Before reading this article, please click "Follow", which is not only convenient for you to discuss and share, but also can bring you a different sense of participation, thank you for your support.
Can you believe it? A Japanese brand, only relying on its name to "lurk" in the mainland for 40 years, wearing a "domestic coat" to earn 104.6 billion yuan a year in China, many people were kept in the dark by him, and even once praised as the representative of Chinese tea drinks, what is going on?
It seems to be "Chinese flavor", but it is actually a "Japanese baby"!
In the mainland tea market, there is such a brand, its packaging is printed with traditional Chinese characters, the bottle is full of oriental flavor, and even the name sounds very Chinese: Suntory.
So over the years, countless Chinese people have taken it for granted that this is an authentic domestic oolong tea. If you look closely at the packaging of this bottle of oolong tea, you will find a line of inconspicuous small words: "Produced by Suntory Corporation of Japan".
That's right, this "Japanese baby" that everyone thinks is a well-established "Japanese baby", which comes from the transliteration of the Japanese "Suntory".
Suntory's rise to prominence
This story begins at the end of the 19th century, when a small sake brewery in Japan was owned by Shinjiro Torii.
Shinjiro Torii is just an ordinary sake brewer, but he has big ambitions and is determined to make his own whisky for the Japanese.
For this reason, they did not hesitate to hire brewing experts from Scotland, but they were disastrously defeated, and young people in Japan did not buy the taste of this "foreign sake" at all, and even if they bought it at home, it was not used to drink, but to be used as medicinal liquor.
But this did not make him give up, and finally after seven or eight years of "retreat and penance", a special wine was born, which was later known as "Chiyu Port Wine".
In addition to retaining the sweet aroma of grapes, the sour and astringent taste has been removed, which is especially suitable for the generally light taste of Japanese people.
Sure enough, the wine was an instant hit, and at its peak, it accounted for more than half of the entire Japanese wine industry.
The small brewery grew bigger and bigger, and eventually evolved into the "Suntory" brand that we know as well
Suntory's "ambitions"
But Suntory's ambitions didn't stop there, and in the '80s, when other beverage giants were still struggling with Coke, Suntory had already set its sights on a seemingly ordinary Oriental drink - oolong tea.
The Japanese have a soft spot for oolong tea, and Suntory has launched the oolong tea drink with this in mind.
But Japan's market for tea drinks is close to saturation, and despite the novelty of the product, it is almost impossible to occupy half of the market like wine.
The domestic market cannot get through, so it can only hope for foreign markets, and the mainland has become its preferred target.
Infiltrating China: A "Drag Party"
At that time, the mainland's reform and opening up was just beginning, and a new and dynamic market was opening its arms to the world, and Suntory's top management sensed that this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
They believe that the mainland has a very strong tea culture, and if tea drinks are promoted here, it may have miraculous effects.
"The ideal is very plump, the reality is very skinny", Suntory soon tasted the taste of "not adapting to the soil and water", although the best-selling oolong tea products in Japan, but they were unknown on the mainland shelves, and the sales were dismal.
This is also normal, the mainland has long been accustomed to tea brewed and drunk, bottled tea drinks were still a new thing to us at that time, let alone accept a "foreign thing" from Japan.
But as the saying goes, "If you lose your horse, you won't know if you are not blessed", and in the haze of the market downturn, Suntory keenly captured a glimmer of opportunity, and with the improvement of people's living standards, "health problems" have become the focus of attention.
This subtle market change became the key to Suntory's success, and it began to vigorously promote the health of oolong tea, with zero added and zero pollution.
At the same time, it did not forget to carry out "localization", the font of the packaging became traditional characters, and the bottle design with "Chinese flavor" was full.
After a combination of punches, many Chinese consumers who "don't know the truth" fell in love with this product, and Suntory oolong tea gradually moved from the corner of the shelf to a prominent position, and sales continued to rise.
Seeing this, Suntory companies took advantage of the situation to pursue the victory, using the emerging online live broadcast platform and major Internet celebrity platforms to jointly promote, and the main focus is to keep pace with the times.
Suntory's Chinese report card
Although the domestic brand also launched a counterattack, Nongfu Spring launched a similar - Oriental Leaves, but it also lacked skills, and Suntory at this time has occupied "half of the country".
According to statistics, in 2021 alone, Nongfu Spring's operating income will be 29.6 billion yuan, followed by Tongyi with 25.2 billion yuan, and Suntory will reach a staggering 114.5 billion yuan, almost more than the two combined.
Accounting for almost 30% of the market share in the mainland tea market, this figure means that almost every three bottles of ready-to-drink tea sold in the mainland come from Suntory, and there is a continuous growth momentum.
Suntory "cheats"
In 2010, Suntory launched a new drink called "Gan Zero Oolong Tea", which was advertised as 0 calories, but is the actual situation?
Later, after testing by relevant departments, this product contains a large amount of white sugar, so it is not 0 calories at all, and a bottle has about 19,000 calories.
Suntory was also fined 1.36 million yuan for alleged false advertising, but this little episode did not shake its dominance in the tea industry.
Nowadays, the Suntory brand has been "lurking" in the mainland for nearly 40 years, and many people may have been there since they were young and became a part of your life, so it is not surprising that you will think that he is a domestic product when you grow up and look at it.
In fact, in addition to Suntory, many products that look like domestic products are also "foreign gadgets", such as Yakult lactic acid bacteria, Uniqlo, and so on.
On the contrary, mainland brands are desperately trying to make themselves look more "foreign", take the recently famous Yuanqi Forest as an example.
As an authentic Chinese product, it insists on writing the "qi" in the vitality forest as "気", which leads many people to think that this is a Japanese brand at first glance.
The key is that the official has never responded to this, if it weren't for some netizens picking out the "bottoms" of Yuanqi Forest, it is estimated that many people would still be "kept in the dark".
Similarly, there is the milk tea brand "Nayuki's tea", in which the "of" is not written in Chinese, but is replaced by the Japanese "の".
end
Savor the secret of Suntory's success, in fact, there are only three words "do it with heart", and they have put a lot of effort into all aspects, and these are precisely the weaknesses of many domestic brands.
This mirror not only reflects the shortcomings, but also the opportunities, and the awakening of consumers is quietly changing the market pattern.
Every purchase and choice is a silent vote, and this change undoubtedly gives domestic brands an excellent opportunity to "overtake in corners".
If domestic brands can learn from the experience, they will not be able to turn defeat into victory. If you have any different views on this, please leave a message in the comment area to discuss.
Reference: Chongxin Financial Media, March 22, 2024 - Japanese beverage giants earn 104.6 billion yuan a year in China, beating Uni-President and farmers, but they are often mistaken for domestic products