Recently, a white peach-flavored soda sparkling water launched by Nongfu Spring has the advertising slogan "Made in Fukushima, Japan" on the outer packaging and promotional materials, which is suspected to be from Fukushima, Japan. Marketing for food brands has always been dizzying. This turmoil has reminded major brands that brand marketing needs to clarify the legal red line.
Consumers question the quality and safety of Nongfu Spring's products
Nongfu Spring, which just launched sparkling water products this year, "overturned". The cause of the incident is that some netizens recently discovered that Nongfu Spring's dawn white peach flavored sparkling water in the product promotion emphasized that white peach is "produced in Fukushima Prefecture". Nongfu Spring mentioned in the promotional copy of the product, "Dawn white peach flavor, dawn white peach is produced in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan".
It is reported that in the "List of Fresh Fruit Types and Exporting Countries and Regions That Have Obtained my country's Inspection and Quarantine Access" issued by the General Administration of Customs on May 15, 2020, only two fruits, apples and pears, are allowed to be imported from Japan. my country's Import and Export Food Safety Bureau also issued an announcement stating that, in view of the continuous expansion of the impact of the Fukushima nuclear leakage accident on the quality and safety of food and agricultural products, it is prohibited to import food and agricultural products from 12 prefectures in Japan, including Fukushima County, and Dawn white peach is a famous specialty of Fukushima Prefecture, Japan.
After the controversy was aroused, Nongfu Spring responded on June 27 that the Dawn White Peach Flavored Sparkling Water is a flavored beverage, and Nongfu Spring marked the product ingredients in the product label ingredient list in accordance with the requirements of the national food safety standards. There are no ingredients imported from Fukushima, Japan in the ingredients of this product. The labelling of Nongfu Spring products complies with relevant regulations and there is no error or misleading. Nongfu Spring said that Dawning White Peach is native to Fukushima and has a unique flavor. It has been introduced in China in the 20th century. "Based on the unique flavor of Dawning White Peach, the company's R&D personnel have created products with a similar flavor to Dawning White Peach, which has nothing to do with the origin of Dawning White Peach." .
At the same time, on June 27, the official Weibo of the Information Office of the People's Government of Jiande City, Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province released the "Investigation Report on the Source of Raw Materials of Nongfu Spring Dawn White Peach Flavored Sparkling Water", "June 27, 2021 , Jiande City Market Supervision Bureau organized law enforcement officers to conduct an on-site inspection of the production workshop of Nongfu Spring (Jiande) Xin'anjiang Drinking Water Co., Ltd. located in Xin'anjiang Street, Jiande City. After verification, Nongfu Spring's dawn white peach flavored soda sparkling water The production raw materials are not procured from Fukushima Prefecture, Japan.”
But netizens didn't buy it. Under Nongfu Spring's Weibo statement, the number of comments exceeded 12,000. Most of the public opinions are questioning Nongfu Spring's first use of white peaches produced in Fukushima, Japan as a marketing gimmick, and immediately dismissed after being questioned. Marketing is suspected of false advertising.
Some netizens said that Nongfu Spring's behavior was false propaganda. In the comments on Nongfu Spring's official Weibo, some netizens said, "This is how the official account is written, even if there are no Fukushima products, it is already suspected of false propaganda..." "It is indeed suspected of false propaganda, it does not contain white peaches at all, this kind of The propaganda will make people mistakenly think that there is white peach pulp. In fact, it is a peach-flavored drink. In addition, some netizens even questioned the values promoted by Nongfu Spring, believing that its propaganda "is full of higher-grade and more delicious Japanese fruits", "It is proud of the words 'Fukushima' in the advertising slogan", "Yangshan Peach" , Shandong Feicheng peaches, so many good peaches are not chosen, but Japan’s Fukushima peaches” and so on. Some consumers have made it clear that they will not buy this product again, worrying about safety issues. There are also some netizens who think that Nongfu Spring is suspected of false propaganda, and will give priority to other brands when purchasing sparkling water in the future.
Brand marketing should avoid false propaganda
In the view of Chinese food industry analyst Zhu Danpeng, Nongfu Spring's operation is somewhat "contradictory". At first, I wanted to use Japanese raw materials for publicity. Once consumers have objections, they will immediately "dump the pot". Obviously, Nongfu Spring lacks the responsibility and responsibility of the head brand. Zhu Danpeng said that as a head brand, Nongfu Spring should have its own positive values, instead of relying on hot spots to obtain traffic. "Even if the raw material has nothing to do with Fukushima, Nongfu Spring's promotion of Fukushima white peach as a raw material is misleading consumers." Zhu Danpeng said.
In fact, Nongfu Spring's Dawning White Peach-flavored sparkling water is marked as originating in mainland China, and the specific ingredients in its ingredient list are natural water, xylitol, erythritol, sodium bicarbonate, and edible flavors. This also means that the "white peach flavor" of this sparkling water has nothing to do with fruit white peach, and its white peach flavor is formulated with essence.
"In the process of consumption upgrading, many popular products have been forgotten by consumers. In order to create product differentiation, many brands have adopted the method of highlighting the uniqueness, particularity and iconicity of raw materials." Zhu Danpeng said. Catering analyst Wang Dongming said that false propaganda is more common in the beverage circle, and the usual methods include confusing the origin, brand, origin, function, capacity, etc. of raw materials.
For example, the "pseudo-Japanese" marketing used by both Nongfu Spring and Yuanqi Forest. Brands like to label products as "Japanese" as a gimmick, not for no reason. In fact, the domestic popularity of the whole white peach flavor is closely related to Japan. The white peach flavor first became popular in Japan. Using the white peach produced in Okayama Prefecture, Japan, as an element, a series of candy, tea bags, beverages, biscuits and other products have been derived, using female-oriented marketing and "seasonally limited" strategies. Later, this trend also spread to the country. Behind the rapid popularity is the strategy of imitating and copying each other between brands. In the beverage industry where product development is "involutionized", while running out of its own brand characteristics, popular flavors Never give up.
Today, white peach flavor has become the standard flavor for new products launched in the entire food and beverage industry. The related products that have been launched include Yuanqi Forest, Pepsi-Cola, Pepsi's bubble, AH!HA! Coca-Cola's AH! HA! This trend even extends to food, dairy products and other fields, such as McDonald's white peach ice cream and Qiaqia's white peach melon seeds.
The popularity of "pseudo-Japanese" marketing is more or less a speculative pandering and misdirection of the brand to consumers' psychology, suggesting a more advanced and more aesthetically pleasing way of life. For example, in the early stage of brand promotion, Yuanqi Forest used the words "気" on the packaging and the words "produced by Japan Co., Ltd." to open up the market, which was mistaken by consumers for a Japanese brand for a long time. The marketing director of Yuanqi Forest also told the media, "We mainly focused on Japanese brands earlier, because the preferences of young people are there. Young people like station B, the second dimension, and Japanese culture. But now their preferences are more diverse, We will also further adjust our strategy.”
In this regard, industry insiders said that perhaps in the eyes of relevant merchants, foreign imported fruits that are tall and high are easy to attract the attention of consumers, which will make this group generate irrepressible consumer demand. Possibly "shooting yourself in the foot". According to the Consumer Rights Protection Law, "operators shall provide consumers with real information about goods or services, and shall not make misleading false propaganda"; the Anti-Unfair Competition Law also clearly stipulates that "operators shall not The performance, function, quality, sales status, user evaluation, previous honors, etc. of the products make false or misleading commercial promotions, deceive and mislead consumers”; open the Advertising Law, there are similar prohibitive clauses to protect consumers.
According to industry analysts, brand marketing can sometimes bring unexpected results, but if you ignore the facts and exaggerate the propaganda, it will not only bring about a simple misunderstanding of consumers, but also damage the reputation of the brand. For a well-known company, economic compensation may be a drop in the bucket, but the untimely practice will cause more harm to consumers who vote with their feet, and investors are worried, which leads to the market being squeezed. Bao Yuezhong, an expert in FMCG new retail, said that although consumers have a certain degree of trust in brands, if low-level mistakes like Nongfu Spring's this time occur repeatedly, it will also have a certain impact on the future development of the company. No matter what kind of enterprise, it should carry out strict management in product quality, brand image and so on.
