Once, Xiangpiaopiao created the brewed milk tea category by itself, and was known as the pioneer and leader of the domestic milk tea market.
And now, Xiang Piaopiao's figure has faded out of the public's field of vision.
From 2020 to 2022, revenue declined for three consecutive yearsThe net profit loss in the first half of 2023 was 44.04 million yuan, after Double 11, he did not dare to announce the sales volume.
What worries the market and consumers more is that as the company's leaderJiang Jianqi accumulated **821 in the first half of the year30,000 shares
What happened to the incense that "sells a billion cups a year, and the cups can circle the earth three times when connected"?
The source is from Changjiang Business Daily, released on September 13, 2023, and CCTV, released on September 24, 2023, but in order to improve the readability of the article, the details may be polished, please read sensibly, for reference only!Just as instant noodles were born to make it easy for people to eat hot noodles, instant coffee is meant to make it convenient for people to drink hot coffee anytime, anywhereThe concept of the birth of Xiangpiaopiao focuses on a "convenience". In 2004, Jiang Jianqi, the founder of Xiangpiaopiao, who was still the owner of food processing at the time, saw a long line of bubble tea shops on the street, and he thought that if there was a kind of hot milk tea that people could drink without queuing, it would definitely sell well.
At that time, Jiang Jianqi's factory was doing the processing of Master Kong's instant noodles, and he had an ideaIf you put the "way to eat" instant noodles on milk tea, it will definitely sell well.
Jiang Jianqi's unique vision and innovative thinking come from his experience, in the eighties of the last century, under the wave of commodity economy, he was unwilling to work only in the Shanghai Railway Bureau to do boring iron rice bowl work.
He took over his brother's bread factory and started a food business, and he independently developed the "Old Naughty Boy Popsicle", which was widely praised and became a popular snack of that era.
With more than ten years of experience in the food industry, Jiang Jianqi firmly grasped this good idea.
He found the Hangzhou Food Research Institute, and soon after, "Xiangpiaopiao Milk Tea" was born.
Drink milk tea and never have to go to the bubble tea shop again!Cups of convenient brewed milk tea appear in the streets and alleys of large and small shops, as long as you want, a cup of hot water can let you drink the aroma of milk tea.
Since it is a factory mass production, the ** of a cup of milk tea is also pressed down.
Such an innovation dealt a fatal blow to the bubble tea shop that was just emerging at that time.
Unexpectedly, the incense that exploded with "convenient and low price" was fluttering after more than ten yearsHit by a more "convenient" and "low-priced" one
A series of new tea brands represented by Mixue Bingcheng, which rose before and after the epidemic, smashed the old-timer Xiang Piaopiao on the beach with an unstoppable momentum.
The stores of these new tea brands are all over the streets, and the scope is no less extensive than the fragrance of the past.
In 2023, there will be more than 1,000 stores in the top 10 populous provinces in the country
People walk on the street, you can buy a cup of milk tea that tastes better than the fragrance, no need to queue up and no need to hold a cup of "powder" to find hot water everywhere, and the disadvantages of brewing milk tea are becoming more and more obvious.
What's worse is that the ** of these milk tea shops is also very cheap, a cup of fragrant milk tea 45 yuan, there is 80g of milk tea powder in it, brewed with 150ml of water, and finally there is about 240ml of milk tea, with an average of 0 ml of milk tea019 RMB.
A cup of Mixue Bingcheng milk tea is about 6 yuan, there are 500ml of milk tea, and the average of one ml of milk tea is 0012 RMB.
Cheaper **, more convenient drinking channels, so that fragrant milk tea is out of reach.
The rise of Xiang Piaopiao is inseparable from Jiang Jianqi's development concept.
Jiang Jianqi's actions are very steady, and Xiang Piaopiao's sales were initially only piloted in a few cities.
After the success of the pilot, Jiang Jianqi let go of his hands and feet, and in 2005, Xiang Piaopiao participated in the National Sugar and Liquor Commodity Fair for public investment, because brewing milk tea was a new thing in the market at that time, Jiang Jianqi was a great success at the fair.
In 2006, Jiang Jianqi smashed 30 million in advertising expenses non-stop, and pushed Xiangpiaopiao to the advertising space of Hunan Satellite TV's ** time period in one fell swoop.
In 2007, in the face of the impact of new brewed milk tea brands such as Yoremi and Xiangyu, Jiang Jianqi decisively cut off other convenience food projects that Xiangpiaopiao was expanding, and concentrated his main forces into the competition in the milk tea market.
Yoremi invited Jay Chou to endorse, a sentence"Hold you in the palm of your hand".It touched the hearts of countless young couples in China, and once made its popularity catch up with Xiang Piaopiao.
Jiang Jianqi's brand has come to a life-and-death juncture, Jiang Jianqi knows that the brewed milk tea on the market is actually relatively close in terms of product quality, and how to defeat opponents in product promotionIt is a key step to win this "milk tea battle".
What should I do, in that era, Jay Chou was the so-called "top stream", and playing the "star card" at this time was a big knife in front of Guan Gong.
Jiang Jianqi thought about it and felt that he could start in the direction of "product positioning", so Xiang Piaopiao quickly played the banner of "the pioneer and leader of Chinese milk tea", and focused the publicity on the rendering of its own status and sales.
And so"Sell x hundred million cups a year, and the cups can circle the earth x when connected".The ad was successful and won TV viewers across the country.
In 2010, the sales volume of Xiangpiaopiao exceeded 2 billion.
In the following 2014 to 2016, Xiang Piaopiao's advertising investment was 3300 million yuan, 2500 million yuan, 35.9 billion yuan.
In 2017, Xiangpiaopiao was listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange and became the first stock of milk tea, with the highest increase of more than 125% in 8 trading days after listing.
Jiang Jianqi not only invested in advertising, but also worked the direction of publicity.
He found that the sales volume of brewed milk tea was often relatively large in the middle of the night, so he took the opportunity to rediscover the refreshing and hunger-relieving characteristics of milk tea, which were usually ignored by people.
"Little hungry and sleepy, drink some fragrant fragrance".The advertising slogan successfully caters to the physical and mental needs of young people who generally stay up late today, so that Xiang Piaopiao has been active in the public eye for nearly ten years.
But recently, people can feel that the propaganda of Xiangpiaopiao seems to be useless, in recent years, the advertising words of the first have gradually faded in people's minds, and the newly launched products such as fruit juice tea have only been popular for a short period of time, and they cannot be maintained at all.
Jiang Jianqi's "old recipe" is no longer working, and it can't cure the "new stubborn disease" that has appeared in the current market.
The so-called "new stubborn disease", that is, the new phenomenon in the milk tea market, one is the rapid innovation, and the other is the rise of the Internet.
Take mobile phones as an example, before the advent of smart phones, an ordinary button mobile phone can be used for several years, and now different brands of smart phones are listed almost every year, and old mobile phones are quickly eliminated.
The same is true for the milk tea track, and the new milk tea brands that are currently developing rapidly, such as "Nai Xue's Tea" and "Hey Tea", have a strong R&D teamHundreds of different flavors of milk tea can be renewed throughout the year.
Even an ordinary Mixue Bingcheng store has about 40 types of milk tea to cater to the different taste preferences of consumers.
Even Luckin, who is engaged in coffee next door, has to take out a sauce-flavored latte and red wine American from time to time to fight for traffic, but Xiangpiaopiao is lackluster in comparison, and there are less than 20 types of milk tea displayed on the official website.
Xiangpiaopiao's investment in R&D is also very small, and from 2019 to 2022, Xiangpiaopiao's R&D expenses are 03.1 billion yuan, 02.3 billion yuan, 02.8 billion and 02.8 billion yuan, the proportion of R&D expenses to revenue is respectively. 81% and 091%。
R&D expenses in the first half of this year were also only 01.5 billion yuan, showing that the company has obvious characteristics of "heavy marketing, light research and development".
Perhaps in the past, brewed milk tea, as a fast-moving consumer product, was able to respond to market changes with strong publicity channels, but now that the Internet is gradually developing, the difference in the breadth and depth of publicity between products is shrinking.
This requires the products launched by the seller to continue to catch people's attention, and the product R&D investment and product update speed are fragrantIn today's fast-paced market, it's hard to take a place anymore.
The new crown epidemic in 2019 has made people hang up the alarm bell for their health, and consumers are paying more and more attention to the primary criterion of "health".
Although it is often said on the Internet"You don't think I'm poor, I don't think you're unhealthy.", but in reality, there are not many people who can really think about it.
Milk tea has always been considered junk food, so in recent years, new milk tea brands have also been constantly transforming and upgrading, labeling themselves as "healthy".
Now when you walk into a bubble tea shop, there is not only the taste and capacity in the milk tea options, but also the "sugar content", and people can choose "full sugar", "half sugar" or even "no sugar" according to their own requirements.
In stark contrast to the strict requirements for "sugar" proposals, there has been little change in the sugar content of Xiang Piaopiao, and in the past decade, a cup of sweet milk tea may have met people's appetites, but now the sugar content is prohibitive for many people.
The "health" of the milk tea formula is also the competition point of the first tea brands, "Bawang Tea Ji", "Shanghai Auntie" and other milk tea brands have launched milk tea made of pure milk and tea, surprisingly, although this makes the milk tea improve accordingly, but consumers are more willing to invest more in health.
In contrast, the creamer in Xiangpiaopiao's products is considered to be "technology and ruthlessness" and is criticized by consumers, and the creamer will produce trans fatty acids, which is not conducive to human health.
In the face of the grim situation, Jiang Jianqi is also constantly looking for a way out of brewing milk tea.
In 2021, Jiang Jianqi will create the "Thousands of Counties and Towns" plan, screening 147 core cities across the country, and increasing sales channels and terminal outlets in districts, counties and townshipsIn September 2021, it has covered 80% of the country's retail terminals, with more than 1,000 dealers and more than 10,000 distributors nationwide.
Such a wide range of sales channels are covered, such as "Nai Xue's Tea" and "Hey Tea", which only have 1,000 stores, or even 10,000 stores"Honey Snow Ice City" is also out of reach.
If you want to catch up with the new tea drink brand, it is not enough to brew milk tea, Jiang Jianqi decided to "brew" and "ready-to-drink" with both hands.
In 2023, the ready-to-drink business has become the key breakthrough direction of Xiangpiaopiao, and a few days ago, Xiangpiaopiao announced at a press conference that the number of the company's ready-to-drink outlets has exceeded 300,000.
In order to solve the problem of too few product categories, from 2018 to 2019, Xiangpiaopiao launched new MECO cup juice tea, Lanfangyuan frozen lemon tea and other new products, and also launched JOYKO meal replacement cereal cereal and meal replacement shake products.
But these new categories haven't made much of a splash, and now you can't even search for fragrant meal replacement products on the Internet.
The "self-help" of Xiangpiaopiao revolves around the other direction of "paving channels" and "adding new products".
Although the former allows Xiang Piaopiao to maintain the market share it has occupied, it is also difficult to achieve further development.
Looking at the latter, from the number and scope of the new product layout, we can see the ambition of Xiang Piaopiao, although the speed has caught up, and the promotion of the product has also been marked with what people like"Zero sugar", "fat loss" and "health".and other flags.
However, it ignores the product replacement of the main milk tea business, and the main new products are foods in other fields, which can't help but remind us of Jiang Jianqi's feat of calmly cutting off the main milk tea of other businesses in the face of the provocation of a group of newly brewed milk tea opponents.
Nowadays, such a hurry and a large area of "chaotic fists" make people wonder if the decision-making group of Xiang Piaopiao is a little overwhelmed and has poor skills
The impact of new products seems to verify this conjecture, although Xiang Piaopiao has launched many kinds of products, but basically did not attract too much attention, fruit tea on the market after a short period of about a year, other products are almost invisible, after the major brands crazy into the ice cream industry, the arrival of Xiang Piaopiao seems to be long overdue, and its main milk tea business has not been effectively developed, which undoubtedly makes Xiang Piaopiao's business worse.
Let's wait and see whether this series of measures will be "self-help" or "the last straw that breaks the camel's back".