Behind the success is the joint R&D devotion in determining the fragrance. The pair finally chose an American perfumer who lived in China and tasted the candy during his stay. The final product features a top note of milk-infused candy, middle notes are a mixture of jasmine and Madagascan vanilla, and the base notes are natural fragrances from flowers and plants.
In fact, White Rabbit tested the water a year ago when it joined hands with Shanghai-based cosmetics company Maxam to produce a limited-edition lip balm, which went viral online.
"I feel for Chinese brands that have a lot of history like us, we not only need to stay classic but become viral as well," said Maxam's brand manager Li Chenshen.
The power of crossovers doesn't just appeal to homegrown brands but also to well-established international retailers who want to appeal to a younger, experience-driven audience.
Mondelez International, the US-based maker of Oreo cookies and Cadbury Creme Eggs, sought out e-commerce expertise to create a China-exclusive cookie portfolio featuring six flavors of traditional Chinese pastries, from red beans to roast pork.
With packaging designs featuring the Imperial Palace, some 760,000 limited-edition biscuits in different volumes were sold on the launch day on Tmall.
"Our collaboration shows our determination to talk to local customers using their language. It is essential that we place them at the center of our business decisionmaking," said Joost Vlaanderen, managing director of Mondelez China.
"There is definitely a broader trend toward brand collaboration happening globally and especially in China," said Ben Cavender, principal of the China Market Research Group. "It allows brands to connect with a broader group of consumers and cultivates a feeling of nostalgia."
E-commerce firms can also lend a distribution cachet that a traditional brand would sometimes lack.
"The development of logistics can help time-honored brands achieve coverage in a broader market through e-commerce platforms, and even beyond borders," said Neil Wang, president of consultancy Frost &Sullivan in China.
Alibaba has pledged to help more than 1,000 time-honored brands and well-known local merchants reach global customers through its Tmall and AliExpress marketplaces. Scissor maker Zhang Xiaoquan, which was established in 1628, saw sales on Tmall double to roughly 150,000 yuan ($21,693) in less than a year.
Apart from functioning as a sales channel, e-commerce also has a role to play in driving content marketing and reshaping brand image, something often neglected by traditional brands.
For instance, Wu Fangzhai, which produces zongzi, a traditional dish of stuffed glutinous rice wrapped in bamboo leaves, has sought to overhaul common perceptions of the food as stodgy and bland.
The company has opted for a branding makeover by teaming up with Disney's Marvel series, releasing Captain America-themed zongzi.
Online vendor Pinduoduo identifies the common Achilles' heel of laozihao as a lack of marketing prowess. It promised earlier this year to invest over 10 billion yuan worth of marketing resources and provide 1.5 billion yuan in cash subsidies to boost the influence of 100 Shanghai-based classic brands and expand their market share.
Top of the agenda was the opening of 10 marketing training courses dedicated to personnel responsible for branding at these companies. The platform said it will leverage multiple media channels and its in-house marketing resources to tell the brand story in a more engaging way.
In the first four months of 2019, Shanghai-headquartered laozihao saw orders increase 2.5 times year-on-year, with accumulated orders surpassing 8.7 million, according to Pinduoduo's in-house statistician.
Shampoo maker Bee &Flower saw revenue almost quadruple during the same period and monthly sales have topped 1 million yuan since March.
"Such unprecedented speed is achieved largely due to a raft of marketing campaigns telling the brand story that are sponsored by the platform," said Guo Deying, a company executive overseeing Bee &Flower's production and sales.
Modern branding is making the difference, allowing time-honored brands to stay agile, said Cheng Mingwang, vice-dean of the School of Economics and Management at Tongji University.
He believed that branding should both precede and underlie any marketing effort. Branding is not push, but pull. It is communication of the characteristics, values and attributes that clarify what this particular brand is and is not. "An effective branding schemes says: This is what I am. If you agree, if you like me, you can buy me. But it's not something that classic brands are good at," he said.
