Zong Qinghou and that childhood Wahaha went away together

Text|Slightly *** small kui Yang Zhichao small fish.

Edit|Field.

01 Times people always need something to prove that they once existed in the world.

Some people rely on children, and it is the nature of animals to reproduce by blood; Someone relies on their works, and it is the long-cherished wish of all ambitious creators. And the indicator falls on the concrete, which is always clearer than the grandiose. This is the case with Zong Qinghou. He talked about it 3 years ago

For me, there is only one Wahaha. It's my whole life, all my dreams, all my meanings, all my values, all my labels, my richness. It is a testament to my existence in this world. ”

From this point of view, Zong Qinghou is happy.

Countless people have perceived happiness from his presence.

Who didn't have a Wahaha in their childhood? After the news of Zong Qinghou's death came out at noon on February 25, some people quickly asked questions on social platforms. From the post-80s to the post-00s, the answer is surprisingly consistent. Wahaha AD calcium milk, nutrition express to eight-treasure porridge, these products have been dug out from everyone's memories. Attentive people are nostalgic even earlier - not long ago, in the CCTV Spring Festival Gala of the Year of the Dragon, the camera captured people drinking Wahaha AD calcium milk in the audience.

Source: Wahaha Home".

Similar to his peers, Zong Qinghou has a deep imprint of the times.

He has endured the hardships of the times. Starved as a child, he went to the countryside at the age of 18 and spent the next 15 years in the countryside. He returned to the city at the age of 33 and ushered in the opportunity to change his fate at the age of 42. Later, China gradually integrated with the world, foreign companies and capital entered, and Chinese companies were like novices at the table, more or less paying tuition fees in the process of cooperation. One of the typical examples is the "Dawa dispute" between Wahaha and Danone of France.

Zong Qinghou mentioned this incident many years later and sighed: "At that time, we really didn't understand capital operation, and now we really suffer a loss." ”

The times have also given him sweetness. Or more accurately, he seized the dividends of the times.

One of the most critical ones, of course, was the establishment of a school-run enterprise in Shangcheng District, Hangzhou in 1987. This is where it all begins. In the second year, the stomach digestion nutrient solution made from raw materials such as red dates, longan, rice kernels and wolfberries was launched, named "Wahaha".

In hindsight, the two decisions fully proved Zong Qinghou's vision: one was to grasp the health care needs of the children's market and solve the picky eating pain points of the first generation of only children faced by young parents at that time; The second is to bet on advertising and marketing. One theory is that at that time, there were only more than 100,000 Wahaha accounts, and all of them were invested in public relations planning and advertising by the factory director Zong Qinghou, so that the advertising slogan "After drinking Wahaha, eating is fragrant", became popular all over the country.

Although the parties may not be aware of it, at least at a certain stage, the dividends of the times have flashed equally in the window of fate of many people. It's just that not everyone can catch it.

In the final analysis, it is related to personal cognition and ability.

In the more than ten years of living in the countryside, Zong Qinghou turned over the "** Anthology". The "joint sales body" model he created is recognized as the key to Wahaha's sales success. He asked dealers to pay in advance, divide regions and grades, protect the profits of dealers at all levels through price differences, and at the same time widely spread the market - in the eyes of industry insiders, this is a replica of the united front and the mass front.

Of course, the limitations of the times also fell on Zong Qinghou's 79-year-old life.

He was proficient in marketing methods in his early years, but he gradually failed to keep up with the times in the later period, especially in the years of the rise of the Internet, Wahaha gradually lost his voice. Wahaha under the patriarchal system, long-term human rule, highly dependent on Zong Qinghou's personal ability and energy, the upper limit of enterprise development is written.

He also understands the importance of keeping up with the times. He once took a clear stand against the blind entrepreneurship of college students, "It is more difficult for young people to start a business now than it was back then."

Under the big label of "Wahaha", there are not many labels around Zong Qinghou himself.

For example, the richest man in cloth shoes.

This entrepreneur, who has become the richest man in Chinese mainland three times, has lived a simple life for a long time, and has been encountered by passers-by in the second-class seat of the high-speed rail and the economy class of the plane, and it is said that the annual living expenses after quitting smoking do not exceed 50,000 yuan.

At the same time, he is also highly concerned about the cost of the company's operation, and in the early years in the business liquid production line, he found that a boiled jujube waste still had a sweet taste, thinking that it was a waste, and immediately asked for an improvement in the process.

For example, **.

He has long served as the chairman and general manager of Wahaha, with a high degree of centralization. Daughter Zong Fuli was once asked: "What is Wahaha minus Zong Qinghou?" Her reply was, "Equal to zero." According to a report by China Entrepreneur, it was not until 2006 that the amount of the company's procurement submitted to him for approval was adjusted from 50 yuan to 2,000 yuan.

For example, workaholics.

Even in the last days of the hospital bed, Zong Qinghou still cared about work. As for days when you are healthy, working from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. is almost the norm. In a way, it's also the muscle memory of their generation, who believe that hard work pays off, and that only by devoting their finite lives to unlimited work can they regain some of the time they wasted in their youth.

Taken together, these labels — even if some of them are controversial — don't stop a consensus: Wahaha's Zong Qinghou is an old-school entrepreneur worthy of respect.

02 "Childhood" Wahaha In 2021, Zong Qinghou made no secret of the reason for Wahaha's decline in CCTV's "Dialogue" column - lack of innovation.

But at the beginning of the business, Zong Qinghou and Wahaha were out-and-out innovators.

In the 80s, health care products represented by royal jelly were on fire all over the country, and health preservation became a national behavior. At the same time, the first generation of only children was born, and parents have full willingness to consume these children born "with a golden spoon". Zong Qinghou quickly smelled the opportunity and aimed at the health care products market for children. In 1989, Wahaha Nutritional Food Factory launched its first product: Children's Nutrient Solution. This product perfectly stepped on the market demand, and it only took two years to achieve a profit of tens of millions.

Zong Qinghou was not satisfied, but gradually transformed into the food and beverage industry. In 1994, Zong Qinghou proposed an innovation that really changed the fate of Wahaha: channel innovation.

In that year, Zong Qinghou provided a new cooperation plan to the channel provider: the special first-level dealer must pay Wahaha in advance to get the goods, as a "deposit", and Wahaha pays interest on the margin; In the process of operation, the dealer must settle the payment before purchasing every month, and Wahaha will deliver the goods; After the sale, Wahaha will return the "deposit" and give the dealer a rebate.

Figure: In 1994, Zong Qinghou released the joint sales system for the first time at the dealer conference.

Zong Qinghou personally named this model "joint sales body". It brings together the interests of channel providers and Wahaha, and establishes a perfect benefit distribution system. Especially in the 90s, the logistics system was not developed, and there were differences in the product sales categories in each region, but countless dealers constituted Wahaha's rich capillaries, and the products were able to penetrate the whole country. The joint sales body has been cited by Harvard Business School as a case of channel innovation in China, and is even generally regarded as the core factor of Wahaha's rise.

After the weaving of the big net of channels, the success of the product becomes a matter of course.

In 1995, the year after Zong Qinghou's large net weaving was completed, Wahaha began to plan to produce purified drinking water. Zong Qinghou did not use the traditional distilled water in China, but introduced reverse osmosis technology and equipment. In 1996, Wahaha Pure Water was launched, which was also the first batch of large-scale production and sales of pure water products in China, which soon changed the pattern of the bottled water market. That year, Wahaha's sales reached 100 million yuan, ranking first in the bottled water market.

Relying on the power of channels, Wahaha has replicated the success of bottled water in many fields, even if it does not have a first-mover advantage, as a chaser and imitator, Wahaha can always defeat its opponents.

In the 90s of the last century, "nutritious drinks" swept the whole society. "Malt milk essence" appeared on the lines of the Spring Festival Gala, and children were popular with Robust's calcium milk. In 1996, Wahaha entered this market and sold more than 1 billion bottles in its first year. According to the number of children at that time, it was equivalent to each child drinking three bottles a year.

The figure of three bottles a year is by no means an exaggeration. In the year or two after weaning, Jiacheng, a post-95 generation, showed rejection of all foods, and only loved AD calcium milk. The father rode the Happiness 250 carrying boxes of AD calcium milk as rations to maintain his vital signs. In the TV series "Hurricane" set in 2000, the favorite drink of the son of the ** boss Xu Jiang is also AD calcium milk.

Picture: Screenshot of "Hurricane".

After the broadcast of the TV series "Hurricane", Wahaha AD calcium milk became popular again on social **, and young people have checked in this drink of their childhood. It is enough to see the status of this product in the hearts of a generation. According to data, AD calcium milk has sold more than 50 billion bottles since its launch, with an output value of nearly 40 billion. Although it has long passed its peak, the position of this product in the hearts of a generation is hardly replaced by any drink.

However, the product that really leads Wahaha to the peak is Nutrition Express.

In 2003, Xiaoyangren combined the concept of juice and milk to launch the drink "Wonderful Love". At that time, many parents believed that these "nutritious drinks" could help their children's bodies develop better. Jia Cheng remembers that before the third grade of primary school, his mother would carry a bottle of foreigner or queer juice in her schoolbag every day.

Two years later, Wahaha also entered this market. In 2005, Nutrition Express was launched. After several years of cultivation, by 2009, the sales of Nutrition Express reached 12 billion yuan, surpassing Wanglaoji to become the best-selling beverage in China and contributing about a quarter of the company's revenue.

There are still many controversies about the true nutritional value of Nutrition Express, but for Wahaha and Zong Qinghou, it is undoubtedly the best nourishment. In 2013, the sales of Nutrition Express exceeded 20 billion yuan. According to data released by the China Federation of Industry and Commerce, in 2013, Wahaha's revenue reached 782800 million yuan. Nutrition Express also helped Zong Qinghou reach the top of the Forbes list that year.

But "childhood" is short after all, and as the generation influenced by AD calcium milk grows up, Wahaha has gradually passed his peak.

03 "Middle-aged and elderly" Wahaha Zongqing once said that compared with starting a business, it is more difficult to keep a business.

After 2014, Wahaha's performance fell into a cliff**. According to the data of China's top 500 private enterprises, in the seven years from 2014 to 2020, Wahaha's performance has increased from 72.8 billion yuan** to 43.9 billion yuan.

Wahaha is also actively fighting against fate. According to statistics, in the past two or three years, the total number of new product styles launched by Wahaha has reached more than 300. For example, in 2022, more than 20 new products such as soda, sports drinks, and "new tea and new juice" were released; At the 2023 sales conference, 17 new beverages and big health products were announced. Because the launch of new products is too fast, Wahaha is also nicknamed the fastest company in the industry.

However, to this day, when Wahaha is mentioned, the public's impression is still stuck in the nutrition express line and AD calcium milk. Most of the new products have basically not escaped the fate of rolling off the assembly line at the speed of light.

The dividends brought by channel innovation will eventually dissipate one day, and with the channel ability of competitors becoming stronger and stronger, the advantages brought by the joint sales body are becoming smaller.

The impact of the new style of play began as early as 2000. That year, Nongfu Spring announced that it would stop producing pure water and only produce natural water. Advertising slogans such as "a little sweet" and "nature's porter" have built up the unique brand value of Nongfu Spring. In 2001, Nongfu Spring surpassed Wahaha in terms of market share of bottled water, and has been ranked first for many years since then.

The Internet era has brought new shocks. In 2016, at the CCTV Financial Forum, Zong Qinghou repeatedly expressed that he was not optimistic about the Internet economy. In the same year, Yuanqi Forest was established. With the brand concept of "0 calories" and "0 sugar", it has become the fastest brand to achieve sales of 7 billion yuan so far.

Wahaha joint sales body used to be an advanced model. But over time, it became an old pattern. Zong Qinghou also bluntly said that the era of a fire with just a little propaganda has long passed. Under the rapid development of Internet e-commerce, it is difficult not to be affected by the "slowness" of the "joint sales body", that is, the slow distribution of goods, the slow withdrawal of goods, and the slower feedback.

So in the last years of Zong Qinghou's tenure at the helm of Wahaha, change ran through almost all of his work.

In terms of products, Wahaha began to make coffee, sugar-free tea, and bagged water.

In terms of channels, Wahaha began to actively embrace e-commerce. In 2020, the 75-year-old Zong Qinghou started his first live broadcast on Douyin. This live broadcast is not to bring goods, but to promote Wahaha's upcoming e-commerce platform for middle-aged and elderly health care products.

Despite being over 70 years old, Zong Qinghou is trying to adapt to the rhythm of the Internet. He expressed to the audience in the language of the pre-Internet era: Thanks to the reform and opening up system, thanks to the party committees at all levels and the best for their support to us, and more importantly, thanks to the support of consumers and the majority of netizens, so that we have developed healthily for 33 years.

On April 17, 2020, Zong Qinghou announced that he would launch four self-built e-commerce platforms in one go: health care product e-commerce brand Kangli, food and beverage e-commerce channels, cross-border e-commerce platforms, and Habao platforms to communicate with consumers. Zong Qinghou later disclosed that the entire Wahaha e-commerce business was managed by him.

In terms of publicity, in 2018, Zong Qinghou fully handed over the brand public relations work to his younger daughter, Zong Fuli, who also had overseas study experience.

Even the attitude towards capital, Zong Qinghou, who has always insisted on not going public, began to loosen his mouth on this issue. In 2020, Wahaha reported the IPO news, but Wahaha quickly denied it, saying that "there is no plan to go public". In an interview with China Entrepreneur magazine in 2021, Zong Qinghou's response became: "I may think about it later, but now I am not short of money." ”

Of course, while innovating, Zong Qinghou still adheres to the "traditional" side. In March 2023, in an interview with "The Dialogue", he said: "It is not meaningful to hype the product, and the most fundamental thing is that the product quality is reliable." "For the launch of new products, we should also focus on one or two first, and then launch more.

Zong Qinghou, who insisted on not retiring, used the last few years of his life to adapt this 30-year-old ship to the new era. His efforts have also paid off, and since 2021, Wahaha's revenue and profits have begun to recover, and the revenue has returned to more than 50 billion yuan. The beverage market has also entered a recovery channel compared with the epidemic.

Now, the legendary story of Zong Qinghou has come to an end, and Zong Fuli is in the C position.

Since returning from studying abroad in 2004, Zong Fuli has long been a veteran employee of Wahaha. Starting with Wahaha's subsidiary, Hongsheng Beverage, it also created an independent beverage brand kellyone in 2016.

But for now, the ability of this "eldest princess" remains to be seen. Kellyone has invested a lot and invited big-name stars such as Wang Yibo to endorse. There is no reliable data on the sales of this product, but at present, the drink of this brand is not easy to buy.

Zong Fuli took over Wahaha's brand work, and its biggest move was to terminate the contract with Wang Leehom, the spokesperson who has cooperated for 20 years. This became the most serious public relations crisis since Wahaha's establishment.

In addition, Zong Fuli is also trying to make products closer to young people, such as the sparkling water product "Angry Bobo", such as the IP of AD calcium milk, the launch of peripheral products such as ice cream, and the co-branding with IP such as "League of Legends" and "Onmyoji".

Regarding Zong Fuli's series of reforms, the outside world has not always been positive. Her "decisive killing" methods and straightforward remarks have also caused a lot of controversy. The society's evaluation of Zong Fuli is still closely attached to the label of "second generation", rather than a female entrepreneur.

But no matter what, Zong Qinghou always trusts his daughter 100%. Zong Qinghou and Zong Fuli once participated in a program on CCTV Finance Channel together, and the host asked Zong Qinghou, "What is Wahaha and Zong Fuli equal?" Zong Qinghou replied: "It is equal to a more powerful Wahaha." ”

This is a father's sincere love for his daughter. It wasn't until Zong Qinghou passed away that the time to verify this sentence really came.