Tiger Sniff Note: In April, Tiger Sniff opened its third F&M festival of the year in Chengdu. One or two liquors went down, and Liu Tao, the general manager of Kongfujia Liquor, stood on the stage, which was his first public speech after taking office. As we all know, Chengdu is the capital of Sichuan, and "Sichuan wine" (Wuliangye, Luzhou Laojiao, etc.) and "Lujiu" (Kongfujia wine, Lanling, etc.) have always loved and killed each other, so the choice of this appearance is also quite "exquisite". The Confucius house wine built in 1958 is a 60-year-old brand (if you count from the "Confucius Private Brewery", it can be traced back to 2500 years ago), how to make the "old tree blossom new flowers" is the most difficult problem facing Liu Tao and his team.
Start with a TV series that exposes its age.
Nowadays, when people mention Zheng Xiaolong, the little lords can immediately think of the classic "Biography of Zhen Huan" and the later "Biography of Mi Yue"; now when people mention Feng Xiaogang, they are estimated to be able to tell the upcoming "I Am Not Pan Jinlian". Time back 14 years ago, the hit drama created by these two big names in the 90s was waiting in front of the TV set every household - "Beijingers in New York", starring Jiang Wen and Wang Ji. There are countless classic lines circulating:
"If you love him, send him to New York, because that's heaven;
If you hate him, send him to New York, because that's hell. ”
Following this drama, there is also Liu Huan's song "Ten Million Times":
"Thousands of miles, I must return to my home, my home, eternal life and never forget."
Does this lyric sound familiar, but not exactly the same? In fact, this is not in the theme song of the TV series, but appears in the advertisement after the first round of the play: Ah Chun (Wang Ji) got off the plane to return home in the anxious expectations of the crowd, brought home clothes, shoes and hats from abroad for his family, and then sat in front of the camera and slowly said the same familiar advertising phrase to the audience - "Kongfu family wine, make people homesick".
This slogan has been regarded as a classic so far, and it has also opened the prelude to the great rejuvenation of Lujiu. But where have they gone, and can they regain their glory now?
The success or failure of the "standard king", the rise and fall of Lu wine
"Make people homesick" applaud and applaud, the advertising effect of Confucius house wine is remarkable, and some dealers even wait in line for 7 days for the pickup of goods after the fire. The locals mentioned the Confucius house wine of that year, and they were all proud:
"I think back then, the car that came to pull the wine was lined up for hundreds of meters on this road, and that scene..."
"A winery has driven many related industries around it, such as cartons, bottles, packaging... At that time, the whole county was stained with light. ”
This "overnight fame" routine gave all the Shandong hometown Lu liquor enterprises a shot of chicken blood. CCTV launched its first advertising bid, inventing the reputation of "bidding king" - probably the same nature as the "first advertisement" of today's auction papi sauce. Striving to be the "standard king" then became a contest between Shandong liquor companies. In 1994, the first "Biaowang" was kongfu banquet wine, which was only a word away from kongfu wine, and won the "biaowang laurel" with 30.79 million yuan; then it was shandong laoxiang Qinchi Distillery that won the "biaowang" for two consecutive years, and it was amazing that it offered 320 million yuan for the "biaowang" in 1996.
If the tree is large, it beckons. Qinchi Distillery, a county-level enterprise in Linqu, Shandong Province, has won the sky-high price of "Standard King" and cannot help but arouse questions from all walks of life. In 1997, the Economic Daily exposed an explosive news:
Qinchi can only produce 3,000 tons of original wine per year in Shandong base, which cannot meet the needs of the market, so Qinchi buys a large amount of original wine in Sichuan and transports it back to Shandong for "blending".
The "hook door" made the "standard king" fall for a while. What is even more regrettable is that at that time, the company's "ability to understand crisis public relations is too insufficient." In the face of the crisis-ridden Qinchi, Lujiu did not even have any effective response, allowing it to spread to the entire "Lujiu Eight King Kongs", and the brand image plummeted.
What is even more regrettable is that kongfujia liquor, the leading big brother of Lujiu, has misjudged the brand strategy. From 10 yuan - 300 yuan products, the category of Confucius house wine has been expanded across the board, although in the short term, sales have increased a lot, but this blind expansion of this part of the "high, medium and low" grade has made the long-term brand image be dismantled into pieces, and this drawback slowly began to be reflected in later sales.
The Golden Decade: "The Best of Times, and the Worst of Times"
In 1998, the Asian financial crisis swept the world, which also caused the entire liquor industry to turn from prosperity to decline.
However, the "worst era" is also the "best era", Sichuan wine takes this opportunity to tell cultural stories: Luzhou old cellar product upgrade, the launch of the national cellar 1573; Kouzi cellar targeted marketing model changes, turned into high-end liquor, Sichuan liquor and several other golden flowers are also with the help of CCTV advertising blockbusters to Sichuan liquor culture and stories continue to occupy the minds of consumers, "Sichuan wine, culture" in their hearts are firmly bound together.
On the other hand, After the "Biaowang Incident", many enterprises such as Kongfu Yanjiu and Qinchi collapsed until they disappeared from the public eye. The struggling Kongfu family wine embarked on a marketing path that was completely different from that of Sichuan liquor, and began to be "pragmatic". This kind of "practical first" thinking also made the Confucius family fail to grasp the transformation of the "golden" period.
As a result, the development of Confucius house wine around 2000 was extremely bumpy, and the two ambitious "revitalizations" returned home:
First of all, Sun Jiancheng, the "iron factory director" of Confucius House Wine, invited Ye Maozhong, a legendary planning master in China, to revitalize the Confucius family, and then invited Liu Huan to endorse and launched categories such as "Shengshi Datao", but unfortunately, "Datao" did not work; Sun Jiancheng also abandoned his previous achievements due to the transfer of Zhonglian Cement.
Then in 2004, Shenzhen Wanji, a famous domestic capital predator, entered the Confucius family. Led by Liu Min, the most powerful professional manager in the liquor industry, the most powerful marketing team at that time was recruited and formed in the country. However, in the field of capital, the "Wanji" who is good at dancing with long sleeves cannot calm down, and the patience of sub-operation requires slow work to produce fine liquor. At the end of 2006, "Wanji" had no choice but to leave, and the Kong family was seriously injured.
Associated with the Lord, he is the stone of the mountain
The turnaround came in 2007. Confucius House Wine invited back Qiu Zhenxin, the old marshal who was in charge of the Confucius family in the late 1990s.
Qiu Zhenxin used his deep understanding of the culture of Confucius house wine to save the Kong house wine that had fallen into a desperate situation. Under the impetus of Qiu Zhenxin, the Confucius family launched the Fuzang series of products for the middle class consumption wave, and due to the more suitable price, this product quickly rose to become a profitable product of the Confucius family. By 2012, the sales of Confucius House Wine that year reached more than 400 million yuan, the best performance since 2000, of which the contribution of the Fuzang series exceeded 100 million.
In 2012, Confucius House Wine ushered in the biggest change. On September 16, Lenovo Liquor and KongfuJiajiu officially signed a cooperation agreement, and Lenovo Liquor invested 400 million yuan to acquire Kongfujiajiu. From 2012 to 2016, it successively acquired Bancheng Shochu Wine, Wenwang Wine, Wuling Wine, established a red wine company, and invested in wine convenience. Under the management of Lenovo style, Kongfujia Liquor has made a bold move, crossed the traditional border and begun to reshape its brand influence, and is still the only national excellent brand of Lujiu. Now in charge of the Confucius family wine is Liu Tao, a young marshal of the post-70s "Lenovo Department". Liu Tao joined Lenovo since he walked out of Peking University in 2001 and worked for fifteen years, during which he was responsible for the management of Shandong channels in the Lenovo sales region, and then engaged in overseas business and investment and financing related work; he was responsible for the "kiwifruit business" of Joyvo Group under Legend Holdings, and he also successfully promoted the listing of "Willow Peach".
Can "Confucius" and "Baijiu" still be popular?
(Korean TV series "Let's Eat Together 2", the picture shows the male protagonist Yoon Doo-joon, this expression is to say that the female protagonist is too able to eat... ）
("Descendants of the Sun" OST "Talk Love" singer Kim Kyung-so K.Will)
Interestingly, in South Korea's variety shows and TV series, it is often seen that "Confucius House Wine" figure, Oba even very much preferred; recall the previous few years to go to the Confucius Institute in Thailand to teach, to foreign friends to express Chinese culture gifts is also the Confucius House Wine, Confucius House Wine has been exported for eight consecutive years, which reflects the influence of Confucian culture on China's neighboring countries.
Young Chinese people no longer like to drink liquor; confucius, the impression is that since Yu Dan's "discourse", Confucius's old mr. Confucius is not as popular as "the emperors of the Forbidden City" and "Li Bai Du Fu emojis" in the hearts of young people.
The rule of liquor is still traditional culture, what kind of story does Kongfu family wine tell about "classic and popular"?
Classic, Confucius house wine is very good. On September 28 this year, the 2567th anniversary of Confucius's birth, Confucius House Wine held a grand "Sacrifice of Kong Ceremony", before that, Confucius House Wine also planned the "Hanfu Crossing" event, so that a large number of people who like Hanfu wore Hanfu and took to the streets to promote traditional culture.
(Confucius House Wine "Tribute to the Ancestors" Global Series Poster)
(Confucius House Wine "Let Culture Go Home" Hanfu Parade)
So, how does pop do?
"From following the mainstream to advocating for self, from focusing on price to focusing on quality and tone, young people have begun to emphasize personality, appearance and even the so-called compulsion of the Internet." In the short term, this is good for the traditional liquor industry, but in the long run, it is conducive to the future diversified development of the liquor industry. The liquor industry has lasted for thousands of years and will not disappear because of the youth of this generation, but looking back at the development of liquor, the taste, texture and even the way it is drunk has changed..." When asked how to attract young people, Liu Tao said, "But young people, like online channels, belong to the object we want to strive for after doing a good job of offline and existing customers." ”
Traditional culture is a mine. The Palace Museum has shown a way to send "a tourist-like key cultural relics protection unit out of the high blockade of the palace wall", so in what way does "Confucius" #become a new Internet celebrity and join the emoji luxury feast#?
For Confucius House Wine, the story to be told has just begun.
Pay attention to the WeChat public account Tiger Sniff Network (huxiu_com), regular push, welfare interaction is wonderful