---
title: "Nongfu Spring Has Been Selling Well for 20 Years Without Decline—What's Its Marketing Strategy?"
description: "Nongfu Spring, which has been deeply cultivating the domestic market for 20 years, has occasionally deviated from conventional advertising tactics in recent years. This article explores the unique advertising strategies that many competitors find hard to replicate, including emotional storytelling, interactive ads, distinctive packaging, and product placement in popular variety shows."
author: "New Distribution"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2016-06-16"
language: "en"
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markdown: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/nongfu-spring-has-been-selling-well-for-20-years-without-declinewhat-s-i-8c055d8a.md"
original_source: "https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/SsbmILNP4SqD3spipI8fww"
translation: "https://xinjignxiao.com/zh/articles/%E5%A4%A7%E5%8D%9620%E5%B9%B4%E4%B8%8D%E4%B8%8B%E8%B7%8C%E7%9A%84%E5%86%9C%E5%A4%AB%E5%B1%B1%E6%B3%89-%E8%90%A5%E9%94%80%E5%A5%97%E8%B7%AF%E6%98%AF%E4%BB%80%E4%B9%88-8c055d8a.md"
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---

# Nongfu Spring Has Been Selling Well for 20 Years Without Decline—What's Its Marketing Strategy?

> Nongfu Spring, which has been deeply cultivating the domestic market for 20 years, has occasionally deviated from conventional advertising tactics in recent years. This article explores the unique advertising strategies that many competitors find hard to replicate, including emotional storytelling, interactive ads, distinctive packaging, and product placement in popular variety shows.

**Nongfu Spring, which has been deeply cultivating the domestic market for 20 years, has occasionally deviated from conventional advertising tactics in recent years. So, what advertising 'tricks' has this seemingly serious 'farmer' used in selling water that many people find hard to imitate?**

1
**Selling Emotion**
**Making Ultra-Long Ads**
In 2014, Nongfu Spring premiered a three-minute advertisement on CCTV. It was more like a short documentary about how Nongfu Spring searches for water sources than a typical ad.
Generally, advertisers always want viewers to see their brand from the very beginning.
But Nongfu Spring was stubborn: it first told the story of how it searched for water sources in Changbai Mountain, and finally ended with a slogan:
This feels like selling emotion!
Without any flashy visuals, it showed the brand's daily life in the most unadorned way, and viewers who watched the ad said they didn't dislike it.
So Nongfu Spring continued and released several more ads in this format, directly refreshing the form of documentary advertising in China.
Before this, few domestic companies used documentary-style ads, partly because of the huge investment and partly because they couldn't gauge audience preferences.
However, for a food company like Nongfu Spring, choosing this method was because documentary-style ads can give consumers a shot of confidence.

2
**Selling Psychology**
**China's First Closable Ad**
In 2016, Nongfu Spring did something on video websites.
This was a psychological battle—**After 5 seconds, you can choose to close the ad yourself.**
It seemed like an extremely risky move, but viewers were very receptive.
From the audience's reaction, this attempt was indeed a good decision for Nongfu Spring.

3
**Selling Style**
**The Product Itself Is an Ad**
In February 2015, Nongfu Spring launched three new products:
Nongfu Spring Natural Drinking Water (for infants), Nongfu Spring Student Natural Mineral Water, and Nongfu Spring Glass Bottle Premium Mineral Water.
The infant water introduced a new concept, and the glass bottle packaging rode the wave of 'premium water.' It can be said that Nongfu Spring was playing a big game.
Among them, the packaging design for the glass bottle premium mineral water took three years, involving five design firms from three countries, and went through over 50 drafts and more than 300 designs.
The bottle patterns featured species unique to Changbai Mountain, such as the Siberian tiger and Korean pine, giving a strong sense of humanistic care.
Within a month, this design won three international packaging design awards, including The Dieline, making Nongfu Spring the first mainland Chinese company to do so.
From this perspective, it can be said that Nongfu Spring's product packaging inherently carries advertising and communication attributes.

**In addition, this year, Nongfu Spring's Tea π series invited Korean idol group BigBang as brand ambassadors, directly targeting the youth market.**
Previously, Nongfu Spring had never used entertainment idols for brand endorsement. The collaboration with BigBang can be seen as an attempt by Nongfu to explore brand innovation.

4
**Selling Context**
**Embedding Topics in Online Variety Shows**
Nongfu Spring, which has been advancing on the road of advertising innovation, turned its attention to the popular variety show 'Mars Intelligence Agency' and invested heavily as one of its sponsors.
The product placement was very interesting: not only did they use verbal mentions, but they also had the host appear as 'Da Ran Gong' to highlight Nongfu Spring, and the brand and products would naturally appear in the show from time to time.
For example, when the show needed solutions to proposals, the agents would use their imagination to set up scenarios and promote Nongfu Spring:
As 'Mars Intelligence Agency' viewership exceeded 100 million, Nongfu Spring, which had always followed a orthodox route, not only increased its exposure but also made its brand image younger and richer.
Looking back, these ads, essentially for selling water, not only changed the public's perception of Nongfu Spring but also carved out its own unique 'tricks' in an era when traditional brands are seeking social transformation.

**Image/Internet Text/China Food News, Nongfu Spring Video/Tencent Video, Nongfu Spring**

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