The always low-key old godmother is also going to cross the border to make ice cream?
On March 17, Laoganma’s Tmall flagship store announced that it is fully preparing for the launch of new products and plans to collaborate with well-known domestic ice products in the near future to explore more directions.
This news has successfully attracted the attention of a large number of netizens. Many netizens speculate that Lao Ganma may launch ice cream across borders, while others speculate that “it may be the launch of ice cream flavored Lao Ganma.”. After a heated discussion, the topic “Lao Ganma may launch ice cream” soon became a hot topic on Weibo, and the number of readings has reached 61.874 million.
Netizens also expressed different views on Lao Ganma’s cross-border activities. Some netizens said, “Is it an ice cream with soy sauce? I really want to try it out.” “Whether it’s delicious or not, innovation is also good.” Some netizens suspected that Lao Ganma was grandstanding, “It’s better to improve the quality of the product rather than engage in such new products without any reason.”
Regardless of external comments, this initiative to cross border has been a great breakthrough for the old Ganma. After all, compared to Coconut Tree, which is also an old domestic brand, finding traffic passwords through its “alternative” live streaming room, Lao Ganma seems to be still in the era of “offline”.
Not long ago, because the official account of Laoganma’s Weibo, WeChat, Tiktok and other platforms had not been updated for a long time, there was even a rumor that Laoganma had withdrawn from the Internet. A month later, Lao Ganma’s Tmall Store came forward to deny this rumor and went on a hot search.
The appearance of this rumor is not exaggerated. Through checking, we can find that its last update in the official flagship store of Tiktok will stay on November 22, 2022; The official WeChat official account of Laoganma, “Laoganma”, has not been updated since March 24, 2022; Its official Weibo “Laoganma Flavored Food” has not yet updated its content, indicating that “the enterprise’s qualification has not undergone an annual review”, and the latest review time remains on September 4, 2013 (without annual review).
The time for Laoganma to connect to the internet is not long. In April 2018, Laoganma officially registered the Tmall flagship store and started the online journey; On February 27, 2020, the first Tiktok content was released.
In advertising marketing, Lao Ganma has always been very Buddhist.https://forum.stoneitech.com/
In 2018, because of a logo printed sweater, the elderly Ganma stole the limelight at home and abroad, and set off a “unfashionable fashion”. During the event, the sales of the flagship store of the elderly Ganma Tmall increased by 20%.
“However, this explosion did not come from the efforts of Lao Ganma.” It was they (New York Fashion Week) who actively contacted us, and we gave them a picture. “In an interview with Red Star News earlier, Lao Ganma insiders said.
After the event, Li Junmata, the e-commerce leader of Lao Ganma brand, also said in an interview with the media, “When Tmall came to cooperate with us, at first we refused. You know, Lao Ganma is a very Buddhist brand, and we never do any advertising, but we didn’t expect to become popular again in this way. The brand was shocked.”
Perhaps this collaboration has given Laoganma a taste of sweetness. Since then, Laoganma has also teamed up with Juhuasuan to shoot a video advertisement called “Twist Ganma”, and launched a “Laoganma Love Story Bottle” in collaboration with Taobao Shopping Cart.
1、 Old Ganma steps down from the shrine
The Buddhist Laoganma has a solid foundation in advertising marketing.
As a national chili sauce, for a long time in the past, Laoganma occupied a fifth of the market share, with annual sales exceeding 5 billion yuan. It was also considered as the price benchmark of the chili sauce industry. “Brands priced lower than it are difficult to make profits, while brands priced higher than it are difficult to sell.”
But now Lao Ganma is walking down the shrine.
Last year, in the “2022 Top 100 Private Enterprises in Guizhou” jointly released by the Guizhou Federation of Industry and Commerce and the Guizhou Enterprise Confederation, Lao Ganma ranked 11th with a revenue of 4.201 billion yuan, while in 2017 and 2018, Lao Ganma remained at 5th place.
As with the ranking, there is also a continuous decline in revenue. After reaching a high revenue of 5.403 billion yuan in 2020, the revenue of 4.201 billion yuan in 2021 decreased by 1.2 billion yuan compared to the previous year, dropping to the level of 2018.
Extending the timeline shows that before 2018, Lao Ganma’s revenue also experienced a decline. According to the data, from 2016 to 2021, the total revenue of Laoganma was approximately 4.549 billion yuan, 4.447 billion yuan, 4.389 billion yuan, 5.022 billion yuan, 5.403 billion yuan, and 4.201 billion yuan, respectively.
This decline is more due to faulty decision-making within the Lao Ganma.
In 2014, Tao Huabi transferred her last 1% stake to her younger son and officially retired from the second tier. As of now, Li Guishan, the eldest son, obtained 49% of the equity of Lao Ganma and was responsible for exploring the market; The youngest son, Li Miaoxing, obtained 51% of the equity and took charge of the company.
However, Li Guishan is keen on cross-border investment. His Yunrun Tianyang real estate project, which was operated by him, claimed to be delivered in the second half of 2015, and was ultimately dragged into a unfinished project. At the same time, it also casts a shadow of negative news on the old Ganma.
After taking power, Li Miaoxing, his second son, abandoned the Guizhou chili peppers he had always used in order to reduce costs and chose the cheaper Henan chili peppers instead.
This decision has led to the collapse of the good reputation that Laoganma has always maintained, and the voice of consumers roast about Laoganma’s bad taste on the Internet keeps rising.
Since then, the negative effects of Laoganma have continued. In 2017, due to oil smoke pollution, the Nanming District Ecological Bureau immediately conducted an interview with Laoganma and requested to develop a governance plan; In the same year, a formula leak occurred in Lao Ganma. After leaving the company, a former employee entered a local food processing enterprise with a large amount of trade secrets such as some of Lao Ganma’s product formulas to produce similar spicy sauce products. In 2019, Lao Ganma’s Guizhou factory caught fire twice, affecting one-third of the production line capacity.
At this moment, Tao Bihua on the side finally couldn’t sit still and chose to go out again in 2019. After Tao Bihua’s comeback, Guizhou pepper was re used as the raw material for chili sauce, saving Laoganma’s declining trend. In 2020 and 2021, the revenue reached 5.022 billion yuan and 5.403 billion yuan.
But Tao Bihua, who has returned, is facing a more complex market environment. Behind Lao Ganma, spicy sauce brands such as Spicy Girl, Maode Gong, Rice Sweeping, and Sichuan Wazi are closely following.
Emerging brands such as Fanye, Hubang Spicy Sauce, Zuodashi, and Li Ziqi have gained momentum rapidly with the help of capital. For example, in half a year, the new takeout retail brand Zuodashi has successively received tens of millions of yuan in angel round financing and 100 million yuan in A-round financing; Founded in 2014, Fanye has completed four rounds of financing in total; Tiger Bang Spicy Sauce, which entered the market through the takeout scenario, also completed a round A financing of tens of millions of yuan in 2019.
2、 Cross border and co branding: new hope for old brands?
Due to internal and external troubles, Lao Ganma seized on cross-border marketing as a lifeline.
But can cross-border marketing really save the old godmother?
Compared to emerging brands, traditional brands have more advantages in products and offline channels, but the online transformation is slow and generally “connected” late.
Last May, Maotai officially launched its iMaotai APP and began practicing digital marketing. During a recent visit to the Coconut Headquarters building, “Zhinan Finance and Economics” learned that “the office building of Coconut Headquarters has just been connected to the internet for the past two years, or just for live streaming.” So far, Coconut has not been online as the official flagship store of Taobao and JD.com platforms.
After “Tongwang”, many traditional brands place their hopes on cross-border and joint branding.
Last year, the Maotai ice cream jointly produced by Maotai and Mengniu was sold online and offline simultaneously. In addition, an ice cream flash eating activity was also launched in Yonghui stores in 14 cities in 8 provinces across the country, attracting many netizens to come and punch in.
Last year, “Vinegar King” Hengshun launched three cross border cultural and creative ice creams, with flavors of soy sauce cheese, balsamic vinegar, and yellow wine, each priced at 18 yuan, attracting the attention of many netizens.
The 30-year baking brand Haolilai has embarked on the crazy road of co-branding since its launch with Xicha in 2019. According to statistics, in the first nine months of last year alone, Holliday launched a total of nine co branded products, including “King Ranking”, “Buzz Lightyear,” Strawberry Bear, “Harry Potter,” Bubble Mart, “and others.
However, while traditional brands gain traffic through cross-border and co branding, various roast also follow.
For example, the Maotai ice cream priced at 66 yuan per serving has attracted many comments on “intelligence tax”. In addition, after experiencing the hot scene at the beginning of its launch, it is gradually returning to the cold and more people are stopping to try new products.
After coconuts came out of the circle by virtue of the live broadcast room, disputes have been going on along with unfashionable and marginal marketing; “Holliday launched many innovative new products through crazy co branding, but ignored the most fundamental flavor of the cake. Last year, when Holliday launched the Harry Potter Mid Autumn Moon Cake, more than one netizen asked, ‘Why can’t the taste keep up with what you’ve done so beautifully?'”
At present, the old Ganma who has already switched back to Guiyang chili peppers has not dispelled her doubts: “Now, the old Ganma is becoming less and less delicious, only salty but not spicy.” “The chili peppers inside are bitter,” “too oily” Under various roast, many netizens have also turned their eyes to other brands.
Cross-border may bring short-term traffic and sales to Lao Ganma, but after that?
