In 2011, 23-year-old Ma Long was studying for graduate school in Hong Kong. He found that women are more and more inclined to choose sports equipment from niche brands in emerging activities such as night running and cycling, and emphasize their own individuality through functional differences.
He set his sights on the mainland: At that time, few brands could satisfy women's multiple needs for product appearance, function and brand personality at the same time.
Based on this insight, Ma Long found Lin Ze, a fellow with the same engineering background, who dropped out of school and started a business.
First, they targeted sunscreen umbrellas.
At that time, Paradise Umbrella had already secured the top spot in the umbrella industry. They found that among young people born in the 1995s and 2000s, Paradise Umbrella was not very popular, and even faced the risk of brand aging.
And most of the other sunscreen products on the market are mostly petty and have not formed an independent brand; in the field of professional sunscreen, there is no product that is out of the circle.
Just do what they say. In 2013, the two officially founded the brand Banana, which means "under the banana leaf" and refers to the need for sun protection.
The strategy of Jiaoxia also deeply conformed to the entrepreneurial trend of "focus, extreme, word of mouth, fast" at that time.
In 2013, launched the first sunscreen product - double layer black umbrella.
First emphasize the technical attributes of professional sunscreen, using L.R.C coating, the UV blocking rate reaches 99%, and the heat insulation and sunshade effect is much higher than that of ordinary vinyl coating.
Play with the face value again, the outer layer of the umbrella is black, the inner layer is bright and bold, recognizable, and full of personality!
In terms of marketing, with the help of the star effect, Jiaoxia cooperated with many popular female stars such as Yang Mi, Di Lieba, Tang Yan, Jiang Shuying, Chen Qiaoen, Tong Liya, etc. For a time, the little black umbrella has become a special sunscreen umbrella for the entertainment industry.
In 2017, Di Lieba released the first advertisement on Weibo, and the same "Luohe" little black umbrella under Jiaoxia was sold out within 2 minutes.
The material features a sense of technology, the shape is small and individual, and the image is supported by stars. Therefore, when the price of a paradise umbrella does not exceed 50 yuan, Jiaoxia dares to set the price of the small black umbrella at 200 yuan.
In 2018, Jiaoxia, which has just been established for 5 years, defeated Paradise Umbrella, which has been established for decades. During the 618 period, it became the No. 1 sales of Tmall's home brand, and broke through the market segment of sunscreen umbrellas.
A new problem is coming, the peak means the ceiling, what should we do next?
The ambitions of the two tech men continued to expand.
First based on sun protection, it has successively launched sun protection clothing, sun hats, sun protection sunglasses and other categories. After gaining a firm foothold, it will expand the brand connotation and enter outdoor products from sun protection.
In terms of marketing, in addition to inviting celebrity spokespersons, Jiaoxia also pays more and more attention to cooperating with big Vs on various platforms. In a certain book, a certain sound, and Jiaoxia`s grass-roots copywriting and videos are blooming everywhere.
Relevant data shows that in 2021 alone, Jiaoxia will cooperate with more than 600 bloggers, bringing 4.5 billion page views; at present, Jiaoxia has 22 selected items with annual sales exceeding 30 million yuan.
On April 8 this year, Jiaoxia submitted a listing application to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and officially started the sprint for listing.
According to the prospectus, the company's 2019-2021 three-year revenue reached 385 million yuan, 794 million yuan and 2.407 billion yuan respectively, a year-on-year increase of 106% and 203% respectively.
It seems that the experience of the explosion model has been successfully copied, but there are also new crises behind it:
First of all, at the strategic level, Jiaoxia in the field of sun protection is smooth sailing, but after entering the outdoor products market, Jiaoxia will face competition from many traditional giants.
Second, the company's marketing expenses increased too fast. In 2021, Jiaoxia's total revenue will increase by 203%, but advertising and marketing expenses will increase by 392% - only "feeding" Internet celebrities.
After the listing, the challenges faced by the two founders are still enormous.
A science and engineering man born in 1985, he sells sunscreen umbrellas, and his annual revenue is 2.4 billion!
2022 04/19
