According to the logic of marketing, the white of an ordinary commodity is described as pearl white, and the price can be changed from 5 yuan to 10 yuan. If you use Mount Fuji White as the color expression, you can sell it for 20 yuan or even 50 yuan…
Genki Forest (YuanQiSenLin) is well aware of this and has launched the so-called “0 sucrose” beverage, which was widely welcomed by the Chinese market. On April 10, 2021, Genki Forest issued a statement stating that it apologized for the previous misleading propaganda, and stated that the milk tea produced from March 20 was changed from “0 sucrose and low fat” to “low sugar and low fat”.
Genki Forest frankly said that in the product labeling and promotion of milk tea products, it did not explain the difference between “0 sugar” and “0 sucrose”, which could easily lead to misunderstandings. In addition, Genki Forest reminded, “’Milk tea has milk’ so it has sugar.”
Prior to this, Genki Forest’s “zero calories and zero sugar” claim was “counterfeited” by China’s CCTV news. On April 13th, Xinhuanet also posted a comment that Genki Forest should reflect on it, and added a picture saying that “The game of words is cool for a while, but it’s hard to end up with a collapsed house”.
Suspected of false propaganda, Genki Forest “apologized”
According to an earlier report by China’s CCTV News, some Chinese experts said that most of the sweetness of beverages on the market that are labeled as “zero calories and zero sugar” comes from sweeteners and have lower calories than high-sugar beverages. “But it is not completely healthy. It has been found internationally that the intake of sweeteners will have some adverse effects on the body’s glucose tolerance and blood lipid metabolism.”
According to Chen Wei, chief physician of the Clinical Nutrition Department of Peking Union Medical College Hospital, most of the taste of zero calories and zero sugar comes from commercial sweeteners. The sweetener itself is safe and can be divided into sweeteners with calories and sweeteners without calories, then it can produce more sweetness, even 200-300 times sweeter than sucrose. Chen Wei believes, “If compared with sugar-sweetened beverages, 0-calorie-sugar beverages are indeed helpful for preventing obesity; but if compared with water, sweeteners have an exciting effect in the brain and will guide you to take them. Into more high-calorie foods, in this sense, sugar-free beverages are not completely healthy beverages.”
And this also unveiled the false mask of Genki Forest. According to Article 4 of the Chinese Advertising Law, advertisements must not contain misleading content, and must not deceive or mislead consumers. China’s Consumer Rights Protection Law also clearly states that false or misleading publicity should not be made.
Xinhuanet commented that if they are excellent products, there is no need to play some “little cleverness”. According to Beiduo Finance, as early as 2020, when Genki Forest launched the “small milk tea”, the product did not indicate the detailed specifications in the main picture. Then, Genki Forest apologized for this.
Similarly, shortly after the launch of Genki Forest’s “small milk tea”, some netizens asked whether the third item in the ingredient list of Genki Forest’s milk tea products was crystalline fructose, but the official website claimed that “drinking healthy milk tea without fat” was false advertising?
Now, Genki Forest’s self-slapped face is undoubtedly a self-identification of its suspected false propaganda. Some lawyers pointed out that consumers can increase the compensation for their losses. The increased amount of compensation is three times the price of the consumer’s purchase of goods or the cost of receiving services; if the increased amount of compensation is less than 500 yuan, it is 500 yuan.
According to Article 20 of China’s “Consumer Rights Protection Law”: The information provided by operators to consumers on the quality, performance, purpose, and validity period of goods or services shall be true and comprehensive, and shall not be false or misleading Publicity.
On the other hand, Article 56 of the “China Advertising Law” stipulates that: in violation of the provisions of this law, publishing false advertisements, deceiving or misleading consumers, and harming the legitimate rights and interests of consumers who purchase goods or receive services, the advertiser shall Bear civil liability in accordance with the law.
Created the concept of “Japanese” but is actually a Chinese product
In addition to suspected false propaganda on sugar content, Genki Forest has also been accused of “Japanese” induction and excessive packaging. It is understood that many of Genki Forest’s product packages are marked in Japanese, and the brand name is written “元気森林” instead of “元气森林” in simplified Chinese. In addition, Genki Forest has applied for Japanese trademarks such as “Edo Chaliao”, “けしき”, and “沢”. At the same time, Genki Forest also marked the words “produced by Genki Forest Co., Ltd. of Japan” on the packaging of its drinks. If consumers do not distinguish between them, it is difficult to understand the real situation.
According to a previous report by Sino-Singapore Jingwei, China Food Industry Analyst Zhu Danpeng believes that Genki Forest relies on its trademarks registered in Japan, from trademarks to packaging are Japanese style, and the actual origin and sales market are in China. The industry calls this brand a “pseudo-Japanese”.
Zhu Danpeng also claimed that the concept of “fat reduction” promoted by Genki Forest is suspected of misleading consumers. ” Fat reduction is a functional expression of products. For example, health products can be said to have the effect of reducing fat. Genki Forest has not obtained the blue cap label for health products, whether it is sparkling water or yogurt, so it is not appropriate to use similar copywriting in marketing language.”
Beiduo Finance found that in order to cooperate with the brand promotion, Genki Forest also labeled its yogurt as “Beihai Ranch”, including “Hokkaido 3.1 Sugar-Free Yogurt” and so on. At the same time, Genki Forest changed its registered Qiise (Beijing) Dairy Co., Ltd. to “Beihai Ranch (Beijing) Dairy Co., Ltd.” in Beijing. In fact, Genki Forest’s products are domestically produced in China, regardless of the place of origin or the consumer market. The information shows that Genki Forest was established in 2016 and mainly produces and sells sparkling soda water, “burning” series sugar-free tea, bodybuilding light tea, milk tea, etc.
According to the media, Genki Forest’s products are all produced by OEMs. The sparkling water is mainly produced by Jianlibao. The burning tea and milk tea are produced by Tongshi. The company’s other brand “Alien” energy drink is produced by O.R.G OEM.
In addition, Genki Forest has also pointed out the suspicion of plagiarizing Japanese brands. According to media reports, Genki Forest sells a new tea gift box “burning tea”. It is suspected that the outer packaging design is very similar to the famous Japanese tea brand LUPICIA, and it is suspected of plagiarism.
Capital favors it but the difference from competitors is not obvious
It is worth mentioning that Genki Forest also announced the completion of the latest round of financing on April 9, 2021. After completing the financing, Genki Forest’s valuation has reached 6 billion U.S. dollars (approximately 40 billion yuan). Prior to this, Genki Forest had completed 5 rounds of financing.
According to reports, Genki Forest’s latest round of financing investors are Temasek, Gaorong Capital, Longfor Capital, Sequoia Capital, L Catterton, and Warburg Pincus. It is understood that this is Genki Forest’s sixth round of financing since its establishment.
In addition to obtaining financing, Genki Forest has also invested in other brands such as Guanyun Baijiu, Never Coffee and Bishan Beer. Previously, Genki Forest founder Tang Binsen once said that 2021 will be the product year of Genki Forest, and 95% of Genki Forest’s products have not been launched.
Public information shows that Tang Binsen is known as the “father of Happy Farm” and “the founder of Happy Farm.” In fact, “Happy Farm”, which was launched in 2008, was first developed by Five Minutes, which was founded by Xu Cheng and the others, and Tang Binsen did not involve it.
In the same year, Tang Binsen launched the imitation “Happy Farmer” (KaiXinNongChang) in accordance with the “Happy Farm” model, and later changed its name to “Happy Farm”. In 2014, the Zhixingxingtong founded by Tang Binsen was acquired by Chinese Media. It was not until June 2020 that Tang Binsen resigned from the company as vice chairman and chief executive officer.
During this period, Tang Binsen founded Genki Forest cross-border in 2016, and won the favor of consumers and capital with the help of “0 calories & 0 sugar”. Tang Shuokun, executive general manager of Qingtong Capital, believes that in a sub-category, Genki Forest has captured the needs of a niche but with a long-term growth trend.
Regarding Genki Forest’s advantages, Meng Qi, former head of JD’s new channel strategy, once said, “Genki Forest’s existing products are not highly differentiated in the Chinese market, and due to the endless emergence of Internet celebrity products and different tactics, the company continues to market The marginal utility of the lower input-output ratio is bound to decrease.”
Similarly, Chief Quality Officer CQO Bingqian also said in an interview, “Genki Forest does not actually have any secrets. We just understand the needs of Chinese consumers at the moment, and we are fully committed to meeting these needs. Under the demand of diet, as well as the color control preferences of some Chinese young people.”
How far can the Genki Forest stripped of “Genki” go in the future? Not yet known.
Source: Beiduo Finance