Yutang Sports focuses on the sports marketing strategies of several important liquor brands in China, hoping to bring more thoughts and inspiration to the industry.
After thousands of years of development and evolution, the culture of liquor has been rooted in the cultural DNA of China. Due to the large population base in China, the habit of drinking liquor is common, so the total consumption of liquor products is high. According to sales data provided by authoritative data website Statista, baijiu was the highest-selling segment in the international distilled spirits industry in 2018. In addition, the number of baijiu merchants has shown rapid growth under the diversified demands of the market.In 2017, there were 1,593 baijiu enterprises above the national scale, an increase of 0.95% year-on-year.
In recent years, China's liquor industry has continued to consolidate the influence of liquor culture in the international arena with the power of Chinese culture, and China's top domestic liquor enterprises have accelerated the pace of implementation of internationalization strategies. However, in general, the export scale and sales scale of China's liquor are very limited. In the different economic and cultural environments abroad, the promotion of liquor products faces heavy barriers.
After decades of deep cultivation, some domestic head liquor brands have also begun to occupy an important position in the global spirits industry, which also indicates that Chinese liquor enterprises have a more considerable space for expansion in the international market. With the gradual saturation of the domestic market, enterprises seeking further development, in the innovation of product content, try different marketing means at the same time, enter the smaller market has become inevitable.
From the perspective of marketing trends in recent years, liquor is increasingly keen on marketing methods other than traditional advertising, and sports sponsorship has become a firm choice for many top brands. In the domestic market, they use sports to reach out to a fixed circle and stabilize their consumer base, while in the international market, they use top events as a ladder to promote the culture of Chinese liquor and at the same time put a high-end, international label on themselves. Yutang Sports will focus on the sports marketing strategies of several important domestic liquor brands here, hoping to bring more thoughts and inspiration to the industry.
Maotai is a traditional Chinese specialty liquor. It is one of the world's top three distilled spirits, along with Scotch whisky and French cognac, and is the originator of the large-square, sauce-flavored liquor, with a history of more than 800 years. As a Chinese long-established enterprise, Guizhou Moutai has a long history of brewing and unique technology, and the name of "national liquor" provides a deep resource advantage for Moutai's brand building.
2019 is a key year for Moutai Group to achieve the "100 billion goal". In the case of the brand heat continues to heat up, Moutai Group in positioning, orientation, thinning, standardization, reform efforts to accelerate the construction of cultural Moutai, to further strengthen the "quality as life" of the craftsmanship concept, to incentivize and cultivate the integrity of the business suppliers, vendors hand in hand with the *** with the rationalization of the Moutai distribution system, to devote themselves to environmental protection and the cause of precision poverty alleviation, so as to polish the Moutai brand, to make it more attractive. The company's goal is to help the public to understand the importance of the quality of its products and services, and to help the public to understand the importance of its products and services.
In recent years, as the commercial value of the sports industry has been gradually developed, more and more liquor companies have begun to try sports marketing, with the help of sports advocating the characteristics of health to express the cultural connotation of liquor products need to be strengthened to the public. As a leader in the liquor industry, Guizhou Maotai has also tested the waters of the sports industry.
From the point of view of the brand's public welfare, Moutai Saucy Liquor actively carries out square dance activities, which is a real delivery of public welfare, real delivery of care, real delivery of happiness, and is recognized by the public; cross-border sports marketing of liquor, and accurately meet the needs of the target group, which is the basis of the brand's activities, and is the ultimate expression of the "pro-people benefit" purpose of Moutai Saucy Liquor series of liquor. "
This is the final expression of the purpose of the Moutai Sauce series of wines.
While actively entering domestic sports events, Moutai is also focusing on the international market, joining hands with top international tournaments and clubs, and expanding the international market with the help of high-quality IPs.
In January 2018, the Golden State Warriors and the Cleveland Cavaliers fought in the Tencent NBA studio, where a huge red advertisement appeared on the big screen behind the studio, with eight prominent advertisements, namely: "Moutai, the National Wine, the National Excellence! "Eight big, eye-catching words jumped up. Prior to this, Moutai had already purchased advertising space on the basketball racks in the Golden State Warriors' home stadium. The choice to work with NBA broadcast platform Tencent can be seen as a way to further strengthen its association with NBA resources.
In the same year, Moutai also entered into a strategic partnership with Serie A giants Inter Milan Football Club, with Moutai Gikai becoming the official partner of Inter Milan in Greater China, North America and Southeast Asia. This cooperation is the first time that Moutai Gikai has been associated with sports, and the first time that it has gone out of the country to have cross-border cooperation with an international brand. With the charm of sports events, Guizhou Maotai intends to further expand its overseas market, which is also the purpose of its transnational, cross-border marketing.
As a long-established name in China's liquor industry, Wuliangye has won 39 international gold medals at expositions around the world*** after winning the first gold medal at the Panama Exposition in 1915. In 2018, Wuliangye Group realized a sales revenue of RMB 93 billion. 2020, the company was ranked 768th on the Forbes Global 2000 list and 26th on the "2020 China's Top 500 Brands" list.
From the product structure of Wuliangye can be seen, the enterprise for the new market situation, continue to stabilize the high-end liquor market at the same time, for the young group and the international market for the two camps of the product improvement and upgrading, effectively in the product level to keep pace with the times, to the market-oriented, to help the product in the new situation in the contact with a wider and more comprehensive consumer groups.
As a national brand with a long history, Wuliangye Group focuses on sports marketing with national characteristics. 2008, Wuliangye Group entered into a strategic cooperation with the Shooting and Archery Sports Management Center of the State Sports General Administration, and was awarded as an excellent partner of the National Shooting Team and National Disc Shooting Team. 2013, Wuliangye Group was awarded as an excellent partner of the National Shooting Team and the National Disc Shooting Team. In 2013, Wuliangye became the main title sponsor of the China Table Tennis Team and the official main title sponsor of the China Table Tennis Association, fully supporting the "national ball" to prepare for the 2016 Olympic Games, and further shaping and strengthening its brand advantages with the help of the "marriage". In addition, Wuliangye always supports local sports events in Yibin, including the National Archery Championships in 2016 and the Sichuan Nanxi China Motocross Championships in 2018.
As a premium product of the Group, Wuliangye 1618 has also made a mark in the domestic sports industry in recent years. 2015, Wuliangye 1618 helped organize the 22nd Global Chinese Badminton Championships, which attracted 4,380 players from more than 20 countries and regions and broke the Guinness World Record for its scale of participation. The scale of participation and the composition of the athlete group coincided with the marketing strategy of Wuliangye 1618. By joining hands with such a high-quality event, the enterprise highlights the cultural value of the product and achieves the organic unity of economic and social benefits. With the help of sports marketing, Wuliangye 1618 effectively enhances the product's reputation and social value, which will help the enterprise to establish a good interactive relationship with consumers, and ultimately realize the establishment of a valued consumer group and increase in sales.
In recent years, with the growing demand for liquor enterprises to expand overseas markets, Wuliangye has also begun to focus on top sports IP with international influence. 2019, Wuliangye, in the capacity of a "top partner", has joined hands with Shiseido - Shenzhen WTA Year-end Finals, and the two will work hand in hand to promote the prosperity of China's tennis industry*** and to promote the development of China's tennis industry. Both of them will work hand in hand to promote the vigorous development of China's tennis industry. The Shiseido Shenzhen WTA Finals is the highest level single sports event since the establishment of Shenzhen, and is also the highest level tennis event in Asia and the highest level women's tennis event in the world.
Yanghe has been honored with the "International Famous Wine" award several times and has been selected as one of China's eight famous wines, and in December 2019, Yanghe was selected as one of the top 100 brands in the 2019 China Branding Ceremony. Unlike Moutai, Wuliangye and other liquor brands that originate from the main liquor producing areas in the southwest of China and have a long history of production, Yanghe's series of products come from the distant "Yangtze River Delta" region and have relatively weak cultural deposits, so in the process of marketing its products, the company is almost unable to take the slightest advantage in the cultural and origin level that traditional liquor is interested in. Therefore, Yanghe relies on its own product characteristics and the habits of modern working people, another way to create a blue sea.
Relying on the development of modern information technology, Yanghe in the promotion of the level of careful design, launched an integrated marketing system covering all aspects. The company's online TV advertisements, with "China Dream, Dream Blue" as the entry point, carried out large-scale advertising campaigns. In recent years, against the background of media diversification and information fragmentation, brand building has become more difficult. Yanghe's branding has evolved with the times, focusing more on marketing content, content-related and closely integrated branding, and using a "subtraction" approach to quickly capture the minds of consumers.
Sports is a field where young consumers gather, and Yanghe, positioning itself in the market for a new generation of consumers, has also made sports marketing an important part of its marketing system. 2015, the company sponsored the Nanjing International Marathon, and began to build its own running event IP -- "Finding the Sky Blue". The company sponsored the Nanjing International Marathon in 2015 and started to create its own running event IP - "Searching for Tianzhilan". 2016, the China Dream - Dream Blue series became the official title sponsor of the National Basketball League (NBL), and in 2017, Yanghe - Dream Blue became the official liquor supplier of the Chinese Super League, which marks a new level in the field of sports marketing of the Yanghe shares.
With the help of the top tournaments, the company shows the public that it cares about the development of the soccer cause, and chooses to support the national football team when the environment is not good, which undoubtedly helps the company to obtain excellent social benefits. The increase in social reputation will naturally bring the brand a high reputation in the market.
Sichuan Luzhou Laojiao is one of the four oldest famous liquors in China, "the originator of strong flavor, the great master of wine", a large Chinese listed company of liquor. Its 1573 national treasure cellar group became the industry's first national key cultural relics protection unit in 1996, the traditional brewing techniques in 2006 and was selected as one of the first national intangible cultural heritage list, the world known as the "double national treasure unit", its products Guojiao 1573 is known as the "living heritage brewing
As a veteran liquor company, Luzhou Laojiao is different from industry giants such as Moutai and Wuliangye, which emphasize tradition and return to the classic strategy, Luzhou Laojiao has customized a cross-border marketing strategy that is more popular with the younger generation of consumers, targeting potentially younger consumer groups. During the 2018 World Cup and Christmas, Luzhou Laojiao launched the wine heart chocolate soccer version and planet-themed wine heart chocolate respectively, which closely followed the market hotspots and once became the online headliner that netizens must flip.
In the marketing camp, Luzhou Laojiao did not focus on highlighting the cultural traditions of the enterprise, but rather focused on the current social hotspots, from the perspective of the target group, young consumers, with a new marketing model to show consumers the full vitality behind the orthodox image of the enterprise. In the eyes of the new generation of consumers, taste and cultural heritage are no longer the only criteria for measuring the value of a product.
Luzhou Laojiao, which intends to make an impact on young groups, has also made a lot of moves in the field of sports.
In April 2017, the Luzhou Laojiao Cup ITF International Men's Tennis Tour - Luzhou was held at the Luzhou Olympic Sports Park Tennis Center, and as the title enterprise of the tournament, Luzhou Laojiao has demonstrated its extraordinary brand image and cultural connotations by assisting in this top international tournament. In June of the same year, Xingtai's first "Luzhou Laojiao-Guojiao 1573 Cup" badminton league was launched.
2018 was a year in which Luzhou Laojiao made an all-out effort in overseas marketing. The World Cup in Russia is undoubtedly the most important sports tournament of the year, and Guojiao 1573 has become the official hospitality designated liquor for the tournament. The spirit and proposition of using culture to promote world cultural exchanges conveyed by Guojiao 1573 is highly compatible with the World Cup's spiritual connotation of promoting the fusion and collision of different civilizations. At the same time, as the leading brand of Chinese liquor internationalization, along with the popularity of Chinese culture in the world, consumers from all countries are eager to understand and try Chinese liquor, especially in Russia, a country where liquor is integrated into the national blood, Lulu Laojiao series products and Guojiao 1573 have a very high brand recognition of liquor.
In October 2018, Luzhou Laojiao signed a contract with the Australian Open, and the two sides reached a cross-border hand in hand between Chinese liquor and tennis in the form of strategic cooperation. Luzhou Laojiao officially became the official partner of the Australian Open, and Guojiao 1573 became the only designated liquor for the Australian Open. This is the first time in history that the Australian Open has cooperated with a Chinese liquor brand, and Luzhou Laojiao is also the highest level of Chinese partner in the history of the Australian Open.
Leveraging the authority and influence of the IP of the top tournament, the characteristics and image of the product will be displayed to the public in specific scenarios. As a top sponsor, companies can rely on tournament resources to carry out marketing at a higher level, further releasing the commercial value of marketing and improving the quality and level of marketing.