After World War I, Wuzhou Pharmacy operated by China took over the Shanghai Guben Soap Factory founded by former Germans. The pioneer of China's new pharmaceutical industry set up Wuzhou Guben Soap Factory in Songmaoyu 192 1, retained foreign technicians, and strived to improve the quality to produce Guben brand soaps superior to imported ones.
1925, Wuzhou Guben Soap Factory acquired China Jixing Soap Factory and added transparent soap and other products to become the largest soap factory in China. The products of Wuzhou Factory have successively won the Silver Award at the San Francisco World Expo and the third prize at the Taisho Expo in Tokyo, Japan.
1928, Wuzhou allocated 500,000 yuan to set up another silver production company (similar to the investment department in today's group company), which was affiliated with the company, independent of revenue and expenditure and responsible for its own profits and losses. The company's total capital has increased to 6,543,800+500,000 yuan, and the number of employees has increased from the initial 30 to more than 400 every year. With the development of business in Wuzhou, Xiang Song Taizu established a soap empire, and Xiang himself was also called "the king of soap".
The growth of Wuzhou seriously threatened Xiangmao Soap (the predecessor of Unilever), the dominant soap market in Shanghai at that time. In the fierce competition between the two sides, Wuzhou defeated Unilever in one fell swoop, making Wuzhou Guben Soap the most famous best-selling product at that time, which greatly aroused the enthusiasm of Chinese people. Let's talk about this wonderful soap fight today!
One side of this soap war is the world-class trust and Unilever Brothers (Unilever Company today), and the other side is Wuzhou Pharmacy, a newly developed national medicine enterprise in China.
Unilever Brothers was one of the few industrial giants in the world at that time and was in a leading position in the soap industry. After the opening of Shanghai, Lihua Brothers invested and set up soap-making enterprises in Shanghai, and merged a series of small soap-making factories to become the largest soap-making factory in the Far East.
Wuzhou Pharmacy was established on 1907, and was funded by Huang Chujiu, a Shanghai tycoon, and Xia Ruifang, general manager of the Commercial Press. Its main products are various tonics developed by traditional Chinese medicine in China. 19 1 1 Wuzhou Pharmacy hired Xiang Songmao as the general manager.
After Xiang Songmao became the general manager, on the one hand, he continued to develop all kinds of Chinese medicine products, on the other hand, he also actively explored western medicine business. But at that time, the strength of domestic western medicine was weak. Even in a big store like Wuzhou Pharmacy, the western medicines produced by it are only processed with imported raw materials. 19 19 After the May 4th Movement broke out, there appeared a craze of * * * foreign goods and revitalizing domestic products in China. Xiang Songmao, who has always wanted to save the country by industry, decided to set up his own factory to develop western medicine and compete with western pharmaceutical companies.
At that time, a German businessman wanted to sell Xujiahui's soap factory. After careful consideration, Xiang Songmao decided to put it down. The consideration for Songmao is that the factory has complete machinery and equipment, and making soap after purchase can break the western monopoly on the soap market in China. In addition, some soap-making equipment can also be used for pharmacy. After allocating the soap factory, Xiang Songmao moved all the workshops of Wuzhou Pharmacy to the soap factory, and named the factory "Wuzhou Guben Soap Factory", which was divided into two parts: pharmacy and soap making.
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But Xiang Songmao didn't get the technology to make soap. German businessmen in the soap factory only sell machines, but keep the process of making soap strictly confidential. So, starting with talents, we recruited a group of graduates from the Department of Chemical Engineering as technical backbones to develop soap with high salary. In order to solve the worries of employees, Songmao Primary School was established, and all employees' children can go to school. Set up an infirmary to provide medical services for employees.
In order to make a breakthrough in key technologies, Songmao specially sent the director of soap production department in disguise and sneaked into Shanghai Lihua Brothers Soap Factory for 9 months to spy on its technical secrets. In this way, through many efforts, we successfully developed high-quality soap from Songmao and named it "solid soap".
After the advent of solid soap, its biggest rival is naturally the citronella soap of the British Lihua brothers. In terms of raw materials, the Lihua brothers have plantations all over the world, which can provide them with high quality and low price raw materials. On caustic soda, an important raw material for making soap, Lihua Brothers also received preferential price support from British companies. In addition, the financial resources and technology possessed by Lihua Brothers are not comparable to those possessed by Wuzhou Guben Soap Pharmaceutical Factory.
Xiang Songzuo's basic strategy is to win by quality. The solid soap produced by Songmao has solid appearance, pure color, strong detergency and durability. In contrast, the soap produced by Lihua Brothers Company has poor appearance and insufficient detergency. In order to prove the quality of Guben soap, Wuzhou Guben soap pharmaceutical factory specially displayed it at various sales points, and put Guben soap and citronella soap into two bowls of clear water respectively. Results After a period of time, the citronella soap completely melted, while the solid soap remained firm.
In order to defeat solid soap, Lihua Brothers adopted the means of price reduction and dumping. At first, the fixed soap cost 6.70 yuan per box, while the citronella soap cost 5.30 yuan. Although the price of citronella soap is low, the solid soap is of high quality and is still welcomed by our customers. As a last resort, Lihua Brothers reduced the price again and gradually reduced the price of each box to four yuan, four cents and three yuan. In order to meet the challenge, Wuzhou Pharmacy gave full support to Songmao, reduced the price of soap accordingly, and supported the soap war through the profits of its series of tonics.
In China during the Republic of China, soap was still a fresh and extravagant thing, and only urban white-collar workers could afford it. Lu Xun wrote in the article Soap 1924:
Mr. Siming went shopping to buy soap. He looked at six or seven samples, all of which were more than forty cents. He didn't buy it. Look at these fragments. They are too bad to smell. I chose the green one, with 25 cents. He came home and handed the soap to his fourth wife. The fourth wife couldn't hide her excitement. She "held the sunflower green thing under her nose like a child" and said, "Alas, this is really good soap".
When Lu Xun wrote soap, it happened to be the climax of the soap war. Although both sides are reducing prices, the price of soap in the market is still 24 cents. According to the price index at that time, it was still quite high. In order to occupy the huge market of soap, the two sides spared no expense and launched a war.
1925 When the May 30th Movement broke out, the Chinese people rose up against foreign goods and advocated domestic products. Solid soap sold well for a while, reaching as many as 500 boxes a day, but Lihua brothers' soap could not be sold. The soap factory in Shanghai once closed down. On the basis of solid soap sales, we have continuously expanded our business to Songmao and launched a series of soap brands such as Chang 'e and Meiyan.
Xiang Songzuo not only vigorously promoted national brands and foreign goods through commercial wars, but also participated in various patriotic movements. 1 1 After the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War in Songhu on 28th, the second branch of Wuzhou Pharmacy was on the verge of the front line, and some left-behind shop assistants were arrested when the Japanese army found volunteers' clothing. Xiang Songmao went to the Japanese Marine Corps Command alone to negotiate. As a result, he was shot and killed by the Japanese army together with the arrested shop assistant at the age of 52. (text:? Yuan Canxing)