---
title: "Micro-Channels: The Marketing Dividend in the 2014 Diaosi Baijiu Market"
description: "This article discusses the rise of micro-channels (WeChat, Weibo) as a new marketing opportunity for budget baijiu brands in China, highlighting their potential to overcome traditional channel challenges and capture the growing diaosi baijiu market."
author: "吕谏"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2014-11-16"
language: "en"
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# Micro-Channels: The Marketing Dividend in the 2014 Diaosi Baijiu Market

> This article discusses the rise of micro-channels (WeChat, Weibo) as a new marketing opportunity for budget baijiu brands in China, highlighting their potential to overcome traditional channel challenges and capture the growing diaosi baijiu market.

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In recent years, countless diaosi baijiu brands have emerged in the market. Since Jiang Xiaobai made its mark in the diaosi baijiu segment, many have become optimistic about its prospects. However, in terms of channels, the era of "terminal is king" seems far from over. Terminal consumption and market share still significantly drive overall sales. Traditional channels such as restaurants, supermarket terminals, specialty stores, and distribution channels remain the primary battlegrounds for diaosi baijiu brands. Tactics like terminal displays, profit incentives, and high-cost promotions—reminiscent of the Cold War era—still dominate competition.

Yet, market competition and consumer purchasing habits are quietly shifting. Traditional channels face three major challenges: first, homogenized competition with rising costs and severely declining return on investment, forcing some distributors to withdraw from terminals; second, terminal fragmentation, where core liquor stores and supermarkets are either monopolized or mired in cutthroat competition, leaving no manufacturer or distributor with true control over key terminals, and marginal returns on terminal investment plummeting; third, as consumers become more rational, they are increasingly resistant to high-margin, pushy sales tactics. These three challenges have spurred the rise of new channels, which are not only quietly eroding traditional channel share but also disrupting the competitive dynamics of the diaosi baijiu market.

**Micro-Channels: Silent and Subtle**

The micro-channel model is quietly emerging. WeChat malls, micro e-commerce, and micro-websites are gradually penetrating the 600 million internet users! A foreign authoritative survey shows that for the same revenue, companies spend only 1/10 on online marketing tools compared to traditional methods, while information reaches consumers 5–8 times faster. Baijiu companies have been somewhat late to embrace online marketing, but this also indicates that the online market is still a blue ocean waiting to be explored. Those who enter first, plan meticulously, and seize territory will gain a competitive edge and market share. Since 2011, the Weibo trend has swept across industries, and by 2012, Weibo was everywhere. Not only individuals but also companies registered accounts. Weibo has become an interactive platform between bosses and subordinates, and between businesses and consumers. Baijiu companies have also registered Weibo accounts. Executives hold forth on Weibo, and while the baijiu industry may not attract as much attention as others, comments and reposts are no less active. Savvy companies use Weibo to educate consumers on how to consume, creating a relaxed, conversational atmosphere with practical advice that attracts "consumer fans." Brands like "Jiang Xiaobai," "Xiaoshihou," "Xiaobao," "Sanjing Xiaodao," "Songhe Koukou," "Hi 80," and "Aifeng" have amassed many followers and high repost rates, with word-of-mouth spreading exponentially. Word-of-mouth marketing and Weibo marketing—two birds with one stone.

In China, diaosi baijiu products are gradually growing into an independent, massive market. According to a report by Institution A, in 2012, the sales scale of China's diaosi baijiu market reached 10 billion yuan, with a compound annual growth rate exceeding 21.9% for three consecutive years. By 2015, the most conservative estimate puts sales at 50 billion yuan. This may explain why many high-end brands are aggressively entering the diaosi baijiu market. Additionally, as the post-80s and post-90s generations become the mainstream consumers, their attitudes have shifted dramatically. They consume diaosi baijiu like beer, treating it as a daily fast-moving consumer good. Many young people now drink several bottles a week, and these consumer groups have silently embraced micro-channels, relying on WeChat and Weibo almost daily, like an addiction.

**WeChat Mall: Chat and Order Simultaneously**

Micro-malls have emerged alongside WeChat and Weibo! WeChat offers high precision, data monitoring, powerful functionality, cross-platform reach, and interactivity—features that traditional media and channels cannot match for baijiu companies like ours. High precision ensures that everything pushed by baijiu companies is visible. Data monitoring is something many traditional enterprises lack, and WeChat can fill that gap. Functionally, since version 5.0, WeChat supports online shopping and WeChat Pay. It also enables cross-platform dissemination. WeChat's interactivity is undeniable. The WeChat operation cycle includes the foundation building phase, promotion phase, fan maintenance phase, and mature harvest phase. WeChat has also created a "WeChat Life" platform specifically for baijiu industry marketing. Its ultimate goal is one-stop customized marketing services tailored to the WeChat operation cycle: first, basic services; second, precise promotion; third, fan relationship maintenance; fourth, consumption promotion. Currently, the entire baijiu industry is mostly in the basic services stage. Many companies haven't even set up service accounts; they might find a few hundred fans and get verified, reminiscent of the QQ advertising era. In the Weibo era, everyone thought about how to push ads. But WeChat is not just a single-purpose ad tool; advertising on WeChat is both an art and a science. Precise promotion includes offline QR code promotion, promotion via major WeChat accounts, major Weibo accounts, and Tencent resources. Third, fan relationship maintenance—what we call "solidifying fans"—includes membership card creation, intelligent customer service, interactive activities, and customized event planning. Most importantly, consumption promotion, which everyone focuses on, involves coupons, online reservations, WeChat e-commerce, and WeChat group buying.

With the launch of WeChat Pay, WeChat is moving from a CRM marketing function toward a closed-loop transaction system. WeChat Mall could potentially build on this to execute Tencent's e-commerce and even the entire retail industry's strategic shift, bypassing fierce PC competition and securing an early position in mobile e-commerce. The future of e-commerce is not B2C but consumer-centric C2B. Unlike major B2C platforms like JD.com, Dangdang, and Amazon China, which have shifted from vertical B2C to open platforms, Taobao Mall emphasizes that it only acts as a referee, not a player. The rules of "WeChat Mall" are similar to "Tmall Points": Tmall emphasizes consumption points, while Tencent uses Weibo activity level points. It's likely that Tencent will leverage the driving force of "WeChat Mall" to integrate more mobile applications with Tencent channels—for example, purchases on Paipai, mobile apps, Tencent membership, Tencent lucky numbers, and WeChat—earning points that can be exchanged for small gifts and coupons. This is clearly similar to Taobao Mall points and is attractive enough to draw Taobao's massive user base.

**Sina Taobao: Shop While Browsing Weibo**

Since Alibaba acquired an 18% stake in Sina Weibo for $586 million in May of this year, the collaboration has clearly focused on developing shopping-oriented Weibo products, linking Sina Weibo and Taobao accounts. The "Weibo Taobao Edition" has officially launched. However, it is not a dedicated Taobao Weibo but, similar to the earlier "Weibo Media Edition" optimized for media users, it offers specific optimizations and custom features for Taobao sellers. For example, product information is presented via rich media; Weibo performs special parsing of Taobao product links to display a card aggregating multiple data points, including price, store reputation, and popularity. Users can click the link to complete purchases directly within Weibo. The "Weibo Taobao Edition" provides Taobao sellers with a customized backend marketing management system. By adding a Weibo module to their store backend, sellers can publish products directly to Sina Weibo, with up to nine products per post, all displayed as rich media cards. Additionally, the backend includes a data center offering market monitoring, influence analysis, fan analysis, Weibo page analysis, and conversion rate analysis. This marks the full launch of the Weibo mall channel!

With 400 million internet users, one in ten visits Taobao. Can Weibo's traffic compete? The Taobao-Weibo partnership is undoubtedly a countermeasure against WeChat in the mobile internet market, influenced by Facebook's model. Social marketing will be the mainstream trend in future online marketing. In recent years, rising operating costs for Taobao sellers have driven up product prices, eroding Taobao's former price advantage. As more e-commerce platforms rise and platforms upgrade from C2C to O2O word-of-mouth marketing, Taobao's Weibo integration seems to align with the O2O social marketing model. If diaosi baijiu companies leverage this well, they could create another market miracle.

In the Weibo and WeChat era, big business is being done, and the internet is a place where miracles happen. If baijiu companies seize this great information industry transformation, they may find a new world. Some may ask, "How far are micro-channels from us?" But before we know it, we seem to have boarded the pirate ship! Many things we think are distant quietly enter our lives—we're in the midst of it without realizing. Blink, and Taobao has eroded traditional brick-and-mortar stores; blink again, and online stores have moved from computers to phones. This is indeed an era of rapid development! With increasingly fierce competition in baijiu, WeChat and Weibo may become the weapons to win marketing battles. The mobile internet wave is rolling in—either ride it or be drowned. The scariest thing is being eliminated without even realizing it. "To influence someone in the future, you don't enter their living room; you occupy their phone." The rise of a strategic industry means wealth redistribution, the subversion of old business models, and the first baijiu companies to embrace change will reap this round of marketing dividends.

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