Click "Read Original" for details Genki Forest's success, achieved through game-like viral marketing, is inseparable from two specific labels: First, sugar-free, which is Genki Forest's主打 0 sugar, 0 fat, 0 calories. Second, Japanese-style elements, such as the Japanese-style text identifiers like "Japan Genki Forest Co., Ltd." and "Hokkaido 3.1". Focusing on 58 consumer categories most frequently encountered in daily life, CBNData surveyed 9,491 respondents and evaluated 1,512 brands with "recommend" and "disappointed" assessments. Finally, the 2020 Golden Signboard list was released. Those familiar with this list, published continuously for 12 years, may quickly notice: Coca-Cola has disappeared from this list. In the past 5 years, Coca-Cola has always topped the list with a support rate more than double that of the second place. This year, a domestic beverage founded only 4 years ago has replaced it. This beverage is Genki Forest. Data shows that Genki Forest, with a brand preference of 7.44%, slightly ahead of Coca-Cola's 6.70%, has become the "new star brand" in the carbonated beverage field. As early as the 2019 Double 11, Genki Forest became the number one seller in the Tmall water beverage category with daily sales exceeding 5.6 million bottles, surpassing Coca-Cola. This year's 618, Genki Forest defeated Coca-Cola again, retaining the Tmall beverage category championship. Genki Forest may be the first to completely beat Coca-Cola in both sales and brand preference. **-01-**A Stunning Viral Marketing According to "Genki Report" data, Genki Forest's sales in 2018 were less than 260 million; in the first 5 months of 2020, sales exceeded 660 million, breaking 800 million in half a year. In July this year, Genki Forest was rumored to be valued at 14 billion, surpassing the listed company Xiang Piao Piao in the same industry. Such rapid rise is inseparable from viral marketing. Viral marketing is the key to the rapid rise of new consumer brands in the current Chinese internet stage. Perfect Diary is one representative. Through community dissemination on apps like Xiaohongshu, where young people in first- and second-tier cities gather, this beauty brand became the first makeup brand on Tmall to break 100 million in sales, and also the first domestic brand to top Tmall's "Double 11" makeup chart. Genki Forest is the same. On Xiaohongshu, Genki Forest-related notes exceed 20,000, while other new consumer brands that rose in the same period, such as Saturdanc and Zhong Xue Gao, have only over 10,000 notes. In addition, keywords related to Genki Forest, such as "sugar control", "sugar quitting", and "sugar cutting", have a total of over 100,000 notes; the word "calories" has over 360,000 notes, and "calorie" also has over 100,000 notes. Beyond community marketing, entertainment content placement has become the norm. Since 2019, Genki Forest seems to have fallen in love with entertainment content. Genki Forest has appeared in Bilibili's two food documentaries "Life's a BBQ" and "Life is Boiling", as well as Dragon TV's "Our Song". This year, it has also sponsored four variety shows: "Our Band", "Brothers Full of Energy", "Youth on Earth", and "Sports Boys". This is actually the consistent style of founder Tang Binsen. In 2008, Tang Binsen imitated "Happy Farm" to make "Happy Farmer". But when promoting overseas, an American social gaming company Zynga also had a similar game, and they spent $1 million a month to promote the game. In the end, Zynga achieved 50 million daily active users, 200 million registered users, and became profitable and even listed. Tang's "Happy Farmer" had no chance. Later, Tang Binsen said, "We dare to spend 1.8 billion on advertising when our revenue is 2 billion, doing brand exposure in central cities like New York, London, and Moscow." This high-profile approach also gave his other game "Clash of Kings" a considerable market. After crossing into beverage retail in 2016, Genki Forest's gameplay is very similar to Tang Binsen's previous business style. But it should be mentioned that Genki Forest's success with game-like viral marketing is inseparable from two specific labels: First, sugar-free, which is Genki Forest's主打 0 sugar, 0 fat, 0 calories. Second, Japanese-style elements, such as the Japanese-style text identifiers like "Japan Genki Forest Co., Ltd." and "Hokkaido 3.1". **-02-**The Sugar-Free Trap Behind the Frenzy Since when, sugar-free has become a demand for young consumers born in the 90s. To get a slim waist, they can hold their breath all day; to wear a bikini, they can eat grass like a salad. The lyrics of "Calorie" express the perfect requirements of today's young people for weight loss and figure. Even if they eat one more grain of rice each time, they have to say sorry. In this situation, sugar-free becomes the first choice. According to the "Ipsos: 2019 China Food and Beverage Packaging Trends Insight Report", 76% of consumers aged 24-40 pay attention to information such as sugar-free and no additives when purchasing food and beverages. Genki Forest seized this public psychology, promoting the concept of 0 sugar, 0 fat, 0 calories, and even posting "sparkling water that won't make you fat" in its flagship store. For a time, sugar-free seemed to become the frenzy of this era. But is the so-called sugar-free real? Can it really help lose weight? It can only be said that from a marketing perspective, perception is greater than fact—as long as these stories that fit perception are spread, whether they are facts seems not so important. Just like the stories of "Moutai winning an award after breaking a bottle at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition" and "Moutai protects the liver", although it was eventually found not to be true, Moutai's brand value has already grown. Moutai's tactics have also appeared in the brand development history of Brain Gold and Nongfu Spring. Of course, Genki Forest uses the same routine. It turns out that Genki Forest's advertised "0 sugar, 0 fat, 0 calories" is not really sugar-free and calorie-free, but uses the sugar substitute erythritol, and the nutrition facts show that each 100g of sparkling water contains 3.8g of carbohydrates. Genki Forest's promotion explains that carbohydrates come from the sugar substitute erythritol, with an energy coefficient of 0KJ/g. Some experts also point out that although the safety of erythritol is currently widely recognized, don't hold the mentality that eating sugar substitutes won't make you fat. The key to weight loss is controlling intake. On the surface, this sugar substitute drink allows you to drink a sweet drink without consuming sugar. But in reality, some believe that sugar substitutes can deceive the body's metabolic system, inducing insulin secretion and storing more fat. In fact, the truly sugar-free one is Nongfu Spring's "Oriental Leaf" launched in 2011. But because it has no sweetness at all, Oriental Leaf was listed as one of the five worst-tasting drinks. Consumers ultimately love sugar; Genki Forest just gave them psychological comfort in a different way. **-03-**The Japanese-Style Deception Full of Energy After the sugar-free concept became popular, it also became a blank market that various brands flocked to. Among them, Heytea launched Heytea Xiao, Naixue Tea added sugar substitute options, Jianlibao launched Micro Bubble Water, Wahaha launched "Angry Bobo" soda sparkling water, and even Tsingtao Beer added a sparkling water brand "Qingling". The question is, why can Genki Forest become popular? A big reason may be the Japanese style of this drink. When consumers first see Genki Forest, most think it is a Japanese beverage brand. On Genki Forest's packaging, the bottle has a prominent Japanese trademark "気". In addition, the back of the bottle also has the words "Supervised by Japan Genki Forest Co., Ltd.". Later, Genki Forest's yogurt also used Japanese place names—"Beihai Farm" and "Hokkaido 3.1 Sugar-Free Yogurt", and the packaging even marked "Patent licensed by Hiroshima University Plant Lactic Acid Bacteria Research Institute" and other words. To the outside world, this is clearly a Japanese imported product. The reality is that the customer service of Beihai Farm's Tmall flagship store said that the yogurt in the store is produced by factories such as Handan Kangnuo Food and New Hope Shuangxi Dairy (Suzhou). And on the packaging of many Genki Forest soda sparkling waters, we can clearly see that the commissioned processing factories are Beijing Guangdong Jianlibao Beverage Co., Ltd., Jianlibao (Zhenjiang) Beverage Co., Ltd., etc. Yes, this so-called "supervised by Japan Genki Forest Co., Ltd." drink is actually produced by the same OEM factories as the Jianlibao we drink. But it's still that saying: perception is greater than fact. When consumers perceive Genki Forest as a Japanese drink, regardless of whether the facts conflict, its brand preference and sales volume always go up. This is not isolated; it is almost a common routine for Chinese entrepreneurs. China News Service's Jingwei once compiled public information and found that the so-called Italian eyewear brand "GIORGIO GIOVANI" is actually produced in Wenzhou, Zhejiang; the sports brand "Jordan" from Fujian frequently associated itself with American NBA star Michael Jordan in previous promotions; the furniture brand "Da Vinci" from Dongguan, Guangdong, also claimed to be a 100% Italian-produced international super brand when selling. In addition, MINISO, which turned a 10-yuan store into the world's largest lifestyle product retailer, and Naixue Tea, valued at 16 billion, both evoke Japanese brands in their logos and communication. Even the well-known fast fashion brand UR only emphasizes that it belongs to UR LIMITED (Cayman) and UR HK LIMITED (Hong Kong). Many loyal users don't know that this is actually a pure domestic brand. In marketing communication, Genki Forest has learned the essence. In 2020, topics like #Sugar-Free Trap# and #Fake Japanese Style Misleads Consumers# began to spread on major online media. This year, many consumers also realized that this "full of energy" imported product is actually a domestic brand. But data says it all: in the first 5 months of 2020, Genki Forest's sales reached 660 million, and some media reported that it broke 800 million in half a year. What if the persona collapses? It still makes money. Now, Genki Forest has begun to say, "Hope to build Genki Forest into a Chinese beverage brand that can be renowned worldwide and last for generations, pushing Chinese beverage brands to the world." Epilogue: Why Coca-Cola Fails So Easily From the data, Genki Forest has indeed defeated Coca-Cola. In the history of Chinese beverage development, there have been many that defeated Coca-Cola, such as Jianlibao, Wong Lo Kat, Red Bull... But as the so-called loser, Coca-Cola has been thriving in the Chinese market. In Q2 2020, affected by the epidemic, Coca-Cola's revenue was $7.15 billion, the largest quarterly decline in 25 years. But Coca-Cola's Asia Pacific market recorded $1.183 billion, and the good performance of the Chinese market partially offset the decline in single-box sales in the Asia Pacific market. On December 19, 1978, Coca-Cola entered China as the first foreign company. Since then, many beverage brands have claimed to defeat Coca-Cola. But more than 40 years have passed, and those brands that defeated Coca-Cola have been like a flash in the pan, only this so-called loser has been striding forward. Genki Forest is the same. We can evaluate Genki Forest with the words used to evaluate Perfect Diary: this is a carnival of explosive products, not a victory of the brand. When users' freshness with this explosive product fades, the brand may quickly decline. How to transform from an explosive product to a long-lasting brand? How to create true sustainability? These are the common problems that Chinese new consumer brands represented by Genki Forest need to face together. In today's era of explosive growth brought by internet platforms, "defeating Coca-Cola" is just the beginning for emerging brands to enter true brand building, not the final victory. Source: New Business Reference (ID: xinshangye2016)