Looking at the overall situation in traditional industries, facing fierce market competition, distributors are pondering the "hard truth" of "making big money," wanting to plant dense "little red flags" on their own territory, and wanting to turn the terminal outlets they develop into a "network map" that is leak-proof, well-arranged, and reasonably laid out.

However, because distributors represent different products, and have different target markets, customer positioning, resource sufficiency, market promotion and management capabilities, as well as sales team quality and ability, the market development strategies they need to adopt also differ.

We often say: Big bosses develop big markets to "catch big fish," while small bosses develop "small markets" to "touch small fish."

In fact, this tells distributors: Market development and expansion must analyze your own resource status and formulate specific development and expansion strategies. Without specific and feasible development strategies, market expansion will inevitably lead to unbalanced market development, unreasonable market layout, and intense channel conflicts.

So how do distributors design their market expansion strategies? How can they "plant a tree and achieve a forest"? The following market development strategies can be used by distributors according to local conditions. At the same time, distributors can also organically combine multiple development strategies according to their specific circumstances to achieve the goal of effectively expanding the market.

-01- "Snowball" Expansion Strategy

Developing a market is like fighting a war. If you have strong soldiers and horses, excellent equipment, and high morale, you can use the method of "attacking strategic points" to strike at the enemy's heart.

If you have few personnel, a weak team, and a disparity in strength, you cannot "look for trouble and run into the gun barrel." Instead, you must first establish your own "base area," survive, develop, and then counterattack through the base area. The snowball strategy has the same effect as the above military theory.

The "snowball" expansion strategy is the most commonly used strategy by distributors. That is, within the same region of the existing market, adopt a regional expansion approach. After developing one area, then advance to another new area. Specifically, this expansion strategy is to take a certain regional target market as the "base area" for the distributor's market expansion, cultivate it intensively, make the "base area" market bigger, stronger, deeper, and more thorough, and make it the foundation and backing for the distributor's future expansion into other regions.

After gaining absolute advantage and stability in the base market, gradually roll out and penetrate into adjacent surrounding areas, and finally reach "a single spark can start a prairie fire," occupying the entire regional market.

This strategy is relatively stable and orderly in market operations. The key is that distributors can concentrate their limited resources on the most important markets, avoiding the situation where the battle line is too long and the摊子 is too large, leading to major fluctuations and losses due to insufficient follow-up support.

-02- "Mushroom Picking" Expansion Strategy

Unlike the snowball, the "mushroom picking" expansion strategy is a leapfrog expansion strategy. The order in which distributors develop target regional markets usually follows the principle of "first superior, then inferior", regardless of whether the selected regions are adjacent. That is, first select and occupy the most attractive target area; pick the biggest mushroom; then select and occupy the area that is more attractive to the distributor; that is, pick the second largest mushroom, regardless of whether this area is adjacent to the original area.

This strategy is actually a "golden market" priority operation strategy. It is generally more suitable for well-known first- and second-tier brands. At the same time, it is necessary to ensure the effective matching of funds, manpower, and materials. For distributors, they can jointly formulate market expansion strategies with upstream manufacturers. At the same time, effectively integrate the resources of the enterprise and the distributor. Quickly seize the market and prioritize establishing their competitive advantage in the regional market.

-03- "Divide into Parts" Expansion Strategy

Divide a certain regional market into several interrelated "war zones," each "war zone" into several mutually echoing "war points," and each "war point" can be linked into several closely connected "battle lines." Sort out the market context, highlight key points, grasp the key, and drive the overall situation. Especially distributors with relatively large regional markets need to analyze and study carefully.

The strategy of dividing into parts must highlight the flexibility of market development and the unified deployment and coordination of each war zone, because this strategy requires effective coordinated operations to achieve the start of the overall market. Therefore, distributors must find the entry point for each region, and then use each entry point to drive the overall market radiation.

The strategy of dividing into parts is a typical market expansion method of defeating the many with the few and the strong with the weak, but it requires distributors to have strong market control and resource integration capabilities, and to give play to the market synchronization effect of each war zone, thereby achieving the goal of strategic development.

-04- "Cast the Net" Expansion Strategy

The "cast the net" expansion strategy is when distributors expand their target regional markets by casting nets everywhere, blooming everywhere, and launching attacks on all regional markets simultaneously, occupying all markets at the same time. The net strategy has great market expansion power and can occupy the entire market in a very short time.

However, the conditions for the success of this strategy are extremely harsh. Expanding simultaneously in the entire regional market requires manpower, materials, and financial resources that are obviously not affordable for ordinary distributors; at the same time, when distributors launch attacks in the entire market, whether they open mountains and dig canals themselves or borrow chickens to lay eggs, they may encounter many unexpected situations and uncontrollable market chaos.

Therefore, if there is no strong coordination and control ability, distributors will find it difficult to cope with various unexpected situations that occur simultaneously. If distributors can adopt this strategy, they must make an objective assessment of themselves and make plans for no market returns in the short term. The most critical thing is to consider whether their team building and comprehensive strength can support this strategy.

-05- "Storefront Echo" Expansion Strategy

The distribution points in each region should try to take a central township (county town) as the center, integrate points and areas, and it will have a radiating effect. In many cases, it is actually possible to create a three-legged situation, like a triangle, choosing three townships as strongholds.

When the three township markets are fully occupied, the triangular regional market among the three townships will be affected to a certain extent, and the circular regional markets around the three townships will also be affected. According to the different actual conditions of the local market, you can adopt the "three-legged" method, the "fan-shaped" stronghold method, or the concentric circle method.

-06- "Bowling" Expansion Strategy

Bowling has this characteristic: there is a certain internal connection between the bowling pins. If you hit the key first pin appropriately, this pin will knock down a large number of pins.

Distributors can also use this method when expanding the market. To occupy the entire target regional market, first attack a certain "key market" in the entire target market - the first pin. Then use the huge radiating effect of this key market to influence the surrounding vast markets, achieving the goal of occupying a large area of the market.

This market expansion strategy is called the bowling strategy. Of course, this is a market expansion strategy that is difficult first and easy later. The key market is often a must-fight place. To capture this strategic market point, a lot of financial and human resources must be spent, but once occupied, other markets will be "swept away like a rolling wave."

-07- "Rural Encircling the City" Expansion Strategy

Contrary to the bowling strategy of difficult first and easy later, this is a market expansion strategy of easy first and difficult later. That is, first nibble away at the surrounding markets that are easier to occupy, accumulate strength, and form an encirclement of the target market, while also forming an invisible influence on the target market. When the time is ripe, capture the target market in one fell swoop. For small and medium-sized distributors, if they first choose to attack the most difficult target market, they will not achieve their goals quickly, and the possibility of success is very small.

At this time, it is better to choose the surrounding markets that are easier to attack. On the one hand, accumulate their own strength and marketing experience; on the other hand, give a subtle influence to the target market. In practice, the implementation of the rural-encircling-the-city strategy is often accompanied by the use of the "time-space interruption method."

When distributors surround and occupy the surrounding markets, they will carry out certain advertising and publicity for the target market, but there is no product follow-up, intentionally creating a market vacancy, causing a period of interruption between sales and publicity, making consumers go from curiosity to search, from search to desire, forming an increasing accumulation of consumption potential energy, like a dam water and the Yangtze River, artificially creating a water level difference, and finally forming a situation of ten thousand horses galloping, providing a basis for capturing the target market in one fell swoop.

The rural-encircling-the-city strategy is more suitable for distributors of second- and third-tier brands with low visibility. It is also a market development strategy of avoiding the strong and attacking the weak, using points to drive areas, and gradually penetrating.

-08- "String of Pearls" Expansion Strategy

After completing the initial market development work, distributors will inevitably encounter the problem of how to establish a marketing network. Experienced distributors will use an artistic approach to develop a perfect network structure, among which the typical one is the string of pearls. That is, take the main traffic lines within the regional market or between regional markets as the main line, and present the traffic hub areas in a string, forming a network pattern of crisscrossing vertical and horizontal lines.

For distributors, network structure marketing is the key to the distributor's market effect.

A reasonable layout can ensure good market radiation between terminals. Therefore, it is very important for distributors to first occupy the target market at the traffic fortress, and then through the interconnection of target markets, form a market network with effective coordination of market resources. A good market structure can not only effectively mobilize market resources, but also save logistics costs and reduce overall market investment.

Source: MBA Think Tank

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