Reporter Liu Wang reports from Beijing.
Liquor is still one of the hottest industries during the Spring Festival.
First of all, on the stage of the much-anticipated Spring Festival Gala, the liquor army once again made a high-frequency appearance, continuing the momentum of "Spring Festival Gala turning into spring sugar" in 2023. According to ** statistics, among the more than 10 advertisements about 5 minutes before the start of the CCTV Spring Festival Gala in the Year of the Dragon in 2024, 6 are liquor brands.
Secondly, at the level of dynamic sales, a number of brokerages intensively released research reports saying that the performance of the liquor market during the Spring Festival exceeded expectations, the dynamic sales situation was better, and the pressure on channel inventory decreased. Of course, this is not unrelated to the fact that wine companies have launched sales promotion activities in various places.
On February 21, 2024, the liquor stocks in the A** field rose sharply, and the stock prices of 20 liquor companies were red across the board. Wuliangye, Shanxi Fenjiu, Luzhou Laojiao, Yanghe Shares, and Gujing Gongjiu all rose by more than 5%.
Gifts and banquets drive sales
Recently, a number of brokerages have released research reports saying that from the perspective of channels, the liquor industry has good and stable sales during the Spring Festival, especially in high-end gifts, gifts and other scenarios, and banquets, gatherings and other scenes have performed well.
From the perspective of the payment collection of wine companies, according to the research report of Huachuang ** after the Spring Festival, the progress of the pre-holiday payment collection of Moutai, Wuliangye, Fenjiu, Yanghe, Gujing Gongjiu, Shuijingfang, Zhenjiu, etc. is at least 30%, of which most of the payment of Wuliangye has been completed, and the payment of Gujing Gongjiu in the province is 55%-60%.
In addition, a person close to Wuliangye told reporters that Wuliangye's shipments and dynamic sales during the Spring Festival have achieved double-digit growth.
The online market is also hot, in the Jingdong New Year Festival, including full reductions, giveaways, and the "10 billion subsidy" area for wine; On the live broadcast platform, the live broadcast rooms of the official websites of various wine companies and the live broadcast rooms of celebrities also directly face consumers for live sales.
However, from the perspective of the market as a whole, there is still a certain differentiation in liquor sales. According to the Huajin research report, this differentiation is mainly reflected in three points: first, the first-class differentiation, this year's liquor consumption mid-end sales are better than in previous years, and the sales rate of mid-to-high-end is slightly slower; The second is brand differentiation, with better sales of liquor brands such as Wuliangye and Fenjiu, and slightly worse sales of sub-high-end liquor brands; Finally, there is regional differentiation, with regions with stronger economies and better consumption habits, and the impact of liquor consumption is smaller.
Cai Xuefei, a liquor expert, said that at present, although the entire liquor market has fluctuated slightly, the overall market sales are good, and the regional leading Yanghe, Gujing Gongjiu, Shede Liquor, Shuijingfang and other famous liquors have a high growth rate, and the situation of squeezing inventory has been greatly alleviated, and the market has shown a trend of steady growth.
Wine company "fancy"**
The reporter noted that the above performance is not unrelated to the promotion of sales policies of liquor companies. During the Spring Festival, many wine companies focus on the "corkage rate" of their products. The reporter learned from the above-mentioned Wuliang Touqu business that consumers buy a Wuliang Touqu, scan 6 bottle caps, and collect them to the terminal to redeem a set of exquisite gift boxes for Touqu; Shuijingfang also launched the activity of "opening the bottle and scanning the code to win gifts"; Yanghe Co., Ltd. launched the "Yanghe New Year Dragon Transport" activity.
Xiao Zhuqing, an expert in the liquor industry, believes that at present, a large number of liquor companies are laying out Spring Festival marketing, mainly to help channels destock. Whoever can grab more consumption scenarios during the Spring Festival will be able to destock, so mobilizing to increase the opening rate at this stage is a very important marketing feature.
In Cai Xuefei's impression, the top famous wine and regional leading wine companies in 2024 will be very strong. "Title, red envelope, buy gift, package table gift, tie-in, box awards, points redemption and other first-class actions are frequent, and the head wine companies use their own brand, channels, scale, quality and other advantages, especially to carry out a large number of first-class activities driven by red envelopes to enter the sinking market, and constantly squeeze the region.
The second- and third-tier wine enterprise market has expanded into new first-tier belts and maintained a steady growth trend. ”
Different from the previous "one-size-fits-all" marketing activities at the channel terminal, more and more enterprises have begun to focus on formulating marketing plans according to local characteristics.
The reporter learned from Yanghe shares that it has carried out personalized Spring Festival sales policies in different regions. For example, in the Jiangsu market, combined with the banquet market, Yanghe Co., Ltd. launched an activity of ordering Chinese New Year's Eve dinner and sending soft and good wine; In Harbin Ice and Snow World, it is combined with ice sculptures to disseminate cultural IP.
The overall style of play in the province is more focused on the blue of the sea and the crystal dream, and the sea and sky outside the province are stable and the foundation is strong, and the dream series is developed. For the personalized play of Yanghe shares, China Merchants ** summarized it in the research report.
In addition, Shede told reporters that in terms of market layout, according to the market level of each region, the regional characteristic policy of "one place, one policy" will be carried out to implement refined market operation; In terms of channel construction, improve the Spring Festival atmosphere construction of 10,000 terminal stores; On the terminal**, carry out relevant buy and gift activities.
In addition, the online ** war in the liquor industry is also very fierce. According to Fenjiu, from January 29 to February 8, 2024, the number of "We All Love Fenjiu" Douyin Challenge exceeded 6300 million times. According to the effective way to enhance the market competitiveness of Fenjiu proposed by Yuan Qingmao, chairman of Fenjiu, it is to master the scientific management ability and release the quality potential energy, brand potential energy and cultural potential energy. Obviously, this Douyin Challenge is an effective landing for the concentrated release of these three potential energies.
Langjiu told reporters that in 2024, Honghualang will form a three-dimensional marketing pattern that is more comprehensive, higher density, more contacts, and closer to consumers from online to offline.
Younger consumers have embraced live streaming or online shopping for personalized, low-cost liquor and online celebrity liquor. Xiao Zhuqing said, for example, that before the Spring Festival, the famous family e-commerce sold more than 3,000 cases of Jinliufu wine through live broadcast e-commerce every day, and the product was in short supply. It is conceivable that the e-commerce live broadcast competition of liquor companies will become increasingly fierce in the future.
In addition to the specific marketing actions of the landing, the liquor brand once again achieved "dominance" in the Spring Festival Gala of the Year of the Dragon, with Wuliangye, Langjiu Honghualang, Gujing Gongjiu, Xifeng Liquor, Kweichow Moutai, Shuijingfang, Fenjiu, and Jinjiu appearing one after another. It is understood that in the 2024 Spring Festival Gala, Wuliangye will continue to come up with 100,000 interactive gifts, including core products such as the eighth-generation Wuliangye and the classic Wuliangye. According to the data released by CCTV, the total value of interactive gifts is about 1100 million yuan.
Wang Chuancai, chief researcher of Chuancai Strategic Think Tank, believes that first of all, the Spring Festival is the largest "consumption scene" of Chinese liquor, and the embrace of the Spring Festival Gala of liquor will help promote the formation of brand popularity, create consumption implantation, leverage the B-end and C-end markets of liquor, and create a benign resonance between the brand and the market.
Secondly, the Spring Festival is a product of agricultural civilization, but also a spiritual journey for Chinese people to find spiritual return, liquor as a super symbolic product of agricultural civilization, choose to combine with the Spring Festival Gala, can maximize brand value, awaken consumers' feelings of home and country.
Finally, for the majority of grassroots audiences, the Spring Festival Gala is still a super platform with deep traffic value, and being able to go to the CCTV Spring Festival Gala or dominate the local satellite TV Spring Festival Gala can obtain huge traffic value, which will affect the brand and market growth of a liquor company for a long time.
Marketing around the Spring Festival Gala is very conducive to establishing positive brand associations, promoting product sales, stimulating market consumption, and is conducive to big brands to complete the expression of brand image output and brand value, and has the value of paving the way for a year's sales. Cai Xuefei analyzed.