SHANGHAI – Chinese luxury liquor-maker Kweichow Moutai is again looking to diversify from its fiery baijiu spirit core business to attract a new generation of consumers via a sweet collaboration with the Mars-owned Dove chocolate brand.
The companies jointly announced on Thursday that they would release limited-edition alcohol-infused chocolates, which would be available from Saturday.
Within an hour, a hashtag about the collaboration had leapt to the top of the trending topics list on China’s Weibo social media platform.
This announcement comes only 10 days after the launch of a baijiu-infused latte from Moutai and domestic Starbucks rival Luckin Coffee that generated enormous interest online and sold out in cities around China.
“This demonstrates Moutai’s desire to broaden their appeal more to younger consumers,” said Mr Jason Yu, Greater China managing director of market research firm Kantar Worldpanel.
“They fear their current base is too concentrated on older consumers and that makes them worry about the future of the brand.”
The type of baijiu called moutai is known as the national liquor of China. It is a potent, colourless spirit that is usually served at banquets.
The Kweichow Moutai company, based in China’s south-western Guizhou province, began its run of collaborations in 2022 with domestic dairy company Mengniu. The resulting series of alcohol-infused ice-creams also caused a stir among Chinese consumers.
The attraction for younger Chinese of these quirky product tie-ups lies partly in the novelty of buying into the Moutai brand for a small fraction of the cost of buying a bottle of its liquor, which has an average market price of 1,499 yuan (S$285) for 500ml.
Though details of the price of the liquor-infused chocolates Moutai will be releasing with Dove have not been made known yet, the Moutai-infused Luckin lattes were available for as little as 19 yuan with coupons, and a small tub of the alcoholic ice cream was priced at 60 yuan.
Shares in the liquor company were little changed on Thursday, having gained 5 per cent in 2023. REUTERS
