According to the contract signed between Guangzhou Pharmaceutical and Hongdao in 2000, Hongdao Group's lease of the "Wong Lo Kat" trademark expires in 2010. From 2000 to 2010, the annual trademark usage fees paid by Jiaduobao to Guangzhou Pharmaceutical increased from 4.5 million yuan to 5.06 million yuan.
Between 2002 and 2003, the two parties signed two supplementary agreements, extending the trademark lease time limit to 2013 and 2020 respectively. However, the annual trademark usage fee paid by Jiaduobao to Guangzhou Pharmaceutical will only be 5.37 million yuan by 2020.
Subsequently, GPHL proposed that the background of the signing of the two supplementary agreements was that Li Yimin, then general manager of GPHL, accepted a bribe of HKD 3 million from Chen Hongdao to "severely lease" the Wong Lo Kat trademark at a "seriously low price". , the latter two agreements are invalid.
In 2004, Li Yimin’s bribery case occurred. In October 2005, the Guangdong Public Security and Border Defense Department arrested Chen Hongdao. On the 19th of that month, Chen Hongdao was released on bail pending trial but abandoned bail and fled. He has not yet been brought to justice. According to an industry insider who has dealt with Chen Hongdao, Chen Hongdao was born in Chang'an Town, Dongguan, Guangdong. He is now in his mid-forties and came to Hong Kong to make a living in his early years. Although he is now a wealthy man, his daily transportation is only two Toyota Alpha business cars that are inconspicuous in Hong Kong. "He has a very decent face and speaks slowly. He is a devout Buddhist and has in-depth research on Buddhism." ". Chen Hongdao, who is not good at appearing in public, occasionally attends occasions to promote Buddhism and good deeds. In Hong Kong, Chen Hongdao is known as a "Buddhist businessman".
“‘Being helpful to the world and caring’ is the ancestral motto established by Wang Laoji, the founder of herbal tea more than 180 years ago.” A relevant person from Jiaduobao Group said, “The group’s donation of 100 million yuan is an act of great compassion from the Buddhist tradition. Feelings, fulfill the social responsibilities of a corporate citizen, and sincerely hope to help the people affected by the disaster."
Chen Hongdao is a devout Buddhist and a well-known philanthropist in Hong Kong. It is said that he is a member of the Jiaduobao Group. In management, Chen Hongdao attaches great importance to harmony and never takes the initiative to fire managers. Even if managers are incompetent, at most they will be transferred to unimportant departments without worrying about being fired. He even required the management team to eat bread and drink milk every morning, and to go hiking on weekends if they had nothing to do. Early in the morning on May 17, 2008, Chen Hongdao, chairman of Jiaduobao Group, invited several senior executives of his subsidiaries to have morning tea together in Hong Kong. In such a relaxed atmosphere, Boss Chen made a surprising decision: Subsidiary company Wanglaoji Herbal Tea donated RMB 100 million to the earthquake-stricken areas in Sichuan!
On the evening of May 18, at the "Love Dedication - 2008 Earthquake Relief Fundraising Gala" held by CCTV, Mr. Yang, Wong Lao Ji's vice president in charge of the brand, solemnly donated 100 million yuan on behalf of the company. This act of kindness won thunderous applause during the earthquake relief work in Sichuan. Mr. Yang said, "At this moment, every employee of Jiaduobao Group and Wanglaoji, like me, prays devoutly for the people in the disaster area, hoping that they can end suffering and achieve happiness as soon as possible."
For a time, Wong Lo Kat became the hottest term in major forums on the Internet. However, Chen Hongdao, the owner of this company that sells Wong Lo Kat canned herbal tea drinks, keeps a very low profile and has almost no public information. So much so that netizens found it incredible to compare him with business giants such as Wang Yongqing, Li Ka-shing, and Run Run Shaw in this donation operation.
On the night after the donation, a post titled "Let Wong Lo Kat disappear from China's shelves! Block it!" appeared on a well-known domestic online forum. This eye-catching title aroused the anger of the public who were moved by Jiaduobao's righteous deeds. However, after opening the post and looking at it, the "ban" the poster refers to actually means "Buy up all the Wong Lo Kat in the supermarket! Buy one can of the last one." Jar!" means. The strong contrast between the truth and the contrary has stimulated countless public comments, "If you don't want to drink water this summer, drink Wong Lo Kat", "Jiaduobao donated 100 million, we will buy up all its products and make it earn 1 billion ”, comments like this appeared on the forums of a large number of websites. A few days later, rumors even surfaced online that Wong Lo Kat was sold out in some places. The astonishing number of discussions, reprints and clicks on the Internet caused this incident to attract a large number of traditional media attention and follow-up reports.
Many people believe that the "Block Wong Lao Kat" post and its huge impact are just an unintentional act by a netizen who was infected by Jiaduobao's donation. People in times of disaster all look forward to the birth of a "hero".
Jiaduobao's performance in disaster relief has naturally won it widespread social respect.
If it weren’t for the 100 million yuan donation on CCTV, perhaps most consumers would not know about Jiaduobao Group. The ubiquitous red canned Wanglaoji herbal tea on the market was created by this company behind the scenes. According to data, in 2007, the group's total sales of Wanglaoji herbal tea exceeded 5 billion yuan. In the first quarter of 2007, data released by the National Bureau of Statistics and the China Industry and Enterprise Information Release Center showed that Wong Lo Kat had become "the number one in the national canned beverage market in 2007."
The huge influence of canned Wanglaoji has even led to its association with Google, a company that has made mythical achievements in the field of technology. “The drinks in our lounge are all Wong Lo Kat,” Google once said to express its localization efforts in China. However, most of the company’s employees have not noticed the Jiaduobao Group behind Wong Lo Kat.
On the seemingly omniscient Internet, there is very little information about Chen Hongdao, Chairman of Jiaduobao Group. Even at a major social event such as a 100 million yuan donation, Chen Hongdao did not show up. However, some people gradually suspect that this "blocking" incident, which has brought wide reputation to Wanglaoji and Jiaduobao Group, is not an unintentional act by netizens, but is actually "man-made." A person in the Internet marketing industry whose online name is Sonia said that one of her friends was involved in the operation of the incident. “Jiaduobao found a public relations company and a professional posting group to plan and operate the incident. These companies and teams will post the Spread to major forums, and control the direction and continuing influence of public opinion on the Internet through a large number of posts."
Another person in the industry with experience in online marketing also said online that Wong Lao Kat began to pay attention to the communication effect of online marketing in 2007 and invested in this field. “In regular periods, on the forum The amount of investment every month is relatively large.” He believes that it is precisely because of the previous accumulation of resources and experience that Jiaduobao can quickly and efficiently carry out online marketing at the critical moment after donation. “A corporate action that attracts public attention, an attention-grabbing post, a group of efficient and powerful network promoters, and ultimately a widely watched social news. These important factors are all seamlessly integrated together. It can be said to be a network marketing classic case".
Sonia said that since the relevant companies have signed confidentiality agreements with Jiaduobao, it is difficult for outsiders to know the specific inside information. However, she mentioned some traceable details. Many of the IP addresses that frequently praised Jiaduobao and Wanglaoji on different website forums were “duplicated,” and many forum users also “registered after May 18.” of".
The motivation of companies to enhance their brand value through huge donations during natural disasters is actually not wrong, but it seems inconvenient to explain. However, Sonia expressed her recognition of the "'blocking' of Wong Lo Kat" from the perspective of Internet marketing. She said on her blog, "This is an Internet marketing event that perfectly utilized the power of Internet communication." She believed that this not only powerfully helped Cadogan Bao has established a good image and also enhanced consumers' loyalty to the Wong Lo Kat brand.
However, a public relations company boss in Guangzhou who is close to the management of Jiaduobao is skeptical about this. He believes that brand marketing through online postings is not in line with the corporate temperament of Jiaduobao Group, especially " They will not use such a 'childish' way to promote themselves on a major event such as donating huge sums of money to earthquake-stricken areas." He speculated that the publication of the post or some of the subsequent comments may be the personal behavior of Jiaduobao Group employees, and the social repercussions caused by this were not previously expected by these employees.
In any case, the spread on the Internet has enabled the brand Wanglaoji and the company Jiaduobao to win more recognition from the public. If Wanglaoji herbal tea was just a beverage brand before, then this brand has gained a social reputation that countless companies dream of.
Netizen Cai Baozi is already a loyal fan of Wong Lao Kat. In addition to pouring support online for "banning Wong Lao Kat", she and her girlfriends all turned to Wong Lao Kat for dinner and drinks. In a prosperous hot pot restaurant in Guangzhou, the clerk was taking away the empty cans of Wong Lo Kat from the table. She said that Wong Lao Kat had half as many customers as usual during this period, and she didn't know why.
Chengmei Marketing Consulting Company, which has provided brand planning and promotion services to Jiaduobao Group, once had such an experience: in the commercial film planned by the company for Jiaduobao Group, the fisherman appeared. The clip was asked to be changed by the management of Jiaduobao Company, "He said fishing is killing animals." Geng Yicheng, general manager of Chengmei Company, believes that Jiaduobao Group’s huge donation has a lot to do with Chen Hongdao’s deep belief in Buddhism.
There are rumors that in the management of Jiaduobao Group, Chen Hongdao has never taken the initiative to fire managers. “Even if the manager is incompetent, at most he will be transferred to an unimportant department. There is no need to worry about being dismissed.” Fired".
Geng Yicheng’s deepest impression of Chen Hongdao is, “He extended the spirit of Buddhism to corporate management, which gave Jiaduobao both strong corporate determination and ability in the highly competitive beverage market. Be far-sighted and make the right choices at critical moments.” It is said that in addition to Chen Hongdao, several senior executives, including Tao Yingze, the former general manager of Jiaduobao Group (now the president of Guangzhou Wanglaoji Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.) and Yang Aixing, the current deputy general manager of Jiaduobao Group, are all Buddhist believers.
The Buddhist spirit of paying attention to practice and pursuing tranquility seems to have penetrated into the corporate culture of Jiaduobao Group. A person close to the company's top management said of Jiaduobao Group, "This is a 'quiet' company with great determination." The person said that in addition to selling its own brand of green tea products for a period of time in the early years, it has "always focused on the operation of Wanglaoji herbal tea" in recent years.
It is said that Yang Aixing, deputy general manager of Jiaduobao Group, will strictly review every advertising plan of the company, and will not use any advertising plan that is different from the positioning of "Drink Wanglaoji for fear of getting angry". He even requested that every commercial film be shot by a Hong Kong director who had worked with Jiaduobao for many years. This was only to consistently reflect the brand image of Wong Lao Kat herbal tea. Geng Yicheng also said: "Many companies will anxiously ask what's going on if they don't see an increase in product sales for a period of time after the advertisement is broadcast, but no one from Jiaduobao has ever made such a call to us. They are very opinionated."
Compared with one person doing ten things, the effect is completely different. The same is often true for running a business. From selling Wanglaoji herbal tea in every house on the streets, Jiaduobao has focused almost all its efforts on this product. After the product market expands, the benefits of operating a single product are directly reflected.
With the huge influence of the brand, countless merchants are selling canned Wong Lo Kat herbal tea across the country. It is understood that in Guangzhou alone, there are more than 1,000 wholesalers supplying a large number of customers of various types every day. Since the launch of the first red canned Wong Lo Kat in Dongguan in 1995, Jiaduobao Group has spent thirteen years selling countless cans of such drinks throughout the country and has extended to overseas markets such as Southeast Asia, Europe and the United States. The group has established five large-scale production bases in Guangdong, Fujian, Zhejiang, Beijing, and Hubei, with more than 10,000 employees.
In order to cooperate with the national market development strategy, Jiaduobao Group has established production bases in Dongguan, Beijing, Shaoxing, Hangzhou, Fujian and Guangzhou. The group established "Guangdong Jiaduobao Beverage and Food Co., Ltd." in Chang'an Town, Dongguan, Guangdong Province in 1999. At the end of 2003, it invested in Beijing Economic and Technological Development Zone to establish "Jiaduobao Beverage Co., Ltd." and in mid-2004, it was established in Shaoxing City, Zhejiang Province. "Zhejiang Jiaduobao Beverage Co., Ltd." and "Fujian Jiaduobao Beverage Co., Ltd." were invested and established in Shishi City, Fujian Province in mid-2005.
Guangdong Jiaduobao Beverage and Food Co., Ltd. is an exclusive investment company established by Hong Kong Jiaduobao Group in the mainland. The company was officially established in December 1999. The company's headquarters is located in the beautiful Chang'an Town, Dongguan, Guangdong Province, adjacent to Shenzhen. Covering an area of ??about one hundred acres, the first-phase factory area is about 10,000 square meters, with an investment of more than 200 million yuan, and the second-phase investment is more than 300 million yuan, with a total investment of more than 600 million yuan.