A formidable team played a crucial role in the 'red-green war' of the herbal tea world. Through television, the internet, and especially the real business world, people can truly feel the energy unleashed by this team. This team is the JDB channel. However, this team is also mysterious, with limited available information and interviewees reluctant to discuss it. Such secrecy only fuels our interest in uncovering the ins and outs of this nearly 10,000-person team. Because only by understanding them can we truly understand JDB's marketing and JDB itself. 'Pepsi-style' Channel Evolution "We started doing Wanglaoji in 2006 and continued with JDB in 2012," Liu Ying told Sino-Foreign Management in a remote compound outside the East Fifth Ring Road in Beijing. Liu Ying is a member of the vast JDB channel team. In this compound of less than 1,000 square meters, four vans and a truck are parked side by side on the west side, while a warehouse of about 200 square meters is on the east side. Liu Ying and her husband started their business in this compound. In the last years of the 20th century, they were in the alcohol business. At that time, JDB had just signed a contract with Yangcheng Pharmaceutical Factory (the then owner of the Wanglaoji trademark). In the following years, JDB's Wanglaoji herbal tea sales were mediocre, with influence only in the Guangzhou area. In the Spring Festival of 2003, JDB began to clearly position the 'Wanglaoji' brand as a 'beverage that prevents heatiness'. Since then, its sales grew rapidly. Three years later, in 2006, JDB began to expand beyond the south, choosing to concentrate resources on attacking the Beijing market, using the foodservice channel as the vanguard. To win over northern consumers, a large number of free tasting activities were launched, and from then on, people gradually became accustomed to JDB's overwhelming advertising. In 2007 alone, JDB's marketing investment in the Beijing market reached 500 million yuan. Liu Ying has experienced almost the entire process of JDB's Beijing market development. In 2006, she became a 'postman' distributor in JDB's foodservice channel. The term 'postman' is JDB's specific designation for distributors with transportation capabilities. The foodservice channel developed from the original restaurant supply business after the clear positioning of 'Wanglaoji' in 2003. In the following years, JDB's channels began to rapidly 'evolve', borrowing from Pepsi's channel model—dividing channels into five parts: KA modern (Key Account), wholesale, small stores, foodservice, and special channels. KA modern and special channels were newly established; the former serves large supermarkets and stores, while the latter supplies schools, internet cafes, stations, hotels, KTVs, and other outlets. The traditional channels that originally supplied grocery stores, small shops, restaurants, and wholesale markets were reorganized into three channels: small stores, foodservice, and wholesale. Shaping and Refining When initially attacking the Beijing market, JDB's sales channels were mixed. Part of the resources came from alcohol distributors, and some were developed jointly by alcohol distributors and JDB salespeople. Regardless of who owned the resources, distributors and 'postmen' were responsible for delivery, while JDB was responsible for terminal maintenance. When terminals such as restaurants needed to restock, they would contact JDB salespeople, who would then contact distributors or 'postmen'. According to Liu Ying, this coordination relationship has been maintained to this day. In JDB's other channels, the relationship between salespeople and distributors is also the same. After capturing the Beijing market in 2007, JDB's entire northern market turned around, and by the second half of the year, its total sales had surpassed all carbonated beverage brands in the Chinese beverage market. In the same year, JDB divided the national market into five types: core, high potential, developing, expanding, and strategic, and attacked them step by step. In March 2008, the China Industry Enterprise Information Center awarded the 'Wanglaoji' brand the title of 'No.1 in National Canned Beverage Market Sales in 2007'. After the 2008 Olympics and the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake, 'Wanglaoji' gradually became a national beverage brand. Since then, JDB has further subdivided each channel by region, and now it has basically formed a structure of 5 sales companies under 50 sales regions, with 50 sales regions under more than 500 offices. In each region, there are five levels: mega cities, provincial capitals and coastal developed cities, prefecture-level cities, counties and towns, and villages. Each city has only one general distributor, who then develops multiple 'postmen', such as foodservice postmen, taxi postmen, and wholesale postmen. By the time of the forced brand switch in 2012, JDB had no blank markets nationwide, truly achieving national coverage. The 'Brand Switch' Stranglehold War Liu Ying supplies about 200 foodservice outlets near the compound, mainly Sichuan, Hunan, hotpot, and barbecue restaurants. She and her team are a microcosm of the distributors and postmen in JDB's vast channel network. JDB's omnipresence relies on the seamless marketing channel woven by these 'postmen', distributors, and JDB's sales team. "From international hotels and large supermarkets to small shops in alleys, our products are everywhere," Wang Yuegui told Sino-Foreign Management. As deputy general manager of JDB Group's Brand Management Department, he did not hide his pride in this network. The power of this channel network was fully demonstrated in the 'Wanglaoji' battle that began in the first half of 2012. Brand switching is usually a risky affair, but 'postmen' and distributors like Liu Ying did not feel anxious or restless due to this risk. Liu Ying said that her business was hardly affected during that period. She attributed this to two reasons: first, JDB had earlier printed the 'JDB' logo on product packaging; second, during the commercial war, active JDB salespeople frequently visited terminals, stabilizing sales terminals like restaurants through advertising posters and promotional discounts. When JDB launched its new product on June 1, 2012, Liu Ying recalled that everything was as usual. A survey by Zero Point Consulting showed that by October 2012, consumer awareness of 'JDB Herbal Tea' reached 99.6%. "JDB achieving such results in such a short time is rare in the marketing history of China and even the world," Qu Zongkai, chief consultant of Duobao Marketing and former marketing director of JDB, told Sino-Foreign Management. Pepsi segmented channels, Wahaha segmented regions, and JDB combined the two models, unleashing unimaginable energy. Directly at the Frontline Unlike Liu Ying, Lao Zhang, who is over fifty, looks like a wholesaler about to fall behind. At Beijing's largest grain and oil wholesale market, Shenghua Honglin, in the southeast, most of his goods are sold to 'chuanchuan', small wholesalers who survive on price differences. In JDB's channel network, such wholesalers are a minority, neither valued nor welcomed. In contrast, JDB prefers beverage wholesalers like Beijing Shibida Technology and Trade Co., Ltd. It is located in an inconspicuous courtyard in Chongwenmen, Beijing, but has reliable logistics and stable customers. What JDB values most is its 'door-to-door delivery' capability, that is, the ability to deliver directly to government agencies, organizations, restaurants, universities, hospitals, and other units. In fact, in pushing JDB herbal tea to terminals, Lao Zhang and Shibida are not fundamentally different, but behind them lie huge management issues. Distributors like Lao Zhang cannot guarantee that JDB products enter terminals quickly; if products circulate in the market for a long time, price and information control become difficult. Because there are too many channel levels, it is impossible to accurately and timely obtain frontline market changes. On this channel network, wholesalers like Lao Zhang actually lengthen the entire channel chain, weakening JDB's control over the channel. Therefore, JDB places special emphasis on supporting secondary wholesalers like Shibida, allowing them to directly connect JDB with the terminal market. This is what the outside world praises as JDB's channel flattening. Channel flattening is a channel operation model that emerged from Taiwan in the 1990s. Its overall idea is to simplify the intermediate links in product sales and ensure the efficient operation of the supply system from producer to consumer. The result of channel flattening is the realization of the general distributor system in JDB's channel system. That is, one region has one general distributor, who only develops multiple 'postmen' and secondary distributors. The characteristic of the general distributor system is that there are only two levels of distributors in a channel, compressing channel costs and strengthening information and price control. 'Occupying' the Channel In Liu Ying's hometown of Henan, the Guangyao 'Wanglaoji' sent to terminals is 2 yuan cheaper per box than 'JDB'. "After hearing this news, we also wanted to learn more, but where are the 'Wanglaoji' salespeople?" Liu Ying admitted that the lower wholesale price of 'Wanglaoji' in 2012 did tempt her, but ultimately did not make her switch sides. In Liu Ying's words, people in this circle earn thin profits, sometimes chasing short-term profits, but at critical moments, they must consider the overall situation. Moreover, the salesperson who could introduce Guangyao 'Wanglaoji' was nowhere to be seen. So how do distributors and postmen like Liu Ying stick to JDB's big network? Wang Yuegui said: "For channel and distributors, they value the product's connotation and development potential. As long as the product has more connotation, greater development potential, and is more recognized by consumers, it can bring richer and more lasting returns to channel and distributors." The statement is simple but profound. Profit is always the best incentive; in fact, the profit from selling JDB products has always been higher than peers. Even setting aside incentives, JDB's ability to control channels through formalized agreements is second to none. Contractualization is the most basic way of JDB's channel management, with both parties' rights, responsibilities, risks, and cooperation norms constrained by contracts. For example, cross-regional sales, once discovered, will result in zero sales rewards for the month according to the agreement. Those who complete the agreed tasks, such as developing customers and displays, will receive corresponding rewards. Another common method JDB uses to control channels is to pressure distributors and 'postmen' to stock up. According to JDB, keeping inventory at 1.5 times the customer's weekly sales is safe inventory. But in the past year, JDB's stocking pressure far exceeded this number. "Once you are stocked up, you have no energy to do other products; you have to think about selling the goods on hand," Liu Ying said. The most sophisticated part of JDB's channel control is channel information collection. An anonymous salesperson, Ms. A, told Sino-Foreign Management that her daily work is to visit terminals, including shelf management, inventory counting, customer development, and data recording. Salespeople like her visit about 40 terminals per day, each terminal 1-2 times a week, and sometimes need to help store owners maintain customer relationships directly. Each terminal's service desk has a JDB 'customer service card' that records not only the names and phone numbers of the responsible salesperson and supervisor, but also the times each salesperson and supervisor visited. Each salesperson's daily route is pre-set and made into charts in advance for supervisors and higher-ups to check. Compared to companies that 'throw' channel management to partners, such strict and direct control over salespeople is a major feature of JDB's channel management. At the middle and end of each month, salespeople report customer data of their channels, and clerks enter this data into JDB's RMS system. A former JDB employee who worked there for many years said: "All levels can have a clear understanding of market conditions through the RMS system, from changes in a small shop in a community to performance changes in a region." Such channel control capability is undoubtedly 'terrifying'. The Miracle of Control In Ms. A's assessment indicators, besides daily visits, another important item is developing new customers. JDB is a company that runs its own business, directly helping distributors and 'postmen' develop foodservice and small store customers. For those existing customers of distributors and 'postmen', salespeople must also establish relationships. For example, in the foodservice channel, 80% of the terminals served by distributors and postmen are controlled by JDB. Unlike other beverage companies, JDB places great emphasis on cooperation between external distributors and the internal sales team. From Ms. A's daily work, it can be seen that in JDB's channel network, distributors more often play the logistics role, while JDB arranges fixed personnel to regularly visit and maintain key terminals. Customers are shared in this network. JDB salespeople and distributors jointly build and improve the network, and jointly manage logistics and promotions. The contradiction between large-scale manufacturing and inefficient distribution has led large enterprises to try to control channels themselves. Over a decade of intensive channel cultivation is the internal skill JDB has developed in channel operations. From the beginning of the 'Wanglaoji' commercial battle, some observers believed that JDB was hanging by a thread. But a year later, after creating the 'Wanglaoji' marketing miracle, JDB was again recognized for creating its own marketing miracle. Behind the miracle, the most silent and solid group is the channel team that JDB has honed over more than a decade. Editor's PS: The editor has selected 1,067 quality articles from nearly 1,900 published on this official account, divided into 14 categories and 57 knowledge points, systematically organizing frontline marketing management content into a library for your learning. From market to customer, covering practical combat and management, all are pure dry goods. Follow the official account and reply with the number '1' to browse and view related content.