A post on May 22nd daring to challenge Jiangxiaobai stirred up the baijiu circle, which had long been devoid of innovation, and brought the light luxury baijiu brand George Patton into the spotlight. At first glance, George Patton seems to carry strong Jiangxiaobai DNA, from the founders' backgrounds to the same social marketing approach, but a closer look reveals significant differences between the two.

Productism vs. Copywriting Marketing

"I am Jiangxiaobai, life is simple!" — Jiangxiaobai's copywriting style has captured the hearts of many young consumers.

"Copywriting is not my selling point; the product is!" — George Patton's classic slogan.

Many people first got to know Jiangxiaobai through its copywriting, and some netizens even exclaimed that Jiangxiaobai is essentially an advertising company! However, George Patton did not follow the same copywriting-first marketing approach; instead, it adopted a product-first philosophy, bringing new thinking to the industry from a different direction.

According to Yang Yehu, who goes by the WeChat name "George Patton Dad," the team's original intention is to create a high-quality, high-appearance product for users and return to the essence of the product.

First, in product design: The George Patton team spent 188 days meticulously crafting the product, breaking through traditional baijiu design with a highly fashionable modernist design style, offering a "high-appearance" and stylish product to target users.

Second, in the choice of liquor body: "George Patton" uses a five-grain liquor body from the core production area of Sichuan in the Golden Triangle baijiu region, crafted with traditional strong-aroma ancient methods, to brew a high-quality, good-tasting liquor for new middle-class users that is "soft on entry, sweet on aftertaste, doesn't cause headaches, and wakes up quickly."

New Middle Class vs. New Generation

Jiangxiaobai Youth Small Liquor — for the new generation aged 20-28!

George Patton Light Luxury Fashion Baijiu — for 250 million new middle-class people aged 28-40!

Traditional Chinese baijiu has always been positioned for the high-end, traditional, and middle-aged and elderly markets, precisely ignoring the young market. "Jiangxiaobai" saw this blue ocean market. Its product is positioned for post-90s urban white-collar workers and youth groups, who are heavily influenced by internet lifestyles and often self-identify as "losers" or "literary youth."

However, as Chinese baijiu develops toward both ends, a vacuum has emerged: the 28-40 age group of new middle-class users. Their brand tone and quality taste needs are completely different from Jiangxiaobai's user group, and they are rapidly becoming a new force in Chinese baijiu consumption. This is a blank group with no brand representation or service. They are young and promising, fashionable and sunny, obsessed with niche pop culture; they wander in big cities, lonely and anxious; they strive wholeheartedly in the workplace, business, and politics for a better life.

The new middle class has a light luxury tone, often enjoying a solo drink or inviting a few friends to get slightly tipsy; a bottle of Moutai, Wuliangye, Yanghe, or Langjiu is too ceremonial and solemn; a bottle of youth small liquor is too pretentious.

George Patton precisely targets the 250 million new middle-class users, tailoring a light luxury emotional beverage for them to release the inner wildness of these urban youths suffering from "urban loneliness," "anxiety about upward mobility," and "wealth anxiety"!

George Patton Emotion Bottle vs. Jiangxiaobai Expression Bottle

The Weibo account "George Patton Dad" belongs to Yang Yehu, former marketing director of Jiangxiaobai, a rising internet celebrity IP in the marketing world in 2017, and a post-85s powerhouse digital marketing expert. A deep dive into the heartfelt soft articles on the official accounts of "Jiangxiaobai" and "George Patton Light Luxury Baijiu" reveals that whether Jiangxiaobai uses social marketing to drive users or George Patton uses productism to drive users, both new brands operate with a "user-driven" logic in brand management.

The launch of Jiangxiaobai's "Expression Bottle" can be seen as another product innovation. It satisfies the personalized expression desires of the new generation and initiates two-way interaction between the company and users.

George Patton Emotion Bottle G48ml — China's first tobacco-liquor hybrid creative product. It can ignite user emotions in any scenario, comes with built-in secondary dissemination and social attributes, and meets the interactive needs of friendship exchanges. It also pioneers a new model of selling liquor products by the strip.

The George Patton brand name combines two major IP images — the simple and happy little "George" from the globally popular social organization "Peppa Pig," and General Patton, the famous military commander known for his bravery in World War II. The simplicity and happiness of "George" from the social group represent the life attitude of new middle-class users; the fighting spirit of "General Patton" is exactly what contemporary people pursue — happiness is achieved through hard work! George Patton conveys a value of "simplicity, happiness, and hard work."

Through creative product design, the viral spread of the Emotion Bottle, and brand IP-ification, George Patton uses highly contextual social methods to trigger discussion and resonance among users from multiple dimensions.

Yang Yehu and Tao Shiquan are both masters of digital marketing and both come from grassroots backgrounds. As innovators in Chinese baijiu, their marketing logic and strategic approaches differ, and we believe they will bring new perspectives and ways of thinking to the 600 billion yuan industry market!

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