12: Chapter 12 The Imitators

One afternoon two weeks later, Chairman Wang Shunyi sat in his office looking through the online store's data.

Over two hundred packs of fire chicken noodles a day, over a hundred packs of river snail rice noodles, and about fifty boxes of self-heating pots. Monthly sales had already broken twenty million, which looked quite pleasant.

But just as he was about to close the page, something caught his eye.

Starting from last week, the sales of fire chicken noodles had been dropping by a few packs every day. It wasn't a large drop, but it had been happening for several days in a row.

He clicked on the detailed data and looked through the customer reviews. A few new comments made him frown:

"The taste is okay, but it's not as spicy as my friends said?"

"It's just average, feels pretty ordinary."

"It's about the same as other spicy noodles, I don't think it's that special."

Something was wrong. The selling point of fire chicken noodles was that they were spicy and unique enough. Why were people saying they were "not that spicy"?

He clicked into the profile of a customer who left such a review and found that the person had reviewed something else a week ago:

"Tried another brand's spicy chicken noodles today, they felt about the same. I don't know why my friends insisted that fire chicken noodles were especially spicy."

Another brand? Spicy chicken noodles?

Chairman Wang Shunyi's heart skipped a beat, and he immediately opened Coupang to search for "spicy chicken noodles."

The first search result was a brand he had never seen before—"canhe spicy chicken noodles."

A red fire chicken was printed on the packaging, and the style looked like it was carved from the same mold as fire chicken noodles. Below the product name hung a striking promotional slogan:

"Local Korean super spicy instant noodles! Spicier and tastier than imports! Special price of 1,500 won per pack!"

He clicked in to see the details. Net weight 140 grams, noodle block, spicy sauce packet, sesame and seaweed packet—it was exactly the same configuration as his. There were already several hundred reviews on the page:

"So spicy! Even spicier than fire chicken noodles!"

"Good taste, cheap price, recommended!"

"Finally, there are local Korean super spicy noodles, no need to buy imports anymore."

Chairman Wang Shunyi stared at the screen, his fingers slowly tightening.

Canhe Foods had made its move.

He immediately called Zhang Junhao over.

After Jun-ho finished looking at the page, his face darkened: "An imitation? The packaging is similar, the name is similar, and it's even cheaper than ours..."

"More than that." Chairman Wang Shunyi pointed at the reviews, "Look, many are saying 'spicier than fire chicken noodles' and 'no need to buy imports anymore.' It's clearly aimed at us."

Jun-ho fell silent for a moment: "Park Chan-hyeok moved really fast. We just said we wouldn't sell, and he came up with this in less than two weeks."

"The pricing is low too," Chairman Wang Shunyi said. "1,500 a pack, five hundred cheaper than ours. With normal pricing, he'd definitely lose money at this price. He's fighting a price war, trying to squeeze us out with low prices."

"Then should we lower our price too?"

Chairman Wang Shunyi shook his head: "We can't. If we lower it, we'll fall into a price war. Canhe has been around for decades and has much more money than we do. We can't win a price competition."

"Then what should we do?"

"Don't compete with him on price; widen the gap in other areas." Chairman Wang Shunyi thought for a moment. "First, emphasize our unique features—fire chicken noodles are a unique product never before seen in Korea, not just ordinary spicy noodles. Second, make the quality and taste even better, so customers can tell the difference as soon as they eat it. Third, increase marketing so more people know what the real fire chicken noodles look like."

"Specifically?"

"Find a few influential food bloggers and do a comparison review. Have them try fire chicken noodles and canhe spicy chicken noodles at the same time and give a public evaluation. As long as our stuff is truly good, consumers will know. Then create a 'Real vs. Fake fire chicken noodles' topic on social media to let everyone discuss the differences. To be even more ruthless, push a limited edition to raise the brand's prestige."

Jun-ho thought about it: "Isn't a comparison review risky? What if the bloggers say Canhe's is better?"

Chairman Wang Shunyi smiled: "They won't. I've looked at the ingredient list for canhe spicy chicken noodles. Their spicy sauce is just ordinary chili powder plus additives; the taste is very average. Our fire chicken noodles have a unique recipe, sweet within the spice, with rich layers. As long as they taste it seriously, anyone can tell which is better in one bite."

"Alright. I'll go contact some bloggers."

"Also," Chairman Wang Shunyi said, "keep a close eye. Canhe definitely has more tricks up their sleeve."

Over the next few days, the whole team got moving.

Jun-ho contacted five or six somewhat influential food bloggers, most of whom were willing to do it—the condition was providing free products and a small fee. Chairman Wang Shunyi agreed. He took twenty packs of fire chicken noodles from his storage space, bought twenty packs of canhe spicy chicken noodles online, and sent them all together.

Lee Soo-yeon's side began pushing the "Real vs. Fake fire chicken noodles" topic. She posted a thread with a very eye-catching title: "fire chicken noodles vs. Spicy Chicken Noodles, who is the authentic super spicy king?" The post detailed the packaging, ingredients, taste, and price of the two products, finally concluding that fire chicken noodles were a unique product never before seen in Korea, while spicy chicken noodles were just an imitation, with taste and spiciness a level below.

Once the post was out, the comment section exploded. Some said, "fire chicken noodles are the original, support the original," some said, "As long as it's tasty, who cares who imitated whom," and others said, "Spicy chicken noodles are cheap and have high cost-performance." After all the arguing, there were still more supporters for fire chicken noodles.

A week later, the first blogger's comparison video came out. Title: "fire chicken noodles vs. Spicy Chicken Noodles, who is the real spicy king? A real test will tell you!"

In the video, the blogger first compared the packaging: "The packaging of fire chicken noodles is very recognizable, and the fire chicken pattern is very cool. The style of the spicy chicken noodles is very similar, but it looks a bit like a knock-off."

Comparing the noodle blocks: "About the same, both look like ordinary instant noodles."

Comparing the spicy sauce: "The spicy sauce of fire chicken noodles is deep red and has a special fragrance. The color of the spicy chicken noodles is lighter, and it just smells like ordinary spice."

Finally, the tasting: "The fire chicken noodles are very springy, and the spiciness is very high, but there's sweetness within the spice. There's a sweet aftertaste after eating, which makes you want another bite. The spicy chicken noodles are also not bad, but the spicy sauce taste is singular—only spicy, with no other layers. After eating, there's only a burning sensation in the mouth, no aftertaste."

Conclusion: "fire chicken noodles are the true spicy king, with a rich taste, highly recommended. Spicy chicken noodles are an imitation; they're cheap, but the taste is average, not really recommended."

The video views quickly surpassed several thousand. In the comment section, some said "the blogger is right," some said "I bought the spicy chicken noodles before and felt they were average, turns out I bought the wrong ones," and some said "fire chicken noodles are good, but a bit expensive."

Watching this, Chairman Wang Shunyi breathed a slight sigh of relief. At least some people were starting to distinguish between the two.

Over the next few days, other bloggers also released their videos one after another. The conclusions were mostly the same—fire chicken noodles were more authentic and tasted better; spicy chicken noodles were an imitation and fell short.

With tens of thousands of views and thousands of discussions, the situation finally stabilized a bit.

But Canhe's side wasn't idle either.

They began a massive advertising blitz, emphasizing "local Korean brand," "affordable price," and "guaranteed quality." Even more ruthlessly, they signed contracts with several large convenience store chains, placing spicy chicken noodles in the most prominent positions.

Chairman Wang Shunyi went to a nearby CU to take a look. Right in the middle of the shelf, canhe spicy chicken noodles were stacked neatly. He asked the clerk if they had fire chicken noodles, and the clerk shook his head: "No. We only sell what the company uniformly distributes."

Chairman Wang Shunyi's heart sank halfway.

Canhe had entered national chains, with thousands of stores stocking them simultaneously. Meanwhile, the forty or fifty small shops he had couldn't even compare to a fraction of that.

Returning to the office, he told Jun-ho about the situation.

Jun-ho also fell silent. After a while, he said: "We tried to enter the large chains before, but the threshold was too high—they require a formal factory, a quality management system, and stable supply capacity. We're just a small packaging workshop right now, and they didn't pay us any mind. Now that Canhe has already entered, it's even harder for us."

"Then let's build a formal factory," Chairman Wang Shunyi said.

Jun-ho was stunned: "Build a factory? How much money and time would that take?"

"I know," Chairman Wang Shunyi said, "but if we want to wrestle with Canhe, this is bound to happen sooner or later. We can't do small business forever."

Jun-ho looked at him and nodded: "Alright. I'll make a plan first."

At night, Chairman Wang Shunyi was the only one left in the office. He sat by the window, looking at the brightly lit Seoul outside.

Canhe's counterattack was faster and more ruthless than he had imagined. Imitations, price wars, channel blockades... this was just the beginning. If they didn't grow strong quickly, they would be swallowed whole sooner or later.

He took out his phone and checked the funds in his account: about thirty million won.

To build a decent factory, it would take at least a hundred million or more.

It was a long way off.

But he didn't feel discouraged. If it was a long way off, he would just take it one step at a time.