China’s most valuable company is not a tech giant but liquor producer Kweichow Moutai. Innovation, diversification and digitalization are the key ingredients for Moutai’s success.

Just recently, the Chinese baijiu brand Moutai (or Maotai) was awarded the most valuable spirits brand worldwide the sixth time in a row. According to CNN, Kweichow Moutai is China’s most valuable, non-tech company and worth 421 billion US-dollars. So what´s the secret of success of this luxurious liquor brand that is considered China’s “liquid gold”, sells for hundreds of dollars a bottle and has its origins date back to around 2000 years ago?

Moutai’s competitive advantage comprises a unique brand story thanks to its important position in China’s brewing history with its high-quality ingredients, unique manufacturing process and cultural heritage, an advanced distribution network and clearly defined target groups that are addressed with different products, like liquors of different alcohol volumes and innovative products like Moutai icecream.

Furthermore, Moutai’s success stems from its state-of-the-art online and offline marketing to communicate the brand and to offer the products to their customers, like the recently launched iMoutai app that enables a new customer journey online.

Coming soon: New book about O2O marketing

Continue reading about the innovative marketing strategy of Moutai and its internationalization efforts in a new article which I co-authored with Poshan Yu and Sixian Qiu: “Innovative Marketing of Chinese Baijiu for Online and Offline Markets – A Case Study of Wuliangye and Moutai”. It is published in the book “Marketing and Advertising in the Online-to-Offline (O2O) World” by IGI Global.

More on Moutai on Youtube:
The History of Kweichow Moutai
What´s behind China’s most valuable company?