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Terminal interception is not only a battle for channel and consumer resources but also a brutal war entangled with information overload, terminal salesperson competition, and profit erosion. Its forms are reflected not only in shelf space, end caps, and promotional placements but also vividly in the competition among promoters stationed in KA stores.

People are the core of everything! In terminal interception, deploying promoters is the most effective method for both interception and counter-interception. However, when everyone uses promoters, problems arise:

If you deploy them, it seems only to serve a defensive purpose.

If you don't, you feel at a disadvantage.

In any first- or second-tier city, there are many KA stores. If you deploy promoters in every one and engage in battle with competitors, the cost would be unbearable!

Facing this situation, how can you win the battle of terminal interception and counter-interception?

I. Four Strategies for Terminal Counter-Interception

To effectively counter terminal interception and improve the efficiency of terminal marketing resources, you must first conduct pre-analysis and strategic planning.

(1) Identify Your Key Terminals for Effective Counter-Interception

Should you counter-intercept at every terminal where competitors are intercepting?

Clearly, the answer is no, because:

You will be constrained by your available marketing resources and expected sales profit. In many cases, this determines that you cannot afford to follow your competitors everywhere, defusing every landmine they plant at terminals.

Even if you equip most points of sale with counter-interception measures and set up a long defensive line, you may still fail to stabilize or increase sales figures. Many of these terminals may be places where you can only occupy space but sell little.

All this dictates that before allocating limited marketing resources for counter-interception, you must identify key terminals.

In fact, if you have previously analyzed sales data and growth potential for each point of sale, it is not difficult to identify the 20% of terminals that contribute 80% of your performance from those where competitors are intercepting.

Of course, the final decision on which 20% are key terminals for counter-interception depends on whether you prioritize sales volume, profit contribution, or a combination of both.

Similarly, terminal interception is not limited to hypermarkets; your counter-interception should extend from KA stores to key terminals at all levels, including small grocery stores. This raises the requirement to refine key terminals by different levels of outlets.

Moreover, in reality, although small and medium supermarkets may have lower single-store sales than hypermarkets, their single-store profit contribution may not be much lower due to lower entry barriers, lower interception costs, and more flexible interception methods. In fact, many suppliers have already chosen to avoid hypermarkets and return to traditional channels for these reasons.

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(2) Concentrate Counter-Interception Resources on Key Terminals

As a giant in the tea beverage market, Master Kong once launched a "sweeping leaves" terminal counter-interception against Wahaha's iced tea. In the Guangzhou market, it was reported that Master Kong, to more effectively counter Wahaha's vivid terminal interception, "bought back" Wahaha iced tea at various retail stores, exchanging its own products for Wahaha's. Additionally, Master Kong offered greater benefits and signed "exclusive agreements" to counter interception by Wahaha and other competitors. The intensity was significant.

However, for weaker brands, dispersing limited terminal marketing resources across secondary or intertwined terminals is inappropriate. This dictates that using precision-guided "cluster bombs" to strike key targets is the necessary counter-interception strategy.

This means you should not waste limited marketing resources on stores with low sales and profit contribution, or where future breakthroughs are unlikely, but rather identify key points, shorten the battle line, and concentrate firepower.

Of course, for newly opened stores without historical sales or profit data, you should consider store performance and foot traffic as references.

If you deal in products like alcoholic beverages that require channel segmentation (e.g., supermarkets vs. hotels), you should choose places that are important to you but where competitor interception is relatively weak, to conduct terminal interception.

(3) Analyze Competitors' Interception Methods and Use Differentiated Counter-Interception Targeting Their Weaknesses to Deploy Marketing Resources and Launch a "Highland Counterattack"

To hit a snake, strike its head; terminal counter-interception must also target the key points. This means that counter-interception strategies and measures must be based not only on consumer behavior research but also be competition-oriented.

Bird, known as the "fighter among phones," when breaking through foreign brands' terminal interception networks, targeted their weaknesses such as long distribution channels and thin profits. They used a "human wave tactic" with salespeople conducting carpet-bombing street distribution and building rapport with store staff, giving immediate commissions after sales, effectively improving their sales volume in terminal interception.

Of course, in practice, competitors' weaknesses and your differentiated counter-interception methods are not limited to this narrow scope. That is, details determine effectiveness and success, so you should conduct more specific analysis:

  • How are competitors bound to points of sale, and how tightly? Is there an opportunity to directly dismantle their interception from the terminal?
  • What is the content of competitors' terminal interception activities that affect consumer motivation? How much impact do they have on purchase decisions? Can you offer counter-interception activities that meet consumer needs competitors cannot?
  • What are competitors' information interception carriers, and what is their influence radius? How can your counter-interception information enter consumers' minds first or multiple times when they visit stores?
  • Are there gaps in competitors' terminal interception activities regarding consumer contact? Are their promoters dissatisfied with compensation or payment timeliness? How skilled are these promoters at closing sales? Are there gaps you can exploit?
  • What are competitors' usual systems and behaviors regarding terminal maintenance, such as store visits? How do these factors affect their interception? Are there opportunities?
  • The volume of music at competitors' off-site promotions, the design of promotional scripts...

There are many more questions and analyses like these about what competitors are intercepting. It can be said that once you find answers to these questions, you can almost be certain that your counter-interception has found competitors' weaknesses and achieved effective differentiation.

(4) Set Up Terminal Interception Barriers for Competitors to Weaken Their Effectiveness and Increase Their Costs

Regardless of brand or company strength, this should be a basic principle of counter-interception. In this regard, P&G's counter-interception against Shulei, the local brand that posed the greatest competitive threat, is worth learning from.

To effectively counter Shulei, known for terminal interception, P&G used advertising posters, continuous sun umbrellas, promotional price tags, fun mini-games, hot-selling areas (or gift areas) dozens of meters away from promotional tables, and stationed promoters. They set up multiple visual barriers in the transition zones between Shulei's promotional points and shelves, greatly weakening Shulei's interception effect and further forcing Sibeike Group to be exhausted by interception, keeping its terminal sales costs high.

Source: Business Trends

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