Why study Guizhou Snow Beer? Without focusing on Snow Beer, it's impossible to understand China's beer market. Without analyzing Guizhou Snow Beer, it's impossible to understand Snow Beer. 1) Snow Beer Guizhou Regional Company is a company with an outstanding track record From market entry to rapid leadership, and then to long-term sustained absolute dominance, Snow Beer has created classic battle examples in the Chinese beer market in Guizhou. In 2007, Snow Beer established its Guizhou regional company, officially entering the Guizhou beer market, and since then has grown at an average annual rate of over 40%. By 2011, Snow Beer's market share in Guizhou exceeded 70%, achieving absolute leadership, a position that continues to this day. Snow Beer has a unique definition of a "stronghold market": a market where its share exceeds 70% in a designated region. By this definition, Guizhou remains the only provincial-level stronghold market under Snow Beer to date. What's more special is that one of the creators of this stronghold market is none other than Mr. Hou Xiaohai, the current CEO of Snow Beer. It was during his tenure that, through large-scale brand planning and market operations such as "Natural Beauty," Snow Beer established the framework and foundation for its development. Through the efforts of subsequent teams, it achieved the absolute leading position with over 70% market share. (Mr. Hou Xiaohai, CEO of China Resources Snow Breweries) According to market data, Guizhou's permanent population is less than 40 million, and the beer market capacity in 2007 was only 300,000 tons. By 2020, the beer market capacity in Guizhou had reached nearly 700,000 tons, with Snow Beer selling nearly 500,000 tons, accounting for over 70% of the province's share. 2) To focus on Snow Beer's high-end battle, one must look at Guizhou Snow Guizhou was the first place where Hou Xiaohai took full charge of all provincial-level work at Snow Beer, and under his strategic planning, through the arduous efforts of successive teams, it created the provincial market with the highest market share in Snow Beer's history. Studying Snow's Guizhou market gives us another angle to analyze Snow Beer's new strategy and marketing possibilities. As a provincial team personally led by Mr. Hou for several years, its understanding and implementation of the "high-end battle" strategy must differ from other regional markets. At the same time, Snow Beer's absolute dominance in Guizhou also represents common characteristics of its advantageous markets such as Sichuan, Anhui, and Liaoning. Understanding Guizhou Snow's high-end tactics may help understand how Snow Beer's high-end strategy is implemented in "advantageous markets." In fact, precisely because of Guizhou's unique position within Snow Beer, innovative concepts and models such as the "high ground strategy" and "digital marketing" were first proposed and successfully implemented in Guizhou before being rolled out to markets nationwide. To this end, the New Distribution team conducted an in-depth visit and survey of the Guizhou beer market in August this year, resulting in the following article. Similarly, this article is long, but trust us, your time is well spent. How was Guizhou's "Five Highs" market forged? The goal of marketing is to build advantageous markets. What are the standards for an advantageous market? Snow Beer CEO Mr. Hou Xiaohai proposed the "Five Highs" standard: "high share, high structure, high profit returns, high barriers, high execution." Guizhou Snow is certainly a high-share market, but what about the other aspects? From 2016 to 2020, Guizhou Snow's sales volume grew from 410,000 tons to nearly 500,000 tons; profits increased from over 300 million yuan to over 500 million yuan. Among them, large high-end products grew from 40,000 tons to 160,000 tons, and it is expected to exceed 180,000 tons in 2021. (Snow Beer Guizhou Qiannan Plant) With Snow Beer's 2021 target of 2 million tons for large high-end products, Guizhou Snow's large high-end sales volume accounts for 9%. Undoubtedly, in Snow Beer's high-end battle, Guizhou Snow is the undisputed vanguard. In the "Five Highs" standard, the first four highs are results after strategic and tactical decisions, while high execution is the team guarantee to achieve those results. So, in the Guizhou market, where performance has been continuously growing, especially since the launch of the high-end battle, what strategies and measures have driven the leapfrog growth of Guizhou Snow's large high-end products from 40,000 tons to 180,000 tons? Especially when this leapfrog growth comes from Snow Beer, which has always competed with a mainstream beer image rather than a high-end image, the answer holds greater professional value. China Resources Snow Breweries' "high-end battle" strategy is a brand strategy under the overall corporate "3+3+3" grand strategy, with overall strategic deployment and implementation pace. In terms of strategic direction, the Guizhou market is highly consistent with the Zhejiang and Hubei markets previously reported by New Distribution, but there are many local adaptations in specific implementation. Therefore, this article will not repeat the overlapping parts of the Zhejiang and Hubei market research articles but will focus on summarizing Guizhou Snow's unique strategies and tactics. Guizhou Snow has two distinctive tactics: one is the stronghold market high-ground tactic, and the other is a digital marketing system that integrates B2B and B2C. Guizhou Snow's "Stronghold High-Ground Tactic" Since 2019, Guizhou Snow has been fully advancing the "high-end battle, quality development" strategy. Currently, a preliminary pattern of Snow brand portfolio + international brand portfolio has been formed. In the overall portfolio, it is consistent with Snow headquarters' "4+4" brand portfolio. That is, the Snow beer portfolio consists of Super Brave, Snow Pure, Snow Mars Green, and Snow Facial Makeup (4 brands), and the international brands are Heineken Silver, Heineken Classic, Red爵, and Sol (4 brands). In the high-end battle strategy, the "high ground" tactic is Snow Beer's most important tactic, and it originates from Guizhou experience. Because in the high-end brand field, channels and consumers choose brands based on momentum. Thus, conquering high-ground terminals becomes a top priority. 1) Do well in four types of terminals, adhere to four persistences Guizhou Snow divides terminals into four categories: catering, nightlife, non-draft terminals, and e-commerce platforms. Each type of terminal has corresponding product strategies and high-ground tactics. In draft terminals, combined with terminal profiles, clear distinctions are made based on product characteristics and tiers. Based on this distinction, one product is designated as the main push and one as the main seller, and the terminal is named after the main push product. For example, in a catering terminal with products like Brave the World, Super Brave, and Snow Pure, the main seller might be Super Brave, but the main push is Snow Pure. Then the terminal is named a Pure Store, and future investment in this terminal will focus on Pure products, and terminal evaluation will mainly be based on the performance of Pure products. (Guizhou Snow regional specialty product - Qiantu Wuliang) In addition, nightlife venues generally focus on Super Brave and Snow Pure, while also combining international brands like Heineken Silver and Red爵. In top nightlife venues, the main seller and main push are primarily international brands like Heineken and Red爵, creating high-end momentum. Currently, mainstream high-end nightlife brands in Guizhou such as playhouse, ACE, Noah Bar, and Dragon Bar all use Heineken as their main seller brand. For non-draft terminals like CVS and e-commerce platforms, on the basis of full coverage of the "4+4" brand matrix, Guizhou Snow also focuses on operating some personalized products, such as Black Lion White Beer and Ravibond Dark Beer. At the execution level of deepening non-draft and township markets, Guizhou Snow focuses on "high execution" and does well in the "four persistences". The so-called four persistences refer to "persist in coverage, persist in high ground, persist in Spring Festival, persist for three years". 2) Snow's distinctive "smart channel marketing" Guizhou Snow's channel marketing activities are divided into two levels: one operated by the Guizhou Marketing Center, and the other by each sales region. Activities operated by the marketing center include province-wide unified channel marketing activities such as the Snow Beer Festival and the College Student Music Festival. (Snow Guizhou 2021 College Student Music Festival) Channel marketing at the regional level mainly involves a series of "smart channel marketing" actions with terminals as the battlefield. This includes basic channel marketing actions such as large displays, large displays, table settings, freezing, and material placement, as well as the implementation of marketing activities operated by the center at the terminal level. For high-ground terminals, there are specially planned channel marketing activities. For example, in nightlife venues like playhouse, a top venue, Guizhou Snow mainly adopts Heineken Silver themed parties. This includes both the implementation of unified themed parties planned by Snow headquarters and regional themed activities. Additionally, there are brand tasting sessions, and joint celebrity or influencer store visits with terminals. For example, popular young celebrities like Wang Yitai and Pharaoh, Guizhou Snow plans to invite them to nightclubs for exclusive brand day promotional activities. For general terminals, Guizhou Snow has planned a long-term roving "flying team." Through deep cooperation with terminals, combined with special themes like holidays, they interact with consumers at the terminal to showcase the brand and products. Furthermore, in every county in Guizhou, Guizhou Snow has launched a "one city, one store" plan. That is, in each county, find the highest-ranked and best terminal and turn it into a Snow international brand flagship store image. For some chain restaurants, Guizhou Snow also develops targeted influencer store visit plans. For example, for national chains like Xiaolongkan, in addition to implementing headquarters' unified channel marketing activities, Guizhou Snow also co-plans marketing activities with the chain restaurant. 3) "Funnel Terminal Tactic" to ensure smooth operation of high-end products Snow Beer's high-end battle has just started for a year. What is the most difficult part? Unstable sales. In the process of building high-end brands, consumption of high-end products at each terminal is unstable and difficult to predict accurately, so it is inevitable that some terminals will have overstock and slow sales. Guizhou Snow effectively solved this problem with a unique "funnel terminal tactic". The so-called funnel terminal is to plan a selection of precise terminals for deep cooperation within the terminal network. When some terminals have overstock of high-end products, they can be quickly digested through funnel terminals. The funnel terminal tactic allows the market to maintain reasonable terminal inventory, neither losing sales opportunities nor, with appropriate pressure release, ensuring the price stability of high-end products to the greatest extent. Guizhou Snow has very clear four criteria for selecting "funnel terminals." First, the tier standard must match the product. For example, to make a funnel store for Snow Pure, you must choose a store where the main seller is Snow Pure or above. This ensures rapid and effective product digestion. Second, terminal relationships must be very good. Only with good relationships as a foundation will terminals actively support Snow's actions. Without full cooperation and support from terminals, market pressure release cannot be achieved. Third, a funnel terminal must be a high-ground terminal. Only high-ground terminals have huge sales volume; stores with volume can be funnel terminals. Without volume, no matter how supportive the terminal, digestion will be very slow. In this matter, slowness is the biggest problem. Fourth, funnel terminal construction must be planned and systematic, not just one by one. The scale of funnel terminals should be designed based on market size and goals, and the distribution of funnel terminals should be reasonably arranged according to market plans. With the funnel terminal system, both distributor and manufacturer teams must actively act, promptly and efficiently handling product exchanges according to product shelf life and red-yellow line standards. This action itself is also one of the important indicators of the manufacturer team's quality service. It can be said that it is the effective construction and operation of the funnel terminal system that strongly guarantees that Guizhou Snow has no worries about inventory backlog when launching a major attack on the high-end market. Guizhou Snow's digital marketing system integrating B2B and B2C FMCG digital marketing has two major challenges: one is how to establish interaction with massive consumers, and the other is how to get terminals to participate in marketing activities. In past digital marketing practices, we have seen mostly consumer-facing cases, but cases that connect B2B and B2C are extremely rare. Guizhou Snow's digital innovation practice in 2020 provides us with a brilliant FMCG digital battle example. 1) QR codes are the best communication tool with consumers today Is communication between brand and consumer important? Obviously, it is very important! Countless excellent brands spend their largest marketing budget on communication with consumers. In the past, our main ways of communicating with consumers were advertising and events. Advertising costs are huge and one-way, though internet advertising has greatly improved interactivity. Events are interactive but require enormous manpower and resources. (QR code on the back of a Snow beer bottle cap) We often overlook our own products. Previously, our product design mainly focused on the information conveyed to consumers by the product itself, but in fact, Snow Beer's billions of bottles meet consumers every year and are consumed. It can itself serve as an excellent carrier for interacting with consumers. Guizhou Snow recognized this and, through practice, formed a digital marketing system based on QR code tools. Guizhou Snow's digital marketing is divided into two major parts: one based on the non-draft terminal system, and one based on the draft terminal system. 2) Create a dedicated "welfare club" for Snow Beer consumers In non-draft terminals, using QR codes to distribute benefits to consumers is something many big brands have done, but with mediocre results. Where's the problem? The scan rate is too low. According to market research, the scan rate for QR codes on FMCG packaging is even less than 10%. But Guizhou Snow's scan rate averages over 50%, and even reached an incredible 68% at one point. How did they do it? Guizhou Snow's basic digital marketing routine based on QR codes is: QR code + high value-added services. Today, when brands compete with rivals at the terminal, their marketing actions are basically similar. Everything you can do at the terminal, competitors can follow, but after the QR code connects with consumers, what I do cannot be followed by rivals. Guizhou Snow's approach is, first, to increase the scan rate. The tactic is simple and crude: scan to win red packets, with amounts ranging from 38 to 68 yuan. Generally, brand scan red packets are around a few cents. Why does Guizhou set the red packet amount so high? Because the purpose of the activity design is different. Setting a few cents red packet with a high winning rate aims to stimulate repeat purchases from old users. But after consumer aesthetic fatigue, few people are motivated to scan for a few cents. Guizhou Snow's periodic lottery red packets aim to create marketing topics, generate social effects, and thus increase the scan rate. Imagine a scenario: at a dinner party, if one person draws a red packet of 38 yuan or even larger, the scene will definitely be sensational. Everyone toasts congratulations, and at the same time, all bottle caps on the table will be scanned. Even the consumers at this table will unconsciously scan Snow Beer for a while afterward. In comparison, which scan rate would be higher than the universal red packet of a few cents? Thus, Guizhou Snow's ultra-high scan rate is expected. Once scanning becomes a habit, Guizhou Snow launched its own virtual currency. For example, drinking Super Brave and scanning can earn Super Brave coins, drinking Snow Pure can earn Pure coins. What are they for? They can be exchanged for items of high value or that are hard to buy. For example, fan airport pickup privileges for celebrities, celebrity merchandise, fan meeting slots, Apple phones, Strawberry Music Festival tickets, etc. Guizhou Snow even considers partnering with catering or entertainment businesses to design and provide various privilege benefits for consumers. In short, whatever young beer consumers like and want, Guizhou Snow goes to find it and scan it. Using its own products as a carrier and QR code tools, Snow Beer has gradually built a dedicated user welfare club for Snow Beer consumers. At the same time, QR code activity design and user benefit redemption are matters where experience is crucial. Guizhou Snow has paid extreme attention to details in experience design, even considering whether a system button is needed, its size, and color. Of course, promoting QR code activities is also a matter that requires the whole organization to push. How to mobilize the organization and execute is always one of Snow Beer team's strongest capabilities, so I won't elaborate here. 3) Integrate online and offline, connect B2B and B2C with "Let's Have a Late-Night Snack Together" Beer consumption in catering is mainly divided into two parts: normal dinner consumption before 10 PM, and late-night snack consumption from 11 PM to 2 AM. Unlike northern markets, Guizhou is located in the southwest, where night consumption activities are relatively developed. From midnight to 2 AM, late-night snack shops and barbecue restaurants are still open. In 2021, Guizhou Snow made late-night snacks an important battlefield, launching a digital marketing campaign. Why attach so much importance to the late-night snack battlefield? Mainly for the following three reasons. First, as long as it's late-night snacks, almost 80% will drink alcohol, and of those, over 80% will choose beer. Therefore, in the Guizhou market, late-night snack beer sales are large, especially with a high proportion of high-end products. Second, the late-night snack market has a high proportion of young consumers, completely overlapping with Snow Beer's main audience. We rarely see people over 40 going to bars, barbecue, or late-night snacks every day. At midnight, young consumers are either in nightclubs, at late-night snacks, or going to late-night snacks after nightclubs. Third, no one does marketing during the late-night snack time period, and no one pays attention. Almost all brand activities at terminals end before 8 PM. So, when Guizhou Snow conducts marketing activities in the late-night snack market, there is almost no interference from competitors. Therefore, in 2021, Guizhou Snow joined forces with Meituan platform, Douyin platform, Guizhou Provincial Department of Commerce, and Guizhou TV to jointly create the large-scale "Let's Have a Late-Night Snack Together" night consumption theme activity. At the same time, Guizhou Snow selected 1,000 late-night snack high-ground terminals across the province to participate in the "Let's Have a Late-Night Snack Together" activity, with about 600 in Guiyang city. This includes some high-ground terminals that Guizhou Snow had long wanted to conquer but faced heavy resistance. "Let's Have a Late-Night Snack Together" was a great success in the Guizhou market. It not only achieved online-offline integration and B2B-B2C integration, but also made a huge breakthrough in channel difficulties, achieving a win-win with late-night snack catering terminals. In specific operations, Guizhou Snow divided these 1,000 stores into different levels and provided them with five different values and benefits. First, the terminal can be recommended by well-known food influencers or food programs across the internet, Guizhou, Guiyang, and other ranges. This recommendation can be about dish characteristics, terminal features, or even the boss's entrepreneurial story, helping the terminal build its own IP. Second, Guizhou has a very high-rated media program called "People's Attention." This program airs daily, and on its Douyin account and official account, it features a story. What story? It tells about local Guizhou specialty foods. This is another resource. Third, Guizhou Snow, in partnership with Meituan, can provide partner merchants with certain traffic support to increase their delivery orders. Fourth, Guizhou Snow can jointly create an on-site brand atmosphere for partner terminals, using the "Let's Have a Late-Night Snack Together" theme materials to make the terminal more consumer-friendly. At the same time, the endorsement of multiple media, government units, and the Snow brand gives consumers the feeling that they must come to this store. Fifth, before filming the program, Guizhou Snow will bring traffic to partner terminals in advance to help boost their business atmosphere. Terminal customers will also attach great importance to this, inviting their important customers, friends, and family to appear in front of the camera and participate in the program. The effect and experience are very good. (Representative high-ground terminal in Guizhou: Siya Food Factory) Through the "Let's Have a Late-Night Snack Together" activity, Guizhou Snow firmly controls the late-night snack catering terminals, achieving heavy coverage of young people and brand promotion through online-offline traffic integration. Postscript This article is the last of three in the New Distribution series on Snow regional market research. The three regional markets have distinct characteristics, and Snow Beer's operations in each region are also unique. Zhejiang, located in the economically developed East China, is one of the three major high-end beer battlefields in China. In a place where international giants compete, Zhejiang Snow's high-end battle is vibrant. Hubei, located in Central China, is a hub of nine provinces and was the first province to experience the COVID-19 outbreak. The Hubei Snow team not only overcame the epidemic with iron will but also achieved great victories in the high-end market. Guizhou, located in the southwest, is the absolute leader in the regional market. In three years, large high-end products grew from 40,000 tons to 160,000 tons, a fourfold increase. Guizhou Snow has proven with its achievements that it has not disgraced its former glory. Snow Beer is a unique enterprise, and the Snow team is a unique organization. It is difficult to fully explain all of Snow Beer's uniqueness in just three research articles, but we still believe our readers can greatly benefit from these three articles. This is the significant contribution and value that Snow Beer has brought to Chinese enterprises through its own exploration and practice. Are you "watching" me?