Introduction: He is the reclusive billionaire people talk about, the low-key and proud Zhejiang businessman behind Nongfu Spring and Yangshengtang, and the water-selling mogul among Chinese entrepreneurs who is best at 'playing with advertising'. His name is Zhong Shanshan, an entrepreneur hidden in the obscure corners of the rich list.
Worked as a bricklayer, a journalist, and eventually became a businessman Grew mushrooms, raised turtles, sold water Creative, good at planning, and even better at marketing His unique business style has earned him the label 'lone wolf' These are the tags on Zhong Shanshan
Born in 1954 in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, Zhong Shanshan's parents were both intellectuals. His grandfather, Zhong Ziyi, was the first secretary of the first CPC branch in Zhuji during the Northern Expedition, but because of his temporary departure from the party, he became a burden to the family during the Cultural Revolution. As a result, Zhong's parents were sent down from the provincial capital to their hometown in Zhuji.
Zhong Shanshan only finished the fifth grade of primary school before being forced to drop out during the Cultural Revolution, during which he learned bricklaying and carpentry. His childhood friend, writer Mei Zhi, recalled that when the college entrance examination was restored in 1977, Zhong insisted on taking it despite not even knowing basic algebra. He took the exam for two consecutive years but failed each time by more than twenty points.
'Rome wasn't built in a day,' Zhong Shanshan finally followed his parents' advice and attended an electric university.
After graduating from the electric university, Zhong Shanshan finally secured a position at Zhejiang Daily as a reporter in the rural department. During his five years at the newspaper, he traveled to over eighty counties and cities in Zhejiang, interviewed more than 500 entrepreneurs, and even met several of his future business partners during that time.
Zhong Shanshan still claims to have a 'Zhejiang Daily complex'.
01 Joining the Gold Rush Beginning His Business Career ▼ In early 1988, the state officially approved the establishment of the Hainan Special Economic Zone, sparking a wave of gold rush in Hainan. Many well-known billionaires on today's wealth lists were among those gold rushers. At that time, three pages of Zhejiang Daily were filled with reports, making Zhong Shanshan's heart itch. He decided to take unpaid leave and join the gold rush, beginning his career as a businessman.
Zhong Shanshan's initial dream was to start China's first private newspaper in Hainan, but even in the newly established special economic zone, newspaper publication numbers remained a forbidden area for private individuals.
Therefore, growing mushrooms became Zhong Shanshan's earliest entrepreneurial project in Hainan, thanks to the connections he had built in the newspaper's rural department. But this project quickly drained all of Zhong Shanshan's investments. Because Hainan was humid in the morning and evening but particularly dry at noon, 'the tender tips of the mushrooms would dry up within an hour at noon.' The mushrooms planted simply could not survive.
After the trial and error of starting a newspaper and growing mushrooms, Zhong Shanshan ended up losing tens of thousands of yuan. Later, some said Zhong Shanshan tried other businesses, making a few thousand yuan selling curtains in Fucheng one day, then losing money raising shrimp in Wanquan River the next. In any case, he never made much money!
02 The Feud with Zong Qinghou ▼ In 1990, Wahaha, under Zong Qinghou's leadership, had grown from a school-run enterprise distribution department in Hangzhou into a large enterprise with output value exceeding 100 million yuan. A year later, Zong Qinghou 'swallowed a big fish' by merging Hangzhou Canned Food Factory and establishing Hangzhou Wahaha Group. The 'love-hate relationship' between Zhong Shanshan and Zong Qinghou also began from then on.
That year, Zhong Shanshan was the general agent for Wahaha oral liquid in Hainan and Guangxi provinces. Perhaps because they were both Zhejiang businessmen, the two had early connections.
Also in 1991, there was a dispute between them.
Because Hainan was a newly developed special economic zone, Wahaha offered preferential prices to agents; on the other hand, Wahaha oral liquid was selling well in Guangdong at the time.
So Zhong Shanshan took the Wahaha oral liquid he had obtained at low prices in Hainan and sold it at high prices in Zhanjiang, Guangdong, which was neither in Hainan nor Guangxi. This caused a rift between him and Zong Qinghou.
However, over the years, the two maintained a delicate relationship. Although Nongfu Spring and Wahaha later became competitors, Zong always stood up to support Zhong when there were false rumors about him. This is what they call 'love-hate relationship'.
As a businessman, the above profit-making tactics may not be judged as right or wrong, but at that time, Zhong Shanshan already saw the beverage industry as a battleground in his business territory.
03 The Fame of Yangshengtang Turtle and Soft-Shelled Turtle Pills ▼ Despite losing the Wahaha agency, Zhong Shanshan had already seen the considerable profits in the beverage industry. 'Sooner or later, I will make a comeback!' However, before establishing Nongfu Spring, what really made Zhong Shanshan famous was the 'Yangshengtang Fish and Turtle Pills'.
Once, Zhong Shanshan had a meal with a friend at a restaurant on Haidian Island. He noticed that almost every table ordered a health soup, which was made from local Hainan fish and soft-shelled turtles. It was both delicious and nutritious, and very popular among diners.
'If the restaurant can make health soup, then I can make health pills!'
In October 1993, Zhong Shanshan established Hainan Yangshengtang Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. in Haikou. He immediately hired three experts from traditional Chinese medicine universities to spend eight months developing the 'Yangshengtang Fish and Turtle Pills'.
These pills used natural fish and turtles as raw materials, and according to traditional Chinese medicine theory, used modern ultra-low temperature freezing technology to turn whole turtles and soft-shelled turtles into micro-powder at minus 196 degrees Celsius. Due to the unique concept, the 'Yangshengtang Fish and Turtle Pills' were sold out on the first day they were launched. Within just one year, the pills spread from Hainan to the whole country, and Zhong Shanshan earned his first 10 million yuan.
As Yangshengtang's reputation grew, Zhong Shanshan successively launched more than ten brands and products, including 'Duo'er', 'Qingzui', 'Mother's Beef Sticks', and 'Growth Happiness', spanning four major industries: health products, biopharmaceuticals, beverages, and food.
In the 1990s, when health products were 'flooding the market', Yangshengtang stood out because Zhong Shanshan summarized a set of his own business secrets: 'For a small enterprise to grow and develop, the products it deals in must be unique and highly profitable, because there is no scale effect to accumulate slowly.' This statement also represents Zhong Shanshan's consistent product design and marketing style.
Yangshengtang has deep market insight and keen market responsiveness, always entering blue oceans at the most opportune time. In 2004, relying on the story of 'Mother's Beef Sticks', it launched Mother's brand beef sticks. The Mother's brand beef sticks used the 'Mother' image to break into the market, and with its unique brand image, it has remained active in the front line of beef jerky brands for over a decade.
Brands themselves contain power. In the pre-Qin era, among the Hundred Schools of Thought, there was a 'School of Names' that emphasized the study of 'names', focusing on 'matching the name to reality' and studying the power of 'names'.
It cannot be denied that every brand created by Zhong Shanshan has its power, often setting aside product attributes and seeking consumer resonance through unique emotional and conceptual planning. He has considerable talent in the study of 'names'.
04 Moving into the Beverage Industry, Starting the Water War ▼ With Yangshengtang's national fame, Zhong Shanshan pressed on and fought his way back into the beverage industry, which had trillion-yuan growth potential.
In 1996, Zhong Shanshan, already worth tens of millions, returned to Hangzhou to establish Zhejiang Qiandao Lake Yangshengtang Drinking Water Co., Ltd. (the predecessor of Nongfu Spring). At that time, water brands like Wahaha and Master Kong were already emerging one after another.
The water quality of Qiandao Lake was good, with excellent indicators, but how to play this card? Zhong Shanshan had already thought it through: 'Health products are popular because of people's increased demand for health. If we can link health with a market with more consumption potential, it will definitely be a big deal.'
So, Zhong Shanshan named the drinking water 'Nongfu Spring', which is friendly and down-to-earth, giving people a sense of purity in nature. 'I am a loner. I don't care what my peers are doing or thinking.'
Zhong Shanshan does not hide his aloof personality at all. Perhaps it is precisely because of his maverick ways that Nongfu Spring has become famous worldwide today.
05 A Businessman, and More an Advertiser ▼ It must be said that the naming of brands like Nongfu and Jianjiao (Scream) is considered classic. The most obvious is the sports drink 'Jianjiao' (Scream), which uses a verb as the brand name, exuding innovation in every aspect. The name, as well as the angular and personality-filled bottle design, quickly attracted public attention.
Nongfu Spring's 'A little sweet' and 'We produce water, we are nature's porters' are truly impressive.
When Nongfu Spring launched 'Nongfu Orchard', it was creative with the slogan 'Shake before drinking' and the signature action, which became a strong selling point for the product.
In 2016, when Nongfu Spring launched the new product Tea π, it broke new ground by using celebrity endorsements. Zhong Shanshan chose the famous Korean boy band BIGBANG to target the youth market.
In the two-minute video, starting from the members' training as trainees in sixth grade, it tells of the unimaginable hardships and sweat behind their success, never wavering or giving up until they stood on the world stage. Only at the end does the slogan 'Tea π, unique style' appear.
The perseverance shown in the video perfectly matched Nongfu Spring. Within 20 hours of its release, the ad reached 400,000 views, and many young fans bought the product because of it.
Zhong Shanshan has always defined himself as an advertiser: 'I have been in business for so many years just to be able to create advertising ideas freely!'
Some even joked, 'Actually, Nongfu Spring is an advertising company!' The catchy slogans and promotional videos that strike a chord with consumers have won Nongfu Spring a considerable number of loyal fans.
06 Loyal to Marketing An Enterprise That Doesn't Hype Is a Mummy ▼ From the beginning, Nongfu Spring has followed Zhong Shanshan's logic: 'The best marketing is event marketing. Create events, seize events, and you will seize everything.'
The growth history of Nongfu Spring is a history of water wars in the chaotic water market. Each 'water battle', in hindsight, was an event marketing campaign. Whether praised or criticized, it directly expanded Nongfu Spring's market share.
The pure water war in 2000 is an example. Before that, the Chinese bottled water market was a paradise for pure water.
'Originally planned as a routine release, until the night before the press conference, no one had come up with a good news angle.' But after one night, Zhong Shanshan's speech at the press conference left everyone stunned. Without most employees knowing, he suddenly dropped a 'big news': he decided to stop producing pure water because experiments had shown that pure water was not beneficial to health.
After the advertisement ran for three months, many pure water companies jointly filed a complaint against Nongfu Spring for 'unfair competition'.
This was the initial impression Zhong Shanshan left on the industry and media: for marketing performance, he would risk going against the world.
'Some say we are traitors. I think we are a bit like Copernicus. Truth becomes clearer through debate, so this is also a revolution in consciousness,' Zhong Shanshan said with a hint of pride afterwards.
In 2007, Nongfu Spring targeted a new opponent, igniting the second water war. This time it was Master Kong, the new industry leader with rapidly increasing share. At that time, Master Kong's mineral water had reached annual sales of several billion yuan.
This time, Zhong Shanshan's strategy was to make the acidity and alkalinity of water a topic of public discussion. 'Good advertising not only attracts user attention, but more importantly, makes users discuss it.' At that time, in the advertising department's meeting room, such advertising mottos were posted, which were another set of advertising principles that this combative chairman tried to instill.
After the two water wars, Nongfu Spring benefited greatly. Data showed that by the end of 2012, sales of Nongfu Spring series products exceeded 10 billion yuan for the first time.
07 About Marketing: Do Some Things, Don't Do Others ▼ Because of Zhong Shanshan's loner nature, the outside world calls him the 'lone wolf'. But even this tough guy has moments of vulnerability.
That was on May 23, 2008, the eleventh day after the Wenchuan earthquake. A haggard, dark-skinned Zhong Shanshan appeared at Hangzhou Xiaoshan Airport, just back from the disaster area. Zhong Shanshan had spent eight days and nine nights in Wenchuan, delivering over 160 truckloads of Nongfu Spring drinking water. He personally went to the front line and helped carry supplies with employees, volunteers, and firefighters.
Watching the farmers in the safe zone rush home to harvest rapeseed, saying, 'We need to harvest what we can; we can't let the country support us forever!' Zhong Shanshan felt deeply uneasy. That scene kept replaying in his mind. When he landed at Xiaoshan Airport and faced the swarm of reporters, he could no longer hold back and burst into tears.
After returning to Hangzhou, Zhong Shanshan repeatedly urged: Do not choose photos with Nongfu Spring products in the disaster area images, and never leave the impression of a publicity stunt.
When media came to him for long reports on earthquake relief, Zhong Shanshan refused them all: 'Pay more attention to the disaster area; our small effort is not important.'
08 Unique Product Packaging ▼ From the initial simple and elegant red and white design, Nongfu Spring's 'comfortable' packaging has always been praised. In 2004, it launched its first functional drink 'Jianjiao' (Scream), with innovative cap design and the slogan 'Make your heart race, or make you scream', winning over a large number of teenagers and securing a leading position in the functional drink market.
From 'Oriental Leaf' to 'Da Nai Cha' (Milk Tea), every new product launch comes with refreshingly unique packaging. With excellent quality and beautiful appearance, it's hard not to love them.
After stabilizing the low-end market, Zhong Shanshan began to target the high-end segment and officially entered the premium water market.
On February 1, 2015, Nongfu Spring held a new product launch at its Fusong factory in Changbai Mountain, announcing three new products: Nongfu Spring glass bottle premium water, Nongfu Spring children's natural drinking water, and Nongfu Spring students' natural mineral water.
The packaging of these three waters was unique in its own way. The bottle of Nongfu Spring premium water was designed by five top international designers over five years, with 58 revisions. The bottle features eight species of wild animals and plants unique to Changbai Mountain.
This design also won five international awards in 2015, but the price was astonishing: 40 yuan per 750ml. Regarding the launch of premium water, Zhong Shanshan explained, 'Appropriate occasions and proper etiquette environments are necessary. If the Davos Forum can have glass bottle water, then we don't need plastic bottles!'
Zhong Shanshan once said, 'Having plastic bottle water on the prime minister's negotiation table is an industry shame!' In 2016, Nongfu Spring appeared at the Hangzhou G20 Summit. He fulfilled his promise, 'Putting premium glass bottle water on the prime minister's negotiation table.'
09 Daring to 'Skip Ads' The Maverick Lone Wolf ▼ In the era of booming online videos, every business spares no expense to place their ads in the 'golden 60 seconds' before online videos. Zhong Shanshan also joined the trend, but his approach was to 'skip the ad', a decision unprecedented and stunning everyone.
On platforms like Youku, before the ad starts, a deep, magnetic male voice reminds: 'Nongfu Spring reminds you that this ad can be closed for free unconditionally.' Some say this is probably the most successful ad since the birth of video ads.
Why? First, countless netizens are 'tormented' by 60-second or even 100-second ads on video sites. Now, here's an ad that can be skipped for free without a membership. Nongfu Spring seized this pain point and won the audience's favor.
Data shows that after this heartwarming move, nearly 70% of netizens watched the ad for more than 30 seconds or watched it all the way through. Some even watched Nongfu Spring ads specifically because they were good.
In 2016, Nongfu Spring's new round of ads was a series of short films for the 20th anniversary of Nongfu Spring: 'A Day's Vacation', 'A Person's Island', 'One Hundred and Twenty Li', and 'The Last Kilometer'. Through documentary-style storytelling, they told the stories of four ordinary workers in different regions and positions, without a single word of praise for Nongfu Spring, but the compelling narratives attracted people to watch.
The hardships of the protagonists are like those of Nongfu Spring's 'porters', hard to describe. This strong resonance and ingenious advertising marketing can probably only be done by the 'advertiser' Zhong Shanshan.
Now, Nongfu Spring has been around for 20 years and ranks among the top three in China's drinking water market. In the '2016 China Top 500 Private Enterprises' list, Nongfu Spring Co., Ltd. ranked 460th with 10.911 billion yuan (2015 data).
In the first eight months of 2016, sales exceeded 10 billion yuan, with the new product Tea π alone contributing 1 billion. Although this number may seem insignificant compared to some listed companies, the spiritual food of a conscientious enterprise that Nongfu Spring conveys is priceless.
10 Taking Water to the Extreme, Nongfu Spring Goes to Grow Oranges ▼ He said: 'In a few years, if anyone says they can make better orange juice than me, I won't even look at them.'
At the end of 2015, Nongfu Spring's 17.5° NFC juice hit the market, and it has become a dark horse in the domestic beverage market this year.
For a long time, non-concentrated reduced juice has been rarely touched by beverage companies due to high production costs, packaging difficulties, and the need for cold chain transportation. Currently, the domestic market is almost entirely concentrated reduced juice. This made Zhong Shanshan's non-concentrated reduced juice an immediate success upon its launch—not only becoming a beverage on the G20 Hangzhou Summit table but also expected to achieve sales revenue of over 500 million yuan in its first year.
Zhong Shanshan once again challenged the entire beverage market with disruptive product innovation. 'When it comes to making orange juice, there is simply no opponent for me in the domestic beverage market,' he said arrogantly.
Recently, at the Nongfu Spring press conference held in Ganzhou, Jiangxi, Chairman Zhong Shanshan officially introduced his main new products—Nongfu Spring 17.5° oranges and 17.5° NFC (non-concentrated reduced) orange juice.
In 2007, Zhong Shanshan first went to Ganzhou, Jiangxi. Seeing the navel oranges all over the mountains, he thought good orange juice was within easy reach. So he quickly decided to develop an orchard there and build a factory to produce orange juice.
What Zhong Shanshan didn't expect was that this hasty decision would cost him ten years of hard work to make up for.
After the factory was built, problems came one after another: the orchard was on high and steep hills, leading to high labor and logistics costs, and the fruit trees were often affected by extreme low temperatures; he also rigidly applied industrial management models to agriculture, hiring farmers like industrial workers, but the farmers neglected management, resulting in low yield and poor fruit quality; and due to wrong factory location, the remote factory area suffered from water and electricity shortages, with power outages almost every day during production and daily water supply less than 40 tons... Zhong Shanshan then realized that agriculture was far more complicated than he had imagined.
What made Zhong Shanshan even more desperate was that they discovered that Gannan navel oranges simply could not be juiced—the juice from navel oranges turned extremely bitter shortly after extraction.
The reason is simple: navel oranges contain a precursor to limonin, which converts to limonin during processing. This is almost common knowledge in agricultural product processing, but Zhong Shanshan, because of his blind entry, made such a low-level mistake.
Persist or give up? Zhong Shanshan chose the former. Some say it's because of his stubbornness, refusing to turn back until hitting the wall; but in his own view, it was forced by circumstances. 'The money was already invested, the factory was built, what retreat was there?'
Zhong Shanshan plowed ahead, also because of his belief in knowledge. In his view, as long as Nongfu Spring accumulated enough knowledge in this field, whether it was the management challenges of modern agriculture or the bottleneck of juicing technology, they could be solved.
Now, Zhong Shanshan has immense confidence in his products, even to the point of arrogance. Behind this confidence is the knowledge accumulated over ten years of growing oranges and making juice. Many people only then realized that this drinking water 'big shot' had started laying out agriculture as early as ten years ago.
Many people see agriculture as a quick-money industry. But Zhong Shanshan said that since its establishment, no project has taken so many detours, paid so much hardship, and invested so much energy as Nongfu Spring's venture into growing navel oranges in Gannan. Nongfu Spring had previously taken agriculture too lightly; doing agriculture is really difficult!
'It looks like just an orange and two bottles of juice, but Nongfu Spring went through many detours for it, almost like a narrow escape from death,' Zhong Shanshan said.
Asked whether the orange farmers in Gannan can actually make money cooperating with him, Zhong Shanshan did not answer directly. He said: 'When I first started my business, I ran a mushroom cultivation company in Hainan. The company went bankrupt, and I was heavily in debt. But even then, I never owed a penny to the farmers who helped me grow mushrooms.'
Today, Nongfu Spring's annual taxes and profits exceed 2 billion yuan, while Zhong Shanshan says he personally spends less than 400,000 yuan a year. He asked the reporter: 'Do you think, at this point, I would still scheme to make money by competing with farmers for profits?'
'When I do agriculture, I think about how to create added value, to turn one cake into two, rather than sharing the same cake with farmers,' Zhong Shanshan said. How to get this new cake? It relies on extending the industrial chain, making high-quality orange juice, and using the Nongfu Spring brand to achieve a premium for fresh oranges.
'Chinese farmers are the most simple and the most in need of care.' Mentioning farmers, Zhong Shanshan's tear point always seems particularly low. He said, 'We owe farmers too much.' That day, the theme of Zhong Shanshan's speech at the press conference was 'Farmers Rich, China Strong'.
'He is a person with a heroic streak.' Zhang Peili, a professor at the China Academy of Art and a long-time friend of Zhong Shanshan, once commented on him.
At the beginning of his business career, Zhong Shanshan expected to be different from ordinary businessmen. In a letter from 1989, he wrote: 'Money, just money, is not enough. My goals are much higher.'
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