'Moutai' to become luxury brand?

Moutai [Photo/Xinhua]

The World Luxury Association will release a top 100 luxury brands list in Beijing in January, 2012. Days before the release, news that Kweichow Moutai has applied to become luxury has been spread widely.

Moutai, being called "the national liquor of China", has risen its price from time to time in the past 10 years. The price of one of its series has risen from 200 yuan a bottle in 2000 to 2,000 yuan a bottle in 2011. A bottle of Moutai produced in 1992 even got 8.9 million yuan at auction. Chief representative of the World Luxury Association's China branch Michael Ouyang said that it should be the customer deciding whether a product is luxury. According to standard made by the World Luxury Association, if the price of a certain production is higher than the average salary of the city where it is sold, it should be called luxury. Obviously, Moutai is a luxury.

Sun Yimin, professor of Fudan University, said Chinese liquor is one of the fields where a luxury brand is most likely to appear, as there has not been a luxury brand in China. As the pioneer, Moutai has the responsibility of helping customers form reasonable luxury consumption concept. Let's wait and see if Moutai will appear on the top 100 luxury brands list this January.