--- title: "Xiaoguan Tea: If the Product Isn't Different, Then Play with Packaging..." description: "Xiaoguan Tea, created by Du Guoying, known for products like Back-Back-Brace and 8848 Titanium Phone, aims to combine cultural and brand tea. By leveraging 'Master-made' concept, premium packaging, and offline stores with CCTV advertising, it seeks to establish a differentiated brand in the tea market." author: "小云子" publisher: "New Distribution" email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com" telephone: "+8615854817671" published: "2017-10-12" language: "en" canonical: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/xiaoguan-tea-if-the-product-isn-t-different-then-play-with-packaging-0ef3cc84/" markdown: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/xiaoguan-tea-if-the-product-isn-t-different-then-play-with-packaging-0ef3cc84.md" original_source: "https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/R1-dX3jjUGtuOD-_Ok4Igw" translation: "https://xinjignxiao.com/zh/articles/%E5%B0%8F%E7%BD%90%E8%8C%B6-%E5%A6%82%E6%9E%9C%E4%BA%A7%E5%93%81%E6%B2%A1%E5%B7%AE%E5%BC%82-%E9%82%A3%E5%B0%B1%E7%8E%A9%E5%8C%85%E8%A3%85%E5%92%AF-0ef3cc84.md" attribution: "New Distribution — https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/xiaoguan-tea-if-the-product-isn-t-different-then-play-with-packaging-0ef3cc84/" usage_policy: "https://xinjignxiao.com/ai-policy.txt" --- # Xiaoguan Tea: If the Product Isn't Different, Then Play with Packaging... > Xiaoguan Tea, created by Du Guoying, known for products like Back-Back-Brace and 8848 Titanium Phone, aims to combine cultural and brand tea. By leveraging 'Master-made' concept, premium packaging, and offline stores with CCTV advertising, it seeks to establish a differentiated brand in the tea market. Cars can be driven by a chauffeur; dishes can be cooked by a chef; phone calls can be answered by a secretary; but tea must be brewed personally. These are the opening lines of Xiaoguan Tea's 186-second video advertisement. Perhaps you haven't heard of Xiaoguan Tea yet. That's okay. Even if you don't know Xiaoguan Tea, you surely know Back-Back-Brace, Hǎo Jì Xīng, e人e本, and 8848 Titanium Phone. All these well-known products were actually created by the same person: Du Guoying, who is as famous as Shi Yuzhu (known for Brain Gold), Duan Yongping (known for OPPO and vivo), and Ye Guofu (known for Miniso), and is called the "God of TV Marketing." Products planned by Du Guoying typically have three characteristics: high price, precise target audience, and strong gift attributes. Take e人e本 as an example. If the mobile phone market was still in a state of blooming competition, the tablet market was dominated by Apple alone. But even in such an environment, e人e本 managed to carve out a share in the oligopolistic market by pricing higher than the iPad. It relied on precise audience positioning—its target customers were office workers (mainly middle-aged men) who were not accustomed to using pinyin input. However, you may have noticed that the products Du Guoying previously planned had another characteristic: they were popular for a while and then faded away. Therefore, many people say he is a "quick money maker." From the results, it does seem so. But does the world really have people who only want to "make quick money"? As entrepreneurs, no matter from which angle, who doesn't want to run a truly evergreen brand? And Xiaoguan Tea might be Du Guoying's answer. **1. What kind of market is the tea market?** When we talk about the tea market, we must first understand a basic concept: the tea market is not just one market. People drink tea for various reasons: some drink for "culture"; some drink because they "look cultured"; some drink for refreshment; and some drink because they want some flavored water, etc. Different needs correspond to different markets and completely different product rules. Generally, tea in the market can be roughly divided into three categories: cultural tea, brand tea, and bulk tea. * Cultural tea is the highest-end, usually drunk by enthusiasts. They drink "qin, qi, shu, hua, shi, jiu, cha" (the seven refined arts) and the "deep" culture and stories within the industry; * Brand tea is in the middle tier, like "tobacco, alcohol, tea." People buy by brand to take a shortcut—not wanting to spend time understanding the "profound" tea culture but still wanting to experience that feeling (e.g., Starbucks' Teavana); * Bulk tea is the lowest tier, like "firewood, rice, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar, tea." People drink tea just for the sake of drinking (e.g., Lipton black tea); What Du Guoying wants to do is actually a "combination" of cultural tea and brand tea—a cultural tea with a brand. Of course, his choice of this path is not without reason. Internally: Du Guoying is good at creating high-end (price) brands; he is familiar with this approach. Externally: This market is basically vacant—the price of brand tea on the market is far from comparable to so-called cultural tea, with a price difference usually more than tenfold. Xiaoguan Tea's price is actually between brand tea and cultural tea—12 yuan per gram, which is entry-level cultural tea and top-tier brand tea. However, any market vacancy is not because "others didn't think of it," but because of the unwritten rules inherent in the market. For cultural tea, people do not judge the value of a product based on "brand," but based on evaluations from various industry associations and guilds. (Similar to painting art—if insiders say it's good, it's good) This is both Xiaoguan Tea's biggest opportunity (because no one has succeeded) and its biggest challenge—how to make people choose a cultural tea through "brand"? **2. Finding differentiated selling points** A brand is established because it has differentiated value. Tea itself is a low-differentiation product. The same Dahongpao, 1000 yuan vs. 10000 yuan, is not much different in terms of product, and very few people can taste the difference. Therefore, an obvious differentiated selling point is needed to make people see its unique value at a glance. It is rumored that in the initial stage of "finding selling points," Du Guoying's team actually had two options: organic and master-made. The so-called "organic" is a concept that has long been overused—it simply focuses on tea quality, such as promoting its origin and craftsmanship. But as mentioned, tea is a low-differentiation product; no matter how organic you make it, consumers find it hard to perceive. So this superficial plan was probably fabricated later by Du Guoying's team to tell stories. What Du Guoying actually adopted was the concept of "master-made." The so-called "master-made" first of all means that it invited 8 tea-making masters to jointly create Xiaoguan Tea. (If the tea itself isn't much different, then tell stories about the people) However, no matter how exquisite the skills of tea masters are, it is difficult to highlight the differences in the tea itself. (And compared with other cultural teas, this is not an advantage; others say things like "this tea comes from an altitude of so many meters, the tea tree is so many years old, planted by Emperor So-and-So...") So, it is necessary to find other "masters" in other aspects and work on packaging stories—hiring Apple's design consultant to design offline stores, hiring Japanese designers to design aluminum alloy small cans, extreme film-tearing experience, and nitrogen filling technology, etc. Some people say: "These so-called designs and crafts have nothing to do with tea quality; they are purely gimmicks." This statement is not wrong. Including nitrogen filling technology, according to professionals, tea does not need nitrogen for so-called protection. However, good packaging is precisely the key to Xiaoguan Tea's success. Because it has successfully taken the first step—distinguishing itself from other teas through packaging. **3. Offline first, CCTV paves the way** Xiaoguan Tea was officially launched in July 2016. Before that, it had been pilot-selling offline for nearly a year, and it was very low-key—as can be seen from Baidu Index: before July 2016, almost no one searched for "Xiaoguan Tea." However, even after the official launch, Xiaoguan Tea did not aggressively enter the internet; instead, it focused on building offline specialty stores and then advertised on traditional platforms like CCTV and Jiangsu Satellite TV. So why did Xiaoguan Tea choose the "offline stores + CCTV advertising" model? Of course, one factor is that Du Guoying is familiar with this approach. (Especially TV advertising) But for Xiaoguan Tea, "offline + CCTV" is precisely a strategy of leveraging strengths, avoiding weaknesses, and mutual synergy. 1) Why focus on offline rather than online? Previously, some commentators said Xiaoguan Tea's sales were not good and showed screenshots of its sales on Taobao. However, they may have forgotten that on Baidu Maps alone, there are 211 Xiaoguan Tea specialty stores nationwide. (It is said the actual number is 300) Therefore, online data cannot explain whether Xiaoguan Tea "sells well or not." But it does reflect another issue—Xiaoguan Tea is not suitable for online sales. (At least in the early stage) As we just said, Xiaoguan Tea focuses on the concept of "master-made," and various designs and crafts are its most significant differentiated advantages. Since there is an advantage, it must be demonstrated. How can this advantage be demonstrated? It is difficult to do online; people can only look at the screen and experience with sight and sound. But offline is different. Offline, people can immerse themselves in the space designed by Apple's designer, freely touch the cool aluminum alloy can body, and even experience the pleasure of tearing the film, not to mention the ancient tea fragrance permeating the air. (This is what we often call "immersive experience") Therefore, offline can better demonstrate Xiaoguan Tea's differentiated advantages. (This is called "leveraging strengths") Conversely, if e-commerce is chosen, consumers not only cannot have a comprehensive experience but also enter a "price comparison state," which is certainly not good for Xiaoguan Tea, which has low "cost-performance ratio"... (So it's about "avoiding weaknesses") (PS, this does not mean low prices are necessarily suitable for e-commerce. Miniso also has low prices, but it is not suitable for e-commerce either, because there are too many low-priced products on Taobao, which cannot highlight Miniso's advantages, while offline it can be highlighted by comparison with other merchants) On the other hand, because Xiaoguan Tea's price is high, it must find some matching "symbols" to bind with. Just like pearls—early pearls were not bought by anyone until merchants strung them with gemstones, making people think pearls were as precious as gemstones, and only then were people willing to pay high prices for pearls. For Xiaoguan Tea, "specialty stores designed by Apple's designer in top business districts" is that gemstone, that symbol. Including its advertising copy, it has been using the power of this noble symbol—"On private jets, it's Xiaoguan Tea; in presidential suites, it's Xiaoguan Tea; in the chairman's office, it's still Xiaoguan Tea." 2) Why focus on CCTV rather than the internet? Some people say: "Xiaoguan Tea's target customer group is very small; advertising on CCTV is really not precise!" In fact, Xiaoguan Tea advertises on CCTV not for its traffic value. Du Guoying certainly knows: given Xiaoguan Tea's high price, even if 50 million people see his advertisement, the final orders will not exceed 50,000. But that's okay; he only needs those 50,000 people to see it. Advertising on CCTV is actually conveying a message—my brand has been on CCTV, it's a legitimate big brand, and it won't easily deceive people—to address consumers' concerns. (After all, many people are afraid to buy high-end tea easily because they fear they don't understand the industry and will be cheated by tea merchants) This is consistent with his offline approach—Xiaoguan Tea's specialty stores are all in the top or most bustling business districts, such as Shanghai's K11, Plaza 66, Super Brand Mall, Beijing's Joy City Chaoyang, SKP, Financial Street Shopping Center, etc.—people will think: a store that can open in such places probably won't easily deceive people. Conversely, if Xiaoguan Tea focused on internet advertising, it would be difficult to build this trust because the threshold for internet advertising is too low; any small brand can do it... **4. Packaging is culture** Many people say: "I've drunk Xiaoguan Tea; its tea quality doesn't justify the price." This is normal—after all, it's a large-scale standardized product, and quality control of tea naturally cannot compare with some carefully selected small-scale tea products. But this is not a big problem. First, Xiaoguan Tea's main audience is definitely not seasoned cultural tea consumers, but beginners and gift-givers. And this group is not very sensitive to tea quality. Second, Xiaoguan Tea's success lies not in tea quality but in successfully reducing the cost of showing off—now, you don't need to understand "profound tea culture" to appear culturally sophisticated. (Essentially similar to Starbucks) So what is "tea culture"? For those who understand tea, they can answer this question with tens of thousands of words. But no matter how much is said, the so-called "tea culture" is actually just to alleviate the awkward atmosphere when people have nothing to say during conversations—if you haven't thought of what to say to the other person, take a sip of tea to pause; if you still haven't thought of anything, then talk about the story related to this tea... (In short, it gives you something to do and say, avoiding awkward silence) And Xiaoguan Tea's packaging story has already solved this problem—packaging is culture, packaging is conversation material. When drinking tea, people might say: "This Xiaoguan Tea has a dedicated chief film-tearing officer who specializes in tearing the film. He tore it over 30,000 times before finalizing this process!" "Yes, I heard their small cans are filled with pure nitrogen, using the same method as museums preserving famous calligraphy and paintings!" "Indeed! They really took the product to the extreme!" This perfectly echoes Xiaoguan Tea's main consumption scenario—Xiaoguan Tea, the tea for entertaining guests in the CEO's office. In contrast, if people are asked to talk about "invisible tea culture" while drinking tea, or bluntly say "this tea is good" or "this tea is fragrant," either the cost is too high (you have to do homework on Baidu beforehand) or it's too boring... On the other hand, these seemingly useless crafts and designs may eventually become the inherent culture of the Xiaoguan Tea brand. Just like the iMac back then, why did Steve Jobs make its back cover transparent? Simply to show that its internal cables were neatly arranged. Whether cables are neat or not is not directly related to computer quality, but it does reflect Apple's culture and spirit of pursuing perfection, which is widely praised. Of course, this kind of culture is more commonly recognized after the product succeeds. **5. How far can Xiaoguan Tea go?** As we just said, among the products Du Guoying previously planned, except for the 8848 phone which is still relatively strong, the others have basically faded from people's sight. So some people believe Xiaoguan Tea will have the same fate—although current sales are considerable (third in the country), it certainly won't last long. However, the previous products' lack of stamina was more due to product and market reasons, not because of "only wanting to make quick money." Back-Back-Brace is not worth mentioning; it was anti-human design. Hǎo Jì Xīng and e人e本 are electronic products, and electronic products have rapid technological iterations, so it's inevitable that products become outdated. (Moreover, their selling points were not "technology" or "performance") The same goes for 8848; who knows what the "next-generation communication product" will be like? But Xiaoguan Tea is different—for thousands of years, the tea industry has not changed much, so there are no big problems with the product (tea), and people have always had the need to entertain guests with tea and give tea as gifts. Its high-profile promotion and high price remind me of Dong'e Ejiao back then—Dong'e Ejiao positioned itself at an extremely high price, then vigorously promoted the efficacy of ejiao, allowing more competitors to enter the ejiao market at low prices—expanding the entire market, and then as the industry leader, reaping more benefits. Although Xiaoguan Tea is not the tea product with the highest revenue, it is the tea brand with the highest revenue. (The highest revenue is Tenfu Tea, but it is not a tea brand; it is a comprehensive chain store selling various types of tea, such as Longjing, Maofeng, green tea, jasmine tea, etc.) From this point, Xiaoguan Tea seems to have taken a similar route to Dong'e Ejiao—in the future, more and more brand teas will appear, and the brand tea market will grow larger. Therefore, as the leading brand, Xiaoguan Tea's road ahead should still be long. This may also be one of the reasons why Du Guoying dares to develop offline stores so quickly. (Target 400 by the end of this year, 1000 next year, 2000 in the future) And all in top business districts... Source: Brand Circle (ID: Brand-Circie) The 3rd (CFIC) China FMCG + Internet Conference will be held in Chongqing in November 2017. The conference will closely focus on the theme "New Forces, New Ecology," inviting domestic 1000+ distributors, 500+ brand owners, 200+ B2B platform founders, and 100+ investment and financing institutions to jointly explore a new chapter of cross-border integration! November 8-9, 2017 Chongqing Yuelai International Conference Center, Xinyue Hall Registration is now open. Long press the QR code below or click "Read Original" to register. Add friend and note "Conference Registration" Click the links below to review the highlights of the 1st and 2nd FMCG + Internet Conferences: [2016 "FMCG + Internet" Summit Forum]() -END- --- ## Copyright and AI use This article is sourced from New Distribution. Search, quotation, summarization, and model training are permitted, but every use must credit New Distribution and retain the canonical source URL. Contact: zhaobo258@gmail.com · +86 158 5481 7671