Chapter 7 Vivi: swinging between milk and soy milk

To this day, Hu Yunfeng, who is 40 years old, still remembers the scene when he reported to VV Group on the first day: there were no welcoming crowds, no warm flowers and applause, and what greeted his eyes was a slightly old factory building. There are machines roaring... At that time, he was not sure whether his choice was correct—originally, he could choose to go to a municipal agency, because before he was transferred from the People's Liberation Army Air Force, he was still serving as the staff officer of a battalion major However, such a moderate "official" would be enough to guarantee him a solid job, but he chose to work at VV Group as the deputy manager of the production department.Many years later, when some people speculated about Hu Yunfeng's motives for making this decision, they attributed him to "the influence of the general enthusiasm for going to sea at that time."

But it turns out that Hu Yunfeng's decision is correct, at least for his career. Established in 1992, VV Group was in a good development situation when he came. In October 1992, most Chinese people still couldn’t tell the difference between milk and soy milk, and what’s even more surprising was that few people had marketing awareness at that time. These two conditions brought opportunities for VV’s development.So in that year, all ordinary people who could watch CCTV heard such a slogan in the prime time: "VV Soybean Milk, Happy and Happy".With such a generous promotion, VV Group quickly stood out from all similar companies and became a well-known brand in China.

Behind this well-known brand is a series of jumping data: in 1990, the predecessor of VV had only one production line, but after Hu Yunfeng came to VV in 1994, the production line had grown to 26; by 2001, VV has more than 30 production bases and more than 100 modern food production lines across the country; taking 2001 alone as an example, VV's sales revenue reached 5.3 billion yuan, with profits and taxes of 560 million yuan.At the same time, various honors came one after another: first, the "VV" trademark was recognized as "China's Famous Brand", and then, VV Soybean Milk Powder successively won the "Green Food" certificate and the United Nations "Science and Peace" Contribution Award , China Domestic Excellence Award, etc. For a while, VV can be seen in all the honors about the most beautiful title of a company-VV has become the "King of Soybean Milk in China".

This honor, together with his main advertising slogan "Happy and happy", has become the most vivid portrayal of Weiwei himself, because he is the most qualified to laugh: the only trouble for Weiwei at that time was that no one came to compete with him ——Many years later, Hu Yunfeng said to the media deeply: "Such an industrial structure dominated by one flower is actually not a good thing. If more companies join in and jointly make soybean milk, it will be better for us." Hu Yunfeng's words , Different people can always read different tastes. Some people call Hu Yunfeng a lonely and melancholy person, while others say he is a proud person who obviously "stands and talks without pain in the back".But no matter what, one thing is certain: Weiwei has succeeded, and he has become the supreme king of China's soybean milk industry.

In fact, Weiwei's success is based on his marketing and management methods that surpassed his contemporaries on the one hand, but more importantly, it should be due to the arrival of the opportunity of the times. In 1992, Deng Xiaoping went to the south for the second time and blew the inspiring clarion call of reform and opening up. Since then, people's lives have improved significantly, and economic activity will inevitably bring about a surge in commodities; and when people become rich, the first One thing must be to improve the quality of life, so in the mid-1990s, referring to Japan's experience, the Chinese government put forward the historic slogan "a glass of milk strengthens a nation". Under this environment, people began to value a day's milk. intake.But at that time, because China's productivity was still relatively backward, the source of milk became a bottleneck restricting the development of the milk industry.In this case, soy milk comes into people's eyes.Because the soybean raw materials required for soybean milk production are very abundant and low in cost, but their nutritional value is very high.Experts believe that the protein content in soybeans is as high as 40%, which is comparable to the nutrition of meat, eggs, and milk; the fat content is 20%, and it also contains vitamins A, B, C, D, E, and a large number of trace elements.According to estimates by nutritionists, 1 kilogram of soybeans can be equivalent to the protein contained in 2 kilograms of lean pork, 3 kilograms of eggs and 12 kilograms of milk, so soybeans enjoy the titles of "plant meat" and "green milk".However, if soybeans are used to make dairy products, the raw materials will be absolutely guaranteed. The only solution is to eliminate the taste difference brought by soybeans to consumers. This is not a problem at all for VV Group, which began technological transformation in 1990. Therefore, under such circumstances, after solving the technical problem and opening the way with excellent marketing, the rise of Weiwei has become an irreversible trend, and thus there is a dominant industrial structure that Hu Yunfeng "worried about"—— At its peak, the soymilk output of the Weiwei family accounted for more than 80% of the entire Chinese soymilk market. What an honor!

After becoming the market leader, VV did not "wait" to challenge the challenger, but he "waited" to get some spare cash. On June 30, 2000, VV shares were successfully listed in Shanghai, thus becoming China's first As a dairy group listed in Shanghai, VV raised more than 1 billion yuan in social funds that year. What is such a huge sum of money used for?It is believed that this problem was the biggest problem that troubled Hu Yunfeng at the beginning of the new century.But he quickly made a decision: invest the money in the dairy industry that is separated from soy milk, where Hu Yunfeng can't resist the temptation.

Although he has become the unique "soy milk king" in China, many people guess that in the bottom of Hu Yunfeng's heart, milk has always been most recognized, as if that is the real "right man".And this is also related to the consumption habits of Chinese people all the time. In people's eyes, soy milk is plant-based protein and is vegetarian; while animal-based protein milk is the milk that is really suitable for human needs and is more advanced. Therefore, while VV Group is gradually becoming the dominant player in the soy milk industry, China's milk market is another scene of two worlds of ice and fire—the competition in the milk market is enough to be described as "fighting".

On the one hand, the state has continuously strengthened the promotion of "a glass of milk strengthens a nation" and created a milk industry without any policy barriers. Policy orientation has promoted the development of the milk industry: Since 1995, China's milk industry has experienced nearly ten years of rapid growth During the development period, it has created a miracle of maintaining a 50% growth rate for five consecutive years, and the total consumption of milk in the country has continued to increase rapidly.A set of credible data is: in 2002, China's per capita annual milk consumption was about 7 kilograms, and by the end of 2004, this figure had reached 18.33 kilograms; at the same time, in economically developed cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, etc. The total consumption of milk products per capita is as high as 36.24 kg; therefore, in 2004, the total output value of the national dairy industry has reached 66.3 billion yuan.But what is more attractive than these is still in the future. According to the popular comparison, the per capita consumption of milk in developed countries was 100 kilograms in 2002, but by 2004 it had reached more than 200 kilograms. ——Compared with developed countries, China's current market capacity is still quite low.A huge cake surfaced.

Under the guidance of such a seductive picture, the milk industry has become a battlefield where all the heroes compete. Also since 1995, many new companies enter the milk industry every year.By 2002, there were more than 1,500 large and small dairy companies in China, and the industry concentration rate was only 62%. Even if there are dozens of well-known brands: Yili, Mengniu, Guangming, Sanyuan, Wanwan, etc. Dashan, Sanlu... Therefore, when VV Group completed its listing in 2000, it faced a delicious big cake without an owner, and it seemed that anyone with a heart could get a foot in it.

So from that year, VV Group began to implement the second entrepreneurial strategy with the main content of "stable development of soybean milk and comprehensive entry into the dairy industry".The goal put forward by VV is to form a production capacity of 600,000 tons of liquid milk within 3-5 years, making "VV Dairy" another main product of the group.In order to achieve this goal, VV Group, with the support of funds and channels, quickly launched actions.He first created the new milk brand "VV Tianshanxue" and launched it into the market. At the same time, he devoted all his efforts to cultivate the market for the new brand. With the consistent style of big-budget start-up strategy, VV Group continued to purchase CCTV's special A-level milk products. During the prime time, but the object of the launch has been changed to "Tianshan Snow" instead of "VV Soybean Milk, happy and happy."

But more important than advertising is the source of raw materials—to a certain extent, the competition for milk sources is the core of all milk companies, even higher than the competition for the market.Today, many milk companies continue to develop new concepts, such as "antibiotic-free milk" and "reconstituted milk", which are all new marketing methods based on milk sources; and for many years, the biggest development bottleneck of the milk industry has always been the insufficient supply of milk sources.VV is also well aware of this, so after the transformation, VV has invested heavily in the introduction of ten thousand Australian fine-bred dairy cows, and built milk source and pasture bases in Xuzhou and Xinjiang. A ten thousand head cattle farm, in addition, has established more than ten dairy processing bases in Jinan, Xi'an, Wuhan, Zhuhai, Xinjiang, Yinchuan, Lianyungang and other places. The big money made Weiwei occupy a place in the field of milk with the image of a later strong man.According to the report of an authoritative consulting company, by 2005, "Vivi Tianshan Snow" had achieved the fourth market share, but the fourth position did not make Hu Yunfeng happy—he had almost obtained everything that was originally envisaged , but no profit was obtained. When the annual ring of history reaches 2005, I don’t know how many people still recognize the road of the time, but in 2005, there were many milk companies that could no longer see the direction of progress—as early as the beginning of the new century, they were Some state authoritative organizations estimate that the integration of China's milk industry will be completed before 2005, and this is indeed the case.According to statistics, among the existing 1,500 dairy companies, 1/3 of the companies are currently at the break-even point, while another 1/3 are directly in a state of loss, which also means that loss-making companies will lose money in the near future. , directly exit the stage of history. The reality is that even though there are still a group of companies struggling to support, China's current dairy market is firmly controlled by a few companies such as Yili, Mengniu, and Bright. The Matthew effect of China's dairy industry has begun appear.In this brutal battle, even the world's most famous milk companies have lost. In 2005, Parmalat, the most famous Italian milk company that once ranked fifth in the world, announced its withdrawal from the Chinese market.As a result, he became the fourth international brand to retreat from China after Kraft, Danone, and Nestle - one can imagine the tragedy. Weiwei is not the most failed company in this war, but it is by no means a winner. At least the current situation makes it difficult for Hu Yunfeng, who firmly chose to come to Weiwei, to see clearly—when in October 2005, he and When his colleagues reluctantly announced his return to the soybean milk industry, he was far less energetic than when he announced his entry into the milk industry. For Hu Yunfeng, after five years of wandering outside, he returned to the original point. Can we go back to the original point? In the eyes of the outside world, Weiwei has been hitting his right hand with his left hand for the past five years.Because compared to the two industries of milk and soybean milk, they are two parallel systems, that is to say, they are facing the same group of consumers. If one side is bigger, the other side will be smaller.Therefore, for so many years, China's milk industry has flourished, but soy milk has not really risen—soy milk can't compete with milk at all—so VV's entry into the milk industry is actually hitting its own soy milk industry. More importantly, during the days when VV entered milk, the soy milk market was also undergoing some changes.At present, Jianlibao, Wahaha, Robust, etc. are planning soybean milk projects, some of which have passed the small test and pilot test, and these are the top ten enterprises in China's beverage industry. Their involvement will directly pose a threat to VV. At the same time, local brands that have sprung up like mushrooms in various places are also constantly impacting VV's market share.For example, in the Shanghai market, VV is already far behind. The leading brand of soymilk in Shanghai is Hong Kong Vitasoy. The second is Zhengguanghe; in addition, there are Shanghai Guangming, Quanshinai, Yang Xiecheng and other brands participating in the competition.For Weiwei, such a scene is a bit like a fire in the backyard. The situation does not seem to be the worst, because for Weiwei, although he has encountered threats in some places, he still occupies more than 70% of the market share in the national market.If you want to talk about threats, the only possibility lies in yourself, just like Hu Yunfeng announced his entry into milk five years ago, he punched himself at that time; and five years later, although Weiwei announced his return to soybean milk and chose A new way of cooperating with Japanese companies, but in VV’s statement, it still stated that it would retain the milk industry and share, but hoped that it could be treated as a second-class choice—such an attitude made people feel a little strange I hope Hu Yunfeng's choice this time can still be correct.