On an ordinary weekday evening, colleagues meet for dinner. After ordering the beef brisket pot, sauerkraut fish, and chili fried meat, I felt that it was still a disadvantage of alcohol to enliven the atmosphere. At this time, in addition to the "belly-supporting" beer and the "cup poured" liquor, is there a better meal option? 
Entering the new wine industry and taking the national style route, Mei Jian and Jiang Xiaobai seem to be completely different. But carefully, it can make some achievements, and Yu Mei is really too white.
In terms of food and wine pairing, the Chinese's own wine is more compatible with the Chinese's own cuisine." —Flavor of the World" consultant Zhang Xinmin.
Drinking an ideal plum wine has a refreshing taste, sweet and sour taste, which can stimulate the taste buds, relieve greasy and spicy.
It sounds like whether it is spicy and spicy Sichuan and Hunan cuisine, or the original Cantonese Hui cuisine, and the local dishes with thick oil red sauce, it is reasonable for a bottle of green plum wine to appear on the Chinese table in Tiannan and Haibei.
In the confusion period of low-alcohol wine, choose the right direction.
From 2018 to 2022, the compound growth rate of China's low-alcohol wine market reached 293%, and the market size is expected to reach 634.1 billion yuan in 2023. ——iiMedia Consulting. China's plum wine production increased from 5,860 kiloliters in 2016 to 10,600 kiloliters in 2020. ——New Thinking Industry Research Center. Nowadays, low-alcohol sake is on the rise, and craft brewing, sparkling wine, and plum wine are all becoming popular.
But in 2014, things were far less lively than they are now.
At that time, there were only a few people like RIO who relied on overwhelming marketing to become synonymous with "slightly drunk"; In the face of the new continent of low-alcohol wine, most brands are still mainly exploring without a definite direction (for example, Wuliangye is a shallow "taste" of each wine, and in 2014 alone, Xianlin, a fruit wine brand that dabbled in plum wine and pomegranate wine, and Dracula, a pre-mixed wine brand).
The entire domestic low-alcohol wine track has just begun to heat up, and the plum wine market is in a state of "there are categories but no brands".
Unlike in Japan, a pot of plum wine at an izakaya has long been a part of people's daily routine; Malaysians are more Xi to occasionally make their own wine at home rather than buying plum wine.
As a result, the category has not grown a resounding head brand, and the challenges are more than the opportunities seem. First, a single plum wine category has a limited market ceiling; Second, the mass consumption Xi has not been cultivated, and the pioneers must shoulder the task of category education.
Others are all "tempting", Jiang Xiaobai, who established a new wine and beverage division during this period, took this dangerous and charming green plum wine as a key layout object. Just like Tao Shiquan, the founder of Jiang Xiaobai, it only took half a year from discovering market opportunities to leaving his job to found Jiang Xiaobai.
The future of plum wine is brighter than you think.
Choosing the right track is more important than hard work, and this is true for being a person and a brand. Tao Shiquan also said, "Mei Jian is the harvest of Jiang Xiaobai's ten years of hard work, and there are many predecessors who have fallen in the sand in the market competition." For example, "Lingyi Rice Wine" is also the work of Jiang Xiaobai's new wine and beverage division.
It was developed in the same year as Mei Jian, and came out in the same year, and now there is no movement.
So why did Umemi survive?
To be able to enter the daily life of Chinese people, green plum wine relies not only on the taste that goes well with Chinese food. On a deeper level, it's also about cultural psychological identity
As the origin of green plum, China's planting history can be traced back to more than 3,000 years ago, which has formed an invisible bond between Chinese people and green plum in genes; In "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", a sentence that has been passed down for thousands of years "green plum boiled wine on heroes" has precipitated the cultural connotation of green plum wine; In addition, the green plum wine, which is popular in Japan and difficult to verify the provenance, has become bigger and stronger in the Chinese market, and there is also a sense of cultural revival.
At that time, the green plum wine, which did not seem to be trendy, poked at the cultural self-confidence and national identity that later rose, and it was obviously imaginative in the market.
In addition to the bold decision-making, the similarity between Mei Jian and Jiang Xiaobai is also reflected in the early Jiang Xiaobai, who relied on the heart-piercing copywriting of the bottle to grasp a group of young people. And Mei Jian, who has undergone a makeover, still knows how to make a fuss about products.
It has an eye-catching packaging design, and it also comes in a cute and DIY bottle
Even, when I learned about Meijian's product matrix, process, packaging, etc., I found that it not only depends on the face, but also on catching up with the trend to eat.
Rather, it is to borrow"Low-alcohol Chinese liquor".This big narrative establishes the product characteristics from the inside out. Specifically, instead of labeling oneself with green plum wine, Umemi will make himself a kind of industry boss by making low-alcohol Chinese wine(or category representatives).temperament.
A bottle of low-alcohol wine with Chinese characteristics makes people want to buy it.
When it comes to Chinese liquor, the first thing that comes to people's minds is generally traditional liquor brands such as "Moutai, Wuliangye, Jiannanchun, Luzhou Laojiao", or the cognitive associations of "ingenuity brewing", "long history" and "Chinese culture". How can a low-alcohol Chinese wine meet people's expectations? Mei Jian wrote the cognitive association of liquor into the story of low-alcohol liquor.
1) In terms of product design, the cultural heritage is emphasized.
First of all, the first impression of Umemi is very Chinese wine.
The two most eye-catching characters on the bottle body, "Mei Jian", are respectively from Lu Cambodia and Zhao Mengfu, two calligraphers, which have laid the visual tone of the national style. On the whole, the concise straight bottle body, the main color of warm yellow and black matching, it seems that the product temperament is restrained and calm.
Umemi's core item, gin plum wine
The limited art model of Xiling Plum is bottled, and there is also a picture of "Wanheng Xiangxue".
This kind of customized and culturally rich design for Chinese wine has allowed the young Mei Jian to have the precipitation of the years, and also tasted the mainstream aesthetics of the current young people.
Compared with the green plum wine on the market, they are either lively and bright main colors, and are willing to integrate elements such as ** characters and plum blossoms, and the design is feminine; Or it's very luxurious.
Other plum wine brands
As a result, Umemi, who takes the neutral route, can give people a sense of freshness with a seemingly simple design. The appearance of the atmospheric low-alcohol Chinese wine gives the reason why Umemi was chosen by people at a glance.
2) In terms of product quality, pay attention to the "ingenuity" narrative.
On Xiaohongshu, the word-of-mouth of "Mei Jian" is polarized:
Some people say that the smell of alcohol is too strong, but some people think that the smell of alcohol is similar to that of a sweet drink;
Some people scolded angrily, stepped on the thunder all over, and never bought Mei Jian again; Some people praise that Mei Jian is already very delicious when drunk alone, and it is even better to eat it with green plum green tea and water-soluble C100.
This is not surprising, after all, drinking is a personal and subjective matter, and it is really difficult to reconcile.
Therefore, whether Mei Jian is good or not is left to everyone to evaluate (my subjective evaluation is "delicious"). But what Umemi does and what he advertises makes people want to believe that it tastes good and try it first.
At the same time, unlike Jiang Xiaobai (it only took half a year to start from scratch), Umemi had a 5-year silence from the selection of green plum wine to the launch of the product, which also left a space for the brand to tell the story of ingenuity.
In the past 5 years, what has Mei Jian done?
According to the official information, the brand has spent a lot of effort to solve the problem of standardized mass production of products. Due to the unstable quality of each green plum, Meijian searched for plums across all provinces across the country, and used "multi-production area and cross-variety fusion technology" to maintain the quality of raw materials.
This ingenuity, which can be displayed in numbers, is also the focus of Mei Jianhua's promotion
After determining the raw materials, insist on manual picking and screening of green plums; Instead of copying the Japanese use of brandy or shochu to make wine, the sorghum wine that suits the taste of the Chinese people is chosen as the base wine to bring out the fragrance of plums...Relying on non-industrial production and localized technology, Meijian further interprets China's "ingenuity brewing".
And the behind-the-scenes efforts made by these Meijian are also described by it to the majority of consumers in various ways and channels
In 2020, Meijian invited several industry experts and celebrities to deeply elaborate on Meimi's ingenuity from four aspects: technology, culture, raw materials, and flavor;
In 2023, Meijian will release a brand concept film, which still emphasizes ingenuity and literary texture. Only this time, in contrast to the cup-making process, the story of Umemi sake brewing is told in the broader context of "Chinese ingenuity".
In addition, on official social media, Mei Jian is also very skilled in using "quality" to provoke people. For example, magnifying the craftsman characteristics of fruit farmers and purchasers to tell stories, going deep into history and culture to dance and make ink, and taking high-definition photos of plums in the orchard will make people can't help but feel good about it and believe in it.
Chinese wine should have a Chinese taste.
The plum wine, which has been brewed for thousands of years, is very Chinese in itself. Umemi, who selects base sake according to local tastes and makes good sake with ingenuity, is also trying to restore this characteristic.
At the same time, in the development of product flavors, Umemi has takenCore product strategy, that is, the main promotion of "white plum see" and "golden plum see", is the adherence to the Chinese taste; Innovation on the basis of retaining the Chinese characteristics of green plum wine is also an adherence to the Chinese taste.
In general, Umeimi will take the "oriental taste" as a clue to create a product matrix with oriental characteristics. At present, there are several series of "Oriental Plum Fragrance", "Oriental Terroir" and "Dongfeng Rare".
For example, the tea and plum wine series launched by Mei Jian last year was inspired by Su Dongpo's "tea brewing". "Tea hidden, wine hero", two oriental imagery, but also the combination of two types of oriental personality, the achievement of more oriental charm of wine.
A bottle of low-alcohol wine that is close to the people, so that people can buy it.
After telling the product narrative of low-alcohol Chinese liquor, Mei Jianda can be different from Jiang Xiaobai, who is positioned in the middle of the range, and take a high-end road of his own. But the core product Baimei 38 yuan 330ml**, which illustrates Meimei's choice. It is a core item, and it is also a hot-selling item
It is one of the reasons to want to seize the pan-public in a new category with a people-friendly price, perhaps this is also a kind of strengths and avoiding weaknesses, after all, "volume quality" is Jiang Xiaobai's weakness.
On the contrary, Mei Jian will also make full use of Jiang Xiaobai's strengths.
Jiang Xiaobai, who has been deeply involved in offline channels, can reach more than 2 million catering terminals across the country and cover 80% of the regional market. Meijian followed its offline network to explore and more easily win a place in food cities such as Sichuan-Chongqing, Changsha, and Guangzhou.
Correspondingly, Umemi will also increase its marketing efforts in these cities
In particular, green plum wine was born from the needs of offline scenes, and offline is also its most important conversion channel. Just like the "dinner appointment" scene at the beginning of this article, the wine column of the menu is more "effective than the one-click conversion of any social media content to the e-commerce platform". Therefore, Meijian's offline channels can carry up to 80% of revenue.
Friendly to the people, convenient channels, with these real factors, a low-alcohol Chinese wine can really go to the table of more Chinese people.
The blank of the top brand on the track has given Meijian the opportunity and time to compete for the category benchmark.
And the other side of the "charming" of green plum wine, such as Zhang Yang, general manager of Meijian, said in an interview with reporters"At present, the biggest difficulty in the plum wine industry is 'time', and the minds of consumers have not yet been cultivated."
To solve this problem, in addition to brushing her face through the next channel, Mei Jian also has to rely on what she is best at: "marketing".
Jiang Xiaobai 20's Mei Jian, not only talks about feelings.
Back then, Jiang Xiaobai used an emotional card to play the "young man's liquor". In 2022, when the epidemic blocked people-to-people communication, Mei Jian also successfully impressed young people with the word "love". It cooperated with the new world minister to launch the "missing person notice", and swiped the screen on social media with 2022 copies of "missing" (in the form of Jiang Xiaobai's 100-point statement poster).
When young people with attitudes are more inclined to spiritual communion than emotional resonance, Mei Jian also talks about cultural concepts and lifestyles in line with the times.
In terms of cultural concepts, Mei Jian borrowed the national wind that has blown fiercely in recent years.
For example, engage in accurate variety show marketing, implant Henan Satellite TV's "2022 Mid-Autumn Festival Wonderful Tour", and tell the audience the emotional and cultural attributes of "I haven't seen you for a long time" in one fell swoop;
Play effective cross-border marketing, cooperate with the Baili Rhododendron Scenic Spot, which carries out the "100-person Hanfu Live Show" and gathers national style lovers, to get close to the target consumers;
Create a representative IP, join hands with Tmall, and lead many plum wine brands to hold the Oriental Plum Wine Festival together, so that tourists can feel the plum wine culture in an atmosphere;
There is also a new edition of Li Qingzhao's "Three Alleys of Plum Blossoms" to show off his cultural connotation....
Although they are all routine actions that are not too buggy and do not have too many highlights, they can raise the green plum wine rooted in the cultural soil little by little by the national wind.
After all, plum wine is a product of traditional culture, and the brand itself emphasizes Chinese temperament. Mei Jian's national style marketing is not to export culture and attitude as if he is worried about giving new words, but it is more tenable.
In terms of lifestyle, there is a slowing down mentality behind the plum sake that takes time to brew. In 2017, Li Ziqi's homemade plum wine** also linked the plum wine to pastoral life in the minds of the public.
Therefore, focusing on keywords such as "close to nature" and "leisurely", Mei Jian named the outdoor folk documentary talk show "New Four Seasons Song", allowing folk ** people to talk about **, ideals and life, and at the same time raise Mei to drink.
The brand also created the IP of "Plum Forest Tavern", which built an open-air tavern in the green plum forest, inviting people to experience the elegance of life in this paradise and have a good time.
At present, young people like and do not follow the trend of communication, and the awareness of categories and brands has been opened.
The partner marketing in the channel amplifies the offline advantages of Meijian.
In Meijian's national style marketing, there is an IP that is worth developing called "Meijian Night Banquet". The form of "Plum Night Banquet" is to create a visual and gastronomic feast that integrates ancient scenes, Hanfu culture, and traditional food. This kind of "national style + scene" marketing method is very suitable for green plum wine, and it is also the focus of Meijian marketing.
Take last year's night banquet as an example, it has a national style scene created by the "Chang'an Twelve Hours" art team, and also invited Lin Weihui, a food consultant of "Flavor World", to check the catering, which shows that Mei Jian is attentive.
But after the night banquet IP was formed, Mei Jian no longer made a big deal about IP. Instead, it borrowed the fame of IP and marketing experience to cooperate with restaurants across the country and began to create a small plum night banquet.
This year, she held a "hot pot night banquet" with Sister Pei
It can also be iterated for the "Plum See Banquet" held with Huazhi Liquor Store
From going deep into local cities to entering terminal stores, Meijian uses channel relationships to carry out in-depth cooperation with terminals across the country. The cooperation model of one side providing marketing capabilities and one side providing scenarios not only builds momentum for terminals and grass products, but also consolidates the brand's offline channels.
It's not just a banquet. When cooperating with restaurants, Mei Jian will put the products in the ** and bring the goods in a wave of simple and rude **.
** screenshot of a restaurant in Dongguan
In the face of a brand supermarket like Hema and other brands, Meijian launched co-branded products with it "Crab Meets Meijian" and "Ice Drunk Crayfish". The shelf scene of Hema and the co-branded word-of-mouth make people willing to experience the taste of Umemi.
Since Jiang Xiaobai is everywhere, will Mei Jian also fall into sluggish growth after the highlights?
Brand management, changes in consumer trends...There are too many factors to answer this question. But in any case, Umemi is something to look forward to.
After all, relying on the family business accumulated by the parent brand, Mei Jian gambled in the right direction in the low-alcohol wine market where people come and go, ups and downs, and achieved a first-mover advantage; Its channel laying also stood on Jiang Xiaobai's shoulders. All of these give Mei Jian the opportunity to go further.
Although it is not as good as Jiang Xiaobai's aggressive marketing, which can create popular products and topics out of the circle, Meijian's marketing is very stable and reliable.
It will do some channel marketing that is difficult to become a hit, but can bring goods in a down-to-earth manner, and the "ingenuity" marketing narrative of the product does not only exist in the packaging and verbally. Even, Umemi also actively outputs public relations advertorials, participates in category conferences, and promotes the release of industry standards, so as to qualify himself to define and interpret green plum wine.
We hope that more people will come together to make plum wine...The more consumers know about plum wine, the more I will get my dividends as a leading brand. Probably this is also where Mei Jian's confidence lies in daring to say so.