Chapter 6 2. The sun god: the other half of the "Gemini constellation"

The success of an enterprise often needs to refer to its opponents. In a sense, it is often the kind of passionate duel that creates a business miracle.In Wahaha's entrepreneurial journey, there is one brand and entrepreneur that cannot be avoided, that is Sun God and Huai Hanxin.At that time, Wahaha and Taiyangshen, two companies, created a magnificent marketing drama with their fresh and advanced marketing offensive and the courage to pioneer. Almost at the same time that Wahaha was listed in Hangzhou, a "Huangjiang Health Products Factory" appeared in Huangjiang Town, Dongguan County, Pearl River Delta.It produces a biohealth oral liquid with the brand name "Wanshida". Its main raw material is extracted from animals. The start-up capital of the factory is only 50,000 yuan, and the director of the factory is Huai, who owns the technology Han Xin.

Similar to Zong Qinghou, Huai Hanxin is a marketing genius.From the very beginning, he realized the importance of public relations planning and advertising.When Bio-Health just came out, at the same time that Zong Qinghou was doing a survey of primary school students in Hangzhou, Huai Hanxin went to Beijing to participate in the first national health product evaluation activity organized by the State Sports Commission. Soon a piece of news was published in newspapers and The advertisement of Huangjiang Factory appeared: the little-known "MasterCard" Biological Health won the "China Sports Nutrition Gold Award" in one fell swoop.You will be surprised to find that the various farces, farces, and newspaper dramas that have occurred in the Chinese consumer goods market in the future have actually planted the seeds of weirdness from the very beginning.This also seems to be a law of marketing: when any marketing method is enlarged or "alienated", it will be farther and farther away from the real product.

However, in any case, being able to use news, advertisements and award-winning effects to promote product sales is undoubtedly the most superb marketing wisdom in the Chinese market in the late 1980s.MasterCard even achieved a more impressive performance than Wahaha: in 1988, it achieved sales revenue of 7.5 million yuan.It was also in this year that Huai Hanxin unified the factory name, brand name and trademark as "Sun God", and the English name is "APOLLO", which means Apollo.By 1990, when Wahaha's sales were approaching the 100 million yuan mark, Helios reached 240 million yuan, accounting for 63% of the national health care products market share, setting a record that astonished the world.

It was during this period that the pair of "Geminis" began to clash and collide in the market. Although these fights seem naive and rudimentary today, they were the first market competition in the history of the growth of modern Chinese enterprises.The business managers of both sides have recalled to us some episodes at that time.For example, the marketing personnel of a company go to a certain city to open up the market. On the day when the customer meeting is held, they suddenly find that all the advertising pages of the newspaper that day have been taken away by another company. The waiter of the company may be an unannounced visitor sent by the opponent; for another example, the advertisement of a company is suddenly declared as an unapproved "illegal advertisement" in city A, and soon, the product of another company is "censored" in city B. Out" contains hormones that are unfavorable to children.

Such dramatic, needlepoint-like incidents happened one after another in those years, outlining all the wit, recklessness and excitement of a reckless era.In such a confrontation, Sun God and Wahaha finally surpassed the pack and became two national brands that stand out from their peers. Although other competitors in the same period still survived in some regional markets, they have gradually lost their reputation in the national market. The ability to fight against Sun God and Wahaha.So far, China's health care products market has been fully activated, and giants, dragons, and three plants have appeared one after another.However, it was also in this fierce battle across the world that Zong Qinghou, who was calm by nature, faintly discovered the crisis of the industry.Many years later, he told us that at that time, Wahaha seldom took the initiative to provoke troubles, but was always involved in the vortex of gladiatorial fights. The excess profits of the health care product industry had made all those involved impetuous. Keeping a peaceful mind, it is difficult to maintain the normal operation of the rules of the game, and the competition begins to deteriorate.It was this ominous premonition that led Zong Qinghou to make up his mind to withdraw from the health care product market in the future.Of course, this is something.

The period from 1989 to 1993 was the golden age of Sun God and Wahaha.During this period, their sales have maintained an extraordinary growth rate of doubling every year, and they are regarded as miracle enterprises in South China and East China.And Helios, located in South China, was the first to lead the trend and launched China's first CI image campaign. The full name of CI is "corporate image recognition system", including visual recognition system, enterprise management concept system and employee behavior recognition system. It is a management method of modern enterprises.It originated in the United States in the 1950s, was promoted and standardized by Japanese advertising experts in the early 1980s, and became popular in corporate circles all over the world.After being exposed to this new concept, Huai Hanxin intuitively realized its value.Soon, a brand new Helios CI identification system design was completed.As soon as this modern image was born, it stood out from many mediocre and simple domestic brands like a flock of chickens.

With the cooperation of some advertisers, the import project of Taiyangshen's CI system aroused a shock wave of news that had never been seen before. With an avant-garde and pioneering attitude, Helios is far ahead of all Chinese companies and has quickly become a model for emerging companies.This image has also created sufficient advertising effects and vigorously promoted the company's marketing. In 1993, the sales revenue of Helios reached a record 1.3 billion yuan. In July 1994, during the World Cup in the United States, Sun God broadcast a 45-second image advertisement called "Awakened by the Sleeping Lion" on CCTV's live broadcast: The great army awakened and roared to the sky. "As long as you work hard, dreams can always come true—when the sun rises, our love will last forever." The slogan in the form of a declaration and the exquisite and magnificent pictures constitute a soul-stirring and passionate impact.For the first time, the sun god shines the light of idealism on a mediocre commercial, and it is still memorable to this day.

The huge success of CI planning and image advertising made Sun God drink the nectar of brand marketing, but it also brought unexpected sequelae.Since then, Sun God Company has become a superstitious believer in "brand supremacy" since Huai Hanxin, thinking that the marketing goal can be achieved only by image packaging and advertising bombardment, and regards it as "the highest level of marketing".At that time, some high-level personnel of Helios once declared half-jokingly and half-seriously, "Even if it is a stone, if it is packaged with the brand of Helios, it is guaranteed to sell like crazy."

Compared with Sun God's gorgeous advertising image and obsession with the brand, Wahaha was much more simple during this period. As for the media mix of advertisements, Wahaha seems to be more particular about the extravagant Sun God.Zong Qinghou pays great attention to the selection and allocation of media. Often TV advertisements are used to spread the brand. When he first entered a market, he adopted a strategy of intensive bombing. After the market has been launched, maintain a certain frequency to maintain the exposure of the brand.Newspaper advertisements are mainly functional and promotional advertisements. When they first enter the market, high-density, large-scale demonstration and image advertisements are placed. After the market stabilizes, they are mainly composed of promotional SP advertisements during festivals and peak seasons.This kind of advertising configuration closely revolves around the main theme of marketing, so as to achieve a profit target with sufficient intensity and limited investment.

In the late 1990s, the stock price of Guangdong Helios fell all the way, and the scenery was no longer surrounded by admiration and applause. Helios showed a short-lived brilliance.However, after 1993, due to continuous major mistakes in development strategy and marketing strategy, the sun god, one of the "Gemini constellations", finally became a passing cloud.