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This article is translated from the Chinese-language original of
Commentary on China's Wine Industry, Volume 1.
1. Introduction
The term "brand proprietor" (Zhuliren) originated in subcultural circles at the end of the 20th century. In its early days, it was used to refer to core figures who simultaneously took charge of a brand's creative direction, stylistic expression and operational strategy. Represented by the American streetwear brand Stussy and its founder Shawn Stussy, such brands did not build recognition solely through their products. Instead, through the founder's long-term consistent aesthetic output, cultural stance and lifestyle expression, the founder's personal traits were highly integrated with the brand image, which eventually established the core logic of the proprietor model: "long-term co-creation and aesthetic leadership".
Nowadays, the concept of "brand proprietor" has gradually expanded from streetwear brands to multiple consumer tracks including specialty coffee, catering and cultural tourism. The 2024 National Cultural Proprietor Conference was launched in Dongguan, and in December of the same year, the term "brand proprietor" was selected as one of the top ten online buzzwords of 2024 released by the National Language Resources Monitoring and Research Center. This marks that the concept has moved from niche subcultural circles into a broader public communication horizon. What it reflects behind it is far more than the spread of a popular buzzword, but a huge transformation in the competition logic of contemporary consumer brands: brand competition is evolving from a single product competition to an integrated competition of personality, aesthetics and cultural expression.
From the perspective of brand theory, the reason why the proprietor model draws attention does not lie in its "novelty", but in the fact that it enhances brand recognizability, symbolic consistency and perceived value. By continuously binding the core figure's aesthetic preferences, personality traits and value stance with the brand, the brand can establish clearer cultural recognition and emotional identification beyond functional attributes, thus pushing the competition logic from homogeneous comparison at the product level to differentiated construction at the value level. For this reason, the proprietor model is not some irreproducible commercial myth, but a brand mechanism worthy of systematic deconstruction.
For China's wine industry, which has long faced problems such as insufficient brand recognition, homogenized cultural expression and weak market perception, this mechanism is particularly enlightening. China's wine industry is not short of terroir resources, winery stories and quality foundations. What it truly lacks is a stable brand export that can continuously coordinate product expression, cultural narrative and consumer perception. In this context, discussing the "brand proprietor" is not simply chasing a popular concept, but trying to answer a more practical question: in an era when brand competition is increasingly shifting from products to expression, how can China's wine industry establish a more recognizable and sustainable brand mechanism.
2. What is a Brand Proprietor?
The term "brand proprietor" is frequently used in consumer brand communication, but in practice, some brands tend to package phased partners, co-branding designers or short-term content creators directly as "brand proprietors", which has generalized the concept to a certain extent and even reduced it to a marketing gimmick. For China's wine industry, if it wants to truly draw on relevant experience, it first needs to make a relatively clear definition of "brand proprietor".
From the perspective of brand practice, a brand proprietor is not simply a designer, manager or spokesperson. Instead, it is a core figure who is deeply bound to the brand for a long time and plays a continuous leading role in the brand's aesthetic system, cultural narrative and value expression. The key does not lie in the title, but in whether one can coordinate the consistency among product style, visual language and brand temperament with stable personalized expression. Therefore, the proprietor model emphasizes not one-off creative support, but long-term nature, continuity and consistency. What it forms is not short-term traffic, but brand recognition that consumers can identify, remember and follow.
In the wine industry, the brand proprietor should also be distinguished from roles such as winery owners and winemaking consultants. Compared with winery owners whose core responsibility is operation and management, brand proprietors place more emphasis on cultural expression and consumer perception shaping at the brand level. Compared with winemaking consultants who focus on process control and technical output, although brand proprietors also pay attention to quality, they focus more on translating quality language into market-perceivable brand language, so as to realize the unification of products, culture and image.
In short, a brand proprietor is not a short-term communication symbol, but the core role in the brand's long-term expression mechanism.
3. Core Concepts of the Proprietor Model
The reason why the proprietor model attracts attention is not only because of its communication topicality, but also because it has formed a relatively clear brand operation logic, which is where its enlightenment for China's wine industry lies.
First, it emphasizes long-term binding rather than short-term opportunism. The foundation of the proprietor model lies in long-term commitment. Although phased cooperation or short-term co-branding can bring traffic, it is often difficult to truly form the deep integration of brand style and personalized expression. Only when the proprietor maintains a long-term and stable cooperative relationship with the brand and participates in key expression links of brand development, can the brand image be accumulated stably over time, and then gradually build a sustainable brand image.
Second, it emphasizes continuous participation rather than partial embellishment. The value of a proprietor is not limited to "designing a logo or leading an event", but is more reflected in its continuous intervention in the overall expression direction of the brand. Whether it is product design, material craftsmanship, scene experience or communication expression, the proprietor model emphasizes the consistency among key expression links, rather than the collage of scattered creativity. Its function is not to create partial highlights, but to maintain the stable output of the brand's overall temperament.
Third, it emphasizes stylistic unity rather than homogeneous replication. The core competitiveness of the proprietor model lies in differentiation. Through their own aesthetic and cultural understanding, proprietors establish an exclusive visual system, cultural language and value proposition for the brand, so that consumers will associate the product with the proprietor, and mention the proprietor to associate with the brand. This stylistic unity is the key for brands to get rid of homogenization and achieve high recognition.
Fourth, it emphasizes value empowerment rather than low-price involution. The deeper role of the proprietor model lies in helping brands strengthen perceived value and provide support for brand premium. Through the proprietor's professional endorsement, cultural expression and personal IP effect, brands can get rid of the dilemma of low-price competition, increase added value, and make consumers willing to pay for culture, aesthetics and emotion. This not only improves the profitability of the brand, but also accumulates brand assets to achieve long-term and sustainable development.
4. Reference from Other Fields: Edison Chen, the Oriental Streetwear Proprietor of CLOT
As a highly representative case among Chinese streetwear brands, the long-term stable binding relationship between CLOT and Edison Chen fully demonstrates how the proprietor mechanism acts on brand recognition, style formation and value enhancement.
When CLOT was founded in 2003, Edison Chen deeply integrated his own aesthetic pursuit and cultural understanding with the brand. As a cultural leader, he formed a deep symbiotic relationship with CLOT where both prospered and declined together. This long-term binding gradually transformed Edison Chen's personal aesthetics and cultural stance into stable recognition symbols of the brand, which also enabled CLOT to form a distinct and continuous style boundary for a long period of time. Adhering to the core tone of "Oriental culture + international streetwear", Edison Chen personally participated in every link from product design to implementation. From small details such as fabric selection and embroidery craftsmanship to large-scale arrangements such as store design and cross-border co-branding, he injected his own aesthetics and thinking, so that every core product of CLOT carries distinct personal marks and cultural connotations. This unique aesthetic expression not only allowed CLOT to get rid of the homogenization dilemma of blindly following Western trends in the streetwear industry at that time, but also endowed the brand with an irreplicable style label.
In terms of two-way value empowerment, the win-win outcome of the two is even more remarkable. Edison Chen's personal IP endorsement and unique cultural expression allowed CLOT to break away from low-price involution and achieve high brand premium. Through limited-edition releases and co-branding collaborations, the proprietor endowed the products with collectible value. At the same time, the success of CLOT also made Edison Chen's proprietor philosophy recognized by more people, further expanding his personal influence and forming a virtuous cycle of perfect integration between the individual and the brand.
What this case reveals is exactly one of the key conditions for the proprietor model to work. Therefore, the deep binding between a proprietor and the brand is never one-sided empowerment, but mutual achievement and joint value upgrading.
5. Enlightenment of the Proprietor Model to China's Wine Industry
In the current increasingly fierce market competition environment, the proprietor model adapts to the current trend of consumption upgrading and meets the needs of differentiated brand development. Its enlightenment for China's wine industry lies in the core concepts behind it. In short, China's wine industry does not need and cannot mechanically copy the proprietor model, nor does it have to blindly follow the trend to create "wine proprietors". Instead, it can draw on the essence of the proprietor model and integrate it into its own development to help brands upgrade.
First, the proprietor model emphasizes long-term binding and deep co-creation. This point is particularly enlightening for China's wine industry. At present, some domestic wine brands still show a strong short-term tendency in communication and cooperation. For example, they rely on phased co-branding, hot topics or superficial innovation to gain attention, but lack continuous accumulation around the core value of the brand. In contrast, the mature proprietor model presents a kind of stable construction around the brand's long-term style, cultural stance and market perception. For China's wine industry, whether cooperating with external subjects such as designers, cultural researchers and artists, or carrying out expressions around regional terroir, local culture and brand history, what really matters is not temporary topical popularity, but whether stable, continuous and consumer-recognizable brand accumulation can be formed in the long run.
Second, in addition to long-termism, the core logic of "aesthetic empowerment + detail control" in the proprietor model can become a key to breaking the homogenized involution of China's wine industry. The competitiveness of the proprietor model has never been a single creative design, but integrating aesthetic pursuit and professional quality into every detail of the product, making the product go beyond pure functionality and become a carrier with warmth, connotation and the ability to trigger emotional resonance. This concept is also applicable to China's wine industry. Enterprises do not need to deliberately set up a "proprietor" position, but can strengthen their own aesthetic expression, and naturally integrate cultural elements such as oriental aesthetics and regional characteristics into every consumer touchpoint such as packaging design and scene experience, so that the brand can form unique memory points among many similar products and break away from the monotonous homogeneous competition.
Third, the proprietor model helps promote brand competition from a single price-oriented logic to value-oriented competition, thus breaking the predicament of low-price involution. China's wine industry can also draw on the underlying logic of "cultural empowerment + value upgrading" in the proprietor model. Just as CLOT successfully broke through the market and achieved brand premium with oriental cultural expression, China's wine industry can also follow this idea. By deeply exploring local culture and regional characteristics, and deeply integrating oriental aesthetics, regional culture and local lifestyle into brand expression, consumers can feel the cultural heritage and emotional value behind the products, and are willing to pay for this connotation, thus getting rid of low-price involution and realizing the upgrading of the brand's market value.
6. Conclusion
At present, China's wine industry is in a critical stage of brand awakening and construction. In this process, the significance of the proprietor model does not lie in providing a popular label that can be simply copied, but in reminding us whether a brand can effectively connect products, aesthetics, cultural narrative and consumer perception.
For China's wine industry, what is truly worth learning from is not the identity of "brand proprietor" itself, but the brand logic behind it — based on long-termism, taking aesthetic integration and cultural translation as the path, continuously improving brand recognition and perceived value. In the final analysis, the significance of drawing on this model is not to imitate a form, but to find a brand expression method more suitable for the growth of China's wine industry.
Reference
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Authors' Bibliography
Dr. Wei Xia holds the PhD in Hotel and Tourism Management, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University; Master of Tourism and Hotel Management, School of Business Administration, Sun Yat-sen University. She holds an associate senior professional title, is a senior dual-qualified teacher, and was selected into the "Ten Thousand Tourism Talents" Program initiated by the former China National Tourism Administration.
With 20 years of frontline teaching experience in vocational education for the High-Star Hotel Operation and Management specialty, and over 15 years of dedication to wine vocational education and professional training, Dr. Xia has obtained multiple internationally recognized professional wine certifications, including the WSET Level 3 Advanced Award in Wines (UK) and the ISG Advanced Sommelier Qualification (USA). She has led and participated in nearly 10 national and provincial research projects, and was awarded the Second Prize of the National Teaching Achievement Award. Her academic publications include 1 officially published academic monograph and 2 textbooks, and she also owns 1 industrial design patent and 2 computer software copyrights. She has been invited to deliver keynote speeches at industry events on multiple occasions, and has served as a judge and executive director for major competitions in the wine and beverage industry.
Currently as a doctoral candidate. Shumeng Dong is e works at the Marketing Teaching and Research Office, College of Wine Science, Northwest A&F University. She serves as a consultant for the Wine Culture and Tasting Center of Northwest A&F University, Deputy Secretary-General of the Wine Professional Committee of the Chinese Poetry and Wine Culture Association (a national first-level professional social organization), a lecturer at the Queen Mary Engineering College of Northwestern Polytechnical University, the MBA & EMBA Center of Xi'an Jiaotong University, and a practical lecturer for the CBL program at EM Lyon Business School. She graduated from the Burgundy School of Business in France, majoring in International Trade of Wines and Spirits. She has participated in compiling the 14th Five-Year Plan general higher education undergraduate planning textbook Wine Hygiene, the special project World Wine Classification under the Development and Reform Program of the Ministry of Science and Technology, and other works. She has published multiple papers and presided over a number of teaching reform projects such as "Curriculum Construction of Wine Marketing and Quality Improvement of Talent Training".