Author | Liu Baodan

Editor | Zhou Zhiyu

One is a 54-year-old beverage giant, and the other is an internet mogul from '83. Apart from being both called the richest person, Chung Yuyi and Zhang Yiming rarely intersect. Today, these two business giants have been brought into one discourse system in an unexpected way.

On the afternoon of November 20, while attending an agriculture-related event in Xinfeng County, Ganzhou City, Zhong Yiming shouted out at Zhang Yiming, saying that the other party had turned the Internet into a technical algorithm, played with the public's IQ, and that he would always wait for the other party to apologize for the damage caused by various rumors.

The public opinion crisis that began in February at the beginning of the year had a huge impact on the Nongfu Spring brand. For this reason, Nongfu Spring had to respond to disputes over the past, company country, and taxation between Zhong Yuyi and Zong Qinghou. Zhong Yuyi was even interviewed again by CCTV after a lapse of 20 years.

For Zhong Yuyi, he must defend the Nongfu Spring brand, because for consumer goods, a good or bad brand can often affect the life and death of an enterprise. Zhong Xuegao is a lesson learned from the past. Under these circumstances, Zhong Yuyi launched a series of counterattacks, and Douyin, which is the core position of public opinion, became the target of bombardment.

However, if Nongfu Spring wants to regain its former glory, it will face a difficult battle of minds.

counterattack

Judging from the video that came out live, the shouting was not a temporary one; it had been prepared for a long time.

Zhong Yuyi said bluntly that today's headlines are for-profit enterprises. This is a platform enterprise with sufficient power to control public opinion. Zhang Yiming is the actual controller and must assume the rules and rules (formulation) of corporate civilization.

In his view, this rule is for everyone, including all kinds of people, the strong and the weak, and it should provide fairness and justice for humanity. He called for “algorithms to be made clear and unmistakable.”

“It is not OK to use monetary rewards and incentives for traffic and rumors to turn the Internet into a technical algorithm and a game that plays on people's IQ.” According to Zhong Yuyi, when Internet companies use traffic to make profits and manufacture products, they must assume legal and human civilized responsibility for the products.

Chung said that she would always wait for Zhang Yiming's sincere apology from the Douyin platform and today's headlines. As of November 21, Byte had not commented on Chung Yuk's bombardment.

In February of this year, Zong Qinghou, the founder and chairman of Wahaha Group, passed away. People remember his past. Various rumors about Zong Qinghou and Zhong Yuyi being incompatible in the past appeared on the internet. As a result, Nongfu Spring was brought to the forefront. As more rumors continued to ferment, sales of the company's core product, natural water, were also affected.

According to Guojin Securities data, since the end of February, there have been numerous public opinion attacks and malicious slander against the company's founder on the Internet, causing sales to stagnate during the peak season, while Youshang salesmen took the opportunity to seize the heap and carry out promotional activities. In the first half of this year, the company's packaged water sales ratio was -18%, and the operating profit margin of the water business fell 4.3 pct year on year.

To this end, Nongfu Spring launched a series of counterattacks. The first major move was to clarify the rumor. In March, Chung Chung published the article “Two or Three Things About Me and Zong Lao”, which describes the relationship between the two parties as mentors, friends, and rivals. He said that although the two sides had mutual lawsuits, they finally shook hands and made peace with Zong Lao under the witness of the main leaders of Hangzhou at the time.

In May, Nongfu Spring responded to questions from the outside world one by one, including that Zhong Yuyi never received a salary at the Wahaha Company, let alone was expelled due to trade in goods. The founding of Nongfu Spring was not aimed at Wahaha, and Nongfu Spring never evaded taxes. It can be said that Zhong Yuyi answered everything.

In August, Zhong Yuyi was interviewed on CCTV's “Dialogue” program. In the one-hour interview, he described the development process of Nongfu Spring, from the ideal of developing agriculture to continuous losses, from finding a water source to the difficulties of building a factory nearby. The theme of this conversation was named “Zhong Yuyi: The Idealistic 'Crazy Man'”.

Also in this interview, Zhong Yuyi once said that traffic is not legally responsible under the public opinion environment; traffic must be evil. The Navy is only one of them. More importantly, mastering the Navy's algorithms is even greater.

Now, it seems that Chung Yuyi moved this public opinion crisis into the short video Douyin, which laid the groundwork for a long time, so this incident also happened. Chung Yuyi directly publicly bombarded Zhang Yiming.

In addition to Zhang Yiming, Zhong Yuyi also revealed his views on Pinduoduo for the first time. On November 19, Zhong Yuyi said at a communication meeting, “Internet platforms have brought down the price system, especially the price system like Pinduoduo, causing great damage to the Chinese industry for Chinese brands. Not only does poor quality drive out good money; it is an industry orientation.”

Regarding the current live streaming delivery, Zhong Yuyi also said that she will never do this, and she also despises entrepreneurs who live stream to bring goods; they should be able to do something more valuable.

Kuramori

From being a mason at the beginning to being the richest man in the world, Zhong Yuying spent decades building a huge beverage empire. Unlike real estate agents and internet millionaires, Chung Yuk has built up a huge net worth with a bottle of drink.

Being able to break out of such an intense racetrack also means that Zhong Yuyi has experienced ups and downs since Nongfu Spring was founded.

What is best known to the outside world is the “Water War of the Century.” In the late 90s, the purified water market gradually became an oligopoly situation where two major brands, Wahaha and Le Baxi, had an oligopoly. Nongfu Spring was founded in 1996. At that time, Wahaha had a market share of over 50%, followed by Loebaishi.

After entering the market through misplaced competition for bottled water, Nongfu Spring rose rapidly, but Zhong Yuyi clearly had greater ambitions and began to take the initiative. In 2000, Zhong Yuyi claimed at a press conference that pure water is not beneficial to human health. Nongfu Spring no longer produces pure water; all natural water is produced.

This caused an uproar, and Nongfu Spring was also collectively condemned by the bottled water industry. However, it also made more people aware of Nongfu Spring. Zhong Yuyi used the momentum to advertise on CCTV and TV, and eventually successfully launched the “natural water” concept. Zhong Yuyi is also known as the “advertising genius who was delayed by selling water.”

Zhong Yuyi has successfully broken out a new path, from water sources to production lines, from logistics and transportation to distributors all over the country. Step by step, he has turned Nongfu Spring into a beverage outlet. In 2020, Nongfu Spring was successfully listed in Hong Kong, with a market capitalization of HK$370 billion. In October of last year, 69, Zhong Yuyi became the richest man in China for the third time with 450 billion yuan.

However, under the aura, a crisis began to creep in. Beginning in February of this year, Zhong Yuyi was engulfed in a public opinion storm that continued for several months, and Nongfu Spring was once again in an unprecedented crisis.

Faced with this situation, Chung Yuk quickly launched a new product strategy. In April, Nongfu Spring launched a new green bottle of purified water at a lower price. This is the first time that Nongfu Spring has returned to the pure water circuit after 24 years of focusing on natural water production. The company is trying to recoup lost sales from rivals that focus on pure water.

Chung Wan internally requested the packaged water department to issue a “military warrant” to regain market share through red bottles of natural water and the newly marketed green bottle of purified water.

At present, this strategy has achieved initial results. Although revenue from Nongfu Spring packaged drinking water products declined in the first half of the year, it was recovered in the third quarter. According to CT data from Imaoying Brand, as of mid-October, Nongfu Spring Red Bottle Natural Water+Green Bottle Pure Water had the highest sales in the bottled water market, with a total share of over 30%, close to the market share of Nongfu Spring's red bottled natural water at the beginning of the year.

“The packaged water industry will continue to expand steadily, and the company is expected to continue to increase its market share.” Guojin Securities believes that red water has an advantage in natural water, and that the company has formed strong barriers in terms of water sources, channels, brands, etc., and is expected to recover steadily under a low base.

As for Green Water, the agency believes that promotion activities will continue for some time. Competitors will probably not start a vicious price war due to demands for profit margins, and the company will still gain a comparative advantage in the context of weak demand.

Furthermore, the penetration rate of sugar-free tea in China has increased rapidly in recent years, and Oriental Leaves will continue to enjoy the dividends of the expansion of the industry. At the same time, Nongfu Spring has large-scale products in the two major categories of sports and juice drinks, and there is plenty of room for future growth.

However, Chung Yuk is far from being able to relax. For a consumer brand, issues such as market competition, public opinion events, and food safety are all potential risks. To a large extent, the reason why public opinion has developed so rapidly this time is also because the company is too low-key or even mysterious, which has aroused public curiosity.

After a lapse of more than 20 years, Zhong Yuyi once again withstood the pressure. However, whether Nongfu Spring can continue to reach its peak, the road ahead is still full of uncertainty.