Marketing Strategy of Wuliangye: China’s Top Liquor Brand

Marketing Strategy of Wuliangye

Let’s have a look at the marketing strategies of Wuliangye that attract so many people. 

Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning –

Consumers in the beverage industry have a wide range of needs, wants, and demands, as well as cultural disparities in purchasing attitudes. Market segmentation is the process by which Wuliangye divides the whole market into smaller segments and groups with comparable characteristics, buying habits, socioeconomic status, and so on. This is done to reach out to a certain group of customers more efficiently and effectively. The most important age group for spirits consumption in China is those in their 30s and 50s. So Wuliangye plans its marketing strategies to focus on people between the age group of 30 to 55.

Wuliangye Yibin Company entered the Chinese market in 1998 with its main product being Wuliangye liquor. As Wuliangye is a traditional Chinese drink, it quickly hit the market and now it controls 30% of the baiju market in China. The company launched other products like Luzhou-flavour liquor, Maotai-flavour liquor, Maotai-Luzhou flavour liquor and fruit wine.

Although Baijiu is little known outside of China, it remains the country’s traditional spirit with a long cultural history dating back over 6000 years. It has garnered hundreds of important awards both at home and abroad, with Wuliangye being placed No. 3 in the Chinese Top Brand Values in 2019. To put it in perspective, Baijiu accounted for 19.5 per cent of total alcohol consumption in China in 2017, compared to 5.6 per cent for ‘other spirits’ and only 2.8 per cent for ‘wines.’.

Marketing Campaigns 

1. WULIANGYE ADVERTISEMENT FILM

On 6th November 2021, Wuliangye launched its collaborative campaign. As a sponsor of the Forbidden City, Wuliangye had invited individuals who learn traditional skills and crafts to keep them alive and are known as Chinese traditional skill inheritors.

As baiju is China’s national liquor which has been in existence since around the second century BCE, it is considered the Intangible Cultural Health (ICH).

Through this campaign, Wuliangye tried to exhibit the brewing process of the Chinese baiju. Since the Ming dynasty, this process has been used and involves thousands of steps.

2. THE FORBIDDEN CITY

The video acknowledges this connection with the phrase “when six hundred years meet six hundred years” (六百年遇上六百年 in Chinese). The Forbidden City and WULIANGYE are both witnesses of the last 600 years of Chinese history. WULIANGYE has used the Forbidden City video as a standout element, cementing its brand’s association with the cultural icon. It has attracted traditional culture enthusiasts by conveying the vibrant story of the Forbidden City.

WULIANGYE has proved endurance over the past 600 years of this collaboration, using a range of creative means to portray the stories of its culture, answering people’s demands on a material and spiritual level, and winning consumer loyalty. 

This campaign builds on prior collaborations and continues to improve brand perceptions among consumers. WULIANGYE has been working with five major museums to build branding IP, extending its brand principles to cultural and social values, since last year.

3) WULIANGYE AT THE CHINA INTERNATIONAL IMPORT EXPO (CIIE)

Wuliangye, China’s leading liquor maker, has been heavily involved in the fourth China International Import Expo (CIIE), which took place from November 4 to 7 (2021) in Shanghai Municipality, east China, showcasing the unique charm and profound culture of Chinese liquor once again at an international forum to boost the event’s economic and cultural exchanges. 

At the 4th CIIE, Wuliangye showcased its water resources, soil, climate, temperature, and ecological conditions, as well as its unique brewing, optimization, ageing, and blending skills for liquor production.

Many domestic and foreign merchants praised the excellent taste of Wuliangye liquor and the ingenuity and unique charm of Chinese liquor it represents at the exhibition hall, which featured core liquor products, high-end cultural collection products, and personalised products with different positioning and features.

Apart from these marketing campaigns that became very popular, Wuliangye promotes its product through advertisements on various social media platforms, televisions, etc.

Social Media Marketing

Though Wuliangye is a hugely famous brand in China, its social media reach is not that great. Wuliangye has its presence on social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. 

The Twitter handle of Wuliangye Yibin does not have many followers. The Facebook page of Wuliangye is quite popular and active.  

The Instagram handle of Wuliangye, though not very known or followed, has some creative visuals and interesting posts. You can check out how they promote Wuliangye through some amazing visual presentations. 

Today, almost every person from the age of 18 to 29 uses social media and its impact is tremendous. Wuliangye can benefit more if it creates a strong presence on social media as it can reach its target customers more quickly.

SEO Strategies

As per SEO ranking, several keywords below 500 are bad, above 1000 are good and 10,000+ is amazing. In the case of Wuliangye Company, we can see that the organic keyword is 120 which is not at all good. This indicates that the digital marketing strategies of Wuliangye are not effective and are being unnoticed. 

The traffic per month is 1,389 which is not a good number. For a website to rank higher on the SEO ranking, the organic traffic per month should be at least 20,000+. Wuliangye is nowhere close to being noticed on the SEO ranking. Hence Wuliangye needs to work on its SEO strategies to get global recognition.

Influencer Marketing 

Wuliangye hasn’t endorsed celebrities to promote its products. Its promotional strategies are mostly advertisements. But Wuliangye has an airport named after it! 

Yibin Wuliangye Airport serves the city of Yibin in China’s southern Sichuan province as a civilian and military airport. It replaced the former Yibin Caiba Airport, which closed in December 2019. Wuliangye is a locally produced liquor that is one of China’s most well-known baijiu brands, and the airport is named for it.

Ecommerce Strategies

Wuliangye has made it possible for their customers to get the liquor at their doorsteps. For this purpose, Wuliangye has its website GoToLiquorStore where they sell online liquor. 

This has helped Wuliangye increase its sales globally. Besides this, Wuliangye has its website which provides information about its products, the ingredients used in the process and Wuliangye’s history. 

Mobile App 

As of now, Wuliangye doesn’t have a mobile app but it does have a website through which you can order Wuliangye. 

But Wuliangye does have an application that is a two-dimensional code traceability anti-counterfeiting software developed by Wuliangye Co., Ltd. for products that use two-dimensional codes. Customers can scan the two-dimensional code and connect

to the mobile network to obtain product traceability information through this software. which is fast and convenient. The query results can be obtained quickly, and the authenticity of the product and the production information can be seen at a glance so that consumers can buy with peace of mind and enjoy the mellow wine with confidence.

Content marketing 

Wuliangye is not much active on social media platforms like Instagram or Facebook. The news about their new products, offers and events is published in the newspaper and the articles are uploaded online. All such information is published on their website as well.