Soap is a necessity commonly used in our daily lives. This daily necessities have a long history in our country. Soap appeared in my country as early as the Song Dynasty, also called "soap dumpling". But modern soap came from the West. In the early years of the Republic of China, my country's soap making industry developed rapidly. There are a number of famous enterprises in Guangzhou, Hankou, Qingdao, Dalian and other places, and the center of soap manufacturing is Shanghai.
After the end of World War I, the Chinese-run Wuzhou Pharmacy took over the Shanghai Guben Soap Factory founded by the Germans. Xiang Songmao, the pioneer of China's new pharmaceutical industry, established Wuzhou Guben in 1921. The soap factory retains foreign technical personnel, operates with determination, and vigorously improves quality. The Guben brand soap produced outperforms imported products.
In 1925, Wuzhou Guben Soap Factory acquired Zhonghua Xingji Soap Factory and added transparent soap and other products. The factory became the largest soap factory in China. The products of Wuzhou Factory have won the silver medal at the San Francisco World Expo in the United States and the third prize at the Taisho Expo in Tokyo, Japan.
In 1928, Wuzhou allocated 500,000 yuan to set up a banking company (similar to the investment department in today's group companies) attached to the company, with independent revenue and expenditure, and was responsible for its own profits and losses. . The total capital of the company has increased to 1.5 million yuan, and the number of employees has increased from more than 30 at the beginning to more than 400 year by year. With the development of Wuzhou's business, Xiang Songmao built a soap empire, and Xiang himself was known as the "Soap King".
The growth of Wuzhou seriously threatened Yingshang Xiangmao Soap (the predecessor of Unilever), the dominant soap market in Shanghai at that time. In the fierce competition between the two parties, Wuzhou defeated Unilever in one fell swoop, making Wuzhou Guben soap the most famous best-selling product at that time, which greatly aroused the enthusiasm of the Chinese people. Today we will talk about this wonderful soap battle!
One side of this soap war is the world-class trust, the British company Lever Brothers (today's Unilever), and the other side is Wuzhou Pharmacy, a newly developed Chinese national pharmaceutical company.
The British company Lever Brothers was one of the few industrial giants in the world at that time, and it was in a leading position in the soap industry. After Shanghai opened as a port, Lever Brothers invested in setting up a soap-making enterprise in Shanghai and acquired a series of small soap-making factories, developing it into the largest soap-making factory in the Far East.
Wuzhou Pharmacy was founded in 1907 with investment from Huang Chujiu, a giant businessman in Shanghai, Xia Ruifang, general manager of the Commercial Press, and others. Its main products are various tonics developed using traditional Chinese medicine. In 1911, Wuzhou Pharmacy hired Xiang Songmao as general manager.
After Xiang Songmao became the general manager, he continued to develop various traditional Chinese medicine products, and on the other hand, he also actively explored the western medicine business. But at that time, China's Western medicine was weak. Even large stores like Wuzhou Pharmacy only used imported raw materials to produce Western medicine. After the May Fourth Movement broke out in 1919, there was a craze in China to sell foreign goods and revitalize domestic products. Xiang Songmao, who has always wanted to save the country through industry, decided to set up a factory to develop Western medicines on his own to compete with Western pharmaceutical companies.
At that time, a German businessman happened to want to sell the soap factory located in Xujiahui. After careful consideration, Xiang Songmao decided to sell it. Xiang Songmao's consideration is that the factory is well-equipped with machinery and equipment, and making soap after purchasing it can break the Western monopoly on China's soap market. In addition, some of the soap-making equipment can also be used to make medicines. After opening the soap factory, Xiang Songmao moved all the Western medicine-making workshops of Wuzhou Pharmacy into the soap factory, and named the factory "Wuzhou Guben Soap Pharmaceutical Factory", which was divided into two departments: pharmaceutical and soap making.
data-filtered="filtered" Xiang Songmao
But Xiang Songmao did not obtain the technology to make soap. The German businessmen in the soap factory only sold machines, but kept the soap-making process strictly secret. Therefore, Xiang Songmao started with talents and recruited a group of chemical engineering university graduates to serve as technical backbones, giving them high salaries to carry out soap development work.
In order to solve the worries of employees, Songmao Primary School was also established, where all children of employees can attend school; a medical office was set up to provide medical services to employees.
In order to achieve breakthroughs in key technologies, Xiang Songmao also specially sent the director of the soap production department to disguise himself and sneak into the Lever Brothers Soap Factory in Shanghai to work as a worker for nine months to find out about its technical aspects. secret. In this way, after multiple efforts, Xiang Songmao successfully developed high-quality soap and named it "Guben Soap".
After the advent of Guben soap, its biggest rival was naturally the Xiangmao soap of the British company Lever Brothers. In terms of raw materials, Lever Brothers has plantations all over the world, which can provide them with high-quality and low-cost raw materials. For caustic soda, an important material for making soap, Lever Brothers also received preferential price support from British companies. In addition, the financial resources and technology possessed by Lever Brothers cannot be matched by Wuzhou Guben Soap Pharmaceutical Factory.
Xiang Songmao’s basic strategy is to win with quality. The Guben soap he produces has a solid appearance, pure color, strong detergency and long-lasting durability. In comparison, the soap produced by Lever Brothers was inferior in appearance and lacked detergency. In order to prove the quality of Guben Soap, Wuzhou Guben Soap Pharmaceutical Factory specially conducted on-site demonstrations at various sales points, placing Guben soap and Xiangmao soap in two large bowls of water. As a result, after a period of time, Xiangmao soap completely melted away, while Guben soap was still very strong.
In order to defeat Guben Soap, Lever Brothers adopted price dumping. Initially, Guben soap was priced at six yuan and seventy cents per box, while Xiangmao soap was priced at five yuan and three cents. Although the price of Xiangmao soap is relatively low, Guben soap is of high quality and is still popular among customers. As a last resort, Lever Brothers cut prices again, gradually reducing the price per box to four yuan and four jiao to three yuan. In order to meet the challenge, Wuzhou Pharmacy gave Xiang Songmao its full support, lowered the price of soap accordingly, and supported the soap war through the profits of its series of tonics.
In China during the Republic of China, soap was still a novel and luxurious thing. At that time, only white-collar workers in the city could afford it. Lu Xun wrote in his 1924 article "Soap":
Mr. Siming went to the street to buy soap. He looked at six or seven items, and they all cost more than four cents, so he didn't buy them; , no fragrance. Then he picked the green piece, which cost two and four cents. He returned home and gave the soap to the fourth wife. The fourth wife could not conceal her inner excitement and "held the sunflower-green thing under her nose like a child" and said, "Oh, this is really good soap." ".
Lu Xun wrote the article "Soap" just when the soap war was in full swing. Although both sides continued to cut prices, the average price of soap in the market was still 20 cents and 40 cents. According to the price index at that time, this was quite a high price. In order to occupy the huge market of soap, both sides spared no expense and launched a war.
In 1925, the May 30th Movement broke out, and the Chinese people rose up to reject foreign products and advocate domestic products. Guben soap was a hot seller for a while, with daily sales reaching 500 boxes, while Lever Brothers soap could not be sold. There was a riot, and the soap factory in Shanghai closed down for a time. Based on the hot sales of Guben soap, Xiang Songmao continued to expand his business and launched a series of soap brands such as "Chang'e" and "Beauty".
Xiang Songmao not only vigorously promotes national brands and sells foreign goods through business wars, but also practices it personally and participates in various patriotic movements. After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War in Songhu on January 28, the second branch of Wuzhou Pharmacy was on the verge of the front line. Some of the remaining store clerks were found to have volunteer uniforms by the Japanese army and were arrested. Xiang Songmao went to the Japanese Marine Corps headquarters alone to negotiate, but was shot dead by the Japanese army together with the arrested clerk. He was 52 years old. (Text: Yuan Canxing)