How young people's wine changed from "Internet celebrity" to "long red"

Reporter Gu Yufei

No one will be young forever, but there will always be young
people.
As the new main force of alcohol consumption, what are the behavioral characteristics of young people's drinking, what kind of logical thinking and cognitive preferences are behind the behavior, and how do wine companies grasp the relevant trends? A few days ago, Rees Strategic Positioning Consulting released the "Young People's Wine - Chinese Wine Category Innovation Research Report" (hereinafter referred to as the "Report"
).
According to the report, the potential young drinking population is as high as 490 million, and the size of the young drinking market has reached 400 billion yuan
.
Feng Huaqing, director of strategic positioning consulting at Reese, said that the market is unprecedentedly prosperous and competition is intensifying, to create young people's wine, it is necessary to choose the category preferred by young people and clearly define the drinking scene, so that the product can change from "Internet celebrity" to "long red"
.

The consumer base is huge

"In the factory era before 2011, young people's alcohol choices were relatively limited, except for liquor and beer, there were only a few foreign cocktail brands; In the market era from 2012 to 2017, young people's wines were gradually diversified, and pre-blended wine and fruit wine brands rose rapidly with the help of channels and media; In the era of mind since 2018, with the help of capital power, a large number of rice fruit wine, sparkling wine, dewy wine, craft beer brands have emerged, and soft drink and catering industry giants who are optimistic about the potential of the young people's alcohol market have also crossed the border and launched a series of young people's wines to cater to the preferences of young people
.
"The report shows that in the Chinese market, young people's wine has gone through three stages of development, the market is unprecedentedly prosperous, and the competition is becoming more and more fierce
.

There are too many drinks for young people, and young people are "not enough"? Not really
.
According to the seventh census, China's post-80s generation 223 million, post-90s 210 million people, post-00s 163 million people, the three together account for 42% of
the country's total population.
Generation Z (born between 1995 and 2009) has about 260 million people with the typical label of young people in the new era, accounting for about 19% of the country's total population, of which 70% are of legal drinking age, about 180 million people
.

Influenced by new media and new channels, young people's demand for alcohol has been fully stimulated
.

The "Report" shows that the rapid rise of video platforms such as Station B and Douyin has provided young people with adequate drinking education
.
Among the online platforms for young people to understand alcohol and beverage information, traditional e-commerce platforms such as Taobao and JD.
com lead with 76.
3%, but it cannot be ignored that short video platforms such as Douyin and Kuaishou, B station and other long video platforms have a very far-reaching impact on young people's understanding of alcohol and drinking, 69.
0% of young people have learned about alcohol through Douyin and Kuaishou, 68.
4% of young people have learned about alcohol through video platforms such as B station, in addition, 57.
3% of young people also use life sharing platforms such as Xiaohongshu as an important medium
for understanding alcohol and beverage information.

Internet channels have made alcohol consumption more convenient and greatly satisfied the drinking needs
of young people.
In the non-ready-to-drink scenario, the penetration rate of online channels reached 47%.

Traditional e-commerce channels are still the main channel for young people to buy alcohol, 59% of young people have bought alcohol on traditional e-commerce channels such as Tmall, JD.
com and alcohol sales platforms, but new e-commerce channels have sprung up to become another channel for young people to buy alcohol, and 41% of young people have purchased alcohol on new e-commerce platforms such as Douyin and Xiaohongshu
.

Drinking behavior is constantly changing

It is not only the drinking behavior of young people that is changing, but also the drinking behavior
of young people.

In terms of scenes, young people like to actively get slightly drunk and resist passive drunk
.
The report shows that young people's drinking is divided into two categories
: active drinking and passive drinking.
Among them, active drinking scenes include leisure and entertainment, friends dinner, home drinking, camping, outing, etc.
, which are the mainstream drinking scenes of young people at present, and show a rapid rise trend; Passive drinking scenarios include family dinners, business entertainment, etc.
, family dinners usually let the elders decide the type of drinking, while the type of drinking for business entertainment mainly caters to customer preferences
.
"When young people actively drink, they are more likely to pursue the pleasure brought by micro-drunkenness, which is also an emotional need
that cannot be met in the passive drinking scene.
At the same time, the diversification of active drinking scenes and the diversification of alcohol and beverage categories have also stimulated young people's drinking behavior
.
"The report" shows that friends dinner is the most common drinking scene for young people, accounting for 31%, of which college students and Generation Z friends gather for drinking and drinking much higher than other groups, the younger the more they love social drinking
.
At the same time, 10% of young people carry out independent discretion on a daily basis, the proportion of college students is 12%, and the proportion of white-collar workers is 9%, and the tendency to enjoy oneself is very obvious
.
At the same time, the meal scene is also an important scene for young people to drink, especially the Chinese food wine category has a very broad development space
in this consumption scene.

In terms of degree, young people like low degree, but refuse to be too low, and about 10 degrees is the most preferred
.
The "Report" shows that young people prefer alcohol with low alcohol content, only 11.
2% of young people like alcohol above 30 degrees, 39.
6% of young people like alcohol of about 10 degrees, and only 2.
5% of young people prefer alcohol below 3 degrees
.

In terms of categories, it is difficult for one wine to capture everyone's heart, and women have the most diversified
drinking preferences.
Urban white-collar workers and small-town youth are the most preferred to drink wine, while school students prefer to drink fruit wine and plum wine
.
There is a clear trend of diversification of young women's drinking, with urban young women drinking beer, small town women drinking wine, and school women drinking fruit wine or plum wine
.

In terms of cost, good quality is the basic requirement, Generation Y (born in 1980-1995) looks more at the brand, and Generation Z looks more at taste and taste
.
It is worth noting that the packaging design that highlights the value of the appearance can only attract 23% of young people
.

Get out of the misunderstanding and find the right opportunity

Competition in the mental era has intensified, but most of the current alcohol brands in the market lack a clear strategic positioning with marketing concepts, and are easy to fall into homogeneous competition, creating fashionable "Internet celebrity" products, and it is difficult to achieve "long-term popularity"
.

In view of the current development problems of related alcohol brands, the report lists nine major development misunderstandings: category selection ignores the mental foundation, and it is difficult to win target potential customers; It is not clear who "I am", no matter how good the brand is, it is difficult to break through; Pseudo-categories that violate cognitive laws, the aroma of wine will also be lost in the depths of the alley; With the help of existing channel categories to extend the pursuit outlet, it is okay to rush performance, but not to build a brand; Just by arousing emotional resonance, it is not clear "what is different", and the brand is destined to go far; The product group approach not only makes the operation of the enterprise out of focus, but also increases the cost of consumer decision-making; Product quality is a short board, and it is difficult for brands to change from "Internet celebrity" to "long red"; The scattered market distribution is extremely dispersed resources, and it is difficult to form a brand effect; If the pricing of new categories deviates excessively from the main channel of prices of old categories, it is bound to be difficult to change from niche to public
.

After the early extensive development, the young people's beverage market has ushered in a stage of brand refinement development, and the report lists four opportunities for insight
.
First, young people drinking also have a life ladder, with the age gradually from soft drinks to hard drinks, but soft drinks and hard drinks are not completely separated, the integration of the two has derived a large number of category innovation opportunities, about 10 degrees There is an opportunity
to produce super large items.
The second is to bind the meal scene, Chinese table wine has the opportunity to become a 10-billion-level category comparable to Japanese sake and Korean soju, such as in Sichuan cuisine accompaniment, rice wine or plum wine is expected to run the first 10-billion-level table wine, hard seltzer with low calorie, refreshing taste and other characteristics, there is a chance to replace beer as a bound barbecue scene of the table wine
.
Third, by creating business liquor for young people or clearly defining the Chinese whisky drinking trend, whisky is expected to make a leap
forward in China.
Fourth, gin, rum, vodka, etc.
have the opportunity to rise
by directly educating consumers about bartending.

"To create young people's wine, we need to base ourselves on the current situation of young people's drinking behavior and gain insight into the mental cognitive laws
behind the behavior.
" Feng Huaqing said that it is necessary to conform to the life ladder of young people's drinking, and grasp two major elements: one is to choose the category preferred by young people, and the other is to clearly define the drinking scene; On this basis, it is also necessary to establish a clear brand positioning to achieve a breakthrough from homogeneous competition; Category innovation is a way
to help brands occupy the gaps in young people's minds and achieve leapfrog development.

China Food News(2023.
01.
09.
04)

(Responsible editor: Gu Yufei).