--- title: "Why Jiulongzhai, Despite Expert Help, Still Isn't Selling Well?" description: "Recently, I noticed comments on Jiulongzhai's marketing from friends, with mixed reviews. I looked into it and gathered some information, forming the following views for discussion. Jiulongzhai is a sour plum drink with a long history and even royal lineage, under the state-owned Yanjing Beer. In 2017, it hired the renowned Shanghai Trout & Partners for strategic consulting, positioning it as 'cuts grease, drink Jiulongzhai' and launching a national recruitment drive with a goal of building a 10-billion-yuan brand. However, sales data is hard to find, and on JD.com, the most reviews are 64,000." author: "李传玖" publisher: "New Distribution" email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com" telephone: "+8615854817671" published: "2019-08-29" categories: "Brand Marketing" language: "en" canonical: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/why-jiulongzhai-despite-expert-help-still-isn-t-selling-well-6093e0dd/" markdown: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/why-jiulongzhai-despite-expert-help-still-isn-t-selling-well-6093e0dd.md" original_source: "https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/qo3_rJkaMnaqAgQKbnPNOQ" translation: "https://xinjignxiao.com/zh/articles/%E9%AB%98%E6%89%8B%E5%8A%A0%E6%8C%81%E7%9A%84%E4%B9%9D%E9%BE%99%E6%96%8B-%E4%B8%BA%E5%95%A5%E8%BF%98%E6%98%AF%E5%8D%96%E4%B8%8D%E8%B5%B7%E6%9D%A5-6093e0dd.md" attribution: "New Distribution — https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/why-jiulongzhai-despite-expert-help-still-isn-t-selling-well-6093e0dd/" citation: "李传玖. “Why Jiulongzhai, Despite Expert Help, Still Isn't Selling Well?.” New Distribution, 2019-08-29. https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/why-jiulongzhai-despite-expert-help-still-isn-t-selling-well-6093e0dd/" usage_policy: "https://xinjignxiao.com/ai-policy.txt" --- # Why Jiulongzhai, Despite Expert Help, Still Isn't Selling Well? > Recently, I noticed comments on Jiulongzhai's marketing from friends, with mixed reviews. I looked into it and gathered some information, forming the following views for discussion. Jiulongzhai is a sour plum drink with a long history and even royal lineage, under the state-owned Yanjing Beer. In 2017, it hired the renowned Shanghai Trout & Partners for strategic consulting, positioning it as 'cuts grease, drink Jiulongzhai' and launching a national recruitment drive with a goal of building a 10-billion-yuan brand. However, sales data is hard to find, and on JD.com, the most reviews are 64,000. Recently, I noticed comments on Jiulongzhai's marketing from friends, with mixed reviews. I looked into it and gathered some information, forming the following views for discussion. Information gathered about Jiulongzhai: 1. Jiulongzhai is a sour plum drink with a long history, refined ingredients and process, even with Qing dynasty royal lineage. It has a good grassroots foundation in Beijing and is a classic Beijing specialty product. 2. It is a product under the state-owned Yanjing Beer. 3. In 2017, it hired the renowned Shanghai Trout & Partners (Shanghai Trout Strategic Positioning Consulting Co., Ltd., the operator behind Wanglaoji / JDB) for strategic consulting, positioning it as "cuts grease, drink Jiulongzhai" and launching a large-scale national recruitment at the end of that year, with the goal of building a 10-billion-yuan brand. 4. No specific sales data for Jiulongzhai was found, but on JD.com, the highest number of reviews is 64,000. **Is it "cuts grease" or "relieves heat"?** Jiulongzhai sour plum drink originally claimed the benefit of relieving heat. Trout & Partners repositioned it as "cuts grease," and I personally think "cuts grease" is better. There are two main reasons. First: 1. The market demand for "cuts grease" is large, while there are many alternative drinks for relieving heat. Can you beat an ice-cold Coca-Cola on a hot day? 2. Cutting grease addresses a stronger pain point. After eating rich meats and dishes with a thick layer of oil at the bottom, don't you feel uneasy? Relieving heat is more mundane; you could just use air conditioning. 3. Cutting grease is a more scenario-based benefit claim. You immediately imagine the oily scenes of hotpot or boiled fish, making it more appealing. The essence of scenario marketing is focus and trade-offs, focusing on target groups, sales channels, and retail points. In today's hyper-competitive FMCG era, a brand must tie itself to a precise consumption scenario to succeed. I won't elaborate here. Second, and most importantly, cutting-grease drinks are still a market gap in China. No brand has yet occupied this consumer mindset, presenting a huge market opportunity. So Trout's claim that Jiulongzhai is a 10-billion-yuan brand opportunity makes sense; of course, the road is long and arduous. **If young people don't buy it, the drink won't grow big** There's a curse in the beverage industry that many companies and brands fall victim to: the main consumers of beverages are young people and children. They drink without limit, caring about fun, taste, showing personality, and face, not health. Middle-aged and older people care about health and nutrition, but they generally aren't used to drinking beverages, preferring tea or water. Moreover, many fear sugar and cold drinks. This is why many herbal health drinks like goji berry drinks, honeysuckle drinks, and Chinese yam drinks fail to sell. You can't force it. Can you guide and educate middle-aged and older people to change? Don't try to change people's habits, or you'll die ugly! Who is the target customer for Jiulongzhai under Trout's plan? This is a question that must be answered first, just like the revolutionary question of "who are our enemies and who are our friends." On JD.com, Jiulongzhai comes in two specifications: 400ml PET plastic bottles and 300ml glass bottles, with the 400ml PET bottle being the main one, suggesting it's an immediate-consumption drink mainly for on-the-go. Let's look at Jiulongzhai's strengths and weaknesses. Strengths: Good taste, refined formula, long Beijing history dating back to the Qianlong period of the Qing dynasty, high acceptance in Beijing, under state-owned Yanjing, and a solid sales and awareness base in the Beijing-Tianjin region. Weaknesses: 1. The Jiulongzhai brand name is old-fashioned, and the logo is also old-fashioned (a conservative yellow background with black text). The 400ml bottle's bright red background is not stylish either. 2. The redesigned packaging, likely by Trout, adds elements like dragons, clouds, phoenixes, Qing dynasty princes or young lords, and mansion gates. It has historical and royal feel, but it may not appeal to young people, the heavy beverage consumers. It might backfire—would young people find holding a Qing-palace-style, historical Jiulongzhai bottle old-fashioned and weird? 3. Actually, the category name "sour plum drink" is not trendy either. 4. Would young people think, "Even if it cuts grease and tastes okay, it's something for grandparents and parents. How can I drink something the older generation drinks? I'd better not. Drinking a bottle isn't a big deal, but being laughed at is. Face matters!" It's been nearly two years since Trout guided Jiulongzhai. How are sales? On JD.com, there's another Beijing time-honored sour plum drink brand called Xinyuanzhai, with 270,000 reviews for 300ml glass bottles and 47,000 for 380ml PET bottles. Many people don't know Xinyuanzhai (ha, I didn't either), but it sells better than Jiulongzhai! On JD, that's the case, and overall market share won't differ much. It's not hard to understand: if Xinyuanzhai doesn't have grand ambitions and focuses on the Beijing market where it has the most awareness and market foundation, it will achieve decent sales with low marketing costs. This is the proven focused business strategy in FMCG. **How should Jiulongzhai break through?** Raising questions is easy; providing solutions is more important. How can Jiulongzhai break through? 1. Launch a youth version product specifically for young people, with trendy, individual, and fun design elements to cater to their preferences. The "Jiulongzhai" brand name can stay, and the current 400ml size can stay. The youth version should initially be PET bottles for immediate consumption. 2. Continue using the "cuts grease" positioning and promotion. 3. In sales and operations, first focus on Beijing and Tianjin, where there's existing awareness and brand momentum. Build a solid foundation step by step, and it will yield twice the results with half the effort. Then, depending on brand development, market maturity, and competition, consider expanding to North China, mainly because the region relatively accepts sour-tasting drinks, transport distances are short, and Jiulongzhai's brand and sour plum drink awareness will spill over to nearby areas. Do not launch in multiple regions nationwide simultaneously, especially leaving markets outside target development areas untouched. **There's "national liquor Moutai," but it's hard to have "national drink Jiulongzhai"** Shanghai Trout & Partners is the top strategic positioning consulting firm in China, which I respect. Mr. Deng Delong, "China's No. 1 positioning expert," is a strategy and positioning master I admire. However, I don't agree with Mr. Deng's strategy for Jiulongzhai: "national liquor Moutai, national drink Jiulongzhai." Why? Baijiu is a strong-demand, strong-category product, while beverages are relatively weak-demand and weak-category. Baijiu has more cultural heritage, historical roots, and craftsmanship requirements, making it easier to associate with the "nation." Beverages are imported goods with weaker cultural attributes. Baijiu has strong social attributes, such as being a gift, especially Moutai. Beverages have much weaker social functions. The sour plum drink category has even lower acceptance in southern China, where sweet tastes are preferred. And so on. Jiulongzhai still has a chance to become a strong regional beverage brand. But the claim that 10 billion in sales is just the starting point is a bit far-fetched! July 28, 2019, in Beijing Tips will be paid 400-2000 yuan once adopted. **China FMCG + Internet Professional New Media** **Committed to FMCG manufacturers' transformation and upgrade and channel digital solutions** --- ## Citation metadata - Publisher: New Distribution - Author: 李传玖 - Published: 2019-08-29 - Canonical: https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/why-jiulongzhai-despite-expert-help-still-isn-t-selling-well-6093e0dd/ - Original source: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/qo3_rJkaMnaqAgQKbnPNOQ ## 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