Click 'Read Original' for details Niu Enkun: Chairman of Liangjian Consulting, internet community marketing expert, representative figure of the post-80s marketing circle, author of "Regional King," pioneer of the "Base + Mobile Internet" dual-core driving model, with 17 years of frontline market experience, providing long-term consulting services to many well-known FMCG companies. This article is supported by "135 Editor" technology. From November 2016 to now, less than 4 months, why has Xiaoshile Shanzha Shuang, launched by this beverage company from the Taihang Mountains in Henan, received ultra-high industry attention and distributor favor? So far, it has gained attention from 60,000 distributors, 1,000 interested distributors, and 100 signed distributors. In today's market, thousands of companies are busy launching new products in various categories, and there is no shortage of hawthorn beverages with various packaging and names. Why has Xiaoshile Shanzha Shuang alone achieved remarkable performance in such a short time? As a practitioner of the internet community and base model, I had the honor to participate in the brand enhancement project for Xiaoshile Shanzha Shuang. I have sorted out the process to provide some basis for everyone to find the value trend of the hawthorn category and seize future business opportunities. I. A Brainstorming Session That Burned Brains In July 2016, Mr. Li Xuefeng, General Manager of Henan Zhongkesi Company, invited the Saisang brand design team and me to the Yellow River Scenic Area in Zhengzhou under the guise of "summer retreat," and I gladly went. That evening, they arranged a Mickey strategic new product R&D brainstorming session. The marketing team, led by General Manager Li Xuefeng and Vice President Mi Xin, suddenly presented a plan for a hawthorn beverage they had been researching for two years, asking us to brainstorm. Starting around 6 PM, from internal analysis to heated debate late into the night, we still couldn't find a product name that convinced ourselves. Mr. Li suggested we go back to rest, saying inspiration might come in dreams. The next morning during breakfast, Mr. Yu Weihong, Design Director of Saisang Brand, proposed naming it based on hawthorn's function. After repeated discussions, we finally settled on: Xiaoshile. Then we began to think and discuss whether hawthorn beverages would become a popular category like rock sugar pear. How should Xiaoshile develop its product? How should it enter the market? We conducted in-depth analysis on consumer upgrade, walnut milk, herbal tea, fruit juice, rock sugar pear, soda water, etc., and made bold predictions, ultimately determining the R&D direction for Xiaoshile. II. A Forward-Looking Prediction After in-depth analysis, we found that rock sugar pear and soda water became phenomena but not categories for three reasons:

  1. Using old brands to occupy new categories makes it hard to change consumers' fixed impressions of the original brand. Among Wahaha's many brands, only Nutri-Express succeeded because they didn't use the Wahaha name for Nutri-Express but launched a new brand, which then achieved great success.
  2. To judge whether a beverage has value, first, does it occupy a mental resource? Second, does it relate to other categories? Obviously, Six Walnuts has strong mental resources. Herbal tea's "fear of getting heaty" relates to carbonated drinks.
  3. Is there a base market? Whether it was Wanglaoji in Wenzhou or Six Walnuts in Hebei, both had successful base markets. Without successful base market experience, most small and medium enterprises create new categories but struggle to seize category opportunities. This leads to a rush by many SMEs, ultimately diluting the category, making it a passing trend. A solid base market helps summarize models and train teams. Next, we analyzed the "past and present" of hawthorn beverages: In fact, such beverages appeared 10 years ago, and large companies also treated them as a side product line, never promoting them as core products or independent categories. Additionally, hawthorn production is mainly concentrated in northern markets like Henan and Hebei, making nationwide promotion and education costs too high. Previously, many companies couldn't solve the high taste requirements of consumers due to technical reasons. It wasn't until products like Kaiwei became popular in regional markets that they entered distributors'视野, becoming one of the fastest-growing categories in 2016. After systematic research, we drew the following conclusions: First, hawthorn, as a traditional medicinal and edible fruit, has a broad cognitive foundation for its "digestive" function. According to the Compendium of Materia Medica, hawthorn helps digest food and eliminate meat stagnation. Second, categories like walnut milk and herbal tea have strong mental resources and are also medicinal and edible. Hawthorn meets these conditions as well. Third, the biggest contradiction in the current beverage market is the growing high demands of consumers versus manufacturers' inability to meet them. Consumers are aesthetically fatigued by old products and brands. No wonder Apple phones continuously upgrade products to meet consumers' growing experience. Looking at new products launched by Coca-Cola, Uni-President, and Nongfu Spring in recent years, consumer demands and cognitive standards are upgrading. From the beverage industry perspective, the biggest problem is not solving the普及 of beverages for 1.3 billion people, but solving the quality upgrade for the tens of millions of upgraded consumers. Successful companies in recent years have seized this point. Famous marketing experts Liu Chunxiong and Shi Xianlong have called on multiple media: every industry is worth redoing. III. A Brand That Emerged Out of Nowhere The next step was qualitative research for Xiaoshile. Naming it was just the first step. How to make consumers fall in love at first sight and differentiate from competitors? How should the brand communicate? Finally, the product name was determined as follows: Product Name: Xiaoshile Shanzha Shuang The reason is that a good brand name includes both brand and category, so consumers know what the product is, and it helps Xiaoshile quickly occupy the category high ground. Adding "Shanzha Shuang" differentiates it from other hawthorn beverages, expresses a unique taste, and triggers experiential associations, leading to impulse purchases. Previously, we conducted multiple taste tests on hawthorn beverages. After repeated trials and tests, we finally settled on 50% juice content and 50% pulp content, which not only gives the best taste but also better retains nutritional components. Later, we determined the pottery-shaped bottle, originally designed by the Saisang brand design team, inspired by the pottery used by primitive tribes to squeeze fruit juice, evoking an original ecological association. The packaging style is unique, the selling point is clear, and the perceived value is significantly better than competitors. Regarding product appeal, we considered that after market entry, the product would soon face the traditional Chinese festival—Spring Festival, which involves heavy meat consumption and gatherings with family and friends. Therefore, the phased appeal focused on "big fish and meat" and "gathering moments." IV. A Regional Market Test First, we began trial sales in the base market where Mickey juice had a good foundation. Surprisingly, a new product formed active purchases without any policy promotion. For a new product, static selling power is one of the criteria for a good product, which in internet language is "good products bring their own traffic." Moreover, industry bigwigs: Liang Jian, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Sugar, Tobacco, Wine Weekly; Shi Shunkuan, practical marketing expert; Luo Hongwen, sales management expert; Chen Deyu, Central China Regional Director of Sugar, Tobacco, Wine Weekly; Bai Jie, Henan Station Chief of Sugar, Tobacco, Wine Weekly's wine section; Tao Baijing of Synear Food; Hu Guofang of Jingtian Group, all unanimously favored and endorsed it. Later, we conducted trial sales in multiple catering outlets, and the results were even more surprising. Consumers repeatedly purchased. Riding the Spring Festival consumption atmosphere, we intensified efforts in catering and circulation terminals, creating an unexpected sales miracle during the Spring Festival. V. A Methodology Adapted to the Times Through two years of marketing practice with small and medium beverage enterprises, we found that the biggest mistake in market operations is the conventional three tricks: promotions, displays, and activities. Basically, they imitate industry benchmarks. As a result, due to lack of brand awareness, new products either die before meeting consumers or in promotion wars. Only a few companies can summarize their base market practices into practical methodologies and form a suitable business model. To improve and evolve the model, Henan Zhongkesi Company formed an expert advisory group including Liu Chunxiong, Niu Enkun, Yang Yonghua, Shi Shunkuan, Zhao Bo, etc., to optimize the business model and safeguard the healthy growth of Xiaoshile in the market. VI. An Ambitious Goal Zhongkesi Company is fully aware that Xiaoshile must seize the first-mover advantage to quickly build the brand. A beverage brand's success must achieve the trinity of industry position, market position, and mental occupation. Only then can the brand foundation be solid and avoid a flash in the pan. They will invest resources and act decisively in the following three aspects: First, establish strategic partnerships with industry media such as Sugar, Tobacco, Wine Weekly and New Distribution to seize the industry high ground and create category momentum. On March 6, they will jointly hold the China Digestive Beverage Thousand Distributor Conference in Zhengzhou with multiple media, continuously creating industry hotspots and strengthening the category. Second, focus resources, introduce the model, and concentrate on building 100 key markets, striving to achieve a market scale of 500 million yuan in 2017, consolidate the market foundation, and establish market position. Third, elevate Xiaoshile as a single product to the company's strategic height, start from brand positioning, focus on the appeal of "slight bloating," occupy a favorable position in consumers' minds, and make Xiaoshile the representative of the hawthorn category. — Niu Enkun, Yin Pengzhen, Huang Xiaoniu -END-