Dear readers, I'm Yuan Lai from New Distribution. Recently, I've received no fewer than three calls from brand owners asking about their year-end distributor meetings. The current economic situation and consumer confidence are what they are—no need to elaborate. The overall environment is tough, and everyone is under pressure. Most importantly, the downstream channel landscape has changed rapidly this year: traditional supermarkets are undergoing adjustments, wholesale supermarkets are emerging, snack discount stores are making an impact, local B2b platforms are rising, and instant retail is encroaching. In the past, the online space was lively while offline remained largely unchanged, but now it's the opposite. Facing these major offline shifts, distributor owners are having a hard time. Against this backdrop, friends ask me: How should this year's distributor meeting be conducted?

Based on my exchanges with brand friends, here are my suggestions for manufacturers on how to hold their annual distributor meetings (large-scale events), for your reference.

This Year's Meeting Needs a Different Approach

In the past, manufacturers' distributor meetings were relatively simple. Mornings featured leadership speeches, annual reviews, and next year's targets; afternoons covered new product launches, ordering policies, and channel strategies; evenings included receptions and customer awards. I imagine most manufacturers' distributor meetings follow this pattern. At year's end, it's a gathering, an award ceremony, a slogan, a goal, a new product, and a policy push. In the eyes of manufacturers, it's just a simple annual customer gathering. But now, in this environment, it feels like the "annual meeting" can't go on as before. Distributor owners are unsure if their businesses can survive. In the past, e-commerce's impact was at least online—out of sight, out of mind. Now, wholesale supermarkets and snack stores are opening right at distributors' doorsteps. Can they pretend not to see? Can they avoid addressing it at meetings? It seems unavoidable. In the past, the offline market was closed and independent. With demographic, economic, and penetration dividends, manufacturers could grow the incremental market without worrying about external changes. Whatever manufacturers said, distributors believed. They just followed and worked hard. But now, the offline market is diverse and open. Dividends have completely disappeared; it's a stock market, and some categories are even shrinking. Manufacturers have to "bend down" to work hard in the frontline market, let alone distributors who are confined to their own small plots. Facing "price butcher" wholesale supermarkets, distributor owners can only vent their frustration to manufacturers. Therefore, at this crucial annual meeting, manufacturers must not only talk about their own market but also explain the changes in the external market environment. A friend put it well: "Our distributor partners have limited information from the frontline. When they see discount wholesale supermarket formats, they think it's a price butcher that disrupts the market and must be resisted. But I hope my distributor partners see not just the low prices but the underlying logic behind wholesale supermarkets. First, align our understanding, then we can discuss rational and objective views, and most importantly, coping strategies." Earlier, New Distribution released the "2024 China FMCG Distributor Business Condition Survey Report," which showed that in the first half of 2024, only half of distributors met their sales targets. In the past, when business was growing, they might just complain a bit and move on. But now, as independent business entities, distributors are deeply mired in financial difficulties. As leaders, manufacturers must provide distributors with more industry and retail information.

How to Hold the 2024/2025 Annual Meeting?

First, acknowledge the pressure from the external environment, while reviewing and summarizing the past year's operations, and convey positive confidence and attitude. Distributors are the core assets of manufacturers, and channels are the core assets of distributors. Facing changes in downstream channels, every distributor must proactively seek change. Meeting Tone:

  1. Positive attitude;
  2. Firm confidence;
  3. The dual nature of crisis;
  4. No complaining, no lying flat;
  5. Understand the underlying logic of retail channel changes, establish new business cognition, and proactively seek change and adaptation with rationality.

A brand friend told me: "A distributor owner attends no fewer than 5-10 annual meetings each year, as every company holds one, so distributors have developed immunity. Each meeting is monotonous, from the manufacturer's perspective, outputting strategies and guiding distributors to make changes. These are what we manufacturers want to do, but they don't truly resonate or build consensus with distributor partners." "In the past, following the manufacturer's strategy and policy, they just worked hard. That method worked because there was incremental growth, but now it definitely won't." Now, manufacturers and distributors need to co-create, setting aside channels they can't control or stop. Facing the seemingly shrinking traditional supermarket channel, how to find new growth; facing new channels (instant retail, community retail), which distributors haven't paid attention to before, how to start operating now.

Summary

For a large portion of manufacturers, distributors are core assets. Now, as old channels are being transformed, they need to optimize distributors. When new channels emerge, they don't want to let them go. Manufacturers must tell them the underlying logic behind changes in old and new channels and proactively seek change. New Distribution released three major industry reports at its Shanghai conference in August this year: "Distributor B2b Platformization Strategy Insight Report," "Distributor Business Condition Survey Report," and "Hard Discount Development Report (FMCG Industry)." These three reports well articulate the underlying logic of current changes in the industry's channel side. I suggest brand friends incorporate their content into their distributor meetings. Friends who need these three reports are welcome to scan the QR code below to contact the author to obtain them.