---
title: "Can Coconut Palm Coconut Juice Achieve Transformation with Just Eye-Catching Ads?"
description: "The article discusses the marketing strategy of Coconut Palm coconut juice, a Chinese brand known for its controversial ads and packaging. Despite its strong product and distribution, the brand faces declining sales and needs to innovate to stay relevant in the competitive FMCG market."
author: "文海军"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2018-09-21"
language: "en"
canonical: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/can-coconut-palm-coconut-juice-achieve-transformation-with-just-eye-catc-b7288db8/"
markdown: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/can-coconut-palm-coconut-juice-achieve-transformation-with-just-eye-catc-b7288db8.md"
original_source: "https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/5qXkSjSh9qcbd521aOdtJw"
translation: "https://xinjignxiao.com/zh/articles/%E5%85%89%E9%9D%A0%E8%BE%A3%E7%9C%BC%E5%B9%BF%E5%91%8A-%E6%A4%B0%E6%A0%91%E7%89%8C%E6%A4%B0%E6%B1%81%E8%83%BD%E5%AE%9E%E7%8E%B0%E8%BD%AC%E5%9E%8B%E4%B9%8B%E8%B7%AF%E5%90%97-b7288db8.md"
attribution: "New Distribution — https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/can-coconut-palm-coconut-juice-achieve-transformation-with-just-eye-catc-b7288db8/"
usage_policy: "https://xinjignxiao.com/ai-policy.txt"
---

# Can Coconut Palm Coconut Juice Achieve Transformation with Just Eye-Catching Ads?

> The article discusses the marketing strategy of Coconut Palm coconut juice, a Chinese brand known for its controversial ads and packaging. Despite its strong product and distribution, the brand faces declining sales and needs to innovate to stay relevant in the competitive FMCG market.

Click to read the original article for details.
The essence of advertising marketing is to endow products with brand value. If you can't add the finishing touch, don't add unnecessary details.
**——Wen Haijun said**
Recently, while watching a movie in the cinema, the latest advertisement for Coconut Palm coconut juice appeared every time during the first few minutes of ads. Endorsed by Xu Dongdong, with a black background and the character standing out prominently, wearing tight clothing and holding a bottle of coconut juice, she says: "I've been drinking it since I was young."
**You might think this ad was made by Tingmei.**
However, Coconut Palm coconut juice's ads have never been "proper" to begin with. From packaging materials to online ads, they have always been ridiculed but never surpassed.
A netizen complained, "Coconut Palm coconut juice is like a utility pole covered with ads."
It is said that the art design of Coconut Palm coconut juice is personally handled by Chairman Wang Guangxing, who used only Word to create a packaging style that has been popular for decades.
And the TV ads feature beautiful models climbing trees at the slightest provocation, showing off their "chest shaking" skills. The advertising slogans are also uniformly "Drink Coconut Palm coconut juice, be fair and tender."
The endorsers have changed from the original sexy goddess Pan Chunchun to the current Xu Dongdong, but the style remains eternal. Some busybodies even came up with the title "After visiting the Five Mountains, one doesn't look at mountains; after returning from Coconut Palm, one doesn't look at chests." Such a hot style indeed doesn't match the former "state banquet beverage."
As a result, the wildly popular coconut juice ads have been criticized by various parties. Coconut Palm Group has been repeatedly complained about and fined, but in response to public criticism, Coconut Palm directly placed a response at the group's main gate, saying: "Some Chinese people are just making a fuss over nothing."
Although the advertising style is controversial, as a national-level old brand in the plant protein beverage market, "Southern Coconut Palm, Northern Lulu" has always been the industry benchmark. Coconut Palm coconut juice has also gone through thirty years, and to this day, its annual output value remains at 4 billion yuan, which can be said to be a legend.
01
**Rustic packaging triggers consumer complaints**
Don't be fooled by the current "unserious" ads of Coconut Palm Group; its predecessor was actually a "serious" old state-owned enterprise with a long history. But since transforming into Coconut Palm coconut juice, it has always been associated with "fair and tender" and "breast enhancement." Coconut Palm Group explains the origin of the advertising slogan on its official website: "First, fair and tender is the most vivid appearance of Coconut Palm coconut juice, naturally beautiful. Second, long-term consumption of Coconut Palm coconut juice will bring people beautiful skin and youthful vitality."
And the newly launched chest-shaped bottle mineral water before, it's hard to know what to say.
As a result, an online poll was even issued: "Should we boycott Coconut Palm ads?" More than half of the people thought they should be boycotted.
In fact, besides attracting attention, the most important thing for ads is to match the product positioning to create real value. Otherwise, money is spent but the effect is minimal, which is like adding unnecessary details and may even have a negative impact on the brand image.
David Ogilvy, the godfather of advertising and founder of Ogilvy & Mather, proposed the Brand Image theory: **"Consumers buy not just products, but psychological satisfaction. Therefore, ads should endow the brand with emotion and shape its image to move consumers."**
The biggest feeling Coconut Palm coconut juice gives consumers is actually "health." It was once popular as a state banquet beverage and is a symbol of the era of Hainan Special Economic Zone. Compared to ads that flirt with pornography, Coconut Palm could easily make ads that match its own temperament, so why bother doing thankless work?
02
**The Golden Age of Coconut Palm Coconut Juice**
How popular was Coconut Palm coconut juice once?
In the late 1980s, the domestic plant protein beverage market had not yet seen the birth of large enterprises, and the old enterprise Chengde Lulu had not yet gone public. At that time, coconut juice products were born. **It once occupied the entire domestic coconut juice market, and later, when other coconut juice drinks rose, it firmly held half of the market, with the remaining half shared by other coconut juice manufacturers.**
**(1) Product is king**
Essentially, the reason Coconut Palm coconut juice has been able to sell well for decades is entirely due to its strong product. Only Hainan produces coconuts in large quantities nationwide. Coconut Palm Group, relying on its innate geographical advantage, has always insisted on fresh squeezing fresh coconut meat in Hainan's origin, achieving "four no additions": "no hormones, no flavors, no colors, no preservatives." Compared to other coconut juice flavors, it has no taste of chemical food additives.
Because the coconut juice squeezed from coconut meat contains oil, if it is canned directly without separation, it is easy to cause swelling due to weather. In 1987, Coconut Palm Group solved the technical problems of "oil-water separation" and "protein coagulation." Currently, only Coconut Palm Group possesses the water-oil separation technology, which is globally leading, and other small and medium-sized enterprises cannot achieve this technology.
It is said that employees and their families of Coconut Palm Group take boxes of coconut juice home during holidays, which shows the quality of the coconut juice, given the common saying in the food industry: "What do people in the food industry not eat?"
**(2) Strong distribution system**
Having a good product is not enough; good wine also needs no bush.
Coconut Palm Group has a strong ground promotion team and a nationwide distribution system. Corresponding local distributors build warehouses for storage, transfer, distribution, and then promote to various stores and supermarkets. This is something other coconut juice manufacturers in Hainan cannot surpass for now, which is why Coconut Palm is the only one from Hainan coconut juice that has emerged.
**(3) Catching the marketing express**
In 1991, Coconut Palm coconut juice was designated as a Chinese state banquet beverage. When national leaders entertained foreign heads of state or held talks with political figures from various countries, high-quality natural mineral water and Coconut Palm coconut juice were always prominently placed on both sides of the table.
As a state banquet beverage, Coconut Palm drinks were spread through media such as CCTV, and their marketing effect was more useful than any advertisement.
03
**Under the downward trend of FMCG**
Data shows that the output value of Coconut Palm coconut juice has been declining from 2014 to 2016. In 2016, the output value was 4.021 billion yuan, a decrease of 430 million yuan compared to 2014. Obviously, relying solely on eye-catching ads cannot achieve sustained growth. Coconut Palm coconut juice, with an annual output value of 4 billion yuan, should also consider brand transformation.
**1. The beverage market is already a red ocean**
Currently, the beverage market is already a red ocean, with a wide variety of domestic and foreign beverage categories, and the ceiling effect of sales has formed. **New brands enter, warlords divide the market, the overall growth of the beverage industry is weak, FMCG is on a downward trend, and the era of big single products is gone forever.**
The coconut juice industry has low barriers to entry, and product homogenization is very serious. The rise of major coconut juice brands such as Special Forces and Huanlejia has each taken a share of the coconut juice beverage market. As for coconut juice, although Coconut Palm dominates the island market, it is not optimistic. Competitors outside the island are gradually growing stronger. In the Pearl River Delta region alone, there are more than 60 coconut juice manufacturers with an annual output value exceeding 20 billion yuan, far exceeding Hainan.
**2. Marketing fails to grasp user pain points and cannot enhance brand value**
Coconut Palm's advertising and promotion route has not changed for decades, always following the line of drinking coconut juice for a good figure, breast enhancement, and fair skin. It doesn't match its product image, and the product packaging is too rough. Although "no added flavors" is eye-catching enough, it completely kills the brand value of the packaging and wastes the reputation of a state banquet beverage.
**Although products need focused positioning, a product without a soul cannot go far.** For example, Xiangpiaopiao's ad "Xiangpiaopiao sells over 300 million cups a year, and the cups can circle the earth when connected" has clear positioning but kills value innovation and corporate upgrading. It spent 1.1 billion yuan on advertising in 4 years but only earned 900 million yuan in net profit.
**3. Marketing team and channels are gradually aging**
In recent years, Coconut Palm Group's marketing team and channels have been gradually aging, mainly relying on the original brand influence to sell products. A former head of the market department of Coconut Palm Group believes that the main reason for Coconut Palm Group's decline is the company's lack of product innovation, and it has not invested in R&D and promotion according to market changes and consumption upgrades for many years. In addition, it gives almost no extra profit to channel dealers, so dealers' enthusiasm is not high.
"Now most Coconut Palm products go through wholesale channels, placed on shelves for consumers to choose themselves."
**4. The pace of product development is too slow**
**Nowadays, the FMCG industry is highly competitive, and relying solely on a big single product cannot last long.** Coconut Palm has decades of reputation and brand, but it has not developed related peripheral products. Competitor Chunguang Group has developed with coconut sugar, coffee sugar, coconut cakes, and other coconut processed foods, while Coconut Palm Group still sticks to the niche coconut juice beverage market without moving.
Although facing internal and external troubles, Coconut Palm coconut juice has made some responses. For example, in July 2016, it quietly changed its packaging, focusing on health, youth, consumption upgrade, and other tactics, but the effect was not obvious.
The new packaging is not much different from the past and has not been widely applied.
And the newly launched ad endorsed by Xu Dongdong still follows the same positioning of "fair and tender" and breast enhancement as before.
04
**The transformation path of old brands**
Many old FMCG brands began to decline after reaching their peak from 2013 to 2014. The biggest dilemma for old brands is "high awareness, low recognition."
There are many old brand beverages with the same recognition as Coconut Palm coconut juice, such as Tianfu Cola, Beibingyang, and Want Want, and they have all been seeking breakthroughs.
**1. Product is the moat, and winning with differentiation**
Tianfu Cola, which withdrew from the market for twenty years, quickly grew sales upon its comeback with nostalgia marketing, but soon showed fatigue and began to lose money. Later, based on the positioning of plant-based health functional carbonated beverages, it highlighted its own characteristics in marketing and concentrated resources to achieve market breakthroughs. It gradually expanded production lines to seize beverage market share.
The Beibingyang R&D team, which returned in 2008, considered that young people might not accept the "strong fizz that stings the throat," so the new Beibingyang has lower carbon dioxide content than the old one. Moreover, one of the reasons Beijingers like Beibingyang is that "there are real ingredients inside." So today's Beibingyang soda has a fruit juice purity close to 4%, nearly double that of the old Beibingyang. Pure fruit juice carbonated beverages are also relatively blank in the market. If Beibingyang can do its signature skill well, it may be able to achieve product differentiation and win.
For old brands, in terms of products, it's not just about simply restoring the original taste, but also developing products suitable for modern tastes and needs to capture consumers. **No matter the era, product is the greatest competitiveness for enterprises to occupy and disrupt the market.**
**2. Innovation empowers the brand and enriches the product line**
Nowadays, the market is unpredictable, like sailing against the current; if you don't advance, you retreat. Relying solely on a single product has made it difficult to occupy the market.
Li Qi, the head of Beibingyang, believes that "**a brand cannot be supported by a single product; only when the product line is rich can it stand firm.**" So Beibingyang, in addition to the traditional orange juice, has also launched bayberry juice and pipa zhi, as well as portable cans. It has also launched a large number of cold food products.
Tianfu Cola accelerated new product launches after its comeback, including soda water, salt soda, plant protein beverages, and Qingniao soda, creating a diversified category.
Want Want, well-known to the public, is also facing a "midlife crisis" and has been innovating products in recent years. In 2017 alone, it launched 48 new products. Although the effect on the market is not obvious, Want Want is not short of money at present. With sufficient cash flow, only by continuous attempts can it develop products that are popular in the market.
**3. Marketing follows current trends and learns new retail tactics**
According to Maslow's hierarchy of needs, people's needs can be divided into five levels. As the economic level improves, the level of needs gradually rises. Today's young consumers are no longer satisfied with basic survival needs but pursue higher levels, that is, "consumption upgrade." If old brands still stick to the old ways, how can they win the favor of the new generation?
Beibingyang hired a young design team to design a new image for Beibingyang, retaining the "snow mountain white bear" that has been used for over 60 years, but also made other attempts to match the tastes and aesthetics of today's young people. Even Nongfu Spring has been changing its packaging, launching artistic high-end mineral water bottles with patterns incorporating traditional Chinese elements such as Siberian tigers, red deer, and cranes, with a glass texture and a fairy-like aura, winning the Pentawards Platinum Award, the Oscar of the design world.
No matter what business, even the most successful one, will eventually lose room for development. To maintain long-term success, enterprises must regularly innovate and reinvent. **Gretzky, known as the "best ice hockey player of the century," summarized his success experience as: "Skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been."**
Relying on age without selling age, seeking innovation without abandoning the old, is the development purpose of old brands.
**On October 23-24, during the Autumn Sugar and Wine Fair, the "2018 FMCG City Distribution Logistics Conference" hosted by New Distribution will be held.** At that time, we will invite industry experts, FMCG warehousing and distribution specialists, and distributors who have transformed into unified warehousing and distribution platforms to discuss and answer questions about the future development trends of FMCG city distribution logistics and practical cases of distributor transformation to unified warehousing and distribution. We hope to bring you different inspiration and thinking!
-END-


---

## Copyright and AI use

This article is sourced from New Distribution. Search, quotation, summarization, and model training are permitted, but every use must credit New Distribution and retain the canonical source URL.

Contact: zhaobo258@gmail.com · +86 158 5481 7671