Text/Luo Yaying

On June 24, Jiaduobao announced that it had received a civil ruling from the Supreme People’s Court on June 18. The Supreme People's Court rejected GPHL's retrial application for the series of advertising slogans "Drink xxx if you are afraid of getting angry". The final ruling stated that Jiaduobao can continue to use the advertising slogans.

At this point, the dispute between Jiaduobao and Wanglaoji has come to an end. For the two giants in the herbal tea beverage industry, the bigger problem they will face next is the gradual decline of the herbal tea beverage market.

Talk about the dispute between Jiaduobao and Wanglaoji, which dates back to 2011.

Following the expiration of the original trademark lease agreement in 2010, GPHL officially submitted an arbitration request to the China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission, requesting Hongdao Group (Jiaduobao’s parent company at the time) to stop using the "Wanglaoji" trademark ". After two years of tug-of-war, the Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court finally ruled in 2012 that Jiaduobao Company banned the Wanglaoji trademark.

At that time, GPHL and Jiaduobao Company filed separate lawsuits in court. Both claimed that they enjoyed the packaging rights of "Red Can Wonglaoji Herbal Tea" and other series of products, and sued the other party for infringement.

The Guangdong Provincial Higher People's Court ruled that the owner of the packaging and decoration rights of "Red Can Wong Lo Kat" is Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Group, and ordered Jiaduobao Company to cease infringement from now on and compensate Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Group for its economic losses. and reasonable rights protection fees totaling more than 150 million yuan.

Then Jiaduobao Company was dissatisfied and appealed. Finally, in 2017, the Supreme People's Court made a final judgment that both GPHL and Jiaduobao made important contributions to the packaging design of red can herbal tea during their cooperation. Both parties enjoyed the red can herbal tea without harming the legitimate interests of others. packaging and decoration rights. The first battle of this "red can battle" was successful.

(Picture taken from Tianyancha)

During this period, in May 2014, GPHL filed a lawsuit requesting an order to order Jiaduobao to compensate for the infringement between 2010 and 2012." The economic loss caused by the "Wong Lo Kat" trademark was 1 billion yuan, which was changed to 2.93 billion yuan in 2015.

The most hotly debated case is the advertising dispute.

In 2013, GPHL and Guangzhou Wanglaoji Health Industry Co., Ltd. jointly sued Guangdong Jiaduobao, claiming that Jiaduobao infringed on Wonglaoji’s rights due to the advertising slogan “Drink Jiaduobao for fear of getting angry”. Benefit. The first-instance verdict ruled that Guangdong Jiaduobao will ban the use of the "fear of getting angry" series of advertising slogans from now on, and at the same time compensate Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Group and Wanglaoji Health Company for 5 million yuan.

Jiaduobao appealed again, and all of GPHL’s claims were ultimately dismissed.

From the disputes over trademarks, packaging, to advertising slogans, Jiaduobao and Wanglaoji have been at odds with each other for a long time.

While the two companies are focusing on outsmarting each other, the landscape of the beverage market has already changed.

In 2012, the expansion rate of the herbal tea market was 16.7, but by 2015 it was only 9.7. Wanglaoji and Jiaduobao also occupied the vast majority of the market share during the peak of the herbal tea period. Herbal tea was once regarded as the hope of domestic beverages and once suppressed Coca-Cola and Pepsi. However, judging from the current consumer demand, herbal tea's once good card has been beaten to pieces.

The national economy continues to grow steadily, and my country's beverage industry shows a good growth trend. Beverage market sales increased from 465.216 billion yuan in 2014 to 578.560 billion yuan in 2019, with a compound growth rate of 4.46.

(Picture source from the Internet)

At present, the domestic beverage market categories are mainly divided into: packaged drinking water, carbonated drinks, fruit drinks, ready-to-drink coffee, ready-to-drink tea drinks, functional Drinks etc.

As the packaged drinking water with the widest audience and the most demand, it has always occupied the majority of the beverage market share and is almost stable. In recent years, carbonated drinks and functional drinks with a wide range of products and various flavors can better meet the diversified needs of consumers and are in a stage of vigorous development.

This has a huge impact on the herbal tea industry with a single taste.

But the decline of the herbal tea industry goes far beyond that.

In addition to being poor in beverage products, the marketing of the traditional herbal tea industry is also outdated.

Although advertising slogans such as "Drink xxx for fear of getting angry" and "Drink Wanglaoji during the auspicious year" are familiar to many, Jiaduobao and Wanglaoji also insist on a people-friendly and warm style in terms of advertising creativity, but consumers I don’t buy it anymore.

The main consumer groups in the current beverage market are still mainly young people aged 15 to 45. Compared with the more conventional promotions such as Jiaduobao and Wanglaoji, other beverage categories invite celebrities to endorse and organize theme activities. method is more popular with the public.

(Offline activities, screenshots from the brand's official Weibo)

The key to product marketing is to "prescribe the right medicine to the case" and adapt to the market's consumption as the consumer group tends to become younger. Only by improving products based on demand can the brand be revitalized.

Jiaduobao and Wanglaoji have been fighting endlessly for nearly ten years, and the herbal tea industry has actually declined with the dispute between the two. Today’s herbal tea market is less than half of what it was in its heyday. For them, they are not only faced with the problem of lagging products, but also how to find the positioning of herbal tea under new market demand is the biggest challenge.