Wahaha Kids' Wear: Why the New LOGO Has No Chinese Characters

"Why does the new LOGO have no Chinese characters?" On September 20th, in an agent training for Wahaha children's wear, an agent raised his own questions about the newly released LOGO.

Today, Wahaha children's clothing has reached its sixth year. Comparing the publicity during 2002 when it was born out of thin air, the children's wear brand extended by the brand of Wahaha was almost silent in the apparel industry in six years. In many people's eyes, this seems to imply that Wahaha's children's clothing has made mistakes in its brand extension strategy.

In the sixth year, Wahaha Kids began trying to change its brand strategy. As a result, the question "Why doesn't the new LOGO have Chinese characters?" has a whole new space for interpretation.

"Drinks in one hand and children's clothing in one hand"

"When we first started building children's clothes, we didn't see clearly and we came in blindly." Zong Xiaoli is the general manager of Hangzhou Wahaha Children's Wear Co., Ltd. As the sole daughter of beverage giant Zong Qinghou, she went to the United States to study international business in high school and stayed in the United States for nearly a decade.

This is Zong Lili's first interview with the media. Three years ago, she returned to China and entered Wahaha to take charge of the children's clothing business. After the “80s,” she showed strikingly mature and father-like strength, and she had a “post-80s” bluntness: “At that time, this was indeed an area that we were not very good at. The beverage industry is completely different from the clothing industry. Summa does Balabala, is just an extension of the product line, and we are not the same, is an extension of the brand."

Six years ago, another brand of the beverage industry, Prince Milk, entered the children's wear industry in the footsteps of Wahaha. At that time, the industry criticized and questioned their rashly extending the brand to children's clothing.

According to Zong Lili, “At the beginning, most of the franchisees used to make drinks. They had drinks in one hand and children’s clothes in one hand. After several years, we found that this method was not suitable for children’s clothing and the route was different. This is a very difficult process. Fortunately, the employees are very hard. In the process, they encountered many setbacks and difficulties, but they all overcome it." She admits that this part of children's wear is not yet ideal and continues to explore. among. "I only work for three years myself. I also need a process of understanding."

In the past three years, Zong Junli had always wanted to operate the brand according to her own preferences, but she found that this idea was wrong. Because there are more things to personalize and look good, the cost of design and production is high. So even a sweater price was as high as 300 yuan.

“Wahaha is a popular brand and we have to serve the public. I may not like this style and positioning myself. The change of this idea was in last year. So this year has a new position and image.” Zongli said.

"Why does LOGO have no Chinese characters?"

On September 20th, Wahaha released its brand image in Hangzhou. The new LOGO is a happy and playful smile for two children. The original “healthy, comfortable and happy” slogan was replaced by “happy childhood, my best!” and two brand new cartoon characters—Wa and D. M also further enriches Wahaha's brand culture.

At the same time, the new season's Wahaha children's wear products have also begun to undergo a great transformation: new products featuring new LOGOs and cartoon characters as the original point of innovation have become more popular and have demonstrated new vitality.

These are the results of the cooperation between Wahaha Children's Wear and Zhejiang University of Science and Technology. In 2007, Wahaha Children's Wear and Zhejiang University of Science and Technology, an institution famous for the national garment industry, set up an R&D center integrating children's wear teaching, design research and development, and sales management. "This deep cooperation will bring us a new, more professional appearance." Zongli said.
“I need a new image to tell people that Wahaha has children's clothes in addition to food and drink.” Zong Junli took over the children’s clothing business and discovered that “for three years, but people talked about Wahaha and thought they were drinks and food. Non-children's clothes. Many people still stay in the 80s and 90s, "Drinking Wahaha, eating is the smell of incense." So from last year, she decided: to give Wahaha a new life.

Thus, when the agents wondered “why the new LOGO had no Chinese characters”, what he faced was the transformation of the brand “forget about the past and start again”.

“In the past six years, we have eliminated the previous dealers. Originally it was a franchisee. Two years ago, we started to run our own direct-operated stores. Now the agents are more pragmatic, able to follow the company, and have a great mental capacity. Zong Xiaoli believes that Wahaha children's wear has not been able to achieve its original goal, but it has been shifting toward specialization. In her first year in business, Wahaha has already begun to make profits. “There is nothing to drag on and relax.” She hopes that this transformation will give the company a new future.