If JDB Is Driven to Death, Will Its Rivals Sell Better?

In recent days, negative news about JDB has been constant—layoffs, production halts—making it seem as if this leading herbal tea brand has suddenly collapsed overnight. But is that really the case? It can only be said that its rivals have overlooked a basic logic: in the same industry, when one rises, all rise; when one falls, all fall. If they try to drive JDB to death, the damage will not only be to JDB but to the entire Chinese herbal tea industry! " If JDB is driven to death, will its rivals sell better? Competition in the marketplace is too cruel, sometimes even dark. The battlefield of business competition always extends in multiple directions, from actual combat in the marketplace to other arenas. The marketplace is ruthless—not just in positional warfare, but also in other ways to drive competitors to death. After a series of negative reports, JDB, having reached its limit, finally responded: "Pure nonsense!" This response shows that the articles and inferences made with such certainty in the past two days were basically unreliable, and those media outlets and commentators who sought to attract attention were utterly absurd! It also shows that JDB's rivals have always held a foolish, erroneous logic—that by driving JDB to death, they could sell better themselves! But they have also overlooked a basic logic: in the same industry, when one rises, all rise; when one falls, all fall. " The rise and fall of an industry or category is closely linked to its leading enterprises In every industry, there are always two roles: leaders and followers. The rise of an industry or category, and even its rapid growth, is closely related to its leaders. An industry becomes an industry, a large category, only when a leading enterprise emerges, operates to turn it into a hot spot, attracts public attention and consumption interest, achieves significant commercial success, and prompts many other enterprises to follow. That's when an industry becomes popular and rises. Basically, the rise of all industries and categories follows this pattern! When a leading enterprise emerges and operates maturely, an industry or category truly takes off! In these processes, the role of the leading enterprise is crucial. Without a leading enterprise, the growth and maturity of an industry or category would be delayed by at least several years. In a sense, the emergence of a leading enterprise opens up the situation for all practitioners in the industry, expanding the space for the industry and for enterprises. For example, smartphones were a trend started by Apple. Without Apple, smartphones would have been delayed by several years. Another example is the electric vehicle market, which has been hot in recent years. Many enterprises were eager to enter years ago, but the market didn't take off, and there was no hot spot until Tesla appeared, truly stirring up the EV market. Through Tesla's hot sales, people truly believed the EV market could rise. " If the industry leader falls, it could be a disaster for the industry! When an industry is still in its growth stage and still needs to expand its production space, driving the leading enterprise to death is not necessarily good for its competitors; on the contrary, it could be a disaster! If the leading enterprise has problems, and other enterprises can take on the burden of expanding the industry's space, then the industry can continue. But if not, the industry will shrink. The most representative example is the kvass beverage market. Kvass was originally a regional brand, with the former leader's annual sales less than 100 million yuan, a very small category market. In 2013, beverage giant Wahaha entered this market, rapidly maturing it, turning it from a small category into a large one. Through Wahaha's mature operating model and business system, it quickly turned this regional product into a nationally known category. Wahaha achieved sales of 1 billion yuan in half a year, and nearly 2 billion for the whole year. It can be said that Wahaha alone accomplished what the entire industry had done over several years, and what the former leader had done over 20 years, and it also drove the entire kvass market to grow, from a 1-billion-yuan market to a multi-billion or even 10-billion-yuan market. The former leaders of kvass also saw their performance grow, from less than 100 million yuan in sales the previous year to 260 million yuan in 2013. A senior executive from one of the original kvass leaders once said they grew 500% in a year, showing Wahaha's contribution to the industry. At that time, if the kvass market had been seriously operated, the entire market could have moved toward a 10-billion-yuan scale. But the entire industry quickly fell into vicious competition! During Wahaha's involvement in kvass, the participating enterprises were extremely short-sighted. Instead of thinking about how to jointly grow the market, they engaged in internal strife and overdrew the category. They argued with Wahaha over who was authentic, then used extremely low prices at the terminal to cut into the market that Wahaha had expanded through advertising and education, turning the hottest market into vicious competition and prematurely pushing it in the other direction. In the kvass market, Wahaha played the role of leader and pioneer, while other enterprises were just followers. Wahaha successfully turned kvass from a regional small category into a national large category, expanding the overall market size. Other enterprises were just followers, cutting a small piece of the cake. But these followers were too unaware of their own abilities, thinking they were the industry's leaders. Once the true leader gave up the market, these followers realized who they were and what role they actually played! In 2015, when leader Wahaha gradually gave up the kvass market, the market quickly declined, and the entire market shrank rapidly, from a market that could have exceeded 5 billion or even 10 billion yuan, sales quickly plummeted to the 1-billion level, and the former leaders fell back to around 100 million yuan in annual sales. At that time, if they had worked with Wahaha to grow the kvass market, operating benignly, jointly enlarging the market cake, rather than operating in other ways—fighting over who was authentic, engaging in ultra-low price wars, and killing the market—the market would have been in a different situation. This is an extremely painful business lesson!!! " In the herbal tea industry, JDB plays the role of leader In China's herbal tea industry, JDB has indeed played a leading role. Its operations have taken herbal tea from a regional category to a national one, making it a popular large category and a market of tens of billions of yuan. Previously, the former herbal tea leader had annual sales of only around 100 million yuan, but now Heqizheng, ranked third in the herbal tea industry, can achieve annual sales of around 3 billion yuan. Today, the sales of herbal tea in national supermarket channels have expanded dozens of times, even a hundred times, compared to the past! It can be said that in the process of herbal tea's growth, JDB has absolutely made significant contributions. Without JDB's operations, China's herbal tea market would never have reached its current scale, or at least it would have taken many more years and required another enterprise skilled in operations to achieve it. JDB is an enterprise skilled in operations, an enterprise that creates momentum. Whether it's investing in CCTV advertisements, sponsoring events, or sponsoring The Voice, a series of actions, while expanding the brand awareness of the product it operates, have actually pushed the herbal tea category to new heights. In the herbal tea field, there is no enterprise that is as skilled in pioneering operations and can replace JDB in operational capability! Because JDB plays the role of leader and pioneer in the industry, while other enterprises are just followers. If the industry leader is driven to death, will its rivals necessarily sell better? In the short term, yes, part of JDB's market will be filled by rivals, but in the long term, the market will shrink. Just like when Wahaha was making kvass, rivals proudly said, "We have defeated Wahaha, and we will also enter the international market." But what happened? The kvass market plummeted, the entire market cooled down, and those once-proud rivals eventually saw their sales decline. " China's herbal tea now needs to jointly enlarge the cake Rather than destroying each other and ultimately destroying the industry China's herbal tea market now needs to jointly enlarge the cake, continue to expand the herbal tea category, increase its scale, and climb to new heights. Moreover, through the joint efforts of Chinese herbal tea enterprises, herbal tea can become a national category, a business card and symbol of Chinese beverage products, going abroad, going to the world, and going international, just as American enterprises successfully took carbonated beverages global. Some media should also take responsibility and not frequently spread rumors. A few days ago they said Wahaha was failing, then they said JDB was failing, and they were slapped in the face time and again. Reports should be based on facts; they cannot fail to verify numbers and facts. China's herbal tea has profound heritage and history. It is not a product that is hot for just a moment. Its deep heritage and culture can turn it into a long-selling product, which is very possible! In the past, herbal tea lacked mature commercial operations, leading to its confinement to a corner, missing the opportunity to compete in the big beverage market. Now, after mature operations, it has reached a new stage, and it has not yet peaked. There is still room for expansion. Chinese herbal tea enterprises can work together to push it to a legend! " Chinese herbal tea enterprises should learn from the competition between Coca-Cola and Pepsi Chinese enterprises should learn from the PK between Coca-Cola and Pepsi Today, Coca-Cola and Pepsi are both globally renowned beverage giants. Coca-Cola's 2015 revenue was $44.294 billion (approximately 295.7 billion RMB), and Pepsi's 2015 revenue was $63.056 billion (approximately 420.9 billion RMB). Both beverage giants started with carbonated beverages. They have competition and PK, but within a certain range, within benign limits, and not to the extent of frequent malicious competition or malicious attacks. Their competition focuses more on business operations and strength PK, competition in operations, marketing promotion, and channel operations, rather than various dark attacks. Imagine if these two enterprises frequently engaged in malicious attacks and various dark tactics, would they still be where they are today? Could they still be global beverage giants? You must know that mutual attacks within the same industry will only lead to overdrafting the trust of the public (mass consumers) in that field, generating disgust toward the enterprises and the entire industry, causing problems for the whole industry. If both Coca-Cola and Pepsi had problems, would carbonated beverages still have such a large market today? Could they still have their current glory? China's herbal tea has the attributes and genes to become as big as carbonated beverages. With its profound heritage and unique Chinese flavor, it is a category with great potential. Chinese enterprises should cherish it and not ruin this category! Since they are in the same category, when one rises, all rise; when one falls, all fall! Chinese enterprises should really learn from the competition between Coca-Cola and Pepsi, jointly unleash the potential of the herbal tea market, and make it a super large category! Win-win and joint growth are more important! And they are more beneficial to the development of Chinese herbal tea! We must cherish China's herbal tea industry! Yu Jianmin—Author of "China Marketing Success Bible: Scientific Strategy Marketing" (Revised Edition), industry observer, senior marketing management expert Source: First Marketing Network (ID: yingxiao360-com)