55 brands were removed. How can China’s time-honored brands be revitalized?

How brands can develop continuously, especially how time-honored brands can innovate, has always been the number one challenge in corporate development. Let us read the article together and see the author’s interpretation!

Recently, the topic #55 brands were removed from China's time-honored brands# has been on the hot search list. The time-honored Chinese brands that have been "delisted" include Beijing Huanu, Snow Flower, Tong Sanyi, Tianjin Daoxiangcun, Chongqing Guanshengyuan, Shanghai Laobanzhai, etc., covering categories such as clothing, food, restaurants, etc.

List of Chinese time-honored brands that failed the review

Gold emerges after all the sand is blown away. As a representative of a long history and inheritance from generation to generation, the reputation of Chinese time-honored brands is not easy to come by. In the face of the law of market competition where the fittest survive, companies that "rely on their age", have outdated concepts and products will inevitably be eliminated by the market. The only way for "time-honored brands" to save themselves is to innovate and perhaps escape the fate of decline.

Of course, in recent years, domestic products have repeatedly become popular, and national trends have flourished. Brand rejuvenation has become the most important issue in the test of time-honored brands. How can time-honored brands connect with young consumer groups and how can they achieve rejuvenation? TOP Jun also found the strategies and models of the time-honored brands that have regained their vitality in the inventory.

1. Living cultural classics, with difficulties besides sentiment

On November 8, the Ministry of Commerce’s website released the “Notice on the Announcement of the Review Results of China’s Time-honored Brands by the Ministry of Commerce and Five Other Departments”, which removed 55 brands that had been operating poorly for a long time, or even had gone bankrupt, been deregistered, closed down, or had lost the ownership and right to use their registered trademarks, from the list of China’s time-honored brands; 73 brands with poor operations and declining performance, including Daoxiangchun and Zhang Xiaoquan, were required to make rectifications within six months; and 1,000 brands with standardized operations and good development will continue to be retained.

From the official website of the Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China

As soon as the news came out, it triggered heated discussions among netizens. Keywords such as "long-term poor management", "bankruptcy, cancellation, and closure" seemed to reflect the common difficulties faced by "time-honored brands" that inherit the skills and memories of the times under the new consumption trend.

Let me first give you some basic information about the recognition standards for China's time-honored brands: China's time-honored brands refer to brands with a profound historical heritage, distinct cultural characteristics, unique craftsmanship and technology, sophisticated design and manufacturing, high-quality products and services, efficient marketing channels, and broad social recognition. They have both high economic value and rich cultural value.

Therefore, every enterprise that can be called a time-honored brand has its own core competitiveness, and has accumulated its own reputation and craftsmanship in the great waves. But it is obvious that the "oldness" of Chinese time-honored brands is both an advantage and a disadvantage in today's rapidly changing consumer market.

On the one hand, old brands, old skills, long-accumulated good reputation and deep feelings have helped create favorable conditions for their development; but on the other hand, as the removal decision made in the notice, the shortcomings of some time-honored brands also stem from the companies' "relying on their age and seniority": outdated concepts and systems, outdated marketing methods and conservative products, the reputation of China's time-honored brands is used by companies as a "protective umbrella" for self-satisfaction.

Of course, from the joint adjustment of the time-honored brand list by the five departments and the corresponding policies issued by the state, we can also see that "upholding the truth and making innovations" is becoming a key word.

The "Management Measures for the Demonstration Creation of Chinese Time-honored Brands" issued at the beginning of this year included "dynamic management" as a chapter, clearly stated that daily monitoring should be carried out and a "traffic light" mechanism should be established; at the third China Time-honored Brand Innovation and Development Conference held in early November, it was also proposed to establish a dynamic management mechanism of "in and out". These are both a wake-up call for "stagnant" time-honored brands and a guarantee for their continued healthy development.

In fact, in recent years, many well-known Chinese time-honored brands have actively explored and transformed, pioneered new marketing models and new ways of playing, and achieved outstanding results against the backdrop of the rise of national trends. In addition to collective memory and feelings, how did they stand out and revitalize themselves?

2. Review of the renewal model of time-honored brands: innovation is the key

There are two ways to revive time-honored brands: putting new wine in old bottles and putting old wine in new bottles.

According to statistics, since 2020, more than a quarter of the time-honored brands in Beijing alone have made efforts in product co-branding, image IP creation, cross-border cooperation, and sub-brand development, and have established e-commerce and live broadcast teams, using social platforms such as Xiaohongshu and Douyin to spread their brands and promote products . As the saying goes, "The master leads you to the door, but the practice depends on the individual." The transformation and exploration of time-honored brands are important, but mastering the core methodology that suits the brand is more important.

Therefore, TOP has taken stock of some time-honored Chinese brands whose reputation and sales have impressed people in recent years, trying to find their differentiated models beyond their commonalities.

1. Xie Fuchun's "Rejuvenation": Focusing on the big and letting go of the small to consolidate product advantages

A live broadcast incident in early September unexpectedly made a group of old Chinese brands go viral, and the 193-year-old Xie Fuchun was one of them. On social platforms, the topic "I bought Xie Fuchun eyebrow powder for 38 yuan and only broke my skin after using it for 9 years" has been read 130 million times.

As China's first cosmetics company founded in the tenth year of Daoguang in the Qing Dynasty (1830), Xie Fuchun won the silver medal at the Panama World Exposition in the United States in 1915 for its duck egg powder with the main characteristics of "light, white, red and fragrant", and occupied 95% of the entire Yangzhou powder market share in the 1950s.

Xie Fuchun duck egg powder

However, in the mid-to-late 1980s, beauty companies sprang up across the country, and some foreign brands relied on flexible sales mechanisms, which made Xie Fuchun vulnerable. At the end of 2001, Xie Fuchun was unable to recover and was on the verge of bankruptcy. In 2003, with the government's guarantee, the higher authorities decided to liquidate Xie Fuchun and restructure it.

After experiencing ups and downs and reorganization, the strategic thinking of the "grandmother" of the beauty industry has become increasingly clear: in promoting its own technical advantages of "three wonders" of fragrance, powder and oil, offline stores adopt a chain operation sales strategy, and then develop special new products for different consumer groups, while actively embracing e-commerce platforms.

Specifically in terms of store operations, Xie Fuchun locates product sales locations in ancient streets, ancient towns, ancient alleys, ancient cities and bustling commercial areas, adopts a chain operation sales strategy of both self-operation and franchising, and opens up traditional channels for cosmetics through supermarkets, brand collaborations, and scenic spot cooperation.

Xie Fuchun Institute

In addition, Xie Fuchun has also opened experience stores that integrate intangible cultural heritage skills, online celebrity check-ins, classical beauty culture experience, and shopping based on the consumption patterns of contemporary young people, allowing consumers to experience the charm of classic Chinese makeup up close. As of now, Xie Fuchun has a total of 93 franchise stores across the country and 20 experience stores in Yangzhou.

In addition to offline retail, Xie Fuchun, which actively embraces "Internet +", formally established an e-commerce department as early as 2009, and opened the Xie Fuchun Tmall official flagship store in 2012. It then entered large e-commerce platforms such as JD.com, Vipshop, and Xiaohongshu, and officially launched the Douyin live broadcast business in April 2022. This year, Xie Fuchun has upgraded and switched to the e-commerce logistics cloud warehouse in a timely manner based on the sales trend of e-commerce platforms, increasing the daily shipment volume from 800 orders to 18,000 orders.

Xie Fuchun Lady Balm

In addition, the century-old Xie Fuchun's adherence to product quality is the cornerstone of its recognition by consumers. In order to have high-quality rose raw materials and extend the relevant industrial chain, Xie Fuchun carried out village-enterprise joint construction in 2020 to build a rose fragrance industry ecological park. Independently develop roses and Xie Fuchun's light, white, red and fragrant products, deeply develop a series of fresh flower fumigation process products, and extract essential oils and pure dew from flowers, dried flower buds smoked scented tea and other rose extension products.

Xie Fuchun Rose Dew & Rose Fragrance Industry Ecological Park

It is these continuous efforts that have allowed Xie Fuchun to receive the "overwhelming wealth" and continue to exude the charm of classic Chinese cosmetics. Data shows that after September 11, Xie Fuchun's online sales exceeded 10 million yuan in ten days, with the highest single-day sales on Tmall reaching 770,000 yuan and the highest single-day sales on Douyin reaching 1.46 million yuan; 20,000 pieces of its Chinese cosmetics duck egg powder and 40,000 pieces of solid balm were sold.

With excellent product quality, affordable prices, elegant packaging design, and channel and content innovation that keep pace with the trend of the times, Xie Fuchun's resurgence has made many people see the century-old Chinese cosmetics brand's adherence to its original aspirations and its growing courage.

2. White Rabbit Renewal: Extending Brand Cooperation and Strengthening IP Symbols

White Rabbit, which was launched in 1959, is a well-deserved childhood memory. Popular items such as White Rabbit Classic Milk Candy, White Rabbit 100 Ice Cream Milk Candy Bottled, and Tiramisu Ice Cream Flavored Espresso are well-loved by consumers.

As the "leading candy brand in China", White Rabbit has also faced the problem of "weak sales". However, after realizing the lack of product uniformity and brand stickiness, it actively changed its strategy, not only promoting an experiential sales model in the new retail format, but also taking the lead in exploring new ways of playing in cross-border joint ventures to strengthen the brand symbol of White Rabbit IP.

In 2013, White Rabbit tried to enlarge the classic milk candy into a "giant white rabbit" milk candy about 16 cm long and 6 cm in diameter, and put ordinary milk candy in it. This product innovation form of classicizing and symbolizing brand elements quickly triggered heated discussions and reposts by netizens, laying the foundation for the subsequent brand innovation of various products and packaging .

White Rabbit's innovative product packaging (Photo courtesy of Zhaoqi Science and Technology Innovation Platform WeChat Official Account)

Since 2015, White Rabbit has selected 1-2 well-known foreign brands and young fashion brands for cross-border cooperation every year. At that time, the trend of cross-border joint ventures had not yet fully emerged, but White Rabbit had already joined hands with brands of different styles such as Peacebird, Maxam, Pacific Coffee, Smell Library, and COACH to integrate the richness of brand symbols into daily marketing. These collaborations cover multiple aspects of taste, smell, and vision, greatly extending the original taste advantage of the candy category.

Smell Library x White Rabbit Joint

In 2019, during the brand's 60th anniversary tour, White Rabbit launched offline pop-up stores in multiple cities, creating nostalgic scenes and designing limited peripherals. The subsequent White Rabbit cold drink pop-up store, with giant White Rabbit ice cream elements as the main creative element, created interactive installations such as the White Rabbit Time Park, the Guangming White Rabbit Ice Cream Photo Zone, and the White Rabbit Blind Draw Machine on site, greatly expanding the use scenarios of White Rabbit ice cream.

White Rabbit offline pop-up store

White Rabbit Cold Drinks Pop-up Store

It can be seen that White Rabbit's cross-border integration and scene development continue to break the routine, not only changing the audience's stereotype of the brand, but also strengthening the symbolization and fashion of the brand's classic IP. In the creativity-oriented product interaction, it harvests the attention of young people. In the "2023 Mid-term Offline TOP Gold Product List - Candy" released by Fast Consumer Goods Network, White Rabbit topped the list.

FMCG.com 2023 Mid-term Offline Top Gold Products List (Candy)

3. Moutai’s strong breakthrough: cross-category joint marketing for young people

The word "Moutai" as a brand has a history of 424 years and was certified as a time-honored Chinese brand by the Ministry of Domestic Trade in 1999.

As "China's No. 1 national liquor", Moutai's past brand strategies have kept it in the leading position in the industry and established a mature and stable brand image; but with the further differentiation of consumer groups and the fatigue of the brand's single image in sales, Moutai has also made the transformation of the brand to a younger one and the early cultivation of consumer groups its goal in recent years .

Since February last year, Moutai has teamed up with Mengniu and Zhongjie 1946 to launch Moutai ice cream, cooperated with Luckin Coffee to launch sauce-flavored latte coffee, and cooperated with Dove to launch Mou Xiaoling liquor-filled chocolate, starting Moutai's "youth trilogy" that has been hotly discussed by netizens.

Moutai Ice Cream

The cumulative sales of Moutai ice cream are tens of millions of cups, the sales of "Jiangxiang Latte" exceeded 5.42 million cups on the first day, and the "Mao Xiaoling Chocolate with Liquor Filling" was sold out in seconds after it went on sale . All kinds of data and hot searches show that Moutai's co-branding strategy has leveraged the young people's market, and the brand rejuvenation strategy has successfully narrowed the distance with consumers .

Unlike the multi-style collaborations of White Rabbit Milk Candy, Moutai, which attempts to enter the vision of young people and cultivate young consumption habits, has a more direct approach to collaborations, focusing on products that suit the preferences of young people today : public data shows that the main target customer group for ice cream/popular products is 13-29 years old, and Luckin Coffee, which focuses on "high cost performance" and has repeatedly gained marketing popularity, has successfully "grasped" the preferences of young people.

In addition, the preheating and promotion of topics on social media by the brand in the early stage behind the "Moutai + X" joint venture cannot be ignored. Topics will lead to discussions, and discussions will lead to attention. The brand's joint activities will be screened as a social issue of concern to the whole nation, and further expand the wine industry's penetration into the young group.

4. Wufangzhai takes advantage of the situation: emotional marketing is closely linked to festival nodes

Founded in 1921, "Wufangzhai" is one of the first "Chinese time-honored brands" in the country and is also a leading enterprise in the rice dumpling industry.

Wufangzhai Dragon Boat Festival poster

However, if the business is highly dependent on the single product of zongzi, it will be restricted by seasons and time, which will greatly affect the long-term development of the brand. Therefore, in terms of product categories, Wufangzhai turned its attention to glutinous rice foods other than zongzi, and set two new tracks of "baking" and "frozen food" to create the brand's second growth curve. In addition to innovating products to meet the diverse needs of consumers, Wufangzhai has also established an omni-channel marketing network covering national commerce, chain stores, and e-commerce.

How can we make the efforts of the brand be seen by more people? Wufangzhai chose to innovate the brand power communication and endow the brand with more diversified connotation value through highly creative advertising content. If the cooperation with a series of big IPs such as Disney, Marvel, Wuling, and King of Glory in gift box design is Wufangzhai's strategy to attract young consumer groups, then the IP creation of Wufang Pictures is the brand's "killer weapon" to strengthen consumer loyalty and identity through content communication.

Wufangzhai x King of Glory

In 2018, a short film titled "Only Fat and White Can Have a Future" brought Wufangzhai back to the public's attention during the Dragon Boat Festival with its "humanized" approach. Subsequently, short films such as "Suckable Salted Duck Eggs", "Looking for Li Xiaofen", "Going to the Moon with You", and "Wufang Cone Universe" successfully built the "Wufang Universe" of Wufang Pictures. The performance techniques and creative copywriting of the short films not only subverted people's initial impression of the time-honored brand, but also provided a deeper insight into people's emotional needs today, making the brand image of Wunuonuo deeply rooted in people's hearts.

Wufangzhai x Mixue Ice City

As a time-honored Chinese brand, Wufangzhai has accumulated a profound brand heritage. At the same time, it is accelerating its transformation towards the young consumer groups and the future of the brand. The brand not only actively enters new tracks such as exclusive retail and live e-commerce, but also connects with consumer groups through innovative and diversified marketing strategies such as cross-border, joint names, and creative content to maintain the vitality of the brand.

3. Conclusion

In the context of the changing consumption concepts of contemporary people, many time-honored brands have chosen to reposition themselves and actively approach young people. While maintaining the core value of the brand, they have focused on the production process, product standards, corporate culture and other fields to implement systematic policies and actively build the connotation and extension of the brand. Perhaps these explorations will take time to prove right or wrong, but the brand has survived a century of ups and downs and has continued to be passed down to this day. Its insistence on innovation itself is a kind of meaning.

After all, "there are no time-honored brands that last forever, and there are no new brands that last forever." The review of the time-honored brand list is both supervision and motivation. How to answer the must-answer question of maintaining integrity and innovation requires time-honored brands to continue to explore.

Author: TOP Jun, WeChat public account: TopMarketing