(A) How to put products in front of consumers.
(2) How to spread products to consumers.
The essence of the first problem is the construction of sales channels (channels). The goal is to establish a lower-level distribution network, improve terminal coverage, facilitate consumers' purchase, and effectively manage and maintain channels and terminals to ensure that channels (channels) are always stable and smooth. The distributor's second problem is to take effective promotion measures, such as advertising, business promotion, personnel promotion, public relations, services and other means to guide consumers to buy our products, or let consumers choose our products when faced with a variety of product choices. This is a systematic work, which can not be separated from the participation of manufacturers and requires good cooperation and planning among manufacturers.
Every product has its marketing life cycle. Generally speaking, we divide it into lead-in period, rising period, growth period, maturity period and decline period. The characteristics of marketing in different periods are different, and the focus of marketing work is also different. On the whole, water purifiers are still in the initial stage for most cities in China, and people have great potential demand. The marketing feature of the introduction stage is that the product has not been generally recognized and accepted by consumers, so informing consumers of the functions and benefits of the product is the focus of advertising at the initial stage of the product entering the market. In some big cities, water purifiers may be on the rise, and the marketing characteristics and marketing priorities to be considered in this period are different. In short, the market conditions in different places are not the same. Dealers should combine local actual conditions, discuss with manufacturers on the basis of full market research, and formulate effective regional marketing plans. Including channel strategy, price strategy, promotion strategy, advertising strategy, public relations strategy and service strategy. The core of marketing strategy is, of course, market-oriented, consumer-centered, integrating all promotional means and strategic behaviors to meet the needs of consumers.
1) channel strategy
Water purifier is a civilian product, how to push it to consumers? For prefecture-level dealers, you can refer to the following channel models:
(1) mainly retail terminals, and the channel mode is:
Dealers to retail terminals and then to consumers.
Dealer to retail terminal to group customers
Dealers group customers.
② Secondary wholesalers (such as individual wholesale markets for small household appliances or kitchenware such as drinking fountains, water heaters, range hoods and rice cookers) are the main ones, and products are distributed through intermediary networks. The channel mode is as follows:
Dealers to the second batch of dealers to retail terminals to consumers.
Dealers group two groups of merchants to customers.
Dealers to the second batch of dealers to retail terminals to group customers.
Dealers group customers.
(3) Set up a store for sale in the wholesale market.
4 mixed type. On the one hand, dealers supply goods directly to retailers, on the other hand, they distribute products through wholesalers. The channel mode is:
Dealers to the second batch of dealers to retail terminals to consumers.
Dealers group two groups of merchants to customers.
Dealer to retail terminal to group customers
Dealers group customers.
⑤ Mainly direct selling, directly facing various direct consumers through their own monopoly points or business personnel.
Dealer to consumer
Dealers group customers.
According to the local market conditions, such as customers' buying habits, market distribution, market demand, etc., and combined with their own resources, dealers should determine the channel strategy, that is, the business model. Water purifiers are relatively unfamiliar products for most cities, and there are no relevant available dealer resources. Therefore, it is suggested that dealers directly do the local consumer market and choose between terminal and direct sales. If they have strong economic strength and terminal operation experience, they can consider terminal-based sales model. However, due to the characteristics of the water purifier, it is not a product that consumers can recognize at a glance, so the operation of the terminal should do the following:
① Selection and layout of local city docks. We should choose those with good benefits and good reputation and deliver them on the spot.
Not too dense.
② Training and management of sales promotion personnel. Promoters, as the last link to realize sales, play a very key role in terminal sales. Because the water purifier is not a familiar product, it is put on the shelf and consumers can't recognize it. Even if they notice it, they need promoters to actively, enthusiastically and sincerely answer customers' questions about the necessity of buying, their understanding of the product itself, and which product to choose. Therefore, product training, business training and incentive management are the keys to terminal operation.
(3) the display layout of the store. Vivid and intuitive product layout can attract customers' attention. For the new water purifier, the first step in shopping mall sales is to find ways to make customers interested in knowing about the product. Therefore, the design of the product booth and the availability of promotional materials are also very important.
(4) Organization of sales promotion activities in shopping malls. Consumers generally need to go through several processes: cognition, understanding, trust and purchase. Because of the characteristics of new water purifiers, it is also necessary to organize some promotional activities in shopping malls at the right time, such as live demonstrations and prize purchases.
⑤ Local city advertisements. If consumers can go to the mall to buy a certain product with a purpose, that is the best result. Therefore, it is very helpful for terminal sales to further improve the sales performance of shopping malls and cooperate with some local advertisements.
If you don't have enough economic strength and experience in terminal operation, you can consider direct sales and choose one or two local large and influential terminals as windows. There are also various ways of direct selling, such as direct selling in one's own store, community promotion, group purchase and public relations of enterprises, institutions and government departments, public relations of new real estate projects, and purification needs of service industries such as hotels, hotels and hospitals. Dealers need to form an effective sales team, select and recruit business personnel, product training and business training, distribute benefits, subdivide target customers, elaborate promotional materials or plans for different target customers and install service policies.
2) Determine the price system and sales policy.
The key to market operation is the operating price system and channel access, and both channels and prices serve sales. After choosing a good channel model, dealers should formulate sales policies for channel members at all levels according to market conditions, such as price, payment, service and advertising. , and signed agreements with the second batch of merchants and retail outlets. A goal for everyone to operate, in addition to the commodity strength of manufacturers' products, encouraging sales policies is also the key, which requires dealers to understand the characteristics of the second batch of merchants and retailers:
① Secondary wholesaler: The so-called secondary wholesaler refers to the wholesaler who buys goods from the direct customers of the manufacturer (that is, the general distributors in various places) and then sells them to the retail outlets. It is divided into three types: state-owned secondary wholesale, individual scattered wholesale and individual wholesale market. Among them, the individual wholesale market is the main regulator of the whole secondary wholesale market and has become an increasingly important part of the secondary wholesale market. However, in some cities, the individual wholesale market is not very developed or even non-existent, mainly based on individual retail and state-owned wholesale.
In China, more than 90% of the individual secondary wholesalers assume a dual role, that is, supplying to retail outlets as wholesalers and selling directly to consumers as retail outlets. Moreover, at present, most secondary wholesale markets (especially individual wholesale markets) order from customers (such as retail outlets, group purchases or individuals) at home, and only a few state-owned wholesale and individual retail wholesale have salesmen visiting customers.
The cooperation between secondary wholesalers and distributors is purely based on interests, especially for individual secondary wholesale. What they pursue is price advantage, low profit and small profits but quick turnover. Second-class wholesalers generally distribute a variety of products at the same time, and their loyalty to manufacturers and general distributors is very low. Whoever makes big profits, whose products are marketable and whose support is strong, will distribute their products.
② Retailer: also known as retail terminal, directly facing consumers, is the most important link among channel members? Quot Whoever wins the terminal will occupy the market, which shows the importance of the terminal link. For water purifiers, the sales terminals can be: shopping malls, supermarkets, shopping centers, home appliance stores, water heating stores, hardware and electric materials stores, water treatment equipment stores and chain stores that are developing rapidly now. Retailers are characterized by making money mainly by the difference between wholesale and retail prices, and generally have higher profits.
Regarding the importance of retail terminals, Boston Company believes that retail terminals are the most important part of the whole supply system, because they are related to all aspects of supply: users, salesmen, buyers, distributors and publicity and promotion units are all connected with retail outlets. In the face of aggressive competitors, it is extremely important to effectively influence and control the activities of retail stores for establishing competitive advantage. No matter at home or abroad, there is no exception.
Pan, general manager of McKinsey management consulting company in Beijing, stressed that it is important to control the terminal, that is, the retailer, in order to increase the sales of products.
Most consumers make purchase decisions at retail terminals. Therefore, in the promotion of water purifiers in the future, dealers should choose suitable retail terminals according to the buying habits of local consumers, focusing on terminal promotion and terminal construction. In the regional market, dealers have three strategies to increase product sales:
A. Improve the distribution rate of products and let more retail terminals sell products;
B, increase the share of stores, so that each store can sell more products;
C. Do a good job in the sales of big stores, that is, some important retail stores, whose sales account for a large proportion of the total sales of dealers' products, and dealers must do a good job in the sales of key retailers.
To do the last two points well, we must attach great importance to the construction of the terminal. Huiren Shenbao, which has risen quietly in the market in recent years, adheres to the four-in-one construction standard for terminals, that is, the products are placed in a conspicuous position, there are display boards and desk cards, and there is a good customer relationship with the terminals. Someone summed up the experience of making a terminal for your reference:
1. Shelf display. Requirements: Relying on the route of strong consumer mobility, shelves and counters with equal sight, close to well-known brands and similar products, horizontally or vertically displayed.
2. The product was painted on the top. Requirements: display 2-3 rows of noodles for each variety and specification, the bigger the better. Definitely more than the competitors.
3. Product packaging. Requirements: According to the actual situation of each retail store, for example, retail stores in administrative districts and hospitals should display gift box packaging, while other stores should consider simple packaging.
4. Product inventory. Requirements: the shelves should always be filled with goods, and the inventory should be at least one week longer than the purchase cycle.
5. Popular layout. Requirements: shelf cards, store door flags, hanging flags, banners and posters.
6. Ground display. Requirements: 1-2 means that products are displayed at the shelf end and pile head of their own products.
7. Maintenance. Requirements: Sales staff should replace POP when visiting customers, keep the shelves clean and replenish goods, and usually ask in-store personnel to assist in the above work and maintenance.
Of course, while doing the above hard terminal work well, we should also pay attention to the construction of soft terminal. The so-called soft terminal refers to the constantly active and changing crowd: mainly promoters, salespeople, store leaders, expert promotion consultants and on-site promotion personnel. Measures can be taken to promote sales, train products, formulate incentive policies and improve customer relations.
In a word, profit is the key link between dealers, the second batch of dealers and retailers. In order to establish a stable distribution channel and cope with the fierce competition of similar products in the market, dealers should first design the price system of each link in the sales channel, allocate who gets how much according to the characteristics of members at all levels, and ensure the interests of channel members at all levels. And through the management and control of sales policies, to maintain the stability of the price system, the stability of channels and the stability of the market.
3) Promotion strategy
Promotion is a promotion in 4P marketing mix (product, price, channel and promotion). For enterprises and distributors, they should not only develop (or operate) marketable products, provide perfect services, set attractive prices and design good channel models, so that products can flow smoothly to target customers, but also require enterprises or distributors to control their own image in the market, design and disseminate information on product appearance, performance, characteristics, purchase conditions and benefits, so as to promote product sales and ensure the success of marketing activities.
According to the definition, promotion refers to the activities that enterprises provide products and services, disseminate information to consumers, middlemen and other public in various ways, establish an image and win a good impression, thus affecting and promoting people's buying behavior and consumption. The essence of sales promotion is a kind of communication activity, which is that the product provider sends out information as a stimulus and transmits the information to one or more target objects to influence their attitudes and behaviors. The functions and functions of promotion are:
(2) Persuade to buy, deepen the target customers' understanding of products through promotional activities, persuade and urge consumers to buy products, and achieve the purpose of expanding sales.
(3) Strengthen the competitive position, that is, through promotional activities, the differences and unique advantages of this product and other competitors' products will be recognized by consumers and the market position will be consolidated.
(4) establish an image. While expanding sales, establish the image of operators and products in the public mind and cultivate consumers' loyalty to products and brands.
The process of promotion is a process of information communication. As a distributor, after obtaining the regional sales right of the manufacturer, it must communicate with the lower-level distributors, consumers and the public through advertising, business promotion, personnel promotion and public relations. Dealers should effectively combine the characteristics and influence of the above four promotion methods according to the local market conditions in order to achieve the determined promotion goals.
(1) advertisement
Advertising is the most powerful weapon to blast the dam of the market. Whether it is the promotion factor in traditional marketing, the communication factor in the popular integrated marketing communication theory, or the relationship factor emphasized in the new marketing theory, to put it bluntly, it depends on the construction of media channels. In particular, the popular and practical communication concept, that is, the marketing concept, more profoundly embodies the importance of advertising media channels. There are two kinds of advertisements: soft advertisements and hard advertisements. These forms include TV advertisements, newspaper advertisements, magazine advertisements, street sign advertisements, wall advertisements, distribution of leaflets and other forms of expression. Limited by their own conditions, dealers can choose different combinations of advertising forms. The advertising media channel is as important as the sales (channel) channel, and dealers must pay attention to it with both hands.
From the current theory and practical application, the concept of integrated communication is the most authoritative strategy with the highest input-output ratio. The so-called integrated communication is to spread the same theme and voice by using all necessary media and tools that can reach consumers. The specific operation may be more difficult: first, I don't know what kind of media and tools to use; Second, I don't know which sentence or topic can sum up all the information to be spread; Third, self-management is lacking or difficult to be highly systematic, and how to implement it is doubtful. One of the root causes of these three problems is that manufacturers are unclear about the core concepts of products, and the other is that dealers don't know enough about the lifestyle and media contact habits of local consumers.
Therefore, in terms of communication, dealers should conduct full market research, and then communicate closely with manufacturers to convey the core concepts of products to consumers in an accurate and effective combination form. For the initial market entry of new products such as water purifiers, the first task is to improve the awareness rate of products, that is, to let everyone know about this product as much as possible and create a market atmosphere. Regarding the advertising means of water purifiers, it is suggested that dealers should focus on community promotion and terminal promotion, post posters in the community, send exquisite leaflets and product promotional materials to families, and do a good job in terminal promotion and construction. Of course, dealers can combine their own conditions with local conditions and consider the organic combination of TV, newspapers, outdoor objects and other advertising forms.
Making tap water cleaner is the core concept of products put forward by Chengde Lai Company in view of the fact that water purifiers are in the initial stage in most markets. The water purifier is clearly positioned to improve the water quality of tap water, highlight market segmentation, and clarify the main uses and potential benefits of the water purifier. In the introduction stage of the market, all members of our entire sales network should have a unified understanding, and around this core concept, convey consistent information to consumers, so that consumers generally recognize the function of water purifiers, in order to achieve the best guidance of consumption benefits.
(2) Business promotion
Business promotion is also called sales promotion, which is generally understood as sales promotion. It refers to a way for operators to use various short-term incentives to encourage purchases to promote the sales of products or services. Commercial promotion methods include promotion methods for consumers, promotion methods for middlemen and promotion methods for salespeople. There are coupons, discounts, paid gifts, exhibitions, demonstrations, exhibitions and other forms, which almost include the sum of various promotion methods except personnel promotion, advertising and public relations. The definition of American Marketing Committee is: all kinds of marketing activities that stimulate consumers' purchase and dealers' interests, except personnel sales promotion, advertising and publicity reports. Commercial promotion has the characteristics of discontinuity, diversity of forms and immediate effect. When promoting new products or services or competing directly with competitors, the role of business promotion is very obvious. There are three commercial promotion tools:
1) Consumer-oriented commercial promotion tools
① samples. That is, a certain number of products will be given to consumers free of charge. Samples are delivered by door-to-door, mailed, distributed in stores, attached to another commodity or indicated in product advertisements. It is an effective and most expensive way to promote new products through samples.
Two coupons. A coupon is a certificate that the holder can avoid paying a certain amount when purchasing a certain product. Vouchers are distributed by mail, attached to other commodities and inserted into magazines or newspaper advertisements. The recovery rate varies with different distribution methods. In general, the recovery rate of newspaper coupons is about 2%, the recovery rate of direct mail distribution is about 8%, and the recovery rate of other products is 17%. Coupons are effective in stimulating the sales of mature brands and encouraging the use of new products.
③ Cash discount. Paying a cash discount is similar to a coupon, except that the price reduction occurs after the purchase, not at the time of purchase. After shopping, the customer will send the purchase voucher to the manufacturer, and then the manufacturer will mail part of the payment back to the consumer.
Give prizes (or gifts). Giving a reward is to sell or provide a commodity for free at a relatively low price as an incentive to buy a specific product. The form includes: 1 A bonus is attached to a commodity or package; 2. Free mailing of gifts means that consumers send back a product when they send the purchase certificate; Three, natural gifts, that is, to sell products to consumers at a price lower than the normal retail price, or to provide various gifts to consumers in the name of enterprises.
⑤ Competition (lottery, game). Competition is to provide opportunities to win cash, travel, goods, etc. As a result of buying something. Competition means that consumers provide the organizers with things to participate in the competition after purchasing a certain commodity, such as suggestions, advertising words, commodity knowledge, etc., and submit them to the evaluation team for evaluation to determine the winner. Lottery is a lottery activity that consumers participate in after purchasing goods. A game is a quiz game that you can participate in when buying.
6 sponsorship return. When consumers buy products from a specific supplier, they can get cash or other forms of returns, which are based on the purchase volume. For example, most airlines have frequent flyer programs, which stipulate a certain number of miles, and passengers who reach this number by plane can get a free flight.
⑦ Free trial. This means inviting potential buyers to try the product for free, hoping that they will make a purchase decision.
⑧ Product guarantee. Product guarantee is an important means of promotion, especially when consumers pay attention to product quality. Can provide a longer quality guarantee period than competitors.
Pet-name ruby purchase scene (POP) display and demonstration performance. POP exhibition performance refers to helping retailers set up scenes at the sales site.
2) Business promotion tools of middlemen
① Purchase discount. Refers to the direct discount of the quotation obtained by the dealer from each purchase in a certain period of time. This discount can encourage middlemen to buy a certain number of products, or to deal in new products that they usually don't want to buy.
2 allowance. Subsidy refers to the fact that the retailer has made a contribution to the enterprise's products in some places, and the enterprise gives it some form of benefits to show encouragement and reward. For example, advertising allowance is a reward for dealers to advertise products; Exhibition allowance is a reward for dealers to display products and hold special exhibition activities.
3 free goods. When middlemen buy a certain number of products, enterprises provide them with a certain number of free products. Enterprises can also provide special advertising products printed with enterprise names or advertising information, such as pens, pencils, calendars, notebooks, ashtrays, lighters, stationery, etc.
3) Main commercial promotion tools
① Commercial exhibitions and conferences. National commercial organizations, regional commercial organizations and trade associations organize exhibitions and conferences every year, rent venues to a certain range of enterprises, and display their products at exhibitions.
(2) competitive sales. Competitive sales's targets include salesmen and middlemen, with the aim of encouraging salesmen or dealers to improve their sales performance in a certain period of time and rewarding successful people. Most companies hold one or more sales competitions every year, which are called reward programs. People who behave well can get trips, bonuses or gifts.
The above are business promotion tools for different objects. For dealers, to consider and choose which tool to use to achieve their goals, it is necessary to comprehensively consider various factors such as business promotion objectives, product types, market environment, competitive conditions and the benefits and costs of various tools, and formulate specific business promotion plans for promotion strength, objects, methods, time and promotion budget. Chengde Lai Company plans some promotional activities for dealers and consumers from time to time every year, or designs some promotional schemes for dealers' reference. Generally speaking, commercial promotion can stimulate the rapid increase of product sales in a short time and win a certain competitive advantage. But in the long run, it is impossible to build brand loyalty through commercial promotion.