---
title: "Why Is It Hard for Traditional Beer Companies (Including Giants) to Understand Craft Beer?"
description: "This article is a discussion among several teachers in the Chinese beer marketing group about \"Why is it hard for traditional beer companies (including giants) to understand craft beer?\" Background data: According to Huaxia Wine News, since 2002, China's beer production has been growing rapidly and has ranked first in the world for over a decade. However, after 2014, the growth rate of domestic beer production gradually slowed, even showing negative growth in production and sales. Meanwhile, imported beer has shown explosive growth in China in recent years. According to a report by the Beer Branch of the China Alcoholic Drinks Association, China's imported beer volume increased by 85.59% year-on-year in 2014, and from 2012 to 2014, imported beer accumulated a growth of 426.81%."
author: "方刚"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2015-12-29"
language: "en"
canonical: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/why-is-it-hard-for-traditional-beer-companies-including-giants-to-unders-50ee44e3/"
markdown: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/why-is-it-hard-for-traditional-beer-companies-including-giants-to-unders-50ee44e3.md"
original_source: "https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/4OcF88UFfGi9uufojN1ZXA"
translation: "https://xinjignxiao.com/zh/articles/%E4%B8%BA%E4%BB%80%E4%B9%88%E8%AF%B4%E4%BC%A0%E7%BB%9F%E5%95%A4%E9%85%92%E4%BC%81%E4%B8%9A-%E5%8C%85%E6%8B%AC%E5%B7%A8%E5%A4%B4-%E5%BE%88%E9%9A%BE%E8%AF%BB%E6%87%82%E7%B2%BE%E9%85%BF%E5%95%A4%E9%85%92-50ee44e3.md"
attribution: "New Distribution — https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/why-is-it-hard-for-traditional-beer-companies-including-giants-to-unders-50ee44e3/"
usage_policy: "https://xinjignxiao.com/ai-policy.txt"
---

# Why Is It Hard for Traditional Beer Companies (Including Giants) to Understand Craft Beer?

> This article is a discussion among several teachers in the Chinese beer marketing group about "Why is it hard for traditional beer companies (including giants) to understand craft beer?" Background data: According to Huaxia Wine News, since 2002, China's beer production has been growing rapidly and has ranked first in the world for over a decade. However, after 2014, the growth rate of domestic beer production gradually slowed, even showing negative growth in production and sales. Meanwhile, imported beer has shown explosive growth in China in recent years. According to a report by the Beer Branch of the China Alcoholic Drinks Association, China's imported beer volume increased by 85.59% year-on-year in 2014, and from 2012 to 2014, imported beer accumulated a growth of 426.81%.

This article is a discussion among several teachers in the Chinese beer marketing group about "Why is it hard for traditional beer companies (including giants) to understand craft beer?"
Background data: Source: Huaxia Wine News. Since 2002, China's beer production has been growing rapidly and has ranked first in the world for over a decade. However, after 2014, the growth rate of domestic beer production gradually slowed, even showing negative growth in production and sales. Meanwhile, imported beer has shown explosive growth in China in recent years. According to a report by the Beer Branch of the China Alcoholic Drinks Association, China's imported beer volume increased by 85.59% year-on-year in 2014, and from 2012 to 2014, imported beer accumulated a growth of 426.81%. 2014 was a year of significant changes in China's beer market structure. That year, the volume of imported beer exceeded the export volume of domestic beer for the first time, meaning that China's beer import and export turned from a surplus to a deficit for the first time in over a decade. After entering 2015, the situation did not improve. Data shows that from January to October 2015, China imported 473,130 kiloliters of beer, a year-on-year increase of 62.9%; the import value was 505.144 million US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 44.7%. In the same period (January to October 2015), the cumulative production of China's beer industry decreased by 5.73% year-on-year.
What caused this situation? Some industry analysts believe that the core factor for the rapid development of imported beer is its strong commercial value. First, the elite and middle class prefer imported beer; second, imported beer usually has larger profit margins, which can better mobilize distributors' sales enthusiasm.
> #
Fang Gang: Traditional beer companies (including giants) find it hard to understand craft beer. Fang Gang: The system and culture do not have the soil for craft beer. Imported beer accounted for about 1.1% of total volume in 2015.
Fang Gang: This data is terrifying. The largest pure fresh beer category among the giants is no more than 500,000 tons.
In beer marketing, the proportion of FMCG attributes is too large. Terminal dependence is unsolvable, and they have forgotten that beer is alcohol.
Wu: Tsingtao Beer can respond quickly, develop new products to quickly occupy the market, and keep up with the times. That is trustworthy. Thumbs up.
Qingshan Lvshui: Can this be understood as craft beer, like Chinese baijiu, requiring cultural influence?
Fang Gang: It can be discussed. Qingshan Lvshui: Domestic mass consumers really know too little about craft beer. Now, many people know about dark beer.
Gao Yan Master Gao: Tsingtao started research in this area in 2012; but they still have a distance from mass production.
Dabao: The main reason for the surge in imported beer sales is that vicious competition in the beer industry has increased costs. Companies sacrifice taste and freshness (almost all giant beers contain starch, if you look carefully) to increase competitiveness. The reward is that the share of imported beer is increasing.
Fang Gang: A fundamental reason for the decapitation of domestic high-end beer is not only the product but also the channel! Beer has the common genes of beverages and baijiu. When the FMCG approach represented by beverages is too large, it can only support mid-to-low-end products or single products. The approach for high-end products is contrary to the FMCG approach. So even if domestic beer solves the product problem, it may not break through the channel bottleneck...
Fang Gang: Does Coca-Cola have high-end products? The ubiquitous four-placement concept determines Coke's positioning.
Without scarcity as endorsement, high-end is just a myth. And scarcity must come from culture and de-industrialization.
Of course, product must be the foundation.
Dabao: Channel advantage is indeed a problem. This is a domestic characteristic. Perhaps relying too much on channel capability reduces investment in product, taste, and innovation.
Fang Gang:
Why is it hard for traditional beer companies (including giants) to understand craft beer? Fang Gang:
What kind of people are geeks? They are wise like fools and full of scientific spirit, naturally averse to all common sense; they are born to love exploration and creation, and deeply hate following and echoing others; they are mavericks and never set restrictions for themselves; they believe in freedom, disdain artificial restrictions, and are keen to challenge authority; at work, they advocate simplification, believe in the power of design, and pursue product aesthetics...
Dabao:
The target consumer group of craft beer. Fang Gang:
Beer geeks ~ the root of craft beer! Gao Yan Master Gao: Geeks are not that awesome. The definition of geek is nerd. Your definition is another group: called scientists. Fang Gang: Master does not consider himself a geek. Gao Yan Master Gao: No, geek is a kind of low person, a group we often tease. They are not good at innovation; they are good at using equipment. Fang Gang: Because the geek concept mostly originates from the internet and technology fields. Gao Yan Master Gao: Yes, and it involves the use of electronic equipment, such as photography.
Fang Gang:
Geek spirit can also be found among brewers. Gao Yan Master Gao: No.
Fang Gang:
Enthusiasts; beer geeks, this is a fun concept.
Gao Yan Master Gao: Another characteristic of geeks is that they do not interact with people. Brewers need people every day. The understanding of the word geek may differ at home and abroad. Geeks cannot be entrepreneurs. They play with equipment themselves and do not communicate with society.
Fang Gang: Without geek spirit, innovation is not easy.
Gao Yan Master Gao: Teacher Fang's definition of a good craft brewer is correct, regardless of what they are called. Some foreign brands show the strength of a team.
Fang Gang: Geeks are the long board; the team makes up for the short board.
Gao Yan Master Gao: It is hard to find such people in China.
Fang Gang: A brewer should have the spirit of an artist, enthusiast, and geek. If they can brew good beer and also sell it well, they become a brewer plus marketer. The initial sprout of craft beer starts with brewers, and then gradually divides labor. A person who can do everything can only exist in myths—like Sun Wukong.
A brewer's understanding, capture, sorting, identification, amplification, and explanation of culture is important. The internet will help them.
Fang Gang: The core of capturing this circle and launching waves is the brewer. In internet language, it is fan marketing.
Gao Yan Master Gao: Yes, yes. The internet makes it unnecessary for a brand to cater to consumers, especially for personalized products.
Discussion ended.
**Teacher Fang Gang's summary:**
Personalized products are hard to connect with traditional marketing logic, especially relying solely on terminal distribution, because it is hard to interact with consumers.
The channels and consumer groups of personalized products are often connected through cultural identity and internet tools.
A good craft beer often requires a brewer with geek spirit (extreme product), a cultural background with internet appeal (communities, big V), a marketing system with the ability to capture fragmented consumer groups and channels (channel connection, consumption scenarios), and an independent, free, and distinctive brand proposition...
This geek spirit will be strangled in traditional enterprises, often manifesting as politician spirit. Therefore, it is hard for beer geeks to survive in traditional enterprises. This may be why people like Steve Jobs started their businesses from garages (garages are America's startup incubators)!
Performance assessment and sales assessment in traditional enterprises are another big killer of craft beer! Without extreme love as the spiritual support for brewers, and only modular work to complete tasks, beer geeks cannot survive in traditional enterprises!
**-END-**
Content Selection
**Reply with the following keywords to query and read related articles:**
Sales Supervisor, Second-tier Management, Regional Manager, Distributor Management, New Channels, City Manager, Competition, 2015, Manufacturer-Dealer Game, Product Slow Sales, Terminal Visit Management, Route Management, Deep Distribution, Internal Management, Sales Skills, Profit Improvement, Recruitment, Distribution, Daily Management, Team Motivation, Trade Promotion, Sales Misunderstandings, New Product Launch, Township Market, New Product Pricing, Sales Target Achievement, Closing Orders, Market Visit Inspection, Baijiu, Beer, Sales Increase, Agency Products, Channel Crossing, KA, Terminal Visualization, New Market, Market Operation, Learning, Book Recommendations, Inventory Management, New Salespeople, Consumer Promotion, Execution, Old Products, Expired Product Handling, Model Market, Investment Attraction, New Media, Distributor Development, Performance Assessment, Assessment, Annual Planning, Shopping Guide, Morning Meeting, Display, Transformation, Pressure Stock, Holidays, Distributor Cost Control, Channel Operation, Marketing Theory and Laws, Brand Truth, Order Meeting, Team Management, Training, Debriefing, Debriefing Report.


---

## 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