Chinese weddings are a festive affair, and the wine served is a big part of the celebration. In fact, in China, we consider wedding wine an essential element of any wedding.
Traditional Chinese weddings feature ten different wines, each with its own unique flavor and purpose. If you’re planning a Chinese-style wedding or just want to bring a bit of China to your next event, here’s everything you need to know about Chinese wedding wine!
Big and special market
Chinese spend some $57 billion every year on weddings. Averagely, one Chinese wedding costs $88 thousand. Compared with the US where one wedding costs ONLY $27 thousand, China looks much more like a developed country. In fact, the wedding ceremony is one of the most important parts of face consumption in China.
Considered as a kind of fashion, healthy and, what’s more important, red (the most propitious color in Chinese culture) beverage, wine is more and more becoming a must choice for a Chinese wedding.
It is special because the Chinese have a completely different culture from all the others. In fact, most weddings now are a mixture between western culture and Chinese culture. For example, strong liquor like Baijiu is the traditional drink for weddings. While now, more and more people put wine with Baijiu into their wedding banquet with traditional Chinese food. However, wine can hardly match the taste of Chinese food and Baijiu.
Another special characteristic of Chinese wedding wine is its regional difference. For example, as reported by Hua’xia Wine News, people in Yantai like customized bottles very much, especially those bottles with a special package. In Zhejiang, customized bottles are also popular, especially with a special label, and wedding wine is also put with Mao-tai together.
What do customers like?
Before answering this question, we need to get clear who are they?
According to the “Report on Wedding Wine Marketing in China”, half of the final decisions are made by parents from both sides, 40% are made by the brides, and 10% are made by grooms. And among the decisions made by parents, 80% of them are by mothers’. It means women make 80% of the decisions of weddings on average.
1. Propitious
The most important factor of a Chinese wedding is the propitious atmosphere. Everything in the wedding is designed and prepared around this keyword.
For example, these two bottles are well designed and packaged in a propitious way, from the color to the ribbons.
2. Wine for guests
Most wine at weddings is consumed by guests who are the end consumer of wedding wine. That explains why some companies cannot enter the wedding wine market because they brand their products as wine for love. On the other hand, those wine customers like always sell better than others.
3. Suitable Price
Although the wedding is a kind of face consumption in China, the total price of hundreds of wines is still sensitive to the Chinese. Usually, people would spend 5-10% of the total budget for weddings on beverages. And in different provinces, people can accept a different levels of price. For example, ￥200 ($31) wine sells well in Shanghai while tough in Zhengzhou, He’nan.
After realizing what customers like, companies can make an appropriate marketing strategy and begin to sell it.
How to sell?
Usually, new customers have to buy wine not from restaurants, but from outside. So other companies like shopping malls and supermarkets focus more on this market and during this phase, the advice from their parents and friends will be very important.
Except for traditional channels, other channels are also exclusive wedding wine supermarkets, exclusive stores, chain stores, and e-marketing are also worth consideration.
1 comment