---
title: "County, Township, and Village FMCG Operations Tactics: First 'Ambush', Then 'Draw the Sword'"
description: "The potential sales in county, township, and village markets are tantalizing, but hidden traps abound. Based on years of observation and hands-on experience, this article breaks down the key scenarios—decision-making, testing, market, operations, competition, distribution channels, management, preparedness, public relations, and planning—and outlines a phased approach from testing to sustained growth, emphasizing the importance of understanding local nuances and building trust."
author: "刘建恒"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2015-07-14"
language: "en"
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# County, Township, and Village FMCG Operations Tactics: First 'Ambush', Then 'Draw the Sword'

> The potential sales in county, township, and village markets are tantalizing, but hidden traps abound. Based on years of observation and hands-on experience, this article breaks down the key scenarios—decision-making, testing, market, operations, competition, distribution channels, management, preparedness, public relations, and planning—and outlines a phased approach from testing to sustained growth, emphasizing the importance of understanding local nuances and building trust.

Tantalizing Sales and Traps
To be honest, promoting FMCG products in counties, townships, and villages is as elusive as a black hole. With 800 million rural residents, if we could earn one cent per person per month, it would be an astronomical figure. However, the rural reality of "different accents within three li, different rules within ten li," the muddy and bumpy logistics, and the low living standards... make it difficult to find the balance point between investment and return.
With both tantalizing potential sales and silent traps, expanding and maintaining county, township, and village markets is like searching for treasure on an isolated island, full of risks and joys. Based on our years of observation and firsthand experiences, we summarize the following.
First, Decision-Making Scenario Analysis
"Why isn't our product in this store?" A blonde, blue-eyed president of a Fortune 500 company asked a salesperson at a township savings office, causing laughter from the audience and confusion among the accompanying foreign managers. Two years later, after heavy investment, his product quietly withdrew from the county and township markets.
We are even more pleased to see that Zong Qinghou personally went to the front line for local guidance, and research documents flew to headquarters like snowflakes. Today, in remote areas, only Wahaha bottled water is available next to the Henan pancake stalls. This demonstrates the flattest, most efficient, and most direct model for formulating county, township, and village promotion strategies and tactics.
Second, Testing Scenario Analysis
During early market trial promotions, it is taboo to use all resources at once. Many companies seek rapid growth and pour all resources into the market. Although sales increase significantly, later it becomes unclear which type of resource played the decisive role, leading to wasted funds. The proper approach should be:
1. Test product market penetration through customer trials and terminal display sales;
2. Test marketing push-pull effects through terminal displays, end-cap posters, incentive policies, and temporary promotional staff;
3. Test brand influence through TV, newspaper, and billboard advertising.
By testing in these three tiers, we can obtain data to clarify the proportion of each resource's contribution, then integrate and advance together, maximizing promotion value.
Third, Market Scenario Analysis:
When I first entered townships, I invited several township store owners to smoke a pack of 10-yuan cigarettes. They seemed to enjoy them, even taking a strong drag at the butt. From chatting, I learned that in many townships, the township head smokes cigarettes costing 6-10 yuan, the village head smokes 1-3 yuan, and ordinary farmers smoke 0.2-0.5 yuan. This consumption difference made me realize that understanding county-level market demand requires more effort. So I conducted tiered surveys. In county towns, big brands like Unilever's Lux and P&G's Safeguard are increasingly accepted by consumers. However, due to strategic neglect, high prices, and poor logistics, township markets are like a screen blocking them out. Meanwhile, many excellent small and medium enterprises, using convenient motorized tricycles, thorough knowledge of local customs, and suitable supply, thrive in the vast potential market, creating regional brands that meet people's needs.
From this, I learned that the county-level market is divided into three tiers: county town, township, and village group. It is essential to have a product series and differentiate quality, image, and price to position at these three levels. Only then can business opportunities be unlimited. For each FMCG project, if the product strength is weak, the product line is not rich, and the initial capital investment is not sustained, it is difficult to solidify the market foundation. It is better not to cross the line.
Fourth, Operations Scenario Analysis:
Due to economic environment and consumption capacity constraints, most townships and villages lack professional washing and care terminals, with food and grocery stores being the majority. Leveraging these channels is most conducive to lowering the center of gravity. Crucially, operating washing and care businesses through these diversified stores, using merchandising to highlight our product image and enhance cash conversion, is a shortcut for cooperation. In county-level markets, constrained by transportation, manpower, and traffic, the lower the level, the weaker the consumption capacity, and the product and capital flow rates often decrease at the margin, while costs and profits increase at the margin.
Making the county town a benchmark and focusing on townships, rewarding second-tier distributors with motorized tricycles and motorcycles for delivery tools, and radiating to village group outlets can have a connecting role. Conversely, doing village group distribution and sales first, then working upstream, can also achieve the effect of "rural areas encircling the cities." We can decide based on the competitive situation.
Fifth, Competition Scenario Analysis:
In FMCG, to increase the chance of success, you need to "ambush" first, then "draw the sword." That is, thoroughly understand the situation, plan meticulously, and then strike the market with lightning speed, never giving competitors any chance to follow up and attack.
Many top players in FMCG regions have "fierce" reaction speed and are full of wolf-like aggression. When a brand is about to make a big move, it needs to pay attention to the support capability of upstream suppliers, the growth capability of potential competitors, the competitive capability of current competitors, and the promotion capability of downstream distributors, adjusting strategies in a timely manner (Attachment 1).
Sixth, Distribution Channel Scenario Analysis:
"Son, Uncle Niu's truck is here, get ready to unload," "Wife, Xiao Ma is almost here, just say I'm not in." This is a true portrayal of rural promotion. The three-tier network of county, township, and village, with uneven terminal quality, routes not on maps, and unfamiliar dialects and customs, determines that professional competence must be combined with an amateur perspective, achieving the goal that lasting longer is more important than doing bigger.
Most customers are accustomed to relationship marketing based on familiar people, vehicles, goods, prices, times, and routes. We need to use fixed routes, fixed vehicles, fixed times, fixed staff, fixed prices, fixed maintenance, and fixed merchandising to support this rural reality of "different accents within three li, different rules within ten li."
"Old Ma, five boxes of laundry powder, 160 yuan, here's the money." I have seen many times old salesmen who have spent half their lives in townships casually take a few boxes from the truck, throw them on the counter, and settle the account. Customers often pay quickly.
Upon reflection, doing one thing to the extreme is an advantage. Besides being recognized by an old face, old salesmen understand that managing customers' inventory and sales is equivalent to managing their cash box; paying attention to competitors' inventory and sales is equivalent to paying attention to our voice in the industry. Every time they distribute goods, the goods they seemingly casually throw to customers are based on years of terminal experience and tacit understanding of customers' immediate needs, so goods arrive and money comes.
Seventh, Management Scenario Analysis:
"Customers are the market, stores are the network." Based on the long-term pursuit of 100% distribution rate, targeted support should be given to terminals: protect large ones, support weak ones, and retain small ones. In practice, it is common for salespeople to overstock large customers, causing indigestion, and ignore small customers, leading to frequent stockouts.
Price difference lasts forever,
Inventory without omission,
Distribution must be lean,
Merchandising at its best,
Sales in multiple series,
Collection clear to the cent.
These five points are the operational formula summarized by hundreds of foreign enterprise employees over two years of firsthand market experience. Missing any detail is a mistake.
Eighth, Preparedness Scenario Analysis:
Brand, sales, profit, and cash flow are the four pillars of FMCG operations. In the early stage of distribution, you often hear whether goods sell well or not. When sales are good, terminal customers become profit-oriented. Grasp the links of inventory, price difference, distribution, display, sales, collection, and merchandising. The faster the flow, the fewer customer complaints, and the long-term efficiency of the sales support system is the key to victory. "The closer the head and feet are," the more conducive to seamless operation.
Sales—the biggest fear is that the front line is under pressure while the rear has no supplies. The most painful thing for salespeople is to serve the market well while also "serving" internal staff who allocate resources. It is necessary to regularly have sales, sales support, and strategy customization personnel cross-post to each other's positions for deep experience.
Ninth, Public Relations Scenario Analysis:
In operating rural markets, those in cars cannot outdo those on bicycles, and those on bicycles cannot outdo those carrying goods on their shoulders. If you make store owners feel you are superior, you are seeking your own death. Only salespeople who can eat from the same pot, live in the same leaky house, drink the same cup of wine, and smoke the same pack of cigarettes with the target group can create a good cooperation platform.
Tenth, Related Planning Scenario Analysis:
Generally, things used by cadres' families first often play a demonstrative role in the surrounding area. It is common for some small cadre family members to run a grocery store or do small business. Cooperating with them can sometimes lead to relatively large group purchases.
The packaging cost investment should consider high practical value for the consumer group, making it easier to open people's wallets. For example, daily condiments packed in basins and sold at a bundled price by second-tier distributors can achieve good bundled sales. Retail stores are happy to sell spoonful by spoonful and then earn a basin. This greatly enhances market penetration.
In fact, in FMCG, if you are not a saint, you must be a madman. Many people quit due to the fast pace of mental, physical, and financial demands. Persisting for years, you become like a skilled oil seller, thoroughly familiar with local conditions and with a growing number of relationship customers. The actual operation is "eight periods and one day": testing period, focusing period, distribution period, growth day, cultivation period, blowout period, nirvana period, value-added period, and sustained period. The full implementation process and typical cases are organized as follows.
Testing Period—To Jump High, First Crouch Down
To jump high, first crouch down. Through channels like supermarkets, retail, and street stalls, understand the entire process of customers' purchases. Through target groups like residential areas, units, and hotels, understand customers' usage reactions. Only then can you avoid being like a blind man on a blind horse, approaching a deep pool at night.
First, start with double-blind testing. Decision-makers select consumers relatively evenly based on geographic area and consumption level distribution. Temporarily remove the names, logos, and packaging of the most popular products on the market and the laundry powder and other products you want to launch, number them, and offer them for free trial. During this process, the test executors are also unaware of the brands, to investigate consumers' acceptance of the quality, fragrance, dosage, etc., of the products we are about to promote.
"What exists is reasonable." When I conducted rural market tests in northern counties and townships, survey data showed that many households used one to two times more than county customers. Many subjectively judged that testers were just trying to take advantage. But when I visited users on-site, I understood that in many villages, laundry powder is used to fry dough sticks to enhance puffing, mix with pesticides to increase spraying precision and adhesion, and wash pots, stoves, dishes, faces, bodies, hair, and clothes. Its functions are seemingly incredibly amplified. "If your laundry powder had more fragrance, it would sell better." A casual remark from a village head's wife indeed increased our product sales.
Pay attention to the details of customers' purchases, and even more to the entire process of customers' usage. In our subsequent usage surveys of various products, we intentionally or unintentionally discovered:
1. Washing clothes, bathing, and shampooing in northern counties and townships are team activities and a form of fun, organized, tacit, and at relatively fixed times. It is normal for people to borrow and share washing products. Therefore, conducting market research, on-site sales, and brand promotion at riversides, bathhouses, and barbershops is equally feasible.
2. Most men use only half a bag of sachet shampoo at a time. Adding an extra seal line in the middle of each sachet, a humanized design, can trigger greater market demand. Most sachet shampoos are 5 ml. When divided into two connected bags, we can make them 3 ml * 2 bags, selling 1 ml more per use than other brands. A nine-story tower starts with a pile of earth. Competing from the single-cell level increases the odds of winning.
3. Soap is a high-end consumer product in rural areas; laundry soap serves as a substitute. Adding fragrance can also boost sales.
4. Small sample products are generally favored by grassroots travelers. Placing similar products at terminals in stations and hotels can effectively increase market coverage.
5. Empty shampoo bottles can store needles, thread, mung beans, condiments, etc. When broken, they can be cut into shoe soles, placed outside a pair of shoes during daily farming to extend the shoes' life. Therefore, shampoo bottles must be environmentally friendly and sturdy.
6. Due to price differences, bulk laundry powder is more easily accepted than bagged, generating sales and deepening distribution channels, but it harms brand image.
Second, conduct atomic-level testing with the same target group as the double-blind test. If possible, entrust a third party to operate. Ask consumers to rate the product's concept, packaging, advertising, price, usage effect, etc., item by item from extremely dissatisfied, dissatisfied, satisfied, very satisfied, to extremely satisfied. Targeted planning and adjustment help avoid weaknesses and leverage strengths.
"Country old men don't know goods; they just pick the big ones." I have experienced that concentrated laundry powder accepted by urban consumers, even when distributed in township markets through various marketing means, failed to open the wallets of the target group, leading to massive returns.
Decisions made without understanding the consumption trends at this level caused the project's market cultivation to be congenitally deficient, ending with terminal complaints, distributor grievances, and decision-makers' failure. The successor adjusted to puffed laundry powder, and the market stabilized only after six months of heavy investment.
Third, targeted trial sales—select representative supermarkets, retail points, township, and village group terminals for sales. Identify the best-selling prices, models, and packaging of our test products and competitors at each consumption level. Summarize these diamond-level information resources. The magic of the network lies in speed. For orders or customized requests to manufacturers, when the market is fully launched, it helps our products circulate quickly, allowing sales to create corresponding brands.
Summary of this period: In this stage, through various research tools, we accumulated a large amount of market introduction data and usage scenarios, helping us focus on the industry and position ourselves. Long-term use of relevant research tools can form a permanent "information dominance" mindset. This system can greatly enhance our ability to lock onto target markets, giving us the first high ground in competition.
"Three years old determines eighty." Customers will view a product promotion like a child. Next, we will experiment with enriching the functions of terminals to maximize their effect, lifting the market and driving overall progress.
Focusing Period—Ignite at Fixed Points, Spark a Prairie Fire
"A single spark can start a prairie fire." The terminals and customer groups activated during the testing period are models to attract more partners. Before the market is about to launch on a large scale, these terminals must be managed by dedicated merchandisers and salespeople, seizing display and end-cap positions to significantly boost sales. Simultaneously, add seven functions to these terminals to exceed customer expectations for product needs, price matching, channel convenience, and service quality. The resulting strong radiation will make market expansion unstoppable.
Specific operations are as follows:
First, benchmark demonstration function—use hanging flags, POP, displays, end caps, music, in-store TV ads, and personnel promotion as resources to create a sales scene where each product's influence is paramount and impulse purchases are encouraged, attracting attention for large-scale distribution.
Second, training function at all levels—the sales atmosphere can cultivate target consumers' brand awareness. We can also invite upstream and downstream partners to visit sales scenes to enhance cooperation confidence, train sales assistants' explanation skills during promotion, hands-on skills during merchandising, and train salespeople's data collection, summarization, and analysis skills during distribution, preparing for rapid tacit understanding in large-scale operations.
Third, brand communication function—build displays like building a temple, make promotional leaflets like wedding photos. Such sales will be maximized, and brand communication will be the most profound. Because, for many people, temples are subconsciously desirable, and wedding photos are subconsciously pleasing. The absolute sales generated create an absolute brand.
Fourth, cash conversion function—when our vivid layout makes customers' visual, auditory, gustatory, and tactile senses subconsciously comfortable, transactions will come naturally. Coupled with promotional staff explanations, brisk sales will not be difficult.
Fifth, laboratory function—we place a tall flying flag with the company logo on the display, and a small box near the end cap where the color, fragrance, and texture of washing products are shown. These all contribute to sales growth... Whether strategic or tactical, testing in representative terminals first before promotion is a steady and fast strategy.
Sixth, competition and cooperation function—once fierce market competition begins, terminals with benchmark functions must play the vanguard role. We provide key support and maintenance, which helps us benchmark against excellent peers, advance wisely, jointly suppress and eliminate weak brands, and solidify market position.
Seventh, information collection function—purchase, sales, transfers, storage, damage, and loss. Daily market changes and each promotion behavior leave valuable data at laboratory-function terminals for us to interpret and predict next steps.
Summary of this stage: This stage connects the previous and next. Using the network points activated during the testing period as fuses, we focus resources on these terminals, ignite at fixed points, quickly attract high attention from various types of terminal owners, and preheat for large-scale distribution.
Distribution Period—The Purpose of Professionalism Is Comfort
"If you want to be professional, first look professional." FMCG veterans know this truth. After visiting the leading stores in each township and reaching consensus, implement a permanent visit plan with the "seven fixed" model to achieve good distribution rates. This is a strategic layout of accumulating small victories into big ones.
First, fixed visit routes—a county-level market has 300-800 outlets. In the first month of distribution, we must formulate a visit route that covers every terminal outlet without exception. In the second month, adjust its rationality. In the third month, it must be stabilized to avoid the scattered distribution like a shotgun.
Second, fixed recognizable vehicles—long-term maintained customers will feel a sense of familiarity when they see our vehicle from afar, reducing communication costs.
Third, fixed delivery times—before loading goods the day before, call each customer to be visited in a pre-sale manner, record their current inventory and next day's replenishment quantity, and appear at the customer's location regularly and punctually every week. Credibility will be established subtly.
Fourth, fixed distribution staff—familiar faces make it easier to sell benefits. We can naturally place products in customers' hands or in front of them, use a calculator to help them summarize the investment and return of our products, and stimulate more cooperation desire. When leaving, attach a sticky business card in a prominent place at the terminal so customers can call us promptly when needed, facilitating both parties and our sales.
Fifth, fixed product price differences—the price system in FMCG is extremely sacred. One terminal's price chaos can destabilize a township's distribution channel. Fixed distribution prices combined with various incentives, such as buying one box of laundry powder and getting a tube of Zhonghua toothpaste, or rewarding non-company brand-name products in regional sales competitions, with practicality as the principle, can implicitly support price control and channel stability.
Sixth, fixed maintenance procedures—the best loading position on the truck, hanging promotional flags in place, POP posted in place, the best outbound position in the warehouse, the best display position at the terminal, clear price tags, terminal staff explaining to customers in place, 1.5-3 times sales-to-inventory ratio in place, and permanent multi-faceted maintenance will have a dripping water effect. Whenever customers call long-distance complaining about poor sales, and I travel thousands of miles to the location, the main reason is often these basic steps not being perfected.
Seventh, fixed merchandising methods—a single-shoulder backpack is a salesperson's treasure bag, containing recent company policies, glue, business cards, calculators, staplers, and many other items forming a mobile office. But remember to include a rag. At each terminal, besides arranging goods in good display positions and neatly, wipe both our products and competitors' products clean. In the market, most salespeople ignore what happens after collecting accounts. This attitude of helping customers manage their business through practical actions and being responsible after the sale will make most customers highly trust and cooperate with you. The purpose of professionalism is comfort. A rag can wipe out a strong market; this simple repetitive behavior can be called the "FMCG Bible," and it is not an exaggeration to describe it as a core competitive advantage.
Implement these seven fixed points, repeat simple things correctly, and achieve the relationship marketing state of familiar people, vehicles, goods, prices, times, and routes. The foundation is solid. Of course, to become an industry leader, "to take, you must first give." There are three distribution essentials to learn from.
First, distribute "benefits" not "good goods." The circulation speed and tiny profits of FMCG determine that communication and transactions need to be fast. When the vehicle arrives at the store, first use hanging flags and POP for external vivid decoration, making transactions easier. Using this method, my first-time distribution rate is often over 90%. For the remaining 10% of customers, some say they have no money. No problem, barter trade: I buy a box of your instant noodles. Now you have money, right? You can buy my goods. The store owner will often laugh and curse while putting your goods on the shelf. Some refuse no matter what. Okay, borrow your counter to display goods for a while, and we'll do on-site sales promotion. Soon a few bags are sold. Then talk to the owner, and communication will be much easier.
Second, distribute "value" not "price." "Do you have dirty clothes? Let me wash them for you." When first distributing in a new area, we often use this method: explain while demonstrating. For the first few times, only let customers stock two or three bags of laundry powder, help them with display, and use the method of frequent small purchases to clear the market. Persisting through all seasons, the salesperson's hardworking hands can wash out an upward-developing market.
Third, distribute "buy points" not "sell points." One example has made me laugh for years. Just after distributing whitening soap to a familiar township terminal, no one had seen such a product. A girl came to buy soap. The store owner picked up a piece of whitening soap and told the girl, "This thing whitens your face. Look how white this soap is." The girl paid without a word. Obviously, the store owner's sales proposition matched the customer's benefit point, and profits followed.
Laundry powder has strong decontamination, shampoo has good cooling effects, and soap kills bacteria and promotes health. Cultivate terminal staff with unique product functions and correct customer benefit points, supplemented by spiritual and material incentives. When customers have more benefit points, our goods will definitely be good goods.
We use the jingle "Three Disciplines and Eight Points of Attention for County and Township Operations" as a summary of the entire market operation process:
Sales personnel must remember all, Three disciplines and eight points of attention;
First, all actions obey the command, strict discipline leads to victory;
Second, do not take a needle or thread from customers, integrity and self-discipline make customers happy;
Third, collect payments promptly, save expenses and reduce consumption;
We must achieve the three disciplines, and never forget the eight points of attention.
First, speak sincerely and friendly, simplicity, politeness, and credibility are magic weapons;
Second, be diligent with hands, mouth, and feet, plan county and township locations well in advance;
Third, promote with posters and banners, highlight customer benefits and never forget;
Fourth, do not ask if people want it, introduce with a smile at the storefront;
Fifth, merchandise and display precisely, frontline training in place for a solid foundation;
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