I don’t know if the friends in front of the screen feel this way. Since the beginning of 2022, one word has appeared frequently in various news-"price increase".
From the price increase of vegetables, movie tickets, gasoline and diesel prices, semiconductor chip price increase at the beginning of the year, to the price increase of Luckin Starbucks in February, until recently, the price of the most common instant noodles has also increased.
Although it only increased by 50 cents, the workers still felt very hurt. After all, a long time ago, a bag of instant noodles only cost a few cents, one or two yuan.
As a type of fast food, it is high quality, low price, time-saving and convenient. Instant noodles have been very popular since they were launched on the market. China has introduced many instant noodle production lines since the 1980s. There are countless brands on the market. , the tastes are also varied.
Of course, the market share is mainly occupied by Master Kong and Uni-President. It is difficult for other brands to shake their top two positions in the market.
However, have you ever known that before Master Kong entered the Chinese mainland market, there was another instant noodle brand? As a common memory of those born in the 80s and 90s, this brand was the absolute dominant player in the instant noodle market at that time, and its founder was Known as the king of instant noodles in China. Having said this, I believe that those two words in the mouths of many friends are already ready to come out.
is right, he is " Huafeng ". Nowadays, it is rare to see Huafeng instant noodles, but in my memory, the Huafeng three fresh noodles with light yellow outer packaging are so familiar.
In this issue, let’s talk about what Huafeng has experienced from being a dazzling market darling to being ignored today.
Nowadays, everyone eats instant noodles just because of its convenience or even as a makeshift. But in the early 1980s, instant noodles were a new thing to Chinese people. Many people were curious about a small piece of noodle. , a bag of seasonings, a pot of boiling water, wait for another three minutes, and the steaming delicious food will appear. It does not require any skills and is not limited to any venue.
is so simple but almost "magical". At that time, many people in China were even eager to try what instant noodles taste like.
It is in this market environment that China began to introduce foreign instant noodles production technology.
In 1980, Shanghai Yimin Factory No. 4 introduced the first domestic instant noodle production line from Japan.
At this time, thousands of miles away in Zhuhai, Guangdong, Xiong Yiwu, the webmaster of a food factory service station, was also keenly aware that the market prospects for domestic instant noodles would be very broad.
So, in 1984, Xiong Yiwu obtained an instant noodle production line imported from Japan by Guangdong Farm Reclamation, and led a group of people to establish the "Huafeng" factory in Pingsha, Zhuhai, and produced the first generation of instant noodles in China - Huafeng. Three fresh Yi noodles.
The reason why it is called "三仙伊面" is because the seasoning package uses the "three fresh foods" of pork bones, seafood, and chicken. The fresh, sweet and light taste immediately caught the appetite of the people of Guangdong.
San Xian Yi Noodles was very popular once it was launched, and its popularity was even comparable to the best-selling " Jianlibao " at the time.
It didn’t take long for Sanxian Yi Noodles to become famous in the Guangdong market. In the following years, Huafeng continued to deeply explore the Guangdong market, and on the other hand, it quickly expanded its product lines across the country to seize the market.
Xiong Yiwu is well versed in marketing. He invited the famous Hong Kong sister " Fat Sister " Shum Dianxia to be the spokesperson, and the advertising videos were played on major TV stations in turn. The classic slogan "Eat Huafeng, all roads lead to each other", Like a whirlwind, it swept across the country.
This advertisement has achieved unprecedented success and the effect is remarkable. For a time, Huafeng's market territory also followed this "magic" advertising slogan and spread to the north and south. Huafeng can be seen from Xinjiang in the west to outside Shanhaiguan in the north.
Subsequently, many followers appeared. In an era when intellectual property rights were not valued so much, Huafeng became the target of countless latecomers to imitate. For example, Hebei Hualong, Shandong Longfeng... Suddenly, the land of China was filled with "Hua" and "Feng" competing for hegemony.
Huafeng has become the darling of the market, and its rising market sales have established its market dominance. The founder, Xiong Yiwu, has even been dubbed the “Big Brother of Chinese Instant Noodles” and the “King of Chinese Instant Noodles”.
The boss was so prosperous that Huafeng’s employees also made a lot of money. It is said that ordinary employees in Huafeng at that time could easily get a monthly salary of 2,000. You know, that was in the 1990s, and the housing prices in Beijing That’s just over 1,000 per square meter.
To use an inappropriate analogy, the status of Huafeng at that time was basically the same as that of a large factory at the same level as today. It was a supreme honor to work in Huafeng.
To achieve this, Huafeng can be said to be quite successful.
But I believe everyone can see one thing: its success is actually not very reliable.
It can be believed that San Xian Yi Noodles sells well and is recognized by the market because of its authentic ingredients and unique taste.
But what cannot be ignored is the market environment at that time. China in the 1980s and 1990s was on the eve of rapid development. Both the market and consumers were extremely curious and receptive to emerging things.
In the instant noodle market, the emergence of Huafeng has filled a gap, so it can occupy the market very quickly. Whether
can be maintained in the future will really tell.
Isn’t there a saying that it’s easy to conquer a country but hard to sit on it?
Soon, Huafeng encountered a challenger. In the early 1990s, Taiwan's unified and Master Kong. These two companies suddenly emerged and announced their entry into the mainland market with high profile.
These two companies first launched a variety of flavors at once to meet the various needs of consumers, and then won the young market by providing self-flavored noodles and various gifts.
In just a few years, Master Kong and Tongyi quickly occupied the domestic market. Huafeng, the former No. 1 brother, was unable to fight back and was defeated.
Huafeng did not sit on the first throne for long, not even ten years.
With the benefit of hindsight, in fact, Huafeng’s decline is inevitable. The entry of Master Kong and Uni-President is not the main reason. It can only be said to be a catalyst that accelerated its decline process.
Huafeng, as the first to eat crabs, , relied on the "hot product" of Sanxian Yi Noodles, based in Guangdong and went nationwide, and achieved success. After
firmly occupied the market, Huafeng did not seize the opportunity to develop new products to consolidate and expand its advantages, and still stuck to the "heirloom" of San Xian Yi Noodles.
The results can be imagined. As foreign brands continue to emerge and consumers find more and more choices to choose from, Huafeng appears to be so "monotonous" that its original market share is gradually lost to latecomers. Cannibalize.
The decline of Huafeng was destined to be inevitable from the shareholding restructuring, the entry of foreign capital, to the departure of founder Xiong Yiwu.
In 1992, the Chinese consortium of Indonesia , " Sinar Mas Group " acquired Huafeng.
After becoming the new owner of Huafeng, Jinguang Group, which was not short of money, was ambitious and opened more than ten production plants across the country. launched many new products with different flavors: Huafeng 2000, Huafeng Noodle House, Dry mix family, palm crisp, magician, etc.
First of all, we must admit that Sinar Mas Group has a good starting point and launches new products with the intention of seizing back the market that originally belonged to Huafeng.
But they forgot one thing, they launched almost all kinds of strange flavors without market research, whether they meet the market demand.Sinar Mas Group, a giant in the paper industry, is a newcomer to the fast food industry after all. Most of these hastily launched new products failed to pass the test and were quickly eliminated by the market.
products failed to follow the market, but a more fatal problem appeared in Huafeng's corporate management. Sinar Mas Group removed the original organizational framework of Huafeng Group and dismissed most of the company's executives, leaving The founder, Xiong Yiwu, "retired" honorably and in exchange for a group of so-called professionals from Hong Kong and Taiwan to run Huafeng.
As everyone knows, it is these imported management teams that have become Huafeng's biggest hidden danger.
It is worth mentioning that after the founder Xiong Yiwu was "exited" from Huafeng, he came to Baoji to set up a factory at the invitation of the local government of Baoji, Shaanxi Province, and founded "Xiong Yiwu" instant noodles, replica of Huafeng Sanxian Yi Noodles. With the success, Xiong Yiwu series of instant noodles became a popular local star product.
However, as luck would have it, in February 1997, when Xiong Yiwu's instant noodles were at their peak, he suffered a serious car accident and died in the same month.
The development of Xiong Yiwu’s instant noodles also came to an abrupt end.
Having said that, back to Huafeng, the departure of a group of veterans such as Xiong Yiwu accelerated Huafeng’s decline.
On the one hand, the overseas marketing concepts from Hong Kong and Taiwan are not suitable for our domestic market environment. Their marketing concepts and marketing methods are indeed very high-end in appearance, but they are not down to earth, which makes consumers feel alienated. , such publicity will not be bought by consumers at all, but will have a negative effect. This is also one of the direct reasons why Huafeng's subsequent launch of many new products has been difficult to succeed.
On the other hand, after Xiong Yiwu left, Huafeng changed the product formula and production process, and even cut corners, resulting in a loss of taste.
At this time, Master Kong and Uni-President came to the mainland market.
Huafeng, which was a little "chaotic" at that time, had too much time to take care of itself. Faced with these two aggressive peer companies, it surrendered without any suspense.
The spectacular scene of "Eating Huafeng, all the way to the country" that was once popular all over the country has gradually disappeared without realizing it. Slowly, Huafeng Sanxian Yi Noodles has also been placed in the most inconspicuous corner of the supermarket shelves. , and later on, everyone gradually forgot about it.
At this point, Huafeng’s influence has once again returned to its place of origin, Guangdong.
continues the memories of Guangdong people with its familiar taste and affordable price.
It’s just that even if I see it occasionally, I only have bland impressions such as “the taste is still so little”, “it’s cheap but not good”, and “I ate it a long time ago, but I didn’t expect it to be sold now”.
Nowadays, when people talk about Huafeng, it is more of a childhood sentiment. Even because of the change in the formula, the reputation is no longer what it used to be.
Fewer and fewer people are buying it again, and everyone may just miss the taste of the original struggle.
After all, "I work hard so that I don't have to eat instant noodles anymore."
After all, Huafeng's success and failure are not accidental. In the final analysis, as a food, whether it can conquer people's taste buds depends on it. is the key.
In the 1980s when supplies were relatively scarce,
attracted consumers with its solid investment. In the end, it lost consumers because of the monotony of the product and the replacement of formula ingredients.
The market is changing. The market is realistic. It does not recognize feelings. If you "do not want to make progress", you will naturally be eliminated.
The San Xian Yi Noodles that once fascinated everyone, now only a little bit of memory remains in everyone’s mind.
