Grain Also Needs Branding: How to Take the Branding Path
The consumer market has given rise to demands at different levels such as safety, functionality, and brand recognition
Heyu Millet: Grain with a Brand, Products with Function
“Heyu Millet will surely become golden nuggets.” In August 2004, when Wang Jianfu led 5 fellow villagers from Heyu Township, Yushe County, Shanxi Province, to establish the Heyu Millet Professional Cooperative, he once painted such a picture of the future. At that time, “Buy Qinzhouhuang for grain, buy Xinghuacun for wine” was a well-known saying in Shanxi. The historic famous millet, Qinzhouhuang Millet, was gaining strong momentum on its branding path, and Fenzhouxiang Millet from the location of Xinghuacun was also seeking to spread its fragrance within and beyond the province. Heyu Millet shares the same Taihang Mountain area as the Qinzhouhuang Millet growing region and uses the same variety “Jingu No. 21” as Fenzhouxiang Millet. What comparative advantage could Heyu Millet rely on to break through and let the grain-growing villagers dig golden nuggets out of the fields?
Create another calling card for Shanxi. For 11 years, along this brand planning path, Heyu Millet has organized production according to market demand and pursued scientific and technological research and development, earning its own place among Shanxi millet brands.
Expansion of the consumer market gives rise to multi-level demands
“The People's Liberation Army liberated all of China relying on Taihang millet plus rifles. Our Yushe millet has such a good story behind it, and it will surely become a weapon on the road to prosperity in defeating poverty.” Yushe County is an old revolutionary base area, bordering red base areas such as Zuoquan and Wuxiang. Wang Jianfu was humorous and full of confidence.
His confidence in his products stemmed from having been born into a supply and marketing cooperative and understanding market demand. Around 2004, as people increasingly recognized and embraced the nutritional value of millet, and because millet is simpler and easier to prepare than other coarse grains, market demand for millet increased and prices showed an upward trend. The expansion of the consumer market gave rise to demands at different levels such as product safety, functionality, and brand recognition.
The profit of agricultural products comes from market shortages and the scarcity of goods, and grain production also follows this rule. After comparison, Wang Jianfu chose the conventional variety “Jingu No. 21” with good commercial qualities for trial planting. What surprised him was that after planting on the cooperative's land, the processed millet contained higher total amino acids, protein, vitamins, total dietary fiber, zinc, selenium and other trace elements than similar products, with the zinc content being especially notable.
Making green organic millet, using product functionality to connect with consumer demand, and taking the branding path became the choice of route for the Heyu Millet Professional Cooperative in organizing production around the market.
No grain of sand can be tolerated in product quality
Yushe County, where the Heyu Millet Cooperative is located, lies in the hilly and mountainous area on the western foot of the Taihang Mountains, with fertile soil, abundant sunlight, large temperature differences between day and night, and no pollution sources such as industrial or mining enterprises, making it very suitable for growing green ecological agricultural products such as foxtail millet.
Selecting good seeds and using good methods to match ecological advantages became the first card for Heyu Millet. While the cooperative provided free unified supply of high-quality “Jingu No. 21” seeds and supplied special organic fertilizer, it also specially established a technical guidance group to do a good job in technical guidance and services for cooperative members and farming households.
The cooperative persisted in hiring experts for regular training and cultivating technical backbone personnel. In each planting base and village, it cultivated a group of skilled technicians and gave them certain subsidies so that they could provide technical guidance to farming households in their villages. At the same time, it took measures to supervise farming households in strictly following the cooperative's standardized technical operating procedures for pollution-free green foxtail millet cultivation, ensuring the nutrition and quality of the millet.
Member Feng Yingwen said that when it came to product quality, their chairman could not tolerate a single grain of sand in his eyes. No matter which link had a problem, he always “made a big deal out of a small matter” and “punished one to warn a hundred.” In 2008, the cooperative's millet passed the QS food quality and safety certification, and the product obtained an agricultural product geographical indication. Heyu Township radiated to surrounding townships such as Yunzhu and Xima, and possessed 26,000 mu of standardized pollution-free foxtail millet planting base.
Now, all farming households that have signed foxtail millet planting contracts with the cooperative have changed their previous simple and extensive planting concepts and conscientiously plant according to the scientific planting methods formulated by the cooperative, which has become a common practice. “Cultivating a new type of farmer with market-oriented awareness is the key to ensuring product quality for Heyu Millet,” said Wang Jianfu. Persisting in being the best version of oneself became the trump card in the market. Before long, as customer reputation increased, Heyu Millet in major grain and oil stores and supermarkets large and small in the provincial capital of Shanxi became a hot commodity. The market's reach extended north to Beijing and Tianjin and south to Shanghai and Shenzhen, and Heyu Millet became a well-known brand.
20% of annual profit used for research and promotion
The 6:2:2 distribution method was the second card on Heyu Millet's branding path. The main content of this distribution method is that 60% of that year's profit is returned to members, 20% is treated as reserve funds and insurance funds, used by members for the development and growth of the cooperative when there is no risk and compensated to members in the event of market risk or natural disaster, and 20% is used for the introduction and promotion of new varieties and new technologies. This card solved two problems. First, it ensured members' enthusiasm and loyalty. Second, under the jungle-like survival conditions of Shanxi's numerous millet brands, an average annual 20% research funding guaranteed the cooperative's future development.
In 2009, the cooperative successfully developed Heyu “Five-Color Millet” (red, green, black, white, and yellow), filling a gap in the market, and the market response after trial planting was good. In 2013, the cooperative expanded the planting area of this category of millet to 3,000 mu, and the products have now gone beyond Jinzhong to be sold in Taiyuan, Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai and other places.
At present, another new variety of the cooperative, zinc-enriched millet, is undergoing pilot testing, with the zinc content in each kilogram of millet reaching as high as 38.7mg. Since last year, the cooperative has actively developed e-commerce online operations, and online sales have accounted for 50% of total sales, ranking in the top 20 in the grain, oil, rice and flour category on Tmall.
The founding of the Heyu Millet Professional Cooperative and the brand building of Heyu Millet have raised the level of specialized agricultural development around Heyu Township. Before 2004, the foxtail millet planting area in Heyu Township was only 60,000 mu, with an average yield of about 300 jin per mu and an income of about 400 yuan per mu. Since 2004, the township's planting area has stabilized at more than 100,000 mu, the average yield has increased to more than 600 jin per mu, and the income per mu has stabilized at more than 1,800 yuan. Under the banner of the brand, the surrounding three townships have implemented large-scale, intensive planting, processing and sales of grain. Letting grain have a brand, letting products have function, and increasing the added value of grain, the brand development path of the Heyu Millet Cooperative has become increasingly clear.