Today's Coconut Palm Group should learn from the failures of its predecessors and live up to consumers' love. Coconut Palm Group, which often stumbles with its ads, has been fined again. The incident originated in March this year when Coconut Palm Group posted a recruitment ad on its official Weibo account, stating: "Coconut Palm Group's School for Training General and Deputy General Managers is recruiting again!!! No major restrictions, just need to know how to write. Upon enrollment, you'll have a car, a house, high salary, and definitely attractive men and women chasing you." The ad was too blunt, and with the spokesperson being eye-catching, it sparked significant controversy. Subsequently, the Hainan Provincial Market Supervision Administration quickly held an administrative talk with the relevant person in charge of Coconut Palm Group, determining that the ad content violated the Advertising Law, caused adverse social impact, and filed a case to investigate the company's suspected illegal advertising. Thus, the investigation result came just before the Dragon Boat Festival: Coconut Palm Group was fined 400,000 yuan. After the fine was announced, it quickly attracted netizens' attention and successfully made it to the hot search list, ranking quite high. It's no exaggeration to say that as a traditional food and beverage company, without the global fame of internet giants, without involvement in the turbulent capital markets, and even in 2021, without a Tmall flagship store or JD self-operated store... Coconut Palm Group still managed to contribute nearly 100 million reads due to the 400,000 yuan fine. It truly takes some skill to achieve this. After the fine was announced, some media launched a poll online: "Do you like drinking Coconut Palm coconut juice?" Among 20,000 voters, the support rate was quite high. Netizens are also worried about Coconut Palm Group's ads: It's clear that everyone genuinely loves the company's products, but they are also helpless about its consistently poor marketing over the years. Why does this beverage company, located at the southernmost tip of the country, receive such high national attention, making people "love and hate" it? -01- From a Canning Factory on the Brink of Bankruptcy to 'Alive' From a struggling enterprise on the verge of bankruptcy to a beverage brand with assets exceeding 4 billion yuan, Coconut Palm Group took 36 years. In 1981, as the market economy swept the country, Haikou Canning Factory (hereinafter referred to as "Haiguan"), once a nationally renowned canning factory, began to decline due to its inability to adapt. By 1985, its assets had shrunk from 7.2 million to 20,000 yuan, hanging by a thread. At the critical moment, Wang Guangxing, a veteran employee of over a decade, was pushed into the factory director position and began attempts at reform. Starting in 1986, Wang Guangxing introduced four reforms: "breaking the three irons," "heavy rewards for science and technology," "talented people get rich first," and "employee shareholding." These reforms targeted the distribution system, personnel system, and employment system, helping Haiguan turn from near bankruptcy to profitability. As Haiguan regained vitality, Wang Guangxing began his "cheat-code" life. In 1995, Haiguan was officially renamed Coconut Palm Group. The successfully developed coconut juice was well-received nationwide and was rated as "China's State Banquet Beverage." Coconut Palm Group then advanced rapidly, becoming China's largest producer of natural plant protein beverages. According to Coconut Palm Group's official website, as early as before 1994, Coconut Palm Group had exceeded 1 billion yuan in sales with its natural coconut juice, with profits and taxes exceeding 100 million yuan, becoming a major taxpayer in Haikou City. According to corporate data, from 2010 to 2016, Coconut Palm Group ranked third in taxes among industrial enterprises in Haikou for seven consecutive years, providing employment for over 6,000 employees, and driving the growth of output value and taxes for supporting enterprises such as tinplate, printing, cartons, and sugar, as well as employment for 10,000 people in related industries. In terms of output value, Coconut Palm Group ranked second among industrial enterprises in Haikou from 2010 to 2016, maintaining around 4 billion yuan for many years. However, starting from 2013, Coconut Palm Group experienced sluggish performance growth. From 2013 to 2016, its annual output values were 4.456 billion yuan, 4.45 billion yuan, 4.291 billion yuan, and 4.021 billion yuan, showing a continuous decline. In 2017, it slightly rebounded to 4.157 billion yuan. Compared with Coconut Palm Group's own stagnant performance, the worse news came from the industry. Data shows that with the increasing number of beverage entrants, competition in the beverage industry is becoming increasingly fierce, and the plant protein beverage track where Coconut Palm Group operates is full of battles between old brands and dairy giants. For example, in addition to Yinlu, Six Walnuts, Vey, and Lulu, there are also Mengniu and Yili. According to Euromonitor market data, in the plant protein beverage market from 2014 to 2018, Coconut Palm's coconut juice market share remained around 8.5%, ranking second after Six Walnuts, and was overtaken by Vitasoy in 2018. -02- Switching to a 'Black and Red' Route? Bizarre Ads Frequently Appear From industry leader to no longer what it was, where did Coconut Palm Group go wrong? In this regard, Zhu Danpeng, a Chinese food industry analyst, once said that Coconut Palm Group's marketing team and channels are gradually aging, mainly relying on original brand genes for sales, with basically no market promotion. "Coconut Palm Group has encountered aging in its marketing system and product brand. Although the category market is growing, Coconut Palm Group has not seized this dividend." Phoenix Finance's "Cai Zhidao" found that Coconut Palm Group's ads have basically not changed over the years: crazy clashing colors of black, yellow, red, and blue + large bold fonts + spokespersons in unified poses, combined with the phrase 'I've been drinking it since I was young,' making it unforgettable. And all of this is exactly from Wang Guangxing. It is understood that this entrepreneur, who emerged from the wave of state-owned enterprise marketization reforms in the 1980s, has a unique persistence in product design: large fonts and bright colors can capture consumers' attention and increase sales. Wang Guangxing opened Word, enlarged the two characters "椰树" (Coconut Palm) on the original black background design, changed the font color to bright yellow, and highlighted the black border to strengthen the contrast between the yellow font and black background. Among a group of red and green beverage packages, Coconut Palm's black and yellow design always catches the eye first. Over the years, Wang Guangxing has been satisfied with his design, and this Coconut Palm coconut juice packaging design has been used for many years. Coconut Palm's Haikou headquarters took this coconut juice packaging as a circle, enlarged it hundreds of times, and made a similar sculpture placed at the entrance. This Hong Kong-Taiwan style stall design, which combines the conflicting colors of black, yellow, and blue, is also widely used in Coconut Palm's headquarters building, advertising boards, exhibition stands, and even the internal magazine "Coconut Palm People." If such packaging and advertising initially attracted consumers and satisfied their curiosity, then Coconut Palm Group's subsequent confusing operations were self-deprecating. In 2008, Coconut Palm Group was listed as a "typical case of cracking down on false advertising and protecting rights" by the Jilin Provincial Administration for Industry and Commerce due to its ad involving deceptive prize-winning sales. In 2009, Coconut Palm Group was ordered by the local industry and commerce department to stop and was fined 1,000 yuan for printing ads on Haikou buses with phrases like "Wives like husbands drinking Coconut Palm pomegranate juice" and "Papaya full, I'm full," which were deemed illegal releases. In 2016, Coconut Palm Group launched a chest-model bottle mineral water, which faced objections as soon as it hit the market. Later, in an interview with Hainan Daily, Coconut Palm Group responded that the chest-model bottle was to showcase female beauty, and competitors, jealous of the product's popularity, made unreasonable complaints and malicious attacks. In 2017, Coconut Palm Group was suspected of vulgar marketing because its ad mentioned that "coconut juice contains vitamin E, which can improve libido and promote the development of young girls." In March 2019, Coconut Palm Group Hainan Coconut Juice Beverage Co., Ltd. was fined 200,000 yuan for disrupting social public order or violating social good customs. The National Radio and Television Administration issued a notice banning the broadcast of "Coconut Palm coconut juice" ads. In August 2020, Coconut Palm Group's recruitment ad for professional manager trainees mentioned that applicants needed to promise lifelong service at "Coconut Palm," write a commitment letter, pledge their real estate as collateral, and if leaving "Coconut Palm," repay with the property. Additionally, applicants were required to be "loyal, not selfish, and prioritize career over family," which netizens questioned as a "modern indenture contract." Subsequently, Coconut Palm Group apologized for "not strictly reviewing recruitment information and using inappropriate wording." As Coconut Palm Group's ad style visibly went astray, the brand department received calls almost every year with similar questions: "Can Coconut Palm coconut juice really enhance breasts?" "Does Coconut Palm's promotion involve pornography or fraud?" In response, the brand department always gave the unconvincing answer: "We never said drinking coconut juice can enhance breasts." -03- Wang Guangxing, Over Eighty Years Old, May Be Time to Learn to Let Go "Facing shrinkage and brand aging, coming up with eye-catching and vulgar marketing methods is a very failed approach." An industry insider once said that Coconut Palm coconut juice's brand promotion does not match the image of a state banquet beverage, and Coconut Palm Group has turned this advertising campaign into a corporate brand crisis. The reason for Coconut Palm Group's brand crisis may be that this old company is still trying to view the new world with old eyes. It is understood that although Coconut Palm Group's chairman Zhao Bo has been in office for over a decade, founder Wang Guangxing has never truly let go of the company's operations. Wang Guangxing's daughter, Wang Xiongzi, currently serves as vice chairman of Coconut Palm Group, and this vice chairman has higher exposure than Chairman Zhao Bo both in internal meetings and external activities. For example, at the 2019 year-end meeting, it was always Vice Chairman Wang Xiongzi who presided. In addition to not letting go, Wang Guangxing's vision also remains in the past. Data shows that Wang Guangxing was born in 1940 and is now 81 years old. Although he is low-key and never gives interviews, this has also deprived him of a window to understand the outside world. In 2016, when the chest-model bottle mineral water was launched, the promotional slogan "world's first touch-chest bottle" caused an uproar online, but Wang Guangxing himself was unaware. He claimed that the new product took 3 years to develop, "This beauty bottle packaging cannot be found anywhere else in the world." In his view, women would like this product, and men would like it even more. He even called on female employees to use this product for their wedding banquets. In August 2018, a designer from Hangzhou led students to redesign Coconut Palm's packaging, retaining the original yellow-black contrast. Previously, another designer had designed Coconut Palm packaging in a Polaroid style, also retaining the black-yellow conflicting colors, but the two large characters "椰树" were reduced in size. This was a design pattern Wang Guangxing was unwilling to see, and it was ultimately rejected. Clearly, Wang Guangxing, who enjoyed publicity and newspaper work in his youth, has not changed his inherent vision over time. The difficulty of shaking the will of top management may also have become an invisible 'obstacle' for Coconut Palm Group to be continuously overtaken by competitors on the beverage track. Coupled with insufficient innovation and inadequate channel investment, Coconut Palm Group is getting further and further from its goal of "achieving 10 billion yuan in output value." Thinking back to the once "national beverage" Huiyuan Juice, due to the aging of personnel, products, channels, teams, and insufficient market sensitivity, it gradually lost its supposedly stable "territory" and ultimately had to delist dimly. Today's Coconut Palm Group should learn from the failures of its predecessors and live up to consumers' love. Comprehensive sources: 21st Century Business Herald, Finance World Weekly, China Economic Net Tips will be paid 400-2000 yuan once adopted.