---
title: "Can Baixiang Outdo Master Kong and Uni-President?"
description: "The power of the internet has elevated Baixiang to the spotlight, bringing exponential growth in brand exposure and sales conversion. It seems Baixiang has become the biggest winner in the 'pit pickled cabbage' incident. The instant noodle industry, quiet for a long time, has been lively in the past six months, trending three times in a row."
author: "王冠群"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2022-04-28"
language: "en"
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# Can Baixiang Outdo Master Kong and Uni-President?

> The power of the internet has elevated Baixiang to the spotlight, bringing exponential growth in brand exposure and sales conversion. It seems Baixiang has become the biggest winner in the 'pit pickled cabbage' incident. The instant noodle industry, quiet for a long time, has been lively in the past six months, trending three times in a row.

The power of the internet has elevated Baixiang to the spotlight, bringing exponential growth in brand exposure and sales conversion. It seems Baixiang has become the biggest winner in the 'pit pickled cabbage' incident.
The instant noodle industry, quiet for a long time, has been lively in the past six months, trending three times in a row.
Once, during the July 20 heavy rain in Zhengzhou, Baixiang Foods, despite financial difficulties, donated 5 million yuan worth of instant noodles for disaster relief and trended.
Once, during the Beijing Paralympics, it trended that one-third of the production workers at Baixiang's Jining factory in Shandong were disabled.
Once, during the 2022 CCTV '3.15' gala, the 'old jar pickled cabbage' incident trended.
Especially after the exposure of the pit pickled cabbage, under the amplification effect of the internet, consumers began to irrationally and emotionally purchase Baixiang products. From offline supermarkets and community stores to e-commerce and live-streaming sales, nothing could stop consumers' impulsive consumption.
The power of the internet has elevated Baixiang to the spotlight, bringing exponential growth in brand exposure and sales conversion. It seems Baixiang has become the biggest winner in the 'pit pickled cabbage' incident.
The pit pickled cabbage incident hurt Uni-President and Master Kong, making the top two stumble, and suddenly made the long-quiet fourth player, Baixiang, go viral.
So there are many online discussions: Will Baixiang surpass Master Kong and Uni-President?
The pit pickled cabbage incident cannot topple Uni-President or Master Kong, nor can it make Baixiang the king of instant noodles!
**First, emotional and irrational consumption is not sustainable; after the trending, there is only loneliness.
During the July 20 flood in Zhengzhou, Erke made headlines for quietly donating 50 million yuan. Netizens rushed into Erke's live stream and bought recklessly, causing Erke's sales to skyrocket instantly.
But internet trends come and go; consumers cannot keep all their attention on Erke. When new online hotspots emerge, Erke quickly fades again.
Behind emotional consumption is blind following. It can bring huge short-term brand exposure and sales conversion, but it cannot reverse a brand's market position. Baixiang's situation is similar.
**Baixiang faces strong opponents.
In 2021, Master Kong's instant noodle sales were 28.4 billion yuan, Uni-President's 9 billion, Jinmailang's 7 billion, and Baixiang's 4 billion.
In 2021, the total sales (ex-factory price) of instant noodles in mainland China was about 63.7 billion yuan. Master Kong, Uni-President, Jinmailang, and Baixiang accounted for 46%, 15%, 11%, and 7% respectively, with Baixiang far behind the top three.
**Baixiang's big single-product development, big single-product cluster building, and product accumulation lag far behind Master Kong and Uni-President.
Product accumulation is the starting point for a company's success. It means continuously promoting a product over a relatively long period, achieving single-product breakthrough, and finally completing sales accumulation and consumer cognition accumulation: brand recognition.
Master Kong has 10 major series and over 100 single products, but the braised beef noodles launched in 1992 remain the largest single product in the instant noodle industry, enduring for a long time!
Forming the consumer cognition and brand accumulation: instant noodles = braised beef noodles = Master Kong.
Master Kong not only has a consumer big single product but also forms a big single product cluster: series like 'Mianba 120', 'Liaozhenduo', 'Xinmianzu', 'Qiaolinglong', 'Jinshuang Lamen', 'Asian Selection', 'Fumanduo', 'Jiangnan Meishi', 'Haowei', 'Little Tigers', 'Jinshuang', 'Soup Master', etc., meeting the needs of various consumer classes. Each series survives, sells well, and accumulates.
Not only the classic braised beef flavor, but also popular flavors like spicy beef, shrimp and fish board, mushroom chicken, black pepper steak, and braised beef.
Uni-President began focusing on the old jar pickled cabbage beef flavor in the second half of 2008 and has been on a roll since.
Classic products: Uni 100, Lai Yi Tong, Man Han Da Can, Tang Daren, Qiao Mian Guan, Champion List, Du Hui Xiao Guan, Qie Huang, Teng Jiao, Xiao Dang Jia, Xiao Huan Xiong, etc.
Common features of Master Kong and Uni-President products:
_**a. Products launched have become classics and are continuously upgraded and optimized.**_ _**b. They have multiple continuously best-selling big single products.**_ _**c. Big single products have formed consumer cognition.**_ _**d. The survival rate of new products is very high, and the best-selling of new products does not affect the best-selling of old products.**_
Now let's look at Baixiang:
Around 2000, the best-selling product was Baixiang instant noodles, with the slogan: Baixiang instant noodles, less than one yuan.
Around 2003, the best-selling was Haohao Chi Mian, then Jin Baixiang, Da Lajiao, Da Gu Mian, Zhen Gu Bao, and now the best-selling are Duo Ban Dai, Duo Ban Tong, and Tang Hao He.
**The product strategy is unclear and unstable, always drifting, unable to leave a clear product memory symbol for consumers.**
**Nor has it formed big single product accumulation; almost all products are short-term tactical products, launching a new product and discarding an old one.**
Continuously promoting new products without any achieving a true single-product breakthrough. Core products constantly change packaging and selling points, and the terminal product image keeps changing.
In the end, advertising and marketing expenses are not less, but no product forms consumption accumulation and cognition.
Master Kong and Uni-President attract consumers with quality and taste, while Baixiang still attracts consumers with affordability.
Can those who play affordability beat those who play quality? Are there such cases?
Common features of century-old enterprises and companies with over 10 billion in revenue: they have classic big single products and big single product clusters. For example, Coca-Cola, with 135 years of history, has carbonated drinks like Coca-Cola, Sprite, and Minute Maid; Procter & Gamble, with 184 years of history, has enduring brands like Pampers, Crest, and Tide.
What Baixiang lacks is not brand exposure, but a competitive core big single product that can represent Baixiang, and product innovation and upgrading.
What it lacks is products that can compete on the same stage with Master Kong and Uni-President.
**Baixiang's market accumulation lags far behind Master Kong and Uni-President.
In the end, corporate competition is competition for terminal control, that is, competition for base markets. Whoever has more and larger base markets will own the future market and have higher sales.
Master Kong has annual sales exceeding 1 billion yuan in nearly 20 provinces and controls nearly 4 million terminal sales points. From Sanya in the south to Mohe in the north, from Yili in the west to Shanghai in the east, you can buy Master Kong in any convenience store or supermarket you see.
Uni-President has also established its G10 base in East China, South China, and Central China.
Henan, Shandong, Jiangsu, and Shanxi, as Baixiang's base markets, are now falling one by one. Once a company of the same size as Jinmailang, it is now far behind Jinmailang.
The result of failing to form product accumulation: the large markets and bases established at great cost, as old product sales shrink, today's base is yours, tomorrow it becomes someone else's.
**Baixiang has not yet formed its own clear market management system and model.**
Master Kong introduced the channel fine cultivation model in 1998, Jinmailang has the four-in-one system, and Uni-President implements channel fine cultivation and the 'Da Bao Zhuan' system. Regardless of changes in professional managers, these companies' models continue and are implemented.
Poor Baixiang: its model has been wavering and changing. Each new general manager introduces a new system. Now it is introducing Jinmailang's four-in-one system. The question is, can you beat Jinmailang using the system Jinmailang is currently using?
Secondly, there are also flaws in market competition strategy. Baixiang adopts the strategy of encircling cities from rural areas, while Master Kong and Uni-President adopt the strategy of using cities to ignite rural areas. Chairman Mao's premise for using the rural encirclement strategy was that rural population accounted for 95% and urban only 5%. Now, the urban population proportion has exceeded 60%.
Most critically, current consumption is such that whatever is popular in cities is quickly followed by rural areas. As a result, Baixiang instant noodles cannot enter cities, and even if they do, they sit on shelves with poor sales.
**Baixiang's middle and senior management team changes frequently.
Enterprise development depends not on the number of employees, but on the number of elite employees, that is, the number of talents.
From a human resources perspective, all large enterprises share a common feature: the boss has a group of loyal talents around, and as the entrepreneurial journey progresses, more talents join. Moreover, the speed and quantity of talent aggregation are proportional to the speed and scale of enterprise development.
Baixiang's boss is generous and willing to pay high salaries. However, due to strategic instability and insufficient product strength, the turnover rate of core employees is too high.
The stability of core executives determines the stability of business decisions, and the stability of employees determines the stability of customers and markets.
**Final Thoughts:**
For a consumer brand, relying on emotional consumption, sentiment, and hype can solve short-term sales growth, but cannot maintain long-term sales growth.
Because consumers' enthusiasm lasts only a moment. The only way to capture consumers is to continuously develop competitive products when their attention and enthusiasm are focused on the brand, so that consumers have a good consumption experience and automatically repurchase.
The best outcome of emotional consumption: consumers initially buy out of sentiment, but after experiencing the product, they repurchase spontaneously due to product quality and are willing to recommend it to others.
Without a core big single product, unable to seize consumer mindshare, without its own management system, without a clear business model, and without a solid base market, how can Baixiang defeat Master Kong and Uni-President?
Product is 1, marketing is 0. If 1 is not done well, any other investment is wasted.
Source: Yingxiaoli (ID: yingxiaoli888)
**Are you 'watching' me?**


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