---
title: "8.5 Billion, Li Yongjun and the Legendary 'Xizhilang'"
description: "A giant in the industry that started with 400,000 yuan, a low-key and silent entrepreneur, who built the world's largest jelly kingdom in 22 years of entrepreneurship. Currently, it has established over 40 branches and offices nationwide, with more than 1,000 distributors and tens of thousands of sub-distributors, and its sales scale reached 8.5 billion yuan in 2014. The legendary Xizhilang, upon entering the market, cleverly targeted the children's market. It first built the brand, then marketed, shifting from selling products to selling the brand. However, Xizhilang is somewhat mysterious, with almost no reports about it in newspapers, media, or websites."
author: "神厨老九"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2015-11-10"
language: "en"
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translation: "https://xinjignxiao.com/zh/articles/85%E4%BA%BF-%E6%9D%8E%E6%B0%B8%E5%86%9B%E4%B8%8E%E4%BC%A0%E5%A5%87-%E5%96%9C%E4%B9%8B%E9%83%8E-9745902b.md"
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---

# 8.5 Billion, Li Yongjun and the Legendary 'Xizhilang'

> A giant in the industry that started with 400,000 yuan, a low-key and silent entrepreneur, who built the world's largest jelly kingdom in 22 years of entrepreneurship. Currently, it has established over 40 branches and offices nationwide, with more than 1,000 distributors and tens of thousands of sub-distributors, and its sales scale reached 8.5 billion yuan in 2014. The legendary Xizhilang, upon entering the market, cleverly targeted the children's market. It first built the brand, then marketed, shifting from selling products to selling the brand. However, Xizhilang is somewhat mysterious, with almost no reports about it in newspapers, media, or websites.

A giant in the industry that started with 400,000 yuan, a low-key and silent entrepreneur, who built the world's largest jelly kingdom in 22 years of entrepreneurship. Currently, it has established over 40 branches and offices nationwide, with more than 1,000 distributors and tens of thousands of sub-distributors, and its sales scale reached 8.5 billion yuan in 2014.
**Legendary Xizhilang**
**Upon entering the market, it cleverly targeted the children's market. It first built the brand, then marketed, shifting from selling products to selling the brand. However, Xizhilang is somewhat mysterious, with almost no reports about it in newspapers, media, or websites.
Before entering the jelly production industry, Li Yongjun was a technician at a dairy factory in Shenzhen. Like other workers in state-owned enterprises, he went to work on time and left on time, living a carefree but bland life from nine to five.
Li Yongjun was no exception; he was like a lion trapped in an iron cage, closely watching everything outside... Jelly is a small food made from fruit juice and seaweed extract, with its predecessor being the Western-style dessert known as 'pudding'. Its tender appearance, like water-made gems, is truly pleasing to the eye. As soon as SAA-branded jelly products hit the market, they were in short supply...
Starting from 1990, jelly manufacturers across the country emerged like a swarm, as if living a communal life. In the Shantou area of Guangdong, family jelly workshops sprang up everywhere; even a small place called Xichang in Jieyang City alone had over 100 production lines.
Li Yongjun, who graduated in food engineering and had a keen market sense, sensitively realized the huge potential of the jelly market. So he resolutely resigned from his position and, together with his brothers Li Yongliang and Li Yongkui, raised 400,000 yuan to enter the jelly industry, which was still in its infancy.
**The Power of Brand Value**
Facing huge market space and fierce industry competition, Xizhilang did not fall into blind impulse but returned to the starting point—'What should Xizhilang be?' When Xizhilang's goal was positioned as China's number one jelly brand, targeting the gap in the Chinese jelly market at that time, Li Yongjun embedded the concept of 'Xizhilang jelly pudding' into all advertisements, aiming to both cultivate the jelly market and establish Xizhilang's 'authoritative and authentic' product image. At the same time, this invisibly set an insurmountable barrier for other similar brands. As jelly rose in the children's snack market, from 1993 to early 1996, Xizhilang's brand advanced triumphantly, with market share growing rapidly.
This 'Xizhilang', with a slightly foreign flavor and Chinese festive color, quickly became a powerful brand. In expanding market space, Xizhilang was very confident in brand building. The huge advertising investment also made Xizhilang's channel construction the envy of peers. Dozens of sales branches and offices nationwide, along with hundreds of distributor teams, continuously transported Xizhilang jelly to all parts of the country.
**'Crystal Love' Comes for Love, 'CICI' Comes for Change**
In early 1998, the domestic release of the blockbuster 'Titanic' was an excellent opportunity. The combination of romantic love and tragedy quickly made the film the favorite of young men and women worldwide... Xizhilang conducted nationwide trailer advertising for 'Titanic'. The advertising creative was specially tailored based on 'Titanic'. On Valentine's Day that year, 'Crystal Love', the second-largest jelly brand after 'Xizhilang', gradually emerged from the tip of its huge iceberg...
The same product concept, the same target audience, the same market area—'Titanic' seemed to have come to China just for Xizhilang's 'Crystal Love'... The victory of this battle made Li Yongjun understand that Xizhilang could only resist interference by continuously refreshing its brand.
In 1999, Xizhilang followed up with the launch of the first suckable jelly, named 'CICI' as a homophone for 'suck'. This innovative jelly product completely overturned the Chinese people's inherent understanding of traditional gel jellies, created a new way of eating jelly, caused a stir in the jelly market, and was widely praised by the market.
According to industry insiders, Xizhilang invests nearly 100 million yuan in advertising every year. Through the operational method of constantly changing TV commercial versions, it injects new elements and vitality into the brand, continuously focusing the public's attention on the Xizhilang brand. By 2001, Xizhilang's sales had increased thousands of times compared to the early days of entrepreneurship, reaching a staggering 1.5 billion yuan.
**Good Times, the Spring of Seaweed**
In early 2005, Li Yongjun, who had been deeply cultivating the leisure food industry for many years, had a keen insight into the market and accurately identified the development trend of leisure food: natural and healthy. As a natural marine food, seaweed's green and pollution-free characteristics, along with its high protein, high vitamin, and high mineral content, exactly meet the standards of healthy food. Seaweed processed food has huge market space. With strong capital accumulation and mature seaweed processing technology from domestic and international markets, Xizhilang quickly introduced the world's most advanced production lines, and the products quickly hit the market and sold well, receiving great consumer praise.
Xizhilang created a new brand for its seaweed products, 'Good Times'. The design of this brand closely combined the green and natural selling point of seaweed food, organically integrating the brand name with product benefits. Starting from the feeling after consumption, the brand name itself reflects the outstanding personality of the product, reflecting a natural, healthy, vibrant, and sunny enjoyable feeling. 'Good Times' seaweed sold over 100 million yuan within less than a year of launch, also driving the slow-developing domestic seaweed market to explosive growth. Multiple brands and flavors of seaweed products flooded the market, completely breaking the long-standing calm, and the seaweed industry entered an era of fierce competition.
**I Am Your Who, You Are My Youlemei Milk Tea**
The advertising slogan 'I am your who, you are my Youlemei milk tea' is almost familiar to everyone. The spokesperson was the popular king Jay Chou. With Jay Chou's irreplaceable status in the hearts of young men and women, Youlemei was immediately warmly pursued by consumers.
In 2007, when the domestic milk tea market was developing vigorously, Xizhilang joined the competition as a latecomer. For this market, Li Yongjun did not blindly intervene but conducted careful thinking and design for brand promotion under the premise of ensuring product quality. Following the same brand strategy as 'Good Times' seaweed, Xizhilang positioned its milk tea products for young consumers, coupled with complete channels and brand promotion. According to statistics, in 2013, over 1.8 billion people drank Youlemei milk tea, with sales exceeding 3 billion yuan.
**Xizhilang Loves Candy**
Xizhilang's candy, biscuit, and chocolate products also followed its consistent brand strategy. Like brands such as Good Times and Youlemei, combined with product characteristics, Xizhilang named this series of products 'Happy Time', giving it the meaning of family affection, sharing, and happiness. After the products were launched, they immediately attracted consumer attention and occupied a place in their respective categories within just one year.
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This article is reprinted from the official account: China Candy
**-END-**
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