Under the impact posted by the coronavirus pandemic, both the Chinese economy and the world economy fell to a downturn. When it comes to a rapid economic revitalization, instead of the single-industry-chain, a whole-industry-chain often draws more attention. The alcohol industry is a typical industry that stretches across the primary, secondary, and tertiary industries as it is based on agriculture, relying on industry and facilitated by consumption, which a strong driving power and an end compatible to many other industries.
The upstream link of the alcohol industry first involves raw material production, of the primary industry—agriculture. The increase of raw material production would surely stimulate agricultural growth and famers’ income, a sound measure to help farmers getting rid of poverty and contribute to their wellbeing. It also involves lands, an element that is closely connected to the government, companies and farmers. The government designates good-quality lands for raw material production, providing more services to growers (companies) and farmers, which is an effective way to boost the economy.
With the above aspects being said, the upstream link of the alcohol industry can’t be without alcoholic product developing and design, material control and funding and as such, and given the current economic climate, these factors could generate tremendous momentum to economic growth.
The midstream link involves the production of alcoholic products, of the secondary industry—industry. Processing and manufacturing require equipment, assembly lines and at the same time a large number of skilled workers. Equipment production drives raw material production and machinery; assembly lines promote real estate and technological industries; and the training of skilled workers, the training industries.
With modern economy and technology, the production of alcoholic products has developed into good cooperation with other related industrial chains. In this industrial age, mass production, standardized assembly line production, low cost are the major concerns for companies. The needs for personalized products put more customers to participate in the whole process of production and value creation, which could trigger flexible production. Targeting at the personalized demands of consumers, mass production with low cost and customized production could bring more economic growth in the midstream link. It also requires the alcohol industry production companies to take steps to speed their recovery, make changes to their mode of production and ways of organization, and by utilizing social media marketing, big data, and other new technologies to achieve a precise interaction with the users of these platforms. To achieve a specialized production and a precise market segmentation, customized and flexible production contribute to a quicker response and are an efficient way to reduce storage, so as to better cater for the diverse customer needs.
The downstream link involves consumption, of commerce, which belongs the tertiary industry. Alcoholic products are common consumer goods and have become a means to satisfy people’s material and mental needs, as well as the need for good health through a moderate alcohol industry drinking, in this sense, it boasts a huge chance for the expansion of the alcohol industry market. Consumers are no longer passive when it comes to consumption, rather, they dominate it, which allows the consumers to stand from the dominant position of the value chain that has already been transferred to them from producers and distributors, with the previous single-way communication replaced with mutual interactions. Producers and individual consumers play significant roles to ignite new social potentials for personalized demands.
Personalized demands are more about the mental aspect. The culture and technologies carried by the alcohol industry, when combined with tourist resources, can also facilitate real estate, tourism, modern agriculture and other related industries, including the emerging supporting industries such as finance, capitals, internet, logistics and so on. The popularization of new technologies of internet, big data and cloud computing is shifting the old business base built upon the industrial age, leading to a new commercial space with the restructuring of the previous business system, production system and service system. The mode of “Internet +” is a new business opportunity for a quick transformation and upgrading, drawing closer the alcohol industry to the consumer ends and the value chain, making the alcohol industry a powerful engine to bring back the prosperous economy.
——Collected by Wu Qinglong, intern-researcher of World Alcohol Beverage Alliance
