Image source @ Visual China
Wen | node finance, author | Sansheng
In recent years, Langjiu, which once claimed to be "one of China's two major sauce-fragrant baijiu", has been constantly moving, trying to break a new path beyond the big mountain of Moutai.
Not long ago, Wang Junlin, chairman of Langjiu Group, publicly announced that he would resume offline sales of his Lang brand. This action is aimed at the price band of mass sauce wine below 400 yuan, and it is also a helpless move under the pressure of Moutai.
In addition, in 2022, Langjiu's Wujiagou Ecological Brewing Area will be fully completed and put into operation, increasing the annual production capacity of soy wine to 60,000 tons per year and energy storage to 180,000 tons. Langjiu also issued the "Internal Control Guidelines for Langjiu Sauce and Aroma Products Enterprises" this year, and before Moutai, it took the lead in eating crabs in the sauce industry. In addition, Langjiu also vigorously promotes the "big and fragrant strategy" and advances towards the fragrant track represented by Kouzi Cellar.
You can feel the "restless" heart under Langjiu's frequent movements. But against the background of multi-faceted attacks, the problem of Langjiu also came.
1. How much room does Langjiu have for development in the field of soy wine?
2. Why did Langjiu enter the aroma type?
3. Behind a series of operations of Langjiu, what bureau is it in?
With these questions in mind, this article will expand on the following.
Moutai tops, how to break through the sauce wine track?
All of the above actions show one thing, Langjiu still wants to forge ahead on the most important track of soy wine.
The reason for this is determined by the market prospects of the soy wine industry.
According to the "2021-2022 China Sauce Industry Development Report" by wine industry, China's soy wine production capacity in 2021 will be about 600,000 kiloliters, accounting for about 8.4% of mainland liquor production capacity; The sales revenue reached 190 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 22.6%, accounting for about 31.5% of the sales revenue of the mainland liquor industry; The realized profit was about 78 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 23.8%, accounting for about 45.8% of the profit of the mainland liquor industry.
Whether in terms of development speed or earning ability, soy wine is still the "most beautiful boy" in the entire liquor track, and it is worth continuing to cultivate.
However, it should also be noted that beneath the surface of the "beautiful" sauce wine, the differentiation remains. Comparing Moutai's performance in 2021, it can be found that the revenue of Moutai alone is close to 110 billion yuan, accounting for about 57.58% of the sauce wine sector; The net profit was 52.46 billion yuan, accounting for about 67.25%. In the sauce wine "this pot", only Moutai really eats meat, and other brands basically drink soup, including Langjiu.
How to break through the suppression of Moutai is not only a problem for other aroma brands such as Wuliangye, Yanghe Co., Ltd., and Shanxi Fenjiu, but also a headache for sauce and fragrance peers such as Langjiu. Among them, Langjiu is the most "anxious" one.
The reason why I am "anxious" is not only because I am in the same sauce wine track, but also because of Langjiu's well-known listing knot.
In order to seek a breakthrough, in addition to this year's actions, in 2021, Langjiu also has a big move, that is, in addition to "one of China's two major sauce-fragrant baijiu", it launched a new promotional label: "left bank of the Chishui River, manor sauce wine".
Perhaps, after benchmarking Moutai for many years, Langjiu finally found that the gap between himself and Moutai, relying on the way of "rubbing hot spots" in advertising, can no longer bring much value to himself. After all, the gap between the two is visible to the naked eye. The concept of changing to "manor sauce wine" can be said to be a breakthrough in Langjiu.
According to public information, Lang Wine Estate has been under construction since 2008, with an investment of 20 billion yuan.
Lang Wine Estate is based on the brewing vein of the growth and cultivation of blue and white flowers, and is equipped with high-end facilities such as resort hotels, trying to improve the brand grade of Lang Wine by creating a differentiated experience.
In short, the layout of Lang Wine Estate is a deep excavation of the "social attributes" of baijiu. In order to make a difference in the field of high-end soy wine, the grade and tonality of the product must be improved. By giving consumers a high-end experience, it empowers Langjiu's own brand value.
However, it is not enough to shape a high-end liquor brand. The manor is easy to copy, but there is only one in Moutai. Therefore, whether the current model of Langjiu Estate can help Langjiu achieve a breakthrough and achieve "de-Moutaiization" still needs to be observed.
At the same time, Langjiu is making efforts in the field of mass sauce wine below 300 yuan, but it is actually facing a lot of pressure. Because soy wine is highly profitable, there are many players, and the competition is fierce.
On August 10 this year, Guizhou Zhenjiu released its sub-brand "Yingshan Hong", positioning itself as the main brand of mid-range bottled sauce wine, with a retail price of less than 300 yuan; On September 29, Guotai Liquor announced the launch of the Huaijiu brand, and the two new products focused on the mass consumer price band of about 300 yuan.
On October 4, Wang Junlin announced that Lang Lang Liquor would resume offline channel sales, also targeting the price band of mass sauce.
In addition, the boss Moutai also has a layout in the field of mass sauce, such as Moutai Prince and Welcome Series, which has also formed a market volume of 5 billion.
Therefore, whether in high-end soy wine or mass soy wine, Langjiu is facing great competitive pressure from peers. With the gradual maturity and popularity of the soy wine track, the dividends contained in it are also being decomposed and eaten. Faced with this situation, Langjiu is not only improving its own brand tonality and production capacity, but also opening up a new battlefield.
This is its "big and fragrant strategy".
Make a big effort and open up the second growth curve?
In fact, Wang Junlin proposed the "big and fragrant strategy" as early as 2019, but this year it is particularly important. At the 2022 Langjiu Chongyang Xiasha Ceremony, he emphasized that Langjiu will carry out a comprehensive upgrade of all products next year, which will be an inflection point for the upward development of Langjiu.
From a series of actions and expressions of Langjiu, it can be found that Langjiu is transitioning its product system other than soy wine from "strong aroma + fragrant" to "large and fragrant".
For the "big and fragrant strategy", Wang Junlin's expectation is to open up a "second growth curve" for Langjiu in the future.
This is not Wang Junlin's wishful thinking, in the history of the development of Langjiu, sauce aroma products have indeed made a great contribution to the rise of Langjiu.
Among them, when Xiaolang Wine (formerly known as VIP Lang) was launched more than ten years ago, it used a "thick sauce and fragrant" body, and the small bottle of "two or two" was priced at 15 yuan at that time was twice that of a pound of light bottle wine.
In 2012, the liquor industry suffered a major adjustment. At that time, Xiaolangjiu sprang up in the relatively loose competition and aromatic track, helping Langjiu survive the cold winter of the liquor industry.
From 2012 to 2015, Xiaolangjiu seized the opportunity of the rise of the folk liquor consumption market and consumption upgrade, and became the "first brand of small bottle liquor". In 2014, Xiaolangjiu's revenue exceeded 1 billion yuan, and in the following two years, it contributed half of Langjiu's performance. On this basis, Xiaolangjiu was identified as one of the three core strategic products of Langjiu in 2017.
At present, Langjiu has three main products in the "big and fragrant" strategy.
The first is Xiaolangjiu, which is the pioneer of Langjiu's "big and fragrant strategy"; followed by Shunpinlang, which has become a representative of high-line light bottle wine after its listing in 2019; Finally, there is the Lang brand special song, which also began to exert efforts in 2019, and launched the Lang brand special song "Fuma" series in 2021.
Baijiu rivers and lakes, sauce fragrant Maotai, strong aroma of Wuliangye, Luzhou old cellar, clear fragrance of Shanxi fenjiu, its volume is Langjiu short-term unattainable opponents. However, in the scent-type track, there is no such strong brand.
Among the listed liquor companies, the representative of the aroma type is the mouth cellar of Tui Hui wine, but its revenue in 2021 is only 5.029 billion yuan. Compared with it, Langjiu has certain advantages in terms of brand awareness, channels, and scale.
"Rather for the head of the chicken, not for the queen of the cow". Although the aroma type is not as good as other tracks such as sauce aroma and strong aroma, if it can sit on the top spot in this segment, it will be an opportunity for Langjiu, which has been suppressed by Moutai for a long time, to break through upward.
However, it is worth paying attention to why no company has stood out for a long time? If this problem cannot be solved, Langjiu may not be able to get as it wishes and get too much income.
First of all, from the brand point of view, there are no special requirements for the production area of fragrant liquor, and there is no regional scale effect. Anyone can do it, and often no one can do it well. However, if Langjiu enters the national market, it will face the challenge of fragrant liquor from various places, such as Kouzi Cellar in Anhui and Baiyunbian in Hubei, which may not be able to take advantage of it locally.
Secondly, in terms of products, fragrant liquor, it is good to say that it is to collect the strengths of everyone, and it is difficult to listen to is to have no characteristics. Some people in the liquor industry complained, "It can't be brewed with strong aroma, and it can't make a sauce aroma, and the taste is not the same, all of which are fragrant." ”
Specific to Langjiu, the production of aromatic products also relies on the blending and production of externally sourced base wine. Relying on this method, whether Langjiu's products can impress more consumers is still unknown. If Langjiu wants to make better aromatic products, it still needs to make up for the shortcomings of self-produced aromatic base wine.
Therefore, whether Langjiu can perform better on the fragrant track still needs to be further observed.
Attacking from all sides, is it fierce or auspicious?
In fact, no matter how much fanfare is launched the "Internal Control Guidelines", expanding production capacity and even building Langjiu Estate, as well as making efforts in the fragrant track, Langjiu has not got rid of the influence of the past. As long as the boss of a company does not change, no matter how the superficial strategy changes, it will inevitably rely on the previous path of success.
On the road to the rise of Langjiu, Wang Junlin formulated the development strategy of "one tree and three flowers, wolf tactics". "One tree and three flowers" refers to the three fragrance types of sauce, strong and fragrant in the whole line; "Pack wolf tactics" means fighting in the same region, multiple brands, and multiple fronts. Relying on this strategy, Langjiu's revenue once reached 10.3 billion yuan in 2011, ranking among the "10 billion club".
Looking back at "one tree and three flowers, wolf tactics", and then observing the current series of actions of Langjiu, does it taste like an "enhanced version" of the past strategy? The rapid rise of Langjiu is inseparable from the success of this strategy. However, attacking from all sides, one moment engaged in manor sauce wine, and the other time engaged in large and fragrant operations, it is easy to lead to insufficient clarity of its own product strategy.
Perhaps, the management of Langjiu understands what is its focus, after all, sauce-flavored products are the pillar of revenue and the "cash cow". However, for the market, the side effects of this practice are also sometimes apparent.
For example, the problem of Langjiu's distributors pressing and channeling goods has not been criticized. In 2019, Wang Junlin reviewed himself at the distributor conference, saying: "Langjiu did not do a good job, it seems to be the following problem, but in fact, it is the chairman himself's problem, the distributor does not make money, the responsibility lies with me." ”
Although Wang Junlin's frankness is worthy of praise, it has to be said that the root cause of this problem really needs to be borne by the chairman responsible for formulating the strategic direction.
Also in 2019, Wang Junlin also declared: "In the next 5 to 10 years, Langjiu will be on an equal footing with Moutai, and we have this confidence and ability." ”
After issuing such bold words, in order to solve the "persistent disease" of distributors, in 2021, Langjiu simply announced that the product would no longer check the problem of channeling goods after four years, which was a pain. But will this solution work?
In 2022, according to the administrative penalty information released by the Shanghai Municipal Market Supervision Bureau, Langjiu (Shanghai) Liquor Marketing Co., Ltd. was fined 33,000 yuan for violating the Advertising Law by advertising. The reason for this problem may be related to the bitterness of Langjiu distributors who do not want to press the goods.
At present, Langjiu is still full of momentum. And if you want to compete with Moutai in the future, listing seems to be the only way to go, and rumors have been constant. In this regard, Wang Junlin once said that the listing of Langjiu is a natural thing, and its purpose is only one: "to be a century-old store".
However, a century-old store must have its own strategic focus, and it is not a good phenomenon to change around.