Chapter 46 3. Surrounding the city by the countryside

On April 24, 2002, the mainstream economic media in Beijing published such news: The latest survey conducted by the National Bureau of Statistics Industry Enterprise Information Release Center and CCTV Market Research Company showed that in 2001 Coca-Cola’s market share in China The rate is ahead of similar products, ranking first in the list of carbonated drinks for 7 consecutive years.Coca-Cola's brand market share is 41.2%, brand awareness is 78.8%, the best brand recognition is 39.2%, and brand preference is 4.2.One of the media specifically explained: Wahaha's "Very Coke" ranks outside the top 6.

Zong Qinghou laughed off the findings.Coca-Cola China Co., Ltd.'s high-level personnel also spoke cautiously and kept a low profile when facing reporters' questions.Both parties are well aware that the scope of this survey is 15,400 sample households in 35 provincial capitals and large cities in special economic zones, and Very Coke’s advantage lies in the vast urban and rural markets below prefecture-level cities across the country.In other words, there are still 1 billion consumers who have not spoken.Coca-Cola knows that its young competitors are active in the endless green gauze tent.

American companies usually permeate the deep-rooted pursuit of "bigger and better" American spirit.Europeans often adopt such a strategy in terms of marketing skills: Cherchez le creneaux (look for vacancies). Harvard Business School happens to have a similar lesson plan—— For years, Detroit automakers have been keen to lengthen and lower their bodies, making their models more posh and sleeker with each passing year. On the way, a German Volkswagen "Beetle" appeared, with a short, wide and ugly body. The teaching plan commented that the space here is a matter of size.Volkswagen's most effective ad to date states its positioning intent unmistakably:

"Think small." Facing Coca-Cola, which has established a great consumer recognition and loyalty among urban consumers, Coca-Cola’s extraordinary choice is also to “find a space”: to go to towns and rural areas, to the vast world, in the dense In the woods, there are countless good brothers of ours. Zong Qinghou is not afraid of competition, even scrambling. On April 9, 1999, Zong Qinghou had a conversation with the host of the column, Yang Ping, about the challenge of Coca-Cola in the column of "Famous Businessmen" on CCTV—— Moderator: Very Coke's challenge to the world giants Coca-Cola and Pepsi is like an egg hitting a stone. Is it a bit overpowering?

Zong Qinghou: Indeed, globally speaking, Coca-Cola cannot compare with them, but I think they can still be compared in the Chinese market. For example, Coca-Cola has more than 20 factories in China, which operate independently and independently.But our company is a whole. Compared with each factory, our company is much stronger than it.This is just like the Communist Party in the era of the Revolutionary War. The Kuomintang had several million troops, and the Communist Party was much smaller than it. However, it concentrated its superior forces and devoured them one by one. In the end, the Communist Party won.I think we're in the same situation now as we were back then.

Moderator: What do you think is the reason for the failure of the first generation of Coke? Zong Qinghou: Competing with foreign cola is indeed a struggle.First, you must have courage, and second, you must have a foundation and strength.The first generation of Coke was millet plus rifles, and we may be planes plus bombs.The equipment is first-class in the world, and the technical capital is definitely not what it used to be, and it will never lose to foreign companies. Moderator: The management of the Coca-Cola company once said that if we find other Coke products appearing somewhere, we will buy them all and throw them into the sea.

Zong Qinghou: If it is willing to acquire it, I can produce it desperately and let it acquire it. In this way, I can still make money, and then develop desperately (laughs). Zong Qinghou's not afraid of competition is not a rhetoric of the moment, but based on calm analysis and grasp.But he knows more clearly that the tragic pursuit of competition or the tragedy of scrambling has no meaning for a modern enterprise.What he wants is the opportunity to develop himself with the minimum cost. Dr. Philip Kotler subdivided companies into four categories according to their different roles in the target market: market leader-defending company, market challenger-attacking company, market follower-pursuit Small-scale enterprises, market fill-ins - guerrilla-type enterprises.He defines a market challenger as a company that ranks second, third, or lower in its industry—also known as a subcompany and a catch-up company—and launches an attack on the market leader and other competitors to capture a larger market share.Kotler analyzed that the key to the success of market challengers lies in the choice of attack strategy.Market challengers have 5 options: frontal attack, flank attack, envelopment attack, roundabout attack, and guerrilla attack.Among them, the roundabout attack refers to avoiding confrontation with the opponent and expanding one's own resource base by attacking relatively easy markets. This is the least direct attack tactic, and it is often the most effective when the enemy is strong and we are weak, and resources are very different. effective tactics.

The first shot of Very Coke's roundabout war was fired in the towns and rural markets where Coca-Cola and Pepsi were somewhat beyond their reach and unable to do what they wanted.People who have been to Wahaha Company may have heard such an interesting jingle: Wahaha, Wahaha, there are many words in the earth, deeply rooted, and will not fall.It seems that the very happy country market complex may really be a kind of providence. Zong Qinghou's very cola-laden "local strategy" is obviously based on careful consideration in many aspects: —— Consumers in small towns and rural areas are relatively weak and unclear groups in the spread of the Coca-Cola concept, and they have no loyalty to Coca-Cola or Pepsi.The first to open up this market must be preconceived and occupy the mountain as king.Subsequent facts also proved this judgment. With the influence of the original Wahaha brand and the ubiquitous penetration of joint sales, Very Coke soon realized the "Normandy Landing", opening up a second place for Coke consumption in small towns and rural areas. battlefield.Countless rural consumers have even stubbornly believed that Coke is very Coke, that it should be this brand, and it should be this taste.

——Individual consumption levels in small towns and rural markets are not high, but the total volume is huge and the potential is huge.According to the 2001 China Statistical Yearbook, my country has a total population of 1.3 billion, of which the population of central cities (cities above the prefecture-level administrative division) accounts for only 10% of the total, and the population of county-level towns and rural areas exceeds 1.1 billion, accounting for 10% of the total. 90% of the total population. Population is the basis of consumer market size. In 2001, the consumption in counties and cities accounted for 28% of the total consumption in the country, and the consumption in rural areas accounted for 41%.There is no doubt that China has the largest and growing rural consumer market in the world.

Once the target market is locked, Wahaha quickly launched a fierce combination offensive to expand its territory.The TV commercial "Airborne", which has the strongest communication power for small towns and rural markets, has once again become a very lethal advance army.With CCTV as the main coverage media, supplemented by provincial, prefectural, and municipal TV broadcasting networks, Very Cola naturally blends in with the most ordinary Chinese people who believe in simplicity and truth like Zong Qinghou, drinking Chinese own Coke It became a symbol of their happy life. The decision-making of multinational companies relies too much on data model analysis, and the process is long. It is even more difficult for the sampling of large companies in international market research to extend to vast rural areas.Zong Qinghou, who started pulling carts at the age of 16, is able to comprehend the market with ease in this market where they can’t find any feeling or basis. He can comprehend the market through direct conversations with those simple people. The advanced information analysis system constitutes the cornerstone of Wahaha's strategy formulation.

Now, there are fewer people who say that Very Coke is "ridiculous", but some people say that Very Coke is "too earthy" and it is "farmer's Coke".There are also reporters who are not reconciled. When interviewing Zong Qinghou, they have to ask when Coke will become "foreign" and when it will "enter the city".Zong Qinghou's answer seems to be irrelevant but meaningful: "The rice should be eaten in one bite, then the meat, and finally the bones."