Low-key for 20 years, making money quietly. Pocari doesn't want you to know that it comes from Japan

Uncle Leng's notes

2024-06-19 00:00Published in Hunan International Creators

I don't know if you have noticed, but there are really more and more electrolyte water on the market recently.

And behind their growing popularity are all kinds of urban legends that have spread to their gods.

Fatigue drinking, weight loss drinking, cold drinking, dysmenorrhea drinking, improving immunity can also be drunk, and even during the epidemic, some people said that electrolyte water can prevent and treat the new crown, and it once made major supermarkets sell out of stock.

In many people's minds, electrolyte water seems to be a miracle water that cures all diseases, which makes it a hit in the track of functional drinks at an incomparably amazing speed.

Electrolyte water is not a new concept, as early as more than 20 years ago, the Japanese Pocari Water has entered the Chinese market.

It's just that for so many years, Pocari has been extremely low-key, and even for a long time, it seems that he is deliberately concealing his nationality, which is completely different from his style in his hometown.

Finally, after 20 years of hibernation, I finally waited for the rise of electrolyte water.

Today we are going to talk about how Pocari made a lot of money in China?

Unlike other electrolyte waters, Pocari is not produced by beverage companies, but originated from Otsuka Pharmaceutical, a Japanese pharmaceutical company.

And the reason why a pharmaceutical company would run to make drinks when it was okay was actually related to a food poisoning.

In the 70s of the last century, Rokuro Harima of Otsuka Pharmaceutical went on a business trip to Mexico, and because he had severe diarrhea from eating bad food, he went to the hospital to hang water.

Then this Harima is also really a natural choice of workers, others are paid to be hospitalized, but he thinks that the hanging water is too slow and is not conducive to struggle, so he pondered while lying on the hospital bed: Can you invent a drink that can directly supplement the electrolytes lost from dehydration?

Driven by this idea, Harima reported to the company after returning to Japan to develop such products.

In fact, at that time, the United States had launched several similar drinks, but the taste was really similar to drinking infusion directly, so it was not surprising that they all died violently.

Balancing the taste and composition of electrolyte water has always been a big problem, until the first Pocari water was released in 1980, and many people complained that it tasted like sweat.

However, thanks to Harima's addition of a special citrus flavor to the drink, the taste of Pocari is much better than that of the American high-level drink.

But this is not enough, in order to let more people try Pocari, Otsuka Pharmaceutical also began to deliver water all over the world.

Stadiums, public baths, saunas, hiking fields, anyway, as long as there is a place of "sweat", there is a presence of Pocari.

And when we sweat profusely and the heat is unbearable, of course we will not refuse to have free water to drink. In addition, electrolyte water is indeed helpful for hydration and balance of electric ions in the body, which makes it easier for everyone to have the psychology of "treasure power has something".

Moreover, Otsuka Pharmaceutical originally made money in the field of medicine, so it has a lot of money, and when it starts to promote, it doesn't care about the cost at all.

It is said that within a year, he sent out 30 million bottles of Pocaria, which is equivalent to nearly a quarter of the Japanese people who have tasted this new drink.

In terms of spokespersons, Pocari's style is even more distinctive, and it is a young beautiful girl who is specially selected.

The so-called Pocari advertisement has three treasures, singing, beauty and running, and the highlight is the first-hand "sunshine and freshness", like the theme advertisement in 2019, the three leading actors are filmed at the same time in three cameras, and one shot to the end, which brings a very strong visual impact, and then also implants the brand characteristics of Pocari into the audience's brain.

However, what is interesting is that Pocari is held high in the Japanese market and repeatedly exposed, but when it comes to China, this style of painting is completely different.

In 2003, Pocari officially entered the mainland market.

At this time, China's TV and newspaper advertising wars are becoming more and more intense, and brands are trying their best to increase their exposure locally, especially in the beverage industry, which is fiercely competitive.

For example, the "standard king" of CCTV advertising that year was Mengniu, which cost 310 million, and Huiyuan juice and Sanlu milk powder also spent a lot of money to shoot a 5-second advertising period.

At the same time, various functional beverages are also competing in the market and trying to be exposed in TV commercials.

The more classic ones include the activation of Wahaha, the scream of Nongfu Spring, and the pulse of Robust, their advertisements were all classics at the time, and those who are older should have an impression.

Compared with these peers, Pocari, which was originally good at shooting advertisements, is incredibly low-key at this time.

Even in 2004, CCTV held a forum on the dissemination of functional drinks, and 20 companies such as Wahaha, Huiyuan, Coconut Tree, Red Bull, Suntory, and Wanglaoji came, but they still couldn't see Pocari.

If you don't advertise and advertise, you don't come to a meeting, Pocari can't be said to be low-key, it's simply an exclusion.

What's colder than TV commercials is Pocari's concealment of nationality.

Contrary to many domestic brands that like to add Japanese characters to the packaging when they have nothing to do, the packaging of Pocari is so simple that it seems to be a copycat, not to speak Japanese, and even the original English name is written bluntly as "Pocari Water", which is five unknown Chinese characters.

And why? In 2007, Kokuda Takabu, a senior executive of Pocari China, said in an interview: "When Pocari Water enters China, it will pay attention to maintaining the characteristics of its products while actively localizing it in order to integrate into the local market as soon as possible." ”

In fact, whether it is "localization" or "integration into the local market", to put it bluntly, Pocari understands that in the environment at that time, Japanese nationality was pure negative equity.

When Pocari entered China, Japan was in power at the time of Koizumi's administration, and because of his successive visits to the Yasukuni Shrine and the revision of textbooks, relations between the two countries have fallen to the lowest point since the establishment of diplomatic relations.

In this atmosphere, of course, the treasure force from Japan has to make water with its tail between its legs, and will never dare to take a step beyond the thunder pool.

However, doing business is not completely Buddhist. Although Pocari has given up online exposure and has not invited spokespersons in the Chinese market for a long time, it has also occupied a place in supermarkets through the penetration of offline channels.

Carrefour's sales in May 2006 showed that Red Bull, Pulse and Pocari were the top three functional drinks.

In addition, since entering China in 2003, Pocari has been the designated sports drink of the Training Bureau of the General Administration of Sports of China, and this cooperation has continued for many years until today.

Since Pocari is a sports drink signboard, sponsoring sports events is also indispensable, Beijing International Outdoor Endurance Run, AFC Champions League, etc., can see its classic blue and white color.

In this way, in the past 20 years, Pocari has taken small steps and occupied a larger and larger market, and has been the number one brand in electrolyte water for a long time.

However, 20 years is still a long time after all, and many things are changing.

As the beverage market becomes more and more volatile, a large number of companies are developing more subdivided tracks, and the original monopoly in the concept of electrolytes is also facing more and more challenges.

In 2022, the "Electrolyte Drink Trend Report" released by Tmall showed that within a year, the sales of electrolyte water soared by 225%, and domestic brands have occupied 6 of the 8 companies on the list.

Including Pocari's sales champion position for many years, it was also taken by aliens under the Yuanqi Forest.

In the past, Pocari could be a Buddha, because on the road of electrolyte water, he had almost no opponents, and as long as there were shelves in the supermarket, he could slowly spread the market.

But with the influx of domestic brands, Pocari also understands that the old way is becoming more and more unworkable.

In 2019, Pocari was 16 years late and finally placed advertisements on CCTV, and in 2022, it signed a spokesperson Tan Songyun for the first time in the mainland market.

The good news for Pocari is that the market that has been cultivated for 20 years has finally come to fruition, but the bad news is that there is far more than one company that wants to harvest.

What do you think of Pocari? Feel free to leave a message in the comment area.

View original image 796K

• 

• 

•