For an enterprise, especially an FMCG company, the most headache-inducing issue in the early stages of product manufacturing is the product itself. Once the company gets past this period, it is often troubled by brand issues. Problem One For example, weak consumer recognition and insufficient market pull. As a weak brand, how can it resolve these brand-related troubles? (1) Invest heavily in advertising. There is a famous saying in the advertising world: "Without advertising, you wait to die; with advertising, you court death." Weak brands typically lack sufficient funds, making heavy advertising investment unlikely, especially in today's increasingly cluttered advertising environment where the credibility of advertising has fallen into crisis. (2) Use various promotional gimmicks. A walk through the market reveals that many companies have exhausted their promotional tactics, not only in the methods but also in the choice of promotional items. However, sales often only move when there is a promotion; without it, they stall. (3) Offer low prices and discounts for real value. Price is the most effective promotional tool, but cutting prices is like "bleeding" for a company. As long as you have endless "blood," you can bleed more or continuously. But once the consumer market accepts your low price, it becomes "addicted." Once you open the market, it is almost impossible to raise prices. Problem Two Advertising doesn't work, promotions don't work, price cuts don't work... Where should weak enterprises go? (1) Never take shortcuts. Market development follows laws, and any attempt to break these laws will be punished! Every brand must go through stages of display, awareness, purchase, and acceptance from launch to consumption and habitual consumption. No product can jump directly from the display stage to the acceptance stage. When managing their brand, enterprises must advance step by step, down-to-earth. During the display stage (launch period), enterprises should expand their sales points as much as possible while ensuring distribution channels, supplemented by communication tools such as POP displays, to stimulate consumers' senses to the greatest extent. Through repeated stimulation, combined with appropriate terminal promotions, they should encourage first-time trials and gather market feedback to improve the product. These steps are complex and difficult to execute perfectly. As a result, some enterprises may skip certain steps and take shortcuts, often ending up in a situation where they cannot manage both ends. (2) Never trust distributors. Distributing products through distributors is the most effortless way to enter the market: take the money, ship the goods, and the enterprise's task is done. As for how the distributor sells the goods, the enterprise can at most offer suggestions, and even pricing is often decided by the distributor. Often, if you catch a big distributor, you get a big market; if you get a small one, you have to leave it to fate. The enterprise stands behind the distributor to do the market, and the distributor becomes the "dare-to-die squad" for the enterprise to "take the hill." There are only two ways to treat the "dare-to-die squad": (1) "Fool" them into charging up, promising "treasure" at the top. (2) Pay on the spot; heavy rewards will bring brave men. Either way, the enterprise must pay a high price in "profits" and "kickbacks." Problem Three If you can't take shortcuts and can't trust distributors, where should enterprises go? (1) You must conquer the territory yourself! Weak enterprises cannot do the national market, but doing well in a few counties or 1-2 prefecture-level cities is still possible. Concentrating limited resources on a few markets and cultivating them intensively is far better than scattering beans to become soldiers. Consumer markets have a herd mentality and a Pareto effect, where 20% of people determine 80% of consumption trends. As long as the enterprise firmly grasps these consumption leaders and guides them toward its products, it will get closer to its market goals. In recent years, the "plate-in-plate" strategy of "Anhui liquor" is a good example. For white liquor, a county-level city has only about 1,000-2,000 sales points. By sending 3-5 professional salespeople to visit according to professional procedures and with professional assessments, the enterprise can complete the "hill-taking" task itself. Distributors then act as "local troops" to clean up the battlefield and occupy positions. This way, the enterprise can fully engage with the consumer market and, more importantly, change its role in the attack formation, avoiding the embarrassment of the distributor "bullying the master." (2) The closer you are, the stronger! The purpose of production is profit, profit comes from marketing, and marketing is the process of meeting consumer market needs. The connection between the enterprise and the consumer market cannot rely solely on distribution channels. Relying on channels means you must satisfy channel interests. Being just one door away from the consumer market, information transmission is inevitably distorted, and launching new products becomes a matter of intuition. When products cannot suit consumers and only cater to channel interests, they are often short-lived. For example, in the current white liquor industry, OEM production is popular. Many liquor companies design numerous trademarks each year, and some even design packaging based on the number of distributors. From a marketing definition perspective, satisfying channels cannot be called marketing. Even if it succeeds, it will become increasingly tiring and may even harm the company itself—a typical lazy approach. Problem Four Is it enough for enterprises to do all this? The answer is: No! When conquering the market, enterprises must have strong execution as a guarantee. How to build execution? (1) Employees never do what is "hoped" but only what is "assessed." Building execution cannot start from employees' "self-awareness." Emphasizing personal cultivation and quality may have some effect, but it is not fundamental. Enterprises must have a mature training and assessment mechanism. While telling employees what to do, use "assessment" as a benchmark to measure their actions, continuously guide and correct them to align their work with corporate goals. (2) To conquer territory, you must have an "iron army" or "wolf-like division"! Building a marketing iron army is a dream for many enterprises. Without a strong "iron army" as a guarantee, even the strongest brand support is just "hard mouth, soft feet." The way to govern an army is through rewards and punishments! When building a marketing system, enterprises must start with detailed execution, turning the sales team into an "assembly line," making each marketer a link in the line, clarifying responsibilities, refining indicators, and achieving goals bit by bit! (3) The camp is iron, but soldiers flow like water! In the military, new recruits often have the best execution, while veterans have rich experience but often fail to execute fully. As the saying goes, "A newborn calf is not afraid of tigers." Newcomers have an inherent advantage in creative execution. For an enterprise, grassroots marketing personnel must maintain turnover. Only inflow without outflow, or only outflow without inflow, is not good. This requires the enterprise to have sufficient training resources and hardware support, such as job standards, visit records, customer files, etc., so that natural attrition does not leave them at a loss. Big brands are what every enterprise aspires to. Building a big brand is not an overnight task, nor is it just about having money for advertising. When an enterprise successfully builds marketing execution, it is actually not far from becoming a big brand. Like a football match, brand is "having the advantage," and execution is "scoring." A match with only advantage but no scoring is the most awkward, because only scoring wins the game! This article is excerpted from Mr. Fang Gang's book "FMCG Veterans All Do This: Regional Manager's Strategy Handbook." 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