---
title: "Jiangxiaobai's Guide to Staying Young"
description: "Whether it's allowing consumers to express themselves or using consumer language, the essence is a 'reconciliation' between the brand and consumers. Jiangxiaobai, a young Chinese baijiu brand, has achieved success by understanding and engaging with young consumers through innovative products, marketing, and a youthful corporate culture."
author: "田巧云"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2019-10-26"
categories: "Brand Marketing, Industry Trends"
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# Jiangxiaobai's Guide to Staying Young

> Whether it's allowing consumers to express themselves or using consumer language, the essence is a 'reconciliation' between the brand and consumers. Jiangxiaobai, a young Chinese baijiu brand, has achieved success by understanding and engaging with young consumers through innovative products, marketing, and a youthful corporate culture.

**"Whether it's allowing consumers to express themselves or using consumer language, the essence is a 'reconciliation' between the brand and consumers."**
Chongqing's Xinghui Liangjiang Art Commercial Center in Yubei District is a full 15 kilometers from Raffles City, the city's most bustling downtown area. By day, it's far from the noise of the city center, but at night, it's a different scene.
Young people in twos and threes emerge from nearby office buildings and, in a turn, step into the Jiangxiaobai Tavern. After taking their seats, they chat over spicy Chongqing cuisine, driving away the day's fatigue.
From the floor-to-ceiling windows of the tavern, one can see the Jiangxiaobai Bar across the way, a gathering spot for trendy youth. Amid the interplay of light and shadow, the city's energy begins to release.
At midnight, taxis pull up to the curb, waiting for the young patrons as they leave. The "Jiangxiaobai" advertising light boxes on the car roofs are strikingly visible in the night. Once someone gets in, the car quickly merges into the darkness, becoming one with the city.
In fact, no industry is as inseparable from geography as the liquor industry. From Bordeaux wines and Scotch whisky to Moutai from Maotai Town and Luzhou Laojiao from Luzhou City, and now to Jiangxiaobai from Chongqing.
Jiangxiaobai was launched in 2012, named after the internet slang "xiaobai," which conveys self-deprecation and self-mockery. At its inception, it sparked countless controversies. Some speculated from a business model perspective that the company wouldn't survive a year; others analyzed from product design and user positioning that low-alcohol liquor targeting young people had no future...
According to a 2018 online alcohol consumption report jointly released by CBNData and Tmall, post-80s and post-90s consumers accounted for nearly 70% of the consumer group, with post-90s and post-95s showing a significant increase in per-customer spending on online alcohol. That year, Jiangxiaobai's annual sales exceeded 2 billion yuan.
**In fact, the consumption characteristics of young consumers—diversification, personalization, innovation, and breakthrough-seeking—have already influenced the consumption landscape of the liquor industry.**
So, is it enough for the baijiu industry to rejuvenate by focusing on products and channels? Can other brands follow the path Jiangxiaobai has taken? What should truly be adhered to on the road to baijiu rejuvenation?
Today, we'll take you to find the answers to these three questions.
**-01-**
**Reconciling with Consumers**
In the consumer goods sector, baijiu is an unapologetically traditional industry.
As the post-90s generation gradually gains a voice in the consumer domain, they increasingly expect brands to express themselves in a youthful way. Leading baijiu companies have sensed this trend and are striving to change.
One approach starts with the product, with small bottles being the mainstream. The capacity of small bottles has mostly been reduced from the original 500ml to between 100ml and 200ml, and the alcohol content has also been lowered from around 52 degrees to about 40 degrees. Examples include Wuliangye's "Huopao," Luzhou Laojiao's "Luxiao'er," and Yanghe's "Yangxiao'er."
These leading brands have very mature distributor channels, so offline sales should be promising. However, after searching Luzhou Laojiao's Tmall official flagship store, Retail Jun found that Luxiao'er is not listed there. Yanghe and Wuliangye's small bottles are available in their official flagship stores, but as of the writing of this article, Yanghe's two small-bottle products had only 22 buyers combined, and Wuliangye's three had 77 buyers.
Another approach starts with channels, adding new sales pathways. The baijiu industry has long been adept at using traditional tiered distribution to capture markets, but with changes in technology and the consumption environment, the drawback of the distributor model being too far from consumers has begun to emerge.
Coupled with the diversification of consumption scenarios, consumers' immediate demand for baijiu has increased. These changes have even unsettled industry leader Moutai.
Last year, Moutai launched the Moutai Cloud Merchant App. Although 53-degree Feitian Moutai still couldn't be purchased through it, and it was described by outsiders as a chicken rib, it didn't dampen Moutai's determination to develop new sales channels. Recently, Moutai officially announced that in addition to direct supply to offline supermarkets like Wumart and Costco, it would add three e-commerce channels, including Tmall and Suning, to shorten the purchase path for end consumers.
**From products to channels, the actions of leading liquor companies are trendsetting. However, for young consumers, is this enough?** Jiangxiaobai's approach might offer us some alternative thinking.
Consumers first got to know Jiangxiaobai through its Expression Bottle.
A simple small bottle, plain packaging, a cartoon white figure, and printed with short or long, warm or sour "heart-tugging" copy—these formed Jiangxiaobai's early brand image.
Because the copy on the Expression Bottle was random and mysterious, Jiangxiaobai attracted its first wave of adventurous users, and through this group, it gained word-of-mouth at very low cost. Inspired by this, Jiangxiaobai simply printed a QR code on the bottle label, inviting consumers to submit their own copy.
By scanning the QR code on the bottle, consumers could upload their feelings and insights as text. After Jiangxiaobai's team reviewed and approved them, consumers could soon see their own personal Expression Bottles on the market.
This innovative approach, based on a deep understanding of consumers and providing them with a space for self-expression, not only pleased consumers but also saved Jiangxiaobai a considerable amount of marketing and planning expenses during its startup phase.
In 2018, the customizable Expression Bottle service was rolled out to consumers, with a minimum order of 12 bottles and delivery within 7 days. By 2019, customized Expression Bottles had become a personalized and regular product for Jiangxiaobai.
In traditional industries, it's rare for brands and consumers to move from understanding to interaction like this. **"If consumers can't understand the brand's language, and the brand doesn't understand what consumers want, the distance between the two is hard to bridge,"** explains industry insider Lao Bai.
Take a simple example. Chinese baijiu has a long history and has been divided into 12 aroma types over its development. While sauce, strong, and light aromas are widely known, if baijiu describes itself as "full-bodied and elegantly delicate," it's hard for ordinary young consumers to understand this "brand language."
What kind of language can consumers understand? Generally, it needs to be concrete or familiar. In comparison, some foreign liquor categories do things differently. For example, whisky is described with fruit, floral, or peat aromas. This way, even first-time consumers can roughly distinguish and evaluate through the names. This is called **"consumer language."**
**Whether it's allowing consumers to express themselves or using consumer language, the essence is a "reconciliation" between the brand and consumers.**
**In the new retail era, brands are all pursuing shorter paths to reach consumers, but "touch" and "reach" are actually two different levels. If a brand can't truly understand young consumers, it often can only touch them, not reach them.**
So, returning to the first question at the beginning, you'll find that in the rejuvenation of the baijiu industry, product and channel innovation is only partial. True rejuvenation lies in understanding consumers and communicating with them in their language.
**-02-**
**Bowing to the Young**
According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, in 2018, there were 1,445 baijiu companies above a certain scale, with sales revenue of 536.383 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 12.88%.
This huge market size and growth are inseparable from the banquet scene of baijiu.
In China, hosts typically choose baijiu based on factors such as the background and level of the guests. At this point, the brand and price can show the host's respect for the guests, making baijiu a medium for maintaining relationships or preserving face.
The 2018 Tmall online alcohol consumption industry report shows that young people prefer brands that are low-alcohol, small-packaged, sentimental, and cross-border. This baijiu consumption trend is weakly related to traditional banquets, but when interpreted in the context of consumer emotions and scenarios, it becomes very interesting.
Young people drink baijiu not for social obligations but to express emotions. Their drinking culture is about being authentic and breaking down barriers of gender and status. They don't like being pressured to drink, and they hate getting drunk. Their drinking is purely about returning to the simplest function of "pleasing oneself."
So, whether it's at a food stall, office, or bar, or before bed, while writing, or reading, as long as they like it, it can become a drinking scenario.
We have now entered the new drinking era. A senior employee of Jiangxiaobai believes that the consumption scenarios of this era can be summarized with the word **"BROTHER"**:
B stands for Bar, R for Restaurant, O for Office, T for Travel (outdoor leisure), H for Home (drinking at home), and finally ER for people. If these scenarios were expressed in terms of emotions, they would be what Jiangxiaobai calls "small gatherings, small drinks, small moods, and small moments."
It's hard to imagine what traditional baijiu would look like in these scenarios. It's said that Jiangxiaobai founder Tao Shiquan once brought a bottle of baijiu costing nearly a thousand yuan to a bar, only to be mocked by the bartender as too low-class. Tao was unconvinced. How could such good liquor be low-class? Why can't Chinese liquor enter nightlife bars?
In fact, modern young people love light-alcohol mixed drinks. This year, Jiangxiaobai and Sprite teamed up to launch an official CP mix. "In the past two years, the method of mixing Jiangxiaobai with Sprite has gone viral online. Netizens even gave it a name: 'Lover's Tears.' Fans are shouting 'get together, get together' online every day. They're so direct that if we didn't get together, it would really be wrong," said Liu Peng, deputy general manager of Jiangxiaobai, in an interview with a smile.
For overseas markets, in addition to entering local supermarkets and Chinese restaurants as traditionally done, Jiangxiaobai has also launched six cocktails in bars based on foreign consumer habits. Currently, there are two categories: "Taste of the World" and "Exclusive Taste," with "Chongqing Mule" and "Jiangxiaobai Mojito" being the most ordered.
Returning to the second question at the beginning of the article: Can other brands follow the path Jiangxiaobai has taken? Retail Jun wants to say that **Jiangxiaobai has never lacked imitators, but if a brand wants to win over the young market, it must first find where young people gather and establish scenarios suitable for its own product positioning. Otherwise, it's easy to fall into the trap of imitation.**
**-03-**
**Bypassing Traditional Baijiu Companies**
In the traditional baijiu industry, whether it's business operators, distributors, or consumers, most are from the post-60s and post-70s generations. Their habitual perception of baijiu is that only liquor above 52 degrees is true baijiu.
Jiangxiaobai's initial Expression Bottle lowered the alcohol content to 40 degrees, and later products even went down to 25 degrees. This "out-of-line" product was once criticized by industry insiders as "not tasty." However, many leading liquor companies have now launched their own small bottles, with alcohol content mostly around 40 degrees.
Because from the very beginning, Jiangxiaobai set out to develop baijiu suitable for young people, "so, **our strategic goal from the start was to be palate-friendly, fashionable, and international, taking a completely different path from many liquor companies. Young people don't easily accept the heavy taste of distiller's grains; they prefer a less spicy liquor body.** " Liu Peng explained.
In 2017, Jiangxiaobai won multiple gold medals and an excellent silver medal at the Brussels International Spirits Competition and the IWSC International Wine and Spirits Competition. As of 2019, Jiangxiaobai has won a total of 77 awards in top global liquor competitions. Currently, Jiangxiaobai has expanded to more than 20 countries and regions.
To better understand young people, Jiangxiaobai boldly employs post-90s for product innovation and design. Its flat organizational structure greatly stimulates the talent and creativity of young employees.
At the beginning of this year, when liquor companies were launching commemorative bottles for the Year of the Pig, Jiangxiaobai's zodiac bottle was designed by an intern and brought to market. This "letting go" provides growth space for newcomers, but for the company, it means risk.
In addition to employees, Jiangxiaobai is also open to "xiaobai" (novices) in its choice of distributors. "We welcome young people to join, as long as they love learning and possess the xiaobai spirit of self-deprecation, self-mockery, self-reflection, self-confidence, and self-improvement," Liu Peng introduced.
Xiao Yao from Jiangxi, who graduated from university only three years ago, with no resources, experience, or connections, became a distributor for Jiangxiaobai in Ji'an, Jiangxi. Most of her team are also post-90s.
Management guru Peter Drucker once said, **the essence of management is to stimulate and release people's potential and goodwill.**
Tao Shiquan has also publicly expressed his views on employment: "'Using small talents for big roles, letting small horses gallop' and 'valuing and reusing young people' are our organizational methods and have become our values. Truly believing in the talent and potential of young people requires tolerating their shortcomings, their dissenting opinions, and even their offenses. Although they lack experience, they also lack opportunities. If given opportunities and a stage, they have the greatest potential and possibility."
Currently, the average age of Jiangxiaobai employees is 25.6 years old. These young people often carry multiple labels—they may be novices in management experience, but they know how to play, dare to play, are curious, and don't compromise.
As a result, many of Jiangxiaobai's creative ideas popular among young people come from employees' hobbies and interests, such as the Jiangxiaobai YOLO Youth Culture Festival and the Jiangxiaobai JOY IN BOTTLE International Graffiti Competition.
In Tao Shiquan's view, youth is about releasing one's nature and has nothing to do with physiological age. "Being ageless is too important. A young mindset is what truly makes you young."
Peter Thiel, founder of PayPal, mentioned in his book "Zero to One" that **the reasons for a company's success are different, but the reasons for failure are often similar.** It's not an exaggeration to apply this view: companies that understand consumers have diverse approaches, while those that don't understand consumers often do the same things.
"**Focus on users, not competition. Users are our bread and butter. And we've never seen anyone as our competitor. We're creating a new market.** " Tao Shiquan said.
Returning to the third question at the beginning, you'll find that in adhering to the path of baijiu rejuvenation, a brand must clarify its positioning from the start, focus on its own development, boldly employ young people, and stimulate their creativity and courage.
**In the more than seven years since Jiangxiaobai was founded, the outside world has seen a young baijiu brand that knows how to play and market, but what they haven't seen is that while playing and doing, Jiangxiaobai has completed its full industry chain layout.**
**This style of conduct may be related to two phrases Tao Shiquan often says to his employees: climb high but not steep mountains; magnitude is more important than quantity.**
Source: New Retail Business Review (ID: xinlingshou1001)
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## Citation metadata

- Publisher: New Distribution
- Author: 田巧云
- Published: 2019-10-26
- Canonical: https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/jiangxiaobai-s-guide-to-staying-young-efda53d4/
- Original source: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/J9aE4u6D7fO1KEhe7JPeZA

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