What could a low-end baijiu product like Old Village Chief and a health wine brand like Jing Jiu possibly have in common? What inevitable connection could exist between two products of different categories? In fact, viewing an event dialectically, there may be many impossibilities, but at least there will always be some similarities or close points. Therefore, for Old Village Chief and Jing Jiu, although these two brands seem incomparable on the surface, there are actually many aspects that can be compared.

The author is not emphasizing which brand is stronger or weaker, nor stirring up any dispute. Rather, the purpose is to find the similarities and differences between these two brands through analogy, to identify points worthy of attention or learning for the current sluggish baijiu market. The true intention of this article is to explore how these 'small brands,' which have not received much attention, have achieved incredible market scale and sales.

When it comes to which brand is strongest in the low-end baijiu market, it should be China's northeastern Old Village Chief. This baijiu brand, which grew up in Northeast China, has entered thousands of households, especially in rural markets, through low-end, high-volume sales. Because Old Village Chief's brand positioning is set here, both its market distribution and channel absorption are mostly concentrated in areas with relatively weak consumption. Unlike the current first-tier 'high-end' baijiu brands, this 'small but beautiful' approach is destined to take an unconventional path.

Similarly, the growth of Jing Jiu is also legendary. It has now grown into a leading brand in the health wine category, but its product's health concept has an obscure side, making many consumers 'ashamed to consume.' However, as a commodity, Jing Jiu's marketing methods are no different from baijiu. In recent years, Jing Jiu's growth momentum has been obvious, and it has firmly occupied the top position in the industry, leaving other similar brands far behind. What is the marketing secret behind this?

Similarities: Start with the big picture, focus on the small details

First similarity: Positioning first, laying a solid foundation

As commodities, Old Village Chief and Jing Jiu have survived and developed in a complex market environment and gradually grown stronger, which must be due to their outstanding qualities. The most obvious point is precise product positioning, because a product is not necessarily suitable for all people; precise targeting of consumer groups is the most important step before a product enters the market. What kind of product suits what kind of people, and what kind of people should consume what kind of product. Only when the consumer group matches the product positioning can the smooth marketing of the product be guaranteed.

During the 'crazy decade,' wineries with a bit of strength were all improving brand premium capabilities and focusing on building mid-to-high-end baijiu. Low-end baijiu was mainly operated by small regional manufacturers, which had no intention of expanding outward and had single marketing methods. Old Village Chief seized this positioning gap and rose rapidly. After years of market operations, Old Village Chief not only became synonymous with low-end products but also a representative brand of bottle-wine (unboxed baijiu). The most important point is that Old Village Chief knows exactly who its products are for. Therefore, its positioning is very clear: first, not to go high-end, but to stick to the mid-to-low-end route; second, to target consumers, facing farmers, migrant workers, and the working class; third, to focus on rural markets, specializing in deepening the county, township, and village three-level markets. With clear product positioning, Old Village Chief strengthens the market through deep distribution.

The Chinese baijiu market is huge, with big brands like Moutai, Wuliangye, Jiannanchun, Yanghe, and Luzhou Laojiao dominating the market, and countless local brands sharing the pie. Therefore, the predecessor of Jing Jiu, Daye Xinjian Winery, was once insolvent and on the verge of bankruptcy. Thus, it voluntarily gave up the baijiu main business and took a different path to enter the health wine market. Through product reform, the first generation of Jing Jiu saw supply exceed demand as soon as it was launched, making Jing Jiu a successful case of focusing on a small category. The success of its transformation laid the foundation for Jing Jiu's rise, but the success of product positioning is the basis for Jing Jiu's growth. Jing Jiu's main consumer target is men aged 30-45, a group generally characterized by high life and work pressure and being in a sub-health state. Jing Jiu's special health benefits can meet the consumption needs of this group. Although it is a niche group, the foundation is solid.

Second similarity: Deep distribution, channel is key

Channel operations focus on distribution. The reason Old Village Chief and Jing Jiu can circulate in the low-end consumer market is also related to their deep distribution. Due to the differences in product positioning, Old Village Chief and Jing Jiu are destined not to 'rely on price' like famous wines, but to 'rely on volume.' Therefore, doing deep distribution well is a common feature of channel operations for mid-to-low-end brands, and the strength of terminal sales capability determines their survival.

As the leader in low-end products, Old Village Chief has outstanding marketing decisions. In summary, the fact that Old Village Chief was able to sweep Northeast China and grow into a strong brand in the low-end baijiu markets of Shanxi, Hebei, Shandong, Henan, Jiangsu, Anhui, and other provinces shows its deep effort. The accuracy of Old Village Chief's marketing positioning can be said to have a certain serendipity. Why do I say this? In the past few years, national baijiu brands and local strong brands were all focusing on high-end or mid-to-high-end baijiu, resulting in a nationwide 'wave of price increases.' Old Village Chief, considering its own brand, focused on the low-end market that major brands did not value, thus taking a unique path in channels. But the success of channel positioning is not the key to Old Village Chief's rise; the key is the result of deep channel distribution. Old Village Chief's deep distribution has high requirements for details. Any place that can directly contact consumers, such as butcher shops, vegetable stores, small shops, and small restaurants, is basically developed into its terminal. This not only improves the service quality of distributors but also well maintains the interests of the terminals themselves.

Jing Jiu's approach is roughly the same. 'Connect far, cover near' is the core idea of Jing Jiu's market operations. It focuses on breaking through in core urban areas, using edge effects to drive the surrounding areas; at the same time, it develops deeply in township and village networks, fully covering terminal catering, following up wholesale and retail, and penetrating households, with an emphasis on increasing terminal retail efforts. Because it takes the catering channel and faces the characteristic of many catering points, Jing Jiu attaches great importance to the coverage and speed of distribution. Advertising fees, store entry fees, POP, pull-up banners, menu cards, and other terminal materials are provided by Jing Jiu. The recruited salespeople are managed and assigned work by distributors, and wages are shared by the manufacturer and distributor in proportion. Relying on a market deepening strategy, Jing Jiu steadily and solidly makes the market very solid.

Third similarity: Marketing momentum to drive consumption

Given the particularity of channel operations, Old Village Chief and Jing Jiu differ slightly from other brands in marketing momentum. Because their main channel is positioned in catering, and the movement in the catering channel lies in the deep impact of marketing activities on consumers. Marketing momentum is an important aspect.

For the necessity of brand promotion, Old Village Chief invited famous Northeast comedian Fan Wei to endorse the brand, using the slogan 'Don't treat the village chief as a non-official' to quickly occupy the low-end consumer market, especially the vast rural market. This created a brand memory point and completed the initial brand building. Later, Old Village Chief used 'good taste, comfortable drinking' as the product quality appeal, forming a word-of-mouth effect among consumers. For the necessity of brand upgrading, Old Village Chief strongly advocates the values of 'down-to-earth life, positive progress' and proposes the brand positioning of 'live well, improve daily,' seizing the public mental resources of hundreds of millions of consumers and resonating with the low-to-mid-end struggling crowd.

In 2008, when the global financial crisis began to spread, many liquor companies significantly reduced their TV advertising investment. However, Jing Jiu did the opposite at this time, increasing its investment in CCTV and shouting against the trend with 'Jing Jiu is good, but don't be greedy,' boosting the confidence of channel providers and consumers in Jing Jiu, while enhancing brand recognition and reputation. At the same time, to quickly further implement the brand appeal, Jing Jiu has increased brand experience marketing in recent years, holding five sessions of the Jing Jiu Tracing Base Tour. Consumers of Jing Jiu can have the opportunity to visit the headquarters of Jingpai Liquor Industry Company, the raw liquor base, and the health wine base, truly experience the production process of Jing Jiu, understand Jing Jiu's corporate culture and business philosophy, and deepen their understanding and recognition of Jingpai Liquor Industry Company and Jing Jiu.

Differences: Different treatment, each with its own focus

The comparison between Old Village Chief and Jing Jiu does not mean that there is a question of which brand is stronger or weaker, or who is ahead. Although both operate in the low-end market, their corporate foundations, plans, and development strategies are different, leading to differences between the two. The specific differences are as follows:

First difference: Different operating entities

The difference in operating entities here refers to the difference in the main body of product market operations. Old Village Chief's market operations are mainly based on distributors, while Jing Jiu's main operations are led by the manufacturer.

Old Village Chief itself does not have an advantage in product pricing, which means the product must control costs. Therefore, most Old Village Chief products are filled in different places or under OEM. The manufacturer only sends salespeople to focus on market development in the early stage, and later gradually hands over maintenance to distributors. In this way, distributors have less pressure in the early market development, and later market maintenance returns to distributors, indirectly equivalent to 'reaping without sowing.' Moreover, distributors benefit greatly from this, so the distributor team naturally grows quickly. Jing Jiu, on the other hand, always insists that the market should be controlled by the manufacturer, implementing a deep distribution strategy where the manufacturer controls the market, with distributors cooperating as a supplement, and manufacturer offices go deep into the secondary market. In this way, the manufacturer operates the market directly, and distributors' attention and contribution to the brand naturally decrease, weakening brand loyalty.

Second difference: Different customer relationship maintenance

Although Old Village Chief and Jing Jiu overlap in channel operations, there are obvious differences in their respective channel maintenance. The category difference between Old Village Chief and Jing Jiu, coupled with the difference in profitability of their main products, determines that the density of customer relationship maintenance and the way of customer service are different. In fact, Old Village Chief's customer relationship maintenance is more intensive and detailed. Often visiting the market, you will see transport vehicles with Old Village Chief wine advertising signs, usually vans, frequently 'shuttling' through cities, towns, and villages. Through terminal interviews, it is learned that Old Village Chief wine will give each retail terminal a periodic visit form, and each time a salesperson comes, they check a box, allowing the terminal to directly participate in the supervision and management of distributor sales personnel. Since Old Village Chief's terminals are mostly concentrated in small shops, small restaurants, food stalls, etc., these low-end consumption places rarely have storefront promotions; more often, in-store posters, stickers, and warm reminder slogans are more popular in these places. Regarding gifts, ordinary consumers want practicality. Old Village Chief wine has a wide variety of gifts: giving wine glasses with a case, exchanging bottle caps for gifts, giving cash for opening bottles, and giving towels, socks, stainless steel bowls, rice cookers, belts, and other daily necessities for rural people during activities. These small favors over time cultivate a deep sense of recognition. In contrast, Jing Jiu's approach is clearly different. Jing Jiu mainly relies on early deep promotion, high-profile and high-pressure, and related detail work is basically done in one step, unlike Old Village Chief's frequent and dense maintenance.

Third difference: Different value concepts

Through comparison, it is found that Old Village Chief and Jing Jiu have essential differences in value concepts. I originally thought that two brands doing the low-end market would have similar values. But in reality, over the years, Old Village Chief has been 'doing small,' while Jing Jiu has been 'doing big.'

Old Village Chief's 'doing small' does not mean shrinking in scale, but rather becoming more refined in business thinking. It has been focusing on the low-end market because Old Village Chief understands where its brand value lies. Only by focusing more on the low-end market, strengthening and expanding the market scale of low-end products, can it accumulate industrial foundation and strength 'by volume.' Jing Jiu's 'doing big' not only involves high-profile media promotion, showing a big-brand temperament, but also re-entering its former baijiu main business, developing Maopu Kuqu Wine, showing that Jing Jiu is not satisfied with long-term low-end market operations and also wants to diversify its industrial sectors to enhance its own strength. This is a clear difference between the two.

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