Worked as a plasterer, worked as a reporter, and eventually became a businessman, planted mushrooms, raised turtles, sold water, was creative, knew how to plan, knew how to market, and had a unique business style. People become "lone wolves", which is the label of Zhong Shanshan.
From 65438 to 0954, Zhong Shanshan was born in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, and his parents were both out-and-out intellectuals. Zhong Shanshan's grandfather Zhong Ziyi was the first Party branch secretary of Zhuji during the Northern Expedition.
Zhong Shanshan was forced to drop out of primary school when he was only in the fifth grade. He studied masons and became a carpenter. Mei Zhi, a friend writer in his youth, recalled that when the college entrance examination was resumed in 1977, Zhong insisted on taking the college entrance examination for two years. Although he didn't even understand the most basic algebra knowledge, he fell into the gap by more than 20 points every year.
"The Roman Empire was not built in a day." Zhong Shanshan finally followed his parents' advice and went to TV University.
After graduating from TV University, Zhong Shanshan tossed and turned, and finally found a job in Zhejiang Daily: working as a reporter in the rural department. During her five years working in a newspaper, Zhong Shanshan traveled to more than 80 counties and cities in Zhejiang, interviewed more than 500 entrepreneurs, and even met several business partners.
Zhong Shanshan still claims to have "Zhejiang Daily Complex".
Joining the gold rush, the merchant began his journey. At the beginning of 1988, the state officially approved the establishment of Hainan Special Economic Zone, and then a wave of gold rush set off in Hainan. Many famous rich people on today's wealth list are gold diggers of that year. At that time, it was reported in three pages of Zhejiang Daily, which made Zhong Shanshan's heart itch. He decided to leave his job without pay, devoted himself to gold panning and started his career as a businessman.
Zhong Shanshan's initial ideal was to set up the first private newspaper in China, but even in the newly established special economic zone, private people were not allowed to enter the newspaper industry.
Therefore, growing mushrooms became Zhong Shanshan's earliest entrepreneurial project in Hainan, which also benefited from his accumulated contacts in the rural department of the newspaper. But this project soon lost all the investment of Zhong Shanshan. Because Hainan is very humid in the morning and evening, it is particularly dry at noon. "The tender tip of the mushroom has just been pulled out, and it will dry immediately at noon." The mushrooms can't survive at all.
After trying and failing to start a newspaper and grow mushrooms, Zhong Shanshan finally lost tens of thousands of dollars. Since then, it has been said that Zhong Shanshan has tried other businesses. Today, I have accumulated tens of thousands of dollars in selling curtains in Fucheng, and I will lose money in raising prawns in Wanquanhe tomorrow. Anyway, he didn't make any money from going back and forth!
1990 Wahaha, under the leadership of Zong, has developed from the distribution department of school-run enterprises in Hang Cheng to a large enterprise with an output value of over 100 million yuan. 1 year later, Zong merged Hangzhou Canned Food Factory and established Hangzhou Wahaha Group, and the "love-hate entanglement" with Zong began.
This year, Zhong Shanshan is the general agent of Wahaha Oral Liquid in Hainan and Guangxi. Perhaps because of Zhejiang businessmen, the two sides have been in contact for a long time.
199 1, there was a storm between the two sides.
As Hainan is a newly developed special economic zone, Wahaha has preferential prices for agents; On the other hand, Wahaha oral liquid sold well in Guangdong at that time.
Therefore, Zhong Shanshan took Wahaha oral liquid obtained at a low price in Hainan to Zhanjiang City, Guangdong Province, which does not belong to Hainan and Guangxi, and sold it at a high price. Because of this, he and Zong had an unpleasant experience.
But after many years, the two have maintained a subtle relationship. Although Nongfu Spring and Wahaha were rivals later, Zong always stood up for Zhong Shanshan's false rumors. This is the so-called "love and kill each other".
As a businessman, the above methods of making money may not matter, but in the eyes of Zhong Shanshan at that time, the beverage industry may have become a battleground in his career map.
Yangshengtang turtle pill has a good reputation. Although Wahaha lost its agency, Zhong Shanshan has seen considerable profits in the beverage industry. "I will kill it again one day!" However, before the establishment of Nongfu Spring, what really made Zhong Shanshan famous was "Yangshengtang Fish and Turtle Pill".
Once, Zhong Shanshan made an appointment with a friend to have dinner in a restaurant in Haidian Island. He found that almost every table guest ordered health soup. Originally made of local specialty fish and soft-shelled turtle, it is delicious and nutritious, and is very popular with diners.
"The restaurant makes health soup, and I will make health pills!"
1993 10, Zhong Shanshan established Hainan yangshengtang pharmaceutical co., ltd in Haikou, and immediately hired three experts from the university of traditional Chinese medicine to develop "yangshengtang fish and turtle pill" for eight months.
This pill takes natural fish and soft-shelled turtle as raw materials, and according to the traditional theory of Chinese medicine, it uses modern ultra-low temperature freezing technology to turn the whole turtle and soft-shelled turtle into fine powder at MINUS 196 degrees Celsius. Because of its unique concept, "Healthy Fish and Turtle Pills" were snapped up on the first day. In a short period of one year, it was sold from Hainan to the whole country, and Zhong Shanshan earned the first100000 yuan in his life.
With the popularity of Yangshengtang, Zhong Shanshan has successively launched more than ten brands and products, such as Duoer, Qingzui, Mama Beef Stick and Happy Growth. The industries involved span four major fields: health care products, biopharmaceuticals, beverages and food.
In the 1990s, when health care products were flooded, Zhong Shanshan summed up a set of his own business secrets: "If a small enterprise wants to grow and develop, its business type must be unique and profitable. Because there is no scale effect for you to accumulate slowly. " This sentence also represents Zhong Shanshan's product design and marketing style.
Yangshengtang has profound market insight and keen market reaction ability, and can always enter the blue ocean at the most appropriate time. In 2004, relying on the story of "Mama Beef Stick", Mama brand beef stick was introduced. Mother brand beef strips started with "mother" and entered the market with its unique brand image. Has been active in the forefront of beef jerky brands for more than ten years.
The brand itself is something with strength. In the pre-Qin period, there was a kind of "famous scholar" named hundred schools of thought, who emphasized the learning of "name", attached importance to "worthy of the name" and studied the power of "name".
There is no denying that every brand created by Zhong Shanshan has its own strength. Often put aside the constraints of product attributes and seek the voice of consumers through unique planning in emotion and concept. He is quite talented in the study of "names".
Turning to the beverage industry, with the popularity of Yangshengtang in the whole country, a water war was launched. Zhong Shanshan pursued the victory and killed the beverage industry with trillion growth potential.
1996, Zhong Shanshan, who was already worth tens of millions, returned to Hangzhou and established Zhejiang Qiandao Lake Yangshengtang Drinking Water Co., Ltd. (the predecessor of Nongfu Spring). At that time, drinking water brands such as Wahaha and Master Kong were listed one after another.
The water quality of Qiandao Lake is good, and all indicators are excellent, but how to play this card? Zhong Shanshan has long believed that "health care products are popular because people's demand for health has increased. If health can be linked to a market with more consumption potential, it must be a big deal. "
Therefore, Zhong Shanshan named drinking water "Nongfu Spring", which is close to the people and grounded, giving people a sense of purity of nature. "I am a loner, and I don't care what my peers are doing or thinking."
Zhong Shanshan made no secret of his cold personality. Perhaps it is because of his maverick that he achieved the famous Nongfu Spring.
Businessmen and advertisers have to say that farmers, screaming and other brands are all classics, and the most obvious one is "screaming" sports drinks. This sports drink with verbs as its brand name is full of originality, so is the name, and so is the angular and personalized bottle design, which quickly attracted the attention of the public.
Nongfu Spring's "taste is a little sweet" and "we don't produce water, we are porters of nature" are even more amazing.
Nongfu Spring's launch of "Nongfu Orchard" is ingenious, and the slogan and logo action of "shake before drinking" have become a major selling point of product sales.
In 20 16, when Nongfu Spring launched a new π tea, it started celebrity endorsement for the first time. Zhong Shanshan chose the famous Korean men's team BIGBANG to focus on the youth market.
In the short 2-minute video, starting from the trainee training of the sixth-grade BIGBANG members, they paid unimaginable hardships and sweat behind them and never gave up until they stood on the world stage. Finally, the slogan "Tea π, self-contained" appeared.
The indomitable spirit presented in the video fits well with Nongfu Spring. After 20 hours on the line, this advertisement reached 400,000, and young fans bought it everywhere.
For a long time, Zhong Shanshan defined himself as an advertiser. "I have been doing business for so many years, just to be creative in advertising!"
Some people even ridiculed that "Nongfu Spring is actually an advertising company!" Popular advertising slogans and promotional videos that hit consumers' hearts have won a considerable number of loyal fans for Nongfu Spring.
Loyal to marketing, enterprises are mummies if they don't hype. From the beginning of its development, Nongfu Spring has been pursuing Zhong Shanshan's logic-"The best marketing is event marketing". If you create an event and catch it, you catch everything.
The growth history of Nongfu Spring is the history of rivers and lakes all the way. Every "water war" seems to be an after-the-fact event marketing, which directly expands the market share of Nongfu Spring, regardless of word of mouth.
The pure water war in 2000 is an example. Until now, the bottled water market in China has been a paradise for pure water.
"The original plan was just a regular release. Until the eve of the press conference, everyone has not come up with a good news point. " But one night later, Zhong Shanshan's speech at the press conference made people stunned. Without the knowledge of most employees, he suddenly threw out a "big news" and decided to stop producing pure water, because experiments proved that pure water was not good for health.
Three months after the advertisement was placed, a number of pure water enterprises jointly submitted complaints about "unfair competition" in Nongfu Spring.
This is the initial impression that Zhong Shanshan left to the industry and the media: he would rather risk the world for his marketing performance.
"Some people say that we are traitors. I think we are a bit like Copernicus. The more the truth is debated, the clearer it becomes, so this is also an ideological revolution. " Zhong Shanshan said proudly afterwards.
In 2007, Nongfu Spring set its sights on a new rival and set off the second water war. This time it's Master Kong, the new boss of the industry with soaring share. At that time, Master Kong's mineral water had reached the market share of billions every year.
This time, Zhong Shanshan chose the strategy of making the pH of water a topic of public discussion. "A good advertisement is not only to attract users' attention, but more importantly, to make users discuss it. "At that time, in the conference room of the advertising department, there was such an advertising motto, which was another set of advertising principles that the aggressive chairman tried to instill.
After two water wars, Nongfu Spring benefited a lot. The data shows that by the end of 20 12, the sales of Nongfu Spring series products exceeded10 billion for the first time.
Regarding marketing, do something and do something wrong. Because Zhong Shanshan is an unsociable person, the outside world calls him a "lone wolf". But such a ruthless tough guy is sometimes vulnerable.
It was May 23rd, 2008, the first 1 1 day after the Wenchuan earthquake. Zhong Shanshan, gaunt and tanned, appeared at Hangzhou Xiaoshan Airport. He has just returned from the earthquake-stricken area. Zhong Shanshan stayed in Wenchuan for 8 days and 9 nights, and delivered 160 vehicles of drinking water from Nongfu Spring to the disaster area. He personally rushed to the front line and carried it with employees, volunteers and fire officers and soldiers.
Watching the farmers who were placed in the safe area rush home to collect rapeseed, they said: "One point is one point, and the country can't keep raising us!" Zhong Shanshan was very unhappy. This scene has been in Zhong Shanshan's mind until he landed at Xiaoshan Airport. Facing the reporters swarming in, he suddenly burst into tears.
After returning to Hangzhou, Zhong Shanshan strongly demanded: Don't choose photos of Nongfu Spring products in the photos released about the disaster area, and don't give others the impression of putting on a show.
Some media came to the door to make a long report on earthquake relief, and Zhong Shanshan also refused one by one: "Pay more attention to the disaster area, our meager strength is not important."
Unique product packaging starts with simple and generous red and white, and Nongfu Spring's "comfortable" packaging has always been praised. In 2004, the first functional drink "Scream" went on the market. Innovative bottle cap design and the slogan "Let your heart beat, it is better to make you scream" won the pursuit of a large number of teenagers, which also made Nongfu Spring win the first place in the functional beverage market.
From "Oriental Leaves" to "Tea with Milk", every time a new product goes on the market, it is accompanied by refreshing and unique packaging, with excellent quality and exquisite appearance, and it is difficult to love it or not.
After stabilizing the low-end market, Zhong Shanshan began to specialize in high-end water and officially entered the ranks of high-end water.
2065438+February 1 day, 2005, Nongfu Spring held a new product launch conference at Fusong Factory in Changbai Mountain, announcing the launch of three new products: high-end glass bottle water, natural drinking water for children and natural mineral water for students.
The outer packaging of these three kinds of water is unique. The bottle of high-end water in Nongfu Spring was presented after Zhong Shanshan invited five top international designers to revise 58 drafts repeatedly for five years. There are 8 species of wild animals and plants unique to Changbai Mountain on the bottle.
This design also enabled Nongfu Spring to win five international awards on 20 15, but the price of this kind of water is also quite amazing: 40 yuan /750ml. For the advent of high-end water, Zhong Shanshan's explanation is as follows: "Under appropriate circumstances, an appropriate etiquette environment is needed. Davos Forum can put glass bottles of water, so we don't need plastic bottles! "
Zhong Shanshan once said, "It is a shame for the industry to put plastic bottles of water on the negotiating table of the Prime Minister!" On 20 16, Nongfu Spring appeared at G20 Summit in Hangzhou. He fulfilled his promise of "putting high-end glass bottled water on the prime minister's negotiating table".
Dare to "advertise" and be a lone wolf's maverick. In the era when online video is extremely popular, every business will spare no effort to put its own advertisement in the "golden 60 seconds" before online video playback. Zhong Shanshan also joined the trend, but his advertising method was "skipping advertisements", and this "unprecedented" decision shocked everyone.
On Youku and other videos, before the advertisement started, a low and magnetic male voice reminded: "Nongfu Spring reminds you that this advertisement can be closed unconditionally and free of charge." Some people say that this may be the most successful advertisement since the birth of video website advertisement.
Why do you say that? First, there are countless netizens who are "tortured" by video website advertisements for 60 seconds or even 100 seconds. Now there is such an advertisement that non-members can skip it for free. Nongfu Spring seized this pain point and won the favor of the audience.
Statistics show that after the launch of this warm-hearted move, nearly 70% of netizens watched the advertisement for more than 30 seconds or finished the whole process, and some even deliberately went to see the advertisement of Nongfu Spring on the grounds that it was good-looking.
20 16, a new round of advertisements for Nongfu Spring is a series of short films about the 20th anniversary of Nongfu Spring, which are: one day holiday, one person island, 120 Li, and the last Li. In the form of documentary, it tells the story of ordinary workers in four different regions and different positions. There was not a word of praise for Nongfu Spring in the whole process, but the compact plot attracted people to see it specially.
The hardships of the protagonist are just like the "porters" of Nongfu Spring. It's hard to say. I'm afraid only Zhong Shanshan, the "advertiser", can achieve this level of strong singing and clever advertising marketing.
Today, Nongfu Spring has gone through 20 years and entered the top three in China drinking water market. The list of "20 16 Top 500 Private Enterprises in China" was released, and Shannongfu Spring Co., Ltd. ranked 460th on the list with109.11000,000 (data of 20 15).
In the first eight months of 20 16, the sales exceeded 10 billion, and the new tea was exclusive 10 billion. Although this figure is insignificant compared with some listed companies, the spiritual food of conscience enterprises conveyed by Nongfu Spring is priceless.
Make the water to the extreme, and Nongfu Spring is planting oranges again. He said, "In a few years, if someone says he can make orange juice better than me, I won't even look at him."
At the end of 20 15, Nongfu Spring 17.5 NFC juice went on the market, and now it has become a dark horse in the domestic beverage market this year.
For a long time, due to the high production cost, difficult packaging and the need for cold chain transportation, few non-self-concentrated beverage companies are involved. At present, almost all concentrated and reduced fruit juices can be bought in the domestic market. This also made Zhong Shanshan's not from concentrated juice get a very good response as soon as it came out-it not only became a drink on the table of the G20 Hangzhou Summit, but also expected to achieve sales income of over 500 million yuan in the year when the new product was launched.
Zhong Shanshan once again challenged the entire beverage market with subversive product innovation. "When it comes to making orange juice, there is no competitor in the domestic beverage market at present." He said proudly.
Recently, at the conference of Nongfu Spring held in Ganzhou, Jiangxi, Zhong Shanshan, chairman of Nongfu Spring, officially introduced its flagship new products-Nongfu Spring 17.5 orange juice and 17.5 NFC (non-concentrated) orange juice.
In 2007, Zhong Shanshan went to Ganzhou, Jiangxi for the first time. Seeing navel oranges everywhere, he thought that good orange juice was at his fingertips. So he quickly decided to develop orchards there and set up a factory to produce orange juice.
Zhong Shanshan never thought that it would take him ten years to make up for this hasty decision.
After the completion of the factory, troubles followed: because the orange orchard was selected in the high and steep hilly area, the labor and logistics costs were high, and the fruit trees were often affected by extreme low temperature; Because he mechanically applied the industrialized business model to agriculture, hired farmers as industrial workers, and farmers neglected management, resulting in less orchard output and poor fruit quality; Because of the wrong factory location, remote factories suffer from water and electricity shortages. During the production period, the power was cut off almost every day, and the daily water supply was less than 40 tons ... Zhong Shanshan found that agriculture was far from as simple as he imagined.
To Zhong Shanshan's despair, they found that Gannan navel orange could not be squeezed at all-the juice squeezed by navel orange became extremely bitter in a short time.
There is a simple reason. Navel orange contains a precursor of limonin, which will be converted into limonin once processed. This is almost a well-known thing in the field of agricultural products processing, but Zhong Shanshan made such a low-level mistake because of his blind intrusion.
Insist or give up? Zhong Shanshan chose the former. Some people say that it is because of his "axis" that he does not look back until he hits the south wall; But in his own view, it is indeed forced by the situation. "All the money has been invested and the factory has been built. How can there be any way out? "
Zhong Shanshan buried his head forward because of his belief in knowledge. In his view, as long as Nongfu Spring has accumulated enough knowledge in this respect, both the management problems of modern agriculture and the bottleneck of juicing technology can be solved.
Now, Zhong Shanshan is very confident about his products, even a little arrogant. Behind this self-confidence is the knowledge accumulated by Nongfu Spring in ten years of orange juicing. Many people know that this drinking water "big brother" began to lay out agriculture as early as ten years ago.
Many people regard agriculture as an industry that makes quick money. Zhong Shanshan said that since the establishment of Nongfu Spring, no project has ever gone through so many detours, paid so much hardship and put so much energy into planting navel oranges in Gannan. Nongfu Spring used to look at agriculture too simply, and it was too difficult to do it!
"It looks just like an orange and two bottles of juice, but Nongfu Spring has taken many detours for this, which can almost be described as a narrow escape." Zhong Shanshan said.
Ask Gannan orange farmers if they can make money by cooperating with him. Zhong Shanshan didn't answer directly. He said: "When I first started my business, I set up a mushroom planting company in Hainan, but my business failed and I was heavily in debt. But even then, I have never owed a penny to the farmers who helped me grow mushrooms. "
Now Nongfu Spring has a profit and tax of more than 2 billion yuan a year, and Zhong Shanshan said that it can't even spend 400,000 yuan a year. He asked the reporter: "Do you think I can still make money by competing with farmers today?"
"I am in agriculture, thinking about how to generate added value, and making two cakes instead of sharing the same cake with farmers." Zhong Shanshan said that how to make this new cake depends on the extension of the industrial chain to make high-quality orange juice and realize the premium of Nongfu Spring brand on fresh oranges.
"Farmers in China are the most simple and concerned." Speaking of farmers, Zhong Shanshan's tears always seem to be particularly low. He said, "We owe farmers too much". On the same day, the theme of Zhong Shanshan's speech at the press conference was "Farmers are rich and China is strong".
"He is a more heroic person." Zhang Peili, an old friend of Zhong Shanshan and a professor in China Academy of Art, once commented on Zhong Shanshan.
From the beginning of business, Zhong Shanshan predicted that he was different from ordinary businessmen. In a letter from 1989, he wrote: "Money, just money is not enough. My goal is much higher. "