Two Truly Unusual Names in the Vaping World Worth Remembering
One of the hardest parts of building a vaping brand is choosing a name. Since 2018, new brands have continued to emerge, reflecting both the industry’s rapid growth and its strong appeal to entrepreneurs.
The hardest thing about creating an e-cigarette brand is coming up with a name.<\/strong>
<\/strong>
Since 2018, the e-cigarette industry has exploded, with various brands emerging almost daily.
This is a good thing, as it indicates that the industry is growing and attracting many entrepreneurs.
I once fantasized that even if all these people fail, the employees of these companies will become the most loyal promoters of e-cigarettes, eventually spreading like seeds across the country to contribute to the popularization of e-cigarettes in China. It could be considered one of the most hardcore advertisements in modern history.
What surprises me is that despite the proliferation of new brands, they all seem to share a strikingly similar style.
A 300 yuan promotional photo
Registering a company for 2,000 yuan
A Baidu article often has a title like “XX e-cigarette secures XX million in funding.”
And just like that, a brand is established.
Names like HiSmoke, SnowPlus, Xiaoye, Cigar, HiK, Qinglan, Meike...
The complexity of the Chinese language makes “the hardest thing about creating an e-cigarette brand is coming up with a name.”
This surreal realism is something I have only seen in the frenzied micro-businesses of a few years ago.
History is a mirror that reflects rise and fall.<\/strong>
These emerging brands actually have precedents to learn from, namely Shanlan and YOOZ.
Shanlan e-cigarettes received significant attention upon their release. They were also the first to initiate the trend of using “founders as IP” in the e-cigarette industry.
Shanlan in the e-cigarette world is akin to Smartisan in the smartphone world. It is a company with clearly “excessive design capability.” However, after extensive promotion, Shanlan seems to have lost its former glory. Both e-commerce and offline sales have been criticized by peers as “too small a volume.”
YOOZ was once in the spotlight, buying the most advertising at the Shenzhen International E-Cigarette Expo in April, showcasing its extravagance. The strategy of having a celebrity founder worked better for YOOZ than for Shanlan.
However, YOOZ is now also facing channel difficulties, with offline channels being outcompeted by several peers. Its online business has remained lukewarm. Micro-businesses seem to have become their last reliable option.
Three months ago, I predicted that “any e-cigarette brand engaging in micro-business will only become weaker.” Sure enough, after several rounds of failed financing, YOOZ's co-founder, the original “Huang Taiji founder He Chang,” quietly exited and launched a new brand, LAMI, which has since disappeared after its first round of pre-sales, leaving many puzzled.
“Strategic losses” lead to “strategic fatigue."<\/strong>
It is still early to draw conclusions; we cannot say that XXX is the previous XXX.
However, in this emerging industry, both consumers and investors should take a more rational view of this “addiction product frenzy.”
Chinese people have experienced shared bicycles, blockchain, and VR. We seem to have forgotten a fundamental trait of the Chinese people—being grounded.
Companies like JD, Luckin, and Didi have created “strategic losses,” which, regardless of the final outcome, have led to “strategic fatigue” among the Chinese people.
It is time to take a breather. The essence of business is simply “making money.”
In the e-cigarette industry, who is still focused on making money? It seems no one wants to do this.
Trying to make money in the e-cigarette business feels like picking up cans in a nightclub, looking down upon by others.
If this is healthy development, I cannot imagine what unhealthy development would look like.
Picking up bottles in nightclubs.<\/strong>
#p#分页标题#e#<\/strong>
RELX is a rare company that has found a balance between being grounded and reveling in the frenzy. They create buzz and are adept at making big moves, always shaking the industry and driving everyone towards new goals. Their style is noble, even somewhat selfless.
Some call it “international style,” which is not something that can be replicated by “smart companies” that encourage all employees to use Google search. It is a kind of pride embedded in the company's DNA.
If there is a second company, I believe it is Huoqi. This name may sound unfamiliar to outsiders, but it is quite well-known within the industry.
In 2018, this company signed a contract with Wu Jing before the release of Wolf Warrior 2, bringing the first “celebrity endorsement” to the e-cigarette industry. They fired the first shot in the e-cigarette industry's “burning money” campaign, truly living up to their name “Huoqi.”
Then, while RELX was preparing its Tmall flagship store, Huoqi opened over 300 offline stores in just three months, a number that was unimaginable in 2018. Everyone thought, “This company is going to thrive.” Unexpectedly, Huoqi's product quality encountered significant issues, severe enough that even the benefits from “Wolf Warrior 2” could not save them, leading the company to gradually decline.
Just when everyone thought Huoqi would fade away like other old e-cigarette brands, in the spring of 2019, the Huoqi team, with mischievous smiles, pulled out their “big treasure”—the ammo replacement pod system.
Ammo lives up to its name, striking the hearts of all practitioners like a bullet—no one knows how terrifying it can be when starving offline channels meet excellent products.
They recruited 34 provincial distributors in 254 working hours.
One month, zero days.
In early summer 2019, three months after the launch of the ammo product, they announced a new record of “200,000 main units sold and nearly 3 million pods sold”. Even if we halve this potentially inflated number, it still represents an astonishing sales figure of nearly 1.5 million pods.
After the product hit the market, the feedback was overwhelmingly positive, with a low probability of oil leakage. Huoqi also claimed, “We have solved the difficult problem of e-liquid entry.”
I shared this conclusion in an industry WeChat group and received recognition from over ten distributors of different brands in four cities across the mainland. Everyone had a significant change in perception regarding Huoqi's product quality. Such a low start and high rise is admirable.
Compared to the hot sales, Huoqi's “noise” seems muted, as if equipped with a silencer. There is rarely any news about Huoqi in the industry, and the most one hears are astonishing production figures from factories, which is hard to understand.
“In April, the entire company was at our factory overseeing production, with even a dozen employees personally on the production line. Every batch of goods was shipped directly to the company without any remaining.”—the sales director of Huoqi's OEM factory said in an interview.
No one knows what these people are thinking, as they do not speak, only collect money.
After RELX, another old man has joined the nightclub to pick up bottles.
Conclusion.<\/strong>
The e-cigarette industry is so noisy, and every participant is like a beauty jumping into the dance floor after drinking, swaying their bodies to attract more attention.
I feel that the girls sitting calmly with red wine by the dance floor, engaging in deep conversations, are even more alluring.
Companies like RELX and Huoqi, which focus on doing business steadily, are always welcome. Behind the dazzling sales and hype, stable profitability is the ultimate lifeline for a company.
“Strange and beautiful, elegant and radiant,” these two unusual flowers in the e-cigarette circle have not made any grand gestures; they have simply done some grounded work.
This itself is worth pondering.
<\/strong>
Since 2018, the e-cigarette industry has exploded, with various brands emerging almost daily.
This is a good thing, as it indicates that the industry is growing and attracting many entrepreneurs.
I once fantasized that even if all these people fail, the employees of these companies will become the most loyal promoters of e-cigarettes, eventually spreading like seeds across the country to contribute to the popularization of e-cigarettes in China. It could be considered one of the most hardcore advertisements in modern history.
What surprises me is that despite the proliferation of new brands, they all seem to share a strikingly similar style.
A 300 yuan promotional photo
Registering a company for 2,000 yuan
A Baidu article often has a title like “XX e-cigarette secures XX million in funding.”
And just like that, a brand is established.
Names like HiSmoke, SnowPlus, Xiaoye, Cigar, HiK, Qinglan, Meike...
The complexity of the Chinese language makes “the hardest thing about creating an e-cigarette brand is coming up with a name.”
This surreal realism is something I have only seen in the frenzied micro-businesses of a few years ago.
History is a mirror that reflects rise and fall.<\/strong>
These emerging brands actually have precedents to learn from, namely Shanlan and YOOZ.
Shanlan e-cigarettes received significant attention upon their release. They were also the first to initiate the trend of using “founders as IP” in the e-cigarette industry.
Shanlan in the e-cigarette world is akin to Smartisan in the smartphone world. It is a company with clearly “excessive design capability.” However, after extensive promotion, Shanlan seems to have lost its former glory. Both e-commerce and offline sales have been criticized by peers as “too small a volume.”
YOOZ was once in the spotlight, buying the most advertising at the Shenzhen International E-Cigarette Expo in April, showcasing its extravagance. The strategy of having a celebrity founder worked better for YOOZ than for Shanlan.
However, YOOZ is now also facing channel difficulties, with offline channels being outcompeted by several peers. Its online business has remained lukewarm. Micro-businesses seem to have become their last reliable option.
Three months ago, I predicted that “any e-cigarette brand engaging in micro-business will only become weaker.” Sure enough, after several rounds of failed financing, YOOZ's co-founder, the original “Huang Taiji founder He Chang,” quietly exited and launched a new brand, LAMI, which has since disappeared after its first round of pre-sales, leaving many puzzled.
“Strategic losses” lead to “strategic fatigue."<\/strong>
It is still early to draw conclusions; we cannot say that XXX is the previous XXX.
However, in this emerging industry, both consumers and investors should take a more rational view of this “addiction product frenzy.”
Chinese people have experienced shared bicycles, blockchain, and VR. We seem to have forgotten a fundamental trait of the Chinese people—being grounded.
Companies like JD, Luckin, and Didi have created “strategic losses,” which, regardless of the final outcome, have led to “strategic fatigue” among the Chinese people.
It is time to take a breather. The essence of business is simply “making money.”
In the e-cigarette industry, who is still focused on making money? It seems no one wants to do this.
Trying to make money in the e-cigarette business feels like picking up cans in a nightclub, looking down upon by others.
If this is healthy development, I cannot imagine what unhealthy development would look like.
Picking up bottles in nightclubs.<\/strong>
#p#分页标题#e#<\/strong>
RELX is a rare company that has found a balance between being grounded and reveling in the frenzy. They create buzz and are adept at making big moves, always shaking the industry and driving everyone towards new goals. Their style is noble, even somewhat selfless.
Some call it “international style,” which is not something that can be replicated by “smart companies” that encourage all employees to use Google search. It is a kind of pride embedded in the company's DNA.
If there is a second company, I believe it is Huoqi. This name may sound unfamiliar to outsiders, but it is quite well-known within the industry.
In 2018, this company signed a contract with Wu Jing before the release of Wolf Warrior 2, bringing the first “celebrity endorsement” to the e-cigarette industry. They fired the first shot in the e-cigarette industry's “burning money” campaign, truly living up to their name “Huoqi.”
Then, while RELX was preparing its Tmall flagship store, Huoqi opened over 300 offline stores in just three months, a number that was unimaginable in 2018. Everyone thought, “This company is going to thrive.” Unexpectedly, Huoqi's product quality encountered significant issues, severe enough that even the benefits from “Wolf Warrior 2” could not save them, leading the company to gradually decline.
Just when everyone thought Huoqi would fade away like other old e-cigarette brands, in the spring of 2019, the Huoqi team, with mischievous smiles, pulled out their “big treasure”—the ammo replacement pod system.
Ammo lives up to its name, striking the hearts of all practitioners like a bullet—no one knows how terrifying it can be when starving offline channels meet excellent products.
They recruited 34 provincial distributors in 254 working hours.
One month, zero days.
In early summer 2019, three months after the launch of the ammo product, they announced a new record of “200,000 main units sold and nearly 3 million pods sold”. Even if we halve this potentially inflated number, it still represents an astonishing sales figure of nearly 1.5 million pods.
After the product hit the market, the feedback was overwhelmingly positive, with a low probability of oil leakage. Huoqi also claimed, “We have solved the difficult problem of e-liquid entry.”
I shared this conclusion in an industry WeChat group and received recognition from over ten distributors of different brands in four cities across the mainland. Everyone had a significant change in perception regarding Huoqi's product quality. Such a low start and high rise is admirable.
Compared to the hot sales, Huoqi's “noise” seems muted, as if equipped with a silencer. There is rarely any news about Huoqi in the industry, and the most one hears are astonishing production figures from factories, which is hard to understand.
“In April, the entire company was at our factory overseeing production, with even a dozen employees personally on the production line. Every batch of goods was shipped directly to the company without any remaining.”—the sales director of Huoqi's OEM factory said in an interview.
No one knows what these people are thinking, as they do not speak, only collect money.
After RELX, another old man has joined the nightclub to pick up bottles.
Conclusion.<\/strong>
The e-cigarette industry is so noisy, and every participant is like a beauty jumping into the dance floor after drinking, swaying their bodies to attract more attention.
I feel that the girls sitting calmly with red wine by the dance floor, engaging in deep conversations, are even more alluring.
Companies like RELX and Huoqi, which focus on doing business steadily, are always welcome. Behind the dazzling sales and hype, stable profitability is the ultimate lifeline for a company.
“Strange and beautiful, elegant and radiant,” these two unusual flowers in the e-cigarette circle have not made any grand gestures; they have simply done some grounded work.
This itself is worth pondering.
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