Yanghe: Connecting Craft, Products and Choice Through a Soft, Mellow Taste

01 Facts & context

Brand Positioning: Experience Narrative Centered on Soft and Mellow

Yanghe's official website continuously showcases the 'soft and mellow' theme and introduces content on starter making, tasting, aroma types, and fermentation through the 'Masters on Soft and Mellow' series. The brand starts from a sensory word and connects it to craft and expert explanations, providing concrete clues for consumers to understand differences.

This positioning emphasizes an experience that can be discussed, not just a name. For brand research, it is possible to observe whether the theme consistently appears across touchpoints and whether craft content truly helps adult consumers understand the product.

02 Facts & context

Key Practices: Coordination of Content, Products, and Touchpoints

The official website places content, products, and service touchpoints in the same system. Video content explains craft related to soft and mellow; the Blue Classic series displays different products such as Dream of the Blue Mansion Handcrafted, M9, M6+, Crystal Edition; the Dream of the Blue Mansion Community, Sujiu Ecosystem, and Yanghe 1 provide WeChat entry points, while marketing networks, online sales, and anti-counterfeiting queries handle purchase and verification needs.

Different products provide entry points for consumers to further understand and compare. A truly clear product organization also needs to explain differences to adult consumers and ensure that content, sales staff, and service touchpoints use consistent explanations.

03 GSP analysis

From Sensory Word to Choice Basis: Conditions for Content Translation

Analysis infers that Yanghe uses 'soft and mellow' as the core experience word, and its effectiveness depends on whether content can translate sensory experience into operational choice criteria for consumers. In baijiu consumption, consumers often find it difficult to express preferences in professional terms; they might say 'smooth,' 'not harsh,' or 'easy to swallow,' and 'soft and mellow' conveniently provides a colloquial approximation. But without craft content support, this word becomes an empty slogan. Yanghe's 'Masters on Soft and Mellow' series theoretically can explain why certain craft steps lead to a softer body, such as extended fermentation reducing irritants or specific starter types producing more esters.

However, whether consumers can distinguish the taste difference between M6+ and Crystal Edition in front of the shelf after watching videos depends on whether content provides perceivable comparison dimensions. Suppose a reader enterprise adopts a similar strategy; they need to design a 'translation' step: converting internal craft parameters into sensory descriptions consumers can experience, such as 'smoothness at entry' or 'duration of sweet aftertaste.' This translation process requires the joint participation of tasters, content editors, and marketing personnel, and must avoid over-technicality. If content only discusses craft without feelings, consumers lose interest; if it only discusses feelings without craft support, it appears lacking in credibility. Therefore, the key interface for translation is the three-layer correspondence of 'craft-sensory-scenario,' where each layer needs clear expression and examples.

04 GSP analysis

Differentiation Logic within the Product Line: Matching Scenarios and Preferences

The Blue Classic series showcases different products such as Dream Blue Handcrafted, M9, M6+, and Crystal Edition, but merely presenting them side by side does not allow the company to designate each one for business banquets, collection, or family gatherings. For those who imitate, the division of labor among products should be based on actual purchase reasons: whether consumers compare taste, specifications, usage occasions, or budget; which differences can be reliably explained, and which still require experience to understand. Different products being compared simultaneously may reflect either choice difficulty or careful consumer evaluation, and cannot be directly taken as evidence of ambiguous positioning.

Operational evaluation should also go beyond single-product gross margin. One can first calculate each product's net sales revenue minus its corresponding variable production, channel, and fulfillment costs, and then check how the total contribution of the product portfolio changes when this product is added. Even if a new product's own contribution is positive, it may substitute for an existing high-contribution product or increase inventory, design, and maintenance costs. Suppose the reader's company plans to expand an adjacent specification; it could first conduct a trial in comparable channels, recording the purchase migration of existing products, unmet new needs, and after-sales feedback, and then decide whether to expand, adjust, or stop. Clear product division and economic viability need to be verified separately through purchase understanding and operational records, and cannot be directly inferred from the number of model searches.

05 GSP analysis

Integration of Service Touchpoints: Linking Community, Sales, and Anti-counterfeiting

Analysis infers that Yanghe's official website lists the Dream of the Blue Mansion Community, Sujiu Ecosystem, Yanghe 1, and marketing networks, online sales, and anti-counterfeiting queries in parallel, reflecting the brand's attempt to build a complete chain from content to transaction. The community is used to cultivate user stickiness and word-of-mouth, the ecosystem may integrate distributors or partners, and Yanghe 1 may be a mobile service entry. Sales networks and online sales handle actual transactions, while anti-counterfeiting queries address authenticity concerns. The quality of the connection between these touchpoints determines the smoothness of the consumer experience. For example, can a consumer who reads a tasting article in the community directly jump to the product page?

After purchasing on an e-commerce platform, can they verify via anti-counterfeiting code and join the membership system? If these links are broken, consumers may be lost. At the organizational level, this requires data sharing and process coordination among content teams, e-commerce operations, customer service, and anti-counterfeiting systems. In terms of decision-making authority, the brand department may be responsible for content tone, sales for channel pricing, and technology for system integration, but without a cross-functional leader, interfaces may have gaps. Suppose a reader enterprise wants to integrate similar touchpoints; they need to map the consumer journey, clarify the responsible department for each touchpoint, and establish key performance indicators such as conversion rate from community to e-commerce and repurchase rate after anti-counterfeiting queries. However, these indicators require long-term tracking and may be affected by seasonal factors.

06 GSP analysis

Comparison with Other Experience Positioning Strategies: Trade-offs between Abstract and Concrete Words

Analysis infers that Yanghe's choice of 'soft and mellow' as an abstract sensory word differs from strategies that use specific raw materials or craft terms (such as 'ancient method brewing' or 'century-old cellars'). Abstract words have the advantage of inclusiveness, covering multiple products and easily triggering consumer associations; the disadvantage is that they are difficult to verify and prone to homogeneous competition. Concrete words, in contrast, provide clear differentiators but may limit product line extensions. Yanghe's approach attempts to concretize the abstract word through craft content, a compromise strategy. However, the success of this strategy depends on the continuity and quality of content production.

If the 'Masters on Soft and Mellow' series is only occasionally updated or has inconsistent styles, consumers will find it hard to form stable perceptions. Compared to competitors, for example, some brands emphasize 'no hangover' or 'pure grain brewing,' which are closer to functional benefits, while 'soft and mellow' is closer to experiential benefits. Experiential benefits require actual tasting for verification, so Yanghe must provide tasting opportunities or small bottles to lower the trial threshold. Suppose a reader enterprise adopts a similar strategy; they need to assess whether their product has a perceptible unique experience; if not, they should not force the use of abstract words. An alternative is to use a combination of 'concrete word + experience word,' such as 'century-old craft, soft on entry,' which has both support and appeal.

Suppose a sauce-flavored baijiu enterprise focusing on 'ancient method brewing' wants to borrow Yanghe's abstract experience word strategy but finds that its core craft has been widely promoted by competitors, making it difficult to establish exclusivity. In this case, the enterprise could try a combination of 'concrete word + experience word,' such as concretizing 'ancient method' into 'stone cellar fermentation' and pairing it with the experience description 'sweet aftertaste on entry.' During execution, note that the concrete word must come from a real, demonstrable aspect of the enterprise, such as the number of old cellars or fermentation cycles, while the experience word needs to be screened through consumer testing, not decided internally. Required information includes whether competitors have already used the same concrete word in their promotions and the target consumers' preference differences between 'sweet aftertaste' and 'richness.' A possible failure condition is that the concrete word is too technical for consumers to understand, so it needs to be accompanied by diagrams or short videos in content. To distinguish alternative causes, A/B testing is needed: one group sees 'stone cellar fermentation, sweet aftertaste on entry,' and another only sees 'ancient method brewing.' If the latter's purchase intention is not lower than the former, the concrete word did not add persuasiveness, and the issue may lie in brand trust rather than word choice.

For enterprises using abstract experience words, if the product line is broad, they should avoid using one word to cover all products, as it dilutes perception. Suppose a fruit wine enterprise has plum wine, yuzu wine, and lychee wine; if they uniformly use 'natural sweetness' as the core word, consumers may confuse the differences. In this case, 'natural sweetness' can be the master word at the brand level, and each product can have a sub-experience word, such as plum wine emphasizing 'sweet-sour balance,' yuzu wine 'bitter-sweet aftertaste,' and lychee wine 'honeyed and lingering.' Execution responsibility should fall on product managers and content teams, who need to create independent craft stories for each product and annotate the connection to the master word on the side of the packaging. Required information includes keywords from consumer reviews on e-commerce platforms; if 'too sweet' or 'not sweet enough' frequently appears, the sub-word descriptions need adjustment. A possible failure condition is that too many sub-words burden consumer memory, so it is recommended to use sub-words for at most three products and place the rest under a 'classic series.' To distinguish alternative causes, eye-tracking tests can be used: if consumers look at price before packaging, price sensitivity is higher than experience words; if they pick up the product and read the back label, the front word did not trigger interest, so visual symbols need strengthening rather than text.

07 GSP analysis

Cost and Economic Trade-offs: Balancing Content Production and Product Line Maintenance

Both video content and multi-product displays require sustainable operational resources. Imitating companies should clearly list the tasks of topic selection, professional explanation, production, updates, and material maintenance, confirming which can be reused and which will recur as the number of products increases. The cost per bottle of content can be calculated by dividing the content investment within a clearly defined scope for the same period by the actual number of bottles sold, but this metric is only used to understand the intensity of investment: the denominator may expand due to market, channel, or promotional changes, and a decrease in allocated cost per bottle cannot be directly regarded as a content effect.

To judge whether the investment is worthwhile, one should compare the incremental business contribution that can be reasonably attributed with the incremental content cost, and explain how fixed production costs and ongoing maintenance costs are borne separately. Sales volume is a quantity, while cost is an amount; they cannot be directly compared. If direct attribution is difficult for the time being, one can observe whether users understand product differences more accurately, whether repeated inquiries decrease, and whether actual purchases align with experiences, and then judge together with business results. For a product line, adding a new version should also check the workload of inventory, channel support, and consumer explanation; if it only increases management complexity without solving new choice tasks, priority should be given to improving the information presentation of existing products.

08 Suggested actions

Pilot and Measurement: How to Validate the Effectiveness of Soft-and-Mellow-Style Experience Positioning

For reader enterprises wishing to learn from Yanghe's practices, it is recommended to first conduct a pilot in a regional market or online channel rather than a full-scale rollout. The pilot needs clear objectives: is it to enhance brand awareness, increase first-time purchases, or improve repurchase rates? Different objectives correspond to different measurement indicators. Suppose a mid-to-high-end food enterprise wants to use 'natural sweetness' as the core experience word and produce craft content. The pilot can be designed as follows: select two cities of similar size, one with content advertising and the other as a control group without advertising. After three months, compare brand search index, e-commerce store visits, and trial sample redemption rates between the two cities.

Additionally, set up QR codes in physical stores that, when scanned, lead to craft videos, and record viewing completion rates. The key is to distinguish the effects of content from other marketing activities, so variables need to be controlled. Furthermore, consumers can be invited to take taste preference tests before and after watching videos to see if content changes their choices. Measurement indicators include: product page jump rate after content viewing, trial conversion rate, and the proportion of consumers mentioning 'natural sweetness' in surveys. During the pilot, regular reviews are needed, such as checking data every two weeks; if content viewing rates are high but conversion rates are low, the content may not be closely linked to the product, requiring adjustments. After the pilot, compare costs and benefits before deciding to expand.

Suppose a mid-to-high-end tea beverage enterprise wants to validate the experience word 'mountain charm' and plans to pilot on online channels. The pilot design could select two e-commerce platforms: one platform runs 'mountain charm' themed craft videos, while the other only runs ordinary product images, for eight weeks. Measurement indicators should include video completion rate, detail page add-to-cart rate, and the number of times customers proactively mention 'mountain charm' in customer service chats. The key is to distinguish content effects from promotional activities, so during the pilot, avoid simultaneous discount activities and record daily traffic sources. A possible failure condition is that the video is well-produced but the product itself lacks a perceptible 'mountain charm' characteristic, so an internal blind test should be conducted before the pilot to ensure employees can distinguish this tea's taste from others. To distinguish alternative causes, user follow-up interviews can be used: if users say 'the video was good but I didn't remember the brand,' the issue is weak content-brand association; if users say 'the tea tastes no different from ordinary tea,' the experience word lacks product support, requiring adjustments to raw materials or processes.

After the pilot, the enterprise needs to compare repurchase rates between the pilot and control groups, but the repurchase cycle may be longer than the pilot period, so a tracking window should be set, such as recording purchase behavior for three months after the pilot ends. At this point, in-depth analysis of repurchasing users' reviews is needed; if they mention 'consistent taste' or 'premium packaging,' the experience word is not key; if they mention 'every time I drink it, I think of mountain charm,' the word is effective. Execution responsibility should fall on the data analysis team, which needs to segment users into new and returning customers and control for price-sensitive users' interference. Required information includes purchase intervals, average order value changes, and return reasons. A possible failure condition is improper pilot city selection, such as choosing first-tier cities when the target audience is in second- and third-tier cities, so consumer geography should be researched in advance. To distinguish alternative causes, interviews with churned users can be used: if users switch to competitors due to price, the experience word cannot solve the value-for-money issue; if users say 'I can't taste the difference,' tasting education needs to be strengthened, such as including samples or tasting cards with the product to guide consumers to focus on specific flavors.

09 Suggested actions

Adjustment and Contraction: When Experience Words Fail or Product Lines Overload

Even if the pilot succeeds, enterprises need to preset adjustment mechanisms. If the core experience word fails to resonate with consumers, or content production becomes unsustainable, consider contracting or changing strategies. For example, if Yanghe's 'soft and mellow' is not understood by younger consumers, new expressions such as 'light drinking' or 'smooth' may be needed. In terms of product line, if a product is found to highly overlap with another in price and taste, causing consumer choice difficulty, it should be discontinued or repositioned decisively.

In terms of decision-making authority, it is recommended to establish a brand experience committee composed of product, marketing, sales, and content leaders to regularly evaluate the effectiveness of experience words and the health of the product line. The committee has the authority to decide whether to introduce new words or adjust product combinations. Suppose a reader enterprise encounters a similar situation; they can develop an 'experience word health scorecard' that includes dimensions such as consumer awareness, content update frequency, and sales script consistency, scored quarterly. If the total score falls below a threshold, an adjustment process is initiated. During adjustment, all touchpoints need to be updated simultaneously, including the official website, packaging, and store staff scripts, to avoid mixing old and new information. At the same time, a transition period should be reserved for distributors and consumers to adapt to changes. At this point, the enterprise can initiate a contraction mechanism: first suspend all new product development, concentrate resources on regrouping existing products by drinking scenario, such as classifying low-alcohol products under 'meal accompaniment light drinking' and high-alcohol products under 'slow savoring aged collection,' and replace abstract adjectives on the front of packaging with scenario icons. Execution responsibility should fall on the brand experience committee, with the marketing department leading, checking terminal display photos and sales script recordings every two weeks to ensure old and new information do not mix. A possible failure condition is that the sales team pushes inventory to distributors to meet quarterly targets, masking real demand, so during the adjustment period, assessments based on bundling slow-moving products should be suspended, and rebates should be calculated based on actual bottle-opening code scans. To distinguish alternative causes, small-scale consumer interviews can be used: if respondents can accurately state the price difference between two products but cannot articulate taste differences, the issue is positioning overlap; if they have not noticed the new packaging at all, the issue is insufficient communication, not experience word failure.

When an enterprise decides to replace or supplement an experience word, a six-month transition period should be preset, during which the old and new words can coexist on the back of packaging and online detail pages, but the front main visual should only feature the new word. Suppose the enterprise changes 'soft and elegant' to 'smooth and no hangover'; then all craft content needs to be adjusted accordingly, such as establishing a causal explanation between fermentation duration and 'smoothness,' and training customer service staff to answer 'why is it smooth' with unified scripts. Decision-making authority should be granted to the brand experience committee, but a veto mechanism should be set: if the sales director believes the new word cannot impress core buyers in banquet channels, they can request a three-month delay, during which comparative tests are conducted in two groups of cities. Required information includes changes in search index for old and new words, on-site feedback at distributor ordering meetings, and the preference ratio between 'smooth' and 'soft and elegant' in blind tests. A possible failure condition is that the content team, to meet deadlines, copies old video scripts and only replaces keywords, making consumers feel it is the same content with a different label, so each new video must include at least one verifiable craft detail, such as 'low-temperature fermentation' or 'segmented liquor collection.' To distinguish alternative causes, tracking viewing completion rates can be used: if viewers drop off significantly during craft explanations, the content is boring rather than the new word being ineffective; if viewers finish watching but still ask 'what is the difference from before,' the new word has not formed a closed loop with the product experience.