Is Jiang Xiaobai’s marketing still effective?

"Jiang Xiaobai", this name once represented a generation of internet-famous liquor. It had its highlights and its share of criticisms, but now the impression it leaves on everyone seems to have become "outdated".

The last time it entered the public eye was in November last year. In order to celebrate its tenth anniversary, the official Weibo account @江小白 posted 100 statements in a row, including self-deprecating remarks and responses. Among them, it also mixed in several advertisements for its new high-proof liquor "Gold Cap 52 Degrees", which sparked a wave of heated discussions.

Image source: Weibo "An anonymous geographer"

I have to say that Jiang Xiaobai is a real marketing genius. There is nothing he can't come up with. But after the onlookers left, Jiang Xiaobai's new wine no longer made any waves.

Jiang Xiaobai is no longer selling

Back in the summer of 2011, at the door of a grilled fish restaurant in Chongqing, Tao Shiquan repeatedly promoted his liquor to the owner. The person talking was getting dry-mouthed, and the listeners were getting increasingly impatient, but finally the store owner compromised and agreed to keep the wine in the store for a trial. As a result, this place became one of the stores acquired by Jiang Xiaobai in the early days.

Tao Shiquan is the founder of Jiang Xiaobai. Having worked for the traditional liquor brand "Jinliufu" for ten years, he found that the liquor on the market is almost only made for the middle-aged and elderly groups, and there is actually a big gap in the demand of young people. So he resigned and founded "Jiang Xiaobai", and the widely circulated saying was born, "It's not that young people don't like to drink liquor, but traditional liquor has abandoned young people from the product to the brand."

At that time, Jiang Xiaobai was just a young kid entering the liquor market. According to Chongqing local media reports, "Jiang Xiaobai" used a loudspeaker to recruit people in the talent market. After get off work, the employees wore their work clothes to various restaurants to promote their products, and even did odd jobs for store owners in order to build good relationships with them.

No one expected that in the next ten years, Jiang Xiaobai would expand across the country at lightning speed. In 2014, it received a RMB 10 million investment from IDG Capital in its A round, and subsequently completed multiple rounds of financing. According to 36Kr, the post-round C investment valuation in 2020 may exceed 13 billion yuan.

Image source: Qichacha

Although Jiang Xiaobai’s response was “no comment”, we can still see the rapid growth of this young liquor brand. Jiang Xiaobai achieved a revenue of 50 million yuan in the second year of its establishment. From 2017 to 2019, the revenue soared from 1 billion to over 3 billion. But after that, it seemed as if the pause button was pressed and no updated revenue data was released.

Chongqing, located on the bank of the Yangtze River, has a long wine-making culture. Jiang Xiaobai was named after its name, "brewed by the river, small-qu liquor." "Xiaobai" also means novice, which is in line with its positioning towards young people. The brand has foresightedly started registering trademarks since its inception and now owns more than 300 trademarks.

Image source: China Trademark Network

Despite this, Jiang Xiaobai was embroiled in a dispute over the "Jiang Xiaobai" trademark with Chongqing Jiangjin Distillery (Group) Co., Ltd. in 2013. The dispute lasted for seven years, and it was not until 2020 that the Supreme Court made the final decision and regained the ownership of the "Jiang Xiaobai" trademark.

But the trademark dispute cannot be held solely responsible for Jiang Xiaobai’s declining fortunes.

Is Jiang Xiaobai’s marketing still effective?

Jiang Xiaobai’s popularity is inseparable from the expression bottle launched in the early years . Various heartfelt or heart-wrenching texts were printed on the paper cover of the bottle, which was all the rage among young people.

Image source: Internet

This approach attracted a group of initial fans who bought Jiang Xiaobai not just to drink, but also to pay for the sentiment behind the copy. Jiang Xiaobai tasted the sweetness, and used similar marketing tactics in the following ten years, boosting sales by selling emotionally appealing content to more people.

Tao Shiquan likes rock music and prefers bands such as Beyond and Tang Dynasty. It is hard to say whether the YOLO concerts held by Jiang Xiaobai since 2016 and the later YOLO Youth Culture Festival are a way for the boss to realize his dream or a premeditated marketing by Jiang Xiaobai. What is certain is that it has become a trend.

Image source: "Jiang Xiaobai" official Weibo

At the same time, Jiang Xiaobai also created his own IP of the same name and launched the animation series "I am Jiang Xiaobai". The B station ratings of the two seasons of the animation are both around 9 points, which is a good result. IP characters can carry more emotional expressions and story developments, and can also provide more space for peripheral sales, brand collaborations and other gameplay.

Image source: "Jiang Xiaobai" official Weibo

Even in 2021, Jiang Xiaobai is still trying to use the same method of manifesting emotions to conquer the world of high-proof liquor.

In November 2021, it was a bit cold in Chongqing on a rainy day. Tao Shiquan, carrying a backpack, poured a glass of Jingai wine for a customer in a street shop. While promoting the product, he faced the negative reviews given by the other party. This easily reminds people of the time when he first started Jiang Xiaobai ten years ago, when he was selling liquor in every store. The difference is that it was in the scorching hot reality back then, but now it is in the lively scenes.

This was when Jiang Xiaobai launched a new high-proof liquor "Golden Cap 52 Degrees" on the occasion of its tenth anniversary. Tao Shiquan personally participated in the live broadcast event "Challenge to find one hundred friends in seven days" in the hope of "listening to the voices of real users." At the same time, Jiang Xiaobai also followed the copywriting marketing that he excels at, subtly advertising in those 100 statements.

Image source: "Jiang Xiaobai" official WeChat account

I have to say, this is very "Jiang Xiaobai". Jiang Xiaobai uses live streaming to narrow the distance between itself and its users, and takes the opportunity to tell a down-to-earth story. It hopes to cultivate users' brand awareness in this way and try to replicate the glorious sentimental consumption created by the expression bottle.

During this development process, Jiang Xiaobai has formed its own brand recognition and strengthened users' consumption perception. Jiang Xiaobai’s plain bottle shape is already well-known, and packaging with text additions such as expression bottles and complain bottles are even more popular. For many young people, perhaps the first small bottle of wine they know is Jiang Xiaobai, and the "tipsy" that they love today is actually a latecomer.

But unfortunately, the emotional card cannot withstand repeated use, and telling a good brand story cannot rely solely on marketing. The sales volume of 2020 and subsequent years that Jiang Xiaobai did not disclose is the speechless reflection of the product.

The straw that broke Jiang Xiaobai's back

Jiang Xiaobai’s aggressive marketing brought it short-term sales growth, popularity, traffic, and even capital, but a decade of consistent marketing also caused the brand to gradually lose its way. It only took a few short years for the impression it left on consumers to change from “young people’s liquor” to “a comedian who was delayed by selling liquor.”

The switch between the two labels directly points out Jiang Xiaobai’s fatal weakness - he is not good at drinking.

Jiang Xiaobai's initial target group was young people, so in order to reduce young people's resistance to liquor culture, it did a lot of marketing; in order to cater to young people's taste habits of not being accustomed to spicy liquor, it reduced the alcohol content of the liquor.

The alcohol content of liquor on the market is generally over 50%, but Jiang Xiaobai has always maintained 40% alcohol content. As we all know, the aroma of liquor is related to its alcohol content. Although Jiang Xiaobai chose to make Xiaoqu-fragrant liquor to cover up the inevitable taste defects of its low-alcohol liquor, it is still ridiculed by people as "even dogs won't drink it" and "blended liquor."

At the same time, Jiang Xiaobai’s pricing is not friendly. According to the observation of "New Entropy":

The price of a 100ml bottle of Jiang Xiaobai is around 20 yuan, which means one kilogram is 100 yuan. Among the 100-yuan products, the price of Wuliangye Waizui (52 degrees, 100ml) is 15 yuan, and the price of Waizui Xiaolangjiu (45 degrees, 100ml) is 17 yuan. Jiang Xiaobai’s pricing is already considered mid-range liquor.

This creates a consumption contradiction. Given the same volume, big-brand liquors are cheaper. Why would consumers choose Jiang Xiaobai, which may be less tasty?

Jiang Xiaobai is naturally aware of this, so it has worked hard to open up more tracks , including craft beer, fruit wine, sparkling wine, and other popular wines. In addition to Jiang Xiaobai's "Sorghum Wine", it has also created new brands such as "Meijian" which focuses on green plum wine and "Suoyi" which focuses on rice wine, in an attempt to save the market in a roundabout way.

Image source: Jiang Xiaobai official website

However, Jiang Xiaobai is too young.

Although the concept of "young people's liquor" is good, in the current Chinese wine culture, liquor brands that can sell at high prices all have a long history, representing a kind of wine storage foundation and social skills. Nowadays, the majority of liquor consumption scenarios are still social banquets and the like. In such occasions, the taste, reputation and price of the liquor are all related to face. When drinking with leaders, customers and other parties, it is obviously better to talk about the 23-generation inheritance of Luzhou Laojiao's craftsmanship and the century-old winery than to introduce Jiang Xiaobai's young Jiangji Winery and international gold medal.

Although Tao Shiquan began to face up to the market demand for strong liquor in his speech on the occasion of the brand's tenth anniversary, and Jiang Xiaobai also launched the "Gold Cap 52 Degrees", its splash only remained on the wine giveaway campaign on Weibo which is still continuing. Jiang Xiaobai, which has been used to doing business with young people, has become a child again after entering the high-end liquor market. It is facing the big brother who has been famous for many years. It is not possible to easily seize market share by improving the taste.

To make matters worse, the group of young people who drank Jiang Xiaobai in the past decade have grown up, and many of them have entered middle age and become members of the drinking table. They have drunk more liquor, and Jiang Xiaobai is no longer new, and the sentiment is no longer valuable. Jiang Xiaobai spent a lot of effort on marketing, but it turned out to be a waste of money for others.

It is undeniable that Jiang Xiaobai has had its moments of glory and has educated a generation of young people on liquor consumption, but its hasty approach in the product development process has blurred its true core competitiveness, which is product quality. However, its copywriting marketing ability, which it is so proud of, has not actually produced active content that can stick to the brand and grow together with it. The repetitive emotional cards will only arouse consumers' disgust and even create a negative impression that the brand is just a window dressing. At the same time, new brands continue to emerge, and Jiang Xiaobai is no longer the only one dominating the market for small and low-alcohol wines.

These are the reasons why Jiang Xiaobai's development stagnated and also the straw that broke the camel's back. In the new decade, perhaps what Jiang Xiaobai needs is more accumulation and newer strategies, rather than just relying on marketing traffic.