Some time ago, I wrote about Blue Moon, which became famous overnight by heavily investing in laundry detergent in 2008. Through continuous iteration and upgrading, it gradually became the leader in China's laundry market and a benchmark for the rise of innovative consumer brands in recent years. If Blue Moon can lead the way, I believe more and more local innovative consumer brands, following the direction of "product - product matrix - brand," will also achieve significant development by seizing the trend. Of course, doing this is not enough. During the double festival holiday at the beginning of the month, I stayed at home and watched the Mid-Autumn Festival Gala, only to find that both CCTV and Hunan TV's galas were exclusively sponsored by Blue Moon. Turning to Weibo, netizens were hotly discussing Blue Moon's move. It is understood that since 2013, Blue Moon has held the Blue Moon Festival every Mid-Autumn Festival. This year, it launched the 8th Blue Moon Festival with the theme "Companion for Life, Clean and Worry-Free," advocating and promoting Blue Moon's clean lifestyle. If you look at the surface, it's just a piece of news, but as an industry observer, I habitually explored the story behind it. In fact, what is disseminated is information, and the logic behind the information is the key. Behind the information, I see Blue Moon's "insight, persistence, and innovation," which I believe are the keys to Blue Moon leading the way and becoming an industry benchmark. In addition to a complete marketing deployment, these three "qualities" support Blue Moon's sustainable development. -01- Demand Insight First, let's talk about demand insight. When it comes to demand, many people simply think that understanding consumer needs is easy: just ask ten or eight consumers directly, or if that's not enough, do quantitative research with a thousand or eight hundred consumers to identify their pain points. If demand insight were that simple, there would be no business, and there wouldn't be so many companies rising and falling in their operations. Consumer demand is like fish in deep water; you think it's there, but in fact, what you see is just the refraction of light. What is demand? We can simply divide demand into two levels: first, direct pain point needs; second, hidden pain point needs. Regarding direct pain point needs, we can find out from public information. Blue Moon stated that surveys found Chinese households commonly face problems such as mold on walls, heavy grease in kitchens, yellowing clothes, scale in bathrooms, and difficulty cleaning washing machine drums. To address these, Blue Moon provides a full set of household cleaning solutions based on consumers' home life scenarios. These are direct pain points, and Blue Moon offers good products to proactively solve consumer needs. In terms of hidden needs, Blue Moon has also made early arrangements. We can see that even today, many consumers still have many misunderstandings about the seemingly simple task of "laundry." For example, how to remove oil stains from clothes? Most consumers might wet the clothes, soak them, then scrub with a brush or by hand. But the correct way is to not wet them first, apply a special laundry detergent directly on the dry stain, leave it for five minutes, and then wash. This is a more scientific method. Also, in terms of laundry knowledge, it's not true that more foam means cleaner clothes, nor that higher viscosity means cleaner clothes. There are countless such misunderstandings... Facing these misunderstandings, Blue Moon not only hopes to provide a good product but also the correct usage methods and difficult laundry services. The specific measures include: Blue Moon provides a 400 hotline 24-hour service with a response within 30 seconds; one-on-one service for members by cleaning consultants; and to popularize correct laundry awareness and methods, it launched the Laundry Master project on the CCTV platform in 2017; and has been holding the "Scientific Laundry China Tour" event since 2012, among others. In the past, when doing marketing, we always emphasized whether we met consumer needs and whether we had insight into them. If a company achieved these two points, it was considered quite good. But I think Blue Moon seems to have gone even further. Not only does it provide products, but it also expects to give consumers a complete solution: product + method + service. As a commercial enterprise, in such a fiercely competitive market environment, it has chosen a business strategy fully oriented to consumer needs, not only providing products but also, with its own strength, promoting the education and popularization of correct laundry practices, driving the development of the industry. It's not difficult to see pain points, difficulties, and misunderstandings; the key is to take action and implement corresponding measures. That's the hardest part. Of course, consumers and the market have also cast their votes. According to a Frost & Sullivan report, Blue Moon has ranked first in market share in China's laundry detergent market for 11 consecutive years, and first in the hand sanitizer market for eight consecutive years. In 2019, Blue Moon ranked first in retail sales in both China's laundry detergent and hand sanitizer markets, with market shares of 24.4% and 17.4%, respectively. On April 22, Chnbrand, an authoritative Chinese brand rating agency, released the 2020 (10th) China Brand Power Index (C-BPI®) brand ranking and analysis report. Blue Moon's laundry detergent and hand sanitizer defeated many foreign brands to become the No.1 brand in the industry again, winning the C-BPI brand power first place in China's laundry detergent and hand sanitizer industries for 10 consecutive years. -02- Business Persistence What is persistence? It's recognizing the right thing and sticking to it. Going back to 2008, when laundry powder dominated the domestic detergent market and laundry detergent accounted for less than 4%, Blue Moon, based on its insight into consumer needs, targeted the laundry detergent market and made a heavy bet. Many industry insiders analyze Blue Moon's success as catching the new category dividend of laundry detergent and becoming the first brand through consumption upgrading. Such analysis is often a hat put on after success. In 2008, were there no laundry companies that saw the trend of the laundry detergent category? Certainly there were. There were two types of companies: First, those that saw it but didn't dare to do it. With laundry detergent accounting for less than 4%, and laundry powder dominating the washing market, not to mention whether consumers would accept it, just the "consistency" of peers' choices would make you not dare to do it. Second, foreign daily chemical giants. They clearly knew that the technology for laundry detergent was already mature and widespread at that time, but for their own profit needs, they delayed promoting it. They took advantage of consumers' blind spots in technology awareness, continuously promoted laundry powder, and gradually improved products. Essentially, it was still driven by operating profits. When the market was being harvested, why sow seeds? Dividends never belong to the category; they belong to the promoters, the exclusive dividends of leading enterprises. When we look back, this is the persistence of the enterprise. Against the backdrop of a weak 4% share, it's imaginable that in the first and second years of developing the laundry detergent market, Blue Moon faced layers of obstacles and resistance. Consumers didn't accept it, and the market laughed at it. But the persistence in bringing better products to consumers, along with accurate judgment of market trends, is what made Blue Moon what it is today. This "persistence" has accompanied Blue Moon's growth all along. Since its founding 28 years ago, Blue Moon has consistently focused on one thing: washing. Looking back at its growth history, Blue Moon developed step by step with reform and opening up, witnessing many categories go from nothing to something, from few to many, and from many to good. In this process, I believe any enterprise that grows with the times will face temptations or wavering, but looking at Blue Moon's business history, the focus on washing seems never to have changed. At the same time, it hasn't extended into other business directions, always adhering to the purpose of "wholeheartedly doing washing," deeply cultivating the washing track, and doing washing deeply, precisely, and to the extreme. History is always surprisingly similar. In 2015, concentrated detergents accounted for less than 4% in China. That year, Blue Moon, through technological innovation, launched the first metered pump "Concentrated+" laundry detergent in China - Jixi Zhizun, and took the lead in promoting it in the market, leading the industry's concentration upgrade. Later, in 2019, it added the Zhizun Biotechnology laundry detergent. Even today, although it hasn't achieved success in terms of digital share in a true sense, this is a revolution in washing quality: less usage, better results. Practicing the "concentration" revolution and insisting on providing consumers with better product quality - this original intention has never changed. Zheng Wuhong, former chairman of the China Cleaning Products Industry Association, once commented on Blue Moon: "Cultivating a future market is much more difficult and risky than taking a share from an existing market. But Blue Moon is willing to invest so much time and cost to promote the concentration process. We are proud that the cleaning products industry has such a responsible enterprise. This is not only a matter for the washing industry but also a major issue for the whole society and future generations." After four years of promotion, Blue Moon's concentration efforts have begun to show results. According to a Frost & Sullivan report, in 2019, by retail sales, Blue Moon ranked first in the concentrated laundry detergent market, with a market share as high as 27.9%. An industry expert said that Blue Moon is one of the few conscientious brands in the market, choosing a difficult "education" path from the beginning. And I want to say, as long as the direction is right, don't fear the long road. Just like the Blue Moon Festival mentioned earlier, it has been held for eight years. The prerequisite for accumulating strength is to plant a seed first, nurture it carefully, and one day it will grow into a towering tree. -03- Product Innovation Returning to the specific business operation level, the "persistence" quality ultimately lands on product innovation. For any enterprise, if the focus is not on the product, it's not true innovation. In the past two or three years, Blue Moon has launched several revolutionary new products: Zhizun Biotechnology laundry detergent, Jingxiang Amino Acid hand sanitizer, Tianlu Tableware & Fruit and Vegetable Cleaning Essence, Weinuo Mold Remover, and Oil Stain Killer Foam, among others. In the past, we often judged whether clothes were clean by the naked eye, but in fact, many times visible stains are removed, but invisible stains remain hidden in the clothes. Over time, this causes clothes to yellow, and when washed, they are secondarily polluted by dirty water, making them gray and old after multiple washes. Based on this insight, Blue Moon launched "Zhizun Biotechnology laundry detergent." Handwashing has become a necessary habit for everyone, but frequent handwashing can easily make the skin dry and tight. To address this, Blue Moon launched "Jingxiang Amino Acid hand sanitizer," creating a gentler and more comfortable experience, reducing skin moisture loss, and keeping it moist and smooth. Tianlu Tableware & Fruit and Vegetable Cleaning Essence can efficiently remove oil from dishes, not only keeping hands oil-free but also keeping dishcloths and basin walls oil-free. It is a food-grade detergent that meets national A-class standards, removing pesticide residues from fruits and vegetables, making washing safer. ... Starting product development from consumer pain points and solidly implementing "innovation" into products. Pain point observation is the front end, and transforming front-end insights into products is the process of innovation. Sometimes "innovation" is also a company's gene. It is understood that in 2000, 2008, and 2015, Blue Moon successively launched hand sanitizer, laundry detergent, and concentrated laundry detergent products. These products achieved "disruptive" innovation at the time. Of course, the market also gave Blue Moon a satisfactory answer. Deep Clean laundry detergent, Deep Clean Care (Brightening) laundry detergent, Hand Wash Special laundry detergent, and Jixi Zhizun "Concentrated+" laundry detergent all quickly exceeded 500 million yuan in annual retail sales within five years of launch. For example, from 2017 to 2019, Blue Moon's Deep Clean Care (Brightening) laundry detergent, Deep Clean laundry detergent, fabric softener, and antibacterial hand sanitizer all achieved compound annual growth rates of over 10%. To develop concentrated laundry detergent more suitable for Chinese families, Blue Moon, based on the washing habit of most Chinese families washing 8 pieces of clothing per day, created a precise metered pump: 1 pump (8g) can wash 8 pieces of clothing, greatly improving the convenience of laundry operations. Looking at Blue Moon's series of efforts, innovation seems never to have stopped. We have reason to believe that innovation has always been Blue Moon's "foundation." As a leading enterprise, when it has completed brand awareness, brand trust, and brand loyalty through gradual growth, the next step is to focus on "demand pain points," not only to meet current needs but also to provide better, more convenient, and more enjoyable experiences to meet needs, leading industry development. We are in an era of change: the market is changing, channels are changing, and consumers are changing. We believe that only enterprises that are "product experts" can unleash huge potential in the ever-changing market. Summary: In doing anything, the original intention is very important. With original intention, you may not succeed; but without it, you definitely won't go far. Consumption upgrading is the right direction, and better, more convenient, and more enjoyable consumption experiences are the right direction. When these directions are anchored, what Blue Moon needs to do is continuously gain insight, continuously innovate, and maintain persistence in the chosen direction. No leading enterprise wins by opportunism. In the cycle of industry cycles, leading enterprises have always been doing one thing: cultivating seeds. Grassroots enterprises live in the opportunities of the present, while top enterprises live in the cycles of history, being friends of time, waiting for the next cycle to come, and growing into towering trees again. If you have a tip, it will be paid 400-2000 yuan after adoption. If you like this article, click [Watching] and share it with friends.************************************