Fenghua, a well-known Chinese brand, failed in its marketing by using memes, and was boycotted for vilifying women?

A few days ago, the old domestic brand Fenghua caused controversy about gender image due to the content of a cartoon. This incident not only pushed it to the hot search, but also affected its brand image. This article deeply explores this incident of Fenghua's social media marketing, analyzes the social and cultural factors behind it, and the risks that brands may face when pursuing youth marketing.

Recently, some netizens discovered that Fenghua posted a cartoon titled "See What Is a True or False Girlfriend" on a social platform, and questioned whether the content of the cartoon deliberately vilified women.

From being tepid and “poor” and picking up express boxes everywhere to ship goods, to the current marketing failure, what exactly has Fenghua experienced?

01 No. 1 in trending searches, has Fenghua’s marketing strategy failed?

Recently, the official account of the old domestic brand "Fenghua" reposted a cartoon on the social platform. The title of the cartoon is "See What is a True or False Girlfriend". The content uses exaggerated contrast techniques and was questioned by netizens for vilifying women.

Subsequently, many topics such as "Fenghua's true or false best friend" became hot searches.

The cartoon by Fenghua has seven pictures in total, and the most controversial one is the first one, which shows a woman "posing coquettishly" in front of her best friend's boyfriend, and her best friend complained: "If you are a man, just stick to him." Many netizens believed that the content of the cartoon was inappropriate and suspected of vilifying the image of women, and left messages to Fenghua, demanding an apology from the brand.

Faced with public pressure, Fenghua’s official account issued an apology statement at noon on November 7.

Fenghua said that this incident fully exposed the serious loopholes in our content control and review process. We have immediately launched a comprehensive rectification procedure. At present, the inappropriate pictures and texts have been deleted, and the operation of the account has been seriously rectified.

Although Fenghua has issued an apology and promised to handle the matter internally, the incident still affected its brand image.

Some netizens still expressed dissatisfaction with Fenghua’s apology and bluntly said, “I have blocked it and will no longer buy products from women who have been stung.” However, some netizens believed that this was a call for netizens not to be too sensitive in response to Green Tea.

Tech Vortex believes that this incident has had a certain impact on the brand image of Fenghua. As an old domestic brand with a history of nearly 40 years, Fenghua needs to control the scale of publicity and marketing.

02 The wealth is temporary, but the bees and flowers want it forever.

According to the official website of Fenghua, Shanghai Fenghua Daily Necessities Co., Ltd. was founded in 1985. It is a professional hair care company integrating design, research and development, production and sales. It mainly produces "Fenghua" brand shampoo, conditioner, as well as skin care and cleaning products.

At that time, Fenghua, like many "time-honored brands", also faced fierce competition from similar products on the market.

Since the mid-1990s, as some foreign joint venture brands "conquered the market" and launched a series of "two-in-one" washing and care products, coupled with the emergence of new formats such as supermarkets, Fenghua's original sales channels of "large wholesale and large circulation" in wholesale markets across the country were squeezed, which caused its sales to decline sharply and even faced losses. Although Fenghua has developed steadily through a series of measures since then, it has not been well-known in the public eye.

It was not until 2021 that Fenghua frequently appeared on hot searches and began to become the focus of heated discussions among netizens.

In November 2021, in the face of rumors of bankruptcy, Fenghua responded quickly. With its clean record of 36 years without any punishment record, it won the sympathy and support of a large number of netizens and set off a wave of "wild consumption". In August of the same year, Fenghua officially entered the Douyin live streaming sales. Only a few months later, its Douyin sales exceeded 10 million, which increased several times, demonstrating its strong market appeal.

In May 2022, a piece of fake news about "the chairman live streaming with tears in his eyes" once again pushed it to the forefront. Although it was clarified later, this wave of operations undoubtedly deepened consumers' attention and memory of the brand.

In September 2023, the old domestic brand "Fenghua" became popular on the Internet. Not only did it gain 790,000 followers in two days, but its products were sold out. It fought a "simple business war" with the ultimate cost-effectiveness of "79 yuan for 5.5 kilograms", which is inseparable from the national trend opportunities and its marketing methods.

According to statistics, during the event, the search volume for Fenghua-related keywords increased by 14 times year-on-year, the number of user visits increased by 260%, the transaction volume of shampoo and hair care products increased by more than 3 times year-on-year, and the single-day live broadcast GMV exceeded 10 million, which is a classic example of "leveraging marketing".

In addition, Fenghua once became an internet celebrity because of the fact that it was “so poor that it had to pick up cardboard boxes”.

Previously, Fenghua used other brands of boxes to ship products to consumers because it ran out of its own packaging boxes. As a result, netizens were stunned after receiving the products and complained: "It's so embarrassing for a grown man to receive a box of "Seventh Dimension" from a young lady!"

After the news of Japan's discharge of nuclear wastewater broke out, some netizens asked on the official account of Fenghua: "Do you have any Japanese raw materials at home?" Before Fenghua officials could react, Fenghua fans replied: "He can't afford it, hahahahahahahaha", because Fenghua was too poor to purchase imported raw materials, it was ridiculed for 3 days.

Looking at the rise of Fenghua in recent years, many of the so-called big moves seem to be "responses" made by Fenghua immediately after social hot spots occur, rather than "events" carefully planned by Fenghua. However, Fenghua can always respond quickly after hot spots occur, and "monopolize" part of the traffic of hot spots to its own brand social circle.

We believe that if you get Internet marketing right, you can get extremely rich, but if you get it wrong, it can have the opposite effect.

Now that the wave of domestic products has faded, Fenghua is well aware that it needs to enhance its marketing capabilities to maintain its enormous wealth. However, this "best friend and enemy best friend" incident was obviously a step too big and it almost failed.

03 Domestic product marketing would rather make mistakes than do nothing

Faced with increasingly fierce market competition, many domestic brands have explored and adopted various innovative marketing strategies in order to stand out in the market. From keeping up with hot trends to cleverly using Internet meme culture, although they occasionally fail, they have also opened up a new world for themselves.

Coconut Tree Group is often at the forefront of being fined. It has been on the hot search for alternative marketing many times and has been fined, mostly because of being questioned for vulgar advertisements and controversial propaganda. But in return, in 2023, the total annual sales volume will be 700,000 tons, a year-on-year increase of 10.26%; sales revenue will be 5 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 3.08%; and taxes paid will be 682 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 15.39%.

Previously, two domestic cosmetics brands - FLORTTE and HYNTOOR - also caused a public opinion crisis due to suspected vulgar marketing.

The shape of the brush head of the Floral Little Bow series of lip glosses can easily trigger other associations. In the controversial poster of a cloud-shaped two-color brightening cream from Black Rabbit, the product was designed to be placed in the middle of two pink balloons, which was accused of being vulgar.

Last May, an elevator advertisement placed by a company called Five Female Doctors caused controversy. Netizens questioned whether it created anxiety about appearance and age and insulted women. But it quickly became popular and attracted a lot of attention. However, while gaining traffic, the advertisement caused controversy online and even the intervention of relevant departments. In the end, the Chaoyang District Market Supervision Bureau of Beijing ordered the party to stop publishing the relevant advertisement and imposed a fine of 400,000 yuan.

Last year, the hand-holding incident of a certain company’s leaders attracted public attention.

When the female anchor of the "Gree Official Flagship Store" on Douyin was selling goods live, she wore the same "dismissal skirt" that caused a heated discussion on the Internet. When the incident happened, netizens in the live broadcast room posted barrages of complaints such as "Gree has become low", "should not use mistress skirts to attract attention", "change clothes"... As the conflict intensified, the incident of the Gree anchor wearing the dismissal skirt even became a hot search on Weibo.

In response, Gree officially responded that the company did not support it, that the anchor belonged to an outsourced team, and that it was her personal behavior. But objectively speaking, it did damage the brand's impression in the minds of passers-by.

The trend of domestic brands adopting younger marketing methods shows their urgent need to enhance their own publicity and marketing capabilities, and also reflects the domestic brands' attitude of seeking breakthroughs and being proactive. Although updating their own products and marketing methods is indeed the best choice for "saving the nation from extinction", the risks of going too far cannot be ignored.

04 Conclusion

Consumers are no longer satisfied with simple demands such as good and cheap products. They care more about the values ​​behind the brand. When the behavior of domestic products deviates from the values ​​perceived by the public, trust will collapse.

The resurgence of domestic products is not only a victory for product quality, but also a victory for brand concept. If a brand wants to maintain its popularity, it needs a steady and progressive publicity and marketing approach, rather than blindly pursuing exposure and ignoring mainstream values.

Author & Editor｜Sun Haonan This article is written by the author of Operation Party [Technology Vortex], WeChat public account: [Technology Vortex], original/authorized to be published in Operation Party, and any reproduction without permission is prohibited.

The title image is from Unsplash, based on the CC0 protocol.