Trying to catch everything, yet catching nothing. On May 6th, a commentary in the Beijing Evening News, titled "Products with 'Cunning Trademarks' Still on Sale? Merchants Playing Tricks, Regulators Need to Pay Attention," criticized a group of "incorrigible" brands, quickly attracting follow-up and reprints from several mainstream media outlets. The article mentioned that noodles printed with "handmade" or "hand-rolled" actually came from an assembly line; instant noodles printed with "mostly a bag" or "mostly a bucket" only contained 20 grams more… According to the Beijing Youth Daily, although the State Intellectual Property Office has declared over a thousand such "cunning trademarks" invalid, some brands continue to openly sell them on e-commerce platforms and in offline stores after their trademarks have been cancelled. The article included pictures of the "mostly a bag of noodles" series, which originated from Baixiang. Last year, when "mostly" was revealed to be a trademark, netizens joked, "We treat Baixiang as a symbol of nostalgia, but Baixiang treats us like韭菜 (a metaphor for exploitation)." At the time, Baixiang even apologized for this. But why are such "cunning trademark" products still being sold on the market today? This superficial apology, coupled with a lack of real change, is undoubtedly arrogant. Why has this once-proud "national brand" become what it is today? In 2021, Baixiang became an overnight sensation, but it could never have imagined that the massive influx of traffic already came with a hidden price. Five years after its initial success, five years of struggle, Baixiang's story hasn't continued in the expected direction. Instead, it has gradually lost focus amidst blind expansion and repeated trial and error. In 2025, Baixiang ranked fourth in the industry with an 8.6% market share (according to Beijing Boyan Media's December 2025 omnichannel retail monitoring data), slipping out of the top three, and the gap with the leaders is widening. Of the more than 250 new SKUs launched throughout the year, none have withstood the test of the market, instead facing criticism for being "unpalatable" and "backstabbing." Baixiang is sliding into the predicament of "trying to grasp everything, but grasping nothing." On one hand, there are frequent marketing mishaps; on the other hand, there's the struggle to find a second growth curve. This March, Baixiang announced a strategic upgrade to its beverage business, once again venturing into a new field. This news didn't even trend on social media. This isn't the first time this instant noodle company has "crossed boundaries"—from frozen foods and noodles to convenience stores and beverages, Baixiang's business scope has expanded rapidly in just a few years, yet it has consistently failed to find its second growth curve. When a company starts doing everything simultaneously, it means it has lost sight of what's truly important. This statement perfectly encapsulates Baixiang's current situation. The book *The Great Defeat* states: "To rise to prominence in a world that doesn't belong to you, creating miracles, is arguably the mark of a 'strongman'; however, to be able to suppress one's irrational impulses after achieving initial success, to quickly transform oneself, and to continue growing with a normal demeanor and image, is the mark of a true hero." Unfortunately, Baixiang failed to truly transform itself after its initial success. Driven by the demon of "irrational impulses," it lost its identity and became increasingly anxious. Baixiang has changed. This change began with the loss of focus on its products. Many people's impression of Baixiang is still from its meteoric rise a few years ago—its dedication to its products and its differentiation through "bone broth noodles." Back then, Baixiang had 12 production bases, over 90 production lines, and 1.2 million sales outlets; it was a food company focused on real industry. However, after its rise to fame, Baixiang seems to have forgotten its original aspirations. If you've paid attention, you'll notice that in recent years, Baixiang's product line has sprung up like a pancake, becoming increasingly diverse and bizarre: coriander noodles, turkey noodles, houttuynia cordata noodles, bitter melon soup noodles, Sichuan spicy hot pot noodles… They seem gimmicky and innovative, but in reality, they're just jumping on the bandwagon, lacking the dedication and meticulous product refinement they had when developing their "bone broth noodles." Like a hasty chef rushing to serve a hodgepodge stew, the result was predictable. Social media was flooded with comments about Baixiang's new products failing miserably: The crayfish noodles were rated by netizens as "the worst noodles in the world," with a "taste of Banlangen" (a traditional Chinese medicine) and "a taste of artificial additives trying to be fresh even without seafood"; the cilantro instant noodles, highly anticipated by cilantro lovers across the internet, disappointed, being criticized as "not fit for normal human consumption," and were even more disappointing than expected.Those who love it exclaimed, "Baixiang, you've ruined my love for cilantro! It tastes like bitter, spicy dishwater!" Even innovative products like spicy chicken noodles, houttuynia cordata noodles, and Wuhan hot dry noodles haven't escaped the scrutiny of netizens' palates. Even its signature product—the "Delicious Soup" series—has been criticized for its noodles easily becoming soggy, its flavor becoming increasingly greasy, and its soup having a fishy smell. On Black Cat Complaints, there are numerous complaints about Baixiang, reaching nearly 1600 by March 20th. Issues such as "suspected moldy noodles," "found very long hair," and "discovered unidentified foreign objects" are impacting the brand's reputation. Why has Baixiang reached this point? A key reason is that Baixiang has lost its focus. It's eager to create more signature products like "bone broth noodles" to find its second blockbuster item. This is understandable, but blindly pursuing speed often backfires. According to data from Mashangying, from Q1 to Q4 of 2025, Baixiang launched a staggering 255 new SKUs in the instant noodle category, averaging almost two new products every three days. Such a rapid pace of new product launches hardly qualifies as "craftsmanship." Baixiang made a fatal mistake: attempting to find the next "flavor code" through traffic and "probability of overlap"—by rapidly launching new products, engaging in rapid marketing, rapid trial and error, and rapid product elimination, they aimed to increase the base size and increase the probability of creating a blockbuster product. This product development approach is entirely based on the digital strategies employed in the coffee and tea beverage industry. Tea and coffee are digitally native business formats characterized by "high frequency, immediacy, strong social interaction, and a strong ecosystem." The lifespan of a new coffee or tea product is very short, only a year or even a few months; last year's popular white peach flavor might not be popular this year. However, instant noodles are different from tea beverages. Instant noodles are a traditional fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) format characterized by "low frequency, standardized products, and heavy channel requirements," with major single-product lifecycles lasting 5-10 years, or even longer. It's important to understand that after so many years of development in China, only a handful of instant noodles, such as braised beef noodles, pickled cabbage beef noodles, and bone broth noodles, have become the "greatest common denominator of taste" for the general public. These classic flavors were only recognized by the market after repeated refinement, trial and error, and adjustments. Therefore, Baixiang's frequent new product launches, lacking in-depth innovation, amount to "ineffective involution," not only failing to find a second growth curve but also diverting attention from its original flagship products. This decline is very evident in sales data. According to statistics from Mashangying, looking at the year-on-year sales of Baixiang's major product lines, while Baixiang Tanghao and Baixiang Da La Jiao, as relatively mature product lines, have maintained relatively stable overall sales, they have both shown a certain degree of year-on-year decline in growth rate. Baixiang Da Gu Duo Ban and Baixiang Fenmian Cai Dan series, although achieving good year-on-year growth in the first half of 2024, have subsequently declined steadily, with both series showing negative year-on-year sales in the five months of 2025. This is not just a decline of a single product; what should be more alarming is the overall decline. In 2025, Baixiang's drop out of the top three in the instant noodle market was a dangerous signal. While traffic is easy to acquire, good reputation is hard to maintain. Even more worrying is that Baixiang's misdirected marketing has tainted its previously accumulated goodwill. In 2022, Baixiang gained significant goodwill through positive narratives such as "one-third of its employees are disabled" and "it rejected a Japanese acquisition." Fueled by this sentiment, it garnered enthusiastic consumer spending. This was undoubtedly a perfectly timed marketing campaign, even reshaping the entire instant noodle industry landscape, allowing Baixiang to push Jinmailang out of the top three and take its place. Having tasted the benefits of traffic, Baixiang seems to have developed a "traffic dependency," repeating the same tactics in subsequent developments, only to find them ineffective. In the past two years, Baixiang has had numerous marketing mishaps, such as the aforementioned "half a bag of noodles" series. This kind of "clever trickery" is really off-putting. As one netizen said, "I supported you because you're a national brand, and you try to play dirty tricks on me." Last December, Baixiang also launched a "buy a bucket of noodles and get gold" promotion, which similarly drew a lot of criticism. Some people bought metal detectors specifically to frantically "sweep" through supermarket shelves for that one gram of gold. Others weighed each bucket one by one to select the heaviest one, only to find that it just contained two extra forks. Traffic is easy to gain, but good reputation is hard to maintain. Food companies are fundamentally...Ultimately, the competition boils down to the product itself. When a product can't handle the surge in popularity, its unbalanced and unbalanced nature becomes apparent. From its inception to its peak, Baixiang focused on lower-tier markets, cultivating an image of "honesty, integrity," and "affordable domestic products." However, after its meteoric rise, Baixiang's ambitions swelled. On one hand, Baixiang seemed determined to break into the high-end market, investing heavily in cross-industry collaborations. It partnered with CCTV's Spring Festival Gala, Douyin's gala, and gaming collaborations, maximizing its exposure through a deluge of media coverage. Previously, it collaborated with Singles' Foods, offering a 5-pack of its rich tonkotsu soup series for 38.2 yuan (30.56 yuan after coupon), or 7.64 yuan per pack. Clearly, consumers prefer the "affordable" Baixiang. On the other hand, while popularity brings sales, it also creates illusions. Baixiang is clearly not content with being just a "national instant noodle brand." Thus, it has launched a series of cross-industry projects, including frozen foods, beverages, noodle shops, and convenience stores. However, its strategy has been characterized by "casting a wide net" and "dabbling without truly committing," with frequent adjustments to its strategic direction leading to resource dispersion and an inability to establish core competitiveness in any new field. Before its rise to fame, Baixiang ventured into the fresh noodle market with "Fuxi Noodle Workshop," boasting an ambitious goal of opening 5,000 stores within three years, which quickly failed. Its beverage division, established in 2009, was also marginalized during its development, only being reinstated this year. Now, Baixiang is expanding into the high-end market, engaging in cross-industry ventures, and venturing overseas. The larger its operations become, the more its lack of direction is exposed. How many more such haphazard attempts can Baixiang afford? Less reckless expansion is also a form of competitiveness. When a company begins to use "tactical diligence" to mask "strategic confusion," it is often a harbinger of crisis. Ultimately, Baixiang is truly desperate now. Currently, Baixiang is facing three pressures: Growth pressure – with the surge in online traffic fading and the absence of trending topics, how much consumer loyalty remains? The pressure from the food delivery war on instant noodles is even more evident; Pressure for a second growth curve – as Baixiang's main business reaches its peak, its new businesses continue to struggle, yet it has yet to find a second growth curve; Channel pressure – previous media reports indicated that Baixiang's online low-price strategy "backstabbed" its offline suppliers, leading to a "price collapse" crisis, resulting in the loss of its offline base and its inability to sell at full price online. Baixiang's predicament is not just a problem for one company, but a microcosm of the current situation of many domestic brands that have become wildly popular. They achieved overnight fame amidst a deluge of online traffic, but mistakenly equated popularity with strength; they expanded wildly under the pressure of capital, forgetting that focus is the anchor point for navigating economic cycles. True long-termism is not about constantly chasing trends, but about doing less, doing more, and doing it for longer amidst the noise. Like Lao Gan Ma, amidst fierce competition in numerous new channels for various condiments, Lao Gan Ma chose to remain calm and focused. Multiple official accounts were inactive, focusing solely on chili sauce, avoiding diversification and cross-industry ventures, and deeply cultivating traditional offline channels. Yet, it achieved a dominant market share of around 55%, its "dominance" in the chili sauce sector unmatched. Numerous domestic brands also serve as excellent examples, such as Pang Donglai and Mixue Ice Cream. They possess considerable brand awareness but chose restraint, focusing on cultivating their supply chain and refining their products, avoiding gimmicks and deceptive tactics. For instance, Pang Donglai has consistently focused on Henan, openly displaying the purchase prices of products like jade and down jackets on their labels. Mixue Ice Cream firmly establishes its value for money in its products, using simple and direct product names—lemonade is simply called lemonade, and bubble tea is simply called bubble tea. This sincerity and restraint have preserved its quality and reputation. In the face of various external uncertainties, a stable core is precisely the key for a company to weather economic cycles. Sometimes, "not innovating" is actually a form of innovation, and "not making trouble" is a form of competitiveness.