Moutai 1935's Strategic Pivot: From Channel Push to Consumer-Centric 'Fan Marketing'

Campaign Overview: Three Days, One Strategic Shift

Over three days in September 2024, Moutai 1935 executed a coordinated Mid-Autumn campaign across the Greater Bay Area: a high-profile gala in Macau where Chairman Chen Hua framed the product as "reunion wine," a chef-driven awards dinner in Zhuhai ("Golden Chef BEST30"), and a four-city restaurant activation (Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Shantou) with a single rule — complimentary bottles must be opened on-site. Unlike traditional peak-season tactics that push inventory into channels, this sequence moved resources directly to consumption moments.

Strategic Context: Why a 10B+ Brand Froze Shipment Volume

At the December 2025 sauce-aroma liquor distributor conference, Moutai announced 2026 shipment volume for Moutai 1935 would not increase despite the brand surpassing 10 billion RMB in annual sales. The article explains the logic: at this scale, marginal returns from channel stuffing have turned negative — extra inventory ties up distributor capital and erodes price discipline. Locking shipment volume forces growth to come from actual consumption (open rates) rather than shipment volume. The August 2026 interim results briefing reinforced this: distributor contract execution neared 80%, while market spend shifted toward end-consumer incentives and penalties for below-contract pricing.

From "Goods to Counters" to "People to Tables"

The article contrasts two paradigms:

Old (Channel-Driven): Sign shelf-space contracts, buy displays, run promotions — treat restaurants as channels. Success measured by shipment breadth and speed.

New (Consumer-Driven): Partner with chefs to design pairings, mandate on-site opening, target specific consumer circles. Success measured by bottles actually opened and repeat purchasers identified.

The "open on-site" rule is critical: it blocks the traditional diversion path where gifted bottles enter gray markets. The article notes this shifts the evaluation metric from shipment orders to verified consumption events.

Chefs as KOS (Key Opinion Sales): Delegating Product Meaning

Instead of brand-defined usage occasions, Moutai 1935 handed pairing authority to 30 rising chefs curated by the Golden Phoenix Guide. The rationale: chefs possess both culinary technique and direct diner relationships. Their endorsement ("this wine pairs with this dish") acts as third-party validation — more credible than brand self-promotion. Choosing emerging chefs over celebrities captures a forming aesthetic standard; the brand embeds itself in future menus and word-of-mouth.

The article highlights a structural shift: restaurants become scenario nodes, not shelf-space vendors. Chefs must understand the product to pair it, creating stickier relationships than replaceable shelf placements.

Digital Infrastructure: iMoutai and the Identity Gap

iMoutai's Q1 2026 data: ~14 million new registered users, 3.98 million transacting buyers, 21.55 billion RMB liquor revenue (up 267% YoY). This direct-to-consumer platform solves reach and efficiency, but a gap remains: the platform knows who buys , not who drinks at restaurants. The article describes two code systems on each bottle:

Logistics code (bottle/cap): Verifies authenticity, tracks channel flow — solves "goods" problems.

Relationship code (missing): Would link an opening event to a specific consumer — solves "people" problems.

Without the second, marketing spend at restaurants yields only regional sell-through aggregates, not customer acquisition cost or lifetime value. The article compares to dairy/beverage industries where cap codes drive loyalty enrollment, but notes baijiu's physical constraints: caps stay at restaurants, scanning motivation is lower.

Organizational Hurdles: Incentives, KPIs, and Time Horizons

Three systemic changes are identified as necessary for the model to outlast the festival:

Technical system: Capture every on-premise opening and attach it to a user profile.

Channel profit-sharing: Restaurants must earn from relationship management, not just gifted-bottle margins. The campaign's minimum-spend rule raised average check size — a start.

Salesforce KPI reform: Replace shipment-volume scorecards with metrics like repeat-purchase rate and core-user retention. The article cites peers who swapped indicators but failed to extend evaluation cycles; quarterly reviews still forced reversion to shipment volume.

Distributors calculate ROI: if incremental sell-through profit covers added service cost, they cooperate; otherwise compliance becomes performative.

Reputation vs. Asset: The Circle-Layer Trap

The campaign generated high-density propagation: 30 chefs, 150+ nominees, multi-city coverage, celebrity amplification (singer Hailai Amu), distributor praise. Yet the article distinguishes reputation (circle talks about brand) from asset (named individuals repurchase and refer). Events are episodic (hours); relationships are annual. Mistaking buzz for a user list is the industry's most common misalignment.

Conclusion: The Festival Is a Test, Not the Destination

The article closes with the author's own benchmark from ORIGINAL_DESC: success isn't media clips but two measurable outcomes — how many bottles were truly opened, and how many openers become recognizable in future data. The direction is set; the question is whether the organization builds the daily machinery (capture, incentivize, evaluate) to turn a peak-season playbook into a permanent operating model.

"From connecting goods to connecting people" — this step is harder than changing a placement tactic because it demands shifting organizational attention from the product's journey to the consumer's trajectory, treating a single transaction's end as a relationship's beginning.