Why did Wanglaoji change its name to Jiaduobao? Only the red can of Wanglaoji has been renamed Jiaduobao.
The red can of Wong Lao Kat was sold by Jiaduobao Group after leasing the brand from the actual holder of the "Wang Lao Kat" trademark - "GPharma Group".
The contract has recently expired, and GPHL is unwilling to renew the lease and seems to be still in litigation. Jiaduobao estimated that it would lose the lawsuit, so it changed the packaging in advance and "de-converted Wanglaoji" to prepare for the launch of its own "Jiaduobao" brand herbal tea in the future.
GPharma Group has its own Wong Lo Kat, which comes in a green box. I still remember that at the end of the TV commercials of Guangzhou Pharmaceutical’s home-brewed and packaged herbal teas, they always said earnestly, “Wanglaoji, there are also boxed ones!” This is what they said.
The formulas of the two Wong Lao Kat seem to be the same, because the formula of Wong Lo Kat is also passed down in Hong Kong, while Jiaduobao got the formula in Hong Kong and then rented it as a brand in mainland China.
1. Acquaintance: The history of Wanglaoji - the past of Jiaduobao. The history is not far away and the past is not long at the same time -
Wanglaoji herbal tea was founded by Wang Zebang in Guangba, Qing Dynasty. year, and has a history of 184 years. Despite many setbacks in a turbulent society, it still maintains operations. After 1949, Wanglaoji Herbal Tea was divided into two branches: one was nationalized and later renamed "Yangcheng Pharmaceutical" and was affiliated with Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Group. The other branch was brought to Hong Kong by the descendants of the Wang family to operate Wong Lao Kat's Hong Kong and overseas business, namely "Hong Kong Wong Lao Kat International". In 1993, Wang Lao Kat, a descendant of the Wang family, became the executive director of the company.
Where did they come from - so this is it -
It stands to reason that Wong Lao Kat belongs to different owners after the split, and should have nothing to do with each other. How could such a big brand be involved? Litigation case? This starts with Chen Hongdao, a businessman from Dongguan.
Chen Hongdao is a trading wholesaler active in Guangdong and Hong Kong. In 1995, he was interested in operating the herbal tea industry in the mainland and contacted Wang Jianyi, a descendant of the Wang family, and obtained red canned Wong Lo Kat herbal tea. recipe. However, the descendants of the Wang family only own the trademark ownership in Hong Kong and overseas. Chen Hongdao, who wanted to operate Wanglaoji herbal tea drinks in the mainland, turned to Guangzhou Yangcheng Pharmaceutical to seek cooperation.
On February 13, 1997, Guangzhou Yangcheng Pharmaceutical Wanglaoji Food and Beverage Branch (the predecessor of Wanglaoji Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.) signed a trademark licensing contract with Chen Hongdao's Hong Kong Hongdao Group Co., Ltd., the contract stipulates Hongdao Group has obtained the exclusive right to use the "Wong Lao Kat" trademark to produce and sell red paper packaging and red iron canned herbal tea beverages in 1997. The contract is valid until December 31, 2011, and is valid for 15 years. Later, the two parties signed a contract in 2001 The contract is renewed and is valid for a total of 20 years. For the development of Wonglaoji herbal tea, Hongdao Group invested in the establishment of Hong Kong Jiaduobao (Guangdong) Co., Ltd. The Hong Kong Wonglaoji Group provided the formula and was licensed by Guangzhou Wonglaoji Pharmaceutical to exclusively produce it in mainland China. It is specifically responsible for the production of "red can" Wonglaoji herbal tea. In terms of production and sales, Jiaduobao Group has successively set up four processing plants in the mainland, making the Wanglaoji herbal tea brand authorized by Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Group successful.
2. Marriage: With the promotion of Jiaduobao, Wonglaoji’s brand journey has been very exciting -
Since 1997, GPHL has licensed the red can Wonglaoji trademark to After Hongdao Group, Jiaduobao began to painstakingly manage the Wanglaoji brand. However, before 2002, Wanglaoji herbal tea was only a regional brand. Its sales performance remained at around 100 million yuan for several consecutive years, and it was unable to go beyond Guangdong and southern Zhejiang. . To this end, Chen Hongdao hired Chengmei Company to reposition "Wong Lao Kat" - making it clear that the red can Wong Lo Kat competes in the "beverage" industry, and the competitors should be other beverages; the brand positioning is "a drink that prevents getting angry", which is unique The value lies in the fact that drinking a red can of Wong Lo Kat can prevent you from getting angry.
Jiaduobao’s repositioning of Wanglaoji has cleared the way for Wanglaoji herbal tea to go nationwide. In the following years, Jiaduobao Group invested more than one billion yuan to strengthen advertising, expand production bases, broaden sales channels, and even filmed a TV series "Lingnan Medicine Hero" about the medical practice of the founder of Wanglaoji Herbal Tea.
The high-profile charity donation of 100 million yuan during the Wenchuan earthquake in 2008 made Wonglaoji famous, and ultimately established the status of red-can Wonglaoji among Chinese beverage brands. Public data shows that Jiaduobao Group’s sales in 2002 were less than 200 million yuan. In 2003, sales jumped to 600 million yuan, soared to more than 5 billion yuan in 2007, reached 14 billion yuan in 2008, and reached 16 billion yuan in 2011. Yuan. Leveraging on the huge appeal of the Wong Lo Kat brand, GPHL also took advantage of the trend and launched green boxed Wong Lao Kat in 2005. As a result, two "Wang Lao Kat" appeared on the market.
Leveraging the success of the red can of Wong Lo Kat, the annual sales of the green box of Wong Lo Kat also rose rapidly from 80 million yuan in 2004 to nearly 2 billion yuan in 2011. In 2006, both were selected into the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage. According to the assessment by the Beijing Famous Brand Asset Appraisal Company, the brand value of Wong Lo Kat has reached 108.015 billion yuan, making it the number one brand in China. It can be said that the close cooperation between the two companies has revived a century-old brand with a long history of nearly 180 years.
There are stories along the way -
Even up to this point, Jiaduobao and Guangyao have generally won. However, now and then, seeing the "fostered son" gain fame and fortune, Wanglaoji herbal tea has cultivated a mature market, GPHL can't help but become jealous. As the Wanglaoji brand continued to gain momentum in the market, starting from 2008, Jiaduobao and GPHL began to have murmurs over the "Wanglaoji" trademark usage fees and trademark lifespan.
This starts with the two fragile supplementary agreements signed by the two parties in 2002 and 2003. In 1997, GPHL signed a trademark licensing contract with Hong Kong Hongdao Group, stipulating that Hong Kong Hongdao Group would lease the "Wong Lo Kat" trademark until 2010. From 2002 to 2003, Li Yimin, then general manager of GPHL, signed a lease extension contract for the "Wanglaoji" trademark with Jiaduobao, and agreed in two supplementary agreements that Jiaduobao would extend the lease term of the "Wanglaoji" trademark. to 2013 and 202.
Shortly after the signing of these two supplementary agreements, Li Yimin, who had single-handedly facilitated the incident, was investigated for accepting a bribe of HK$3 million from Jiaduobao. After the incident, he was sentenced to life imprisonment for accepting bribes. Based on this, GPHL determined that the Wonglaoji trademark was "severely rented at a low price" by Li Yimin: public information shows that from 2000 to 2010, the sales of red can Wonglaoji increased from 200 million yuan to 16 billion yuan, while Jiaduobao sales increased from 200 million yuan to 16 billion yuan in the same period. The annual trademark usage fee to Guangzhou Pharmaceutical has only increased from 4.5 million yuan to 5.06 million yuan, and even in 2020 it will only be 5.37 million yuan. The Jiaduobao Group has single-handedly raised Wong Lo Kat and feels that all the credit and hard work belongs to it. At this point, of course, it is not willing to give in too much to the "biological father" of GPHL. As a result, this fight lasted for two years. It can be said that this became the direct trigger of the "marriage change" between the two.
3. Marriage Change: The battle between the red and green versions of "Lucky Baby". The cause of the marriage change between Wanglaoji and Jiaduo Baby——
On November 10, 2010, GPHL held a press conference in "China Knowledge" At the press conference of Property Rights Summit Forum and GPHL’s Wanglaoji Great Health Industry Development Plan, it was officially announced that the brand value of GPHL’s Wonglaoji brand has reached 108 billion yuan, making it the brand with the highest assessed value in China. As the biggest contributor to building Wong Lo Kat into an international brand, Jiaduobao Group, the manufacturer of the red can of Wong Lao Kat, was excluded from the press conference and knew nothing about GPHL’s “big health industry” plan. , one can imagine his anger. It should be noted that the biggest credit for Wong Lo Kat’s brand value reaching 100 billion should be Hong Kong’s Jiaduobao Group. It is precisely because of their years of painstaking management and outstanding vision that Wong Lao Kat has repeatedly created new heights in China’s beverage industry. Now that the melons are ripe and their stems have fallen off, Guangyao wants to be a melon picker? It is conceivable that of course Jiaduobao would not agree.
Who touches whose cheese——
However, if it is just because of Guangzhou Pharmaceutical’s jealousy of Wong Lo Kat’s singing style and brand value, it may not be enough to cause the two to break up.
Considering the long-term development, Jiaduobao Group could have appropriately increased the trademark usage fee in the remaining few years, worked hard to achieve an understanding with GPHL, and strived to obtain a longer trademark authorization, on the basis of maintaining and enhancing the Wanglaoji brand. Why did the maximization of the interests of both parties lead to a breakup in the end? Just as the two parties were competing for the right to use the brand, a move by Guangzhou Pharmaceutical prompted Jiaduobao to make the determination to "de-register Wanglaoji". Since November 2011, GPHL announced the implementation of the "Big Health Industry Strategy". Specific measures include: openly recruiting new partners globally, fully enjoying the "Wanglaoji" brand resources, and transforming the "Wanglaoji" brand into medicinal liquor. , cosmeceuticals, health products, food, sports equipment and other fields, it plans to increase the sales volume of Wong Lo Kat brand products to 50 billion yuan by 2015.
When the news came out, Jiaduobao immediately accused GPHL of "lack of business ethics." Jiaduobao's dissatisfaction is understandable. After all, the current value of "Wanglaoji" is solely managed by Jiaduobao, and GPHL's "big health plan" is not only suspected of reaping profits, but also invisibly diluting Jiaduobao Red. The brand value of canned Wanglaoji - this is something Jiaduobao is unwilling to accept at any cost.
On May 12, 2012, Guangzhou Pharmaceutical issued an announcement stating that the China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission (referred to as "CIETAC") had ruled that Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Group and Hongdao Group, the parent company of Jiaduobao, signed a The supplementary agreement on trademark use is invalid, and Jiaduobao will stop using the Wanglaoji trademark. At this point, this long-running trademark case in China has finally come to an end. Jiaduobao, which single-handedly created the Wong Lo Kat myth, has to accept the ending of "making wedding clothes for others".
Who was hurt in the end?
This battle seems to end with GPHL regaining the right to use the "Wong Lao Kat" brand and winning. However, is this really the case? Judging from the past business model, Jiaduobao is responsible for the brand operation and product marketing of the red can of Wonglaoji, and Guangyao is responsible for the brand extension and marketing of the green box of Wonglaoji and other herbal teas. The two companies are inextricably linked, complementing each other and constantly improving. The brand power of Wong Lo Kat. Now the two parties are on the verge of a breakup, and Guangzhou Pharmaceutical's lack of experience in the production, operation and brand operation of the red can of Wong Lao Kat has not only led to the abrupt disintegration of the Wong Lao Kat brand, but also greatly damaged the reputation of the Wong Lao Kat brand. The future of the Wong Lao Kat brand is uncertain. Even if there is a market that Jiaduobao has worked hard for many years, how long can Wanglaoji, which leaves Jiaduobao and returns to the embrace of GPHL, remain popular? It's too early to draw conclusions now.
As for the consequences of losing Wong Lao Kat, Jiaduobao had already anticipated it, and since the end of 2011, it has begun to "de-Wang Lao Kat": first, it increased the "Wang Lao Kat" on one side of the red can packaging "Jiaduobao", and starting from March 2012, the words related to "Wanglaoji" will no longer be used in TV advertisements, replaced by the words "Produced by Jiaduobao", and the advertising slogan has also changed from the previous "Afraid" "Drink Wanglaoji when you are feeling hot" was changed to "Authentic herbal tea, produced by Jiaduobao". Wang Yuegui, deputy general manager of Jiaduobao Brand Management Department, said: "So far, the trademark dispute has had no impact on sales. After replacing the new packaging, some consumers may have cognitive confusion in the short term, but I believe it will change soon. , our sales growth target for 2012 is still not less than 30. "Now, Jiaduobao Group's advertisements can be seen everywhere on the Internet, TV, subway and other media. It is said that in April 2012 alone, Jiaduobao Group invested as much as 400 million yuan in advertising expenses. In addition to strengthening external publicity, in order to prevent brain drain, Jiaduobao Group has also implemented internal salary increases for employees.
What’s more important is that Jiaduobao, which has experience in operating international brands, is the so-called “the enemy must win”, while playing the sympathy card, it also strongly launched “authentic herbal tea, produced by Jiaduobao” , is bound to become the biggest competitor of Wong Lo Kat brand. According to a survey data, 64% of people said they would choose to buy Jiaduobao herbal tea in the future. In addition, in 2011, Daliyuan's "Heqizheng" relied on bottled packaging to seize a place from Jiaduobao. For them, the "Wanglaoji" competition is a rare opportunity to rise to the top.
With the launch of the "Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Edition" Wong Lao Kat herbal tea in June, competition in the herbal tea market will become more intense and homogeneous. One can imagine the challenges Wong Lao Kat faces.
4. Farewell: Go your own way. Lucky Baby Solo Feiyan——
GPHL also had plans to recover the Wanglaoji trademark. In the "Twelfth Five-Year Plan", GPHL clearly proposed the strategy of developing a "big health industry". One of the main strategies is to expand the Wanglaoji brand into medicinal wine, cosmeceuticals, health products, food, sports equipment, etc. Expansion of fields.
On May 28, 2012, GPHL held a press conference in Guangzhou and announced that it authorized its wholly-owned subsidiary Guangzhou Wonglaoji Health Industry Co., Ltd. to operate Wonglaoji herbal tea. In the future, the Wonglaoji brand will expand to health care products. , food, cosmeceuticals and other fields, with a sales target of 30 billion yuan within 5 years. On June 3, Guangzhou Pharmaceutical’s red-can version of Wanglaoji made a high-profile appearance in Beijing.
On June 3, 2012, Wanglaoji, the ancestor of herbal tea founded in 1828, will usher in a historic leap: the new red can of Wanglaoji will be shocked for the first time on one of the eight wonders of the world and the iconic building of the Chinese nation, the Great Wall of China. Appearance. GPHL held an unprecedented grand ceremony on the Badaling Shuiguan Great Wall to launch new red cans of Wong Lao Kat with the theme of "Glossy China, Enjoy Auspicious Days", and publicly issued the "Great Wall Declaration", vowing to build Wong Lao Kat into a world brand. The Great Wall is the pride of the Chinese nation, and herbal tea is the treasure of the Chinese nation. As the nation’s number one brand and the inheritor of Wanglaoji, the ancestor of herbal tea, GPHL Wanglaoji Health Industry Co., Ltd. will use one goal, three paths, and six strategies to implement the "136 "The development strategy will build Wanglaoji from a national brand into a world brand. In the 184-year development journey of Wong Lo Kat, it is consumers who have built the Great Wall of Power of the No. 1 brand with their love, and it is the partners in supply, production, circulation, terminals and other links who have carefully built the Great Wall of Value of the No. 1 brand.
Where to go? Listen to the voice of the market -
The business philosophy of GPHL is to extend the Wanglaoji brand in terms of brand and category, and has authorized other companies to produce Wanglaoji brand mung bean soup, turtle paste and Gynostemma pentaphyllum tea. According to relevant predictions, Wong Lo Kat’s sales should not decline significantly in the short term, and may even have some room for growth. In addition to Jiaduobao’s inertial effect on product promotion, there is also the brand recognition and loyalty of most consumers. . Distributors may also continue to follow up on products because they recognize the Wanglaoji brand. But from a long-term perspective, the market is treacherous and interconnected, and shortcomings in any link may be fatal. Guangzhou Pharmaceutical must have clear ideas and plans to influence the market, instead of sitting on its original brand value of 100 billion and sitting on nothing.
5. Meditation: What are we looking for when we see it?
The main reason why the Wong Lo Kat controversy has attracted so much attention and discussion from people from all walks of life is that everyone has deep concerns about this brand worth hundreds of billions and worries about its future development and fate. After all, there are numerous examples of the decline of major beverage brands in history: Jianlibao, Robust, Prince Milk, etc. Nowadays, the fact that Wong Lao Kat has changed hands cannot be changed. What we need to think about is: How can GPHL continue to maintain and increase the value of "Wong Lao Kat", a high-quality and deeply accumulated brand asset worth hundreds of billions?
That’s it, listen to the call of the brand——
Although a brand does not have a market life cycle, the approach of competitor brands and changes in some consumer preferences will cause consumers to change their attitude towards the company. Reasons such as trust will lead to a decline in market share and brand influence. When Jiaduobao plays the sad card and launches its own brand forcefully, consumers can easily become supporters of Jiaduobao based on their perceptual concepts. How Wong Lo Kat maintains original consumers’ loyalty to the brand is a huge challenge. The real battle is for consumers. Jiaduobao needs time to migrate consumers. Only by launching Guangzhou Pharmaceutical as soon as possible can we retain consumers to the maximum extent.
No matter how much effort Jiaduobao puts in, it is impossible to do a good job in cultivating consumers in just a few months or even a year, let alone to station promoters in hundreds of thousands of terminals across the country. When GPHL’s red can of Wonglaoji is launched, consumers will not naturally migrate to Jiaduobao, but will more likely continue their purchasing habits. Only those who have been in the market can truly understand the huge power of brands. The brand is the engine, and the channels follow the brand.
Secondly, brand building is not a one-day effort. It is composed of various factors of the entire enterprise, such as corporate culture, product quality, channel construction, market operations, etc. It cannot be carried by any single factor. of. In terms of market experience, channel accumulation, team quality and other aspects of operating herbal tea, Guangyao Wanglaoji must be inferior to Jiaduobao, which single-handedly created the brand myth. Even if GPHL is vigorously recruiting fast-moving consumer goods talents, market adjustment and team integration will take a certain amount of time, and the loss of brand influence during this period is also a problem that cannot be underestimated.
Furthermore, GPHL is promoting the extension of the Wong Lo Kat brand and has authorized other companies to produce and promote new products. But how to ensure that these cooperative enterprises have the willingness and ability to carefully protect the brand value of Wong Lo Kat is also an even more difficult problem. If a cooperative company breaks trust with consumers, it will be a great harm to the brand.
Finally, the transformation of "Wanglaoji" from a weak seedling to today's towering tree is the result of Jiaduobao's painstaking management and careful watering. From Jiaduobao, we can focus on the herbal tea market and criticize Guangdong. From the diversified planning of the drug, I can feel how much Jiaduobao values ??and cares for this brand. However, Guangzhou Pharmaceutical takes over "love" for profit reasons, so it is difficult to say that it has sufficient understanding and deep emotions for this brand. How can a brand that lacks understanding and emotional devotion arouse excitement in the hearts of consumers?
In this battle, GPHL has lost its "trust" and "righteousness" as a business. If it cannot pay serious attention to the above issues, the withering of "Wang Lao Kat", a billion-dollar brand, is extremely likely to happen. may become a fact. Guangyao and Jiaduobao are in a life-and-death race, whoever is slow is passive.
That’s right – the thoughts of experts from Augute
The past success of the two companies is the result of marriage and cooperation. The success of Jiaduobao is based on product quality, channel diversity, market operation system, team organization system and brand association that complement the product. The brand success of Wong Lo Kat is based on brand positioning, core appeal, and accumulation of intangible assets. Of course, these are inseparable from the support of the full marketing system. Although Wong Lo Kat's brand value is assessed at 108 billion, GPHL needs to understand that there are several criteria for judging the intangible value of trademarks:
1. The fewer categories a brand represents, the higher the brand value. Coca-Cola is Best example.
2. The higher the brand’s position in the industry, the higher the brand value. Jiaduobao is the leader in the herbal tea industry, but this is not necessarily true for Guangyao herbal tea.
3. The stronger the brand’s control over channels, the higher the brand value. Jiaduobao has a mature team and strong channel control, which is what Guangzhou Pharmaceutical is missing.
It can be said that the value of a brand is not simply popularity. The complete brand value is the reflection of the comprehensive strength of a company with a good reputation. For fast-moving consumer goods companies, the control of categories and channels is more important. is the core element. We can think that when the "Wanglaoji" brand was in the hands of Jiaduobao, it could be valued at 108 billion, but when it fell into the hands of Guangzhou Pharmaceutical, the brand value would be greatly reduced, just like the rising sun back then, the brand value was strong when it was strong. It can reach several billions, but once it loses its industry status and channel control, when it is acquired by Huiyuan, it is only worth more than 10 million. It is conceivable that the depreciation will be huge. Currently, a brand worth hundreds of billions is calling for strong support. This requires GPHL to have forward-looking vision and wisdom. First of all, we must build a new cultural mechanism; build a completely market-oriented system; build a high-performance team; grasp and expand the channel network. Secondly, efforts should be made to develop international markets. Finally, we must continue to activate the brand and consolidate the niche market. There are four specific points:
First, retain original consumers.
Nowadays, when people think of Wong Lao Kat, they will think of the simple and catchy advertising slogan "If you are afraid of getting angry, drink Wong Lao Kat". They will also think of the corporate team that "If you want to donate, donate 100 million (justice), and if you want to drink, drink Wong Lao Kat" , a heroic act of generously donating money at a time of national crisis. Only by operating a stronger and more unique brand can GPHL gain value recognition from original consumers and maintain their loyalty to the brand;
Second, a clear corporate culture and an efficient enterprise The operation model gathers talents. The development of an enterprise depends on its corporate culture, and its efficiency depends on its operating model. As a "national" brand enterprise, it is difficult to say that GPHL has any advantages in terms of system and model. It must have the courage and determination to eliminate shortcomings, improve the operational efficiency of the enterprise, and buy time for the maintenance and improvement of brand value;
Third, deeply understand the brand and give it new cultural connotation and unique personality. Only when a brand has personality can it be distinguished from homogeneous products on the market and arouse strong appeal from consumers; only by injecting cultural connotation into the brand can the brand have sustained vitality. At the same time, brand culture can form a blood relationship between enterprises and brands. When corporate employees understand the brand, they will have more sense of responsibility and honor for the brand. Therefore, GPHL must base its understanding of products and brands on the basis of satisfying consumer psychology and giving new meaning to the Wong Lo Kat brand;
Fourth, open up the international market and serve as the national intangible culture Heritage herbal tea is not only an important beverage category, but also has unique Chinese cultural heritage. Now, the red canned Wanglaoji herbal tea has begun to be exported to Southeast Asia, Europe and the United States. In the future, we will implement a localized talent strategy for the international market.
In the end, no one is sure that GPHL will not be able to maintain and operate the recovered "Wong Lo Kat" brand well. But what is certain is that it is not difficult to recreate a brand myth with Jiaduobao’s many years of sparing no effort and rich experience in brand building. It just requires proper branding and time cost. As consultants, we always remain objective, impartial and rational. Not biased. Therefore, here we will still make suggestions to Jiaduobao Enterprises: First of all, we must attach great importance to the construction of corporate culture and promote the optimization of the core elements of corporate culture to connect the brand culture. On this basis, we can shape the brand, spread the brand, and manage the brand...
It is true that the channel or the brand is more important. For years, Ogut experts’ answers to questions like this have remained the same. Market competition is a comprehensive and systematic matter. Which one is important? In fact, they are all important in the long-term development of enterprises, but the variables in the time and space stages faced by enterprises in market competition have different emphasis. Imagine a country without a brand organization team, no channel network, and no marketing system. Then the brand can only be an ideal vision.
A large enterprise that has not improved the value of its industrial chain can only have a weak brand that lacks premium in the face of market competition. Returning to the case of this corporate marriage, we see that this brand battle has already begun, but the real competition has just begun. It is recommended that the two business owners carefully understand the successful experience of healthy competition between Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola. It will bring a lot of thinking and inspiration, and there are also many places to learn from.
Let us continue to observe carefully and think carefully...