See you soon! Du Guoying, the founder of small pots of tea, actually bowed and apologized!
Recently, at the 12th anniversary celebration of small pots of tea, Du Guoying publicly admitted that the advertising slogan "masterpiece" had brought misunderstanding to consumers, expressed his deep apologies to consumers, and announced that the small pot of tea would no longer emphasize the publicity of "masterpiece".
Source: @财经杂志
However, as a "marketing genius", under the hot search topic of #Xiaocan Tea Founder Apologize#, many people think that Du Guoying's drunkard does not mean to drink, and the apology may just be his "fake action".
Fake apology, real marketing?
According to public information, Xiaocan Tea was established in 2014, and it was in 2017 that it really became well-known in the market, relying on its unique "master marketing".
Prior to this, tea marketing often focused on origin, variety, culture, etc., and the homogenization was serious. The small pot of tea is a "masterpiece" attitude, giving the brand a unique value connotation from the sense of ritual in the production process.
The official website of small pots of tea once interpreted the advertising slogan "small pots of tea, masters", "8 tea masters, toast you with a cup of good Chinese tea." The 8 famous teas of small pots of tea are carefully made by 8 tea masters in strict accordance with the master's craftsmanship, which is not only the master's master's master's master's work, but also the representative work of Chinese tea. ”
In the promotional poster, the "master group" with a name and surname gives people such a feeling, and the products of small pots of tea are fried by eight masters, and its high-end nature is highlighted.
Source: Small pot tea official website
According to the data, the retail sales of small pots of tea reached 2 billion yuan in 2018.
But someone calculated an account, which means that each of the 8 tea masters in small pots of tea has to fry tea worth 250 million yuan per year, and at that time, each master needs to fry 1466 catties of fresh tea leaves every day.
However, the reality is that the average hand-fried tea master can only fry about 30 catties of fresh tea leaves every day.
Source: Small pot of tea official WeChat
The public soon questioned the authenticity of slogan's "small pot of tea, masterpiece", and the small pot of tea was also labeled as an "IQ tax".
Du Guoying's public apology this time is based on this.
However, Du Guoying did not admit "false propaganda", but used the word "misunderstanding", that is, we don't mean this, but everyone thinks too much.
But as soon as the conversation changed, Du Guoying said that the small pot of tea has been committed to digitizing the master's skills for many years, announcing that its 135 tea-making patents are open source to the society free of charge, effectively breaking the technical information gap in the process of tea industrialization and standardized production.
By apologizing to publicize the technological innovation achievements of small pots of tea, it is no wonder that the public said that Du Guoying was "fake apology, real marketing".
Without the "masterpiece", what else is there in the small pot of tea?
In fact, as early as 2019, in the face of public skepticism, Xiaocan Tea made an official response, saying that "masterwork" actually refers to products that represent the master's skills, rather than tea roasted by the master himself. The role of the masters is to act as "Chief Product Managers", participating in the development of tea product standards and overseeing the production process.
Source: Small pot of tea official WeChat
Since then, the slogan has been changed from "small pot of tea, masterpiece" to "distinguished guests arrive, small pot of tea".
In other words, the small pot of tea has long lost the marketing gimmick of "masterwork".
As for why the "black history" is mentioned five years later, perhaps because "masterpiece" is still the only label with memory points for small pots of tea, and small pots of tea are inseparable from this label.
Compared with the peak of 2018, today's small pots of tea are indeed not as good as they used to be.
Aiqicha shows that from 2016 to 2019, a total of five rounds of financing have been completed for small pots of tea, but since 2019, there has been no latest financing news for small pots of tea.
In terms of revenue, after exceeding 2 billion yuan in 2018, the performance of small pots of tea has declined seriously, and in 2021, it will only be about 1 billion yuan.
In terms of scale, the total number of small pot tea stores has dropped from 1,002 in December 2023 to 626, that is, 376 stores have been closed in half a year.
Source: Small pot of tea official WeChat
The reason for this, in addition to the negative impact of the "master roasted tea turmoil", is also the high price of small pots of tea.
Where small pots of tea are listed, the price is 50 yuan per can/4 grams, which can reach 6,250 yuan per catty. According to iiMedia Research Report, from 2017 to 2018, the average selling price of tea in the domestic market was only 129.1 yuan/jin and 139.3 yuan/jin.
The premium is more than 40 times, and some people may be willing to pay under the gimmick of "masterwork", but when a small pot of tea pours a basin of cold water on consumers with "non-master hand-fried tea", its high-end positioning is too vain, and there are fewer people willing to consume.
Therefore, we see the contradiction between words and deeds in small pots of tea.
On the one hand, Du Guoying apologized for the promotional slogan of "master", and on the other hand, netizens picked up small pots of tea and are still applying for trademarks such as "small pot master", "small pot tea master", "master handicraft" and "master handiwork". It is worth mentioning that the trademark "Master Handmade" applied for registration of small pots of tea has been changed to "Rejection Notice Issued".
In addition, "Chief Brand Observation" found that the number of masters has increased from 8 to 10 on the official website of Xiaocan Tea, and copywriting such as "10 tea masters, toast you to a cup of good Chinese tea" is still used.
Source: Small pot tea official website
In order to respond to the public's complaints about the "high pricing" of small pots of tea, at the 12th anniversary meeting, Du Guoying also said that he would vigorously develop the affordable product line "small pot tea garden".
▶ Source: Small pot tea official website
The small pot tea garden is positioned as a living ration tea, and the price is 100-300 yuan per catty, and Du Guoying said that the cost of a brew of tea is controlled at 1.5 yuan.
Can you still trust Du Guoying?
We question the marketing of small pots of tea, but we have to admire Du Guoying's ability to create explosive products.
Behind this name, there are too many brands that leave national memory, and the success of Beibeijia, Haojixing, 8848, E people, E Ben, etc., is inseparable from Du Guoying, the behind-the-scenes promoter.
Among them, the 8848 mobile phone, which was once known as the "domestic mobile phone aristocrat", almost every product is sold for more than 10,000 yuan, which is more outrageous than the iPhone. The 8848 Titanium M3 mobile phone was sold at a high price of 15,888 yuan, setting a record in the domestic mobile phone market at that time, with sales reaching 100,000 units within a year.
When it comes to this series of brands created by Du Guoying, people usually use "IQ tax" to summarize, but Du Guoying has his own logic.
In a live broadcast, Du Guoying responded that the IQ tax is the expression of the premium of different brands by people with different spending power, and in the current brand era, if the profit beyond the cost is called the IQ tax, then it should be called the brand tax, representing the research and development, design and consumer spiritual satisfaction behind the brand.
Source: Small pot of tea official WeChat
This very Du Guoying's way of thinking is also reflected in his creation of small pots of tea.
For example, in the face of the outside world's doubts about the "huge profits" of small pots of tea, Du Guoying calculated an account. According to him, at that time, more than 6,000 small pots of tea per catty, after removing various expenses such as channels, raw materials, processing and production, marketing, and labor, the final net profit was only 5%.
He also said indignantly, "The current profit of small pots of tea is 0, if you don't believe it, you can verify it by looking at the financial statements after ten or twenty years of listing." ”
A small pot of tea of more than 6,000 yuan a pound does not make money, which sounds ridiculous, but it may also be related to its high investment in marketing.
For example, during the Mid-Autumn Festival in 2021, Xiaocan Tea unprecedentedly launched a "1-hour god film" on Focus Media, which was to write down 204 real names with a pen to express Xiaocan Tea's gratitude to users; In the Spring Festival of 2022, small pots of tea will reappear in a big way, inspired by "Hundred Blessings", and join hands with 100 inheritors of national quintessential traditional skills to create 101 works with the word "Fu" to display on the Great Wall.
Source: Small pot of tea official WeChat
It is understood that Xiaocan Tea also spent a huge amount of money to sign an exclusive advertising agreement with CCTV to ensure that other tea brands cannot compete with it in the same channel for a certain period of time.
Behind these loud marketing, all of them are high-cost productions that "burn money", thus diluting the profit margins of the brand.
However, we should not underestimate Du Guoying's "listing dream" of small pots of tea.
Just like the recent 90-day sale of 100 million "back to the best", which is the brand that Du Guoying created for the first time, has also experienced the public opinion turmoil of false propaganda and IQ tax, and it has exploded again after 20 years.
At present, it seems that Du Guoying still has high hopes for small pots of tea.
This shows that the brand story of small pots of tea still has the value of being told.
As for how Du Guoying will continue to speak, let's just eat melons and watch.