"What does Wahaha minus Zong Qinghou equal?"
"It equals zero."
13 years ago, Zong Fuli gave the above answer in an interview. At that time, she was undergoing training at Hongsheng Group, and the issue of succession was still far away.
Now that Zong Fuli has taken over Wahaha for two months, it is time to give a new answer.
In the past two months, under the leadership of Zong Fuli, Wahaha is accelerating the establishment of terminal freezers, recruiting salesmen, improving dealer efficiency, launching new products, and doing marketing...
On April 25, Mr. Dong, a Wahaha salesperson, told Red Star Capital Bureau: "'Miss' (the name given to Zong Fuli) paid great attention to details after she came up. In the past, the company asked salesmen to develop business, just urging them, which was a bit like 'empty talk'. Now it is equivalent to setting a target, and they should open a certain amount." It needs to be opened.”
Wahaha is showing a new look, but it still faces old problems.
With huge traffic, Wahaha’s best-selling products are still purified water, ad calcium milk, and eight-treasure porridge. How to break the "aging" curse and create new cross-generation products is an old problem. At the same time, traffic is ebbing rapidly, and how to seize the opportunity to retain customers is another problem that is not easy.
▲Picture According to Visual China
01
took over two months ago
html On March 3, the 8th day after Zong Qinghou’s death, Zong Fuli’s Weibo account liked a blog post. There is a survey question in the blog post: "Do you usually buy Wahaha products?" It also contains the details of the article "Zhong Suisui: The Second and Three Things Between Me and Zong Lao" published by the "Nongfu Spring" public account that day. html On March 6, Zong Fuli made her first public appearance after the death of her father. She attended the annual meeting of the China Beverage Industry Association and delivered a speech, talking about the trend of sugar control in the beverage industry and netizens' feelings for Wahaha. “I am both a ‘veteran’ who has been in the industry for 20 years, and also a ‘new general’ who has taken over the baton of corporate management.” Zong Fuli said. html On March 7, a "Letter to All Sales Staff" issued by Wahaha on March 3 circulated on the Internet. The letter mentioned: Now is the moment when "Wahaha" has received unprecedented attention, and consumers from all over the country are rushing to buy our products... In order to support this sales battle, the company has introduced the most powerful deposit reward policy and carried out " Wahaha invites you to drink water" promotion campaign, and mobilized the entire company to form a terminal distribution assault project team. All measures are aimed at achieving the goal of "making Wahaha products visible and available to everyone."Wahaha did not respond to Red Star Capital Bureau on whether the letter was true. However, Wahaha's sales staff confirmed the contents of the letter to Red Star Capital Bureau, and its terminal sales performance was indeed as stated in the letter. This letter was considered by the market to be Zong Fuli’s “first shot” after taking over.
On March 18, Wahaha Group announced the launch of the 2024 Laboratory Water Support Plan, which will provide 596 tons of pure water for free to national research institutions, medical institutions, universities and other laboratories as well as organizations and units that require high-standard purified water. Keep up with hot topics "Wahaha Laboratory Royal Water". In fact, Wahaha launched a laboratory water support plan as early as September 2021.
html In early April, Wahaha dealers received a notice from the company: They need to carry out service refinement work according to their own regions, requiring salesmen to not only check the neatness and warranty period of Wahaha products when patrolling the store at the terminal, but also check other products in the store. Products are also uniformly and neatly inspected, allowing end-retailer owners to save worry and effort.02
traffic is fading
After the death of founder Zong Qinghou, Wahaha became famous because of his sentiments.
Feigua data shows that from March 2 to March 9, the number of fans of Wahaha’s Douyin official account has skyrocketed, from 1 million to 5 million. Sales of
grew rapidly. Sales of Wahaha brand products on Douyin e-commerce began to soar on February 25 and reached their peak on March 4, with sales reaching 5 million to 7.5 million yuan, an increase of more than 10 times compared to before February 25.
▲Screenshot from Feigua Data
Two months have passed, and the traffic is ebbing. The official account of Wahaha Douyin has lost a total of 140,000 followers in the past 30 days.
The sales of Wahaha brand products on the Douyin platform have also declined significantly.According to Feigua data, on April 27, Wahaha product sales were between 750,000 and 1 million, a drop of more than 80% compared to March 4.
▲Screenshot from Feigua Data
Red Star Capital Bureau inquired whether Wahaha’s online sales have declined and the reasons for the decline, but the other party did not provide an effective reply.
For Wahaha, two months seems too short to truly become popular.
03
"Aging" concerns remain
Wahaha has been facing slowdown or even decline in revenue growth for ten years, and concerns about the aging of its brand have also been reported in the market.
In 2013, Wahaha's revenue reached 78.28 billion yuan, and then showed a downward trend.
Ten years later, according to the 2023 China's Top 500 Private Enterprises list, Wahaha's revenue in 2022 will be 51.202 billion yuan, which is still a gap of about 27 billion yuan compared with 2013.
In the past five years, Wahaha has been constantly questioned by the market about "product aging" and "brand aging".
▲On March 13, 2024, Wahaha ad calcium milk was displayed at the 24th China Retail Expo. According to Visual China
On the Taobao e-commerce platform, the top five products with the highest sales in Wahaha’s official flagship store are ad calcium milk, eight-treasure porridge, purified water, lactic acid bacteria drinks, and Shuangwaiwai. The latest product was launched ten years ago. Lactic acid bacteria drink.
It can also be seen from the recent sales that Wahaha can still sell old products. According to Feigua data, Wahaha’s top-selling products in the past two months are ad calcium milk and eight-treasure porridge.
▲Screenshot from Feigua Data
In fact, in recent years, Wahaha has launched about ten new products every year, with more than 300 new products launched, but the splash is not too big, and many products even go offline at the speed of light after launch.
Zong Qinghou said in an interview with CCTV Finance in 2023: "It was our mistake. We should focus on two products instead of launching so many products at the same time."
04
Zong Fuli's answer
After the traffic ebbs, Wahaha wants How to regain glory? Everything Zong Fuli has done in the past two months seems to be answering this question.
Channel reform is what Wahaha has been doing in the past two years, because Zong Fuli has a new mission: to spread Wahaha products to higher-tier cities and attract a new generation of customers. The innovation channel is the capillary that completes the new mission.
Zong Fuli chose to strengthen the control of the terminal through sufficient information feedback from the sales side on the one hand, and to expand new channels with fewer levels on the other hand.
For example, the “gun” of the internal letter is pointed at the sales terminal.
A Wahaha salesperson told the Red Star Capital Bureau that most places are currently recruiting salespeople: "The task assigned last winter was that an area with a population of about 150,000-200,000 should have one salesperson."
The salesperson believed that in After Zong Fuli took over, the working atmosphere was also different. "She pays more attention to many details, especially electronics. A lot of information is processed on the mobile phone, and she has indeed made a lot of reforms." In the past, the company only urged sales to quickly enter the terminal and seize the opportunity to develop blank spots, but now the company Directly set the indicator and rate the terminal.
▲Picture According to Visual China
Mr. Zhang, a Wahaha dealer, told Red Star Capital Bureau that he received a notice from the company in early April, requiring him to carry out service refinement work according to his own region. When inspecting the terminal store, the salesperson must not only conduct inspections of Wahaha products. Check the tidiness of the display and the warranty period, conduct uniform cleanliness checks on other products in the store, and make sure that the salespeople of other brands and merchants are aware of the "three neglected problems".
In addition to tightening the management of sales staff and dealers, there are also rumors on the Internet that Wahaha is going all out to launch offline freezers.
Red Star Capital Bureau learned that Wahaha started talking about new freezers in March, and Mr. Dong’s area has ordered 30 freezers, which are expected to arrive at the store by the end of May. It is understood that the freezer is helpful for the display and dynamic monitoring of the quantity of branded products.
In addition to channels, Zong Fuli also adopts a large single product strategy when launching new products.
Wahaha is working hard to create a new sugar-free tea product. At Wahaha's 2024 national sales work conference, it was proposed to launch more than ten new products this year, with sugar-free tea being the focus.On Douyin e-commerce, which has seen an influx of traffic, Wahaha’s official flagship store has only launched one or two new categories, including sugar-free tea.
▲On March 5, 2024, the packaging of Wahaha pure water bottles was printed with beautiful scenery across Guangxi, promoting "Magnificent Guangxi, good mountains and good waters." Picture according to Visual China
Recently, Wahaha has combined sugar-free tea with purified water for promotion. In the past two months, this sugar-free tea has appeared in the top three sales of Wahaha products on the Douyin e-commerce platform. The current sales volume has reached 60,000 pieces, and more than 6,000 people have repurchased it.
However, this does not mean that Wahaha has found the golden key in new product development. This product is still a follower product. There are many players on the sugar-free tea track, including Oriental Leaf and Suntory in the past, followed by Master Kong, Nestlé Tea Extract, Yuanqi Forest Tea, Tea King and even Pengyou Tea of Dongpeng Beverage. , it may not be difficult to get a piece of the pie, but it is not easy to stay until the end.
▲ Screenshot from Feigua Data
42-year-old Zong Qinghou officially founded Wahaha that year. Zong Fuli, who is also 42 years old this year, and her team still need to find the next "ad calcium milk" before they can answer the question again in 13 years The previous question: What does Wahaha minus Zong Qinghou equal?
Red Star News reporter Zhang Luxi Yu Yao
editor Yu Dongmei
