Womai upgraded its Aksu sugar-core apple product, why did it do so?
The convenience of the internet has shortened the distance between people and between people and things. The rapid development of online fresh produce e-commerce allows some delicacies that in the past could only be admired from afar and never tasted up close to enter everyone's life. In recent years, wave after wave of enthusiasm for discovering delicacies from various regions has surged. First came hairy crabs, then Chu oranges, Liu peaches, and Pan apples. Recently, Xinjiang Aksu sugar-core apples have become popular on the market.
Speaking of these Aksu sugar-core apples, they are indeed very delicious, but it is not this year that they first drew attention. COFCO Womai has been running this project for five years already, though it is true that Aksu apples are indeed more popular this year than in previous years. Xinjiang's fruits are all delicious, including Turpan grapes and Korla fragrant pears. Aksu sugar-core apples are produced in Aksu City, located in the upper reaches of the Tarim River in the northwest of the Taklamakan Desert. This small city has some orchards and farms. Every year, Womai directly sources from the Hongqipo Farm in Aksu and continuously supplies the mainland market through its e-commerce platform.
This year is the fifth year that Womai has been running the Aksu sugar-core apple project. As the market heats up, Womai has upgraded the product and officially named the Aksu apple "Ancui Aksu Apple." Ancui is a fresh fruit and vegetable brand of Womai, implementing a strict 5S selection standard that applies a set of strict criteria across five aspects: origin, harvesting, size, taste, and freshness.
The apple is still the same apple from Hongqipo Farm, but the apple selection standards are higher. First, it emphasizes origin and scarcity, meaning the product is not available everywhere and is only produced in limited quantities within a certain region. The environment surrounding the origin farm, the quality of air and water, the farm's own planting scale, and the optimal harvest timing for best taste are all clearly specified in the Ancui system. It does not sell off-season products, does not sell at the tail end of the season, and only sells during the period when product quality is stable, while extending the sales cycle through pre-sale methods.
This year, Womai's product upgrade for Aksu apples focuses mainly on further raising standards at every important stage including cultivation, harvesting, sorting, fruit shape, and transportation, carefully selecting the best. It has introduced the latest sorting machines to ensure fruit diameter is above 80mm. The selected apples are uniform in size, round in appearance, and more standardized, and the packaging boxes have been replaced with brand-new ones printed with “This is an era that judges by looks, but even more by the heart.”
Aksu sugar-core apples are known in Xinjiang as the queen of fruits. They are grown in sandy soil at high altitudes using unpolluted water from melting glaciers, and are harvested after the 25th of October each year following two frosts. This type of apple has accumulated sugar in the core area, hence the name sugar-core apple. Currently on the market there are many Shaanxi apples passed off as Aksu apples. The characteristics are first that the apples vary in size, and second that only a small number in a box have sugar cores, whereas apples truly from Aksu almost all have sugar cores. This is the most basic criterion for identification.
Perhaps because Aksu apples have relatively high value, counterfeiting them can yield a large profit margin. When even small supermarkets can fill box after box with Aksu apples, there is a big problem, because Aksu apples have limited production and cannot guarantee such a large supply. The reason Womai upgraded the Aksu apple product and brand this year is precisely to protect the Aksu apple brand even in a market full of chaos.
The Aksu sugar-core apples shipped by Womai look uniform in size and round, with no inconsistency in size, because every single one is carefully hand-picked. "A heartfelt apple" - this promotional slogan fits perfectly in both connotation and extension. The characteristic of Aksu apples is the sugar core, and on the other hand this phrase also expresses Womai's dedication to apple quality control. The two meanings interweave, making it quite intriguing.
Ancui Aksu sugar-core apples this year are pursuing a precision marketing model. They have invited Yi Xiaoxing and Liu Xunzimo, the "professors" from "Never Expected," to do online interaction for the brand, designed customized cards, and partnered with food self-media personalities to spread the word on Weibo and other social networks. From Womai's marketing approach, they want to target a specific precise group of people for Aksu apple marketing - people with high incomes, who value quality of life, and who maintain a spirit of exploration toward beautiful things.
Is Womai's product and brand upgrade for Aksu apples just about selling a few more apples? The answer is no. They want to protect this market so it can continue to operate. The hairy crab craze that suddenly swept the internet a few years ago was a failure case in the fresh produce sector. Everyone was doing this product, seeking quick profits, counterfeits and inferior goods passed off as quality ones prevailed, and all parties lacked brand protection for this product. As a result, the market quickly deteriorated, demand rapidly shrank, and in the end no one could do business.
Aksu apples cannot follow in the footsteps of hairy crabs, so there must be an awareness of brand protection. Raising the standards for genuine goods to form a sharp contrast with counterfeits, so that everyone can tell at a glance whether what they are buying is a real Aksu sugar-core apple - this is the true purpose of Womai's product and brand upgrade this time. Only in this way can this market be protected, and Womai, which has been working with Aksu apples for five years, can continue this project year after year. Fundamentally, this is an approach of taking the long view. Those commercial behaviors that chase short-term profits naturally cannot be mentioned in the same breath.