One view is that this "one size fits all" approach may make many brand developers and brand operators suffer heavy losses. Another way of saying it is that this is a good thing. Previously, Maotai had overdrawn the Maotai brand by OEM, which led to counterfeit products on the market. Although this method will make many dealers and Maotai enterprises "lose their jobs", it will help to form the brand value of Maotai.
There is no reason for this action.
Maotai explained that it is to standardize the brand development and management of each subsidiary. Not only that, Maotai even pointed out that although the chaos of brands and products of Maotai subsidiaries has improved after years of rectification, some subsidiaries have recently ignored brand management regulations and committed crimes against the wind.
Among them, Maotai Group criticized Guizhou Maotai Distillery (Group) Platinum Liquor Co., Ltd., saying that it has repeatedly violated the brand management regulations of the Group in its production and operation, and there have been major violations recently, which has seriously affected the brand reputation of Maotai. Insiders said that such a simple and direct expression shows Maotai's determination to rectify this time from another side.
In fact, since Maotai became famous, Maotai Group has been involved in tourism, finance, medical care, education, agriculture and other industries. Due to historical reasons, Maotai Group owns Kweichow Moutai Winery (Group) Xijiu Co., Ltd., Kweichow Moutai Winery Group Health Wine Co., Ltd. and Kweichow Moutai Platinum Wine Co., Ltd. in addition to producing the main brand of Maotai, and its business is booming.
However, the products produced by these subsidiaries are uneven, which even caused great misunderstanding to consumers and hurt the reputation of Maotai brand.
Among them, the internal report of 20 18 Maotai Group pointed out that when selling platinum five-star wine on the online shopping platform without the approval of the group, "Maotai Group produces puree wine" was taken as a gimmick, which was suspected of exaggerating publicity and misleading the public.
Cai, a wine analyst, said: "Maotai has high hopes for liquor. However, because platinum wine belongs to the small category of health care wine, it does not have the ability of high-quality premium, and it is completely sold by means of Maotai brand. At the same time, at the level of brand management and marketing, platinum wine has false propaganda and other behaviors in the sales process, which has hurt the corporate image of Maotai high-end brands and industry leaders to some extent. "
In the past two years, Maotai Group has clearly put forward the brand slimming plan: first, from the brand "Double Ten Strategy" implemented by 20 18 Maotai Group to the "Double Five Brands" proposed by "Beauty Slimming", that is, keeping five brands, 50 bar codes, cutting off half of the products, and then to this extremely vicious one-size-fits-all approach.
This series of actions of Maotai means that the structural adjustment of Maotai is being further accelerated.
In 20 18, it was announced that a new round of enterprise structure adjustment was planned, and it was clearly stated that 5 1 subsidiaries would be cleaned up. It is expected that all the cleaning work will be completed in 20 19. At the same time, in principle, the management of enterprises will be basically controlled within the third level, and there will be no more branches and subsidiaries at or below the fourth level. It is understood that the 5 1 enterprise included in the rectification has problems such as vague positioning, multiple management levels, overlapping functions, poor management and even "zombie enterprises".
This time, pressing the "pause button" for the brand development and management of each subsidiary, in the industry's view, is to extend this clean-up from a simple subsidiary to the product side and dealer level. People in the industry regard it as the protection and return of Maotai brand assets.
Cai believes that cleaning up the surrounding brands is conducive to the implementation of the Maotai series wine strategy and leaving room for the growth of the series wine. This is an inevitable measure to make Maotai bigger, and it is also the demand for Maotai to build its own Maotai-flavor wine ecology.
However, this "one size fits all" approach has also caused concern in the market. Liu, chief consultant of Beijing cutting brand organization, believes that Maotai has reduced personalized service, which means that enterprises are farther away from market economy and marketing; On the other hand, although personalized customization accounts for a small proportion in Maotai's business volume, it is not a retrogression for marketization. Especially for dealers or brand operators, the benefits are difficult to be guaranteed.
In fact, brand and barcode development are also reimbursed. Liquor enterprises are responsible for the production of this product, and dealers are responsible for the follow-up sales and brand maintenance. This model was once a magic weapon for liquor enterprises to improve their performance. But after a long time, the defects of this model are undoubtedly exposed, that is, the product line is too long and there are many "descendants", especially the dealers who just want to make quick money failed to maintain the development of the brand, but instead impacted the core brand, causing bad competition and diluting the image and value of the main brand.
Jin Yufeng, a liquor expert, believes that many domestic liquor enterprises will experience the development process of "big single products lead sales-wolves develop-chaos first and then cure". Now the whole liquor industry in China has entered the stage of brand management.
20 15 LU ZHOU LAO JIAO CO.,LTD co., ltd. began to cut brands. It is reported that the bar codes of products of LU ZHOU LAO JIAO CO.,LTD Co., Ltd. have been reduced from 7,000 to 900. 2065438+At the beginning of 2008, LU ZHOU LAO JIAO CO.,LTD Co., Ltd. announced that it would suspend accepting orders for exclusive distribution brands and began to comprehensively clean up the bar codes and fees of all exclusive distribution products.
In addition, xifeng liquor eliminated more than 200 bar codes in 20 17, reducing bar codes by 20% every year. 20 17, Wuliangye cleans up the dealer brand. It is said that 55 low-volume products were cleaned up in July and August of that year.
For Maotai, in addition to maintaining the brand image and value, cleaning up brand wine and customized wine may also have the idea of supporting its status as a series of wines.
Cai believes that although the proportion of brand products in Maotai's revenue is not high, these brand products actually have internal friction with Maotai's existing products, and the rectification of brand products is also conducive to the growth of Maotai series wines. "
It is worth noting that 20 19 is also a year for Maotai Group to sprint to "100 billion yuan", and the target operating income exceeds10 billion yuan. Cleaning up the branding and "slimming" the brand also promoted the status of the series of wines to a certain extent, created a good market environment for them and prepared for their own goal of hitting 100 billion yuan.