In September, after the "Goubuli" Wangfujing store was delisted, the topic of "Another Beijing time-honored brand overturned" was hotly searched recently, and the discussion on "Where to go for the time-honored brand" did not stop.
According to the statistics of the Ministry of Commerce in 20 18, there are 1 128 Chinese time-honored brands, but only 10% of them are thriving, 40% of them barely make ends meet, and nearly half of them continue to lose money.
The crisis of time-honored brands
How to realize brand "rejuvenation"?
If we want to seize the future, we must "seize the young"
Almost every old brand can't escape the "shock". Wufangzhai, a 99-year-old Chinese time-honored brand, also faced the problem of "rejuvenation" before. "20 16, we felt the growth of the new generation of consumer groups, and also put forward the brand rejuvenation, but it was not really implemented," Wei Xu, deputy general manager of Wufangzhai, said frankly.
The sense of crisis comes from growth. "In the field of traditional zongzi, there is no opponent who can compete with us." But in this new field of food consumption, Xu Wei obviously has a sense of crisis. "Many new brands have not accumulated for a long time, and even have no support from the supply chain system. But doing a good job in product innovation and brand innovation can win the minds of young consumers at once. " Xu Wei's worry comes from young people. She is not sure whether traditional products can attract young people in the future. "If you don't catch the hearts of young people, the brand may go downhill."
Yu Ruixuan, deputy general manager of Tongrentang Health, agreed. "Traditional pills, young people really don't like them. They are talking about' punk health' now. We are also thinking in the process of breakthrough, how to meet the needs of young people in this era? " Yu Ruixuan believes that if we want to seize the future, we must "seize the young people".
The white rabbit has been moving in the form of cross-border joint names. We have successively launched a series of cross-border co-branded products in cooperation with French fashion luxury brand "Agnes B.", China National Museum, Hongkong Pacific Coffee and other brands. The most representative is the "White Rabbit Cream Lipstick" jointly launched by White Rabbit and Meijiajing in 20 18. The first batch sold out in half a second, which once became a hot topic on social media.
The rebirth of an old brand
Touch the net, cross-border, new IP…… ... ...
Time-honored brands have thus broken the generation gap with young consumers.
Forward-looking research institute once summed up "the causes of the crisis of Chinese time-honored brands", among which "brand promotion can't keep up, and Internet marketing awareness is poor". The old stories of time-honored brands are not enough to impress consumers, and many time-honored brands began to focus on "cross-border joint names" and "touching the net".
The first time the white rabbit tried to cross the border was on 20 15. The French fashion luxury brand "Agnes B." found the White Rabbit, hoping to open the China market in a cross-border way. At that time, some domestic brands they tried to contact failed.
"Cross-border forms are very common abroad, but at that time, most domestic brands were still hesitant and worried about this model." Shen Qinfeng, deputy general manager of Guanshengyuan Food, said that the White Rabbit did a lot of preliminary research before confirming the cooperation, and the reason for the final confirmation was simple: testing the water for "rejuvenation".
This test of water has brought new changes to the white rabbit and opened Shen Qinfeng's perspective. For traditional time-honored brands, the publicity budget is limited and the channels are traditional, but they can bring vitality to themselves through the cooperation between brands.
Wufangzhai "strives to be a mudslide in China's advertising industry". In 20 18, Wufangzhai, a time-honored brand in the past 100 years, was successfully released with the magical advertisement of "white clothes are fat, only for tomorrow". Since then, Wufangzhai has produced more screen-level advertisements-Wufangzhai salted duck egg advertisement (new edition), which is known as "striving to be a mudslide in China advertising industry" and has gained nearly 3.5 million broadcasts in Weibo and Bili.
20 18, Wufangzhai's magical advertisement "Fat in White, Only Tomorrow" was "unprepared" for its style and brain hole. From the pre-cooperation to the appearance of advertisements, Xu Wei's worries have always been there. "Innovation is anti-tradition. We were afraid of breaking through before doing it, and we have never tried this style. " After the broadcast, older consumers said that they couldn't understand it, but this advertisement was unexpectedly loved by young people.
Xu Wei's children are born after 00. Every time she has a new idea, she always asks her child's opinion, "What do you think of the font?" "Can you accept this statement?" After communication, Wei Xu realized that "young people do not reject China cuisine, but there is a lack of communication channels and methods between traditional brands in China and young people, just like the generation gap."
In order to break the generation gap, Xu Wei believes that we can only "keep trying". "Whether we succeed or fail, we can only keep looking for ways and means.
Insiders' comments
Ding Huimin, secretary-general of Zhejiang Time-honored Enterprises Association and expert in the expert database of China Time-honored Committee, said: "Time-honored brands can be experienced by consumers in more new ways. This is an era of cross-border integration, and any attempt is worthy of recognition. However, cross-border is by no means an unrelated hard thing, but should have its own brand connotation to endorse. "
Embrace e-commerce
Cultural heritage and creativity are the greatest advantages.
On 20 18, Tmall released "National Tide Action" to help time-honored brands and domestic brands "touch the net". In the process of contact with time-honored brands, Jin Que, the head of Tmall's national tide, learned about the "dilemma" of time-honored brands: they generally face problems such as brand aging, lack of innovation, shrinking market and declining competitiveness. Especially in the era of network and digital economy, time-honored brands generally face the challenge of digital transformation and upgrading, and even some brands have business crises. "How to adapt to the new era" is their most urgent need.
In the health team of Ma Zhi, the post-90s gradually took over the role of "leading the way", and their ways of thinking and traditions were constantly merging and colliding.
Sue, who is in charge of brand and market, was born in 1995. He won't see the innovation of the old brand too complicated. "We just want to break the stereotype of the outside world and hope that it will be younger and more diverse."
In Ma Zhi Health Shuangjing Store, there is a perforated wall similar to the logo of online celebrities-decorated with different colors of in-store packaging boxes, which is more visually impactful. In addition, there are free polaroid and VR experiences, and occasional scented tea tasting. These whimsy are all the brainchild of young employees.
When asked if there would be pressure to wear the old signboard, Sue simply replied "No". "In addition to lipstick and coffee, the Forbidden City Wenchuang is also changing. Everyone wants to be younger and seize the young market. " He believes that someone must push the game to break. "It is impossible to stand still, right? If you don't break the rules, there will always be other companies to do it. This is a very realistic problem. "
How can we impress young people? Jinque believes that in terms of online operation, highlighting the cultural heritage and creativity of time-honored brands is the biggest advantage that distinguishes them from other brands and often touches young people.
Insiders' comments
Jin Que, head of Tmall's national tide, said: According to the data provided by Tmall, more than half of the 1000 Chinese time-honored brands in 2065,438+08 have settled in Tmall, and this year, this proportion has exceeded 70%, close to 80%. Time-honored brands that have developed well in recent years have a common feature: they actively embrace the Internet, realize "touching the net for new life" and rejuvenate.
New thoughts on time-honored brands
How to balance "inheritance" and "innovation"?
The consideration of "discretion" is very important.
How to balance "inheritance" and "innovation" is another difficult problem in front of time-honored brands. From the beginning of cross-border joint names, there has been a problem of "consumer feelings" in the industry, which is also accompanied by the consideration of "proportion" by old brands.
During the interview, several responsible persons talked about the various voices of the brand on the road of innovation, which they thought was "normal". Yu Ruixuan believes that innovation requires a fearless spirit. Shen Qinfeng said that he won't stop and wait because of various voices, otherwise he will always be a "follower".
"We have tried a lot in this process, and there will be unsuccessful experiences, but it will not affect us to continue to do younger things." He said. This process is difficult to "copy" and "learn from". Each time-honored brand is a "case", which has its own field, region and market, and the environment and competition it faces are also different. If there is anything worth observing about the innovation of time-honored brands, he thinks it is "inseparable from brand core and culture" and "cautious". "After all, it is a state-owned brand. You can't do things that hurt brands and consumers, and then innovate. "
There is often more pressure behind the transformation and innovation of time-honored brands. The concept of "knowing health" took five years from birth to landing. During this period, Store No.0 was first built in Daxing production base of Beijing Tongrentang Health Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., with 36 consumption scenes. The diet and consultation scenes of Shuangjing Store were all extracted and copied from Store No.0. In Yu Ruixuan's view, Store No.0 is like a building block, an original model, and it is also the first step that must be taken. "We have to make a model first. If nothing is polished, we will open the store immediately, which is too aggressive. "
It is not difficult to open a drink shop, but even if it sounds easy to realize, an old brand has many problems to solve. In the interview, Yu Ruixuan said several times that it was "too difficult, very difficult". "The hardest thing in these five years is that you have to make this thing what you want, and every link is very difficult."
Why is it difficult? "When there is no market orientation, the problems you face are all problems within the team. You have to consider whether the mechanism allows you to take that step. " Wei Xu believes that this is an unavoidable problem for traditional enterprises in China. "Everyone stays in the original experience, not because they don't want to innovate, but because it is difficult to take that step."
From the first advertisement in the consumer circle to finding its own position, Wufangzhai spent a year trying to make mistakes. "This may be difficult for many traditional enterprises in China. I am afraid I will miss many opportunities. " Wei Xu feels that many time-honored brands dare not "let go to play" like this because of enterprise mechanism problems.
Company structure and organizational innovation ability are the core elements that Wei Xu thinks support brand innovation. "The cognition of decision-makers in time-honored brands is very important. We must have the determination to break through and the courage to let go of young people. "
(Source: Chengdu Business Daily)