Reporters according to Wind query found that the recent Everbright Securities released the beer industry framework report: China is currently in the market in the stage of maturity, the consumer's aspirations for high-end products to grow, high-end sales accounted for an increase in the proportion. In the low-end beer era, a single brand can get a very high market share; high-end stage, manufacturers need to meet the needs of different consumers through a rich brand matrix. The main consumer group of beer is concentrated in 20-45 years old. "Post-90s" are more willing to choose high-end beer priced at more than 10 yuan. Generation change, the rise of a new generation of consumers is driving the rapid development of high-end beer.

Industry insiders analyze, high-priced beer will still have a market. For example, in some business banquet occasions, as well as the gift market before the New Year. Beer companies launch high-priced single product to enhance the appeal of craft brewing, from the direction of marketing is right. Only, in terms of consumer awareness and acceptance, the road may still be long. Businesses should be especially careful not to overprice for the sake of overpricing, and not to extrapolate the price to the packaging. "If it's really' good quality, it will attract real beer lovers. If it is over-packaged, on the contrary, consumers may be turned off."

Recently, Tsingtao Beer released the ultra-high-end beer "One World Legend", the e-commerce platform shows that the 2 bottles of 1.5L of the beer is priced at 2,698 yuan. Previously, Budweiser also joined the competition in the thousand-dollar beer, a named "Master Legend" 798ml limited edition of the Year of the Tiger beer, each bottle sold for as much as 1588 yuan.

In November 2021, after CR Snow launched a nearly 500 yuan / bottle of "sweet" beer and triggered the market buzz, Hou Xiaohai, chairman and general manager of CR Snow Brewery (China) Ltd. has said that the beer can be not only high-end, but also very high-end. He predicted that China will soon have 1000 yuan / bottle of beer.

In just the past 2 months, his prediction has become a reality.

According to media reports, on January 9, Tsingtao Brewery released a new ultra-high-end product, One World Legend. In Tmall and other e-commerce platforms, the new product is priced at 2,338 yuan / 1.5L * 2 bottles. A Tsingtao Beer insider introduced, in the internal platform, "a legend of the world" marketing situation is good, but it did not disclose the specific sales situation of the product to the Times Finance, only said that the market has a certain demand for high-end products, so the company launched this product.

In addition to Tsingtao Beer, Budweiser has also joined the competition in the thousand-dollar beer, which recently launched an e-commerce platform called Budweiser "Master Legend" 798ml limited edition of the Year of the Tiger, priced at as much as 1,588 yuan/bottle, and even more than the pricing of Flying Moutai.

It is reported that it is not uncommon to see beer products priced at 100 or 1,000 dollars abroad. But in the country, although the beer is experiencing price escalation from 3-4 yuan / bottle to 10-15 yuan / bottle of high-end, but the emergence of products priced at more than a thousand dollars, or refreshed the consumer perception of beer.

The emergence of thousand-dollar Maotai also aroused the discussion of netizens. Some netizens said, "beer thatched" only, not the most expensive, only more expensive. Some netizens said, is nothing more than an IQ tax, will not really people buy it? Some netizens said, to provide high-end customers with a choice, no money to drink cheap, money can choose expensive. There are also netizens said: you are all legends, I just want to take a breath.

Thousands of dollars of beer you will buy?

Qingdao, Budweiser and others launched a thousand dollars of super high-end beer3

Near the Spring Festival, the gift wine market is once again lively. Beijing Youth Daily reporter learned that Qingdao, Budweiser has launched a thousand dollar beer products before the Spring Festival, plus the launch of similar products last year, China Resources, the later the market the more expensive trend of the product. Many netizens questioned these beers can not be used for collection like liquor, in the end is not "IQ tax".

Brands have pushed thousand dollar beer products

Following the launch of the high-end beer "sweet" last year, Qingdao and Budweiser also joined the battle of the thousand dollar beer. Beiqing Daily reporter noted that, on the e-commerce platform, China Resources Beer sweet wine pricing for 999 yuan (1 liter 2 bottles), Tsingtao Beer's "Legend of the World" products priced at 1,399 yuan/bottle (1.5 liters), Budweiser's limited edition of the Year of the Tiger gift box is priced at 1,588 yuan/bottle (798 milliliters). From the time of the launch of the relevant products, there is the more expensive the trend of the evening market, Budweiser's product pricing has even exceeded the pricing of Flying Moutai.

According to the online store, the $1,000 beer is not a traditional "industrial product". Such as sweet beer in the raw materials used in the corn, millet, barley and lily, etc., intended to restore the history of China's predecessor products of beer. Tsingtao Beer and Budweiser's $1,000 beers are brewed in oak barrels and bourbon barrels, respectively, in addition to special ingredients. The above products fermentation time, alcohol and original wort concentration are higher than ordinary beer products several times, are non-drinkable products.

However, the Beijing Youth Daily reporter also noted that, also as a non-drinking product, Budweiser Brewmasters ZhenZhou Beer's e-commerce price of 195 yuan / 798ml.

Questioned by the netizens is the "IQ tax"

Although many consumers have accepted the idea of the "IQ tax", it is not the case that the "IQ tax" has been applied to the beer. p> Although there have been a lot of consumers to accept the restaurant offer nearly a hundred dollars a glass of craft beer, but for the domestic beer industry will be more than 10 yuan of products are divided into high-end products, from more than 10 yuan to a thousand dollars, the step across can not be said to be not big.

The emergence of thousand-dollar beer has also triggered controversy among netizens. Some netizens think that beer would like to ride on the same liquor, "high-end" wind, with ultra-high-priced products to pull the stock price, performance increases. Some netizens believe that this is the beer companies cut leeks "IQ tax".

In fact, it is not difficult to see from the consumer feedback, buy thousand dollar beer consumers mostly out of curiosity. Beer can not be stored for a long time due to process problems, there is no high-end red wine and liquor so-called vintage wine is worth more money, there is no investment or collection value in itself.

Market dominance is more obvious

So why are there so many companies have launched a thousand dollar beer? Wine industry analyst Cai Xuefei said that in the long run, unlike liquor, beer currently does not have the social and gift attributes, super high-end products, the price premium ability is not enough, so the overall proportion is still small, more is the product of the enterprise marketing campaign to seize the high point of the brand.

The Beiqing Daily reporter learned that, compared to the liquor industry, the beer industry in recent years in the production of flat period. However, benefiting from the post-90s consumers are happy to consume more than 10 yuan of high-end beer, so that the beer industry in recent years, the profit growth rate exceeded the sales revenue.

The Beiqing Daily reporter learned that the China Alcoholic Beverage Industry Association released data showing that from January to November 2021, China's beer enterprises above designated size completed sales revenue of 148.7 billion yuan, an increase of nearly 8% year-on-year; realized a profit of 17.9 billion yuan, an increase of 24% year-on-year. Among them, Budweiser Asia Pacific, Chongqing Beer, Tsingtao Beer and China Resources Breweries have different degrees of gross margin increase.

Analysts believe that the price of beer from last year did not start in the market to cause bad reputation, on behalf of the beer business competition strategy gradually from the price of the game, price for quantity of horse racing mode to improve profitability through the upgrade of product structure. In the context of consumer upgrading, beer companies have high-end layout to achieve further development. It is expected that in the next 3 to 5 years, the proportion of high-end beer products will reach 15% to 20%.

At present, the domestic beer industry has entered the stage of strong competition, in the existing market, only the ultra high-end beer market is still relatively blue ocean, in addition to craft brewing, consumers do not have much knowledge of it, and therefore became the battlefield of the major beer brands to fight for the right to speak. Compared to the product itself, the marketing campaign, market dominance is more obvious.

However, analysts also said that although the thousand-dollar beer has brought the topic and traffic to the enterprise, but whether consumers can accept the pricing of such products is still an unknown, but also may bring the word of mouth backlash. At the same time, for the market, although companies intend to seize the brand heights, but beer products or pyramid structure, waist and tower base products are still the main body of the market consumption.