Method of production:
1. Selection of raw materials: (1) barley: the raw material of Tsingtao Beer is selected from Ningbo, Zhoushan area of Zhejiang Province, "three prongs of barley", this barley is thin-skinned, large grains, starch, protein content is low, the germination rate is high, it is the top quality raw materials for brewing beer. (2) Hops: Tsingtao Brewery adopts excellent hops, which are carefully cultivated in the brewery's own hop base, and the "Tsingtao Big Flower" with large tips, much pollen and strong aroma can make the beer clearer and more transparent, with refreshingly bitter taste and hop aroma, and prolong the preservation period of the beer to ensure the normal flavor of the beer. (3) Water: The water used for brewing Tsingtao beer is the famous Laoshan mineral water, which is pure and sweet in taste, and it is "mountain spring water clear" and spotless, which plays a good role in softening the taste of the beer and gives Tsingtao beer its unique style.
2. Production and management: Tsingtao Beer is good because of the "three fixed" brewing process and strict technical management. The "three fixed" is fixed raw materials, fixed formula and fixed production process. Strict technical management, meticulous operation, all unqualified raw materials are absolutely not used, the fermentation process should strictly comply with health regulations. The carbon dioxide in the post-fermentation should be strictly maintained at the prescribed standard, and the carbon dioxide in the filtered beer should be in the saturated state. Before the products leave the factory, they have to go through comprehensive analysis and sensory appraisal, and can leave the factory only after they are qualified. Therefore, the quality of the beer has reached the best level in history and exceeded the national standard.
Product characteristics: Tsingtao Beer is a famous brand product in China, belonging to the light-colored beer type, the liquor is light yellow, clear and transparent, glossy, and the liquor is full of carbon dioxide gas, when the liquor is injected into the cup, the foam is fine and white, and at the same time, it opens, persistent and thick, and there are tiny bubbles like beads rising continuously from the bottom of the cup, which is long-lasting. When drinking, the wine is soft, with obvious aroma of hops and malt, and has the distinctive crisp bitterness and mouth-killing power of beer. The wine contains a variety of indispensable carbohydrates, amino acids, vitamins and other nutrients. Drinking it often has the function of opening the spleen and strengthening the stomach, helping digestion. The concentration of the original wort is 12 degrees, and the alcoholic strength is 3.5 to 4 degrees.
Qingdao Brewery Engineering Co., Ltd. is a state-owned enterprise belonging to Qingdao Brewery Group (www.tsingtao.com.cn), which is composed of a group of professional and technical personnel who have been engaged in beer industry for a long time, and is a specialized company engaged in beer engineering.
The company consists of:
Engineering Installation Company ---- specializing in the installation of brewery projects;
Microcomputer Auto-control System Development Department ---- specializing in designing and installing microcomputer auto-control systems for saccharification and fermentation in breweries;
Beer Packaging Container Factory ---- specializing in the design, production and sale of all kinds of beer preservation kegs and root beer kegs;
Chinese-Japanese Joint Venture Beer Equipment Manufacturing Factory ---- specializes in manufacturing all kinds of tank equipment for fermentation, sake, yeast, CIP, etc. and equipment for yeast expansion, wort oxygenation, high-strength dilution, and tank-top devices, receiver boards, etc. in breweries, and the company owns more than forty years of technological experience in Toyo Giken, which manufactures Vacuum Freeze-Drying Devices (FDs).
At present, the company has formed a specialized company of considerable scale and standard consisting of design, manufacturing and production, installation and commissioning.
More than 100 years ago when Germany occupied Shandong that group of German soldiers far from home because there is no beer to drink, so wrote to the German emperor (I do not know at that time which one) to complain. Since all the people in that country were addicted to beer, the emperor seemed to understand and carried the equipment for brewing beer to Qingdao by ocean liner. Germany is a country of beer, and since the beer brewing process has become a cultural attribute, their brewing equipment is of course of the highest quality. The equipment shipped to Qingdao belonged to the lager beer brewing equipment. Therefore, in terms of category, Tsingtao beer belongs to the German style of lager. besides the equipment, there are two other things that are key, one is the malt, and the other is the water. When the malt should be used is the local Shandong malt, just like Shandong people as robust full, now popular to describe this characteristic of the English word is robust, a few years ago there is a kind of Lobel's pure water with this word. The water is Laoshan spring water, wow.
This unintentional meeting of the minds has resulted in one of the finest beers in China, and indeed the Far East, and - without being "one" - the only one.
On June 28, the World Brand Conference, jointly organized by the World Brand Lab and the World Economic Forum, was held in Beijing, at which the 2004 "China's 500 Most Valuable Brands" list was released, and Tsingtao Brewery ranked 31st among them.
At the same time, Tsingtao Beer topped the beer industry with a brand value of 16.873 billion yuan, continuing to play the role of the domestic beer market leader.
However, the difficult process of growing up is often forgotten in the splendor of the flowers.
When Tsingtao Beer evolved from a noble brand to a popular brand in the process, there are many people questioned its "bigger and stronger" strategy, that is, the external expansion and low-cost strategy, which will make Tsingtao Beer backed by the heavy burden of supporting small breweries, "noble" brand is not noble from now on. However, in 1997, its market share was still in a bad situation: other domestic brands occupied 67% of the market share, joint venture brands occupied 31% of the market share, and it only occupied a mere 2% of the market share, while more than 90 internationally famous brands outside the country that had already made joint ventures in China launched a frontal attack on Tsingtao Beer at a high price level. Therefore, it is not easy to make Tsingtao Beer become the dominant brand in the domestic beer consumption market.
However, this was the reality of China's beer market at the time, and even though Tsingtao's market share was a mere 2 percent, it was the top of the industry at the time among Chinese beer companies, making it an industry leader.
But a company's business strategy may often be inspired by changes in the general environment.
Toward the end of 1996, the Shandong provincial government formulated ten policy measures aimed at cultivating eight backbone enterprise groups, and Tsingtao Brewery Group was one of the eight groups. The ten measures include "enjoying the preferential policies of pilot cities for optimizing capital structure and pilot enterprises for establishing a modern enterprise system" and "enjoying the preferential policies of pilot cities for optimizing capital structure and pilot enterprises for establishing a modern enterprise system" and "enjoying the preferential policies of pilot cities for optimizing capital structure and pilot enterprises for establishing a modern enterprise system". Income tax actually paid by the same level of the financial sector in the year all returned to the enterprise, for the increase of state-owned working capital" and other preferential policies, its attraction is quite strong.
In 1997, the China National Light Industry Council formally introduced the "Beer Industry Product Structure Adjustment Program" to change the status quo of the beer industry's low efficiency and outstanding structural contradictions, and to promote the upgrading of the whole industry. Clearly put forward, in the adjustment of enterprise organizational structure, based on the restructuring of existing enterprises, focusing on the selection of the best and the strongest, to support the development and growth of large enterprises, large groups, and enhance competitiveness. In 2000 or so, to help Qingdao, Pearl River and Yanjing three major groups of enterprises to reach a total annual output of 4 million tons, so that it accounted for 20% of the country's total; to support the backbone of the beer enterprises to reasonably expand the scale of production, and hope that the State to take measures, such as the debt of the merged enterprise to implement the pending accounts to stop the interest rate in support of the group's development; in conjunction with the local support for the focus of the enterprise, so that China's beer business to further reduce the number of enterprises.
It can be said that the above environment for Tsingtao Brewery to implement the expansion and low-cost strategy for a kind of inspiration, but this change in the environmental background is not a panacea to support large enterprises, large groups, but only a catalyst. The crucial thing is that, although he stirred up Qingdao, Pearl River and Yanjing Brewery reverie, but those as a side of the vassals of the snow, Chongqing, Jinxing, Harbin, East and West Lake, Qianjiang, Blue Ribbon, Xuanhua, Shengquan, Jinlongquan, Xuejin, HaoMen, Blue Sword, the Yellow River, Jinsbay, Baotu, Baotu, Minle and other brewers also have some thoughts, they think that you have a policy that I have a countermeasure to look for the development of their own way! Not to mention that at that time, they all think each other no too wide gap between each other, they feel that they will not lag behind, able to hold their own doorsteps and stand out in the market. In this way, China's beer market, a leapfrog race has begun.
Therefore, China's brewers have begun an unprecedented competition, large manufacturers rely on branding to increase promotions to scale to take the benefits of the development of small and medium-sized manufacturers to seek local protection and tax relief to low-priced to grab the market to find a way out. As a result, the industry's profits are extremely thin, the market price of a single bottle of beer and liquor sold less than plastic bottles of pure water high.
The truth is that every beer company has its own hidden agenda, and Tsingtao Beer is no exception. In the planned economy, Tsingtao Beer products are famous, has been the domestic market share of high-grade beer market leader, product coverage throughout the country, this coverage is mainly rely on the planned economy of the state-owned nature of the commodity wholesale distribution unit - sugar and wine company to operate, and sugar and wine company in the past planned economy, is equivalent to Performing the function of product distribution, Tsingtao Beer was constantly transferred to all parts of the country according to the national plan. However, due to the transition from a planned economy to a market economy, the Sugar and Wine Company can only be a transitional unit without much vitality, and is destined to be disintegrated or privatized in the near future. Therefore, not only Tsingtao Brewery, including other domestic brewers are thinking about the same problem, that is, the future of the beer market can only rely on the brewers to develop their own. Therefore, Yanjing and Zhujiang Beer had already started to develop the local beer market with their own advantages (among the neighboring beer enterprises, their production equipment and technology were in the leading position, thus ensuring the quality of their products), and they intended to, and could only, take the road of "making the local market stronger before making the foreign market bigger", which was mainly due to the fact that Beijing and Guangdong had different economic, social, and economic conditions, and were not the same as Guangdong. Because Beijing and Guangdong from the economy, population and consumption and other aspects of the country are in a dominant position, if each of them to occupy their respective local market share, the benefit is also considerable, and the respective brand to the national dissemination is also quite advantageous.
And Tsingtao Beer not only does not have this geographical advantage, but especially in the market expansion more aware of the impending crisis, as later Mr. Peng Zuoyi said a classic words: "Tsingtao Beer is the first to enter the market, but is the last to step into the market economy". Straight to the point of the weak market development ability of Tsingtao Brewery at that time, specifically embodied in: First, Tsingtao Brewery already knew that the future of the beer market can only rely on the manufacturers to open up their own, and Tsingtao Brewery has not been its own specialized sales company, so it is difficult to keep pace with the reality of the market, not to mention that have a specialized beer sales team is not a year and a half can be accomplished things. Second, the disintegration or privatization of sugar and wine companies around the relative dispersion or disintegration of Tsingtao Beer distribution network and the power of the sales channel, to a group of rising individual distributors rely on local beer brands to play the price advantage and thus provide an opportunity to grow, which is bound to slow down the pace of Tsingtao Beer to become the dominant brand of the domestic beer consumer market. Thirdly, beer products are considered to have a certain sales radius due to their cost, quality and other factors, as they are fast-turnover consumer food products. However, Tsingtao Brewery is located in Qingdao, Shandong Province, which is at the easternmost tip of the Shandong Peninsula. And because of the same city there is a relatively large brewery - Laoshan Brewery, Laoshan Beer also has a major market share in Qingdao, and at that time in various cities in Shandong Province with more than 100,000 tons of beer production capacity of more than a dozen manufacturers, the brand is also a wide variety of brands, and each have their own sphere of influence, which makes the Shandong Province has become the front line of the Chinese beer market, competition. The frontier of the market, the competition is very fierce.
So looking at the above factors, combined with the actual market environment at that time, we can think that in that period, Tsingtao Beer must correctly face three questions:
1, the future of China's high-end beer market, faced with the attack of foreign brands, their advanced brand operation and marketing techniques, Tsingtao Beer as China's domestic beer industry leader, what kind of strategy will be held? Will it retreat and give up, or will it fight head-on? If so, what tactics will it take to deal with it?
2. How to stabilize and broaden its sales network and channels nationwide before the establishment of a perfect marketing system?
3. In the face of the rise of Yanjing and Pearl River, how to continue to maintain its position as a leader in China's beer industry?
It can be imagined that Tsingtao Brewery at that time must solve the above three problems, to solve these problems, doomed to its future strategy can not be like Pearl River and Yanjing as "the first to do the local market and then do the big field market," she had to follow a road suitable for their own way to go.
Perhaps it was a coincidence that in June 1996, Mr. Peng Zuoyi, who had been the director of Qingdao No. 2 Foodstuffs Factory and the chairman and general manager of Qingdao Dayang Foodstuffs Group Company, joined Tsingtao Brewery.
Mr. Peng's contribution to Tsingtao Brewery was later described as quite high, and it was. But few people know what was the key to running Tsingtao Brewery.
It can be said that the decision makers of Tsingtao Brewery at that time were well aware of the seriousness of the market development, however, Tsingtao Brewery was one of the key state-owned enterprises in Qingdao, and was the focus of attention of China's brewing industry, and any of its actions would attract the industry's, the nation's and the international attention. A simple metaphor to describe the Tsingtao Beer is very appropriate, she is like a hot potato, who hold her, hold good, who will be famous; hold bad, who will lose color, and even reputation.
However, it is Mr. Peng's personality and the plight of Tsingtao Brewery coincide seamlessly, although some of Mr. Peng's ideas and practices seemed to outsiders at the time, still leaving people with a lot of misgivings. I remember in a beer marketing seminar, Shandong University, a doctoral supervisor specializing in the "art of war" marketing cited an example of Peng's relationship marketing can be reflected in the charm of its personality, Peng mobilized to put down the Tsingtao Brewery only to produce high-grade brand-name shelf, the production of popular wine suitable for people to consume, this idea is very surprising, ordinary people do not dare to imagine, is to let the people at the time of the mass consumption of wine, the people were very surprised, and the people were very surprised. This idea was very surprising and unimaginable, even the Qingdao municipal government and other relevant departments at that time were also skeptical. To this end, Mr. Peng felt the pressure is quite big, and forebode will be "hat" is not guaranteed, so he through various channels in Qingdao held a relatively large-scale national beer marketing seminar, invited the national beer industry, including Beijing, and the relevant departments of the old-timers to participate in the unanimous assertion that Mr. Peng's thinking and practice is the right, which makes Mr. Peng avoided. The first time I've ever seen this, I've never been able to get it to work.
This is the kind of Mr. Peng who dares to do something and finds a way to achieve it. Because he put down the Tsingtao Beer only produces high-grade wine brand frame, on the production of popular wine for the people to consume, so that Tsingtao Beer in Qingdao alone, its market share will instantly soar from 20% to 80%. During his tenure, Tsingtao Beer and out of Shandong, facing the whole country, merged the total production scale of more than 1 million tons of more than 20 beer enterprises, and has invested 400 million yuan in more than 40 cities across the country set up a marketing company, branch offices, and offices, to take back the Hong Kong's general distribution rights, the realization of the enterprise's direct supply to consumers.
Perhaps it was because Tsingtao Beer had joined such a bold and strategizing General Manager Peng, who found a fulcrum for Tsingtao Beer's low-cost strategy of outward expansion, that Tsingtao Beer was destined to make a splash in that year.
Finally, if we want to summarize how Tsingtao Beer has evolved from a noble brand to a popular one, we can describe it in one sentence, that is, a specific brand (a famous brand nurtured during the period of China's planned economy) was born in a special period (the period of transition from a planned economy to a market economy) due to a specific environment (disorderly competition in the market) together with a leader (Mr. Peng) with a special personality and made Tsingtao Beer what it is today. The achievement of Tsingtao Beer today, perhaps one of the factors change, Tsingtao Beer is not the result of today.
Introduction of Tsingtao Beer's brand integration road.
Since the acquisition of Yangzhou Brewery in 1994, Tsingtao Brewery Group has invested six or seven hundred million dollars over the past nine years*** to merge more than 40 beer companies in Xi'an, Pingdu, Jixi, Maanshan, Shanghai, Guangdong, etc. However, these more than 40 companies are 1/3 profitable, 1/3 flat, and 1/3 in the red. 2003, the three major beer groups - Yanjing, Tsingtao, and CR - have significantly slowed down the pace of their mergers and expansions. The speed of the beer industry has slowed down significantly, the competition has shifted from the fight for resources to a new stage of resource integration and brand competition.
And as it happens, this year is the centennial celebration of Tsingtao Beer. If Tsingtao Beer wants to continue to be brilliant for a hundred years, it obviously needs a set of mature brand strategy.
From "brand penetration" to "brand integration"
China's beer market has obvious regional characteristics. Local consumers' habitual and preferential consumption of local brands, coupled with some non-market factors, forced the three major beer groups to develop the market only with the strategy of "brand penetration": that is, acquiring a local enterprise, injecting its own management mechanism, advanced technology, product formulas, marketing experience, and then continue to sell under the original brand.
Through several years of penetration, the three major beer groups in the market share, production, brand awareness, etc. have made great progress, its also has dozens of brand resources, the ability to control the market and the competitive strength have been obvious soaring. But the scale of expansion in favor of the local market brand management strategy for the overall development and long-term development of the constraints are getting stronger, focus on short-term local brand strategy and focus on the long-term overall brand strategy of the contradiction between the brand has been unable to reconcile - "brand integration" The time is now.
Relatively speaking, there has been no strong beer brand of China Resources is relaxed, the "snow" as the future of the national strong main brand to build.
Likewise, Tsingtao Brewery has also launched a timely "brand slimming program" to cut more than 40 brands to less than 10 within five years, Tsingtao Brewery, Hans, Laoshan, Shanshui and other mid-to-high-end brands into a main force, and ultimately the formation of the main brand, sub-brands and sub-brands to form a "pyramid" of beer brands. The "pyramid" shaped brand structure, that is, foreign beer brands such as Tsingtao Beer and Hans constitute the tip of the brand pyramid, Tsingtao Beer and Laoshan, Shanshui and other domestic brands to build on the backbone of the force, while the other mass of domestic brands to lay the foundation of the tower. The consideration of doing so is to maximize the possibility of maintaining the brand image of Tsingtao Beer, to fully tap the value of the original positioning of other brands, and to establish a firewall between medium-high and low-grade brands to improve the safety of high-end brand value.
From "pyramid" to "limited brand"
Looking at the famous international beer makers, there are at most four or five brands, or even a single brand, and the centralization of resources is a guarantee of rapid accumulation and amplification of brand value, which is really the best of all worlds. The power of one fist is better than five fingers. For Tsingtao Brewery, which has as many as 40 brands, the "pyramid brand strategy" is not a way of brand integration, but it is only a stopgap solution, a compromise to the embarrassing status quo. This so-called "focus and attack" brand integration is in fact very easy to "no focus on the whole line of defeat".
We know that the higher the brand positioning, the smaller the sales volume and the higher the brand investment, so the general manufacturer's high-end brands are always very few, basically one to two. And there are several high-end brands under the banner of Tsingtao Beer, and in addition to Tsingtao Beer, the other high-end brands are basically regional brands, with great limitations in market influence. According to the "pyramid strategy", these high-end brands and "Tsingtao Beer" in the same strategic height, will be greatly dispersed power, for the spire brand building is quite unfavorable.
In addition, the "Tsingtao Beer" brand from the tip of the tower to the tower, the positioning of the ambiguous and value downward. This for a long time in the domestic erection of high-grade beer brand image of Qingdao Beer is obviously not a good thing, it is easy to end up causing the brand positioning value is not clear. Moreover, this downward trend has slipped to the base of the tower. In some markets, especially in the Qingdao Beer does not have a "local local sales" brand in the region, such as Beijing, Hubei and other places, Qingdao Beer is not uncommon in the market at low prices. The damage to the brand's value caused by this kind of cross-border sales is not to be underestimated.
And, with the increasing concentration of the Chinese beer market, the intensity of brand competition will continue to increase. Whoever has a clear brand positioning and strong influence will have a head start in the market. The reality is that China Resources, Yanjing gradually brand investment concentrated in a brand, the way out of Tsingtao Brewery will be the corresponding strong brand to fight against it, and this strong brand since the "Tsingtao Beer" belongs to. Of course, another option for Tsingtao Beer is to put the "Tsingtao Beer" brand "on the shelf" - to position it strictly as a premium beer, and then to choose "Hans" or another brand. The other option is to put the "Tsingtao Beer" brand "on the shelf" - to position it strictly as a premium beer, and then take "Hanse" or another brand as a mid-range brand for strong promotion, both offensive and defensive.
The "limited brand" strategy is the way to go for Tsingtao Brewery, but does it disregard the value of many other brands? Of course not.
The essence of the "limited brand" strategy is to take Tsingtao Brewery as the main brand, occupy the high-end positioning, put other well-known brands in the middle, and the general public brands are made to be the firewall of high-end profit guarantee, take the brand value harvesting strategy of limited investment, promote the growth of the sales, and give full play to the positioning point of the original brand in the local area, and gradually recover the value of these brands that have been sunk in the market. By adopting the brand value harvesting strategy with limited investment to promote growth through sales, the original brand positioning point was fully utilized in the local area, and the value deposited in these brands was gradually recovered. After several years of transition, some brands will gradually decline as the original brand value is recovered, and corporate resources can be naturally focused on several strong brands.
From "limited brand" to "differentiated brand"
The significance of the "limited brand" strategy lies in the centralization of brand value, which is to concentrate the value of many brands into a few. However, the next problem faced after the concentration of brand value is the maximization of brand value.
"Single brand" is the centralization after the centralization, the final brand value of the unity, but this way the risk is very great. For several strong brands, even without deliberate differences in publicity their brand image in the minds of consumers will be quite different, to successfully superimpose their value to a brand is almost impossible. Moreover, for a mass consumer goods market such as beer, the "single brand" strategy makes the brand in the functional positioning, value orientation and even flanking defense on the room for manoeuvre is too small. Even brand management experts like Coca-Cola have to rely on a number of secondary brands such as "Sprite" to establish a brand line, in terms of taste and image and the main "Coca-Cola" brand.
The Tsingtao Beer brand has been passed down for nearly a hundred years and has always demonstrated boutique positioning and gold medal quality, which makes the brand quite "horizontally long-lasting" and "vertically far-reaching". The brand is indeed characterized by "horizontal longevity" and "vertical depth". This characteristic is exactly where the value of Tsingtao Beer lies. Therefore, the corresponding brand value maximization strategy should be centered on this point to start.
The strategy of "differentiated branding" is to take "Tsingtao Beer" as the core, and differentiate several strong non-Qingtao Beer brands through function, experience, value, etc., while Tsingtao Beer in the center is kept in a neutral position, seeking class but not difference, and focusing on brand influence. The center of the lineup is Tsingtao Beer, which is neutral, seeking class but not difference, and focusing on brand influence to create a national leading brand. The Tsingtao Beer brand line formed in this way will be a brand cluster where "Tsingtao Beer" embodies the core brand value and other strong brands satisfy the demand for characteristics, and ultimately the value of the brand cluster will be maximized.
Perhaps it is only at this point that Tsingtao Beer has basically finished the road of brand integration.