14 years ago, branded products lead brand chaos Wuliangye shrink brand refractory

There is a saying in the industry that Wuliangye owns so many OEM products that Wang Guochun, former Chairman of Wuliangye Group, who has created a brand-name model, has no idea how many sub-brands and Sun brands Wuliangye owns.

On the 15th, in the fourth quarter of 2011, during the monitoring of the quality of alcoholic products in the fourth quarter of 2011 by the Guangdong Provincial Administration for Industry and Commerce, the liquor produced by Yibin Wuliangye Co., Ltd., which was sold by the Yuelong Tobacco and Wine Group in Yangchun City, was detected. Total ester failed.

What is worthy of attention is that the date of production of the spring liquor that was identified as the problem was 1998 and it has been 14 years since. Spring Garden Wine was originally an old branded product of Wuliangye Health Wine Co., Ltd. It has been discontinued.

14 years ago, OEM products were still being sold, and quality problems were found. The sub-brand management confusion and the lack of control of Wuliangye (000858.SZ) once again became apparent. The OEM model that once brought huge income and profits to Wuliangye has now become a drag on the upgrading of Wuliangye brand value.

Branded product management confusion "Liquor produced 14 years ago, during the preservation process there must be alcohol volatilization, alcohol levels will be reduced, which is normal in the liquor industry." Yuan Ye, general manager of Chengdu City, left bank Shenniu Marketing Co., Ltd. said.

However, as to why the brand-name products 14 years ago still circulate in the market, Wuliangye indicated that it is in contact with Guangdong's industrial and commercial departments to trace the authenticity of the spring liquor it found. The product sold was Yuelong Tobacco, Yangchun City. Wine line, Wuliangye said that its non-dealers, spring from the park spring wine is unknown.

The explosion of the issue once again triggered questions about the excessive use of Wuliangye sub-brands and management loopholes. “This incident reflects the fact that Wuliangzi sub-brands and OEM products are too many. Once management is not in place, they will be exploited by Li Ji in the market,” said Mao Xiaomin, general manager of Shanghai Ruihu Marketing Planning Co., Ltd.

Prior to this, Wuliangye pioneered the OEM expansion and buyout operations in the liquor industry, forming numerous sub-brands in various market segments in the middle and high end. In the peak season around 2002, there were hundreds of different brands of products produced by Wuliangye Co., Ltd. in different grades, which brought huge profits to Wuliangye.

At that time, there was a saying in the industry that Wuliangye had so many OEM products that Wang Guochun, former chairman of Wuliangye Group, who had created a brand-name model, could not figure out how many sub-brands and Sun brands Wuliangye actually had.

However, these numerous “big child” sub-brands, while bringing Wuliangye’s sales growth, dilute the high-end brand value of Wuliangye and drag on the high-end image of Wuliangye.

“Wuliangye has developed a large number of OEM products. Although the scale profits have increased rapidly, from the point of view of brand development, the unlimited development has kept the value of the main brand constantly diluted, especially the unscrupulous developers, such as non-reputational pricing It laid a great deal of hidden dangers for its future brand development,” said Shi Shengguo, a senior marketing person of liquor and chairman of Long Vision Consulting Co., Ltd.

The dilution of the value of the main brand has already been reflected in Wuliangye. “After 2005, the liquor company that first increased its price changed from Wuliangye to Kweichow Moutai (600519. SH), and the gap between price and brand power was different from that of Kweichow Moutai. The bigger it is," said one industry insider.

The brand contraction had little effect. Wuliangye also realized this problem, and began to lose weight 10 years ago, and put forward the “1+9+8” brand strategy. Content includes the development of a global brand, 9 national brands and 8 regional brands, and in 2002 after cutting 38 sub-brands with poor market performance.

In the meantime, Wuliangye used two methods to shrink the development of sub-brands. First, it increased the barriers to entry for new brand developers, such as the increase in the amount of margin, which led to the automatic withdrawal of some dealers with weak economic strength; second, the original brand developers. Raise the sales threshold and eliminate the task that cannot be completed.

“With a margin of RMB 20 million, otherwise it is impossible to OEM, and Wuliangye control is becoming more and more stringent. Many development products simply do not allow the use of the word “Wuliangye”. The sign of Wuliangye is good, and it depends on the relationship with the former. Can handle different, Wuliangye now pay more attention to the dealer behind the business philosophy, brand awareness, ability to expand and other comprehensive ability." A Wuliangye current dealer said.

Under this mechanism, Wuliangye brand shrank slightly, but it still failed to fundamentally solve the problem.

"For Wuliangye, this is not a way to cure the problem. Wuliangye needs to plan for the entire company's sub-brands or series of products from the company's strategic point of view and brand value, not just to ban some products through economic indicators. Mao Xiaomin said.

Currently, Wuliangye still has a total of 60 series, of which only the Wuliangye wine series is divided into 52 varieties of Wuliangye, Wuliangye, Wuliangye, and other 28 varieties. Other sub-products are even more varied. “There are still some of you who are on the market. Products that have not been heard have also been sold through various channels in the name of Wuliangye production. On the one hand, Wuliangye has shrunk its branded products. On the other hand, there are still new branded products,” said the Wuliangye dealer.

“This is inextricably linked to Wuliangye's past development of dealerships. In the past, Wuliangye development dealers valued their contacts, especially government resources, and many of them were related resources. Now it is too difficult to cut them off.” According to people.

The over-development of its brands and the inability of product line integration are more likely to be Wuliangye's reliance on past major customer model paths. “In the past, the development of Wuliangye, the large customer model has been formed, and companies and distributors have formed an intricacy. It is difficult to make a determination to change the bond of interests," Mao Xiaomin said.

After Tangqiao was appointed chairman of Wuliangye Group, Wuliangye began to fine-tune the brand strategy and once again shrank.

“Under such intense competition for liquor, it is very difficult to make 9 national brands. Therefore, Wuliangye will shrink 9 national brands to 3 while doing a good job of the “Wuliangye” world famous wine brand. A key brand, Wuliangchun, Wuliang Alcohol and Liuhe Liquid, said Tang Bridge, chairman of Wuliangye Group, during an interview with the media during the two sessions last year.

However, in the eyes of the industry, compared with Maotai's strategy of protecting the main brands, focusing on the development of two mid-range brands, Hankang and Xiji, and diluting the low-end products such as prince wine and welcome wine, the overall brand development strategy of Wuliangye is now Still blurred.