Even in one of the most inconspicuous convenience stores on the street, low-grade liquor can take its place.
Peach blossom wine, plum wine, cherry wine, rose wine... A wide variety of low-grade liquors have become an important part of supermarkets and convenience stores. Aiming at the tastes of young people, compared to heavy liquors, low-grade liquors with novel packaging and sweet tastes are trying to teach young people to drink.
There were 27 financings in just 5 months
"Low alcohol" is a general term, and there is no unified definition at present. Different from the four major liquors (liquor, beer, wine, rice wine), in a broad sense, it usually refers to the new type of liquor that includes fruit wine, pre-mixed wine, rice wine, sparkling wine and many other categories, including dessert wine, and the alcohol content of this type of wine is relatively low, generally not more than 20 degrees.
The war on low-alcohol is ignited in 2020. The data shows that in 2020, more than 5,000 new brands of low-grade liquor have emerged on the Tmall platform alone. According to public statistics, there will be nearly 80 alcohol financing incidents in 2021, of which more than half will occur in the field of low-grade liquor, mainly concentrated in angel rounds and A rounds of financing. The amount of each financing is also relatively high, basically in the scale of tens of millions of yuan. According to media reports, in the first five months of 2021 alone, there were 27 financing incidents in the low-alcohol industry, with a total financing amount of more than 2.5 billion yuan.
Unlike traditional liquor, low-grade liquor grabs the incremental market of young people who do not drink alcohol, rather than converting middle-aged people who drink liquor. The algorithm behind it is very simple: many young people do not drink liquor, so that the threshold for small white users to taste early is very high, then lower the threshold of alcohol - so that young people can accept the "low alcohol" with lower degree, better taste and more fashionable appearance.
However, among the ten or so "post-90s" young people randomly surveyed by the reporter, the evaluation of low-grade alcohol is relatively polarized. For young people who usually "drink some wine", in terms of taste, low-grade wine is not attractive. However, for young people who usually do not try any alcoholic beverages, the threshold for low-alcohol alcohol to try is greatly reduced.
"The taste is so sweet, there is only a little bit of alcohol, and the taste is close to that of a drink." For Zhang Meng, a post-90s woman who "can drink some wine", low-alcohol is not good. Zhang Meng said that he did not drink traditional liquor, and drank the low-grade liquor brought by his colleagues at a party, "The alcohol content is below 10 degrees, which is similar to ordinary high-sugar drinks, the taste is not good, and it feels like syrup." ”
However, for users who do not usually drink alcohol at all, the acceptance of low-alcohol alcohol is significantly better.
"We now bring low-alcohol drinks, such as RIO, to our parties, and we can drink some for our friends who don't drink at all." Zhang Meng told reporters that he usually does not drink alcohol, but the taste of these low-grade wines and the taste of the alcohol he comes into contact with every day are very different, for the "drinking xiaobai", low-grade wine not only satisfies the social desire of "drinking" in the party, but also does not have too much wine taste.
However, almost all the users interviewed said that even if the low-grade wine is divided into different categories such as "peach blossom wine" and "rose wine", there is not much difference in taste when it is really drunk.
"It feels more like a gimmick, it's just propaganda for the sake of publicity." Zhang Meng said, "I can't make a difference." ”
The "most fashionable drink" once rode to the dust
In fact, the "little difference" in taste is also reflected in the marketing of low-grade wines. Judging from the current promotion, low-grade wine is more like a concept business of light products and heavy marketing.
The reporter noted that for these low-alcohol drinks, not only are they facing the "small white users" who do not drink, but the more accurate customer group is female users.
In a convenience store near Jinan Quancheng Square, there are more than 20 large and small low-grade liquor brands, not only with well-designed bottles, but also with extremely bright packaging colors, and the slogan is also quite "emotional". In the copywriting publicity, the social attributes of drinks have been increased, and they are classified according to the use scenarios in the copywriting, from "girlfriend party" to "drinking and drinking".
Not only that, in the promotion of low-alcohol wine, social platforms such as Xiaohongshu that focus on female users are also important publicity positions. On the Little Red Book, there are more than 1.03 million notes about "slightly drunk", and the copywriting is similar, positioned as "goodnight sweet wine for girls", and strives to label it "romantic".
With the rise of the "she economy" and the "young economy", the track of low-alcohol alcohol is also becoming increasingly popular. As the "elder" of low-alcohol wine, only 3.8% alcohol content, with a variety of different flavors of RIO low-grade cocktails once became the "most fashionable drink" among young people, through a series of marketing such as celebrity endorsements, titled variety shows, and implanted advertisements in popular film and television dramas, RIO strongly occupied all marketing platforms that can reach young consumers, and the company's performance also ushered in significant growth.
At the beginning of RIO's popularity, it was almost a ride. In addition to the emergence of countless emerging brands, traditional wine companies including Maotai, Fenjiu, Luzhou Laojiao, Gujing Tribute Liquor and other traditional liquor companies have also set foot in the field of low-grade liquor. In 2014, Wuliangye launched Dracula Chinese pre-mixed liquor with an alcohol content of 3%-7%, Moutai launched the blueberry flavor low-grade pre-mixed liquor brand "Youmi UMEET", Luzhou Laojiao also launched its own prepared wine "Peach Blossom Drunk" in 2016, and Shuijingfang also set up a pre-mixed cocktail subsidiary.
Not only that, but beverage merchants have also entered the market in an attempt to get a piece of the pie. Earlier, Coca-Cola launched a "Topak hard soda sparkling wine" in the Chinese market, which entered the Chinese alcoholic beverage market for the first time; Nongfu Spring also launched a wine-containing drink - rice wine sparkling drink. Tea brands such as Tea Delight, Shuyi Roasted Immortal Herb, and CoCo also launched alcohol-based series of products last year as limited short-term supply of commodities.
According to Tianyancha data, as of November 2021, 21 large and small low-grade liquor brands have obtained financing, Berry Sweetheart, Fu Bixing, and Go-Yo Qing Brew have completed multiple rounds of financing, with a total financing amount of nearly 10 billion yuan, and many small brands such as Meihuali, Xiaodui, and Belong have also completed angel financing. It is worth noting that as an emerging brand, Berry Sweetheart has received a total of four financings in two years.
According to incomplete media statistics, in 2021, more than 50 capital parties participated in more than 30 enterprises/brands in the new wine industry 39 times. It is worth noting that in the 2021 "Double 11" shopping festival, the number of low-tide drinkers on the Tmall platform increased by more than 50%, and the total turnover was close to liquor, becoming the second largest category of liquor. During the "June 18" period, sales of low-grade liquor increased by more than 90% year-on-year. From the data, it is not difficult to find that the scale of the low-alcohol market is gradually expanding, and capital has also poured into the new wine track.
It's easy to get started
According to the analysis and research of China's low-alcohol industry, the market size of low-alcohol wine is expected to reach 74.26 billion yuan in 2025, and the compound annual growth rate from 2021 to 2025 can reach 30%.
So is the low-grade wine that seems to be hot on the track really a new outlet?
As the operator of an advertising agency, Wang Xin entered the low-alcohol market in the second half of 2019, launching a fruity low-grade wine with a packaging similar to "Jiang Xiaobai" but with a lower alcohol content.
"The media market is not good, and the company has been thinking about transformation. On the recommendation of a friend, we will do a drink business together. Wang Xin told reporters that she does not belong to the "little white" of the liquor market, before the low-alcohol market, she once did a certain liquor brand and red wine agency business, and has certain customer resources.
For Wang Xin, it is not difficult to make low-grade liquor, and the routine is the same as most liquor businesses - find a liquor manufacturer, make flavor blends, and then paste your own brand. In the production process, the largest part of the investment is the design of the packaging and the choice of bottle body.
OEM, which is currently the play of most low-grade wine brands, is also the mainstream asset-light operation in the current market. Wang Xin revealed that the current low alcohol threshold on the market is even lower than that of ordinary liquor, basically edible essence, plus edible alcohol and water, it is blended out, some more exquisite companies will also add some juice, but there is not much difference in taste.
"I have my own advertising company, can be responsible for the design of the packaging, the bottle directly to buy the finished product, frosted glass bottle wholesale is about 1.2 yuan a, the blended wine according to the size of my order to determine the price." In her view, liquor is an industry that emphasizes marketing, channels and consumption scenarios, and the entry threshold is low because the technical difficulty of production is not large.
Does low-alcohol make money?
Does low-alcohol make money? Wang Xin calculated an account: the cost of her wine was about 10 yuan, plus the cost of wine bottles and other costs, the total cost was about 15 yuan, and the final sales price was 49 yuan, which was more than twice the cost.
The entry threshold is low, the cost is low, and the low-grade wine industry that seems to be "very beautiful" is the channel.
"The cost of offline retail channels is too expensive." Wang Xin said, "If the price of low-grade wine exceeds 50 yuan, it is an expensive wine, and it is already difficult to sell." Low-grade liquor is meant to be cheap and fancy to be attractive. Wang Xin told reporters that if you only compare production costs and terminal prices, low-grade wine seems to be very profitable. However, in the middle of production and sales, the channel will eat up most of the cost.
"If you go directly into the supermarket, you need to pay the entrance fee." There is a saying in the industry that 'entering the supermarket is looking for death, not entering the supermarket is waiting for death', you can see how expensive the entrance fee is. If you are looking for a dealer, the dealer's price is much lower than the terminal price, the dealer layer by layer agent, and finally put on the shelf, the price will basically double 4 to 5 times. Wang Xin said that for some sought-after channels, the brand side also has to pay various fees such as entry fees and listing fees, and the layers are peeled down, and the brand side has very little left.
In addition, if you do not take the offline channel, focus on the online, the price of the e-commerce channel is not lower than the offline, "in terms of the ranking of Baidu bidding, it will cost money to click alone, and a click will cost two or three dollars." ”
"If even the advertising fee has to be counted, then a few thousand to tens of thousands of dollars, there is not much splash at all." Drinks need to go through social channels to promote, I found a local cultural V in Jinan, sent a public account article for 10,000 yuan, and has not sold a few bottles. ”
Wang Xin said that the liquor she produced mainly relied on the previous traditional liquor channels for sales, and there was no large-scale laying channel, so the sales situation was relatively general, fortunately, it was OEM production, and the cost input was not high.
"I have basically stopped working since mid-to-late last year, and I have not earned or lost money." Wang Xin said that if you carefully calculate the cost of labor, venue and publicity, it must be a loss-making transaction. (Edited by Li Chuang)
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