“Wangwang’s biggest competitor is sugar.” After this sentence surged to the hot search, netizens began collectively urging Wangwang to cut sugar.
What’s interesting is that this isn’t an insult saying it tastes bad—it’s complaining that it’s unhealthy. That means people still want to buy; they just can’t bring themselves to reach for it. Take a look at the ingredient list: the position of white sugar is often near the front. And for people in their twenties and thirties today, the first move when choosing a drink has become checking those three characters: 0 sugar, 0 fat, 0 calories. The same can of stuff used to be called childhood ten years ago; now it’s called calories.
But can cutting sugar really save it? I’m skeptical. The reason people buy Wangzai milk is that sweet taste plus that familiar face. Change the sweetness, and long-time users will say “it tastes different” with the first sip. As for health-conscious shoppers, they never planned to linger in that aisle anyway. The hardest part for an old brand has never been changing the formula—it’s figuring out who will still recognize you after you do.
The more practical approach would probably be to add a sugar-free version and offer smaller package sizes, so that “the sugar issue” becomes a choice consumers make for themselves, rather than decisions made on behalf of everyone.
So I’ll ask sincerely: if tomorrow there were a sugar-free version of Wangzai milk, would you buy it—or would you only miss that original-taste can?
#WangwangCutsSugar
What’s interesting is that this isn’t an insult saying it tastes bad—it’s complaining that it’s unhealthy. That means people still want to buy; they just can’t bring themselves to reach for it. Take a look at the ingredient list: the position of white sugar is often near the front. And for people in their twenties and thirties today, the first move when choosing a drink has become checking those three characters: 0 sugar, 0 fat, 0 calories. The same can of stuff used to be called childhood ten years ago; now it’s called calories.
But can cutting sugar really save it? I’m skeptical. The reason people buy Wangzai milk is that sweet taste plus that familiar face. Change the sweetness, and long-time users will say “it tastes different” with the first sip. As for health-conscious shoppers, they never planned to linger in that aisle anyway. The hardest part for an old brand has never been changing the formula—it’s figuring out who will still recognize you after you do.
The more practical approach would probably be to add a sugar-free version and offer smaller package sizes, so that “the sugar issue” becomes a choice consumers make for themselves, rather than decisions made on behalf of everyone.
So I’ll ask sincerely: if tomorrow there were a sugar-free version of Wangzai milk, would you buy it—or would you only miss that original-taste can?
#WangwangCutsSugar