Pepsi-Cola and Coca-Cola expanded from first-level cities to towns in developed areas. At the end of 1999, Pepsi-Cola's spring sales plan for a town in Dongguan not only counted the town's population, area, and per capita income, but also detailed statistics on retail stores, supermarkets, and supermarkets in every corner of the town. Data on restaurants and schools,

Comparative data on Pepsi-Cola and Coca-Cola’s market distribution rate, price, sales volume and equipment investment.