---
title: "How Nongfu Spring Achieved a Value of 13 Billion? Three Lessons You Must Learn!"
description: "Whenever I see the name Nongfu Spring, the first thing that comes to mind is its brilliant slogan 'Nongfu Spring is a bit sweet.' This slogan was introduced in a humorous TV ad set in a rural school, where a teacher gets annoyed by the sound of a student opening a bottle, but later praises the water's sweetness. The ad, which aired on CCTV from mid-April, quickly made the brand famous and was even voted the best ad slogan of 1999 by People's Daily and other media. The 'a bit sweet' concept differentiates the product by taste, implying high-quality water source, and successfully creates a memorable brand image."
author: "New Distribution"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2015-06-11"
language: "en"
canonical: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/how-nongfu-spring-achieved-a-value-of-13-billion-three-lessons-you-must-5f2ebca2/"
markdown: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/how-nongfu-spring-achieved-a-value-of-13-billion-three-lessons-you-must-5f2ebca2.md"
original_source: "https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/TyxfpjsNx7oqkbJz72AAbQ"
translation: "https://xinjignxiao.com/zh/articles/%E5%86%9C%E5%A4%AB%E5%B1%B1%E6%B3%89%E5%A6%82%E4%BD%95%E5%81%9A%E5%88%B0%E4%BB%B7%E5%80%BC130%E4%BA%BF-%E6%9C%89%E4%B8%89%E7%82%B9-%E4%BD%A0%E4%B8%8D%E5%BE%97%E4%B8%8D%E5%AD%A6-5f2ebca2.md"
attribution: "New Distribution — https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/how-nongfu-spring-achieved-a-value-of-13-billion-three-lessons-you-must-5f2ebca2/"
usage_policy: "https://xinjignxiao.com/ai-policy.txt"
---

# How Nongfu Spring Achieved a Value of 13 Billion? Three Lessons You Must Learn!

> Whenever I see the name Nongfu Spring, the first thing that comes to mind is its brilliant slogan 'Nongfu Spring is a bit sweet.' This slogan was introduced in a humorous TV ad set in a rural school, where a teacher gets annoyed by the sound of a student opening a bottle, but later praises the water's sweetness. The ad, which aired on CCTV from mid-April, quickly made the brand famous and was even voted the best ad slogan of 1999 by People's Daily and other media. The 'a bit sweet' concept differentiates the product by taste, implying high-quality water source, and successfully creates a memorable brand image.

Whenever I see the name Nongfu Spring, the first thing that comes to mind is its brilliant slogan 'Nongfu Spring is a bit sweet.' This slogan was introduced in a humorous TV ad: in a rural school, while the teacher writes on the blackboard, a mischievous student can't resist drinking Nongfu Spring, and the popping sound of the push-pull cap makes the teacher angry, saying, 'Please don't make such noise in class.' After class, the teacher drinks Nongfu Spring and praises, 'Nongfu Spring is a bit sweet.' As the 'classroom' ad began airing on CCTV from mid-April, the phrase 'Nongfu Spring is a bit sweet' spread across the country, quickly building brand awareness. The ad was even rated as the best advertising slogan of 1999 by People's Daily and other news media. In Chinese, there is the word 'sweet spring,' meaning sweet water. Nongfu Spring's water comes from Qiandao Lake, which gathers spring water from many mountains and is purified by the lake's self-cleaning, making it truly sweet spring water. Thus, 'a bit sweet' is a selling point. The 'a bit sweet' claim differentiates the product by taste, implying the high quality of the water source, forming an overall strategy of emotional preference and rational recognition, and successfully establishing a memory point for Nongfu Spring.
From this ad, it's clear that Nongfu Spring creates significant differentiation and establishes its own personality. While other similar products highlight their hygiene, high-tech, or fashion, Nongfu Spring takes a unique path, simply but emphatically pointing to the taste, just 'a bit sweet,' making it stand out and appear extraordinary. This freshness makes it hard for consumers to forget the product. An ad that achieves this effect means the product is already half successful.
Why does Nongfu Spring position its ad as 'a bit sweet' rather than focusing on '27 layers of purification' like Robust? This is the essence of Nongfu Spring's advertising. First, Nongfu Spring conducted an in-depth analysis of purified water and found a major problem: it lacks even trace elements needed by the human body, which goes against the harmony between humans and nature and fails to meet consumer needs. Nongfu Spring seized on this weakness. As a natural water brand, it naturally raised the banner against purified water, and through 'a bit sweet,' it conveys to consumers: 'I, Nongfu Spring, am natural and healthy.' A natural water brand that is pollution-free and contains trace elements, if priced similarly to purified water, would obviously lead every consumer to make a rational choice.
The concept of 'natural' immediately differentiates Nongfu Spring from other brands.
But in reality, Nongfu Spring has no advantage in sweetness, because all purified water and mineral water, when tasted carefully, have a slight sweetness. Nongfu Spring was the first to propose the concept of 'a bit sweet,' seizing the high ground in consumer psychology. Its agility of thought is admirable.
Similarly, consumers are only willing and able to remember simple information; the simpler, the better, even to just one point, which is easiest to remember. Nongfu Spring also shows its extraordinary wisdom here: it uses only three words, 'a bit sweet,' which are ordinary and simple, but the real point is just the word 'sweet.' This word is highly sensory, describing a taste that everyone can directly feel. This feeling undoubtedly has a great effect on strengthening memory. Remembering 'a bit sweet' makes it hard to forget 'Nongfu Spring,' and remembering 'Nongfu Spring' makes it hard not to be tempted by its products. Nongfu Spring wins with simplicity: simplicity allows it to express easily, and simplicity allows consumers to remember easily.
The simple phrase 'a bit sweet' makes it easy for consumers to remember.
It conforms to the product's characteristics and highlights its excellent quality. 'Nongfu Spring is a bit sweet' is impeccable in this regard. Nongfu Spring is taken from deep water below 70 meters in Qiandao Lake, a national first-class water resource protection area, where the water is pure and sweet to drink. Thus, using 'a bit sweet' is perfectly appropriate because it matches the product's characteristics, and it is exquisite because it highlights the product's superior quality.
Repeatedly highlighting Nongfu Spring's excellent water quality.
For consumers, it should make them feel good. 'A bit sweet' is undoubtedly pleasant; 'sweet' implies sweetness, happiness, and joy, which are lifelong pursuits for Chinese people. Such people will inevitably seek products that taste sweet. Nongfu Spring firmly grasps this point and tells the Chinese people: 'I am a bit sweet.' This is equivalent to saying: 'I am your pursuit.' As an advertising slogan, it's like saying: 'Please pursue me.' This is an irresistible temptation, and Nongfu Spring uses this allure to win consumers' purchasing power.
Nongfu Spring also links to social welfare activities, such as the 'One Cent Public Welfare' campaign, further occupying consumers' minds.
Furthermore, Nongfu Spring's 2008 communication strategy was extremely clear and simple. Once the concept is clear, it uses simple and powerful creativity to convey it: a minimalist background, a glass of water, the pouring and replacement of water, 'The water in the human body is replaced every 18 days,' 'The quality of water determines the quality of life.' From the real Qiandao Lake scenery printed on the bottle label to the photo, the viewpoint 'We don't produce water; we are just nature's porters' is unexpected, concise, powerful, and meaningful.
This ad perfectly combines with Nongfu Spring's previous communication of 'building factories at water sources, bottling at water sources' and provides a new interpretation: Nongfu Spring is healthy natural water, not produced or processed, not with added artificial minerals. The differentiation strategy distances Nongfu Spring from its competitors.
Nongfu Spring seizes on Chinese people's strong focus on health and vigorously promotes the concept of health.
Nature's porter: Nongfu Spring brings the essence of nature to you. This is even more worthy of gratitude. The quiet and simple visuals, amidst the flashy and noisy advertising environment, highlight quality and uniqueness, gaining another kind of attention and recognition.
This ad caters to consumers' needs for health and safety, conveying Nongfu Spring's natural product attributes to consumers, distinguishing it from other brands, and establishing a good corporate image.
The concept of 'nature's porter' distances Nongfu Spring from competitors.
'Kicking someone when they're down': This ad began in 2008 when Kangshifu's mineral water was exposed to be sourced from tap water. The airing of this ad had a bit of a 'kicking someone when they're down' flavor. Nongfu Spring's ad can be said to be 'very simple,' but the effect is excellent. Why? Because it focuses on advertising effectiveness. Whether an ad creative can achieve promotional goals basically depends on the efficiency of information transmission, which is the principle of effectiveness in advertising creativity. Nongfu Spring's 'nature's porter' ad focuses on 'practicality' by imparting health knowledge.
Nongfu Spring's interlocking advertising strategy showcases the charm of Eastern wisdom, deeply implanting the concept of naturalness and health into consumers' minds, and effectively building the brand concept of Nongfu Spring contributing to human health.
Summary of Nongfu Spring's advertising strategy:
Principle 1: Create significant differentiation and establish your own personality;
Principle 2: Strive for simplicity, just one point, easy to remember;
Principle 3: Conform to the product's characteristics and highlight its excellent quality;
Principle 4: Build depth and support the product's characteristics;
Principle 5: For consumers, make them feel good.
Reply with the following keywords to categorize and read related professional articles: Sales Supervisor, Second-tier Management, Regional Manager, Distributor Management, New Channels, City Manager, Competition, 2015, Manufacturer-Dealer Game, Product Stagnation, Terminal Visit Management, Route Management, Deep Distribution, Internal Management, Sales Skills, Profit Improvement, Recruitment, Distribution, Daily Management, Team Motivation, Trade Promotion, Sales Misconceptions, New Product Launch, Township Market, New Product Pricing, Sales Target Achievement, Closing Deals, Market Visit Inspection, Baijiu, Beer, Sales Increase, Agency Products, Cross-region Sales, KA, Terminal Merchandising, New Market, Market Operation, Learning, Book Recommendations, Inventory Management, New Salespeople, Consumer Promotion, Execution, Old Products, Expired Product Handling, Model Market, Investment Promotion, New Media, Distributor Development, Performance Appraisal, Assessment, Annual Planning, Shopping Guide, Morning Meeting, Display, Transformation, Pressure Stocking, Holidays, Distributor Cost Control, Channel Operation, Marketing Theory and Laws, Brand Truth, Order Meeting, Team Management, Training, Debriefing, Debriefing Report.


---

## 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