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Tobacco and alcohol stores, as a mainstream channel in the baijiu industry, have always been a key focus for manufacturers. This article analyzes three strategies—pre-emptive development, package development, and relationship development—and eight tactics to provide ideas for developing tobacco and alcohol stores.
Strategy 1: Pre-emptive Development Strategy This strategy is highly suitable for regions without obvious competitive advantages, especially for manufacturers with distinctive features and companies with weak local distributor resources. In the pre-emptive development strategy, public relations methods such as small-scale promotional meetings, factory visits, and visits to excellent markets are most effective for developing tobacco and alcohol stores, but they require varying degrees of pre-emptive investment from both manufacturers and distributors. Pre-emptive investment also requires a budget and setting development goals.
Strategy 2: Package Development Strategy This strategy is commonly used in mid-to-large-sized FMCG companies in the liquor and subsidiary food industries with a certain reputation, often through bundling and value-added offers. However, for non-mid-to-large enterprises or those without established brand advantages, the package design should emphasize small-scale promotional meetings, factory visits, and visits to excellent markets. Unlike the pre-emptive development strategy, the package development strategy does not require pre-emptive investment from manufacturers and distributors, easing the pressure on costs and resource allocation.
Strategy 3: Relationship Development Strategy Relationship development requires distributors to have strong network resources, increase visit frequency to enhance customer stickiness, introduce sales personnel with existing networks, and leverage referrals from already-cooperating customers to develop tobacco and alcohol stores.
Strategies are easy to understand, but the challenge lies in execution. Here are the eight tactics:
Three Tactics for Pre-emptive Development:
Tactic 1: PR-Style Development
Gifting liquor to tobacco and alcohol stores and holding small-scale promotional meetings can quickly and effectively develop these stores. Gifting liquor to core customers is the most direct way to let them experience the product and is one of the most commonly used methods by manufacturers. However, few do it in a standardized and effective manner, mainly due to poor control over sales personnel, stores, and core customers. Therefore, it is essential to establish gifting rules and procedures to regulate sales personnel's gifting, especially through point-to-point methods (such as mailing gift cards) to avoid overly long processes, too many participants, and inadequate monitoring. Baijiu manufacturers are generally skilled at promotional tasting events, but most use large-scale tastings to develop store customers and consumers, while small-scale promotional meetings for tobacco and alcohol stores are less common. Small-scale promotional meetings first build awareness and then drive sales. They can effectively compensate for distributors' network deficiencies, allowing stores to directly learn about the manufacturer's products while building good relationships on-site, laying a foundation for cooperation and increasing the probability of follow-up transactions. Small-scale promotional meetings also require prior visits and product tasting, and importantly, distributors need to personally invite customers. Sales are not confirmed before the meeting; instead, relationships built during the meeting are used to follow up and close sales afterward. This requires manufacturers and distributors to make pre-emptive investments in gifting and tasting costs, as well as set standards for participating customers and screen for quality. Small-scale promotional meetings are also a "short, flat, fast" method for developing tobacco and alcohol stores.
Factory and advantageous region visits increase transaction rates and development speed. Using the company's own characteristics, such as a liquor culture museum, to educate and develop tobacco and alcohol store customers is also one of the most effective methods. As the industry evolves, store owners place more importance on corporate strength, future trends, and development opportunities. Only by personally visiting and experiencing the company can store owners appreciate its strength and prospects, thereby building a stable customer base. Companies should combine their own situation with online and offline activities to reduce store owners' concerns and accelerate development. Regions or individual stores with successful operations are relatively stable; they can serve as benchmarks for other stores. By establishing and visiting benchmark bases, cooperation with other stores can be promoted.
Tactic 2: Display-Based Development, More Suitable for Low-to-Mid-End Products and Companies with Some Reputation Using product displays in tobacco and alcohol stores to increase atmosphere and sales opportunities is common for companies with low-to-mid-priced products. Displays can quickly enhance the sales environment, but they require high demands on distributors' networks, capital, cost turnover, and team follow-up capabilities. Simply doing free displays in a few stores will not yield good results. If choosing display development, it is necessary to select high-quality stores with good locations and display effects, and increase the number of display stores as much as possible. Overall, display-based development should be chosen based on the actual situation of the region and distributors.
Tactic 3: Credit Sales Development Requires Caution; Choose Strategic Credit Sales Local strong distributors and those with severely insufficient resources can choose credit sales development. However, credit sales should be approached with caution to avoid bad debts and dead accounts. Distributors with strong resources and control capabilities can implement targeted credit sales, but the settlement cycle must be strictly controlled. Distributors with insufficient resources, when there are no other options and the relationship with the store is stable and creditworthy, may consider strategic credit sales. However, credit sales development is generally not used frequently and is usually at the distributor's discretion based on their own situation.
Two Treasures for Package Development:
Tactic 1: Small Packages, Big Impact When developing a tobacco and alcohol store for the first time, the store may lack confidence in selling the product. Therefore, when designing packages, we must consider not only the store's preferences for gifts but also its acceptance level. Try to choose packages that are not too large; after the store completes the first round of sales and builds initial confidence, then configure larger packages. Since it is the first round, cash payment is required, so the package should be generous to increase the store's enthusiasm and ability to accept the first order. When setting package policies, consider whether they align with the company's corporate culture and brand image, whether they achieve both educational and promotional purposes, and whether premium pricing is considered.
Tactic 2: Consumer Promotions to Drive Store Development In the early stages of developing tobacco and alcohol stores, since store customers have not yet seen sales expectations, to help them see the potential, consumer packages can be designed to help stores move inventory, thereby boosting their confidence and achieving development goals. In extremely difficult market conditions, using consumer promotions to drive store development can play a very important role.
Three Links for Relationship Development:
Tactic 1: Introduce Sales Personnel Resources When distributor resources are insufficient, introducing sales personnel with existing relationships can accelerate store development. Especially sales personnel from well-known baijiu manufacturers who have served tobacco and alcohol stores for a long time usually have good terminal resources. Additionally, introducing sales personnel from less well-known brands can also be very effective. Because these manufacturers' products do not sell well, their sales personnel tend to put more effort into service and relationships, making them most suitable for newly developed stores.
Tactic 2: Frequent Visits to Build Stickiness If there is no condition to introduce new sales personnel for store development, increasing visit frequency and continuously seeking opportunities to build stickiness with stores can be an alternative. In this process, it is necessary to establish visit routes, visit cycles, and track visit results to fix the visit frequency of sales personnel.
Tactic 3: Referrals from Existing Customers Referrals from already-developed stores are also the most powerful weapon to increase development speed. Existing store customers have a good understanding of the product, and if sell-through is good, referrals will be even more effective. However, referrals should be timed well; do not ask customers to refer before they have seen sell-through. Instead, promote referrals just after sell-through begins and when customers have enthusiasm for the product.
At the same time, when promoting referrals, it is necessary to set a good pace for relationship building and referral work, and track closely to avoid missing the best opportunity.
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