How to drive product sell-through at the terminal? Answer In the previous issue, we discussed the operation of core stores. In this issue, we cover an important part of sell-through: consumer promotion activities. Consumer promotions are an indispensable core component for accelerating product sell-through and driving robust sales. Efficient promotional activities not only increase sales and enhance brand influence but also can ignite the market. Let's look at common consumer promotion formats.

1. Free Gifts

Free gifts are not only a means to reward loyal customers but also an efficient way to build a consumption base for new product launches. There are four common forms:

  1. Free mini bottles. A smaller version of the main product, typically 125ml, can be given away as gifts or tasting samples in a planned, large-scale, and wide-reaching manner to educate consumers on taste and acceptance.
  2. Tasting event gifts. Tasting events of various sizes are the most common consumer education method in baijiu marketing. They offer free food and drinks to core consumer groups, and even provide continuous free gifts to key opinion leaders appointed as tasting consultants. The gifted liquor is usually the main product.
  3. On-the-ground promotional activities. Conduct free tasting, free gifts, and purchase-with-gift activities in communities, squares, and markets.
  4. Joint terminal free gift activities. Especially in dining outlets, offer free liquor with meals, time-limited free gifts, or free gifts for the first few tables.

2. Coupon Distribution

Some manufacturers print colorful coupon tickets to stimulate consumers to buy proactively or try the product. These tickets state the activity deadline, eligible products, purchase-with-gift terms, and participating outlets. Consumers can redeem the ticket at participating outlets for a "buy one get one free" deal or receive two free bottles of liquor. The manufacturer reimburses outlets based on the number of tickets collected. Points to note: Tickets must be stamped to control circulation and printed as needed; distribute them intensively in areas with dense consumer traffic; choose the right distribution points (residential communities, township markets, temple fairs, commercial stores) to ensure effectiveness; track the number distributed and returned per point to calculate response rates and adjust strategies; keep the activity period short, e.g., 15 or 20 days per cycle; and ensure timely redemption for participating outlets.

3. Leveraging New Media

Use local WeChat or Weibo influencers, or the company's own official accounts, to plan, promote, and engage consumers in promotional activities. For example: anyone who shares the activity can get a free tasting of XX; anyone who takes a photo with the product poster and shares it on their Moments can receive a gift or free tasting; anyone who purchases the product and shares it on Moments can get XX gift, dining voucher, or free tasting, etc.

4. Price Discounts

Price discounts are an important means to attract short-term purchases, but if not managed well, they can damage the product's price image. Therefore, price discount activities should generally be coordinated with specific terminal outlets. Large-scale, uniform discounts not only increase operational difficulty but also risk price chaos. There are three common forms:

  1. Time-limited discounts. Discounted sales at specific times, e.g., a restaurant offers 40% off on a certain liquor from 6:30 to 7:30 PM, or during a specified period, e.g., June 10-20, consumers get 40% off on a certain brand.
  2. Quantity discounts. Buy one bottle at full price, two bottles at 20% off, a case at 50% off, etc.
  3. Tiered discounts. First bottle full price, second bottle 40% off, third bottle 60% off, fourth bottle 70% off, etc.

5. Purchase-with-Gift Activities

Purchase-with-gift is the most common promotional format, with three specific forms:

  1. Gift the same product. This includes buy one get one free, buy two get one free, and collect caps to redeem liquor. For example, Luzhou Chun Distillery in Sichuan faced a situation where, due to poor overall operations, sales in large supermarket chains like Carrefour were low, forcing them to clear out. The company decisively launched a "buy one get one free (same product)" activity before clearing out. Surprisingly, the results were outstanding, and product volume quickly increased.
  2. Gift other items. After purchase, consumers receive vouchers, daily necessities, mini bottles, cigarettes, or in restaurants, free dishes with liquor purchase. For wedding banquets, buying a certain amount of liquor may include free wedding car services, sedan chair services, refrigerators, TVs, etc. For graduation banquets, gifts may include phones, computers, suitcases, or tickets.
  3. Other creative purchase-with-gift activities. For example, Taibai's "Drink Grand Hand, Play Golf" promotion was a valuable and meaningful activity. Anhui's certain distillery launched a large-scale consumer promotion in five cities including Hefei, Bengbu, and Lu'an, called "Eternal Love, Fine Wine for Friends." The creative idea: when you consume a bottle of XXX at a restaurant, you can fill out a card for a friend you haven't contacted in a long time. Within a week, we'll send that friend a bottle of XXX based on the address you provide. Another example: "Drink XX wine, call XX hotline, win XX prize." Each time a customer buys a bottle of XX baijiu, they receive a customer service card. By calling the hotline and entering the verification code, they can answer questions for a chance to win big prizes.

6. In-Pack Prizes

In-pack prizes are a common consumer pull method in baijiu promotions, with two specific forms:

  1. Scratch cards inside the box (or cap). The card lists the prize tiers, and consumers scratch off the coating to see if they've won and which prize. Prizes often include liquor tickets, vouchers, cigarettes, cash, US dollars, precious metals, commemorative items, travel packages, etc.
  2. Direct placement of physical items inside the box. Consumers can get the item immediately upon opening the package. Common prizes include cash (e.g., US dollars, Hong Kong dollars), gold eggs, real gold and silver, lottery tickets, lighters, towels, etc. The goal is to attract attention with novel promotional items or small-value incentives. Note: Use big jackpots and a 100% win rate to keep consumers engaged and create a promotional hotspot.

7. Points Redemption

Points redemption includes two forms:

  1. Accumulated points. Purchase a certain quantity to earn points at different levels, then redeem for corresponding gifts.
  2. Collecting proofs. Convert points into proof-based redemption, e.g., collect a certain number of bottle caps to exchange for gifts or another bottle of liquor.

8. Lucky Draws

Lucky draw promotions leverage the public's gambling and entertainment psychology to attract consumption. The manufacturer or distributor creates draw cards, places them in a draw box, or uses computer software for on-site draws. The goal is to conduct on-site promotions at terminal outlets, induce impulse purchases, and award prizes immediately. Common forms include single draws, multiple draws, quiz-based draws, game-based draws, and linked draws. Hebei's Weidaofu launched a "Lucky Grab" activity, bringing welfare lottery into restaurants. It offered strong on-site participation and high transparency, as consumers relied purely on luck. Shanzhuang Laojiu's "Smash the Golden Egg" activity in Shijiazhuang brought Li Yong's "Very 6+1" egg-smashing game into restaurants, sparking a consumer participation craze. Another company partnered with a city restaurant to run a weekly promotion for a month: "One draw chance for every 100 yuan spent, with the grand prize being a free meal." Not only did the restaurant thrive due to the crowds, but other restaurants also took notice and proactively requested to stock the product for promotions.

9. Chain Rewards

Chain reward promotions involve additional cumulative rewards on top of single-purchase prizes to encourage repeat purchases. There are three methods:

  1. Empty bottle exchange. Collect a certain number of empty bottles or boxes to exchange for a bottle of the same product or other designated prizes. Accumulating more can yield additional gifts.
  2. Collect a specified number or type of cards to exchange for gifts or the original product. For example, during the World Cup, cards with country names were distributed. The champion country's card could be exchanged for a prize, and collecting all 32 country names could also be exchanged for a prize.
  3. Winning with purchase, plus a surprise grand prize for collecting certain iconic items. Shibafang launched the "18 Bounty" promotion in Shijiazhuang from November 2005 to January 2006. It combined "buy-gift + grand prize draw" with two levels of joy: first, buy and get a gift for everyone; second, solve the puzzle to win a big prize.

10. Prize Competitions

Manufacturers design Q&A about the company and product for consumers to answer at the promotion site, promoting the company and product. Prizes are usually physical items, but free travel is also used. Competitions can be held at various venues, sometimes via TV game shows where products are distributed to promote the brand.

11. Sponsorship Activities

Sponsorship activities target special groups during special holidays, such as Party Founding Day, Army Day, Teachers' Day, Journalists' Day, or Party Congresses. The goal is to let target consumer groups taste the brand, become opinion leaders, and spread word-of-mouth. Also, free tasting events are held during new store openings, factory inaugurations, anniversaries, weddings, and conferences to allow collective tasting.

12. Organizing Insider Consumers

Insider opinion leaders must be regular customers of a terminal outlet and can be hired as enterprise consultants. Allocate a budget for them. For example, in high-volume stores matching the product, spend 3,000 yuan per store on opinion leader public relations. Allocation: 1,000 yuan in gifts upon entry, then 500 yuan monthly as a consultant fee, and finally adjust or stop based on market conditions. The fee can be prepaid, but with the condition: after receiving 500 yuan, they must complete a specified purchase at that store. Operational tips: send liquor in advance to their workplace, then have them bring the liquor to the store to create a leadership effect, coordinating with brand promoters to drive sell-through.

13. Joint Promotions

Many companies consider only their own perspective when collaborating with terminals, often leading to failure or poor execution. It's essential to consider the terminal's acceptance, cooperation, and mutual benefit. Examples with restaurants:

  1. Jointly host a chef cooking competition.
  2. Jointly offer: consume 1 bottle of the product, get 10% off the meal; 3 bottles or more, 20% off; after 10 bottles, the restaurant issues a silver card for long-term 20% off; after 30 bottles, a gold card for long-term 40% off.
  3. Joint promotions with nightclubs, bars, and KTVs, as many customers go there after dinner.
  4. Joint holiday promotions for festivals like Dragon Boat Festival, Father's Day, Mother's Day, Valentine's Day, Mid-Autumn Festival, Christmas, and Spring Festival.

14. Themed Promotions

In the early stages of a brand or product, inject themed, explosive promotional concepts and persist to shape them into "trending hot topics" that stimulate consumer enthusiasm. Consumers, distributors, and media all trust and chase hot topics, which aids word-of-mouth, boosts brand heat, and creates a virtuous consumption cycle. Examples: "10,000 Gold Rings Giveaway," "Millions in Real Gold and Silver," "Drink XXX Wine, Win a Car," "10,000 Laptops Giveaway," "1,000 Singapore-Malaysia-Thailand Five-Day Tours," "Drink XX Wine, Win One of 10,000 iPhone 6s," etc.

15. Community and Square Promotions

These activities are more common in off-season marketing. Go to squares, communities, and rural areas to strengthen mobile terminal creation and promotion. Engage consumers unexpectedly to increase brand association and participation, while achieving sales results.

  1. Buy-gift activities in communities or city squares. Offer buy-one-get-one-free with gifts like soy sauce, vinegar, or discount cards for supermarkets, which are practical and increase participation. When doing buy-gift promotions in communities or squares, partner with large supermarkets in the area. Set the discount card validity to one year, during which consumers can enjoy discounts when purchasing the brand's baijiu at that supermarket. This stimulates repeat purchases.
  2. Promote new drinking methods. During high foot traffic, demonstrate new ways to drink baijiu, such as chilled baijiu, baijiu with ice, or baijiu with iced black tea. Offer on-site mixing and tasting to attract curiosity and participation, enhancing brand atmosphere.
  3. Sponsor community or square talent shows with the baijiu brand or main product. Increase brand exposure by periodically entering communities and squares with roadshow-style talent shows. This leverages the show's popularity, and during roadshows, the brand can display products, communicate selling points, and interact with consumers, boosting awareness and loyalty. Rouhe Zhongzi (Soft Seed) is active in both peak and off-peak seasons. Its high market activity has made it a leader in many county and prefecture markets. Seed Wine often collaborates with government cultural departments to organize rural performances and community activities, combined with on-site buy-gifts, free tasting, Q&A with prizes, small gifts, and surprise draws to engage consumers and strengthen brand recognition.

16. Event Marketing

Event marketing involves planning, organizing, and leveraging people or events with celebrity appeal, news value, or social impact to attract media, social groups, and consumer interest, enhancing brand awareness and reputation, building a positive brand image, and ultimately driving sales. Examples: celebrity meet-and-greets, expert lectures, famous site tours, seminars, major event unveilings, thematic cultural forums, and public welfare activities (sponsoring poor students, the elderly, etc.). For instance, essay contests tied to significant holidays or events, or company-planned activities (like Fenggu Wine's "Fenggu Sign" essay and sentence-making contest, which sparked attention), combined with newspapers, TV, and especially online media, can generate participation. Dukang's "Chinese Love" event marketing is considered a classic in the Chinese baijiu industry. Its brilliance lies in connecting the thousand-year-old Dukang with eternal love, highlighting the theme "Thousand-Year Dukang Witnesses Eternal Love," while enriching Dukang's cultural connotation. According to incomplete statistics, this event attracted 3.59 million online views, 890,000 comments, and coverage by over a hundred mainstream media outlets. Offline, it drove promotions in over 1,000 stores, including tobacco and liquor stores, wedding hotels, and cinemas, with follow-up activities like finding golden weddings, Father's Day, Qixi Festival, and Valentine's Day.

17. Experiential Promotions

Companies can invite key customers and consumers to visit the distillery production line or distinctive business venues, allowing them to experience the product or brand's characteristics and value in a tourism-like manner. This lets them feel the company's rich culture and the importance placed on them, bridging the distance. Such experiential promotions strengthen brand loyalty and reputation, and participants become living advertisements, gradually building the brand image. Xifeng Wine's experiential promotion: consumers who purchase 3,750 yuan of Xifeng Wine receive a 3,750-yuan tour of Shaanxi and the Xifeng distillery, including famous sites like Famen Temple, Terracotta Warriors, Huaqing Pool, Furong Garden, and Mount Hua, as well as the mysterious Xifeng distillery itself.

18. Wedding and Banquet Promotions

Wedding and banquet occasions include weddings, blind dates, graduations, housewarmings, promotions, birthday banquets, and store openings. Develop matching activities and content for these occasions.

1. Promotion Themes

  1. Based on the process: blind date, proposal, engagement, wedding, childbirth, anniversary.
  2. Based on type: wedding banquet, graduation banquet, birthday banquet, housewarming, etc.
  3. Based on festivals: May Day, Qixi, National Day, Spring Festival, Father's Day, Mother's Day, Valentine's Day, Christmas, etc.
  4. Based on sales targets: terminals, intermediaries, consumers, etc.

2. Promotion Methods

  1. Terminal owners/wedding banquet alliance: referral fees, cumulative rewards, secondary redemption; tied to sales volume; bundling and joint promotions.
  2. Wedding banquet agents: commission paid immediately; daily relationship maintenance; irregular fuzzy rewards.
  3. Consumers (bride/groom, wedding guests): buy-gifts, scratch cards, bundling, commemorative gifts.

3. Promotion Policies (One Sale, Two Gifts)

  1. For consumers: mainly buy-gifts, including free liquor, cigarettes, beverages, travel, vouchers (for wedding photo studios, hotels, supermarkets), flower cars, lanterns, rainbow arches, other consumer goods, tiered prizes, scratch cards, and surprise draws.
  2. For intermediaries (terminals/wedding banquet agents): reward XX yuan in cash for each wedding banquet referral, with additional XX yuan after a certain number of referrals, or paid in liquor; to boost terminal owner enthusiasm, this acts as a secondary redemption.

4. Selection of Promotional Items

Choose promotional items based on local consumption habits and preferences. The general principle is items that are not easily liquidated, have high perceived value, are practical, novel, and attractive.

  1. For terminal owners: items not easily liquidated, such as home appliances or travel, or direct liquor gifts, but preferably not the same product.
  2. For wedding banquet agents: practical, novel lifestyle items.
  3. For newlyweds: commemorative items with sentimental value.
  4. For wedding guests: practical, distinctive, and novel items like power banks, umbrellas, card holders, etc.

19. Embedded Promotions

Embedded promotions integrate the brand image and promotional messages into a specific step of the consumer's consumption process. For example, buying 10 cases of liquor for a wedding provides a business car for the wedding procession; buying 5 cases for a birthday party provides a birthday cake, etc. Of course, all materials used in embedded promotions must carry brand elements to effectively promote the company and enhance brand image and awareness.

20. Public Relations Education

For example, Kouzijiao and Yanghe's "consumer plate-in-plate model" and "trunk model" focus on core opinion leaders as key PR targets. However, due to restrictions on official consumption, government consumption has been curbed, and opinion leaders are relatively fragmented. Companies should identify matching core opinion leaders based on product positioning, such as private business owners, unlicensed taxi drivers, teachers, electricians, contractors, wedding planners, community leaders, and key figures in civil associations.

21. Membership Marketing

A consumer membership system centers on building a consumer database, analyzing information, and conducting "one-on-one" marketing to provide detailed, personalized products and services. It is a marketing strategy, not just a promotional tactic. When using membership for promotions, it's crucial to provide real value to members, ensuring they genuinely enjoy the benefits. In practice, many companies offer little difference between member and non-member benefits, leading to a weak membership program.

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