1. Acquaintance: The history of Wanglaoji - the past of Jiaduobao

The not-so-distant history and the equally short past——

The origin of Wanglaoji herbal tea Wang Zebang was founded in the eighth year of Daoguang period in the Qing Dynasty 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: Promoted by Jiaduobao, Wanglaoji’s brand road

The journey of embracing each other is very exciting——

Since 1997, GPHL After licensing the red can Wong Lo Kat trademark to Hongdao Group, Jiaduobao began to painstakingly manage the Wong Lo Kat brand. However, before 2002, Wong Lao Kat herbal tea was only a regional brand, with sales maintaining at around 100 million yuan for several consecutive years. It is impossible to get out of 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 “Auspicious Baby”

The Cause of Marriage Change between Wanglaoji and Jiaduo Baby——

November 10, 2010, At the press conference of "China Intellectual Property Summit Forum and GPHL Wonglaoji Great Health Industry Development Plan", GPHL officially announced that the Wonglaoji brand value of GPHL has reached 108 billion yuan, becoming 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.