Do you still remember the Weilong latiao with its Apple-style packaging from years ago? When it comes to Weilong, whether you like latiao or not, you might, like me, recall many of its marketing stunts. From self-deprecating posts on its official flagship store to creating its own 'Apple-style' promotional materials, and collaborating with variety shows, games, and comics for creative packaging and copy, Weilong is truly the 'Durex' of the marketing world. Its marketing campaigns have repeatedly sparked heated discussions and gone viral. But is it just good marketing? Not really. If these were merely one-off marketing campaigns, could other brands replicate them? Not necessarily. Because at the heart of marketing lies the value a company brings to consumers and the long-term connection it builds with them. What consumers directly use is product value, while the less visible but continuously influential factors are brand influence, which forms the basis for a lasting relationship between the brand and consumers. Weilong, which understands this well, owes its outstanding marketing success to its long-term maintenance and shaping of both product and brand. Recently, CCTV.com's 'Super Factory' program went straight to Weilong's latiao production site, publicly revealing the entire production process to the public, attracting a wave of attention. I also followed CCTV's camera to delve into the underlying marketing logic that has enabled Weilong to stand out in the latiao industry and become a category leader. 01 Twenty Years of Dedication Achieve National 'Trustworthy' Quality Since 2001, when Weilong's chairman, Liu Weiping, upgraded the traditional snack niujinmian to create the first latiao, latiao has been deeply loved by consumers. In 2004, Weilong took the lead in launching standardized, automated safety production lines, marking a turning point and the beginning of Weilong's rise. Clearly, Liu Weiping's insight into the latiao industry was forward-looking at the time. Subsequently, Weilong invested heavily in supply chain assurance, upgrading semi-automated production lines to fully automated ones, establishing systematic product technical standards and quality management systems, and hiring senior quality inspectors. In 2010, Weilong hired celebrity endorsements; in 2012, it invited Yang Mi; and then, building on its momentum, it created a series of well-known marketing events, gradually changing the negative image of the latiao industry in consumers' minds and successfully shaping a brand image of hygiene, safety, high-end, and approachability. Performance also grew rapidly, with Weilong selling the small latiao business to nearly 5 billion yuan in annual revenue and exporting overseas. It's easy to see that the most obvious milestone that set Weilong apart from other latiao companies was being at the forefront of food safety production early on, using safety and quality as a moat. This is also the reason why, after more than 20 years of development, Weilong can lead the industry and become the industry leader. To this day, Weilong continues to focus on and adhere to high-standard latiao production, achieving its self-created 'Six Leading Advantages': leading raw materials, leading processes, leading production, leading R&D, leading channels, and leading sales. These 'Six Leading Advantages' are respectively reflected in: Raw materials: Selecting high-quality wheat and first-grade soybean oil, insisting on strategic cooperation with the 'big brand' COFCO; Processes: Adhering to non-fried, 0 trans fatty acids, 0 sodium cyclamate addition processes, and obtaining certifications for multiple national food safety management systems; Production: Introducing fully automated production equipment and advanced digital and intelligent technologies to improve production quality and efficiency; R&D: Establishing its own research institute and launching 'industry-university-research integration strategic cooperation' projects with academician Zhu Beibei's team from the Chinese Academy of Engineering, Dalian Polytechnic University, Jiangnan University, Henan University of Technology, and other five universities; Channels: Covering nearly 2,000 distributors and 690,000 national retail terminals; Sales: Selling well in 30 countries and regions worldwide, selling over 10 billion packs a year, and obtaining Frost & Sullivan's 'Global Sales Leadership' certification. Based on this, in July this year, Weilong initiated another epoch-making event: jointly with the Chinese Institute of Food Science and Technology, it released the first industry standard for latiao. The industry standard specifies the raw materials, production processes, and packaging and transportation of seasoned flour products. It unifies scope, terms and definitions, requirements, testing methods, indicator limits, and testing rules, ensuring that production processes have rules to follow, factory inspections have evidence to rely on, and product quality is further guaranteed, creating a more favorable environment for the high-quality development of China's seasoned flour product enterprises. 02 CCTV.com 'Super Factory' Explores Weilong's Trustworthy Factory: Weilong Takes the Lead in Launching the 'Trustworthy Strategy' Years of accumulation have enabled Weilong to stand out from the crowd of latiao companies and become the first choice for consumers. On the product side, based on the 'Six Leading Advantages,' Weilong can continuously provide valuable products to consumers. But this is not enough. Based on product value, the brand needs to continuously build long-term connections with consumers, constantly communicate with them, and continuously occupy their minds. Taking the opportunity of the release of the seasoned flour product industry standard, Weilong launched the 'Trustworthy Strategy' and will build its exclusive super IP 'Weilong Trustworthy Eating' around this strategy. The Trustworthy Strategy is a strategic consideration centered on product, communication, and channels, aiming to make consumers feel more at ease eating latiao. In terms of product, it focuses on the concept of trustworthiness and develops healthy new products; in terms of communication, it promotes trustworthy latiao to help legitimize the category; in terms of channels, it cultivates trustworthy terminals to lead a standardized market. These three operational actions around the 'Trustworthy Strategy' are interactive and complementary, and they are important measures for Weilong to focus on and continuously capture consumers' minds. In August this year, CCTV host Zhu Guangquan, together with CCTV.com's 'Super Factory,' visited Weilong's Trustworthy Factory, transparently showcasing Weilong's hard and soft strengths to the public. This also marked the official launch of Weilong's 'Trustworthy Strategy.' Mr. Chen Lin, Senior Vice President of Weilong Delicious, introduced to Zhu Guangquan: From flour to a complete pack of latiao, the entire process takes no more than one hour. After high-quality wheat, first-grade soybean oil, and other raw materials pass inspection, the non-fried, physically extruded and cooked latiao semi-finished products are automatically cut in golden ratio by machines, fully mixed with precisely weighed seasonings by fully automated production equipment, and then automatically sent to packaging bags by robot carts, with nitrogen filling for freshness. Each pack of Weilong latiao has a QR code 'ID card' for product traceability. A trustworthy Weilong latiao must pass more than 100 tests. Mr. Liu Zhongsi, Senior Vice President of Weilong Delicious, also specially shared with Zhu Guangquan and Chang Ting Weilong's chromatography laboratory, which was invested in with tens of millions of yuan and is unique in the industry. It can conduct full-chain testing from raw materials to finished products, monitoring 110 components including pesticide residues, heavy metals, trans fatty acids, and sodium cyclamate for illegal or excessive additions, fully safeguarding the safety and health of every pack of Weilong latiao. Determined to lead the industry and set the benchmark, Weilong has adhered to high standards for more than 20 years, achieving remarkable results in raw material selection, healthy processes, production standards, and R&D testing. CCTV.com's 'Super Factory' visit to Weilong's Trustworthy Factory can be said to have fired the first shot of Weilong's 'Trustworthy Strategy'! With the continuous development of the 'Weilong Trustworthy Eating' IP, consumers' brand awareness is gradually deepening, channel trust is also improving, and the entire industry feels the responsibility of the leading enterprise, setting an industry benchmark. Final Thoughts: I believe many people have memories of the taste of latiao. Latiao, as a seemingly insignificant traditional snack, has accompanied a generation's growth. Companies represented by Weilong have continuously improved their processes and R&D over the years, enabling the industrial production of a small stick of latiao, constantly creating delicious memories for new consumer groups, while also spreading this touch of Chinese flavor abroad to 30 countries and regions worldwide. With the formulation of the latiao industry standard and the continuous efforts of companies like Weilong, I believe the development of the entire seasoned flour product industry will be further promoted and developed. A small pack of latiao will also expand into a broader market space and become one of the indispensable food choices in people's lifestyles.