The development comes as foreign liquor giants step up efforts to penetrate a category that has been called the largest spirits segment in the world.
V&S Group, owners of Absolut, is launching a new baijiu brand next month after forming a joint venture with the historic Jiannanchun distillery, which also owns the remainder of Wenjun.
V&S Group, owners of Absolut, is launching a new baijiu brand next month after forming a joint venture with the historic Jiannanchun distillery, which also owns the remainder of Wenjun.
In addition, Diageo owns 43 per cent of Chengdu Swellfun, which produces Swellfun, one of the country’s leading baijiu brands.
Bravo secured the business after a shortlist that was believed to have included Nitro, Lowe and WE Marketing. Wenjun recently collaborated with Singapore’s Design Bridge to develop an entirely new brand positioning.
Based around the ‘legend of Wenjun’, Bravo will work on strategy, creative and branded experience development, said Bravo Asia founder Aaron Lau. “Wenjun is a premium white spirit looking at the top of the market,” said Lau.
“The biggest challenge is that they want to differentiate themselves from all the other hundreds and thousands of white spirit brands out there. They are relatively new - we are starting from a blank piece of paper.”
In China’s baijiu market, Wenjun is perceived as a challenger brand compared to the category’s market leaders: Wuliangye, Kweichow, Swellfun and Jiannannchun. As such, said Lau, it will attempt to “challenge the established state of mind”.
Its launch comes ahead of TCX, the new brand being rolled out by the V&S/Jiannanchun joint venture. “We believe that a brand needs a platform to succeed and that consists of a recognised producer,” said Sichuan TCX Liquor managing director Johan Simonsson (pictured). “It has quality credentials - if you take other more local players, who are not premium, it will be very difficult for them to build up new premium brands. That is what this JV will build from. You need a quality stamp from the producer.”
Sam Mulligan, director at Data Driven Marketing, which works with V&S Group, pointed out that, for international players, penetrating China’s baijiu market offered significant upside.
“If you can understand the baijiu market well, you can understand what Chinese people want to drink,” he said. “No one has the idea of converting them from other spirits but if you understand the baijiu market, you understand the segment where international spirits are not consumed.”
Simonsson admitted that launching a new brand in a market fixated by heritage was a “risk”. “But this is a brand produced under Jiananchun,” he pointed out. “And we believe that we can be different.”