To compete with rival products at the retail level, FMCG companies inevitably run frequent consumer promotions, making posters—the ground-level tool for carrying and spreading promotional messages—crucial. During peak promotion periods, poster posting at various retail outlets can become as congested as a train station during Spring Festival travel rush. Many companies and distributors often complain: 'How is it that we've distributed nearly 2,000 posters in such a small county town, yet they're barely visible at the outlets? Why do competitors' posters remain so prominently displayed?' And mom-and-pop store owners are reluctant to post them on their storefronts—how strange! Based on my previous market promotion experience, I've formulated the following 8 tips, hoping they will be helpful for FMCG companies' poster posting efforts. First, in mature markets seek coverage density; in semi-mature (underdeveloped) markets seek coverage effectiveness. This is the overarching principle for poster posting. In mature markets, retail outlets are densely developed and relatively balanced within the region; the company's product awareness, brand reputation, and usage loyalty have a solid foundation. In such areas, when promotional posters are posted, consumers generally recognize them as a certain company's promotional posters at a glance (and then learn the details). Therefore, a poster blitz is not recommended in these markets. However, the density of poster posting should be reasonably distributed, emphasizing dynamic balance in coverage density to achieve the desired visibility rate. In semi-mature (underdeveloped) markets, due to uneven outlet development, poster posting should be selective and targeted. That is, outlet clusters with dense networks and good consumer bases should receive intensive posting, implementing a poster blitz in localized areas, because the majority of sales in these markets come from these outlet clusters. For scattered or undeveloped areas, they are generally not considered, because if products are not on the shelves, consumers seeing posters may think the company is deceiving them—a counterproductive result that no company spending heavily on promotions wants to see. Second, prefer left over right; don't avoid key accounts. What does 'prefer left over right' mean? It means that when posting posters, if you encounter symmetrical posting units like store doors, try to post the poster on the left side of the symmetry. There are two reasons: First, people's reading habit is from left to right; the left eye has higher attention than the right, and the left side has better visual reception. Therefore, the left is the first choice. Second, most people are right-handed, so when posters are posted in symmetrical areas, the right side is more likely to be torn or damaged. From the probability of damage, posters posted on the right have a higher chance of natural wear and tear. What does 'don't avoid key accounts' mean? Many market promotion specialists mistakenly believe that in KA stores, key stores, and flagship stores, poster posting only needs basic coverage, reasoning that these key stores already have significant sales advantages and can achieve absolute sales even without promotions. Therefore, promotional posters in these stores are mainly for notification, not requiring much effort. However, this is not the case. The fundamental purpose of poster posting in key stores is to build a strong brand image and compete with rivals in the brand concentration camp—key store clusters—for consumer mindshare. Whoever occupies the first tier of consumer minds holds the initiative in brand consumption. In short, poster posting in key stores is about brand image competition, not just simple dissemination of promotional information. Therefore, poster posting in key stores should pay more attention to appeal, layout cleanliness, design aesthetics, coordination with supermarket schedules, and maintenance—this is what 'don't avoid key accounts' means. Third, the strong dragon must suppress the local snake. As the saying goes, 'A strong dragon does not suppress a local snake,' meaning even the most formidable outsider must yield to local forces because they have local connections and power. However, terminal promotions are often tit-for-tat and confrontational. Even when intercepting local strong brands at the retail level, you must not yield an inch. Whether in the quantity of posters, coverage area, or poster design, you must think what the 'local snake' dares not think, seize every opportunity, and pursue relentlessly to deliver an interceptive blow to local strong competitors. Why must the strong dragon suppress the local snake? There are two reasons: First, relatively speaking, local strong competitors have advantages in HR, logistics, PR, etc. Your product's survival space and profit margins are often squeezed to the wall. In such a situation, if you cannot fight back effectively, your situation will become even more difficult, easily falling into a vicious cycle. Second, as mentioned above, because your product is at a disadvantage in overall costs, you have higher expectations for success when conducting large-scale, high-intensity SP promotions. This determines that poster posting, as a promotional resource, must emphasize coverage rate and fullness. To carve out a promotional space at the retail level, even engaging in a war of attrition with local strong brands is worth it. Fourth, avoid only 'posting' without 'speaking'. Many promotion specialists suffer from professional psychological imbalance, thinking that poster posting is the simplest and most mindless job in sales. They often post posters hastily and leave without a word—this is what is meant by only 'posting' without 'speaking.' Market promotion personnel are themselves a living, talking poster. Why not take the opportunity during terminal visits to communicate promotional information with store owners? Moreover, terminal stores often have many consumers; why not take this chance to have face-to-face communication with consumers about promotional information? Isn't that faster and more direct than just posting posters? The problem is that our promotion personnel often overlook this, lacking the awareness of proactive communication and the skills to stir up enthusiasm, thus missing the multiplier effect of word-of-mouth. Sometimes, posters are torn down or covered by store owners or competitors immediately after posting. 'Posting' is just one decomposed action to achieve results; 'speaking' is the key technique to bring posters to life. Fifth, avoid only 'posting' without 're-posting'. 'Re-posting' refers to checking posted posters and making supplementary or restorative re-posts. Most promotion personnel are aware of this, but they lack the techniques and methods. Specifically, the strategies for 're-posting' are: 1. Know the competitor's re-posting schedule. Competitors are not easy to deal with when posting posters. It is crucial to grasp the timing and pattern of competitor re-posting. Market promotion personnel should, after communicating with outlets and thorough understanding, develop a time-following strategy—that is, as soon as the competitor leaves, your personnel follow up with re-posting. If you blindly set a fixed day for follow-up re-posting, competitors may find loopholes and exploit them. 2. Cover as much as possible; do not tear down. That is, try to cover competitor posters with your own, rather than tearing them down, because tearing down can make the posting area look messy, affecting the appearance of your poster. On the other hand, competitors may not necessarily see you as a rival when re-posting; they might only post in non-related areas, which does not affect the effectiveness of your poster. Sixth, money makes the mare go; don't believe terminals don't love money. Why do some companies face resistance or obstruction from store owners when posting posters? There's no big mystery: competitors often sign agreements with store owners when posting posters, specifying how much benefit (direct cash, returned goods, included in store price, etc.) the owner will receive for a certain posting period, and also stipulating that other related posters are not allowed to compete for prime positions. Enticed by benefits, store owners naturally are willing to maintain the posters. Clearly, whoever offers more benefits gets more maintenance from store owners. Therefore, when posting posters in key CV store clusters, using agreements as constraints and offering better benefits (based on prior research) than competitors as bait will surely secure the best positions for your posters, and store owners will be cooperative and willing. However, one point to note: such policies should only be used in exceptional times. As a distributor or manufacturer, you should not rely solely on this method to stimulate cooperation, as it may 'spoil' the terminals and provide a ladder for them to push for more. Smart companies will set price limits or minimum monthly sales policies per store. Seventh, if you can't afford to provoke, don't provoke. When engaging in poster battles with competitors, it's not necessary to dominate every time and every place. There are three reasons: First: Industry leader companies often have flawless terminal maintenance and promotion execution. Your product cannot compete with them in manpower, systems, control, costs, or strategic planning. In such cases, the key point for poster posting is 'if you can't afford to provoke, don't provoke'—that is, unless you are confident of gaining the upper hand, don't easily cover or tear down posters of companies with top-notch operations and frequent visits. It's most important to act according to your capabilities. Your posters might be covered or torn down immediately after posting. Conversely, if you don't intercept them, you might avoid their tit-for-tat retaliation. Second: When you can't afford to provoke, try to post your promotional posters right next to the industry leader's posters, seeking a bundling effect. Since you can't compete with them in 're-posting' frequency, you might as well prepare to 'get the moon first from the waterfront.' Just post next to them without covering them (if you can't afford to provoke, don't provoke). In consumers' visual reception, this may create a bridging effect. This is often used by many FMCG companies in promotion execution. Third: 'If you can't afford to provoke, don't provoke' does not contradict the earlier 'strong dragon must suppress the local snake.' The former is a counterattack tactic against local competitors' strong pressure; if you don't fight back, you might suffer devastating blows. The latter's premise is that the competitor's terminal control capability is entirely above yours; no matter how you operate, you can't gain much advantage at the terminal. So it's better to adopt a fallback strategy and seek development through indirect means. The first emphasizes counterattack tactics; the second emphasizes soft tactics. Different backgrounds call for different strategies. Market promotion supervisors need to grasp this nuance when supervising terminal execution. Eighth, carry a rag with you; don't learn from the dandy, learn from the beggar. 'To do a good job, one must first sharpen one's tools.' The 'rag' mentioned here actually includes richer content, such as cutting scissors, rulers, tape, correction fluid, correction paper, and other necessary tools. 'A rag' is a generic term for the essential auxiliary tools for poster posting. Why 'carry a rag with you; don't learn from the dandy, learn from the beggar'? Here are several reasons: First, when market promotion personnel are doing 're-posting,' sometimes posters are only partially dirty, or sometimes they cannot be re-covered, or it's impossible to peel off and reuse posters. We can simply use a rag to wipe off the dirty parts, avoiding unnecessary trouble, saving poster resources and work time, and making the operation convenient and effective. Second, as market promotion personnel, you rarely get the chance to visit CV terminals. Why not use the 're-posting' opportunity to give your products on the shelf a 'face wash' and tidy up the merchandise? Because besides brand, habit, and price, FMCG competition largely hinges on display space, product cleanliness, and shelf life. As the saying goes, 'A journey of a hundred miles is ninety percent complete.' Many companies lose in the last 'ten miles.' Third, detail-oriented market promotion personnel may notice that if you directly enter a CV store to tidy up your products, store owners generally dislike it, because tidying up inevitably disrupts the display order of series products on the shelf (tidying often changes the positions of competitors' products, as CV stores have no SKU restrictions), and your product may not be the store owner's favorite. Therefore, they have no reason to support your rearranging their shelves. But if you first use a rag to wipe your products clean, using this 'face wash' action to divert the store owner's attention, and then take the opportunity to squeeze your product into a relatively advantageous position, the store owner's attention may shift from the tidying to the promotion personnel's cleaning action. Of course, the market has no fixed patterns, and promotion execution has no fixed patterns either. The above 8 suggestions are just a summary and refinement of one aspect of SP ground execution from an experiential and technical perspective. In specific application, market promotion managers still need to arrange scientific P, D, C, A cycle execution plans according to market characteristics. 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