Should You Invest in Brand or Promotion? A Deep Dive into 42.7 B Yuan Sales Expenses

In 2025, the listed Chinese liquor sector allocated a total of 427.17 billion yuan to sales expenses, down 8.34% from 2024, while the overall market contracted by 8.4%. Nearly 70% of companies cut spending, marking the end of the "big‑water‑flood" mass‑marketing era. However, revenue decline outpaced the ability to reduce expense ratios, creating a "hard‑to‑cut‑rate" dilemma.

Beyond the headline decline, the composition of sales expenses diverged sharply. Premium players such as Kweichow Moutai, Fenjiu, and Jingshi Yuan increased brand advertising, treating the spend as a long‑term "mind‑share" investment. Gujing Gongjiu cut promotional costs by 27.40% while raising ad spend to 13.53 billion yuan. Conversely, Luzhou Laojiao and Jingshi Yuan emphasized terminal promotions to defend market share, and several firms shifted resources from external marketing to internal talent incentives, signaling a new focus on organizational efficiency.

Digitalization underpins this transformation. Precise ad targeting, data‑driven effectiveness attribution, granular promotion cost control, and system‑enabled internal collaboration all rely on robust data platforms. The competition now hinges not only on where money is spent but on how intelligently it is allocated.

Company‑level data illustrate the trends. Moutai’s sales‑expense outlay rose to 72.53 billion yuan (+28.62% YoY), with advertising up 36.94% to 18.29 billion yuan. Fenjiu spent 41.02 billion yuan (+10.07% YoY), becoming the sole listed liquor firm to achieve both revenue and net‑profit growth. Jingshi Yuan increased to 23.53 billion yuan (+9.94% YoY). In the top‑ten, YJ Gongjiu recorded the smallest expense at 6.7 billion yuan, while Jin Hui Jiu grew its expense to 6.3 billion yuan (+5.76% YoY) despite a slight revenue dip.

Although total expense shrank, the expense‑to‑revenue ratio rose for most firms, especially high‑end and secondary‑premium brands, with many seeing increases of 6–8 percentage points. Only four companies (Ilite, Jiuguijiu, Jinzhongzi, Huangtai) managed to lower their ratios, highlighting the pressure of revenue contraction.

Allocation patterns also shifted. Moutai reported that advertising and market‑related costs drove its expense growth, while Fenjiu’s ad spend accounted for 63.85% of its sales expense, reinforcing brand mind‑share. Gujing reduced promotion but boosted ads; Luzhou and Jingshi kept ads flat or down while sharply increasing promotion (Luzhou’s promotion +15.47%, Jingshi’s promotion +33.50%). Simultaneously, firms such as Jin Hui and others raised employee compensation and social security costs, reflecting a strategic pivot toward internal capability building.

Overall, the 2025 sales‑expense landscape confirms that the liquor industry is moving from a "spend‑more, scale‑more" model to a "spend‑smart, brand‑focus, efficiency‑driven" paradigm. Companies that align expense structure with digital capabilities, prioritize brand equity, and enhance organizational efficiency are poised to capture the emerging "management" and "digital" dividends.