"Let young people taste the first mouthful of Maotai!"
This may be what Ding Xiongjun, who parachuted into Moutai, currently wants to do in 2021.
Ding Xiongjun, who was born in Chongyang, Hubei Province in 74, graduated from Wuhan University with a doctorate in 2021 and served as the deputy director of the Xiaohe District Science and Technology Bureau of Guiyang City. Since then, he has been working in Guiyang City for more than ten years, serving as the deputy secretary-general of the Guizhou Provincial Government in 2013, the director of the Guizhou Provincial Energy Bureau in 2018, and succeeding Gao Weidong as the chairman of China Kweichow Moutai Group in August 2021, and the chairman of Kweichow Moutai Wine Co., Ltd. since then.
The 49-year-old Ding Xiongjun is a scholar-type leading cadre, and it can be said that he has a long way to go to sit in this position on the cusp of the accidents of the previous two chairmen of Moutai Group. After becoming the new "head" of Moutai, Ding Xiongjun sacrificed three axes: channel direct sales, product reform, and brand crossover.
Clarifying the channel: the self-redemption of Kweichow Moutai
The first two chairmen of Moutai Group both fell on bribes paid by Moutai agents. It is said that Yuan Renguo's wife and children alone made a profit of more than 230 million yuan by illegally operating Moutai wine, and more than 40 people spent a day and a night to count the stolen money and goods from Yuan Renguo's country, which shows how rich the profits of Moutai agents are.
After Ding Xiongjun took office, the construction of Moutai direct sales channels accelerated significantly, gradually weakening the voice of wholesale agents. In 2022, the sales of Moutai direct sales channels will reach 49.3 billion yuan, an increase of 105%. In the first half of 2023, the sales volume of Kweichow Moutai direct sales channel was 31.4 billion yuan, and the wholesale agency channel was 37.9 billion yuan, and the proportion of direct sales channel sales revenue has approached that of agent channel. If nothing else, Moutai direct sales revenue will surpass the agency channel for the first time in 2023.
In fact, the channel direct sales matter, the previous chairmen of Moutai are doing, just because the interests involved are too large, it can be described as thunder and rain. The reason why Ding Xiongjun accelerated was because his previous political experience was not related to Moutai, and he should have come with Shang Fang's sword. Even the higher-level leaders can see that this is a huge pit, and if you don't clean it up, it is estimated that someone will fall into the pit.
Product change: a wine alone in peacetime
In June 2023, at the 2022 shareholders' meeting of Kweichow Moutai, Ding Xiongjun, chairman of Moutai Group, proposed the development strategy of Moutai's "Midea Five-Line Ecosystem". Coincidentally, at the "2023 ESG Global Leaders Conference" held in Shanghai, Ding Xiongjun shared the five-line development strategy with "aesthetics" as the value connotation; Realize the value creation of beauty with "fine wine, beautiful life, beautiful link"; Moutai's new development idea of fulfilling social responsibility with "beauty ecosystem".
In 2022, the sales revenue of Moutai shares will reach 127 billion yuan, and the revenue of Moutai wine alone will exceed 100 billion, which means that the sales revenue of Feitian Moutai alone accounts for 78% of the total sales revenue, and the phenomenon of "one wine is the biggest" is very prominent. If this were placed in other companies, it is estimated that shareholders would have voted with their feet!
However, due to the scarcity and unique geographical characteristics of Moutai, Feitian Moutai wine is still "difficult to find", and the super premium power of Feitian Moutai brand has also created its luxury attributes. As the world's most valuable spirits company, Moutai is also constantly trying to diversify its products.
"The wine of the previous generation!" , "Those who buy Moutai can't afford to drink Moutai!" "These consumer imprints have put Moutai in a high and cold situation. According to the survey, there are 490 million potential young drinkers in China, and the size of the young drinking market is as high as 400 billion yuan. But high-end liquor, especially high-end, high-priced, high-type liquor like Moutai, is not the first choice for young people. With the gradual retirement of the main consumers of high-end liquor after 60 and 70, the prospects of China's high-end liquor market may not be very optimistic.
Embracing tomorrow: the inevitable choice for Moutai's youthfulness
Let young people taste the first mouthful of Maotai!
From ice cream to coffee to chocolate, Kweichow Moutai is trying to "please" young people. On September 16, Kweichow Moutai and Dove jointly launched Mao Xiaoling wine heart chocolate, which went on sale. During the Hangzhou Asian Games, the advertisements of Moutai red ice cream were also overwhelming.
Kweichow Moutai's frequent joint cross-border marketing moves have produced a certain social sensation. The continuous "overtures" to young people show the strong determination of Kweichow Moutai to "break the circle" to young people. "In the face of new consumer trends, as a traditional brand, Moutai must always be young and enhance the vitality of the enterprise, and it is inevitable to embrace youth and embrace Generation Z!" To seize young people is to seize the future of Moutai! Ding Xiongjun, chairman of Kweichow Moutai, once said.
Whether it will lose young liquor consumers is Moutai's anxiety, in fact, it is also the anxiety of the entire liquor industry. With the changes of the times, the consumer groups of liquor have gradually changed, and the post-80s and post-90s who were raised by beverages have gradually become the main consumer groups, but they lack a deep favorable impression of the spicy taste and after-drink reaction of baijiu, and even the traditional entertainment culture. Today's young people are very cautious about the choice of alcohol, on the one hand, they hope that the alcohol will taste well, and on the other hand, they hope to achieve slight drunkenness, which is a huge challenge for high-grade liquor.
Breaking the circle and cross-border, it is not that Kweichow Moutai wants to diversify and increase sales revenue, Moutai ice cream will achieve revenue of 260 million yuan in 2022, compared with Kweichow Moutai's hundreds of billions of yuan of operating income, almost negligible. It is one of Kweichow Moutai's strategies to try to gain greater attention from young people. Through continuous cross-border cooperation, Moutai has become younger, more fashionable and more avant-garde.
Through cross-border cooperation to layout categories and scenes close to young people, such as desserts, chocolates, and new tea drinks, interact and communicate with young consumers on a regular basis, and integrate them into the lives of young people. Cultivate and accumulate the good feelings of young consumers, so that they are willing to take the initiative to experience consumption and increase their product identity.
Kweichow Moutai's road to rejuvenation, in fact, many people are not optimistic, thinking that it will definitely be full of frustration. This is because the core competitiveness of Kweichow Moutai lies in its scarcity and luxury attributes, and the high-end image of Kweichow Moutai is not much attractive to young consumer groups. And these short-term FMCG booms will also recede quickly, and more young people actually have a respectful attitude towards high-end liquor such as Moutai.
Moutai's flexibility: It begins with a young and turbulent heart
Baijiu has a long cultural history in China, and the attributes of cultural inheritance are also one of the core driving forces of the liquor industry, and at present, China's liquor market has encountered difficulties such as insufficient consumption vitality, shrinking consumer groups, and limited market scope. On different occasions, Ding Xiongjun, chairman of Kweichow Moutai, once said: 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! .
From the long-term perspective of market development, only by fully displaying the cultural connotation of baijiu through cultural rejuvenation and releasing the cultural value of baijiu can we stimulate consumption vitality and expand consumer groups, enhance the emotional identity of baijiu, and continuously improve the space for industrial development. The change in young people's consumption concept is that liquor needs to be attentive to pass the threshold.
Regardless of the outcome, Kweichow Moutai's flexibility is not a meaningful exploration!