---
title: "JDB and Wanglaoji Strike Hard: Can the Herbal Tea Category Return to the Mainstream?"
description: "The 2021 Spring Festival marketing campaign has kicked off, with brands like Qiaqia, Three Squirrels, Be & Cheery, Coca-Cola, Genki Forest, JDB, and Six Walnuts gearing up in December, launching ads in buildings, on CCTV, and online, along with offline activities. The goal is to make their brands a top choice for Spring Festival shopping. After a long silence, Wanglaoji and JDB have become the most watched brands again, signaling a potential revival for the herbal tea category."
author: "夏春兵"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2021-02-01"
language: "en"
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original_source: "https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/23ciJU-ThV81n-PuxLEVDQ"
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# JDB and Wanglaoji Strike Hard: Can the Herbal Tea Category Return to the Mainstream?

> The 2021 Spring Festival marketing campaign has kicked off, with brands like Qiaqia, Three Squirrels, Be & Cheery, Coca-Cola, Genki Forest, JDB, and Six Walnuts gearing up in December, launching ads in buildings, on CCTV, and online, along with offline activities. The goal is to make their brands a top choice for Spring Festival shopping. After a long silence, Wanglaoji and JDB have become the most watched brands again, signaling a potential revival for the herbal tea category.

The 2021 Spring Festival marketing campaign has kicked off. Brands such as Qiaqia, Three Squirrels, Be & Cheery, Coca-Cola, Genki Forest, JDB, and Six Walnuts were already gearing up in December, with brand ads airing on building screens, CCTV, and online, while offline marketing activities were also carried out in an orderly manner. The goal for these companies is simple: to make their brands one of the options people consider when stocking up for the New Year.

**-01-**
**Wanglaoji and JDB: The Thinking Behind Their Marketing**
In this Spring Festival marketing season, Wanglaoji and JDB, which had been silent for a long time, have once again become the most watched brands. Prior to this, the inaction of these two brands caused herbal tea to gradually fade from people's attention, which was not good for either the herbal tea market or the two companies themselves.
Some young people may not know how popular herbal tea was back then, but consumers who experienced the "Herbal Tea War" will have some idea. When mentioning the "Herbal Tea War," some consumers still comment on it and share their views.

The three-plus years of "civil war" left both brands severely weakened. The "Herbal Tea War" not only caused heavy losses for the two brands but also left the herbal tea category riddled with problems. More importantly, the vicious competition between the two sides hindered the evolution of the category, causing the herbal tea category to be gradually abandoned by young consumers.
This Spring Festival, when JDB and Wanglaoji appear in people's sight with a younger image, we seem to see the two brands, once battered by internal strife, gradually recovering their former vitality, and we look forward to the resurgence of the herbal tea market.
In terms of advertising, Wanglaoji and JDB have invested heavily this year.

Wanglaoji's marketing theme this year is the "Wanglaoji Surname Can." As the campaign unfolds, cans featuring surnames like Zhu, Li, Mo, Teng, Wan, Yu, Zhou, Ming, and more are available. Wanglaoji's "customized cans" quickly went viral. More importantly, Wanglaoji is no longer sticking to tradition but fully embracing young people. This new marketing approach has made Wanglaoji trendier, and as a result, it has gained the attention of young consumers.
JDB's Spring Festival marketing theme this year is "Sending Blessings." JDB's ads began airing on CCTV and in high-speed rail stations in early December, a significant investment. In addition, JDB is conducting offline marketing activities under the theme "No Spicy, No Fun; I Have JDB" for the hot pot season, collaborating with seven hot pot brands to create a consumption atmosphere and inviting consumers nationwide to enthusiastically promote the "hot pot pairing" culture.
Throughout the event, the official Weibo topic #No Spicy, No Fun; I Have JDB# garnered nearly 4 million reads. Over 1.7 million people participated in the "10,000-Person Cloud Hot Pot" event, igniting modern young consumption, and solidifying JDB herbal tea's status as the "perfect match for hot pot"!
Undoubtedly, the heavy strikes by JDB and Wanglaoji will, to some extent, revitalize the herbal tea category. But there remains an uncertain question: Is this a brief resurgence or a true revival of the herbal tea category?

**-02-**
**Growing the Herbal Tea Category: A Shared Goal for Wanglaoji and JDB**
The rise and fall of a category directly determines the size of a brand, which is not hard to understand. But companies must also realize that brands, to some extent, influence the category.
To help everyone understand, let's introduce a case to trace the relationship between category and brand. This case is familiar to all: Tesla.
If Tesla hadn't emerged strongly, people wouldn't have paid so much attention to pure electric vehicles, and the market wouldn't have its current landscape. At the same time, the rise of the pure electric vehicle category has driven the emergence of brands like XPeng, NIO, and WM. It can be said that Tesla's contribution to the category is immense.
From a strategic perspective, brands and categories support each other. Brands pull the category, and the category pushes the brand.
From the marketing actions of Wanglaoji and JDB this time, it's not hard to see that the two companies share the same values: to jointly grow the category.
Wanglaoji's marketing campaign this time did not revolve around "authentic herbal tea" but rather the "Wanglaoji Surname Can." The reason behind this is that Wanglaoji's marketing goal is no longer to compete with JDB but to introduce the herbal tea category to young people and encourage more young consumers to try herbal tea.
JDB's campaign also did not attack Wanglaoji but instead strengthened the relationship between "herbal tea and hot pot." As we all know, the hot pot market is enormous, estimated to be worth trillions of yuan. Tightly binding hot pot with herbal tea is conducive to the long-term development of herbal tea.
From the marketing of JDB and Wanglaoji, it's clear that both brands have almost realized the value of the category. They are no longer fixated on who is the leading brand or who is the authentic brand, but rather care more about the value of the herbal tea category and jointly work to expand it.
It's a relationship of mutual dependence: once consumers give up on herbal tea, what reason would Wanglaoji and JDB have to exist in the market?
In the short term, the marketing activities of Wanglaoji and JDB can indeed enhance the vitality of the category, making people think of herbal tea again and consume it again, which greatly helps short-term sales.
But to restart the growth engine of the herbal tea category, relying solely on brand pull is not enough. We also need to see how much space remains for the herbal tea category.

**-03-**
**Herbal Tea: There Is Still Room in the Market**
No category can grow indefinitely; it will inevitably hit a bottleneck. Looking back at herbal tea, the high-growth period has passed, and it may never return to the growth trend of a decade ago. Since 2015, the growth of the herbal tea market has begun to weaken.
The emergence of more and more new beverages has caused consumers to constantly switch between different drinks.
This also shows that the beverage market is influenced by "fashion trends." When Xiao Ming Tong Xue became popular, everyone flocked to it; when Vita Lemon Tea became popular, consumers turned to it; when Heytea became popular, consumers started lining up to buy it...
There's no need to complain about consumers' lack of loyalty. Companies should ask themselves whether their category has value and whether it provides consumers with a long-term reason to buy. Especially "flavor-type" beverages are easily influenced by the concept of "hot sales." When a brand is hot, the taste is highly praised; when the brand is ignored, the taste doesn't seem as good as before. In reality, it's not that the product has changed, but that consumers' perception of the brand has changed.
As a traditional beverage, herbal tea is relatively less impacted by taste trends. This is also an advantage of functional beverages. Consider functional beverages like Red Bull, Gatorade, and Coca-Cola. They have been around long enough but haven't "fallen behind" in the competition.
Functional beverages are less susceptible to trend shocks. That is to say, although the herbal tea category is growing slowly, it won't disappear overnight; instead, it will become a "long-lived" category in the beverage market.
Besides being "long-lived," the herbal tea category still has growth potential because it focuses on the function of "preventing heatiness," which is still important to hot pot consumers. Therefore, we can judge the potential of the herbal tea market based on the hot pot market.
Hot pot is the largest category in China's catering market, and it is still growing. Based on this, it's not hard to judge that the herbal tea category will continue to grow along with hot pot.

**-04-**
**Innovation: The Driving Force for Young People to Re-embrace Herbal Tea**
In fact, the herbal tea category has been weak in recent years and could be defined as outdated at any time. Once this negative perception is established, it would be a devastating blow to the category. Wanglaoji and JDB would inevitably disappear along with it.
With aligned goals and concrete actions, we have reason to believe that with the joint efforts of JDB and Wanglaoji, the herbal tea category will return to consumers' attention in a short time.
Clearly, relying solely on marketing cannot save a category. Reviving a category must be based on innovative measures.
Undoubtedly, the hottest beverage brand this year is Genki Forest. The reason behind it is that Genki Forest pioneered "0-sugar" beverages. Because obesity has become a social issue, "0-sugar" perfectly aligns with the consumption values of modern young consumers. Therefore, we are not surprised at all by Genki Forest's popularity.
Genki Forest has sparked a "0-sugar" storm and made consumers aware of the importance of "0-sugar." Based on this, the herbal tea category should also keep up with the times and be bold in innovation; otherwise, young consumers simply won't drink herbal tea. Once the herbal tea category lacks innovation and clings to old ways, herbal tea will not return to the mainstream beverage list even with the marketing offensives of JDB and Wanglaoji.
As beneficiaries of the herbal tea category, JDB and Wanglaoji must dare to innovate and lead the herbal tea category forward.

**-05-**
**Going Global: Enhancing the Momentum of Herbal Tea**
Although the domestic market is growing, the space is limited. As a national beverage, herbal tea has begun to expand into overseas markets.
According to Wanglaoji, its herbal tea is now sold in 60 countries and regions worldwide, with overseas revenue close to 1 billion yuan. Wanglaoji has also been sparing no effort in shaping the value of the herbal tea category. The first overseas herbal tea museum has been established in New York, USA. In the future, Wanglaoji plans to open herbal tea museums in 56 cities globally, using culture to drive the acceleration of internationalization and build a world-class beverage.
According to insiders at JDB, JDB herbal tea is already sold in many regions globally, especially in areas with dense Chinese populations, but overall sales are still small. Next, JDB will not only recruit global distributors but also conduct product marketing, seeking concepts that are easy for foreigners to accept to market its products.
For herbal tea, which has Chinese characteristics, now is undoubtedly the best time to go global. China's rising international influence has broadened the path for Chinese brands. A large number of Chinese brands have become the focus of global consumers.
Through the joint efforts of JDB and Wanglaoji, if herbal tea can become a global beverage category, it will also be a shot in the arm for domestic development.
From a cognitive perspective, once herbal tea becomes a global category, it will inevitably enhance domestic consumers' awareness of herbal tea. This awareness will feed back into the domestic market, increasing consumers' confidence in consuming herbal tea.

**-06-**
**Herbal Tea: Unfolding a Series of Wonderful Stories**
From small to large, from rapid growth to a leveling off, herbal tea brands have gone from "life-and-death" struggles to "shaking hands and making up," jointly expanding the category. In fact, the herbal tea category and its brands are staging the best story in beverage history, even more exciting than the story of cola.
As beverage companies, we should draw from this the essence of business competition. The ultimate goal of a brand is to become the representative of a category, yet the rise and fall of the category affects the size of the brand. The lesson for us is: on one hand, focus on competition within the category; on the other hand, we must join hands to expand the category.
Without Wanglaoji's repositioning, herbal tea might still be a regional drink. Without the rise of the herbal tea category, the business world might not have witnessed the famous quote from the former chairman of Coca-Cola: "If my factory were destroyed by fire, if I were to encounter a world financial crisis, but as long as I have the Coca-Cola brand, I would stand up again the next day."
We do not want herbal tea to die out; we hope Wanglaoji and JDB can work hand in hand to bring this herbal tea beverage, imbued with the Chinese spirit, to the world. As China's influence grows, the influence of Chinese cuisine will inevitably rise. Therefore, the internationalization path for hot pot will be broader, and this goal for herbal tea is not difficult to achieve.

About the author: Xia Chunbing, Dean of Red Claw Fish Brand Academy, has long focused on brand strategy research, serving as a brand strategy consultant for multiple companies and helping more than 10 companies grow from small to large.

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