Shaoxing Nuer Hong Wine Making General Co knows very well that celebrity will help sales.
When Hong Kong's first Special Administrative Region (SAR) chief executive, Tung Chee-hwa, celebrated his appointment in January, the winery presented him and each of his guests a pot of Nuer Hong rice wine in Hong Kong.
'We have read from an Australian daily that Mr Tung loves Nuer Hong,' vice-general manager Li Shuilin said.
Grasping the rare opportunity, the company made a successful promotion in the territory.
Nuer Hong Wine Making General Co is the smallest in production scale compared with its main rivals in the city - China Yellow Wine Group Corp and Shaoxing Dongfeng Wine Co - and its immediate task is to raise public awareness of the Nuer Hong brand.
As early as 1987, the company had applied to Beijing to register the brand, but it was only ratified in 1994.
Nuer Hong, or 'maiden rose wine', is based on an old Shaoxing tradition, in which fathers prepare a casket of Nuer Hong at the birth of a daughter and leave it to mature for drinking at their weddings.
Because of the cultural connotation of the brand, a movie, which told the lives of three generations of women breaking from the tradition through their unorthodox choices, was named after the wine in 1995.
The movie Maiden Rose, directed by mainland-born director Xie Yang, was shot at the winery, 'We sponsored the movie, albeit not much,' Mr Li said.
It was one means by which the winery could market its brand.
As Nuer Hong is not consumed across the country, the company has chosen not to advertise on China Central Television which charges high rates.
'We adopt a wide range of promotion methods, which are primarily used in cities where the rice wine sells very well,' he said.
Nuer Hong is well received in Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions.
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