A 300-year-old brand has been in business overseas.
In mid-June, the European Union asked the well-known domestic brand "Wang Zhihe" to recall a batch of products because the report of the Maltese and Belgian food regulators suspected the presence of cereus bract bacillus in the batch of tofu.
Foods infected with Bacillus cereus can easily cause poisoning to the consumer, causing vomiting or diarrhea.
When the news came back to China, many netizens couldn't help but gasp.
As a time-honored Chinese brand with a long history of 355 years, as a well-known brand with the cultural banner of "intangible cultural heritage", Wang Zhihe has been slapped in the face again?
The reason why I say "again" is because in recent years, "Wang Zhihe" tofu has been criticized.
Many netizens complained that the current "Wang Zhihe" tofu is no longer what it used to be, not only has it lost its "fine, greasy, loose, soft and fragrant" taste, but the tofu cubes have also become smaller.
In the daily life memories of many netizens, a freshly baked big white steamed bun with half a piece of Wang Zhi and rose fermented bean curd, and served in the mouth while it is hot, it is simply more delicious than eating meat.
But now the "Wang Zhihe" tofu seems to have no longer aroma, and the taste has become much lighter, and you can't eat half a steamed bun in one piece.
Some netizens complained that the "Wang Zhihe" tofu purchased online, even if the tofu is small, there are not a few complete pieces, it seems that in addition to the soup, there is only a layer of skin left.
We can't help but ask, what happened to Wang Zhihe and tofu, who were once regarded as an artifact by the general public and named "Oriental Cheese" by foreign friends?
"Wang Zhihe" tofu, a time-honored brand that has not fallen for 300 years, is well known in the Chinese world.
In 1699, that is, in the 8th year of the Kangxi reign of the Qing Dynasty, Wang Zhihe, a scholar from the south, traveled all the way north and finally arrived in Beijing to participate in the scientific expedition.
It's a pity that I didn't pass the exam the first time, and I still failed the second time.
Since he repeatedly failed the exam, in order to solve the problem of livelihood, Wang Zhihe had to prepare for the exam while relying on family heirloom skills to start a tofu business.
According to legend, on a hot summer, Wang Zhihe did not sell out of the tofu he made that day, and he was reluctant to throw it away, but he couldn't finish eating it that day, and he was very entangled.
In the end, Wang Zhihe found a jar casually, cut the leftover tofu into small pieces, put it in layer by layer, and separated each layer with salt, and then covered the jar with a lid and sealed it, and put it in a cool place for storage, thinking that it would be pickled and eaten as it was taken.
As a result, that summer, Wang Zhihe's business was surprisingly good, and he forgot about this stubble when he was busy grinding beans every day, and left the jar untouched for several months.
One day, Wang Zhihe suddenly remembered the jar of tofu, and hurriedly opened the lid of the jar to see, and sure enough, he was choked by a strange smell that rushed to his nose.
Looking at the inside of the jar, the original white tofu cubes have turned into a sticky blue-green color, and they have all fermented and deteriorated.
Wang Zhihe was really reluctant to spoil the food, so he tried to pick up a little sticky blue-green tofu with chopsticks and put it in his mouth to see if it could be eaten.
Unexpectedly, this fermented tofu cube turned out to be unexpectedly very delicious, delicate and soft, and there was a fragrance left between the lips and teeth.
Wang Zhihe, who is very business-minded, had an idea, so he named this jar of tofu [stinky tofu], and sold it on the street, which was actually very popular with the people of Beijing, and Wang Zhihe stinky tofu was born.
It is said that in the middle and late Qing Dynasty, the reputation of "Wang Zhihe" stinky tofu also spread to the palace, and it was once a must-have porridge snack for the breakfast of Daoguang, the "Patch Emperor".
Even Cixi Lafayette, who has always lived a luxurious life, appreciated it very much after tasting the stinky tofu of the Wang family, and even hid its stinky words and gave it the name "Qingfang" to facilitate widespread dissemination.
With the royal appreciation, the stinky tofu made by the descendants of the Wang family became more famous, and they wholeheartedly made their bean curd business bigger and stronger.
Time has passed, 355 years have passed, and now a series of tofu products named after "Wang Zhihe", in addition to Wang Zhihe stinky tofu, Wang Zhihe red bean curd is even more popular with many netizens.
The bright color of the red bean curd, the faint aroma of wine, and the salty and sweet taste make people appetize.
Whether it is eaten with steamed buns, or as a seasoning to accompany porridge, and eat hot pot, it will give people a distinct taste bud enjoyment.
It is precisely because Wang Zhihe tofu has gradually become indispensable in the daily life of the people that when the state announced the first batch of intangible cultural heritage items in 2008, Wang Zhihe's brewing skills were impressively listed.
Since then, in addition to the signboard of China's time-honored brand, Wang Zhihe has added the cultural signboard of intangible cultural heritage items.
It is said that with the blessing of these two golden signboards, Wang Zhihe should usher in a period of rapid development after the millennium.
But this is not the case.
In 2013, a consumer suddenly broke the news on the Internet that he had just bought Wang Zhihe tofu the day before, and when he opened it the next day, he found that there were white maggots inside.
As soon as the news came out, public opinion was in an uproar.
But Wang Zhihe's response was that there was no problem with his own products, and it was the result of maggots caused by secondary pollution after consumers opened the lid themselves.
Although Wang Zhihe said that the responsibility was not on his side, under the surging public opinion, many supermarkets still removed "Wang Zhihe" tofu from the shelves.
The same drama was staged again in 2016, and some consumers still found maggots in the "Wang Zhihe" tofu milk, and Wang Zhihe's response was secondary pollution by consumers.
After two such incidents, the reputation of "Wang Zhihe" tofu has declined significantly.
In 2015, Wang Zhihe reported a loss of more than 86 million, and the loss continued until 2017.
In 2018, Wang Zhihe reported another storm of shareholders withdrawing shares.
Since then, "Wang Zhihe" tofu has been continuously criticized by netizens, saying that it has not only lost its traditional taste and become unpalatable, but also has a smell of alcohol that rushes to the nose, and the price has risen.
Especially for consumers who are accustomed to online shopping, they don't know whether the quality of the tofu is not up to par, or the reason for repeated bumps and shocks in the mailing process, in short, there are too few solids, except for the soup, almost only the deformed soft tofu skin remains.
What is the reason why public opinion has become more and more unfavorable to Wang Zhihe?
Many consumers believe that the change in production methods is an important reason for Wang Zhihe's poor taste.
The traditional "Wang Zhihe" tofu is made by grinding soybean milk from a stone mill by pure artificiality, making tofu and fermenting it under natural conditions.
But with the company's pursuit of output, as early as 2013, pictures uploaded on the Internet showed that Wang Zhihe's products had been made by mechanized operations.
Although the process of making tofu by hand takes a long time and is inefficient, every link is attentive and full of spirituality.
Once it is changed to mechanical production, the efficiency is improved, but the spirit of slow work is lost, and the flavor of the product is also changed.
As a well-known time-honored brand, it took the initiative to give up the traditional old craftsmanship, which is somewhat unreasonable.
In addition, the amount of salt used is very important in the process of making tofu.
If too much salt is used, the tofu will not have the smell that stinky tofu should have;
But if you put too little salt, the tofu will easily spoil or even spoil.
Therefore, many netizens speculate that the phenomenon of white maggots in tofu and too little solid matter in tofu purchased online may be related to the improper amount of salt.
In fact, in recent years, Wang Zhihe has indeed invested a lot of energy in reducing the amount of salt used, and has made many articles.
As early as 2010, in order to cater to consumers' dietary tendencies of low-fat and low-salt, Wang Zhihe deliberately developed the "low-salt technology of fermented bean curd", and developed the light-flavored "bad recipe fermented bean curd" and "fresh fragrant fermented bean curd".
According to media reports, this technology alone has reduced the salt content of fermented bean curd by more than 40%.
Later, Wang Zhihe developed the "key production technology of whole tofu", and developed "reduced salt whole tofu" and "reduced salt rose tofu".
This technology is a contribution that Wang Zhihe is proud of to the whole industry, because it realizes the utilization of all components of soybean for the first time.
However, there are two sides to everything.
The research and development of new products means an increase in input costs.
As an enterprise, after the success of technology research and development, it must want to recover the cost as soon as possible through the adjustment of product prices.
But on the other hand, loyal fans of tofu may not accept the change in the taste of the product, especially the price increase.
Therefore, in the eyes of some consumers, Wang Zhihe bean curd has become an expensive and unpalatable chicken rib.
In fact, Wang Zhihe's efforts are not only limited to technical research and development, but also rely on the cultural signboard of intangible cultural heritage to make a lot of articles. For example, in 2010, Wang Zhihe Science Experience Center was successfully completed and opened.
The museum is divided into two parts: science popularization and experience, the science museum introduces visitors to the long history and production process of tofu, and the experience hall provides a situational experience, allowing visitors to personally promote the stone grinding and experience the production process of grinding soybean milk.
In addition to the production of traditional tofu, Wang Zhihe also made horizontal efforts to develop more than 100 varieties of cooking wine, seasonings, hot pot bases, chili sauces, etc.
In today's era of e-commerce popularity and live streaming popularity, Wang Zhihe has also done a lot of digital transformation work in order to expand the influence of products.
For example, a self-operated flagship store was set up in a certain sound to create a "Wang Xiaohe" cartoon shape with three skin tones: blue, red and yellow, corresponding to its three products, namely green, red and white.
All of these show Wang Zhihe's efforts in product management.
In the first quarter of 2020, Wang Zhihe relied on the e-commerce express and successfully became popular, with a revenue performance of 330 million yuan.
It is said that it is difficult for the ship to turn around, and the development momentum of the century-old brand has improved, which is really not easy.
Today's Wang Zhihe, online sales performance has accounted for half of his total performance.
Not only that, but it has also established long-term cooperative relations with catering industry bigwigs such as Haidilao and Donglaishun.
This not only makes its tofu have a fixed sales volume, but also has a large sales volume of its hot pot base and seasonings.
All the above efforts have finally restored Wang Zhihe's vitality and vitality, and from 2020 to 2023, he has continuously achieved annual revenue of about 1 billion yuan, maintaining a leading position in the industry.
But even so, this still does not mean that Wang Zhihe can sit back and relax.
In fact, as early as 2013-2014, its normal revenue has reached the level of 1 billion yuan, and its performance in recent years has only picked up.
Therefore, Wang Zhihe, who has now been asked by the EU to recall products due to health problems, still has a long way to go.
Some netizens gave Wang Zhihe an idea to ask him to openly solicit opinions on the product from consumers on various social platforms, and then summarize the opinions of consumers to adjust the taste of the product.
Others advocate that it should work the traceability and quality control of ingredients.
But I have to say that time-honored brands have the difficulties and weaknesses of time-honored brands.
In today's era of fierce competition among many brands and extremely high labor costs, it is obviously unrealistic for Wang Zhihe to restore traditional handmade.
So how to solve the contradiction between ensuring traditional taste and pursuing yield is very important.
Tong Ren Tang, which is also a time-honored brand in China, has adhered to the tradition from ancient times to the present, and has always maintained strict requirements for the quality of medicinal materials in accordance with the industry motto of "although the processing is complicated, we must not dare to save labor, and although the taste is expensive, we must not dare to reduce material resources".
Perhaps, this is the reason why its reputation has not faded.
In order to reduce costs, the second generation of the once smash hit private enterprise Lao Gan Ma Chili Sauce not only changed the handmade production to machine production, but also replaced the raw materials from high-quality Guizhou chili peppers to lower-cost Henan chili peppers, which caused the taste of the product to change, and the country collapsed rapidly after years of hard work.
After the word-of-mouth overturned, even if Tao Huabi, an old godmother in her 70s, went into battle again, it was difficult to recover the defeat.
All of the above are lessons from the past.
In addition, many traditional businesses in the food industry have taken conquering the taste buds of young people and making fashionable and youthful products as the top priority of the enterprise, and have made a series of reforms for this purpose.
It is inevitable for traditional time-honored brands to adapt to market demand and make some reforms to products, but it is really difficult to grasp how to change and to what extent.
After all, once you make a wrong decision, you may fall into the embarrassment of losing new customers instead of new customers.
In fact, Wang Zhihe is not the only time-honored Chinese brand that is in embarrassment at the moment.
Tianjin Goubuli Buns, which also holds two signboards of China's time-honored brand and intangible cultural heritage, has also greatly declined its brand reputation in recent years due to high service prices, chaotic service and management, and failed transformation.
In the new competitive situation, it is indeed worth exploring how time-honored brands can maintain integrity and innovation, and maintain vitality and vitality.
The only thing that can be determined is that while pushing through the old and bringing forth the new to catch up with the rhythm of the times, only by always adhering to the quality can the brand go more stable.
Author: Liu'an Flower Tea
Edit: Old Road