Maotai: The Strategy of Luxury Brand Strategy

The consumption upgrade factor not only promoted the quantity and price of Maotai, but also brought Maotai to a luxury brand era...

With the National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival approaching, the annual sales season for white wine is approaching. Recently, the reporter learned from the Maotai Group that although this year's sales of Moutai will exceed 6,000 tons, it is still difficult to meet market demand. At present, the retail price of 53-degree Moutai in some markets has reached 360 yuan/bottle.

Kweichow Moutai began to increase production in 1999 and reached 10,000 tons in 2003. At the same time, Maotai began raising its price, referring to 53 metrics of Maotai from 216 yuan/bottle to 268/bottle, and 15% was raised earlier this year. The simultaneous increase in price indicates that Maotai has entered a period of rapid development. If traditional product life cycle theory is used, it is difficult to explain the explosive growth of Maotai in recent years. The consumption upgrade factors not only promote the quantity and price of Maotai, but also Maotai brought an era of luxury brands.

On the international stage

In December 2005, a brand of “Chinese wine” consisting of Kweichow Moutai and Gu Yue Longshan appeared in duty-free shops at 20 international airports in Paris, Hawaii, Rome, and Tokyo. The duty-free shop system is one of the important channels for the sale of luxury goods. The global duty-free shop has annual sales of over 25 billion U.S. dollars. In a sense, entering a duty-free shop is equivalent to entering the global luxury market.

Why can't Maotai be directly defined as an international luxury product? Due to production restrictions, the export volume of Maotai is not very large, accounting for about 5% of the total output. The main market is North America and it focuses on the Chinese market. But as a diplomatic etiquette, Moutai has always been synonymous with Chinese liquor, just as the Chinese know vodka and whiskey. During the “Eleventh Five-Year Plan” period, the output of Maotai will reach 20,000 tons, and this production will largely need to be digested by the international market. Therefore, in the past two years, Maotai has started to rectify and standardize foreign sales channels by entrusted agents. To lay the foundation for future attacks on the international market.

Maotai has all the features of a luxury brand. The first is the history of precipitation. The history of the vast majority of luxury brands is measured in centuries, and the history of Moutai can even be traced back to the Han dynasty, and it has been famous for nearly a hundred years for the Panamanian International Exposition. The second is the unique quality. Absolute vodka insists on the use of natural water in deep wells to brewing in the town of origin, thus guaranteeing the quality of each drop of wine. However, Maotai can only be produced in Maotai Town on the banks of the Chishui River. Even the air there has become an important part of the quality of Moutai. The third is the power of legendary figures. Premier Chou En-lai treated Moutai as a lifetime of love and made the quality of Moutai evident. The fourth is a limited number. After many luxury goods are commercialized, they are still available for sale, although they are expensive. As a result, there is a limited edition of goods. Maotai successfully launched the vintage, of which 80 years of Hantai Maotai sold for 28888 yuan. The fifth is the mystery of traditional craftsmanship. Most of the historical luxury products retain traditional craftsmanship, such as Moutai, such as "two feeds, seven drinks, eight fermentations, nine distillations, and five years of storage." It is therefore time-consuming and expensive. .

In addition, Maotai also enjoys a high premium and strong pricing power.

According to the announcements of Maotai and Wuliangye listed companies, in 2005, Maotai realized a net profit of 1.1 billion yuan and Wuliangye achieved a net profit of 791 million yuan, while the two companies’ main business revenues were 3.9 billion yuan and 6.42 billion yuan respectively. Therefore, Maotai enjoys a higher premium.

On the eve of the Spring Festival this year, Maotai has low-keyed to “block” international retail giant Metro and banned the supply of Maotai dealers to Metro, because the price of Maotai sold by Metro was too low, disrupting the price system and brand image of Maotai. With more and more concentration in the retail industry and increasingly stronger consumer terminal bargaining power, Kweichow Moutai can “block” Metro, fully embodying the market pricing ability as a strong brand.

Among the international liquor luxury brands, Rembrandt Louis XIII became the top representative because it has experienced hundreds of years of historical baptism and a unique regional monopoly. Cognac is a brandy, but only the white wines in Cognac, France, can be processed into cognac and written into French law. Maotai is one of the three major distilling wines of the world, and it is also the only high-quality liquor in Guizhou that is the only collection of “green food”, “organic food” and “geographical indication product” on the domestic liquor market. Moreover, due to the particularity of the environmental requirements for the fermentation process of Moutai, there have been sayings that “it has left Moutai Town and no Moutai can be produced” since ancient times. Kweichow Moutai has the monopoly resource advantages needed to become luxury goods in both brand and geographical areas.

Brewing high quality life

The unique and traditional brewing process, the magical natural geographical environment, and the production cycle that conforms to the laws of the natural season, the unique traditional solid-state fermentation distillation method, and the unique blending process, have created a unique and unique style of Maotai. In May 2006, Maotai was selected as one of the first national intangible cultural heritage sites.

Because of this, there are many things that need to be inherited in the tradition of Moutai. Chairman Maotai Group made wine for 40 years, but he still laments the mystery of Moutai. For example, although the composition of the aroma components of Moutai liquor is now clearly understood, it is still not clear which microbes play a key role. The benefits of moderate drinking Moutai are known to the academic community, but why is it beneficial to health? The leading role, such issues as these have yet to be further studied.

For many unknown Moutai understanding, Maotai people chose to stick to it. Maotai has not only adhered to the long, potentially inefficient, five-year cycle brewing process, but has even changed its storage tanks. In the past 100 years, the vats produced by Sichuan Rongchang have been used. Because even modern technology cannot analyze whether the trace elements contained in the raw materials of these jars have an effect on wine.

On the other hand, Maotai raised the banner of innovation. Yuan Renguo, general manager of Maotai Group, said: Innovation is based on concept innovation. On the basis of this, Maotai’s systematic innovation, management innovation, technological innovation, marketing innovation, and cultural innovation that have been continuously deepened in recent years have been backed by ideology. The company is also full of vigor and vitality with continuous reform and innovation at all levels, achieving a leap forward. development of.

Maotai actively and boldly explored technological innovation. The technological innovation of Maotai Technology not only can gradually recognize the mystery of Maotai through modern technology, but also use advanced science and technology and information technology to transform traditional crafts and innovate traditional crafts, which also makes the traditional production process of Moutai more scientific and standardized.

When the Shenzhou-5 spacecraft was lifted into space, Maotai Group sent raw materials such as sorghum and wheat used in Maotai brewing into space for space experiments, and carried out corresponding research projects and cultivation experiments to select better varieties of raw materials. For the core blending process, they also began to explore the "microcomputer blending," hoping to complete the transformation from the natural kingdom to the inevitable kingdom.

In terms of innovation, Maotai always advances in many aspects. For example, the management of Maotai has been modernized. According to Qiao Hong, general manager of Maotai Co., Ltd., Maotai's informatization has reached a very high level. He can travel abroad and even go abroad to learn and remotely control the production and operation of enterprises through the Internet. For example, in terms of product innovation, they did not satisfy Maotai because of its high popularity and supply. Instead, they insisted on producing one generation, developing one generation, and one generation of new product development ideas, constantly adjusting the product structure, and developing a 38-degree Maotai welcome. Bin wine, 43-degree guest wine, at the same time, research and development of high-grade elegant wine.

Maotai's innovation is summarized in one sentence: using modern technology, especially information technology, to transform traditional craftsmanship on the basis of inheritance. The purpose is to make the quality of Moutai more stable, and to increase the production methods in the sense of “handwork workshops” in the past. The transformation of industrial production methods.

The inheritance and innovation of both forms of God not only improved the production efficiency and economic efficiency of Moutai, but also enabled the Moutai brand to be effectively extended. In recent years, Maotai has been promoting green Maotai, humanistic Maotai, and technology Maotai. Green is healthy, culture is history, and technology is a powerful life force of Maotai. Therefore, Maotai's brand image has been redefined as brewing high-grade life.

According to a research report by Goldman Sachs, China has become the world’s fourth-largest consumer of luxury goods, with luxury spending accounting for about 12% of global sales of the luxury industry, and growing at a rate of 20% per year. Although China has become the fastest growing luxury consumer market in the world, it is hard to see Chinese national brands on the list of luxury goods.

We have reason to believe that in the near future, Maotai will dance with international luxury brands such as Cognac and Absolut vodka in the international market. At that time, foreign consumers will accept as we now accept Remy Martin and Hennessy. Chinese liquor, and Maotai, will once again become proud of Chinese national brands.