01 About the Pandemic 1. Previously, outbreaks were concentrated; now they are sporadic and frequent. In 2020, the pandemic broke out nationwide all at once. Now, it appears in one place today and another tomorrow. I often travel for business, and I arrange my itinerary based on where outbreaks occur. If an outbreak appears in one place, I quickly travel to another market or another company. Once the first place is controlled and reopened, I immediately shift back. This is a multi-point outbreak with time and space gaps. 2. The pandemic is normalized; any decision without a pandemic contingency plan is not a good decision. In 2020, when the pandemic struck suddenly, it was understandable that everyone was at a loss because they had never encountered it before. Now, nearly three years into the pandemic, if tactical actions have not been adjusted to fit the current environment, and decisions are made without contingency plans, that is truly hopeless. Philip Kotler: If your company is still doing business the same way five years from now, you are on the verge of closing down. Because the market keeps changing, but you have not changed yourself. Here are a few examples: multi-warehouse layout, online office work, and establishing processes, qualifications, and connections for livelihood supply units. Those who know first eat meat, those who know later drink soup, and those who are unaware get nothing but the cold wind. 3. Without the pandemic, it is hard; with the pandemic, there is no chance to even try. Peter Drucker said, "Turbulence itself is not scary; what is scary is continuing the logic of the past." The pandemic is not scary; what is scary is a pandemic mentality. Pessimists are often right, but optimists often succeed. Lower expectations; survival is growth. The process of survival is the industry reshuffling and eliminating peers. During the window of free activity, roll up your sleeves and work at a saturated, fast-paced, high-intensity pace. During lockdown periods, find ways to move. Movement itself is a method. As long as you act, you can directly or indirectly produce results. Even if it is just having daily meetings with employees or studying every day. 02 About Consumption Three years of pandemic have quietly changed people's consumption habits and concepts. Only by quickly understanding changes in consumer demand can we better understand consumers and better meet their needs. 1. Consumer demand always exists; consumption scenarios shift, and some scenarios decrease or disappear. Whether the pandemic occurs or not, consumer demand always exists; only consumption scenarios shift. Wherever there are consumption scenarios, go there to work. When the pandemic occurs, group drinking consumption of baijiu disappears, while home consumption increases; urban consumption scenarios disappear, but rural consumption scenarios exist. 2. Purchasing power declines, the middle class downgrades, and consumption polarizes, forming a dumbbell shape. Three years of pandemic, economic downturn, hard to make money, no spare cash, and lack of confidence or insufficient confidence in future earnings lead to a decline in purchasing power. Checklist-based consumption increases, impulse consumption decreases, consumption focuses on "cutting expenses," and increased spending is more targeted. Overall consumption is dumbbell-shaped: thick at both ends, thin in the middle. Consumption is polarized, and the middle class is most affected. 3. Decision cycles lengthen; consumers think emotionally but consume rationally. The consumer decision path is: awareness, attraction, inquiry, purchase, repurchase. The ease of information access and the pursuit of cost-effectiveness lead to longer decision cycles, emotional thinking, and rational consumption. 4. Consumption trends toward health. The pandemic has increased people's emphasis on health. Health and safety are the primary factors in consumer choices. Health-oriented food and beverages are more aligned with future trends and will develop better. Healthy, eco-friendly products, such as healthy light meals, sugar-free beverages, and non-fried snacks, are gradually gaining popularity among China's new middle class. 03 About Growth 1. Growth comes from continuously breaking the boundaries of self-awareness. Growth is the ability to make correct decisions consistently. This requires new thinking, breaking old cognition. With an old map, you cannot find a new continent. First, you need ideas that can achieve growth, a willingness to change, and acceptance of new things. Second, you need paths and methods to achieve growth. Finally, you need supporting resources. 2. Doing itself is a method. Immerse yourself in the field; the answer is on the spot, and the spot has gods. Thinking leads to problems; doing leads to answers. When the environment is poor, action itself is a method. Many problems are not problems at all during actual execution. The answer is on the spot; the spot has gods. The Kuomintang fought by saying 'Charge!' while the Communist Party fought by saying 'Follow me!' During difficult times of development, grassroots confidence comes from the boss being on the front line. Persuading employees is foolish; reasoning is the most useless. Only by fighting several victorious battles with frontline employees—you do, I watch, observe the process and results, learn methods, and build confidence—and after the business itself achieves several successes, the morale of the entire team will rise. 3. Finding opportunities is more important than solving problems.
Do not solve problems at the level where they were created. American futurist Naisbitt said, Finding opportunities is more important than solving problems.
For example: It is said that Sichuan farmers once complained that Haier washing machines were of poor quality.
After receiving the complaint, Haier marketing staff investigated and found that many farmers not only used the washing machines to wash clothes but also to wash potatoes and sweet potatoes, and the mud clogged the drain pipe.
Haier's boss, Zhang Ruimin, decisively decided based on the investigation: develop a washing machine with a thicker drain pipe that can wash both clothes and potatoes and sweet potatoes.
04 About Specific Strategies 1. Outlets are the grain-producing machines; super outlets are super business. Sort out channel outlets, categorize them, and always pay attention to changes in outlet quantity and quality. Strengthen the atmosphere on the surface, dig deep at points. The outlet layout should be structurally reasonable. Absolute density achieves absolute sales. 80% of market sales come from 20% of outlets. Store business is also facing industry reshuffling, showing the Matthew effect. Especially in the current environment, the overall business of super outlets is less affected. Super outlets are squeezing and encroaching on the sales of other outlets. Focus resources, deepen relationships with super outlets, and do deep and thorough work with super outlets to keep the basic sales volume stable. 2. Optimize product and channel structure. The product structure should satisfy: complementarity between catering and circulation products, seasonal complementarity, and the combination of image products, profit products, and traffic products. Channel structure: deepen vertically, widen horizontally. Specifically, it depends on your own strength and development stage. Be a category king or a channel king, single category with multiple brands, or multiple brands or multiple categories. If the market capacity is small, it is recommended to have multiple categories and multiple brands; for high-value categories with long cultivation cycles, it is recommended to have a single category and single brand; if the market capacity is large, it is recommended to have a single category with multiple brands. 3. Change the engine while the plane is flying; corporate operation is the only way out. "No reform is achieved amid applause; every great enterprise is a child of winter." Changing the engine while the plane is flying means finding a balance between increment and stock, without neglecting one for the other. With intensifying competition and increasingly detailed social division of labor, the degree of specialization required is growing. Only professional operation can adapt to market development needs. Corporate operation is the only way out. The earlier you transition and formalize, the earlier you enjoy the dividends of corporate operation. 4. All business is datafied; all data is business-oriented. Without datafying business, it is like blind men touching an elephant. Digitalization is imperative; success lies in the model, and victory lies in management. Many distributors do not even have basic market data. Without data, they rely on feelings and empiricism to do business. Opportunism is large, cannot be replicated, and cannot achieve precise resource allocation. All business datafied means presenting all business in a data-driven way, making it clearer and more intuitive. All data business-oriented means analyzing the market based on data and making correct decisions effectively for the market. 5. Time is the biggest cost; decide quickly and react quickly. There are too many uncertain factors in the market, and the effective time window for opportunities becomes shorter. Decide quickly, react quickly; time is the biggest cost. Action is greater than perfection; perfection equals ruin. First have it, then optimize. Seize the first opportunity, then continuously maintain optimization and iteration. My sharing ends here. Thank you for listening. Lying flat is not advisable, and winning by lying down is impossible. Winter is cold for everyone; you cannot stop living just because you have frostbite. Finally, I wish everyone to survive the winter and welcome the spring blossoms next year. -END-