Brand is a private attribute of an enterprise. Category is a public attribute of a group of customers. Category is not a market segment or industry name, but a cognitive resource that reduces decision-making costs through memory. Therefore, the value of category innovation can lead the value of brand building. FMCG is the largest advertising spender in China, and baijiu, with annual sales of 600 billion yuan, is one of the largest single-product markets. Facing the reality that the total sales volume of Chinese baijiu has stagnated, how can performance growth be achieved? Let's look at two strategic growth paths: Logic 1: Marketing innovation for middle-aged consumers (going left) Case 1: Gujing Gongjiu: Core mega product + leveraging Moutai Positioning strategy: Gujing Gongjiu positions its core mega product as "Year Original Pulp" (Nianfen Yuanjiang), leveraging Moutai to target the mid-to-high-end market. Marketing strategy: Innovate the category and capture the dividend of collective price increases in the mid-to-high-end segment. In 2004, Moutai launched aged liquors of 15, 30, 50, and 80 years. Moutai popularized the concept of "aged liquor" to consumers, paying the user education cost for the entire industry. In 2008, Gujing Gongjiu leveraged Moutai, precisely positioned, and launched its own aged liquor. It created a new category in consumers' minds, "Year Original Pulp," which became a super mega product. As Moutai's price continued to rise, it had an overall lifting effect on the prices of the mid-to-high-end baijiu industry. Gujing Gongjiu captured this wave of market dividend. (Those mid-to-low-end baijiu brands that did not capture it missed a major opportunity for natural growth.) Competitive result: In 2017, the company achieved revenue of 7 billion yuan. Among this, the core mega product (Year Original Pulp) accounted for over 70% of sales, approximately 5 billion yuan. There are about 1,500 scaled baijiu enterprises nationwide, with total annual sales revenue of 600 billion yuan, averaging 400 million yuan per enterprise. This shows the power of a core mega product. Case 2: Shede: Dual high-low brands + building a mega product Positioning strategy: Operate dual brands for high and low ends, with Tuopai targeting the mid-to-low end, striving to make "Wisdom Shede" a super mega product and squeeze into the first-tier mid-to-high-end brands. Marketing strategy: Tuopai and Shede each established separate marketing companies for independent operation. For the mid-to-high-end, they partnered with Phoenix Net to create "Shede Wisdom Lecture Hall," using an IP format across multimedia platforms to build a wisdom economy. Competitive result: Shede liquor sales are recovering, but the dual-brand core mega product clearly has lower momentum than Gujing Gongjiu's. Additionally, the user education cost of entering from the "cultural wisdom" angle is higher than that of "aged liquor." The cost and difficulty of building an IP are very high, and it still needs time to settle. Case 3: Yanghe Blue Classic: New category matrix + three arrows launched simultaneously Positioning strategy: Yanghe Blue Classic creates a new category, "Soft Business," forming a new category matrix with high, medium, and low price points. Marketing strategy: Stand out from strong-flavor baijiu by creating "soft strong flavor." Softness is a very illusory marketing concept, and consumer recognition cost is very high. Therefore, make the customer value concrete: "business people" (who have many social engagements) drink "soft" baijiu and "don't get a headache" at work the next day. This transformation lowers the user recognition cost significantly. At the same time, spreading "men's feelings" facilitates the creation of emotional content and forms emotional resonance. Expand category differentiation by using blue as the base tone, creating huge attention differentiation from other baijiu. In promotion, focus on key regions first, then expand national influence. Competitive result: In 2017, Yanghe Co., Ltd. achieved annual operating revenue of nearly 20 billion yuan. Blue Classic sales accounted for about 70% of Yanghe's total revenue. Logic 2: Marketing innovation for young consumers (going right) Below, we step outside the traditional baijiu marketing logic and cross-reference the three types of alcohol that young people drink, hoping to bring some inspiration. Case 4: Jiangxiaobai: Social media communication + user down-market Positioning strategy: "Young people's gathering liquor" in second- and third-tier cities. Marketing strategy: Jump out of the baijiu industry characteristics and create a new category based on non-product attributes. Young people's gathering liquor avoids the category competition based on aroma types with all traditional baijiu, creating a new category differentiation. This means the competition difficulty is greatly reduced. Young people's gathering liquor focuses on young people, not the liquor itself, and cares about emotional resonance. Jiangxiaobai insightfully captures young people's emotions, uses expression bottles to package products, and conducts social media communication. Because of user down-market and off-position competition, customer acquisition costs are greatly reduced. Competitive result: Jiangxiaobai's sales in 2017 were estimated at about 500 million yuan. Existing problem: Why hasn't Jiangxiaobai, with such good social media communication, seen huge sales? Is it because young people don't like baijiu? Or is there a problem with Jiangxiaobai's product positioning? This deserves further attention and research. Case 5: Jägermeister: Scenario-based drinking + user experience Positioning strategy: A niche strong liquor with medicinal properties, positioned as "young people's nightlife liquor." It comes from a well-known German liquor brand. Marketing strategy: Focus on B2B2C for nightlife venues. With a strong channel offensive, it became the hottest niche liquor in nightclubs. Nightlife liquor has strong operational methods and atmosphere-building (e.g., Jägermeister + Red Bull mixed drink), giving it a marketing advantage over traditional Chinese baijiu in terms of experience and participation for young people. Competitive result: Sales in 2017 were approximately 450 million yuan. Additional note: Jägermeister and Jiangxiaobai share a common product characteristic: both are somewhat strong and not quite in line with traditional Chinese business tastes. Jägermeister has a narrower category positioning, stronger scenario drive, and stronger user experience than Jiangxiaobai. Because of its German heritage and the product's medicinal properties, Jägermeister became popular in a small circle without advertising. Jiangxiaobai does extensive social media communication, but its product positioning as baijiu has cost it a lot in user recognition education. Case 6: Lemon Hall: Young women's fruit liquor + liquor retailization Positioning strategy: In May 2018, the world's largest non-alcoholic beverage company (Coca-Cola) launched its first alcohol beverage sold on a large scale, targeting young Japanese women. Clearly, Coca-Cola aligns with the major trend of liquor retailization. Marketing strategy: Under the limits of growth, super-large companies push a multi-category matrix. Beyond its core mega product, Coca-Cola has 20 products worldwide with sales revenue exceeding $1 billion, forming the group's multi-category matrix. For Coca-Cola, every new product means creating a new category. Conversely, if a new category cannot be created, no new product is launched. This creates huge category differentiation within the product line, avoiding overall brand dilution and loss of focus. Competitive result: Japan's non-alcoholic beverage market is saturated, while low-alcohol beverage sales exceed $2 billion. To break through growth limits, Coca-Cola is launching narrower innovative categories for more segmented customer groups. This is worth watching. Conclusion: How can baijiu achieve rapid performance growth?
1. Core mega products are the most effective and also the most elusive strategy.
2. Creating new categories is a very effective strategy.
3. Young people's needs represent a huge blank market. Scenario-based, retailized, and experiential liquor is closest to the heartbeat of young people. Source: Grayscale Cognitive Society (ID: HDrenzhishe) -END-