Introduction: Focus and forging swords are the two magic weapons for breaking through in a weak market. The landscape of this battleground for premium beer is changing China's core premium beer markets are mainly three: Guangdong, southern Zhejiang, and Fujian. Among them, Fujian has a population of 41.88 million and a total beer capacity of 1.55 million kiloliters, making it a major beer-consuming province and a strong province with a high beer consumption structure. The capacity for premium and above beer is about 730,000 kiloliters, with the large premium structure accounting for 47%, the highest degree of premiumization among the three major markets. Therefore, Fujian has become a must-win region for China's premium beer brands, and any brand aspiring to the premium beer market cannot remain indifferent to this fertile southeastern market. We believe that the way out for China's FMCG lies in quality growth based on premiumization, not low-price involution. Therefore, this issue we have selected China Resources Beer's Fujian market as an observation sample, using beer as a representative to explore the operational methods of FMCG premium markets. This case is of extraordinary significance for FMCG companies still seeking breakthroughs in low-price involution. Let's first look at the achievements China Resources Beer has made in the Fujian market: from formal operations in 2020 to 2023, over three years, China Resources Beer's Fujian market has taken three big steps, with total sales and premium wine sales maintaining double-digit growth. In the first half of 2023, China Resources Beer's Fujian market showed a comprehensive growth trend: Heineken Classic grew by over 40%, Heineken Silver by over 100%, Snow勇闯天涯superX by over 200%, 勇闯天涯 by over 50%, and Snow brand mainstream wine grew by over 70% year-on-year. Fujian, this battleground for premium beer brands, is rapidly changing. Heineken is growing at an unconventional speed and is becoming the protagonist of this market. From today's performance and development trends, China Resources Beer's Fujian market has taken a correct path, which also strongly responds to one of the "four historical questions" of China Resources Beer: "Can China Resources do premium?" Three years ago insignificant, three years later comprehensive growth, we cannot help but ask: In Fujian, a premium-dominated market, how did China Resources Beer go from weak to strong in just three years? What is the key to a weak market quickly turning around? Having a premium reputation but no premium share When analyzing past cases, we often find that failed marketing is highly similar, but successful marketing is different. Every successful case must be considered and summarized in its unique, differentiated conditions and background. Success can never be simply replicated; otherwise, successful people would not be a minority. Let's first familiarize ourselves with the case background. Heineken is a global leader in premium beer and entered the Chinese market in 1996. Before 2018, Heineken's share of China's premium beer market hovered around 1% for a long time, with almost no market influence. Before 2018, the Heineken beer available in Fujian was basically imported from Southeast Asian markets. The situation began to change in 2019. On April 29, 2019, China Resources Beer completed the acquisition of Heineken China, and the marriage of China's beer king with a global premium beer brand began a new story. For China Resources Beer, which acquired Heineken China, the brand marriage was just getting a good card for premiumization, but from the Fujian market perspective, there was no good news. First, Heineken's channel foundation in Fujian was poor, and it was the most important base market for the main competitor. Although Heineken had some consumption in Fujian, it was always imported. For a long time, Heineken's price was chaotic, and it was a recognized fact in the channel that it was difficult to do business, leading to a poor channel foundation and almost zero market influence. Second, not only was Heineken's foundation poor, but China Resources Beer itself was also average in Fujian. Fujian is a developed market for beer premiumization, while China Resources Beer has only recently developed premium brands. Therefore, in Fujian, China Resources Beer's own channel capabilities and terminal network could not compare with other strong markets. Third, the marketing team's experience and capabilities were insufficient, and the integration of the mixed team would take time. China Resources Beer's market operation capability in mainstream and mid-range beer is king, as recognized by the industry, but it lacked experience in the premium beer field. At the same time, after acquiring Heineken China, the Fujian marketing team absorbed talents from other brands, and whether the team could integrate successfully in the short term was also a major challenge. Having a premium reputation but no share in premium; no channel foundation or market influence; and no mature premium team—these were the important reasons why the outside world questioned whether China Resources Beer could succeed in the premium battle in 2019, but they were indeed the true state of China Resources Beer's Fujian market at that time. Focus and forging swords are the two magic weapons for breaking through in a weak market How to do premium can actually be broken down into two questions: how to build a premium brand and how to sell a premium brand well. Building a truly premium brand cannot be achieved overnight; it requires long-term accumulation, and surviving long enough is a necessary condition for a premium brand. But China Resources Beer solved the most difficult first question at the strategic level by acquiring Heineken China. The remaining second question, how to sell a premium brand well, can be solved in a relatively short time. Zhao Chunwu, who was just promoted to President of China Resources Beer (Holdings) Co., Ltd., said, "Strategy is the first priority. Cooperating with Heineken is the beginning of our victory. If the route is chosen correctly, it's just a matter of big or small victories." For the Fujian market, although Heineken had many problems in the past, after cooperating with China Resources Beer, it also ushered in the biggest turning point. First, the main problem of the Heineken brand in China in the past was not the brand or the product, but the localization operation. The China Resources Beer team exactly made up for this biggest shortcoming. Second, conversely, Heineken's operational capability and experience in premium brands could also be shared with the China Resources Beer team, allowing rapid growth in premium brand operation capabilities. Third, although Heineken's channel foundation in Fujian was weak, consumer awareness had potential. Fujian is a developed coastal economic region with high brand awareness. As a global leader in premium beer, Heineken still had recognition from a group of KOLs, which could be easily awakened and stimulated. Fourth, there were channel opportunities in Fujian. The sales of premium beer in Fujian were firmly held by a few large distributors, and many young, promising, and enterprising excellent second-tier distributors lacked upward mobility and did not have strong brand loyalty. In 2020, the second year after acquiring Heineken China, the China Resources Beer Fujian team began formally operating the Heineken brand. In the following three years, it took a big step each year, gradually becoming the market protagonist. But we carefully studied its strategies over the past three years, including the present, and found that although the strategic focus has changed, there are two key tactics that have been consistent. 1) The first is the comprehensive focus strategy. From brand and product strategy, terminal layout, channel construction, and key market construction, everything follows this point. When the market is not ripe and momentum is insufficient, resolutely do not easily disperse resources and energy. For example, in 2020 and 2021, its core strategy was to do standardization, consolidate the foundation, focus on terminals, and focus on Heineken Classic products, without distraction. The focus strategy has been proven countless times to be an effective strategy for rapid breakthrough in a weak market. But it also has two huge difficulties. One is that the direction of focus is important. Because it is going all out, like putting all eggs in one basket, you can only win, not lose; the other is that it is difficult to persist in the process of focus. In the early stage of focus, sales pressure is often the greatest. Do you want some low-quality sales? Do you want unqualified channels? The pressure is so great that survival is sometimes difficult, and most managers may have to give up or interrupt the focus strategy. China Resources Beer's focus strategy in Fujian survived the most difficult 2020 and persisted. In 2020, by rectifying channels and teams, focusing on the Heineken brand and Heineken Classic products, and focusing on core channels and core terminal construction, the Fujian market achieved both volume and profit growth in 2021. In 2022 and 2023, it continued to focus on key markets, core terminals, and key account construction, with sales and profits growing at a higher double-digit rate. 2) The second is the resolute "Sword Forging Action." The "Sword Forging Action" was one of the strategic actions proposed by Hou Xiaohai, Chairman of the Board of China Resources Beer, in 2019 for the premium battle. The so-called "Sword Forging Action" is to actively seek excellent marketing talents and excellent channel distributors useful for the premium battle inside and outside the industry, and attract them with attractive treatment and policies. In 2019, China Resources Beer had completed several major strategic initiatives such as brand reshaping, capacity optimization, and organizational restructuring. Its profitability increased year after year, and it could provide industry-leading treatment and opportunities for excellent talents. The Fujian team was also the most resolute in implementing the "Sword Forging Action." Its current team backbone is almost a mixed team composed of young elite cadres from the best domestic and international beer and FMCG brands. Moreover, the average age of this team is less than 30, making it the youngest team in China Resources Beer. Zheng Feng is a representative example. She is a premium business representative in the Fuzhou region of China Resources Snow Beer, a former employee of Heineken China, a post-90s young girl, and the annual outstanding employee of China Resources Snow Fujian Regional Company in 2019 and 2021. Her most outstanding achievement was creating the Minjiang Century City benchmark food street, increasing the market share of a food street with more than 30 core stores from 5% to 80%. Zheng Feng said in a chat that working at Heineken China was easy but without a sense of achievement. After joining China Resources Beer, she found the desire to "fight." The Century City benchmark food street was hard-won store by store; the longest store took her a year and a half to start cooperation. "Previously, I looked for stores; now stores look for me. I have 'fought' out a reputation in this area. One person can take a street, and a team can take a city." Zheng Feng's understanding of terminal work is profound. Not only the brand's marketing team, but even the channel team of China Resources Beer's Fujian market is composed of distributors from many excellent FMCG brands, with many young distributors born in the 1980s and 1985s. But not every brand has such integration capability. Integrating talents and channels is actually integrating hearts and resources, and it is precisely China Resources Beer that has the most experience in rapid integration and successful integration. In the era of scale development of Chinese beer more than a decade ago, China Resources Beer acquired multiple beer factories a year. In this process, it had long formed its unique integration capability and formed a "Five Lakes and Four Seas" culture. Every talent and distributor who joins China Resources Beer quickly accepts, identifies with, and is assimilated into "China Resources people," forming a strong identity. This is China Resources Beer's unique capability. General FMCG companies do not yet have this power of rapid successful integration, so they should be cautious in similar "Sword Forging Actions." Distributors: Why do I follow China Resources Beer? "Forging channels" is actually recruiting high-quality distributors, which is basically a routine action for various FMCG brands. But why does your "sword forging" often fail to "forge," or simply "forge" a blunt or rusty sword? Here is a core question: Why do excellent distributors follow you, and not others? The answer to this question is simple and complex. Shen Jianjiang, General Manager of China Resources Beer Fujian Marketing Center, believes, "Businessmen do business, of course, first follow profits. But for excellent distributors with vision, capability, and insight, money is not everything; they follow trust and confidence. Team style brings trust, and winning battles together builds confidence." Lin Xiongjin is the General Manager of Fujian Pingtan Youjiuzhai Company. Although born in the 1980s, he started selling beer in 2013 and is already an industry veteran. He is also a well-known excellent second-tier beer distributor in Pingtan County, holding dozens of core terminals at the time. When asked why he followed China Resources Beer, Lin Xiongjin gave three reasons. First, he was always looking for good opportunities and was unwilling to just be a second-tier distributor, but good brands never had opportunities. Second, he was shocked by the first contact with the China Resources Beer Fujian team. At the first formal contact, the person from China Resources Beer was Liu Min, then the manager of the Fuqing business department of the Fujian Marketing Center. Manager Liu Min had run the market for a day in advance and directly discussed a feasible business plan at the meeting. This made him feel incredible, and emotion and trust were established. Lin Xiongjin said that this is not just one leader of China Resources Beer; the entire team is like this. He cited an example: this year, premium wine grew well, but mainstream wine faced great pressure. He Xin, the general manager of the Fuzhou region, went to Pingtan for two days to inspect the market and planned two activities on the spot: "display large piles" and "bundled peanuts," and sales immediately increased a lot. Third, following China Resources Beer, he has been winning battles, with a confidence and courage that fears no difficulty and is invincible. Lin Xiongjin cooperated with China Resources Beer in 2021. Previously, annual sales were only 50,000 cases, and the company had only a few people. But in 2023, it is expected to exceed 800,000 cases, and the team has expanded to 5 departments with 47 people, and the company has embarked on a professional operation track. "Originally, Heineken was nothing in the premium wine market in Pingtan, but now our share of the premium wine market far exceeds all competitors. In the first half of the year, I had already completed the annual budget target," Lin Xiongjin said. "If a brand can lead me to win battles continuously and succeed, what reason do I have not to follow?" Unlike Lin Xiongjin, Zheng Yanhui, a distributor in Fuzhou Cangshan District, also born in the 1980s, has cooperated with China Resources Snow Beer since 2016 and is a typical old distributor of the China Resources system. On the same question of "why follow China Resources Beer," Zheng Yanhui added his reason: "I learned to do business by following China Resources Beer." "China Resources Beer not only teaches us how to do the market, but also a lot of financial, logistics, and management knowledge, like a teacher teaching students, unlike other companies that just sell products well and that's it." When he first cooperated with China Resources Beer, Zheng Yanhui also had only a few people, but gradually grew into a professional team of more than 40 people, with annual sales of nearly 1 million cases, and still growing rapidly. In 2022, Zheng Yanhui's company added brands such as Changfu Yogurt, Kunlun Mountain, Tiandi No.1, and Dayao, but China Resources Snow and Heineken still contributed the core sales and profits. "Why follow China Resources Beer? Personally, the biggest reason is that it is unlikely to find another brand like China Resources Beer." Besides skills and methods, what else can we learn? We cannot step into the same river twice. The same strategies and methods may not work when applied to a different company, market, or team. Many of the methods and skills in China Resources Beer's success in Fujian are effective, but they may not be directly applicable. So, what else can we learn? 1) Strategy/strategic resources determine life and death. Without the Heineken brand, and without Heineken's good mass foundation, the foundation for Fujian's takeoff would not exist, and it might be many years later. 2) The two teams (brand marketing team and channel distributor team) are key, and the brand marketing team is the key among keys. If the brand team lacks professional competence, execution, and fairness, it cannot convince distributors, let alone make them follow the brand. 3) "Excellence" is a culture that can infect and transmit each other. A salesperson (Zheng Feng) can build a food street from 0 to 80% share in two years, relying on belief, action, and persistence. Deep distribution is not complicated, nor has it failed; it is that people have become lazy from thought to action. 4) Everything comes from business, goes to business; from the front line, to the front line; from reality, to reality. This should be the most basic and important work style of excellent marketers. A team without this style will collapse at the first encounter with a strong enemy in the market, and no matter how strong the brand, it will fail. 5) Winning battles is the best team building. No one does not yearn for victory, and no one is unwilling to follow victory. Grow in battle, unite the team in victory. You can win small, but you cannot lose small; accumulate small victories into big victories, and the team will be brought out.