This article is reposted from the public account: FMCG Mansion
The legal battle between Wanglaoji and JDB, which has lasted nearly three years, is still unresolved, and recently the two sides have been arguing over who is the number one herbal tea brand.
Every year at this time, industries release their previous year's statistics, and the herbal tea industry is no exception. Following past practice, JDB annually uses survey data from the 'China Industry Enterprise Information Publishing Center' under the name of the National Bureau of Statistics, using this data to aggressively promote itself as the top-selling herbal tea, even using the slogan '7 out of 10 cans of herbal tea are JDB' in various media and TV advertisements.
Previously, JDB publicly claimed that according to the 'China Beverage Industry Operation Status Analysis Report' for the first three quarters of 2012 released by the aforementioned survey institution, from July to December 2012, the renamed JDB canned herbal tea accounted for over 80% of the canned herbal tea market, continuing to hold the top position in the herbal tea industry.
However, as the saying goes, 'the nail that sticks out gets hammered down.' JDB's 'flamboyant' advertising slogan inevitably attracted attention. Last year, following a lawsuit by competitor Wanglaoji, the Fifth Intermediate People's Court of Chongqing recently ruled in the first instance that JDB's advertising slogan constituted unfair competition and false advertising, ordering it to stop using it immediately and pay 800,000 yuan in compensation.
That was not enough. Just as JDB was about to use the data from the 'China Industry Enterprise Information Publishing Center' again to announce its 2014 results, it unexpectedly got into big trouble when the institution was exposed.
Not long ago, CCTV's 'Economic Half Hour' reported that the 'China Industry Enterprise Information Publishing Center' sold fake rankings under the name of the National Bureau of Statistics to make money. As long as you paid, without providing any company registration or filing materials, they would produce certification plaques and certificates. Among the client list, well-known brands such as JDB and Red Bull were prominently listed.
After the incident, not only did the National Bureau of Statistics and the Administration for Industry and Commerce distance themselves from the institution, but on March 27, the National Bureau of Statistics issued a statement through official channels saying, 'Our disciplinary inspection department is investigating this matter together with China Information News. The investigation findings will be announced to the public in a timely manner.'
Through the statistics bureau's statement and reporters' investigations, it was learned that this institution is sponsored by China Information News, which is directly under the National Bureau of Statistics. According to an insider from a company that had also used the institution's survey data, considering that conducting a survey requires a lot of manpower, material resources, and financial resources, their company would symbolically pay some labor fees to the institution, but not as much as exposed by CCTV; some companies might pay more.
After the 'China Industry Enterprise Information Publishing Center' was exposed, JDB, one of the most frequent users of the institution's data, was slow to respond. It did not make any public statement regarding whether the data used in the past few years was purchased or based on actual market research. Why the evasion? It is puzzling.
It was not until April 8 that JDB held a small-scale communication meeting to announce its 2014 data, completely avoiding mention of the 'China Industry Enterprise Information Publishing Center' and directly using Nielsen data, claiming that in the canned herbal tea industry, JDB's market sales share reached 62.1%, once again winning the gold medal and continuing to lead the herbal tea market.
Although JDB quickly switched to another research institution, a contradiction emerged. Because recently, the '2014 Annual Monitoring Report on Food and Beverage Market in Large Retail Enterprises' released by the China General Chamber of Commerce showed a set of data: Wanglaoji's market sales share in the herbal tea industry was 40.75%, while JDB, Laoweng Herbal Tea, and Denglao Herbal Tea had market sales shares of 37.35%, 5.83%, and 5.65%, respectively.
Here, it should be noted that the data presented by Wanglaoji is the market share of the total herbal tea market including both boxed and canned herbal tea, while the data presented by JDB refers only to canned. However, regarding the sales ratio of boxed to canned, Wanglaoji said it was unclear.
So the question arises: who is the number one herbal tea brand? Whose survey data is more accurate?
Nielsen has always been a well-known and recognized research institution in the industry, but according to a Nielsen staff member, due to the involvement of multiple channel statistics, no research institution can cover all channels, but it is certain that Nielsen covers 70%-80% of the FMCG market. At the same time, Nielsen declined to comment on the data released by JDB.
'The data released by JDB is not the same as Nielsen's internal survey data, and the gap is not convenient to disclose,' revealed an insider close to Nielsen. Although JDB is one of Nielsen's clients when conducting herbal tea market research, Nielsen, as a third-party data institution, maintains a neutral stance, never leaks survey data to the public, and does not allow clients to publicly disclose survey data. Therefore, Nielsen is not responsible for clients who disclose data without authorization.
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