In order to grasp the needs of the public, especially stakeholders for liquor products, we have carried out fruitful Integrated Human Practices through online questionnaires, expert consultations, communication with liquor enterprise, and street interviews.
Online research can break through the limitations of time and space, let us know as much as possible about the basic attitudes and needs of the Chinese public, so as to provide background information for the development of our project and ensure that the research results echo social needs. Expert consultation is also an essential and important part, and their specialized knowledge structure can provide advice on our experimental technology and product implementation from different perspectives. Communication with liquor production enterprise is also a prominent feature of our Integrated Human Practices. They could provide information in a centralized manner and predict the trend and direction of the industry development for us. Finally, on the basis of determining the product positioning and basic characteristics, we conducted street interviews to understand the possibility of market promotion of the research results.
We designed this questionnaire to understand the general public's awareness of the liquor and the frequency of drinking liquor for targeting our potential customers, better understand the public's preference for liquor, and then determine the product positioning according to the preference to enhance people's quality of life. We have received a total of 310 valid questionnaires in this questionnaire survey.
First of all, we found that age and gender are important factors affecting liquor sales. There are obvious differences between men and women of different ages in the quality, smell, and taste of liquor. Therefore, analysis of demographic variables (mainly including age, gender, and region) can help us better target customers.
Figure 1. Gender distribution of the respondents
We can see that the proportion of male and female respondents is relatively balanced which indicates the result of this survey be representative of the general public. But combined with the following questions, we can see that gender is a very important independent variable that affects drinking habits and consumption habits. Among the 142 male respondents, 84 men had the habit of drinking alcohol; among the 142 female respondents, only 47 women had the habit of drinking regularly. The difference in proportions nearly doubled, enough to demonstrate that gender was a significant variable. Therefore, we must also take into account the different preferences of consumers of different genders in product design and promotion.
Figure 2. Age distribution of the respondents
In the second question, we asked the age of all respondents to understand which age group has greater use and demand for liquor. The number of people under the age of 20 is the largest, accounting for 52.26% of the whole questionnaire survey, indicating that our user group is mainly fixed in the young people aged 18-20. Of course, middle-aged people aged 41-50 are also our leading consumer group. At the same time, we also found an interesting phenomenon, that is, adults and minors have very different attitudes towards alcohol. According to our estimates, this should be related to China's regulations banning the sale of tobacco and alcohol to minors. The survey results show that 114 of the 149 respondents over the age of 20 have the habit of drinking regularly. However, of the 162 respondents under the age of 20, 124 respondents did not drink alcohol. But as potential customers in the future, we still value their opinions on liquor flavor, concentration, packaging and publicity.
Figure 3. How many times a month do you drink liquor？
We also pay attention to the drinking habits of consumers, which mainly include the frequency and amount of drinking. On the one hand, we learned how often the respondents drank liquor. We set the answers as having drunk/tried, once a month, twice a month, three times a month, and four times a month or more. Since most of our respondents were students aged 20 and under, 51.29% of them chose to have tried it before. This indicates that our main consumer groups will not consume for a long time, and the leading group that drinks for a long time is those over 20 years old. According to our subsequent street survey, through interviewing people of different ages who drink, we find that the frequency of young people drinking is far less than that of older people. However, we still know how often the other half of the respondents drank liquor, 17.1% of them four or more times a month. With the popularity of alcoholic beverages in the Chinese market, especially cocktail-type products, it has actually had a certain impact on the liquor market.
Figure 4. What is the strength of liquor you usually drink?
On the other hand, we also pay attention to consumer preferences for alcohol concentration in liquor. As we all know, a prominent feature of Luzhou-flavor liquor is its high alcohol concentration. As can be seen from the figure above, 51° or above is the most popular, accounting for 36.84% of the total answers, followed by 41°-50°, accounting for 28.95%. The results indicate that most drinkers would choose the high-strength liquor over the low-strength liquor, while few would choose the medium-strength liquor.
Figure 5. Which of the following flavors would you prefer to try?
In addition, beverage flavor is also an aspect that we attach great importance to, which is also a competitive point of our project. We found that most respondents like to drink liquor with rich or heavy flavor, and the rich-layered taste accounts for 51.32% of the total. The proportion of the strong taste and the light taste was 21.71% and 26.32%, respectively. This indicates that in the liquor market, consumers are more willing to choose liquor with a richer flavor than liquor with a lighter taste. It is worth mentioning that we also found a significant deviation in the taste and flavor of male consumers and female consumers. Men seem to prefer strong-flavor liquor, while women seem to prefer rich-layered.
Figure 6. How do you usually know about liquor brands?
In the following question, we asked the liquor drinkers how they learned about the liquor brand. We found that 54.98% of people admitted that they usually take recommendations from friends, 39.03% of people search from the network channel, and 30.23% choose TV advertisements. According to the previous analysis, those middle-aged people are our leading consumer group and they might not search on the internet often. But nowadays, people use the internet a lot and in the future, we could still account for online promotion.
Figure 7. What is the purpose of purchasing liquor?
In this question, we understand the use people generally drink liquor on occasions. Hobby collection and gift exchange in social activities accounted for only 19.08% and 24.34%.As shown above, the three main situations for purchasing liquor are for business dinners, parties and ordinary drinking at home, among which 46.05% are for individuals or families at home. This means that the liquor has dramatically enriched our social life and brought great pleasure to people themselves. If the quality of the liquor can be improved, the quality of our life will be greatly enhanced, and the happiness of the people will be significantly increased.
Figure 8. What do you think are the main factors to consider when choosing liquor?
How do customers think and make choices when faced with a variety of liquor products, this is our core question. As can be seen from the figure above, most people give priority to the quality level of liquor when they purchase liquor, accounting for 58.55% of them. Secondly, people also consider the brand impact and the smell, accounting for 46.05% and 36.18%, respectively. Buyers attach great importance to the quality, the quality of a bottle of liquor directly determines the quality of the experience of drinking. Improving the quality and smell will instantly enhance the quality of the liquor. Therefore, besides promoting our brand, we still need focus on the product development to meet relevant quality standards.
Figure 9. Which size do you prefer for a bottle of liquor?
liquor often play different roles in different occasions, so the demand for liquor is naturally different. Due to the volatility of alcohol, the size suitable for consumers on different occasions is designed according to different needs. In the following question, we investigated the expected volume of liquor. Most people chose 100-250ml, accounting for 40.51%. It can be seen that people like small bottles of liquor much, and most people will not choose large bottles of liquor.
Figure 10. Which price do you accept for a bottle of liquor?
Finally, we also wanted to confirm the acceptable price range for consumers to purchase liquor which is a very important reference in the pricing part of our business plan. Among consumers interviewed, 27.67% chose more than 2000 CNY, 1000-2000 CNY, and 300-1000 CNY almost kept the same, accounting for 30.19% and 26.42%, respectively. However, we also found that price is not the most important factor for customers to buy liquor. The price of high-quality liquor is often relatively high, which also makes the liquor market still have considerable profit space.
In addition to issuing online questionnaires to ensure the breadth of public research, we also conducted in-depth interviews. The interview is not just a choice but can understand the deep reasons behind people's perceptions. Therefore, the E.H-Cheers team conducted an offline survey of 10 people on the streets of Beijing.
Among the interviews, three are about 18 years old, one is about 20 years old, two are about 30 years old, one is about 50 years old, two are about 70 years old, and one is about 80 years old. 80% of them drink liquor. Each of them drank liquor for two years, five years, fifteen years, twenty-one years, twenty-five years, thirty years, and forty years; The frequency of drinking was one to two times a month for five people, five times a month for one person, once every two days for one person and once a day for one person. What's more valuable is that some of them use liquor not only as a social drink but also as a way of life to relax. This aspect is related to China's economic development and the increase in per capita income in recent years, and people are more concerned about the quality of life. At the same time, liquor, as a special existence in Chinese traditional culture, still plays the role of some specific cultural symbols.
Our team member was interviewing with the public
For the choice of liquor strength, the respondents can accept the range of liquor strength as 45 degrees and above or 20 degrees and below. They will learn about some liquor brands through friends' recommendations, advertisements, online, and parties. They all drink liquor at friends' parties, business banquets, and family gatherings. When choosing liquor, they will consider its brand, raw materials, quality, taste, and strength. They will drink 150ml, 300ml, and 500ml respectively, of which 500ml is the most; About the price choice, about 100 CNY, 200 CNY, 500 CNY, and 1000-3000 CNY are the prices they will choose to consume, among which about 100 CNY and 1000-3000 CNY are the most popular choice. Some respondents also mentioned some of their favorite liquor brands, including their special personal memories of liquor, which made them loyal customers of liquor. It can be said that at every important moment in Chinese life, liquor is a witness. These interviews made us feel that liquor is not just a drink, but a magical part of the Chinese spiritual world, especially for middle-aged and elderly people.
As professionals in a certain industry, experts naturally have more information than the general public, so their judgments and suggestions are often more targeted than the general public. Therefore, we consulted two experts on two major issues: experimental techniques, Chinese liquor industry standards and market development. Their suggestions made the development direction of our experiment clearer and provided concrete suggestions for the generalization of the research results.
Liu Zhen graduated from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences with a Ph.D. in Finance. He has a combined background in chemistry and finance, focusing on the chemical industry and the pharmaceutical industry. On August 18, we conducted an interview with Dr. Liu, in which we completed a significant interview survey on the business prospects of the liquor industry, and Dr. Liu also advised on our product development.
Online interview with Dr. Liu (Chris)
Dr. Li cleared up many of our misconceptions. We have observed that the overall output of the liquor industry shows an average downward trend, which we believe is the influence of corporate business strategies, reduced market demand, and policies. Dr. Li pointed out that the decline in liquor production since 2016 was actually due to the accumulation of stocks due to shrinking market demand. And he pointed out the main points of conflict in the liquor market. Although the output of high-grade liquor and middle-grade liquor has declined, their prices are still rising; the low-grade liquor is also facing a shrinking market, but the price is falling, and the price war has become the main means of competition for low-grade liquor. The centralized development of the liquor industry is very obvious, in other words, there is a certain brand and a certain scale effect.
In addition, Dr. Liu also predicted the development prospects of China's liquor industry. He believes that the current market pattern of liquor has been quite stable, and it is almost impossible for earth-shaking changes to occur. But he also cited the example of "Jiang Xiaobai" to illustrate that the efforts to break people's stereotypes about liquor and discover young potential consumers are undoubtedly meaningful. "Jiang Xiaobai" is not trying to beat the market, but just looking for a new market that has never been encountered before. The existing market for Moutai is still those middle-aged and elderly people who drink it. In contrast, "Jiang Xiaobai" did not steal some middle-aged and elderly customers and turn them into their own customers, but provided a different choice.
Finally, Dr. Liu pointed out that there is tension between innovation and tradition, and balancing this tension requires effort and wisdom. And encourage us to break through some stereotypes in taste, packaging, and labeling on the basis of maintaining the cultural label of wine, and finding our target customers.
Xingzhou Chen is an associate professor at Wuhan University of Technology. His research areas are protein production and function research, enzyme engineering, and food microbes. He was once rated as an excellent instructor in the Chinese University Student Wine Design Competition. We consulted him on professional questions including experimental principles and techniques.
Online interview with Prof. Chen
Prof. Chen fully affirmed the efforts of our project to use synthetic biology methods to improve Luzhou-flavor liquor, including quality, smell, and taste. We constructed a high-yielding and stable yeast strain to synthesize ethyl hexanoate from hexanoic acid and ethanol. This greatly improves the economy in the production of liquor in China. However, Prof. Chen also pointed out some hidden dangers in our product safety and product promotion, mainly at the conceptual level. Food production has its own standards, and it is necessary to ensure that the final product can meet the relevant requirements of the country. At the same time, the biggest challenge lies in public perception and public opinion control.
We also consulted Prof. Chen on the development and application of yeast transformation technology. One of the research areas of Prof. Chen is related to this. According to him, yeast transformation technology is quite mature. For example, many engineering bacteria are now yeast, which is used to produce various proteins and enzymes. He also cited the hepatitis B vaccine as an example. The hepatitis B vaccine is to put the surface antigen protein of hepatitis B on a specific yeast and add some adjuvants from the protein, and then make a vaccine.
Facing future development prospects, Prof. Chen pointed out that this technology still needs to be upgraded in technology. Because if the technology is upgraded, it means the cost will be lower and then the product will have a better competitive position in the market. He reminds us that we should pay attention to the scope of use of the product. Because from the perspective of edible food, the safety of chemical synthesis is uncertain, and the safety of this product fermented by yeast is not as high. In this way, the advantages of our products can be reflected to the greatest extent. Through this conversation, we had a more comprehensive view of the future plan for implementing our products in the real world.
Jiuliang Company in Gansu Province is mainly a food industry enterprise mainly producing grain liquor, and it is also the only food enterprise in China that can produce the three major flavor liquors. Its annual production capacity is 20,000 tons. We contacted Mr. Liang, its marketing technical director, and realized the company's development history and marketing of alcohol through the company's official website.
Online communication with Mr. Liang
On 22nd August, we interviewed the technical director of the Nine Grains Brewery, Chairman Liang. The company is famous and experienced in terms of brewing, and we did learn a lot from him and his company.
First of all, we consulted him about the basic situation of industrialized production in the liquor industry. He elaborated on a concept acquired by us from previous interviews and introduced to us the concept of open brewing. This method of brewing is usually executed together with solid fermentation for a better taste and touch of the liquor. He confirmed with us that the most important step of building the taste and touch of the liquor is exactly the step that produces ethyl hexanoate, proving once again that our direction of research is correct.
And then, how to make our production process reality is also a problem that our team pays close attention to, which is also an important reason to start this communication with this liquor enterprise. He introduced some methods that are currently used to lower the cost of the procedure of production, then introduced the direction of future ways to keep the costs low or decrease them by an even larger margin. He also told us about the tests for our products for legal requirements and practical advice for commercial sales.
In addition to public questionnaire interviews, offline interviews, and expert consultation, we also attached great importance to exchanges with stakeholders such as dealers. Thus we also went to the liquor store to learn about the main products of liquor in China accompanied with adults. We took this opportunity to learn about the basic situation of the liquor industry from the dealer and asked him to recommend some popular liquor products to us. The owner told us that people usually choose liquor with a purpose, and there are big differences. For example, if liquor is a gift for a friend, then generally choose a well-packaged, high-alcohol brand. And if they drink it themselves, some liquor brands in small bottles, such as Niulanshan and Beijing Erguotou, are usually picked up.
Liquor with different brands and prices on offline store (left 1) and online store (right 2, 3)
Through field research, we realized that the price of liquor in the market is very different, showing a phenomenon of polarization, which is closely related to the use of liquor and the income of consumer groups. Especially the packaging, the packaging of liquor is generally made of traditional exquisite ceramics, which makes the packaging cost accounting for.
In addition, we also compared the price of liquor products on several online shopping platforms and the difference between offline stores. We found that offline product prices are also affected by rent and operating costs, thus generally the prices are higher than those offered by online shopping platforms. Of course, as an important part of Chinese life, offline stores are essential. After all, many middle-aged and elderly people might not get used to shopping online, especially for liquor.
