Moutai claims the positioning of "nation", Wuliangye takes "world" as its core label, and Guojiao occupies the positioning of "history": In the trillion-yuan Baijiu market, the character "li" (etiquette) has long been targeted by 789, which intends to seize this positioning with a bronze ancient wine jue.

I. Wine with No Etiquette: The Missing Vessel in the Trillion-Yuan Baijiu Market

HE Ju, Founder of Guangdong Angel Club, sent a bottle of wine to a founding member group of 221 people. Later, he voluntarily customized posters for promotion and refined an evaluation: "Drink a glass of 789, and you will run your business more smoothly." This is no polite remark, but a spontaneous recommendation from a senior angel investor in his own circle.

Behind this action lies a larger untapped gap. In the trillion-yuan market of Chinese Baijiu, Moutai occupies the "national" positioning, Wuliangye occupies the "world" positioning, and Guojiao 1573 occupies the "history" positioning, but for the word "etiquette", no one has dared to claim it for three thousand years. It is not that they do not want to claim it, but that they cannot. "Etiquette" requires a civilization foundation. The foundation of 789 is bronze wine jue.

In high-end banquet scenarios, the host spends money and prepares good wine, but often cannot complete the "expression of respect" with a single bottle of wine. After the wine is drunk, the bottle is thrown away, leaving no topics or social assets. The deeper absence lies in the vessel — China is a land of etiquette, and banquets are the biggest scene for etiquette practice, but the "bronze wine jue", the core vessel of the 3000-year-old ritual civilization, only exists in the display cabinets of museums.

The industry has gaps, users have pain points, and national policies provide support. General Secretary Xi Jinping proposed to "let the cultural relics collected in museums and the characters written in ancient books come alive", the 15th Five-Year Plan clearly promotes the activation and utilization of cultural heritage and deepens the integration of culture and tourism, and the Belt and Road Initiative calls for Chinese symbols that can be recognized by the world without translation. Under the resonance of the three layers of policies, whoever can combine the 3000-year-old ritual civilization with contemporary consumer goods can seize an undefined mental vacancy in the trillion-yuan track.

II. From Museum to Dining Table: The Product Logic of a "Ritual Culture Sauce-Flavor Baijiu"

The answer given by 789 is to bring the bronze wine jue back from the museum to the dining table. Shenzhen 789 Liquor Co., Ltd. was built by founder MENG Xiangcheng over ten years, with its core product positioned as ritual culture sauce-flavor Baijiu.

The bottle cap of the wine bottle is designed into a jue-shaped structure, named Jue-shaped Bottle Cap, which looks like a wine jue, and represents etiquette once you unscrew it. This design has applied for more than 20 patents. The bottle body can be varied in thousands of forms, while the bottle cap remains the same, forming a super symbol with both legal barriers and visual recognition. The brand logo also follows this logic: It looks like a jue from a distance, and it is 789 when you look closely. At first glance, you know it is a wine brand, and a closer look reveals the brand name inside — no explanation is needed, the first glance shows the culture, and the second glance shows the brand name.

The three characters of the brand name "789" are pleasant to hear, easy to remember and easy to spread, and are completely unified with the pricing: 789 yuan per bottle, the name and price are integrated, the brand name is the price, and the price is the brand. This strategy greatly reduces consumers' memory cost and communication cost.

What truly makes 789 differentiated is its definition of civilization IP rather than cultural IP. A large number of Baijiu brands on the market talk about culture, but most of the culture is "pasted on" — co-branded IP, printed totems, designed patterns, which will be replaced once the popularity fades. The cultural foundation of 789 is the bronze wine jue, which is the material carrier of 3000-year-old ritual civilization, no need to create from scratch, only needs to be awakened. The brand slogan "On every occasion to show respect, drink 789" directly gives the purchase instruction: with scenario, timing, action instruction and brand name, which is called by the founder the only four-dimensional slogan in the Chinese Baijiu industry. The brand proposition "As you raise the jue, etiquette is formed, and the order emerges naturally" further connects the product action with the etiquette order. Based on this logic, 789 defines the category as ritual culture sauce-flavor Baijiu, and takes "Raise the jue to show etiquette, take your seat in order" as the category explanation, trying to take the lead in defining a new category track in the Baijiu industry.

A real national brand is not shouted out, but grows from the root of the nation. The cultural foundation of 789 belongs to the whole nation, and its product form belongs to all Chinese people. Its civilization symbol can be recognized by the world without translation.

III. Business Model, Team Progress and Financing Requirements

The business model of 789 takes wine sales as the basic base, and covers the gift market and cultural and creative market at the same time. In terms of the wine market, the product targets high-end banquet scenarios, cuts in with ritual culture sauce-flavor Baijiu, and directly occupies the mental vacancy of "etiquette"; in terms of the gift market, the positioning of "What you send is not wine, but the message that "you are important to me"" gives it strong premium capability; in terms of the cultural and creative market, the jue-shaped bottle cap itself can be used as a ceremonial vessel for display on the shelf, with a target gross profit margin of over 75%. In terms of channel strategy, at the current stage, it focuses on online communication, drives cognition through content, and then precipitates to private domain to complete conversion.

In terms of product progress, 789 has achieved small-batch mass production, with average monthly sales of about 10 cases, cumulative sales of more than 200 cases, customer unit price in the range of 168-300 yuan per bottle, and repurchase rate of 8%. The product has obtained more than 20 patents, and the brand narrative has been registered for copyright. At the supply chain end, QIU Yang, Chairman of Xiangkang Liquor, the largest private liquor enterprise in Maotai Town, serves as the lifelong consultant of the brand to endorse the quality. In terms of the team, founder MENG Xiangcheng is responsible for brand strategy and cultural definition, and the appointed general manager CHEN Zhengguo, former regional general manager of Brain Platinum and former general manager of Xiangkang, has confirmed his intention to join, and will officially take up the post within 15 days after this round of financing, and will supplement the capabilities of e-commerce, channel and private domain operation.

At present, 789 is seeking seed round financing, with the financing amount of 6 million yuan, releasing 10% equity, and the post-money valuation of 60 million yuan. The funds will be used for brand breakthrough, core team building, product development and operation reserve, with the goal of completing brand cognition construction and private domain user precipitation in the next six months, laying a foundation for data verification and channel expansion in the next stage.

MENG Xiangcheng said that the long-term goal of 789 is not to make a bottle of wine, but to make the bronze wine jue once again become the expression way of Chinese people on important occasions. What we sell is emotion, and what we spread is civilization. The 3000-year-old wine jue has waited for the time when it should wake up, pass it on for another 7 or 8 years, and everything will fall into place naturally.

Shenzhen 789 Liquor Co., Ltd.

Founder: MENG Xiangcheng