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produced by radar finance hongtu | edited by mo enmeng | deep sea

the video of employees wearing "guilt cards" on their heads and handcuff-like paper holders on their hands has put the leading tea brand gu ming at the center of public opinion. after being accused by many netizens of disrespecting employees, gu ming apologized through its official account: "sorry, we messed up."

gu ming said that this video borrowed the ideas of the popular memes "sin of licking a dog" and "double cup holder handcuffs" on the douyin platform, but it caused misunderstanding and discomfort to some netizens. after receiving feedback from netizens, the video was removed immediately.however, many netizens are not convinced by gu ming's apology, and they believe that the people to whom gu ming should really apologize should be the store employees.

in fact, this is not the first time that gu ming has had a marketing failure. in june this year, gu ming was involved in controversy because its employees leaked information about joint activities and made inappropriate remarks. in the same month, gu ming's new logo design was questioned because it resembled genitals.

since its establishment in 2010, gu ming has gone through more than ten years. in the process of brand development, wang yunan, who showed business acumen during college, played a vital role. according to information, wang yunan was born in anning city, yunnan province in 1986.

under the leadership of wang yun'an, gu ming started with its first store in daxi town, wenling, zhejiang, and now has more than 9,000 stores. however, compared with mixue bingcheng, which has more than 30,000 stores, gu ming, which holds the title of "the second largest store in the industry", still has a big gap in store scale.

coincidentally, at the beginning of this year, mixue bingcheng and gu ming, which ranked first and second in the industry in terms of the number of stores, chose to submit their prospectuses to the hong kong stock exchange on the same day. however, as time passed quickly, the prospectuses of the two leading tea brands have become "invalid."

at present, most of gu ming’s stores and gmv are supported by franchisees, and its revenue mainly comes from the sale of goods and equipment to franchisees.however, gu ming's high dependence on franchisees also makes its brand image easily affected by franchise stores, and any negative incident in a franchise store may affect the entire brand.

an employee had a "guilt sign" on his head and paper handcuffs on his hands. gu ming's meme was a failure.

recently, a video of a gu ming employee with a "guilt sign" hanging on his head and paper pads shaped like handcuffs on his hands was widely circulated on social platforms, sparking heated discussions among many netizens.

according to the video content, many gu ming employees had paper signs hanging around their necks with words such as "crime of forgetting to put in the straw", "crime of missing the expiration date", and "crime of knocking over the tea bucket" written on them. at the same time, they wore paper milk tea cup holders on their hands, which looked like handcuffs. the text of the video reads "to show prohibition, next time... there will be no next time."

according to media reports, more than one gu ming store account has posted similar videos. many netizens believe that gu ming's move is inappropriate, makes people feel uncomfortable, and does not respect employees at all.

in the face of the public opinion storm, gu ming posted an apology on weibo through its official account on september 18, "i'm sorry, we went wrong with our meme. recently, our guangdong branch account posted a 'meme' video on douyin and xiaohongshu, which caused misunderstandings among some netizens."

gu ming further explained that this meme video borrowed the ideas of the popular memes "dog licking crime" + "double cup holder handcuffs" on the douyin platform, combined with the store work scene, and was acted and filmed by branch employees and store employees. however, the brand's self-proclaimed funny "meme" caused misunderstanding and discomfort to some netizens. after receiving feedback from netizens, the video was removed immediately.

gu ming sincerely apologized for this and said that it would learn from this incident and be more cautious in future promotional planning to avoid misunderstandings. in the comments section of this weibo post, gu ming also said that it would give out 1,000 free single-cup drink coupons as an apology.

however, some netizens still did not buy into gu ming's apology. one netizen commented, "you should apologize and compensate the employees the most." another netizen said, "you don't even realize where the problem lies." many netizens agreed with this.

radar finance found that this is not the first time that gu ming has been involved in controversy due to improper marketing. in june this year, some netizens reported that gu ming employees revealed the joint activities with "love and deep space" in advance, and the related joint materials were also leaked. there were even gu ming employees who made controversial remarks that disrespected the players of "love and deep space", saying that "love and deep space" "freeloaded" gu ming.

afterwards, gu ming issued an apology statement for the incident. gu ming said that due to imperfect supervision procedures, some samples in the process were photographed and leaked during the factory proofing stage. during the franchise promotion, some franchise store staff did not comply with company regulations and released screenshots of internal training materials, which led to the early leakage of information related to the event.

the statement pointed out that after verification, the store was a single store in the east china region, and the franchisee of the store had been punished and immediately suspended, and the authorized cooperation relationship with the franchisee of the store was terminated. for the employees involved in posting controversial remarks, gu ming will expel them and will never re-employ them.

however, in the same month, gu ming sparked heated discussions because of its latest logo printed on its handbags and cups.it is reported that the prototype of gu ming's new logo is a "gourd", and the design inspiration comes from the new tea "white orchid green tea" co-branded with "harper's bazaar" at the beginning of the year. however, because it looks like a reproductive organ, many netizens questioned whether gu ming's new logo is a violation of the law.

until now, netizens can still see complaints about gu ming's new logo on social platforms. some media reported that gu ming has not made a public response to the controversy caused by the logo. however, tianyancha shows that gu ming has registered a trademark with the new logo.

in the view of zhu danpeng, a chinese food industry analyst, many companies now want to capture the traffic of the new generation of consumers, or want to create a sense of topic to achieve differentiated communication. however, overall, most companies have not been able to conduct rigorous review in the actual implementation process, nor have they been able to evaluate the consequences of communication, or have not done risk control and assessment. this is an important reason why many companies frequently fail in marketing.

internet marketing professionals also pointed out that when brands use memes or creative marketing, they must fully consider the public's emotions and acceptance. nowadays, the speed of communication in the internet era is extremely fast. once the content causes controversy or discomfort, it is easy to ferment quickly and damage the brand image. gu ming's attempt to use "guilt cards" and "handcuffs paper trays" as creative elements may have been intended to integrate into the internet trend and create a relaxed and humorous atmosphere, but it touched the public's sensitive points about respect and boundaries, resulting in the outbreak of negative public opinion.

in addition to the aforementioned disputes, many consumers have filed complaints against gu ming. as of press time, there are as many as 1,628 complaints about gu ming on the black cat complaint platform, of which 92 were newly filed in the past 30 days, an average of about 3 new complaints per day. among these complaints, there are many issues such as finding foreign objects in drinks and poor service experience.

there are more than 9,000 stores, second only to mixue ice city

according to the information, the founder of gu ming is wang yun'an. wang yun'an, whose ancestral home is in taizhou, zhejiang, was born in anning city, yunnan province. wang yun'an's birthplace may be the inspiration for his name "yun'an".

when wang yunan was young, his parents ran a small general merchandise business in yingjiang county, dehong prefecture, on the china-myanmar border. immersed in the family business atmosphere since childhood, wang yunan's keen sense of business took root quietly.

after graduating from high school, wang yun'an was admitted to zhejiang university of technology, majoring in materials science and engineering, and began his college life. during his college years, wang yun'an was not limited to book knowledge, but actively tried various entrepreneurial projects, showing his extraordinary business acumen.

for example, wang yun'an keenly spotted the market gap when faced with the rigid demand for radios for the english exam for freshmen. even when faced with competitors who were suppliers designated by the school, wang yun'an never backed down. he cleverly used the behavioral path of freshmen entering school, set up a booth in cooperation with the school's small supermarket, and successfully got a piece of the pie from the school's designated supplier through precise positioning - emphasizing the shared entertainment function of desktop radios. the sales of radios sold by wang yun'an were even better than those of the school's designated supplier.

various entrepreneurial projects like these allowed wang yun'an to experience the joy of making money during his college years. these experiences helped wang yun'an earn his first pot of gold while also cultivating his business acumen and problem-solving skills. even his teachers praised him as "a rare person who is suitable for business operations."

with the encouragement and advice of his teacher, wang yunan, who had briefly worked as a salesperson in a 4s store, chose to resign after graduation and embarked on a new journey of starting a business in his hometown. on april fool's day, april 1, 2010, wang yunan and his good friend ruan xiudi opened the first guming tea shop in daxi town, wenling city, taizhou city, zhejiang province.

however, just like the day chosen for the opening, fate played a joke on wang yun'an. in the early days of starting a business, wang yun'an's store business was bleak. the low daily turnover made them feel stressed, and the store even faced the dilemma of not making enough money to cover expenses. in the first month, they were busy from morning till night every day, and even lost money after deducting rent and other expenses from the turnover.

faced with such difficulties, wang yun'an did not get discouraged. instead, he led his team to meet the challenges head-on, personally managing every step from product formula to service quality, from store layout to employee training. in order to attract customers and understand their preferences, wang yun'an even used a tricycle to pull a mobile stall to invite passers-by to taste his products.

finally, wang yun'an's efforts were recognized and rewarded by the market. his tea shop gradually won the recognition of customers and the performance began to improve. in 2011, wang yun'an's first cooperative store opened, and gu ming officially started the chain operation model. the following year, gu ming went out of taizhou and began to move towards the broader national market.

after 13 years of development, gu ming has become one of the leading brands in the domestic tea beverage industry. according to data from zhaimen canyan, as of press time, gu ming has 9,543 stores across the country, just one step away from reaching 10,000 stores. its brand influence and market share should not be underestimated.

looking at the entire milk tea beverage market, only mixue ice city ranks ahead of gu ming in the entire industry. however, although there is only one store ranking difference between gu ming and mixue ice city, the gap between the 32,403 stores of gu ming and mixue ice city is still very obvious.

the prospectus has "expired", and the "second largest company in the industry" also has concerns

apart from the storm, gu ming, which currently ranks second in the industry in terms of the number of new-style tea beverage stores, also has an "ambition" to enter the capital market. at the beginning of this year, gu ming and mixue bingcheng chose to launch an attack on the hong kong stock exchange on january 2. with the disclosure of the prospectus, gu ming's operating conditions in recent years were also announced.

in the past few years, gu ming's performance has shown a strong growth momentum. the prospectus shows that in 2021, 2022, and the first three quarters of last year, gu ming achieved revenues of 4.384 billion yuan, 5.559 billion yuan, and 5.571 billion yuan, respectively; during the same period, gu ming's profit increased from 24 million yuan in 2021 to 372 million yuan in 2022, and achieved a profit of 1.002 billion yuan in the first three quarters of last year.

an in-depth analysis of gu ming's revenue structure reveals that one of the secrets of gu ming's success lies in its efficient franchise model. the sale of goods and equipment to franchisees forms the solid foundation of gu ming's revenue. in the first three quarters of last year, gu ming earned 4.478 billion yuan in revenue through the aforementioned business, accounting for 80% of gu ming's total revenue in the same period.

at the same time, 19.5% of gu ming's revenue came from providing management services to franchisees during the same period, including an initial franchise fee of 1.5%, ongoing support service fees of 16.7%, and training and other service fees of 1.3%.

from the perspective of store composition, gu ming’s stores are mainly operated through a franchise model.in 2021, 2022 and the first three quarters of last year, the gmv contributed by gu ming franchise stores reached 99.9%.as of the end of last year, gu ming directly managed only 6 stores, while the number of gu ming franchise stores was close to 9,000 during the same period.

for new tea drink players, the franchise model can help them to expand their territory as quickly as possible and seize the first opportunity in the market. however, there are also hidden challenges behind the rapid expansion. over-reliance on the franchise model has also brought certain concerns to gu ming.

gu ming admitted in its prospectus that its business operations are highly dependent on the cooperation and performance of franchisees. gu ming emphasized that franchisees usually operate their businesses independently and are responsible for the daily operations of their stores. therefore, the success and quality of franchise stores depend to a large extent on franchisees.

however, gu ming also stated that the brand cannot guarantee that its management of franchisees will always be effective. if franchisees fail to perform their obligations in accordance with the franchise agreement or internal policies or guidelines, or if they fail to successfully operate stores that meet the brand's standards, the brand's brand image and reputation may be damaged, which may harm the company's business and operating results.

although gu ming has already ranked first in the number of stores in the new tea beverage field, its national layout strategy still needs to be further improved. as of the end of last year, gu ming has successfully taken root in 15 provinces and is committed to improving the density and service quality of the existing store network. however, it cannot be ignored that at that time, there were still 19 provinces that gu ming had yet to set foot in, including first-tier cities such as beijing and shanghai. these markets are undoubtedly a must-fight for many tea beverage brands.

as for the brand's delay in entering the two first-tier cities of beijing and shanghai, wang yun'an, the brand's founder, has his own considerations. wang yun'an once explained that the reason why gu ming did not enter the beijing market was because gu ming's supply chain and warehouses had not yet been reached, but he also made it clear that gu ming had a strong interest in the beijing market and would make arrangements when conditions were ripe.

as for shanghai, wang yunan believes that the market is adjacent to zhejiang, so it will have a certain consumer base. however, the competition in shanghai's milk tea industry is fierce, and the proportion of takeout is very high. relatively speaking, it is more difficult for stores to make good profits. "when we enter provincial capitals and large first-tier cities, we must be well prepared before going. for example, what do shanghai consumers want? what should we do to make more stores do better? what difference can gu ming bring to shanghai consumers? these are what we need to think about."

on june 21 this year, gu ming opened a three-day linkong paradise pop-up store at the bfc bund financial center in shanghai.

it is worth mentioning that according to the relevant regulations of the hong kong stock exchange, the validity period of the prospectus submitted to the hong kong stock exchange is usually 6 months. if a company fails to complete the hearing or listing within 6 months after submitting the listing application, the prospectus will be in an "invalid" state. the proposed issuer can continue to advance the listing process by supplementing the latest financial information within 3 months after the "invalidation".

according to the time when the prospectus was submitted, gu ming's prospectus has been in an "invalid" state. as of now, gu ming has not updated its prospectus.