Click to read the original text for details Baijiu, a trillion-yuan market, with generous profit returns, high value, and high frequency. To industry practitioners, compared to other categories, it is almost a 'perfect' industry. The more perfect, the more difficult. The baijiu industry has a long history, but when it comes to innovation, looking back, there are few examples. Early on, Yanghe and Shede, and more recently Jiangxiaobai, along with other rising baijiu brands, have mostly been business innovations or model innovations. Today, innovation in baijiu is not about market model innovation, nor single product innovation, but rather, in the context of the new era, combining the values and culture of young consumers, the post-90s and post-95s, to innovate in products and brands. Because baijiu as a commodity is never as simple as drinking it in one go. Two or three people, four or five people, sharing a drink, behind this lies more the culture and values of a group of people. △Chen Zhenyu, founder of Guanyun Liquor Recently, New Distribution had a discussion with Mr. Chen Zhenyu, founder of Guanyun Baijiu. He is not only a post-90s, but also a second-generation liquor entrepreneur. At 30, just entering the baijiu consumption circle, let's see how he understands the opportunities in the baijiu industry and what innovative actions Guanyun Liquor has taken. -01- Individual, Industry, Era: Opportunities for Baijiu Entrepreneurship Before talking about Guanyun Liquor, let's first talk about Chen Zhenyu's personal resume, which is simply a life of extraordinary achievements. Born in the 90s, he was born into a brewing family in Shuanggou, Jiangsu, and is the fifth-generation heir of the Yongyuan Wine Workshop's Chen family. He loved technology from a young age, and during his high school years, he won four national awards in informatics Olympiads and robot competitions. Shortly after entering university, he dropped out to start a business, later becoming a programmer at a foreign company. In 2014, he returned to his hometown to found Guanyun Liquor. In August 2018, Forbes China announced its 2018 "30 Under 30" list, and Chen Zhenyu was successfully selected, alongside Olympic champion Ma Long, "China's Go number one" Ke Jie, and Heytea CEO Nie Yunchen, among other outstanding young people. When asked why he started a baijiu business, Chen Zhenyu told New Distribution that there were three main considerations. First, on a personal level, his hometown has a history of liquor production, and he was too familiar with liquor, which was easy to overlook in the past. But after truly leaving his hometown, he realized that most people don't have many opportunities to actually drink good liquor. This is the baijiu opportunity seen from a personal perspective. From an industry perspective, apart from high-end baijiu represented by Moutai and Wuliangye, which have formed relatively stable market structures, other areas are still dominated by numerous regional brands entrenched in various places. The market is extremely fragmented, and opportunities are obvious. From an era perspective, we can see that every 20 years a new generation emerges. And each generation's preferences, aesthetics, and education are completely different. For example, our generation uses WeChat, but today's young people might not use WeChat; they use QQ, thinking WeChat is for their parents and older siblings, even though we used QQ when we were young. Each generation has its own things, so the opportunity we see is the empathy generated by generations; only people of the same generation can share common emotions. This is a limitation of the era. Of course, for innovative companies, it is an opportunity given by the times. Since founding Guanyun Baijiu in 2014, with initial financing of 5 million yuan and an annual compound growth rate of 300%, Chen Zhenyu explained, "For innovative brands, this growth rate may not be high. But we are not in a hurry; baijiu is a slow industry, and we will do this for the long term. It's not the internet industry, nor conventional consumer goods; establishing a baijiu brand requires a process of accumulation." Therefore, in the early stages of entrepreneurship, Chen Zhenyu's plans were not for 3 months, 6 months, or 1 year, but more for 10 years. He believes that "technology and design" will change Chinese baijiu. At the same time, for Chen Zhenyu, his age is relatively young in the industry, so he can afford to wait. The foundation of the 10-year plan is always thinking about what kind of baijiu this wave of young consumers wants to drink. -02- Spend Time on the Product; Every Position Must Understand Liquor Chen Zhenyu told New Distribution that from 2014 until 2018, Guanyun Liquor almost put all its energy into production, R&D, and design. Not to mention the liquor body itself, in Guanyun Liquor, national-level tasters (grades 1, 2, 3) account for over 60% of employees. Whether designers, salespeople, or marketing personnel, all must learn. Every year, Guanyun Liquor selects people to study; regardless of position, if they pass, the company reimburses the fees; if they fail, they pay themselves. In Chen Zhenyu's understanding, to do a good baijiu brand, the people involved must be those who understand liquor, make liquor, and sell liquor, truly able to stand from the user's perspective to build a good brand. In making liquor, Guanyun does not deliberately distinguish between high-end, mid-range, or low-end; it only strives to make the same product the best, using internet thinking to continuously iterate and polish it better. Chen Zhenyu integrates a programmer's way of thinking into baijiu production, turning the entire process into a scientific algorithm optimization of a complex system. While inheriting traditional brewing techniques, it adopts advanced technology to enhance the drinking experience and speed up sobering. When matching products to consumer groups, the target user profile is new backbone individuals around 35 years old, with a certain income level, aesthetic sense, good educational background, reading comprehension ability, and even a preference for art. This group's recognition of Guanyun Liquor is not about considering the impression of the bottle when entertaining friends, but truly loving the bottle. Returning to the consumer brand itself, consumers essentially don't buy the brand; they buy themselves, just seeing some reflection of themselves in the brand. Chen Zhenyu told New Distribution that compared to traditional baijiu brands, which talk about what occasions a 200-yuan bottle is suitable for—whether it's a small gathering of friends or a formal banquet—they hope to guide you and tell you where this bottle can be consumed. But Guanyun Baijiu's logic is to pursue more the recognition generated between the brand itself and users, not caring about who you drink with. Guanyun hopes users can see their own reflection in the brand, especially in the pursuit of product details, allowing users to feel the brand and culture behind Guanyun Liquor. Of course, Chen Zhenyu admits, to complete such brand and cultural output and let users fully feel it, this requires a process of gradual accumulation and long-term effort. -03- Focus on Small Circles, Serve the Stores, and Clearly Communicate Guanyun's Philosophy In the past, Guanyun Liquor's sales mainly came from social e-commerce, WeChat, and community conversion. In the early stage, through tasting events, KOLs were used for promotion; after trial drinking, they shared their experience of Guanyun Liquor. Coupled with baijiu's strong social attributes, mainly shared among multiple people, it easily formed word-of-mouth communication. Guanyun Liquor leverages the film circle, internet circle, new media circle, and art circle to build communication communities with KOLs interested in liquor. In recent years, Guanyun Liquor has moved offline, focusing not on distributors or consumers, but on stores. Chen Zhenyu told New Distribution that some catering stores should be seen as media. For example, a table of three or four people is better than a table of ten. Because at a table of three or four, each person usually has a menu, while at a table of ten, there is basically one menu. This might not be a good medium because the other nine people can't see you. Four people might not be a good consumption scenario for baijiu, but it is a good medium. For such channels, in 2020, Guanyun Liquor will focus its investment. What we need to do is "serve" the stores well, making them recognize Guanyun Liquor. Going to the offline market, our core users will be store owners. Through various means, we let the owners recognize Guanyun Liquor, including the content behind it. Only then can we clearly communicate externally, and users can fully receive Guanyun's philosophy. The traditional approach for new baijiu products might be counter displays, waiter recommendations, table stickers, etc. In Chen Zhenyu's view, this is just informing, not creating awareness. Currently, as an innovative consumer brand, the most important thing for Guanyun Liquor is to create awareness, not just inform. Behind awareness is the product. Besides the product's external features, such as easy to drink, no throat irritation, and quick sobering, there is also product content. For example, Jiangxiaobai's content is copywriting; the content itself determines the product's unit price. The copy for a 100,000-yuan car, a 200,000-yuan car, and a 1 million-yuan car are all different. For all new brands to connect with users, for users to be willing to buy and trust you, the core lies in whether the content produced is good. Good content, combined with precise distribution, can generate user awareness of the brand. Chen Zhenyu admits that producing good content is inherently difficult. Guanyun Liquor doesn't have such good resources. When you find a very influential person to endorse you, Moutai can easily find 100. So for us, the core of content creation is still focused on the product itself. Of course, for innovative brands, flexibility and decision-making speed, compared to traditional enterprises, have a time window. Redefining baijiu users is essentially the opportunity given to us by the new consumption era: creating new content, new forms, and even new habits. The rest depends on whether Guanyun Liquor can catch up with this era, or catch up with the growth speed of these post-90s, so that when they truly need baijiu, they choose us. Finally: The above is the case of innovative baijiu Guanyun Liquor, returning to innovation in the consumer goods industry. If we look at industry iteration from a syllogistic perspective, we find that each era has its own innovation rules. The first stage: local or foreign brands, mainly meeting consumers' basic needs, with diverse and rich products, targeting the mass market. Based on consumer trust in the brand, the brand informs consumers. Product safety, taste stimulation, and instant convenience. The second stage: with the advent of the internet, interaction between people and brands becomes immediate and efficient. Typical examples include Three Squirrels and Jiangxiaobai. Because of efficient communication, brands begin to pay attention to consumers' feelings and emotions. The brand's extension adds more emotional appeals, not only in communication but also in appearance design. It not only makes you know the brand but also understands and delights consumers. Emotional pleasure, beautiful design, and attention to experience. The third stage, which is the era we are in now, when communication is no longer a highlight, and when more and more brands begin to delight consumers, the return of innovation is the product. When communication is used as a bridge for product iteration, rather than a simple emotional link, good products, good design, and good experience are the basic survival rules for every innovative consumer brand in this era! Focusing on new distribution for FMCG distributors / new marketing cases for brand owners For communication, you can add WeChat by long-pressing. When adding, please indicate your company, position, and name.