How long can Wahaha continue to reap the benefits of traffic?

Wahaha, which became popular in March, has reaped all the benefits of traffic. How long can this situation last? Let's take a look at the author's analysis.

In March, the new top-tier product "Wahaha" became an instant hit on the Internet. Since the live broadcast of the official flagship store on March 4, both traffic and sales volume reached unprecedented highs. However, after 15 days of popularity, Wahaha online began to "cool down".

On March 20, the term "Wahaha flagship store's daily sales fell by 90%" became a hot search. In fact, this is normal. After two consecutive days of sales of 200,000 yuan on the 18th and 19th, Wahaha sold out of stock. Wahaha's official flagship store customer service also said that only pre-sale products are available now, and they will be restocked from time to time.

In addition to online, offline Wahaha products are also in great demand. Not long ago, a letter signed by Wahaha "to all sales staff" was exposed online. The letter specifically mentioned the situation of Wahaha being out of stock, and said "now is the time when Wahaha has received unprecedented attention"; it is necessary to fight a terminal distribution assault, and the goal is to "let everyone see and buy Wahaha products."

Afterwards, Zong Fuli, who officially took over Wahaha, rewarded all employees involved in front-line production and delivery, saying that before March 15, all employees of production branches (including precision machinery) would receive a one-time production and delivery reward of 500 yuan per person, and employees of various departments who assisted in production and delivery would receive a one-time production and delivery reward of 300 yuan per person. A few days later, Zong Fuli sent a second letter to the sales team. This time, not only bonuses were given to encourage enthusiasm, but also a salary increase was announced - starting in May, the salary of Wahaha sales staff will be increased by 150%.

In recent days, "Wahaha pure water is sold out online" and "Wahaha official store sales increased by more than 500% in 2 days" have been trending on the search list. All these signs show that netizens are dissatisfied with Zong Qinghou. The nostalgia directly turned into a rush to buy Wahaha products. In online channels, after the order volume skyrocketed, Wahaha's e-commerce store started a live broadcast to encourage consumers to place orders rationally, because it takes more than a month to ship after submitting an order.

Offline, many netizens said that when they walked into a supermarket, the boss would put Wahaha in the most conspicuous position at the entrance. Wahaha AD calcium milk, Nutri-Express, etc. on the shelves were basically sold out. Many shelves only had one bottle of product for display, with a label saying "temporarily out of stock". At the same time, Wahaha products that had never been seen before, such as Wahaha's sugar-free tea, coffee and various flavors of Nutri-Express, were put on the shelves.

In the face of consumer enthusiasm, offline supermarkets are not to be outdone and are actively carrying out activities , such as the "Pure as always, unchanging original intention - Wahaha invites you to drink water" buy 10 get 1 free activity. Supermarkets that were originally covered by Nongfu Spring have replaced them with Wahaha. A store owner put Wahaha in the freezer of Nongfu Spring. As a result, Nongfu Spring removed the cabinet due to violations, but Wahaha soon worked overtime to send its own display cabinet. After her father passed away, Zong Fuli, the successor of the Wahaha Group, began to "strike while the iron is hot" and is fully investing in offline freezers to distribute goods in time for the peak season of beverage consumption in summer. This can illustrate this point.

1. Offline channel "secret war"

Offline, changes are quietly taking place at Wahaha.

Behind this is the offline channel reconstruction plan that Zong Fuli is currently promoting. Online videos show that Wahaha is increasing the deployment of offline freezers, intending to increase sales by increasing product exposure. You should know that before, everyone saw more Nongfu Spring red freezers. A Wahaha agent in Yancheng, Jiangsu confirmed the news. He said that Wahaha is currently actively deploying freezers to offline terminals, with dozens of units deployed in each county. On social platforms, some netizens also posted that recently, Wahaha freezers have entered the cafeteria of their school.

According to a store manager of a large supermarket chain in Shanxi, the beverage area of ​​his store has recently noticed Wahaha's traffic advantage and temporarily added displays of Wahaha purified water and AD calcium milk in the store aisles. Even Nutri-Express, which originally had average sales, has recently seen a slight increase in sales.

It is worth noting that the sales of beverage industry from e-commerce channels only account for 6%, and 94% come from offline channels such as supermarkets, convenience stores and restaurants. Zong Fuli is well aware of the importance of offline channels for Wahaha. The move of investing in freezers not only increases the market coverage of products, but also further deepens the impression of the brand in the minds of consumers.

Wahaha's full investment in freezers is of course to compete for consumers' attention. When the materials of freezers in these offline stores are spread online, it can be regarded as a kind of brand building, using traffic to convey Wahaha's determination to work hard to the public. Previously, Nongfu Spring put a large number of refrigerators in terminal stores. Supermarket owners generally paid a relatively low "deposit", and then returned it monthly if the display met the company's corresponding requirements. In addition, brand owners mainly motivate terminals in the form of "display fees", such as supermarkets placing company products in prominent locations or displaying them in the form of brand shelves, etc., and supermarkets can get a marketing fee, all of which are redeemed in goods.

These are things that Wahaha has not done before. Therefore, this time it is time to strike while the iron is hot and "make up for the shortcomings". At present, Zong Fuli's mobilization letter also shows that Wahaha is ready to take the initiative to regain some market share. Because of the fermentation of public opinion between the two companies, terminal channel dealers will only care about which one is more profitable, and will temporarily worry about the prospects of Nongfu Spring, and their enthusiasm for purchasing will also decline.

At the same time, Wahaha is also actively recruiting salesmen. Some netizens uploaded a recruitment video showing the queues as long as during the Spring Festival travel rush. The first- and second-tier markets that are closer to young people have long been occupied by companies such as Coca-Cola, Nongfu Spring, and Master Kong. In order to strengthen the offline market development and win back the market that was previously lost, Wahaha needs more salesmen, so the news of the salesmen's salary increase is not surprising. People who are familiar with the fast-moving consumer goods industry basically know that Nongfu Spring's salesmen have high income levels and are very "hot".

The owner of a store in Hangzhou, Zhejiang revealed that on the ninth day after Zong Qinghou's death, Wahaha's regional manager came to his store. This was the first time he had seen a Wahaha salesperson in the many years since he opened the store. This detail not only reflects Wahaha's determination and action in restructuring offline channels, but also reveals Wahaha's "fatigue" in the past. This is probably due to the fact that Wahaha's style of doing things for many years has determined that it "disdained and was unwilling to do it", and firmly relied on the "joint venture" dealer system established by Zong Qinghou in 1994.

What is a joint venture? Its most notable feature is that it is based on a "credit contract". This model implements a deposit system. The policy of interest subsidy on deposit enables dealers and enterprises to form synergy and reduce enterprise costs, but there is a problem that there are many levels of channels, generally "brand headquarters-provincial branches-dealers/wholesalers-distributors-retail terminals".

Compared with Coca-Cola and Pepsi, which adopt direct sales, and Nongfu Spring, which has provincial branches, distributors, and then directly reaches retail terminals, Wahaha's products have to go through five links from the factory to the hands of consumers, which also leads to Wahaha's weak control over the terminals. At the same time, too many distribution levels also make it more difficult for Wahaha to promote new products. Due to the high operating costs of new products, if there is not enough profit, distributors will hardly have the motivation to promote new products.

According to official statistics, Wahaha has more than 3,000 distributors across all provinces and cities in China. These distributors include chain supermarkets, convenience stores, restaurants and independent distributors of varying sizes. In this context, Wahaha has been trying to reform its offline channels. In 2023, in addition to the joint sales network, Wahaha has also increased its cooperation with the convenience store system, focusing on developing new special consumption channels and group consumption businesses for various scenarios, and has reached business cooperation with restaurants, gyms, cinemas, and the West Lake Scenic Area.

As early as the 2024 sales work meeting of Wahaha Group, Zong Fuli clearly emphasized that in 2024, Wahaha must seize the strong market while targeting special channels and opening up new markets. On the brand marketing side, Wahaha also spared no effort. In the face of a large number of netizens calling on Wahaha to produce beer, the anchor in the live broadcast room said that the suggestions had been fed back to the Wahaha Research Institute and would be seriously considered.

Previously, Wahaha even placed product placement ads during the 2024 Spring Festival Gala . Netizens once joked that they didn't remember anything during the entire Spring Festival Gala, and they didn't even have the heart to watch Liu Qian. When performing a magic trick, the only thing I remember was the scene where the two girls on the left and right drank AD calcium milk, which stole the spotlight during the magic trick.

2. The big mountain in front of Wahaha

There is an indisputable fact in the fast-moving consumer goods industry: "Whoever controls the channels controls the world." However, in addition to the battle for channels, Wahaha is also facing the dilemma of brand aging. Now Wahaha seems to have ushered in a "huge" amount of traffic, and it is a good opportunity to upgrade its offline channels, but the most fundamental problem lies in the product.

First of all, in recent years, Wahaha has produced few new products that people can name, and they are still the same old products: purified water, AD calcium milk and Nutri-Express. Now Wahaha can appear more in online supermarkets, which is a preliminary turnaround, but how to attract young people and keep them on the shelves for a longer time may be a product innovation problem that Wahaha needs to break through. At present, because buying a bottle of water has risen to the level of patriotic sentiment, consumption is wrapped up in intense emotions. Once calm, the product is delicious, healthy and affordable, which is important, so Wahaha needs good products to support it.

Wahaha was founded in 1987. In addition to Wang Leehom's endorsement of pure water, it also started with children's beverage AD calcium milk. However, the core consumer groups at that time were those born in the 1950s and 1960s, who bought the products for their children, who were basically born in the 1980s. Therefore, those born in the 1980s became the core consumers of Wahaha. The slogan "Drink Wahaha, and your meals will taste delicious" has almost become the most influential memory of the generation born in the 1980s.

Although Wahaha's products were children's products at the beginning, it gradually developed into a youth consumer brand, including bottled water, beverages, and Nutri-Express. Wahaha wants to shift its core target from children to young people with stronger spending power. It is not that it has not produced new products in recent years, but there are no new products that stand out from the crowd. The aging of its overall marketing thinking has become a "mountain in front of Wahaha."

Take Wahaha's brand image, for example. It seems that it has not changed. The image endorsed by Wang Leehom has always remained in the memory of consumers. In terms of marketing, it was briefly popularized by "Kuang Bi" and the Spring Festival Gala, but it was not continued. The brand's youth upgrade always feels not done well, so it is difficult for people to feel new. In fact, with the development of the times, it is normal for brands to have outdated impressions, unless the company makes a lot of changes for this, such as innovative logo changes, continuous promotion of new products, the use of younger spokespersons, or marketing methods that cater to the current situation, etc.; these happen to be Wahaha's shortcomings.

But Zong Fuli did not stop working. In 2016, Zong Fuli launched a new brand named after herself , Kellyone. This personalized juice product, which is positioned for high-end consumers, is in sharp contrast to Wahaha's approach to the people. After that, Zong Fuli launched a series of high-end brands such as Shengqi Bobo, Yicha, and CHACHA, but they did not make much splash in the market.

Compared with its competitor, Nongfu Spring has many successful brand operation cases, among which Nongfu Spring's Oriental Leaves The marketing of Nongfu Spring's "natural water" and vitamin water is all centered around "health". The company's slogan is "We don't produce water, we are just nature's porter", which focuses on pure natural and pollution-free. This is due to the fact that Nongfu Spring has been promoting the concept of "long-term drinking of pure water without minerals is not good for health" for 20 years, and consumers have shifted from pure water consumption to more "healthy" spring water consumption.

Looking at the entire fast-moving soft drink industry, the new products launched by various companies have been involutionary in recent years. On the other hand, the current enthusiasm of mass consumption has declined. Merchants will pay more attention to terminal sales to promote new products and maintain profits, but this is a challenge for many brands. If old brands want to radiate youthful power forever, they can only launch targeted products and brands for different consumers. Moreover, national old brands cannot follow the traditional old path, but should create consumer-oriented guidance. For example, Weilong and Want Want all have innate personalized original brand power, and the core of brand marketing is to meet the spiritual needs of consumers rather than promote material products.

3. In the competition for drinking water alternatives, can Wahaha continue to take on the traffic?

The chain reaction caused by the public opinion after Zong Qinghou's death has made everyone see clearly that drinking water products are very replaceable. Whether it is mineral water or purified water, the ingredients are all water. As fast-moving consumer goods, consumers choose which one to buy based on their impression of the brand.

In addition to products, it is always a good idea to solve the channel problem first. For example, the most prominent position on the shelf represents a good product in the minds of consumers, which also means that consumers can easily get it. Good brand marketing can add icing on the cake for the product; once the marketing fails, it will directly affect the sales of the product.

If a brand does not have sufficient core value as a moat, it can only rely on added value . After the commemoration, nostalgia, and recollection surrounding Wahaha and Zong Qinghou, as well as the consumption boom driven by them, dissipate, Wahaha may face continued tests for its distributors, products, and users.

Do you still remember the flood in Henan three years ago, when Erke donated 50 million yuan of materials and instantly received more than 8 million likes, netizens rushed to buy sneakers, but there were many disputes afterwards, and the consumption enthusiasm was extinguished? This kind of national sentiment marketing still needs to be supported by good products and channels. Online public opinion is a double-edged sword. We don’t know how many high-quality brands will experience it in the future. After all, for a brand, traffic is only temporary, and quality is long-term, because everyone will still pay for strength.

At the memorial service, Zong Fuli said: "Wahaha is my father's life's work. He once said that the reason we chose to become entrepreneurs was not from our instinct or our true character. We were trying hard to find a way out for ourselves in an era when we couldn't find a way out." When the heat fades, Zong Fuli may have to continue looking for a way out for Wahaha.

Author: Tin WeChat public account: Spicy