Source丨Daofa Research Institute Daofa Marketing Research Uni-President, Wahaha, Nongfu Spring—the no-gas soda water track is not short of giants, but the 'invisible boss' holding the fort is actually an old Henan brand, 'Mingren', which was certified by Shangpu Consulting Group as 'China's No.1 Soda Water Brand'. And this brand is actually a cross-industry player. Mingren's parent company, Mingren Pharmaceutical, has three major businesses, with a total of 4 billion yuan across the entire industry chain in 2024. Among them, the pharmaceutical and health food business is 200-300 million yuan, and the pharmacy chain business is 200-300 million yuan. In other words, the Mingren soda water business, which the group started later, is expected to exceed 3 billion yuan, truly a case of 'side business earning more than the main business'. For this brand that was once the group's 'side business', Daofa studied its history and found that its secret is to seize the 'drinkers' (a nickname for heavy drinkers, no negative connotation), play the role of a 'drinking buddy', and not rely on 'big channels' but tackle 'small distribution'.

Healthy Water Sold to Unhealthy 'Drinkers' Let's go back nearly 20 years. Why would a small-scale traditional Chinese medicine processing plant think of making water? It was the result of pharmacists' tinkering. At that time, the pharmacists in Mingren Pharmaceutical's team discovered that many chronic diseases related to human metabolism are linked to the acid-base balance of daily drinking water and body fluids, so they wanted to make a soda water that suits multiple groups, can be consumed long-term, and has health properties. In this process, Mingren also transferred its main business advantages to the side business—making soda water from baking soda requires ultra-clean processes throughout, otherwise flocculent substances are easily produced. Mingren solved this problem first by applying pharmaceutical production techniques to the soda water production line. The idea was good, and the product was ready, but unfortunately the market didn't buy it. After its launch in 2007, Mingren went through 7 years of trial and error. For example, they once cooperated with CCTV and wrote in the advertisement: Ming Mountain, Ming Water, Mingren Soda Water. It rhymes, but the meaning is somewhat unclear. They also launched a series of slogans:

  • Healthy Water, Source of Life
  • Mingren Soda Water, Healthy Life Water
  • True Weak Alkaline, True Soda It's clear they were really trying to promote health. But in that era of high-profile mass communication, health was indeed a public demand, so why were these marketing moves ineffective? The key behind this is that no-gas soda water is a new category lacking consumer awareness. Image source: Shanghai Yuhan Consulting "Soda Water Market Report" From the development timeline in the above figure, unlike the popular sparkling soda water abroad, no-gas soda water only saw giants entering around 2019, which also meant the product's popularization. So for Mingren at that time, a new brand in a new category with a bad start, how to break through? As the old saying goes, practice leads to true knowledge. Tian Dongjian, National Deputy Marketing Director and Central-Western Theater Director of Mingren Soda Water, recalled that around 2015, they found that a retired principal in Hunan became an agent for Mingren, "an old man with two cars, selling 100,000 boxes" . In contrast, also in Hunan, a beverage distributor who could sell hundreds of millions of yuan became an agent for Mingren, but after 4 years, the results were mediocre, and finally he "surrendered" and quit. The difference lies in the fact that this retired principal loved drinking and sharing. The weak alkaline nature of soda water can neutralize stomach acid, promote ethanol metabolism, and alleviate drinking discomfort, making it popular among drinkers, especially in the north where there is a tradition of drinking soda water with alcohol. Jiao Xingyu, a researcher at the Scenario Marketing Research Institute and head of the "Baijiu+" at Mingren Soda Water Scenario Marketing Center, said that drinking two liang of liquor makes you excited, three liang makes you more energetic, but more than half a jin puts a burden on the body. Mingren appears at this time to help you "effectively maintain a man's grace and a woman's elegant state". After being inspired, Mingren clearly proposed its positioning in 2016: Drink Mingren before and after drinking. In short, for products with niche awareness but mass demand, you should use a reverse funnel to hit the most painful group from the start. Who needs health? Everyone. Who needs health more? Those who know their lifestyle is unhealthy. Today's Mingren probably has thought it through clearly. Its Xiaohongshu official account signature reads: Love to play and drink, but also want to become a centenarian. According to the latest data from Chanmama, Mingren's Douyin transaction profile shows a higher proportion of males, aged 31-40, and in the north, which aligns with the drinking population profile. After determining the core drinking population, Mingren also adapted its products accordingly. On one hand, it changed the ingredient list to speed up circulation and metabolism, quickly alleviating drinking discomfort, and preventing bloating even when drinking too much. On the other hand, it changed the packaging and materials so that even in high summer temperatures, it won't produce plasticizers when placed in the trunk, because most men who love drinking also have a car trunk.

Selling Water in Tobacco and Alcohol Stores Not Relying on Big Channels, Tackling Small Distribution Once the brand knows who to target, the next question is how to find them. We all know that water beverages are a traditional category that heavily relies on distribution, but Mingren does not rely on large distribution channels like supermarkets or mom-and-pop stores. Instead, it sells soda water the way liquor is sold, seizing precise tobacco and alcohol stores. For example, in Shangcai, Henan, 100 core tobacco and alcohol stores brought sales of 100,000 boxes of soda water. How exactly do they do it? Let's look at two actions:

  • Deeply participate in baijiu tasting events, conduct category education in the scene, and directly contact consumers.
  • Invite core tobacco and alcohol store owners to visit the factory for traceability. Seizing this group is equivalent to seizing consumers. Taking baijiu tasting events as an example, a standard baijiu tasting event usually gathers high-influence people behind tobacco and alcohol stores, including KOLs, client leaders, and big C and KOC. Mingren has established strategic cooperation with more than 200 liquor companies nationwide. Image source: Tian Dongjian's sharing at the 21st China Marketing Ceremony and the 2nd China Consumer Goods New Supply Chain and New Growth Conference This is selling soda water in the way liquor is sold, and also trying every means to get close to the target group. Just like 'lululemon' signs yoga teachers as brand ambassadors and cooperates with yoga studios, wherever the crowd is, the brand goes, entering consumers' life scenes. Of course, tobacco and alcohol store owners, as offline distributors, have deeper interest binding with Mingren. For example, pairing baijiu with soda water makes the drinking experience more comfortable and the evaluation of baijiu higher. Ideally, it can achieve 'liquor driving water, water promoting liquor'. Another example: when asked whether channels would be seized by challengers with heavy investment, Mingren once said: "Compared with leading brands, Mingren can provide terminals with higher profit margins in the long term, and because consumers buy Mingren soda water by the case, for terminals, our product has the same value as Wanglaoji and Telunsu." Returning to the crowd and scenes, after tasting the sweetness in the before-and-after-drinking scene, Mingren proposed "How many scenes, how many sales" , gradually expanding the coverage of the crowd through a reverse funnel of scenes:
  • Before and after drinking scene—core high-stickiness crowd
  • Gift scene, banquet scene—radiating high-frequency crowd
  • Family pre-meal and post-meal scene—mass general crowd Interestingly, after the positioning of 'Drink Mingren before and after drinking' was proposed, Mingren internally hesitated for a long time. Obviously, there are many drinking scenes. Isn't this limiting the product to the drinking crowd? But it turned out that this positioning did not reduce the number of original soda water consumers. Instead, it fully utilized drinking scenes such as gatherings and business banquets to cultivate more new consumers to accept Mingren soda water. Mingren summarized it as 'cultivate within the scene, sell outside the scene' .

Analyst's Comment The author has been saying recently that crowd strategy is not only a brand strategy but also a 4P strategy. We can also see that after determining the scene, Mingren is fully sticking to the drinking crowd in terms of product, marketing, and channels. However, it must be pointed out that one of the prerequisites of crowd strategy is to know that group well enough. In this regard, Mingren has done well in the past. But when the brand moves toward the general and mass crowd, the audience it needs to face becomes wider, and understanding new crowds will also become a challenge.