The Paper reporter Gao Yuting
Fan Xinru, trainee reporter of The Paper
Following the "Sauce Latte", the wine heart chocolate co-branded by Moutai and Dove was officially launched.
On the afternoon of September 16th, the launch of the wine heart chocolate product jointly launched by Moutai and Dove - "Mao Xiaoling Wine Heart Chocolate" was held in Xingyi City, Qianxian Prefecture, Guizhou Province.
Ding Xiongjun, secretary of the party committee and chairman of Moutai Group, mentioned at the press conference on the same day that as a traditional Chinese brand enterprise, Moutai must embrace the young generation of the "Z generation" if it wants to be forever young and enhance the vitality of the enterprise. At present, Moutai has completed the product matrix ecological layout of "drinking, eating, tasting, drinking, and bringing", that is, drinking Moutai wine, eating Moutai banquet, tasting Moutai ice cream, drinking sauce latte, and chocolate with wine heart. At this point, the development of "+Moutai" peripheral products will also come to an end.
At the press conference on the same day, Ding Xiongjun also said that wine is the foundation of Moutai's establishment and development, and it is always "the main business in the main business and the fist in the fist". No matter how the times change, how consumption upgrades, and how the industry expands, Moutai will never forget the core development logic of "originating from wine, rising from wine, and inevitably focusing on wine, focusing on wine", and will never forget "what to achieve success and rely on to move into the future".
Ding Xiongjun mentioned that from the Moutai ice cream "out of the circle", to the sauce-fragrant latte "brushed in the circle", and then to the "officially" wine heart chocolate, it is Moutai's brave attempt to "wear new shoes, take a new road, and take a beautiful path". He said: "Standing at the cusp of the new era and facing the new consumption trend, as a traditional Chinese brand enterprise, Moutai must always be young and enhance the vitality of the enterprise, it must embrace young people and embrace the young generation of the 'Z era'; it is inevitable to adhere to internationalization and promote Chinese brands and Chinese culture to better go to the world." ”
On September 16, Moutai Defu's "Mao Xiaoling" wine heart chocolate was sold on multiple platforms, at 15:30, the surging news reporter opened the shopping cart on time, after clicking the payment option, the page showed that the goods could no longer be purchased, and the three specifications on sale were sold out. At 15:31, the third-party mini program also showed that the "Mao Xiaoling" wine heart chocolate gift box was sold out.
According to Dove's official flagship store, the first batch of sales has three specifications: 2 capsules in 2 classic flavor gift boxes, 12 capsules in classic flavor gift boxes and 12 capsules in sugar-reduced version gift boxes, priced at 35 yuan, 169 yuan and 179 yuan respectively.
Judging from this sale, Moutai and Dove's sauce chocolate replicates the success of the sauce latte. The situation of "one coincidence is difficult to find" also made many netizens complain on social platforms: "Who is robbing Moutai chocolate with me" and "Who grabbed Dove Moutai chocolate".
The customer service of Dove's official flagship store told the surging news reporter that although the specific replenishment time is unknown, 4 pre-sales will still be opened on the evening of the 16th, and 2 pre-sales will be opened every day for the next 3 days. However, the pre-order items after that are 2 classic wine heart strong granules and 2 sugar reduced sugar wine heart chocolates. Dove's official flagship store has also re-listed the 2-capsule gift box on the product page, and marked the pre-sale in the product picture.
There are no seconds online, and there are no goods offline
Different from the previous "sauce latte", the joint wine heart chocolate is also on sale on e-commerce platforms, but almost all of them are "seconds empty". At 15:30, the three gift boxes sold in Dove's official flagship store were gone, and the pre-sale goods on other platforms such as Douyin were also sold out one after another, only the official flagship store of Moutai ice cream was sold with Moutai ice cream, and some of the remaining goods could be purchased.
Previously, the official announced that in addition to the online platform, the co-branded chocolate will also be sold in offline channels such as 106 Ole boutique supermarkets and 34 Moutai ice cream flagship stores across the country. However, the surging news reporter visited an Ole boutique supermarket and Moutai ice cream shop in Shanghai's Minhang District in the afternoon, and the clerks said that they were not in stock offline.
At 14:30, the surging news reporter came to the Ole MixC store in Shanghai, but there was no trace of Moutai chocolate on the chocolate shelf. After inquiring, I learned that Moutai chocolate will not be sold in stores. The store manager said that if you want to buy Moutai co-branded chocolate, you can only snap it up through the Ole mini program. After successful purchase, the product will be shipped directly by the dealer and delivered to the home. The OLE mini program shows that the Mao Xiaoling wine heart chocolate gift box pre-sold online is a 12-capsule version, which is divided into two versions: classic and reduced sugar. The total stock of classic models is 626 pieces, the total number of sugar reduction models is 874 pieces, and the pre-sale officially opens at 15:30, and the delivery time is from 0:00 on September 18. But in fact, 1 minute after the pre-sale started, the page showed that both gift boxes were sold out.
Screenshot of OLE Mini Program
In the Moutai ice cream shop 450 meters away, the "Mao Xiaoling" wine heart chocolate was also missing. The clerk told The Paper that the store is temporarily out of stock and can only be purchased through online channels. "We don't know when or how much will come," she said. The clerk also said that after the Moutai chocolate was preheated, the store had received many consumer consultation calls, and some consumers had booked relevant goods in advance, "Some people in other stores have booked dozens of boxes." ”
However, on Weibo, some netizens got the spot for the first time. Judging from the feedback of some netizens, Sauce Chocolate continues the style of Sauce Xiang joint "can't eat Moutai", and the chocolate has a rich taste and a faint taste of wine.
Although most of the current online sales channels are out of stock. However, the customer service of Dove's official flagship store told the surging news reporter that there will still be pre-sales of Moutai chocolate in the store after that. According to the timetable given by the customer service, from September 16 to September 19, except for September 16, from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., a pre-sale will be opened every hour, and pre-sales will be held every day thereafter at 10 a.m. and 8 p.m. However, the products on the shelves this time are 2 classic hearts and 2 sugar-reduced wine hearts.
Pre-sale time
It is worth noting that the customer service of Dove's flagship store also reminds that the alcohol content of the product (in terms of quality) is <1%, minors, pregnant women, people with alcohol allergies, etc. should not eat it, do not drive immediately after eating, and do not eat while driving.
However, the second of the joint chocolate has also caused a certain controversy on social platforms, and many netizens believe that this happened because Moutai and Dove have too few stocks and lack sincerity.
2 pieces for 35 yuan, is it expensive or not?
The Mao Xiaoling chocolate co-branded by Moutai and Dove mainly has 3 specifications, and from the packaging information, Mao Xiaoling chocolate is 10 grams each. A classic chocolate pack of 2 is priced at 35 yuan, with an average price of 17.5 yuan per piece. The 12-capsule pack is obviously more discounted, with the classic taste averaging about 14 yuan a piece, while the sugar-reduced version is slightly more expensive, about 15 yuan per capsule.
Compared with Dove's positioning that has always been close to the people, the price of Mao Xiaoling wine heart chocolate with Moutai has risen sharply, and the price of 17.5 yuan for 10 grams is closer to the price of high-end chocolate brand stores such as Godiva.
17.5 yuan a chocolate, is it expensive?
According to the official information, each chocolate contains 2% 53% vol Maotai. Previously, some media reported that the cooperation method between Moutai and Dove was that the partner purchased Kweichow Moutai wine and then processed it, and the purchase was 500ml of 53% vol Moutai wine.
If each chocolate is 10 grams and the wine content is 2% as the basis, then the Maotai content of a chocolate is 0.2 grams. According to the official guidance price of 1499 yuan for 500 ml Feitian Moutai, the cost of each chocolate Moutai wine is less than 0.7 yuan (calculated according to 500 ml Feitian 460 grams).
"It's useless to calculate the cost of Moutai alone, plus other costs such as cold chain," said Zhu Danpeng, a food industry analyst. "From the price point of view alone, the pricing of Moutai wine heart chocolate obviously belongs to the ranks of high-end chocolate. The price of 35 yuan and 2 pieces also means that consumers need to pay for Moutai's brand premium.
This can also be seen from the spot sales channel of Mao Xiaoling chocolate on the first day. Among the offline channels, the first batch of spot sales channels chose Moutai ice cream flagship store and Ole boutique supermarket. Compared with other supermarkets, Ole Boutique Supermarket is a high-end supermarket brand under China Resources Vanguard Retail Group, founded by China Resources Vanguard in Shenzhen in 2004. Selecting the first offline sales channels in Ole also means that Moutai is targeting more consumer groups.
On social platforms, some netizens think that the pricing of Moutai wine heart chocolate is slightly expensive. One netizen said, "This is more cost-effective than coffee." Some netizens complained, "Knowing that I can't afford Moutai, I started selling me drop by drop." However, this does not stop Moutai's own appeal, and many people have said that they will pay for their curiosity.
Moutai crazy co-branding, the so-called why?
It has only been 12 days since the last joint name between Moutai and Luckin. After the popularity gradually flattened, Moutai and Dove once again co-branded to launch wine heart chocolate, the so-called why?
In the view of Cai Xuefei, a wine commentator and analyst, Moutai co-branded Dove chocolate can promote the taste and texture of sauce wine represented by Moutai through categories with relatively high attention from young people, so as to achieve the goal of cultivating a young consumer market and promoting the young transformation and diversified operation of the Moutai brand.
In addition, the reason why Moutai chose to cooperate with Dove instead of cooperating with a chocolate brand with higher pricing and more high-end positioning is also a consideration of channels. Consider that Dove's parent company Mars is a world-renowned multinational corporation that produces and sells a wide range of famous brands of chocolate, confectionery and pet food worldwide. "Mars can be said to be a senior chocolate professional enterprise, and the quality of the chocolate products it cooperates with is guaranteed," Cai Xuefei said, "and it is not ruled out that Moutai may use Dove's international channels to cultivate some overseas markets and promote taste, which has positive significance for the overseas and international development of Chinese liquor." ”