To significantly increase peak-season sales, companies must not only work hard in the off-season but also excel in the peak season. Many companies do a lot of work in the off-season, yet still see no breakthrough in market share or sales during the peak season. Why? How can you ensure that the efforts in the off-season pay off and maximize sales in the peak season? Through practice, we have found that focusing on the 'Three Ups' can successfully boost sales during the peak season.

Stage One: Fill the Channels The top priority in the first stage of the peak season is to 'fill the channels.' The core task is for sales personnel to complete maximum distribution across all developed and developing channels, achieving the highest levels of both distribution coverage and per-store volume. To do this, focus on the following:

  1. Enhance existing networks. Peak-season sales are primarily achieved through existing networks. In the first stage, develop 'blind spots' within the existing network coverage, strengthen weak points, and address crisis points. This is an effective way to improve network distribution capability and quality.

  2. Develop new markets and channels. Off-season market development is challenging, but many undeveloped markets can be quickly developed during the peak season. Sales growth comes both from 'enclosure movements' in new markets and from 'special web-weaving' actions in new channels.

  3. Focus and increase trade promotions. Occupy the warehouse space and capital of every link in the channel. Since the channel has relatively good expectations for the peak season, as long as the company offers attractive promotional incentives, it can fill the channel with products.

  4. Firmly grasp the 'main canals.' In the distribution network, core distributors play a crucial role in breaking through peak-season sales and hold the position of 'main canals.' When formulating sales policies, sales personnel must ensure that the interests of core distributors are higher than those of general distributors, while also controlling core distributors to prevent cross-regional selling, price undercutting, and damage to the entire network's interests.

  5. Effectively combine multiple product varieties. Consumer demand at all levels expands during the peak season. While highlighting the main product, product promotion should be adept at using 'combination punches' and 'lost-track punches' to effectively meet the needs of different consumer segments, while also addressing the channel's needs for sales volume, profit, and countering competitors.

Stage Two: Add Fuel to the Fire After successfully executing the first stage, the market begins to heat up. Entering the second stage, we must 'add fuel to the fire' and 'strike while the iron is hot,' rather than sitting back and missing the opportunity.

At this stage, adding a 'basin of oil' to the 'fire' will surely make the market even hotter. The question is: what kind of 'oil' should be added? If the oil is not added well, it could backfire.

The biggest mistake marketers make is habitually 'adding another fire': promoting, promoting, and promoting again. They cling to promotions during the 'golden period' or even use larger promotional efforts than in the first stage. This often leads to the market suffering from 'stomach pain and acidity' after the peak season, or in severe cases, 'die after a brief thrill.' In reality, at this stage, the speed of goods turnover accelerates, and the channel's expectations for promotional intensity are not high. Companies can compress trade promotion expenses and pool financial resources to switch to a different kind of 'oil.'

The best 'oil' at this time is to increase the intensity of brand communication, building and enhancing brand strength and momentum. At this stage, increased sales and compressed trade promotion costs can support increased brand communication expenses; conversely, the rapid rise in brand influence will drive sales growth.

Key points for 'adding fuel to the fire':

  1. How much money should be spent? In brand promotion, we often face two dilemmas: on one hand, half of the money is wasted; on the other hand, excellent communication plans are killed by stingy budgets. Solving this problem cannot rely on extracting a fixed percentage of sales or profits, nor on looking at competitors' spending or last year's spending. These methods are unsatisfactory. The only basis for how much to spend is how much is needed to achieve the brand communication goals. Use the brains of planners and managers, and with the smallest possible budget and clever creativity, make a small budget achieve great results.

  2. Communicate a clear and accurate brand positioning. Only accurate and clear brand positioning has communication value. If the positioning is wrong, it is better not to communicate at all. For example, Baixiang Group once vigorously promoted the 'Golden Baixiang' brand, but because the upgraded product was positioned at 'less than one yuan,' it constrained the brand's elevation and development. The company eventually had to reluctantly abandon the brand.

  3. Dare to be first in event marketing. Event marketing is an important strategy for enhancing brand awareness and influence at low cost. Creating events that the target consumer group highly focuses on and triggering sustained media coverage not only saves advertising costs but also leverages the 'four ounces moving a thousand pounds' effect, with some effects that advertising cannot replace.

  4. Media selection and execution. Every medium—whether TV, newspapers, the internet, or direct mail magazines—has its own advantages and disadvantages in brand building. Whether a company invests in national or local media, it should select and combine media based on the highest contact frequency with the target consumer group and the time slots and programs with high attention, to maximize the transmission of brand information to the target consumer group.

Stage Three: Add Flowers to the Brocade Completing the first two stages means 90% of the peak-season work is done. The remaining 10% is the next task. Doing this 10% well adds a beautiful 'flower' to the 'brocade' of peak-season work.

Some companies may become intoxicated by the success of the first two stages and neglect follow-up work, failing to effectively leverage the sales momentum from the early stages to extend the peak season cycle. Others may become arrogant from the victories of the first two stages and take overly aggressive measures, launching another wave of excessive promotions to the channel, leading to product congestion in the channel when the off-season arrives, causing large amounts of unsold inventory and even returns.

In the third stage, companies should neither do nothing nor do whatever they want. The most appropriate approach is to 'add flowers to the brocade.' This stage's work is to 'clean the battlefield' and 'sweep in front of your own door,' focusing on terminal and consumer promotions to quickly move products from the channel to consumers:

  1. Conduct consumer promotion activities in various forms.
  2. Increase the number and effort of sales guides.
  3. Increase terminal expenses and material investment to strengthen terminal visualization.

'He who does not plan for the future will find trouble at his doorstep.' To do the above three stages well, it is absolutely not the case that you only formulate strategies and plans when you reach a certain stage. Both companies and regional marketing personnel should, before each peak season, through a comprehensive analysis of the competitive situation and their own conditions, draft a feasible and comprehensive peak-season strategy, and during execution, make good use of external resources and adapt flexibly to maximize peak-season sales.

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