As one of the co-founders of the Wine Industry Innovation and Investment Conference, Tao Shiquan said that as an entrepreneur, he has benefited from the changes in the entrepreneurial environment. But innovation has a lot of ups and downs and failures, see a lot of opportunities at the same time, can you see a lot of pits?
Just three weeks ago, Tao Shiquan publicly said that innovation is also a very hard thing, Jiang Xiaobai has made a "fatal" and "amazing mistake", until he made a "nother good wine" and found the development path for the next decade.
There is a harsh reality
Regarding innovation, "There is a cruel reality that the Chinese wine industry does not lack a new product, a new brand in any category. The so-called market gaps are all subjectively imagined by us."
Tao Shiquan said at the conference that the root of innovation is to open up a new road, if you follow the advantages of the enterprise and the head of the enterprise to do the same thing, it is not innovation, is imitation. "True innovation is to create better, to create is not mediocre, to create does not exist."
Innovation is not "new" in the absolute sense, and the innovation of China's wine industry is old and new. He said that the wine industry actually has a "siege mentality". Some famous wine companies may envy Jiang Xiaobai's innovation, in fact, Jiang Xiaobai is also envious of famous wine companies with very good historical and cultural resources.
"We can't stick to traditional culture, we have to relate to the changes in consumers." He said that the innovation of China's wine industry has been upgraded in all aspects.
Photo: Yunjiu Media
First of all, the innovation of China's wine industry is the innovation of new and old enterprises in a wider range and level. Today's innovation is not the innovation of new enterprises and new brands, but the innovation of all-round three-dimensional, and many large enterprises are leading innovation. "Technology and supply chain, high-quality production and scale production, brand building and channel establishment, are all thresholds that cannot be bypassed."
Secondly, the innovation of China's wine industry has entered the deep water area, especially the category and quality innovation has entered a new field. He pays great attention to technological innovation in the industry. But advances in technology may not be as noticeable as changes in marketing.
"Brand, marketing, channel innovation is all about quality." Tao Shiquan believes that the origin of innovation is to start from the perspective of category and product.
"In terms of aroma and taste, Jiang Xiaobai has always insisted on doing his own style and making 'another kind of good wine'." He said, "We did not imitate other famous liquor companies, otherwise there would be no basis for survival." According to reports, in terms of taste and flavor type, Jiang Xiaobai mainly focuses on the natural flavor of sorghum wine with grain aroma, flower and fruit aroma and pine nut fragrance, which is different from the traditional cellar mud flavor route.
Tao Shiquan also believes that the innovation of the wine industry has risen to the innovation of talents and organizations in an all-round way. Innovation is not a matter decided by individual entrepreneurs and a small number of entrepreneurial teams, but more is the blessing of organizational strength and the all-round management output of the entire enterprise, such as digital transformation and changes in logistics.
Stick to the magnitude of thinking
For investment in the wine industry, Tao Shiquan believes that there is also a cruel truth: "From the magnitude of thinking, it can be seen that innovators are not easy to defeat the old brands in the wine industry. ”
"Although the primary investment in 'emerging wine brands' is very hot at the moment, it may not be as good as the value investment in the secondary market. Who bought Maotai in the past decade, or China Resources Beer five or six years ago, how many times has it risen now? Therefore, from the magnitude of thinking, it can be seen that innovators are not easy to defeat the old brands in the wine industry. ”
China's wine industry has experienced nearly two decades of rapid development, but the return on investment is relatively large or a small number of head enterprises, and the real innovation can reach a certain level of a small number of enterprises.
"In the next decade, many investors will pay attention to the order of magnitude." Tao Shiquan said, "Is it easier to earn 10 billion yuan by investing in a small project or a large project?" This is something that investors should consider. Time, spatial scale, and volume can bring really effective orders of magnitude returns. ”
Tao Shiquan believes that investment in China's wine industry is a long-term insistence, and it is not easy to earn orders of magnitude returns without ten or twenty years. Therefore, the wine industry should especially embrace long-term capital.
He suggested that many start-ups, in particular, must be calm. The wine industry has gone through thousands of years, and the history of China's famous wines is 70 years. Therefore, many categories still have opportunities for innovation, but they cannot have short-term success and rush mentality.
Tao Shiquan takes Jiang Xiaobai as an example - since its establishment, Jiang Xiaobai has experienced various difficulties and hardships, and has made a whole industrial chain: 10,000 mu sorghum industrial park, Jiangji winery with a production capacity of 65,000 tons, and more than 2 million terminal channels. But these are the stable results of the decade, and they are the "aircraft take-off help" of the next decade.
Photography by Pang Jiaqi
"I hope that our products will be easier to match meals and positioned to be good wines that the public can afford." I want to have a place with the product compared to other spirits around the world." He said.
But in the past decade, Jiang Xiaobai's "running aid" before taking off has not been smooth. Just 20 days ago, Tao Shiquan had just reflected on the "four mistakes" and "new ten-year direction" on Jiang Xiaobai's business road.
In his view, in the past decade, Jiang Xiaobai has completed the process of a brand and an enterprise from 0 to 1, "barely able to score a 60 points." But we survived, we survived for 10 years, and this foundation helps us to go from 1 to challenge the future 10 to 100. ”
Another good wine
On November 19, the tenth anniversary of Jiang Xiaobai, Tao Shiquan held a "workshop meeting" broadcast live on the Internet. He said that under the premise of listening to the "real opinions" of "real users", Jiang Xiaobai has launched a third-generation wine body that is "really delicious".
The "golden cover" of 52 degrees a pound is a representative work of the third generation of wine, and it is also a representative work of Jiang Xiaobai's "another good wine".
"We've found that it's a mistake not to be high, and we're going to make it a priority." Tao Shiquan introduced that in the next ten years, Jiang Xiaobai's product strategy map is very simple, the main four products, vial low 401, vial height 519, large bottle low silver cap, large bottle height gold cap, only the difference between low height and large bottle vial.
At the same time, The golden cover is also a masterpiece for Jiang Xiaobai to bid farewell to the past and upgrade his quality.
Jingai adopts the "original taste brewing method" developed and optimized for ten years, and strives to be "pure because of the essence"; the wine body adopts a new third-generation wine body, and the raw material is the golden skin glutinous No. 1 selected from more than 20 sorghum varieties.
On this basis, Tao Shiquan elaborated on the quality of The Golden Cover: "Real grain wine, really good to eat, really good to accompany the meal, really good to sober up, really good to sleep, really old wine."
Tao Shiquan introduced at the meeting that at present, Jiangji Winery has a total of 7 brewing workshops, 6553 cellars, the maximum annual production capacity of 65,000 tons, and the storage capacity of old wine is 86,190 tons. As of October 31, 2021, 48,266 tons of old wine were stored.
In the past decade, Jiang Xiaobai has sold a total of 1,090.73 million bottles of products. "We follow the high standards of famous wines, not only Chinese famous wines, but also high standards for becoming world-class famous wines in the next decade." Tao Shiquan said that we hope to stand together with Chivas, Johnnie Ginja, Absolute Vodka, Bacardi and other products in the future and become world-class famous wines.
"These world-class wine products also only sell for one or two hundred yuan, with a price close to the people, and also have a stable quality and sales base." Their existence proves that not every bottle of wine, not everyone needs to use the price, with the face to show, have the quality of famous wine, but only sell the price of folk wine.
"This is not just an opportunity in the Chinese market, but also an opportunity in the global market. This is a real opportunity for innovation. ”
If the goal of "100 yuan famous wine" is reached, Jiang Xiaobai may become a typical case of magnitude innovation and magnitude investment.