Exploration of Bishengyuan's Transformation: the trend of "bathing intestines" is over

The struggling Bishengyuan (00926 HK) finally ushered in a glimmer of dawn Bishengyuan said in the 2013 China Daily forecast released on June 19 that "it is expected that the loss in the first six months of this year will record a significant decline" Since its listing in October 2010, Bishengyuan has only made profits in the year of listing, and the next two years have been consecutive losses Bishengyuan, known as "China's first weight-loss tea therapy product", seems to have made great achievements like eating Changrun tea At the beginning of this year, Zhao Yihong, chairman of Bishengyuan, said: "the company will shift from single production of functional tea drinks to a broader market of ordinary tea drinks, aiming to become China's largest producer of tea bags, or even surpass Lipton." Bishengyuan has established contact with many tea production bases in Anhui Province, allegedly controlling some high-quality tea sources But against the backdrop of poor performance, this beneficial transformation seems to have come more slowly In less than ten years, Bishengyuan has successfully listed on the market by taking advantage of the concept of weight loss, becoming the first leader in the market of weight loss and convenience And then it quickly fell to the bottom, which is worth exploring The secret of growth: in the diet tea market, before Bishengyuan, there were only a few brands such as big impression For this kind of products, consumers almost start from Bishengyuan The ingredients of Bishengyuan diet tea and Changrun tea are no secret In addition to the different components of Smilax, ginseng, honeysuckle and lotus leaf, green tea, cassia seed and senna leaf are the main components of the two tea drinks Anthraquinones in cassia seed and sennoside in senna leaf are the components that can cause diarrhea Western medicine believes that these ingredients have slight side effects on the gastrointestinal tract, resulting in diarrhea That's why Bishengyuan is able to "wash your intestines" In 2009, Bishengyuan was tested in Dongzhimen Hospital in Beijing, and found that Changrun tea can reduce constipation symptoms Can simple diarrhea achieve the effect of weight loss? "Reducing weight through diarrhea and dehydration is not the real way to lose weight," said the head of a weight-loss drug manufacturer It just temporarily reduces the water content in the human body, not the fat And caused the loss of nutrients, once stopped using the body weight will quickly rebound " In addition, relying on Anthraquinone to induce diarrhea to achieve weight loss may also have unexpected side effects Li Xing, a gastroenterologist at Pingxiang people's Hospital of Jiangxi Province, wrote in the Chinese Journal of modern clinical medicine in July 2004 After electronic enteroscopy examination of 221 patients with constipation, it was found that 9 of 21 patients who had been taking anthraquinone cathartic for a long time had melanosis of colon The incidence rate of this disease was less than 0.25% in the control group The above article does not define "long-term use", but in other studies, some scholars believe that more than eight weeks of continuous use may lead to colon melanosis Patients with melanosis of the colon are prone to colon polyps, which are easy to turn into colon cancer But all this is covered up in the overwhelming advertising information behind Zhao Yihong, a founder of Master Kang's instant noodles and drinks, is very familiar with the rhythm of the fast-moving market After several years of low-key operation, Bishengyuan became popular in 2005 by relying on TV advertising According to financial data, Bishengyuan invested 49 million yuan in advertising in 2007, which soared to 118 million yuan in 2008 Such a large input brings in a large output Bishengyuan's turnover in 2007 was 163 million yuan, reaching 358 million yuan in 2008, almost doubling After Bishengyuan went public in, the advertising investment was even more irremediable, reaching 250 million yuan in that year Since 2011, Bishengyuan has lost money, but this has not stopped its investment in advertising and marketing In 2012, the cost of advertising and marketing reached 563 million yuan, even higher than its operating revenue of 475 million yuan Xu Huafeng, secretary-general of China Health Care Association, said: "there are two main types of enterprises in China's health care products industry One is Amway and perfect, which is the way of direct sales The other is through advertising and channels Bishengyuan belongs to the latter category " It is these two kinds of companies that make money in the health care product market Because there is no rational consumption concept, the products with strong advertising and good marketing methods will sell well This is also the reason why Bishengyuan spared no effort to promote However, Bishengyuan obviously went through the head, making himself uncontrollable Zhao Yihong said at the communication meeting that in the future, it will control the placement of advertisements and gradually reverse its positioning of only making weight-loss products Xu Huafeng also believes that "the audience has already produced aesthetic fatigue to Bishengyuan." Bishengyuan made no secret of the sales method used in the past When the media questioned that the actual cost of each package of tea was only 4 cents, Zhao Yihong was very calm He attributed it to the cost advantage of large-scale production of the company The lack of fast-growing market space is what Bishengyuan really needs to worry about In recent years, various kinds of weight-loss products compete fiercely After Bishengyuan goes on the market, it has to abandon some of the past practices wandering on the edge of policy, such as illegal advertising Bishengyuan is in urgent need of seeking new breakthroughs Zhao Yihong is not unaware of the problem In December 2009, Bishengyuan acquired Zhuhai Qijia and obtained the OTC tea product maishuping tea bag However, this blood pressure lowering drug did not bring a qualitative change to Bishengyuan Instead, it was repeatedly involved in illegal publicity in Guangdong, Jiangsu, and even banned by some provinces "OTC products are different from health products and have a higher threshold," said Xu If Bishengyuan wants to transform to OTC market, it can't be completed in a short time " In 2012, Bishengyuan finally found its own direction "Tea is the last category that Chinese enterprises hope to establish a global brand, but there is not a successful tea enterprise in China, which is not a normal thing," Zhao said There is a saying in the industry that "70000 tea enterprises are inferior to one Lipton" Up to now, tea is still divided into regions, without a famous brand Bishengyuan seems to smell the opportunity, because it has previous experience in the production and sales of weight-loss tea, and the company thinks it will help to turn to ordinary tea At least Zhao Yihong thinks that "Bishengyuan's production technology will never lose to Lipton." Bishengyuan is trying to weaken the image of its weight-loss brand in its external publicity, and claims to be "the leading brand of herbal health Chinese tea bags", with several new products just launched in June Whether Bishengyuan will go on the old road of inertial thinking, blindly pursue advertising, thus ignoring the internal quality, is still unknown However, as a representative of "landing" from the mire, Bishengyuan can be a sample of the forced transformation of weight-loss enterprises.