Sisyphus first asks a question: when buying bottled water, do you really care about the brand? Do you carefully find the Ice Dew that the boss puts in the corner, grab the most widely distributed Nongfu Spring and C'estbon, or seriously look for 'aristocrats of water' like Perrier and Ganten? A few days ago, Toutiao Ge discovered that Jinmailang, which once sold plain boiled water at a premium, has launched a new high-end bottled water brand—Jinkuang. (I wonder if you think it's high-end or not.) How can you use 'marketing' to give a simple bottle of water a boost? Today, Toutiao Ge will discuss how to differentiate a simple bottle of water from cultural and health perspectives and sell it at a premium (only discussing marketing methods; whether it's a 'stupidity tax' is a matter of opinion).
Local Culture, Traditional Drinking Habits Tell Marketing Stories Jinmailang's boiled water is a classic case of using local culture to open up new markets. In the past, when technology was underdeveloped, the ancients used boiling to eliminate microorganisms and bacteria in water, making it more suitable for drinking. In modern society, cold purified water and cold boiled water are no different in health, or even better, but the long-standing national habit is still a 'product anchor' that can be exploited. In 2016, Jinmailang's cold boiled water entered the market, positioning itself as 'a water category completely derived from traditional Chinese healthy drinking culture, inherited for thousands of years,' telling the story of bottled water from a national perspective to create differentiation. With this method, cold boiled water directly bypassed the 'healthy water' standards that had been popular in the market for over a decade, and by introducing the 'old recipe' of traditional Chinese drinking water, it directly categorized other competitors as foreign water unsuitable for Chinese lifestyles and drinking habits. In addition, cold boiled water also played a word game. As Toutiao Ge mentioned earlier, 'raw water' processed with modern technology is actually as healthy as 'cooked water,' but because the concepts of raw and cooked water have hardly been mentioned in bottled water brand promotions (and of course, they can't be), Jinmailang directly swapped concepts, categorizing competitors as 'raw water' and its own cold boiled water as the 'cooked water' for healthy Chinese people. Other brands fell behind in the simple opposition of 'not cooked water is raw water,' and were speechless because once they argued about the absurdity of 'raw water' and 'cooked water,' they were already fighting on the opponent's turf, falling into the trap of public opinion set by Jinmailang. Cold boiled water bypassed the standards that various brands had cultivated for years, started from localization, set new game rules, and sold a bottle of water with differentiation. The trend of competitors imitating 'cooked water' products shows Jinmailang's success at the time.
Western Culture Aristocratic Elements Package Brand Tone In addition to local culture, Western aristocratic cultural elements have also been used as promotional material for a certain bottled water brand. I believe everyone can guess it—it's Ganten (some friends might guess the aristocrat of water, Baishishan, but Baishishan is also under Ganten). Fun fact: because it shares the same name as the celebrity Jing Tian, Ganten specifically hired Jing Tian to shoot an advertisement. In the ad, Jing Tian looks at two large barrels of Ganten water on a foreigner's sports car with a lovestruck expression. Ganten's early advertisements were very good at piling up Western aristocratic elements to promote its products, highlighting its identity as aristocratic water and creating differentiation. The reason I use 'piling up' is that in Ganten's classic ads, there was really no story or selling point. Ancient castles, princesses, luxury cars, and foreign old men—Ganten's ads were just random combinations of these classic elements, and the Ganten bottled water itself became the most incongruous element in the ads. These seemingly random and incomprehensible ads, after heavy investment, actually sparked widespread discussion. Why did the young woman take the old man's water? This question once puzzled many people, including Toutiao Ge. It even spread a false 'Zhihui' romantic story about Descartes, but it was identified as fake. *Zhihu user: Bodhin But Ganten's strategy was still effective. These piled-up style ads were interpreted in various ways at the time, effectively expanding the audience of the ads. The ads quickly bound the aristocratic style with Ganten water in consumers' minds, establishing the differentiated image of 'aristocrat of water.' However, this aristocratic tone was established through the collective illusion of the foreign and superior in the media environment at that time. In the current era of rising nationalism, Ganten's ads are no longer viable, which is an important reason for the shrinking market share of Baishishan.
Health Faction Directly Face Consumers, Speak with 'Effects' Water is the source of life, and the most related to life is health. Historically, most bottled water brands have made a big deal about health, including the aforementioned cold boiled water and Ganten. Toutiao Ge chooses the founding leader of this faction—Nongfu Spring—for discussion. In 1997, Nongfu Spring was launched. At that time, the bottled water market was dominated by purified water brands like Robust, Nestlé, and Wahaha. How to quickly break through among these giants? Nongfu Spring introduced the concept of natural water. Back then, Robust's ad about 27-layer filtration was also a classic of Chinese advertising. The 'nature's porter' came from this. Nongfu Spring claimed that purified water is not beneficial to human health because it filters out minerals and trace elements in water, and long-term consumption would harm health. This caught competitors who were fiercely competing on purification off guard. Not just talk, Nongfu Spring conducted comparative experiments to prove natural water was better, using natural water and purified water to cultivate narcissus flowers. Needless to say, the narcissus in natural water grew faster. In response, Zong Qinghou, the boss of Wahaha, which specialized in purified water, sarcastically remarked: 'Narcissus grows better in manure water; does that mean manure water is better than purified water?' *Right: Zong Qinghou; Left: Nongfu Spring founder Zhong Shanshan The market didn't care about Zong Qinghou's impotent rage. The visible experiment made the 'advantages' of natural water visual, and nutritious natural water successfully entered the market. A few years later, Master Kong also launched a bottled water with a small amount of trace elements and minerals, and the concept of mineral water began there. Nongfu Spring's deep cultivation of health concepts didn't stop there. It further proposed the concept of 'weakly alkaline' water based on natural water, catering to the food acid-base balance theory that was emerging in the market at the time (which was later disproven). **Nongfu Spring published 'drinking water pH test' ads in major media across the country, arranged a large number of promoters to distribute pH test strips for free in shopping malls and streets, and many offline supermarkets also stocked shelves with pH test strips. Once consumers got the strips, they would naturally compare Nongfu Spring with other brands' water. This highly interactive activity, once consumers participated, subtly accepted the acid-base balance set by Nongfu Spring. Even if the test results were flawed, the formula 'weakly alkaline water = health' was implanted in the audience's minds. Other purified water brands were caught off guard again and lost completely in the public opinion arena. Weakly alkaline water, like mineral water, also triggered a wave of imitation among competitors at the time. After two 'mobilize consumers' promotional campaigns, redefining standards and opening new battlefields, Nongfu Spring successfully packaged its bottled water as healthy natural water, and directly changed the market's direction. Brands shifted from competing on purity to competing on health indicators, a trend that continues to this day.
New Forces Enter New Tea Drink Brands Rising in the Bottled Water Market In recent years, many new tea drink brands have emerged in the bottled water market, such as Mixue Bingcheng's 'Snow King Loves Water' and Heytea's bottled sparkling water. However, unlike traditional bottled water companies, new tea drink brands do not rely on massive advertising and placement for promotion, but mainly on consumers' spontaneous sharing and brand radiation. After all, most actions are trial runs, and large-scale bottled water products have not yet been launched. Most brands only stock a little in their stores or use it as a cheap product to increase shopping frequency and loyalty. For example, selling cheap drinking water in milk tea cups recently won consumers' favor. But it is still too early to summarize and review their marketing strategies. However, Toutiao Ge can assert that new tea drink brands, whose main consumer group is young people, will definitely enter the market with a new posture and advertising forms, challenging the current market giants and showing us more marketing possibilities.
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