My first meeting with Old Tao is still as clear as if it were yesterday. In August 2012, in an old civil aviation residential area in Chongqing, in a small 60-square-meter house on the first floor, Jiangxiaobai founder Tao Shiquan, co-founder Mr. Tong, and I sat on wine boxes chatting about "how literary youth would change the world." Tao Shiquan, with his soaring spirits and unrestrained imagination, deeply attracted me, a peer of the same age. I became a loyal fan of Jiangxiaobai, and in the following years we were in close contact, even introducing friends I thought might be useful for Jiangxiaobai's early development to Old Tao. For these reasons, I once thought I was one of the media people closest to Jiangxiaobai and who understood it best. But years later, I realized that, like most outsiders, I had never truly understood Jiangxiaobai. My Several Confusions About Jiangxiaobai In 2012, Jiangxiaobai created the "expression bottle" packaging, with most of the copy on the bottles coming from netizens' ideas. In 2016, Jiangxiaobai's "expression bottle" became a phenomenal brand as it swept the country with TV dramas and films like "The Good Man," "A Love for Separation," and "Chongqing Hot Pot." In fact, before 2016, Jiangxiaobai already had many loyal consumers in the Sichuan-Chongqing region. Mr. Hua Jun, the Chongqing market general manager of Weiyi Beverage, was very fond of Jiangxiaobai, even placing only Moutai and Jiangxiaobai baijiu on the table at the dealer conference dinner. After 2016, Jiangxiaobai's sales rose like a rocket, reaching a record high of over 2 billion yuan in 2019. But at the same time, various controversies have followed Jiangxiaobai like a shadow. There may be brands that have been loved by countless people like Jiangxiaobai, but there are almost no brands that have endured the same doubts and controversies as Jiangxiaobai. On the internet, doubts such as "Jiangxiaobai doesn't taste good" and "Jiangxiaobai sells nostalgia" were once endless. This doubt even escalated into Oriental Selection anchor Tian Quan saying in a live stream that "Jiangxiaobai is not baijiu," causing an uproar, and Jiangxiaobai subsequently angrily took legal action. In media reports, there is also no shortage of negative information about Jiangxiaobai. In 2021, even personnel adjustments of a few employees in the Beijing office were turned by some media into rumors of "Jiangxiaobai mass layoffs." In recent years, I have had several deep confusions and puzzles about Jiangxiaobai:
Why does Jiangxiaobai stubbornly adhere to the light-aroma process and taste, and why hasn't it responded to user voices and followed hot trends like sauce-aroma to make changes?
After suffering continuous negative communication from the internet and media, why have Jiangxiaobai's sub-brands like Guolifang and Meijian still achieved success, and Meijian has become the absolute champion in the plum wine category? Even in 2024, it is said that the entire group achieved double-digit counter-trend growth? On October 15, 2024, on behalf of New Distribution, I formally arranged a meeting with Old Tao and Jiangxiaobai's executives. This time, I was determined to find answers to these confusions. Why Doesn't Jiangxiaobai Adapt to the Public Taste? "A bunch of people in the company, including those who left, have had conflicts with me on this issue. But my attitude is clear. My strategic starting point is the two points of 'future star' and 'champion mindset.'" Old Tao did not avoid this and gave a direct and profound answer. Taking the old road will never lead to a new place. If it's not a 'future star,' we don't do it; if there's no chance to become a champion, we don't do it. This is Tao Shiquan's core thought. "Today's star is not worth chasing. If Jiangxiaobai launched a sauce-aroma baijiu today, what ranking could it achieve? It wouldn't even make the top 100. If we don't lay out based on the future star, we have no chance today, no chance in ten years, and I will never have a chance. If we can't become a champion, why should we do it? Adhering to the local characteristics of Chongqing Jiangjin shochu and establishing our own unique product characteristics is a very rational decision, not my personal stubbornness." "Future star, champion mindset, requires a bigger pattern and a more long-termist ideology, which is also Jiangxiaobai's unique and rare gene." Tao Shiquan explained. "What is a bigger pattern? If I only stand from the perspective of my bottle of wine, only from the perspective of making money, and don't see the development trends of the whole country and the whole world industry and find my correct position, then my pattern is small. What is a more long-termist ideology? If you don't lengthen the time axis, if you look at the first 30 years of China's liquor industry and then try to analyze the next 30 years, you won't be short-sighted and will come to many completely different answers. For example, market trends are cyclical. 40 years ago, light aroma was popular, and Fenjiu was the 'Fen boss'; later, strong aroma became popular, and Wuliangye became the 'king of baijiu'; 15 years ago, sauce aroma began to be popular, and Moutai became the king of A-shares. Fenjiu was only over 1 billion at its lowest point, but today it exceeds 30 billion. If Fenjiu had adjusted its process and taste during its downturn in 2009, would it be where it is today? If Wuliangye and Moutai had changed their processes and tastes, would they still be Wuliangye and Moutai? Not chasing 'today's star' but laying out 'future star' is a strategic judgment and a dialectical philosophy. The process and taste of southern light aroma align with my strategic judgment of 'future star.'" But Tao Shiquan also admitted that it is almost impossible to reach a consensus. "I even had to require that no one internally is allowed to discuss following the shortcuts of large enterprises." Why Will Southern Light Aroma Be the Future Star? Tao Shiquan established the following two core judgments, confirming Jiangxiaobai's product strategy of adhering to single sorghum raw material and the southern light-aroma process without wavering. 1. The reason famous liquors are famous is precisely because they insisted on themselves and bravely did themselves. Many liquors can be blended to taste like Moutai, but they can never become Moutai. Jiangxiaobai can be blended into anyone, but it can never become anyone, and it will never be Jiangxiaobai again. Jiangxiaobai is a product-ism company. Over the years, all profits, all financing, and strategic resources have been invested in basic skills construction such as technology R&D, production bases, agricultural planting, brewing, and storing old liquor. But unfortunately, under the halo of Jiangxiaobai's copywriting, these are almost unnoticed by the outside world. "Copywriting is both our pride and our hidden pain." Tao Shiquan once admitted in the article "10 Years, Surviving Is Not Easy": "Pride is because copywriting innovation allowed us to find a way to communicate with users when our media budget was severely insufficient in the early days of entrepreneurship; hidden pain is because of preconceptions, few people pay attention to the tenfold or hundredfold efforts we have put into the brewing industry chain, high-quality raw material selection, and flavor iteration." Since 2013, when Jiangxiaobai expanded and rebuilt Jiangji Winery, over 11 years, Jiangji Winery now covers 760 mu, has 7 pure grain brewing workshops, 6,680 fermentation pits, and 60,000 tons of old liquor storage, making it the largest light-aroma brewing base in Southwest China. At the same time, near Jiangji Winery, Jiangxiaobai has also built a 10,000-mu Jiangxiaobai Farm, planting several thousand mu of its own bred special sorghum variety Jinpi Nuo No. 1. After sorghum harvest, rapeseed is rotated; every March and April when rapeseed flowers bloom, tourists come in an endless stream, and over the years, it has received over a million visitors. There is a huge information gap between online and offline. If you haven't personally been to Jiangjin, Chongqing, it's hard to believe these are all Jiangxiaobai's achievements. 2. Southern light aroma is bound to be the 'future star.' Jiangjin is the birthplace of Xiaoqu light aroma. Xiaoqu light aroma uses whole sorghum as raw material and Xiaoqu fermentation, featuring pure and mild aroma, mellow and sweet taste. The history of shochu brewing in Baisha Town, Jiangjin, can be traced back to the Song Dynasty Chongqing Jinshi Feng Shixing. During the Republic of China period, Baisha shochu was popular for a while. In 1915, the brewing industry in Baisha Town, Jiangjin (where Jiangxiaobai's distillery is located) reached its peak, with records showing more than 230 workshops, producing 46,000 jin of liquor per day, with an annual output of over 10 million jin, accounting for more than half of Sichuan's liquor production. History proves that Xiaoqu light aroma, as a representative of southern light aroma, has the foundation to become popular again. Tao Shiquan judges that although multi-grain fermentation with rich and fragrant aroma is currently mainstream, with the continuous improvement of healthy drinking awareness, southern light aroma with refreshing taste, less burden, and faster sobriety will definitely become one of the mainstreams again one day. "This time may be ten years, or it may be longer. If southern light aroma becomes popular, Jiangxiaobai, as a representative of southern light aroma and a leader in Xiaoqu light aroma, will have the opportunity to become a giant; if the trend hasn't arrived yet, it doesn't matter, being small and beautiful is also good." Tao Shiquan doesn't care much about short-term sales. "In 2019, Jiangxiaobai shouldn't have sold over 2 billion; today, although Jiangxiaobai has decreased a lot compared to the peak, as long as we persist, the market is always cyclical." Famous marketing expert Mr. Liu Chunxiong commented on Tao Shiquan's "future star" strategy: "The future star strategy is not a follow-the-trend strategy, but an innovative strategy of 'mounting the horse and waiting for the wind.'" Based on the same "future star" and "champion mindset," Jiangxiaobai not only insists on southern light aroma without wavering but also launched Guolifang fruit wine and Meijian plum wine, and also laid out more future star categories and products. Currently, the Guolifang brand has broken through the 500 million scale, becoming the champion brand of low-alcohol fruit wine, with a year-on-year growth of over 100% in the first three quarters of 2024; Meijian plum wine has broken through the 1 billion scale, becoming the champion brand in the plum wine category. Why Is Jiangxiaobai Bad at External Communication? Tao Shiquan admitted that Jiangxiaobai's external communication is very poor. "We are very 'xiaobai' (novice) in this area." "In fact, Jiangxiaobai's corporate image, brand image, and my personal impression are somewhat distorted in the minds of the industry and the public. The reason for the distortion is that today's mainstream values are expressionism and displayism." But Tao Shiquan is very wary of "fame" and is even more reluctant to face the media. In his words, he fears that the halo will cover up ignorance, that form will outweigh content, that reputation will not match reality, and he hopes his reputation is less than his actual ability. He does not want Jiangxiaobai to be a company that seeks fame and reputation. This can be seen from the A-round and B-round financing process of Jiangxiaobai. When receiving investments from well-known institutions such as IDG, Hillhouse, Tiantu, and Heiyi, the industry hardly saw any official news released by Jiangxiaobai. In the 14 years since its founding, there have been almost no proper media conferences or communication meetings. "Today, we are still the same in media communication, which will definitely lead to speculation and misunderstanding from the outside." Tao Shiquan admitted this is a problem, but he doesn't seem to intend to change. Tao Shiquan is a person who extremely pursues a sense of meaning. "Media communication" seems meaningless to him, and he lacks the motivation to communicate externally. Contrary to his lack of interest in external communication, Tao Shiquan has been tirelessly promoting the "youthification" and "internationalization" of Chinese liquor brands. He believes that liquor brands worldwide are friends with young people, are closely combined with art and aesthetics, and transcend national boundaries. If we don't explore youthification and internationalization, Chinese brands will have no future. Tao Shiquan regards youthification and internationalization as Jiangxiaobai's mission and proposed and initiated the "new liquor beverage strategy." As a liquor company with a relatively small sales scale, this mission seems a bit overambitious. "Jiangxiaobai is willing to be a pioneer and trailblazer. Even if we accidentally become a 'martyr,' we will have made a uniquely positioned and distinctive brand." But after years of persistence, Jiangxiaobai has made many achievements in "youthification" and "internationalization" that have attracted industry attention: In 2022, Meijian, as the only invited Chinese liquor brand, appeared at the Louvre's "International Art Creative Joint Exhibition." Later, at the "Beautiful City Mid-Autumn Festival" event hosted by the Paris government, Meijian also entered the French public eye as a folk ambassador between the two culinary kingdoms. This year, Jiangxiaobai made another major innovation breakthrough in brewing technology, launching the "grain, flower, and fruit aroma" liquor. On October 19, the China National Food Industry Association announced that "the content of the T/CNFIA216-2024 'Grain, Flower, and Fruit Aroma Liquor' group standard complies with relevant national laws, regulations, and mandatory standards," approving the group standard drafted and compiled by Jiangji Winery as the main lead unit. In the trillion-yuan track of China's liquor market, Jiangxiaobai is not yet a giant enterprise. But to be fair, Jiangxiaobai's innovation and contribution in the youthification and internationalization of liquor beverage brands today far exceeds what its sales volume should bear. Of course, the other side of Jiangxiaobai is that it is still a company with far insufficient public communication. As the founder of a company, if Tao Shiquan is deeply resistant or even refuses to communicate externally, it is impossible to do well in public communication and media relations. The many misunderstandings and misinterpretations that Jiangxiaobai has endured have much to do with this. Will this situation completely change in the future? Judging from the past, when Tao Shiquan doesn't think this is a real problem, the hope for change is slim. "I am Jiangxiaobai, life is simple." Perhaps it is precisely because Tao Shiquan insists on his simplicity that he can focus on users and products, and after the Jiangxiaobai brand, he created 'Guolifang' and 'Meijian.' But the price of insisting on 'simple and pure' may be that Jiangxiaobai will continue to endure misunderstandings and prejudices for a longer period in the future. I believe many people, like me, have known Jiangxiaobai for a long time and have their own version of Jiangxiaobai, but all are far from the real Jiangxiaobai. I hope that after reading this, you can understand Jiangxiaobai a little more. That is the greatest significance of this article. Of course, given Tao Shiquan's personality, perhaps he doesn't really care about this. Excerpts: Some of Jiangxiaobai's Business Philosophy and Views 1) Non-consensus is an innovative strategy. Consensus kills innovation. For anything that is consensus, I will be highly vigilant: Is it necessarily reasonable? Could it be wrong? Is it just based on everyone's inertia? Many innovations, many changes, and many designs originate from breaking and shattering consensus. Jiangxiaobai's non-consensus strategy has three parts: future star, champion mindset, and the way of improvement. 2) Jiangxiaobai's high-quality improvement management method. The high-quality improvement management method is our way of improvement, namely the JOS (Jiangxiaobai Operation System) system. JOS is a system that combines strategic goal consensus, key business processes, and daily operations. It is the operating system of business management. Anti-consensus cannot be anti to the end. At the strategic formulation level, we talk about non-consensus; at the strategic execution level, we talk about full consensus. The first article of JOS is to achieve full consensus from strategy to execution. Strategy, tactics, and next year's goals are discussed and decided by the management team. The process of discussion is the process of forming consensus. I don't need to lead the discussion; the system leads everyone. 3) If there is no change, the enterprise will die in comfort. When a traditional organization transforms and changes to a new, matrix-type organization, the work of consensus is not easy, and everyone will feel pain. What is human nature? Not changing is the most comfortable. No one is willing to change, let alone be changed. From the perspective of employees' human nature, not changing is best; but from the perspective of the enterprise as an organization, not changing will inevitably lead to death. This is an eternal and unsolvable contradiction. 4) Don't expect but strive to let more people understand yourself. The process of forming consensus is painful, so I don't expect too many people to understand and believe in me. I must give up the hope that everyone will believe, but I must also strive to get more people to believe. These are actually two levels: the first is to accept and endure, and the second is to be proactive. Psychologically, I must be prepared to "accept and endure" the worst situation, and behaviorally, I must actively improve to make it better. Whether it's employees or customers, we must strive to form consensus, but we must know that no matter what, in the midst of great changes, half of the enterprises will die, half of the merchants will fall behind, and half of the employees will not adapt in the future. 5) The team captain is responsible for victory, not just for the members. When some senior members of Jiangxiaobai leave, I will certainly be sad. But CEO is my profession, and it has nothing to do with whether I am sad or not. A CEO is like the captain of a team. He must be responsible for the team's victory, not just for certain players. If someone wants to leave the team, I can't help it; if some substitutes can't get on the court and are forced to leave, there's nothing I can do. The culture of winning and teamwork is greater than the culture of the individual, and the founder will eventually leave one day. 6) I hope Jiangxiaobai can represent the little legend of every ordinary individual. Everyone is carefully acting out their own story, and everyone is striving to walk their own life. Like Jiangxiaobai's "xiaobai" spirit, most people are ordinary. But when facing your own story, you will feel excited, and you will feel that you have a legend. Jiangxiaobai hopes to become a company like an ordinary person. It doesn't matter how big the company is or how much money it makes, but it always has tenacious vitality and a feeling of vigorous growth. So, I hope that in the minds of consumers, Jiangxiaobai can represent the little legend of every ordinary individual.