Condoms: From Past 'Pride and Prejudice' to Present 'Disruption and Transcendence'

In the movie 'Lost in Hong Kong,' there is a scene: "Hello sir, this is Elephant condom. Even when you're busy, you can... open it with one hand, it's great." Seeing Xu Zheng hesitating, the beauty continues: "As long as you hold the Elephant, you can make waves." This is an ad embedded in the movie by Elephant condoms. In this ad, Elephant is closely integrated with the plot, driving the story forward and enhancing the comedy, making it one of the most memorable ad placements for audiences at the time. It can be said that in 2016, Elephant was a dark horse in movie product placement, and this scene originated from the keen insight of Zhao Chuan, founder of Elephant condoms, into the outside world. "China's market is one that can incubate world-class enterprises in any industry, but there must be a line that allows you to sense the external market, environment, and policy changes. You must keep a clear mind, see where the national light shines, and follow it, and you will be seen." Zhao Chuan, founder of Elephant condoms, emphasized: China is sending a strong voice to the world, China is moving to the center of the world stage, and this era is calling for national brands. In ten years, with revenue reaching 600 million yuan, Elephant has gone from an unknown brand to the top five in its category.

Finding the Right Way to Compete When it comes to condoms, many people's first reaction might be Durex. After all, over the past decade, with the dividend of social media marketing on Weibo, this recognized "marketing master" has created countless phenomenal marketing cases. "Marketing master" Durex and "tech geek" Okamoto, these foreign capital brands, have been the so-called number one and number two in the industry for the past decade, while domestic brands have been absent for a long time. But adult products have always been a category that is not "presentable" in China. If marketing is not handled well, it can easily become synonymous with "vulgarity," and incidents of marketing failures and fines have become more frequent. In such an extremely sensitive and tiered camp, Zhao Chuan led the domestic brand Elephant to break through in the past two years, gaining increasing attention. "Elephant condoms" is a Chinese brand born and raised with the concept of "exploring pleasure." Starting in 2013, within just over a year, by 2015, online e-commerce sales on platforms like JD.com and Tmall reached 1 million yuan. In 2021, cumulative sales on online platforms reached 200 million yuan; at that time, offline channels covered more than 200 cities. Over the past decade, Elephant condoms has made many innovations, creating a patented butter box design and becoming the first domestic brand to master the butter box machine technology. Through hundreds of repeated studies and tests, they developed the thinnest latex 002 free series, thinner than all latex condoms on the market, continuously innovating to better serve consumers. Currently, it has become one of the representative domestic brands for young, fashionable, trendy, and fun condoms in China, with a trend of "keeping pace" with leading brands. Before founding Elephant, Zhao Chuan worked in the aviation industry, selling aircraft and parts. Why make such a huge leap from heavy industry to the condom industry? Zhao Chuan frankly stated: I have a obsession with brands. I have always wanted to independently create a brand and have been researching which industry to enter. Why choose the condom category? In the medical device industry, the condom category has two major problems: first, oligopoly; second, there is no Chinese brand. This is an abnormal and unhealthy structure. The technical barriers are not high, so why can't we create a brand made in China? Zhao Chuan believes that Chinese brands have a great opportunity in the condom category. Next, we need to think about how to convey information to consumers? Zhao Chuan said that many people first think of channels, but this category already has leading players. If you enter their battle mode, you are passive, and being led by the nose means you have no say. Brand marketing is the most important way to communicate with consumers, and this method must be different from traditional marketing. Zhao Chuan's approach is to see where consumers' emotional outlets are, and if you find this outlet, you will get twice the result with half the effort. Adam Brandenburger and Barry Nalebuff once said: "Success comes from the right way to compete." For example, the outcome of a fight between a bear and a crocodile depends on the terrain. Both animals are fierce on their own turf, but a bear struggles in a swamp, and a crocodile has no advantage on land. Therefore, in a battle, evenly matched opponents can only win on their own turf, and you should define a competitive space where you take the initiative and strive for success before powerful opponents enter. So early in Elephant's founding, Zhao Chuan deeply understood this logic, skipping functional value and leveraging emotional value to drive brand communication. The communication between a brand and consumers is based on cause and effect: because I have advantages one, two, three, because I am good, so you should buy me. Elephant hopes to establish a deeper inspirational relationship with consumers, showing the brand's goodness in a gentle, cultural, powerful, and beautiful way. Why is it called "Elephant"? The elephant is a symbol of strength and happiness. So the brand slogan is: Hold the Elephant, make waves. Following the line of "emotional value," Elephant has built a "narrative line" that has lasted for 7 years.

Seizing Four Emotional Consumption Outlets In fact, everyone has a desire for happiness and beauty in their hearts, but with the progress and changes of the times, current emotions are seen and amplified. In the years when they were not seen, this desire did not disappear; it just lacked an outlet for release and expression. Zhao Chuan emphasized one point: We need to create emotions, cater to emotions, but not consume emotions. Zhao Chuan, now 35, has a strong sense of perception and exploration of changes in the external environment and national policies, and he has seized four waves of emotional consumption. First Wave: Movie Scenes In 2010, the General Office of the State Council issued guidance on promoting the prosperity and development of the film industry, emphasizing that the film industry is a cultural industry with high technology content, high added value, low resource consumption, and low environmental pollution. Vigorously developing the film industry is of great significance for strengthening socialist cultural construction, meeting the spiritual and cultural needs of the people, and promoting coordinated economic and social development. In 2016, the state again explicitly supported the film market, and that year the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress issued the "Film Industry Promotion Law," which solidified and elevated the policy measures and successful experiences of film industry reform and development over the years in legal form. So in those years, the film industry blossomed and exploded, with major cinemas scheduling many screenings. Zhao Chuan said: Opportunity came. At that time, watching movies became a second wave of consumption after meals and a popular social activity. Elephant quickly entered the film market, investing in movies, including sponsorships, naming rights, and product placements. At most, they invested in and sponsored 22 movies in a year. At that time, marketing was not aimed at selling goods but only at brand exposure. Elephant stood with celebrities to highlight brand tone. This cross-border marketing made Elephant break out for the first time, with sales increasing 8 times. Second Wave: Social Scenes Since the internet bubble around 2000, internet companies have appeared as transformative forces. From Google to Baidu to Sina and other portal websites, the internet has been changing the way information is disseminated. Before Sina Weibo appeared, ordinary people could only express themselves through print and electronic media. Weibo launched in 2009, and since its launch, registered users have maintained explosive growth, further reducing the cost of information dissemination. This product of the era gave everyone an outlet to express emotions publicly; everyone could voice their own opinions and hear others'. It was in this era that Zhao Chuan saw the opportunity and seized the trend of emotional value consumption. Zhao Chuan said: Everyone has a desire to pry, especially into celebrities. Weibo gave consumers a window to pry into human nature, so Elephant began cooperating with film and television, interacting with celebrities on Weibo, and doing cross-border marketing. In this scenario, Elephant brand gained the most dissemination and exposure. Third Wave: Trend Scenes After 2017, music festivals began to rise. The 2017 variety show "The Rap of China" popularized Chinese rap, and hip-hop music and artists became prevalent. The biggest feature of this wave of marketing is that the consumer group covered is young people, especially those aged 18 to 34, who accounted for the majority of ticket buyers, with women accounting for over 66%. At this stage, music festivals became an excellent scene for brand exposure and promotion because this group is also the most concerned customer base for various new consumer brands. Music festivals not only provided brands with the opportunity to convey unique brand concepts and establish a youthful brand image but also became one of the ways for young people to relieve stress and pursue self-pleasure experiences. At this stage, Elephant began to appear at major music festivals, cooperated with hip-hop music, and wrote many hip-hop songs. In this context, Elephant hip-hop music often topped the charts. However, this round of emotional consumption cycle was short and ended quickly, but Elephant captured and precisely covered a portion of young consumers. Fourth Wave: Open Cultural Scenes, such as ACG and Bilibili Before the outbreak of the pandemic in 2020, the development of mobile internet made the dissemination of ACG content increasingly strong, and it had entered a relatively mature stage. Its culture has penetrated various fields, such as film, television, games, and music. ACG culture has gradually moved from the edge to the mainstream, becoming an important lifestyle and value for young people. Among them, the post-90s and post-00s are the main users of ACG, with 88.5% being post-90s and 15.8% post-00s. The popularity of this culture implies that consumers' demand for spiritual and cultural consumption has increased, and their purchasing power has strengthened. At this time, Bilibili also reached a peak, becoming a paradise for the post-90s generation to satisfy their emotional needs for social interaction, curiosity, companionship, and playful fun. Elephant entered this open cultural platform to empathize, inviting a total of about 700,000 to 800,000 ACG bloggers to co-create a lot of high-quality content, which could achieve about 150 million interactions per month. So in the past 7 years, including the three years of the pandemic, Elephant has maintained a growth rate of nearly 45%-50% each year. Looking at these 7 years, Elephant's strategy logic is: although the result is growth, the goal has always been brand communication. When asked Zhao Chuan: Among brand power, product power, and channel power, which do you value most? Zhao Chuan answered: First is brand power, second is product power, and third is channel power. Why? Zhao Chuan explained: Channels have a dividend period, but also an expiration date. For Elephant, channels are limited. I need to think about how to tear open a gap and how to make it wider and wider, like ripples, spreading and propagating circle by circle, forming momentum. Also because of this brand obsession, Zhao Chuan seized every major communication era and pushed Elephant to the forefront.

Becoming a Public Social Enterprise Today, Elephant has an annual sales volume of 600 million yuan, growing from an unknown domestic brand to a leader in this track. But interestingly, in China, this category is classified as a Class II medical device, and the entire process from production to sales is strictly regulated, with supervision intensity second only to pacemakers. Moreover, the Advertising Law also has strict requirements for condoms, and platforms like Xiaohongshu, Douyin, and Kuaishou have strict restrictions on this category. So in the public eye, condoms are a product that is hard to mention and highly private. In such a relatively closed and mysterious track, the growth potential exceeds many people's imagination. China's sex products market has grown at a rate of over 30% in the past few years, with the overall scale exceeding 100 billion yuan by 2020. As one of the basic categories with the highest penetration and purchase volume, condoms are consumed at a rate of 15 billion units per year in China, and this number is steadily growing at 15% annually. On one hand, it is "severely suppressed," and on the other, it is "rapidly growing." This stark contrast further highlights consumers' high demand for it. With the awakening of self-awareness and the progress of consumption concepts among the post-90s and post-95s, young people are becoming more frank in pursuing "sexual" happiness, which has led to the rapid expansion of the consumer group and the release of consumption demand, serving as the underlying driver for the industry's explosion and sustained growth in recent years. As the industry enters a stable period, the main driving force for growth in the condom market will shift from the increase in penetration and consumption quantity to consumption upgrading. The most critical point is that consumers' confidence in domestic brands and their purchasing power have visibly improved, and they no longer "worship foreign things." For Elephant, this is the right time and place, and also "people in harmony." Zhao Chuan, born in the 1980s, is now 35, and he has a clear plan for his enterprise. "After 40, I hope Elephant will be a public social enterprise," Zhao Chuan said. How to understand this?

First, the enterprise scale should be influential enough, with influence in your industry, or even in a larger industrial chain.

Second, the enterprise should have the ability to export to society. What to export? Not just donating money and goods; it is about exporting brand concepts, social talents, and contributions to upstream and downstream.

Third, public welfare value. Zhao Chuan positions himself as a sociology enthusiast. When an enterprise has the first two points, it becomes a genuine Chinese enterprise, and then the intangible public welfare value emerges. What is a "genuine" Chinese enterprise? First, it must be registered in China and be a Chinese brand; second, it must participate in national construction and governance, understand the national voice and policy direction; third, it must be able to tell Chinese stories well. Elephant's first step is the cultivation of a talent pipeline. Elephant has a complete talent training system, with different training methods for early employees, middle management, and senior management, allowing each employee to maximize their value in their position. "What personal expectations do you have for yourself, or what state do you hope to be in when you are 50?" "I hope that when I am 50, I will be the same as now, taking every step with restraint, including the development of the enterprise, and continuing to maintain restraint in every step." "Why use 'restraint' to describe yourself?" "Because people's ambitions are induced by achievements. A person who has never achieved anything has no ambition, but when you can do more and more things, your ambition will grow. I hope we can always operate the enterprise with restraint and manage ourselves with restraint." Indeed, Elephant has developed to this day, clearly grasping the rhythm at every step, accelerating while restraining, like the A and B sides of a person, balancing and constraining each other, with a clear goal. Goethe said in "Faust": "He who can restrain can succeed." Elephant is like a mirror of Zhao Chuan, an enterprise that is emotionally delicate and not impetuous. "Because I always believe that the operation of this society always needs some particularly vibrant entrepreneurs who have the ability to contribute strength."