---
title: "Moutai, Jiangxiaobai, Yanghe, and Lidu: Reflecting the Height, Width, Speed, and Depth of the Baijiu Industry"
description: "Liu Chunxiong comments on four baijiu brands: Moutai raises the industry's height by breaking price ceilings; Jiangxiaobai broadens its width by attracting new drinkers; Yanghe leads in speed through rapid adaptation and channel management; Lidu explores depth via immersive experiences. These cases show that baijiu marketing is essentially a consumption upgrade driven by relationship chains."
author: "牛恩坤"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2019-06-05"
language: "en"
canonical: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/moutai-jiangxiaobai-yanghe-and-lidu-reflecting-the-height-width-speed-an-b193f51d/"
markdown: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/moutai-jiangxiaobai-yanghe-and-lidu-reflecting-the-height-width-speed-an-b193f51d.md"
original_source: "https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/YTrAY60_X58gGcUYtcGkhQ"
translation: "https://xinjignxiao.com/zh/articles/%E8%8C%85%E5%8F%B0-%E6%B1%9F%E5%B0%8F%E7%99%BD-%E6%B4%8B%E6%B2%B3-%E6%9D%8E%E6%B8%A1-%E4%BD%93%E7%8E%B0%E4%BA%86%E7%99%BD%E9%85%92%E4%B8%9A%E7%9A%84%E9%AB%98%E5%BA%A6-%E5%AE%BD%E5%BA%A6-%E9%80%9F%E5%BA%A6%E5%92%8C%E6%B7%B1%E5%BA%A6-b193f51d.md"
attribution: "New Distribution — https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/moutai-jiangxiaobai-yanghe-and-lidu-reflecting-the-height-width-speed-an-b193f51d/"
usage_policy: "https://xinjignxiao.com/ai-policy.txt"
---

# Moutai, Jiangxiaobai, Yanghe, and Lidu: Reflecting the Height, Width, Speed, and Depth of the Baijiu Industry

> Liu Chunxiong comments on four baijiu brands: Moutai raises the industry's height by breaking price ceilings; Jiangxiaobai broadens its width by attracting new drinkers; Yanghe leads in speed through rapid adaptation and channel management; Lidu explores depth via immersive experiences. These cases show that baijiu marketing is essentially a consumption upgrade driven by relationship chains.

Click to read the original article for details.
**Commentary by Teacher Liu Chunxiong:**
Moutai bravely moved upward, breaking the price ceiling, which led to the renewed prosperity of baijiu. This opened opportunities for sub-premium, mid-range, and bottle-less segments to move up successively.
Jiangxiaobai made the industry realize that people who didn't drink began to drink, and women started drinking baijiu. It pioneered alternative ways of drinking baijiu and combined internet-based play, broadening the industry's width, even enabling foreign consumers to appreciate Chinese baijiu.
Yanghe's speed stems from three factors: first, Yanghe was the first to follow every new internet trend; second, Yanghe has a regional breakthrough model that can be quickly replicated; third, Yanghe's channel management capability and internal organizational strength in the baijiu industry.
Lidu has expanded the industry's depth, though some may say it's too early to tell. I don't judge heroes by scale, but by value. Lidu's depth is not about the 800-year-old Yuan Dynasty cellar, but the immersive experience created by Commander Tang, providing a path for regional baijiu to combine with regional lifestyles through deep experience.
After the cliff-like decline in 2013, why did some companies accelerate, some seize new opportunities, some stage a comeback, while more performed flatly or even fell behind the times? Today, through my research on these four companies, I write this article hoping to bring profound insights to the baijiu industry.
**Moutai Elevated the Industry's Height**
In 2013, the entire baijiu industry experienced a cliff-like decline. At that time, Moutai repeatedly required retail prices not to fall below 1,519 yuan per bottle, but this advisory regulation was basically a dead letter. Prices kept falling, and by the end of 2016, Moutai's price approached 830 yuan per bottle, only 11 yuan above the ex-factory price of 819 yuan.
In 2017, Li Baofang became Moutai's general manager, resolutely rectifying Moutai's price system and overhauling the distribution system, eliminating a considerable number of dealers who relied on connections and speculation.
Through a series of market rectifications, Moutai's price kept rising, and the recovery of Moutai's price gave the industry hope for a weak recovery. Moutai not only regained attention but also made the baijiu industry a focus of interest.
Li Baofang, by building a circle of friends, first brought together five sauce-flavor baijiu companies—Langjiu, Guotai, Diaoyutai, and Xijiu—to jointly expand the sauce-flavor category, then allied with Wuliangye, Fenjiu, Yanghe, and others to grow the entire Chinese baijiu industry.
These high-level moves made Moutai the center of public opinion. It can be said that although Moutai is a relatively traditional baijiu brand, in the internet era it has become a social topic and currency, hailed as a social connector for middle-aged men.
What is the logic behind Moutai elevating the industry's height? Moutai is a brand with historical accumulation and height. From the current perspective, Moutai's consumption structure has formed a pyramid.
At the apex are trendsetters, including industry insiders and high-profile business figures like Jack Ma, Wang Jianlin, and Liu Qiangdong.
Below the apex is the second layer: those active in business, with high social frequency and health needs. This group can be defined as those who chase trendsetters, or their social circles.
In the middle are two groups: loyal fans and super users. Loyal fans have deep affection for Moutai, while super users consume large quantities.
At the base are basic operators, including traditional distributors, shareholders, and those who buy Moutai stock. These people are Moutai's cheerleaders and advocates, directly benefiting from Moutai's interests.
A successful brand is usually folded; you see various consumers, but the true trendsetters are the niche at the apex. **Moutai elevated the industry's height by leveraging the niche effect at the apex to connect the relationship chains of social elites.** That's why Moutai is often evaluated as not just a bottle of wine but part of Chinese culture.
**Yanghe Led the Industry's Speed**
Yanghe created the blue myth in the baijiu industry in 2013, but what deserves more attention is not before 2013, but its continued rapid development after 2013.
Although in recent years some nitpickers often compare it with Moutai, these are basically fault-finding. Yanghe has a weaker foundation than Moutai and Wuliangye, and even has no advantage over Luzhou Laojiao or Fenjiu; it's just one of the eight famous baijiu brands. However, Yanghe has maintained its position among the top three in the industry for the past 10 years.
In the first quarter of this year, not only did sales exceed 10 billion yuan, but it also widened the gap with the fourth place. What is the secret behind Yanghe's continued leadership in the internet era? Yanghe's speed seems to find answers from frontline market reactions.
I remember a few years ago, Yanghe's board chairman Zhang Yubai said: **Think like a big company, act like a small company.** Dinosaurs became extinct because they reacted too slowly. Yanghe's market mechanism is flexible and reacts extremely quickly. Even as its size grows, Yanghe remains efficient, especially in the internet era. The secret to Yanghe's industry-leading speed lies in using internet tools to upgrade traditional channels, racing against time, connecting with the growing new middle class, and activating the value of traditional channels and e-commerce.
**Jiangxiaobai Broadened the Industry's Width**
Looking back at Jiangxiaobai's growth path, initially it also wanted to take a differentiated path from traditional consumers, but later it was forced to become a leader of the new generation.
From Jiangxiaobai's marketing trajectory in previous years, there were traces of trying to change traditional consumers. It wasn't until 2013 that Jiangxiaobai changed its traditional image and transformed into a literary youth. By cultivating young consumer groups, it rose abruptly at the edge of the mainstream.
This small baijiu brand is very individualistic among new-generation consumers and very alternative in the eyes of the industry. It became a rebel that the industry strongly rejected but users warmly embraced. As post-90s young people entered society and became the center of society.
Jiangxiaobai is a new brand that, through cultivating new-generation consumer groups, integrated various channel relationships and gradually gained industry recognition as fashionable and internationally styled. This success is most respectable and commendable because it succeeded without historical background or industry resources. It also attracted beer and soft drink consumers, allowing young consumers to have close contact with traditional baijiu, thereby broadening the consumption boundaries of baijiu.
**Lidu Excavated the Industry's Depth**
Lidu's popularity began only at the end of 2017. Mr. Tang Xiangyang, praised for his good feel, has fought in the traditional baijiu industry for many years. But he used Lidu to prove his value of keeping pace with the times.
Lidu, the most historically rich baijiu national treasure, has finally been activated. This brand, once discontinued for many years and with several changes of operators, is the ancestor of distilled spirits. Through immersive experiences, Lidu made consumers inside and outside the province familiar with it, even attracting attention from within and outside the industry.
Although Lidu's sales are not large, its growth value is higher. The value lies in using a bottle-less baijiu comparable to Moutai to activate the memory symbols of former users, connecting more with emotionally lost users.
Lidu's value is multifaceted. This process has taken five years, and it's not as simple as making a few distiller's grain ice pops, masks, or eggs, nor as superficial as visiting the distillery. Condensing the immersive experience into three stages seems to reveal its true essence.
Stage 1: Through Lidu Gaoliang 1955 and the Yuan Dynasty cellar, baijiu marketing returns to its origin. Stage 2: Through quality derivatives and immersive experiences, baijiu marketing continuously iterates. Stage 3: Through building an IP matrix (Commander Tang, Yuan Dynasty cellar, Lidu Gaoliang 1955, and product derivatives) and scene implementation as dual drivers, baijiu marketing explores practice.
Lidu's multiple values: **From the enterprise's own perspective, it excavates consumption depth; from the industry and era perspective, it explores a breakthrough path for small and medium enterprises.**
The insights from these four cases are worth pondering: Moutai elevated the industry's height by reconstructing consumer relationship chains; Yanghe led the industry's speed through middle-class relationship chains; Jiangxiaobai broadened the industry's width by expanding new-generation relationship chains; Lidu excavated the industry's depth by activating lost user relationship chains. Therefore, the essence of baijiu marketing is essentially a consumption upgrade show based on continuously amplifying and iterating relationship chains.
Source: Teacher Liu's New Marketing


---

## Copyright and AI use

This article is sourced from New Distribution. Search, quotation, summarization, and model training are permitted, but every use must credit New Distribution and retain the canonical source URL.

Contact: zhaobo258@gmail.com · +86 158 5481 7671