Brand owner Lao Wang's products successfully entered the convenience store system, and after a series of preparations and efforts, they finally reached normal sales status. One day, while inspecting the store, Lao Wang suddenly discovered a product of the same category placed next to his own. Whether it was the brand name, packaging design, promotional price, or marketing activities, it was particularly attractive. Lao Wang felt that if he were an ordinary user, he might also be attracted. Lao Wang panicked, what should he do? Regarding this question, let's examine the essence of the problem. The root cause is: On the shelf, a battlefield without gunpowder, how can one win at the terminal through differentiated competition?
The Struggle of Brands on the Terminal Shelf Brand owners develop a product, from R&D, production to distribution, sparing no effort, and finally succeed at the terminal. After forming a certain network of terminals, the final presentation on the shelf—display, promotion—determines the product's fate. The shelf is so important to brand owners that they spare no expense in using human wave tactics, shelf displays, and even buying out shelves, laying down vivid materials layer by layer to strengthen terminal investment and coverage, all to enhance the presentation on the shelf. What is the ultimate goal? It is to grab users' attention. But new brands are rising rapidly, even facing users directly. Image source: Genki Forest official Weibo Genki Forest frequently launches new products, attracting users with various cute antics; Heytea also introduces terminal channel products + strong digital marketing capabilities, seizing users' attention all the time; Starbucks even changes its product packaging every festival to attract users. One after another, new brands have become producers of new content, turning into bloggers with personality and temper, proper joke tellers. Whether it's the attraction of products to users or the interaction with users, traditional brands are increasingly panicked, also launching new products, playing with content, doing media, connecting with users, and officially joining in the fun. There are more and more fun and interesting brands, product life cycles are getting shorter, and the speed of product iteration is accelerating. This ultimately leads to more abundant products, higher launch efficiency, and consequently more discerning users. This cycle repeats, and both suppliers and retailers are exhausted from constantly developing good products and finding good products. Retail is visibly getting harder and harder. Looking at the dazzling array of products on the shelf, users stand in the vast sea of products. How to make your product stand out with differentiation and win on the shelf battlefield has become a problem that all brand owners must face.
How to Highlight Differentiation on the Terminal Shelf How exactly to establish product differentiation? I believe there are 4 key links to control: Product R&D—Widespread Distribution—Shelf Display—Marketing Activities. This article mainly covers 3 points: 1. Product Differentiation: The product itself has advantages, i.e., the product's inherent selling power. 2. Display Differentiation: Users recognize the product, i.e., the visual impact it brings. 3. Marketing Differentiation: Users strongly perceive, i.e., the appeal of benefits and emotions. Some brand owners might ask, "Product differentiation? That's a matter for product R&D, what does it have to do with convenience stores?" Brand owners may not know that convenience store practitioners also very much hope to introduce high-quality products. But in reality, buyers receive many products every day that are not very differentiated, which is painful for convenience store practitioners. As a channel, who wouldn't want to continuously get good products? But the reality is that there are too many homogeneous products. From my perspective, products without differentiation make it hard for terminals to do well. But buyers also have tasks; can they stop introducing products just because there are no good ones? Impossible. It's like gambling 10 times; if you win once, it's good. A blind cat catches a dead mouse. If there's a chance to become a hit, great; if not, eliminate and try the next one. Having explained this, I believe brand owners can understand why I also want to talk about "product differentiation." Now let's analyze these three points one by one:
I. About Product Differentiation 1. Market demand exists. This means that when developing a product, consider whether there is indeed such a demand in the market. For example, Jane's Yogurt proposed the differentiation of zero sugar and zero additives, which exactly matches the needs of people who are low-sugar, health-conscious, or on a diet. 2. Brand has substance. This means the brand should live up to its name, not just talk to itself or put a halo on itself. For example, many time-honored brands have historical records and can be certified as "China Time-honored Brand," "Century-old Shop," or "Intangible Cultural Heritage," emphasizing authentic origins and strong endorsement. 3. Product has uniqueness. This means the product should be extremely unique. Uniqueness either comes from patent protection, which others cannot use, forming a strong brand moat; or from a secret recipe known only to you. 4. Audience has people. This means the target audience must have a certain size. For example, Heytea and Starbucks have launched their own terminal channel beverage brands, but if someone says, "I want to differentiate by launching a butter tea brand," that doesn't count as having an audience. Butter tea is a local tea drink exclusive to Tibetan areas, and the Tibetan population is only 6.4 million, so the audience is too small, and marketization is very difficult. 5. Communication has channels. This means it is easy to spread. In this regard, Wanglaoji's advertisement is the absolute king: "Afraid of getting heaty? Drink Wanglaoji," integrating pain points, selling points, and brand name into the advertising. 6. Goal has a name. That is, the selling point should be focused enough. Some products claim to have multiple functions, but the more powerful your functions, the harder it is for users to remember: what problem does this product actually solve? As the saying goes: A professional player uses a needle to pierce the sky; only by being vertical enough can users know what problem you can solve. But many brands find it easy to do addition but very difficult to do subtraction. 7. Background has a reason. This refers to the story behind the brand. For example, Haier's story of smashing refrigerators during difficult times reshaped users' confidence in Haier's product quality; the story of Chanel's founder inventing the little black dress is widely spread, and the little black dress has remained a favorite in women's wardrobes for a century. Brand stories can stand out among ordinary brands that only push hard ads, using the sentiment embedded in the product.
II. About Display Differentiation Display differentiation is not a problem that can be solved by doing a single point well, but rather by looking at the structure and layout of the convenience store from an overall and multi-point perspective. 1. Vertical display: Using vertical display is more in line with the trajectory of users' sight than horizontal display. It can maximize users' attention to the displayed products and avoid users having blind spots where they cannot see the products. 2. Front display: Products placed at the front have sufficient facing, similar to the purpose of neat arrangement, which can well showcase the volume and beauty of the products. 3. Obvious and visible: Ensure that users and store staff can easily see, find, and get the products. This is a basic requirement for each displayed item during the display process. 4. Within reach: Similar to the purpose of being obvious and visible, the display height should be controlled at a position where staff or users can reach out and take it. 5. Front facing outward: Products should be placed with the front facing users, which not only facilitates users' attention but also reflects the store's most basic product display management level. 6. Stand upright if possible: Products that can be displayed upright should be displayed upright as much as possible. This not only increases the visual area of the display, making it easier for users to notice, but also prevents damage from long-term lying down for liquid products. 7. Left low, right high: This refers to the arrangement order of price groups. Generally, products should be arranged according to the user's movement path, in order of low, medium, and high price. Especially, low-priced products should be placed according to the direction users enter, which helps form the store's price impression. 8. Golden position: On the same shelf, the best position is definitely the display position at eye level, and these positions have the highest sales. This range is about 100-150 cm from the ground. 9. Thematic display: This display method is a very good way to expand display effects and increase user attention. It can be based on product category for thematic display, or add more emotional thematic content to enhance the overall effect. 10. Associated display: Seasonal categories and promotional products can usually be placed near the entrance to increase the store entry rate, or promotional categories can be set at the connection points of the user's movement path to extend the time users stay in the store and their movement direction. According to different business goals and user needs, associated areas can also be set up. 11. Feature end caps: In addition to basic shelf displays, for some special products, such as seasonal, promotional, novel, and unique products, end caps or special thematic displays can be used to create a better store atmosphere. 12. Display props: Display is not just about displaying products; it should also be organically combined with a series of auxiliary props such as price tags, POP, etc. The effect achieved is to more prominently highlight the product's appeal to users, achieving the purpose of silent selling. 13. Checkout counter placement: Generally, products that are small in size, convenient, easily overlooked, prone to impulse buying, seasonal, low-ticket, non-food, external medicine, etc., are very suitable for placing at the checkout counter. When users pay at the counter, they are likely to develop the habit of buying on the side.
III. About Marketing Differentiation 1. Brand positioning: What type of people is your brand positioned for? You can focus on differentiated marketing for this group. For example, some cosmetics target men, so you can design and display special marketing activities for male users. 2. Brand personality: Convey the brand spirit to the corresponding users. Because the relationship between brand and users is not only about people using "things," but also about people's need to place their spirit on "things." For example, Marvel peripheral products stimulate users' spiritual and emotional needs for Marvel characters. 3. Functional benefits: What unique functions and values can the product bring to users? For example, some brands develop water specifically for mothers and babies or health-conscious people. What benefits can this water bring to the body? These functional values can be emphasized. 4. Product ingredients: Why is my product good? Because the ingredients are both good and unique. For example, hyaluronic acid has a good water-retaining effect on the skin, and drinks containing hyaluronic acid have become very popular among beauty-conscious people. 5. Processing process: Let users feel the careful polishing of the product through the processing process. For example, Totole Banquet Soy Sauce claims to be "first-pressed, selected first original juice," highlighting the delicious taste of the product. But if this marketing point is not used well, users often cannot understand its significance, and the cognitive threshold is high. 6. Product design: Speaking of product design, one cannot help but mention Coca-Cola's classic glass bottle design. Its bottle design has left a deep impression on users, is unique, and has collectible value. 7. Product packaging: Exquisite, unique, and self-contained packaging design has a strong stimulus on users. For example, in 2018, Be & Cheery's new visual system won the Pentawords Gold Award, the only global packaging design special award. After the new packaging was launched, it was also very popular among users.
Additional Guidelines for Promoting Differentiation in Convenience Stores When promoting differentiation in convenience stores, pay attention to the following points: 1. Maintain good relationships with the convenience store system Continuously cultivate good relationships with the convenience store system during cooperation. This foundation can be called upon in time when FMCG brand owners need support. Usually, give retailers as much support and help as possible. Retailers will also judge which brand owners to develop longer-term relationships with and how much effort to invest in these relationships. 2. Proactively invest in display and marketing resources Competition for shelf resources is definitely a tug-of-war, with all brands continuously investing resources. Winning the terminal means winning on the shelf. Absolutely do not easily lose control of the shelf. Invest when necessary, and allocate a special budget to support display work. 3. Motivate supervisors and stores 4. Proactively intervene in retail channel displays and provide relevant suggestions FMCG brand owners should not have too strong a channel mindset; instead, they need to guide future work with a user mindset. Channel thinking relies too much on the channel's own planning and execution, but the channel has to manage thousands of products, and the overall orientation is to manage the big picture, not individual items. User thinking, on the other hand, means working with the convenience store system to find ways to do product display and marketing well. The more FMCG brand owners pay attention to their own operations in the convenience store system, the closer their linkage with the convenience store system will be, and both parties can better promote implementation and optimization.
Final Thoughts: "Hua & Hua" once proposed the concept of "shelf thinking," which aims to help brands stand out on supermarket shelves through eye-catching packaging design to attract as many people's attention as possible. But in reality, many products may not have gone through professional investigation, analysis, and design, and eventually flow to retail terminals. Does that mean these products are not qualified to appear on the shelf? I think if the product is still in the early stages of R&D, you need to think clearly about differentiation, but we need to understand one thing together: many products may not have these foundations from birth, which means that once the product is mass-produced and distributed to channels, the current challenge is to find ways to sell it well. A good analogy: some children are born with good conditions, called winning at the starting line; some children may not have good conditions, so they have to rely on later cultivation. Fortunately, with luck, later cultivation can also succeed. For example, is Coconut Palm's brand positioning and packaging design excellent? This question may be a matter of opinion. Coconut Palm may have enjoyed the dividend of being the first in the category and launching early, but now many people say they look down on Coconut Palm's packaging design, while another voice believes its packaging is unique and can stand out on the shelf. So whether a product can succeed depends on too many factors, and no link can be ignored. If the product is still in the planning stage, capable brands should first think clearly about how to do differentiation. But if the product is on the shelf for any reason, try your best to promote it. After doing everything that should be done, let users vote.
When a large number of demands are met, new products are king; when a large number of user demands are difficult to release, channels are king. For the management of convenience store channels, if you don't want to worry, no one will worry for you. So, the series of articles "FMCG Manufacturers Deep-Diving into CVS" we launched aims to help everyone worry a bit more about "how to sell goods well in convenience store channels."
About the author: Liu Fang, new retail private domain marketing consultant, personal business brand and private domain consultant, with 17 years of experience in the retail industry/FMCG B2B industry, columnist for multiple business media platforms, invited online + offline new consumer private domain traffic mentor for "Wu Xiaobo Channel" 890 New Business School/New National Goods Promotion Association, and operator of a well-known retail brand's tens of millions of private domain traffic and multiple 100K+ viral articles.
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