For 30 years without collapse, Richie Jen strictly selects the new iced tea for the younger generation.

Written by｜Rui Ba

Strictly Control

After twenty years, Richie Jen has once again become the spokesperson for iced tea. It is truly astonishing. After such a long time, iced tea has been upgraded, but it is still the only super category in the world that can dominate with a single flavor. And Richie Jen, who has been active in the entertainment industry for nearly 35 years since his debut in 1990, remains firmly on the stage, regardless of how quickly the waves of traffic stars rise and fall.

As an evergreen in the entertainment industry for three decades, Richie Jen is extremely cautious and serious in everything that may involve his personal reputation -

Before every concert, he has to walk through the new venue, especially the corners, to test the sound effect of each position. He even checks whether the movement lines in and out of the venue are reasonable and whether the number of restrooms is sufficient... He doesn't want a situation where someone shouts for a refund or loses interest at his concert.

And if he is to cooperate with a commercial product, it must first pass his personal test and investigation. He needs to taste the drink first and only if he thinks it's good; the brand needs to be investigated, with public recognition and no stains; at the same time, he also needs to go to the market to see for himself whether consumers really buy it.

If all these pass, in addition to achieving a regular cooperation, it is very likely that this product will also appear at Richie Jen's personal concert. For example, if the fans shout themselves hoarse while singing along, he will buy iced tea for everyone at his own expense. Because he has sufficient confidence in his music works and endorsed products, nothing defective can enter the category of "Richie Jen's Strict Selection".

In this view, the cooperation between Richie Jen and iced tea is a two-way pursuit.

In 2023, Genki Forest decided to select a spokesperson for its new iced tea product. But unlike other categories in the past, iced tea is not a new species, but a super category that has been tested by the market for many years and has a large customer base. Therefore, when looking for a spokesperson, Genki Forest decided after internal discussion to choose a once widely known iced tea spokesperson, using the public's golden memory of this category as if directly receiving a business card, certifying that iced tea is the flavor of iced black tea, but it is more upgraded.

When Richie Jen first received the invitation to endorse iced tea, he was a bit surprised. After all, the last time he endorsed this category was 20 years ago, and the new iced tea is a relatively young product. So, the first thing he did was to ask for a bottle of the drink to taste, "It's quite special, just right, not so sweet, and relatively healthy."

And for the Genki Forest brand, he has seen it as a sponsor in various music variety shows for a long time, and was even once obsessed with its sparkling water. But according to Richie Jen's investigation standards, he also needs to see the offline marketing and distribution, and then he found that "Genki Forest's counters can be seen everywhere."

Only after investigating the product, brand, and enterprise can Richie Jen feel at ease to accept this cooperation. "I need to check first, and then when I think it's okay, I dare to recommend it to others."

In 2023, Richie Jen and Genki Forest collaborated to shoot an advertisement titled "Anti-water Strategy". The short film tells the story of the B Group, which is facing internal and external problems, facing the choice of selling old goods and new goods. Finally, the new product promoted by Richie Jen - Genki Forest Iced Tea, successfully breaks through the siege, presenting the selling point of "Each bottle has three less sugars, choose iced tea with real materials".

What Richie Jen didn't expect was that "even shooting an advertisement requires martial arts", but this makes him feel interesting, at least it is a new attempt. He has long been tired of the boring mode of holding a product and repeatedly promoting it on the screen.

And iced tea has also quickly been recognized by dealers, distributors, and store owners in various places, and they clearly perceive that iced tea is to be the representative of the new generation of categories. In addition, a large number of store owners are Richie Jen's fans. When they were young, they listened to "Brother" and "Too Softhearted" by "Brother Jen". Now, they feel that they have also become "brothers" led by the big brother, and emotionally feel that iced tea is close and one of them.

Each Generation Has Its Own Iced Tea

To be able to stand firm on the stage of the entertainment industry for 30 years, in addition to adhering to his own inner persistence and principles, Richie Jen is also closely observing the changes in the environment and the audience, so as to continuously evolve and keep his music and film and television works in step with the times. Including himself, he is also actively on the stage of various entertainment variety shows, using more new forms to interpret music works.

In Richie Jen's view, products, like music, should change with the times. Whether it is packaging, marketing or taste, they should all move forward with the changes of the times. "Just like a century-old restaurant, it has some traditional dishes, but it still needs to keep pace with the times. Whether it is in decoration, packaging or launching new dishes to attract some young new-generation groups, I think these all need to be fine-tuned."

And Genki Forest's iced tea is also evolving. Just as the brand explains, "Each generation has its own 'iced tea', and iced tea is the iced tea of this generation."

After taking the first sip, Richie Jen felt the difference of iced tea - it is finally not so sweet, "Before, it was really too sweet. While we drink it happily, you will feel a bit complicated." As a person who has long had extremely high requirements for a healthy diet and body management, Richie Jen has long started to control his sugar intake. At the same time, he also found that in recent years, the younger generation will pay more attention to health and pursue the concept of less sugar. But for him, completely sugar-free seems to lack some stimulation on the taste buds, so he thinks "Just right, it's the best."

However, for an iced tea drink with a history of two hundred years, it is a great challenge to create a new product based on the original taste - to make a taste that does not lose its soul and is more in line with the taste of consumers in the new era.

In 2021, iced tea was test-sold in Southeast Asia and North America: The product idea is to continue the functional points of sweet and sour, refreshing and relieving greasiness, targeting young people who have an understanding of tea flavor, benchmarking against competing products, using real materials + reducing sugar without reducing flavor, and using better raw materials to make young people choose iced tea.

It is understood that in the selection of sweetness for the sugar-reduced iced tea, the goal is to find "pleasure" and "comfort". But how to ensure a good taste while reducing sugar, that is, painless sugar reduction, needs to be solved from the formula, rather than directly reducing the amount of sugar. Reducing sugar without reducing flavor means using different formulas to achieve the same taste curve. This part requires the researchers to conduct experiments again and again.

Genki Forest's taste decision is a dual verification of body sensation and data - the body sensation has multiple rounds of taste decision meetings. In addition to taste experts, there are also user groups corresponding to the product, and front-line businesses will also be asked to taste and give comprehensive feedback; in terms of data, in addition to studying the taste experience through the taste curve, more attention should be paid to the stability of the product. Through the 55-degree destruction experiment, etc., it is ensured that consumers can obtain a consistent experience throughout the product's shelf life.

In the research and development of the ice-burst lemon flavor, there was a formula that the R & D team unanimously saw, but the flavor changed in the middle and later stages of the simulated shelf life, and a medicinal bitterness appeared in the tea astringency, so it had to be abandoned. There are many similar experiments.

In addition, low-sugar beverages are much more expensive than high-sugar beverages. To achieve a good taste while reducing sugar, good raw materials must be relied on. Therefore, the sugar-reduced iced tea uses the liquid nitrogen -196°C frozen lemon technology - that is, after the whole fruit is quickly frozen and fresh-locked at -196°C liquid nitrogen, it is made into fruit juice by low-temperature cold pressing, retaining the aroma of "freshly picked from the tree", and can reduce the loss of nutrients in food; effectively control the growth of microorganisms.

Therefore, after upgrading with good raw materials and new technologies, and after a long and repeated experiment, iced tea finally appears with a better taste, healthier raw materials, and even a new look with a larger bottle (900ml) and a higher cost performance. In the summer of 2024, Richie Jen was in the desert. Thirsty and hot, he held a large bottle of iced tea and drank it vigorously, "Because I sweated a lot, I must replenish water, and iced tea can relieve the summer heat, so I think it's just right."

Doing Something with Confidence

In addition to relieving the summer heat in the desert, Richie Jen also often drinks iced tea when holding concerts. Including in the "Miracle" concert in the past year, Richie Jen often prepares iced tea for the audience at his own expense because he hears the voices of the fans singing hoarse.

And more coincidentally, the audience group of iced tea overlaps with Richie Jen's fan group. In Richie Jen's words, they are both "family-friendly" types, suitable for all ages. At his concert, there were once three generations of a family, the old, the middle-aged and the young, coming to watch. And whether in first-tier cities or second-tier cities, his concerts are extremely popular. And iced tea also has a broad audience in these places. The "new iced tea" that is more in line with the user's pricing system is a 900ml large package that only costs 5 yuan. In May 2024, the "new iced tea" product series has achieved a monthly sales performance of over 100 million yuan.

Tang Binsen, the founder of Genki Forest, once described iced tea in the company's 8th anniversary open letter as follows: "A good product is not simply about rolling parameters and concepts; nor is it simply about having a good-looking package; nor is it a product that lives within the Fourth Ring Road and is self-considered liked in the office. Instead, it is a product that can serve the vast number of Chinese users, maintaining cost performance while being of high quality; it should be delicious while having a clean ingredient list; while being innovative, it should also allow our dealers and store owners to reduce inventory and improve turnover rate." In addition, a truly good product is able to serve a wider range of users, and "high quality and low price" is also one of the important criteria for testing a good product.

For good things, Richie Jen has always been generous in promoting them. "I think the product is good, and when we promote it, I will be confident. Then the audience trusts us, they try it, and they think it's good. I also gain value, and then I may also earn the endorsement fee. I can do more good things, and it becomes a win-win situation."

He will never exchange his reputation for money, which is an overdraft that he cannot accept. "Before, many people often laughed at us for being stupid, saying that someone sent a lot of money to us and asked me to endorse, but I refused. If the product is bad, and you give me a lot of money, after everyone eats and drinks it, they will think that this guy is unreliable and the endorsed product is not good enough, then my reputation will be discounted, and that would be bad."

Richie Jen has always paid attention to the feelings of the audience. Because when he first started his career and held a concert, the organizer dropped the ball. They said they would prepare a 1 million yuan lighting and sound system, but