Rebirth in Hong Kong: From Dessert Shop to Industrial Empire

Chapter 105 Patent Wall (Seeking monthly votes and recommendations to continue reading)

Ling Pei-yi led an investigation team to Singapore to investigate the reasons for the slow sales of Jinba.

Meanwhile, Chen Bingwen was also in his office reflecting on the cautionary tale of Jinba's sluggish sales in Singapore.

The setbacks in Singapore served as a mirror, revealing the shortcomings hidden beneath Tan Kee's rapid development.

From a product development perspective alone, Zhou Zhiyuan's team has excellent technical skills and has solved the problems of process and stability.

But the core competitiveness of beverages, besides function, also lies in flavor!
How can you make a beverage grab a consumer's attention the moment it enters their mouth and create a memorable experience?

How can we precisely adjust the flavor according to the taste preferences of different markets?

This requires a more specialized and refined sensory science!
Zhou Zhiyuan is a food engineering expert specializing in ingredients and processes.

However, flavor blending, especially the layering of aromas, the balance of taste, and the lingering aftertaste, falls under the scope of perfumery and sensory science!
This is precisely the gap in Chenji's R&D system!

"Perfumer"

Chen Bingwen muttered to himself.

A professional perfumer can transform a simple recipe into a delightful taste experience.

He can accurately capture the taste preferences of different groups of people and use trace amounts of flavorings and flavorings to give products a unique charm and recognizability.

This is crucial for Chen Kee to launch a more diversified and international product line in the future!

In his previous life, Chen Bingwen had drunk many fruit-flavored drinks.

Some of them have a "fruity" flavor that, while you can't quite pinpoint what it is, feels natural, harmonious, and full, making you feel happy and even evoking the vibrant energy of a sunny orchard.

Some drinks, however, immediately give off a cheap, harsh, and artificial taste that makes you frown, and the so-called "cheap" feeling arises spontaneously.

Why is there such a big difference?
The key lies with the perfumer!
A skilled perfumer can use a variety of fragrances (essences) and through exquisite proportions and blending techniques, simulate the complex aroma layers of natural fruits.

The flavorings they create can make consumers feel that the drink "tastes good" and "has a fruity flavor," without them delving into "what kind of fruit it is" or feeling that it is "fake."

Mediocre or imitative products may simply pile on a few basic fruit flavorings, resulting in a thin aroma, chaotic layers, or even an unpleasant chemical smell.

Consumers can immediately detect the "artificial" traces on their tongues upon tasting it, and that "cheap" feeling immediately comes through.

The current aroma of Jinba is like a product that hasn't been carefully crafted by a master perfumer; it has the function, but the flavor lacks soul and charm.

It requires a master perfumer to use their professional sense of smell and taste to give it a richer, more harmonious, more attractive and difficult-to-imitate aroma profile, so that consumers are attracted the moment they open the lid and feel pleasure rather than "strange taste" after taking a sip.

Thinking of this, Chen Bingwen picked up the phone and asked his secretary to invite Professor Zhou Zhiyuan to his office.

A moment later, Zhou Zhiyuan knocked on the door and came in.

"Mr. Chen, you were looking for me?"

"Professor Zhou, please sit down." Chen Bingwen gestured for Zhou Zhiyuan to sit down and had his secretary pour him a glass of water.

"The issue with Singapore's Jinba appears to be a matter of market acceptance."

At a deeper level, this may have exposed a weakness in our R&D system: the level of expertise required for flavor tuning.

Chen Bingwen spoke frankly and directly expressed his inner thoughts.

Zhou Zhiyuan adjusted his glasses and listened attentively: "Mr. Chen, what do you mean?"

"Our team has done a great job in basic formulation and process stability."

Chen Bingwen affirmed, "But the flavor of beverages, especially the layers of aroma, the balance of taste, and the control of aftertaste, is a discipline that requires profound professional knowledge and keen senses."

This requires a specialized perfumer.

He looked at Zhou Zhiyuan: "Professor Zhou, you are the director of the R&D center, and technical coordination is your forte."

However, for flavor blending, especially the application of high-end flavorings and the establishment of a sensory evaluation system, we need to introduce more professional talents.

I would like to hire a senior perfumer to join our R&D center, where they will be responsible for the flavor development, optimization, and quality control of all our products!

What do you think?

Chen Bingwen's assertions about "flavor blending" and "perfumers" stirred up ripples in Zhou Zhiyuan's mind.

He was not unaware of the importance of flavor, but Chen Bingwen's elevation of it to the strategic level of "product soul" and "shortcoming in the R&D system," and his direct pointing out the need for professional perfumers, deeply moved him.

“Mr. Chen, you’ve enlightened me.” Zhou Zhiyuan took a deep breath and said, “Previously, our research and development focused more on the ‘hard indicators’ such as the ratio of functional ingredients, process stability, and shelf life extension.”

Flavor, especially the layers of aroma and the balance of taste, is indeed considered by us to be the icing on the cake, and some even take it for granted that if the function is good, the taste will naturally be accepted.

The lukewarm reception of Singapore's Jinba is the price of this kind of flawed thinking!

He paused, then said with shame, "In our team, although we have PhDs with backgrounds in food chemistry, we really don't have any flavor engineers who are truly proficient in blending flavorings and fragrances, possess keen sensory evaluation abilities, and can accurately grasp the taste preferences of different groups of people."

This weakness must be addressed immediately!

Chen Bingwen nodded: "It's never too late to mend the fence after the sheep are lost."

The Singapore market served as a wake-up call, but it also provided a valuable case study.

Director Ling's research team is currently conducting in-depth investigations over there, and we need to wait for her firsthand data. However, bringing in a perfumer is urgent. Professor Zhou, you will personally oversee this matter, with the HR department providing full support.

The target is senior perfumers who have worked for international fragrance and flavor giants, or professionals with extensive experience in developing flavors for fast-moving consumer goods.

Salary isn't the issue; the key is having real skills!

"Understood! I'll get started right away!" Zhou Zhiyuan readily agreed.

After Chen Bingwen and Zhou Zhiyuan reached an agreement on hiring a perfumer, Zhou Zhiyuan was about to get up and leave, but Chen Bingwen raised his hand to signal him to sit for a while longer.

"Professor Zhou, the perfumer issue has been settled, and we've begun to address the weaknesses in our R&D system."

Chen Bingwen then changed the subject, talking about the upcoming research and development issues, "After Jinba Instant Concentrated Powder, our product research and development cannot stop. We have to look ahead and see where our next flagship product is."

Our product line cannot rely solely on Jinba to fight alone.

"Taking advantage of the recent breakthrough in Jinba instant concentrated powder technology, I'd like to talk to you about another equally important product, one that may even gain traction faster: instant milk tea in paper cups."

Upon hearing this, Zhou Zhiyuan immediately sat back down and asked, "Paper cup instant milk tea?"

Mr. Chen, what exactly are you referring to?

Chen Bingwen explained, “Look, Nestlé is now mainly promoting canned instant coffee powder, which requires hot water to brew and you have to add sugar and milk yourself, which is troublesome.”

Lipton, on the other hand, uses tea bags, which also require hot water and time.

None of them solved a core pain point.

An instant, convenient, and readily available hot or cold beverage experience.

"My idea is to create a product combination of instant powder, standard paper cup, and hot/cold water, which can solve the problems of immediacy and convenience, and meet people's needs for drinking milk tea in different scenarios."

This powder can be for milk tea, coffee, or tea; we can formulate different types of powder according to consumer preferences.

Zhou Zhiyuan was, after all, a food engineering expert. After Chen Bingwen shared his idea, he immediately understood the huge business opportunity it contained.

"Mr. Chen, this idea is brilliant!"
Leveraging our existing instant powder technology platform, combined with convenient paper cup packaging, we directly address Nestlé and Lipton's shortcomings in 'instantaneousness'!
This is indeed a huge market gap!

He quickly outlined the technical path: "Technically feasible! With slight adjustments to our existing spray drying tower and microcapsule technology, we can produce instant black tea powder and milk tea powder with excellent solubility."

The key is flavor—how to make authentic Hong Kong-style milk tea that Hong Kong people love.

This requires close collaboration between perfumers and the research and development team.

“That’s the key!” Chen Bingwen nodded. “Flavor is the soul.”

The perfumer we are about to bring in will have the primary task of tackling the challenge of instant dissolving classic flavors like Hong Kong-style milk tea and Yuanyang milk tea.

The goal is to make consumers feel, "This is exactly the taste!" the moment they walk out.

He paused, then said solemnly, "Professor Zhou, simply making good products is not enough."

We must race against time, and we must build high walls!

Once giants like Nestlé and Lipton see a positive market response, they can quickly imitate and follow suit, thanks to their financial resources and technological reserves.

We must use patents to build our core competitive advantage before they even realize it!

Chen Bingwen knew all too well that the food and beverage industry was always a place where everyone copied each other.

If a product sells well, it won't be long before a bunch of similar products appear on the market.

Similar packaging, identical names, but lower prices.

This is almost the norm in the food and beverage industry.

Chen Bingwen didn't want to see his hard-earned products become available all over the world before he had even fully enjoyed the benefits.

Especially with current technology, making paper cup milk tea is not difficult.

Therefore, Chen Bingwen plans to register all core aspects of double-layer insulated paper cups, including the process, packaging, appearance, function, and formula, into a high-density patent wall, making it almost impossible for competitors to bypass it.

Only in this way can we hold off our competitors for 6-10 years before any major breakthroughs occur in the materials and food industries.

"Mr. Chen, you're absolutely right!" Zhou Zhiyuan nodded vigorously. "The milk tea market may seem to have low barriers to entry, but whoever creates a hit product first will gain the upper hand."

Giants like Nestlé and Lipton will not be slow to react.

We must lock down the core technologies and designs with patents before they even realize it, so that they will have to pay a huge price to imitate them, or even be unable to circumvent them!

Chen Bingwen nodded frequently as he listened. Zhou Zhiyuan's thinking was highly aligned with his own, and this strategic resonance made Chen Bingwen feel gratified.

"Professor Zhou, your ideas are very systematic and you've hit the nail on the head!"

Chen Bingwen praised, "The goal is to create such an impenetrable patent wall, leaving competitors with nowhere to attack."

You can personally oversee this matter and begin the research and development of milk tea immediately.

The R&D center, production department, and even future perfumers must fully cooperate to protect every innovative idea that can be discovered through patents—leaving nothing out!

(End of this chapter)