Despite the saying that good wine needs no bush, it doesn't seem to hold true in today's beverage market. With overwhelming advertising, aggressive competition, and low brand loyalty, beverage distributors must not only rely on product strength but also employ every sales and promotion tactic to win the peak season battle. So how can beverage companies effectively market during the summer season?
In early summer, the beverage market is fiercely competitive. Whether companies can fully leverage their marketing advantages, tailor promotion plans to product characteristics, and seize market share and consolidate market position early are top concerns for distributors. As time passes and the environment changes, it becomes necessary to grasp market trends and take a series of actions to drive product sales.
Promotions on One Hand, Capital Recovery on the Other
Channel stocking and execution effectiveness have become prerequisites for the momentum of subsequent beverage sales. Therefore, both manufacturers and distributors hold a "water head meeting" at the beginning of each year with the ultimate goal of pushing inventory, aiming to occupy downstream customers' storage and capital. However, after the natural market digestion during the preparation period, and to create product momentum and stir up the channel, distributors continue to use various promotional incentives to ensure smooth channel flow. Offering rewards to channel members to stimulate second-tier wholesalers and retailers to stock up has become a standard practice during the peak season.
Manager Li of Jiangsu Golden Sun Trading Co., Ltd., after purchasing about 300,000 yuan worth of goods, decided to intensify promotions by allocating a portion of profit from each box of beverages, combined with the manufacturer's promotional efforts, to implement a tiered promotion: from May 10 to June 20, targeting second-tier wholesalers, with tiers set at 300, 500, and 1,000 boxes, offering rewards of 0.5 yuan/box, 0.8 yuan/box, and 1 yuan/box respectively. This tiered design allowed smaller wholesalers to benefit from the promotion while larger wholesalers received higher discounts.
Frequent product promotions can lead to terminal fatigue and boredom. Based on customer insights from market operations, Manager Li appropriately added seasonal promotions: during the hot summer, buying three boxes of products would earn a white T-shirt with the product logo or a sales apron; buying four boxes would earn a small bottle of salad oil; buying five boxes would earn a branded sun umbrella. These practical daily-use items provided tangible benefits to large second-tier wholesalers, greatly stimulating their enthusiasm for stocking and promoting products, effectively countering competitive threats. Manager Li's trading company became a winner in the peak season battle.
It is important to note that during the peak season, attention must also be paid to capital recovery, and credit sales plans should be made specifically. This is especially crucial for companies with limited financial strength. Otherwise, a misstep could lead to a cash flow break during the peak season, resulting in a situation where downstream customers have cash to order goods while the company's goods are sitting in warehouses on credit. Therefore, during the beverage peak season, distributors should promptly collect payments or avoid credit sales as much as possible to prevent capital issues from affecting peak season sales.
Terminal is the Main Battlefield
As the primary sales channel for beverages, terminal shelf space is a battleground for manufacturers and distributors. Since May, Manager Zhang of Taishan Maolong Trading Co., Ltd. has been setting up stack displays and cold chain displays for Qiulin Gevas products at local Ginza and larger supermarket systems, with unified display standards: 350ml specifications displayed in 6 rows and 2 layers, and other specifications in 9 rows and 1 layer. Additionally, for street-side terminal outlets, they set up freezer displays, ensuring at least one pack (12 bottles) is displayed in the freezer, and also utilized surrounding resources by placing two bottles of Gevas on top of the freezer. To date, the market coverage rate for Qiulin Gevas is around 50%, and through vivid terminal displays, not only has the product's velocity increased during the peak season, but it has also laid a market foundation for Manager Zhang to develop new outlets and increase product exposure. According to manufacturer requirements and Manager Zhang's analysis of the local market, this display activity is expected to continue until the end of August, covering the entire peak season.
Although this is a good time to increase market coverage, Manager Li did not blindly develop new outlets. Considering that opportunities in the peak season are fleeting, he focused on regional areas, prioritizing regions with convenient distribution and higher consumption capacity, temporarily abandoning the development of distant new outlets. This approach ensures rapid product volume without compromising product profitability. Thus, when planning promotional schemes and outlet layouts, factors such as transportation radius and labor costs must be fully considered to avoid the phenomenon of high volume but low profit during the beverage peak season.
During this period, the "cover-up" problem with promotional posters became a common complaint among salespeople, as Manager Zhang heard. In the peak season, the frequency of posters being covered by competitors' POP materials increased, with many posters being covered the day after they were posted. Some experienced salespeople tried to avoid popular posting areas, but in this fiercely competitive season, they still couldn't escape being covered. Special times call for special measures. Manager Li implemented a "posting reward" measure: terminal stores that ensure POP is posted in prominent positions and not covered would receive a monthly reward of one box of product. Regular checks were conducted by salespeople, with Manager Li doing spot checks. This measure not only motivated salespeople but also gained strong cooperation from terminal stores.
In fact, regarding terminal promotional publicity and vivid displays, the saying "a lie repeated a hundred times becomes truth" may not be apt, but if terminal consumers frequently see positive information about the product and brand, over time, they will naturally develop trust. The goal of continuous terminal publicity and relentless TV advertising is the same: to let consumers frequently see and feel positive information about the product, brand, and company, thereby building trust, driving product sales, and establishing product image.
Promotion War or Price War?
Promoting to consumers and driving terminal demand has become a conventional method in the beverage industry during the peak season. Consumer promotions have also become an important way to digest channel inventory, and competition has deepened to the direct consumer level. Distributors, leveraging strong brand momentum or manufacturer promotional policies and intensity, have launched various consumer promotions, exploring the path of consumer promotion in the beverage industry.
After years of intense competition, the beverage market has formed a certain brand landscape. Promotion is not simply a roadshow or placing products on a table for outdoor discount sales; it is an effective platform for communication and interaction between products and consumers. Especially for mature products, price reduction promotions are generally not adopted. A pure price war can easily disrupt the terminal price system, causing changes in consumer perception of the product and invisible damage to the brand, resulting in the phenomenon of "losing sales and hurting the brand." Promotion must not only ensure scientific and continuous interaction with consumers but also involve artistic design of consumer touchpoints to maximize product understanding, enhance brand, stimulate purchase interest, and block competitors.
Manager Cai from Qingdao, Shandong, stated that since the main consumer group for beverages is young people, with the 10-30 age group occupying a significant share, these groups are the backbone of beverage sales growth. During market visits, Manager Zhang found that major competitors were promoting in crowded public places like commercial streets, directly targeting the target consumer group. To avoid direct confrontation with competitors and since students are also major beverage consumers, Manager Li shifted the promotion focus to campuses and developed differentiated promotion methods based on age groups: due to the specific consumption times of primary and secondary school campus stores and to ensure high efficiency, promotions were set up only during two time periods (11:00 and 16:00-19:00) at key schools with higher consumption capacity, offering one free flashy gel pen or shaped sticky note for every two bottles purchased. The gifts were stationery items closely related to students, with prices controlled within 2 yuan.
Additionally, university students, influenced by group living, are prone to herd behavior. Therefore, Manager Zhang organized on-site promotions in student gathering places like in front of university cafeterias. Besides changing the promotion to buy three bottles and get one free, they also invited university street dance clubs to perform live to liven up the atmosphere. Familiar group performances can bring products closer to students, increasing interaction, sparking interest, and prompting impulse purchases.
In summary, for beverage distributors to "win" the peak season, the key lies in innovation—differentiating in product, promotion, and channel strategies, intensively cultivating the market, deep distribution, optimizing channels, seizing terminals, and enhancing product influence through a series of plans from channel to terminal consumers, thereby effectively grasping the peak season market.
At the request of many distributor friends, our platform's fourth B-end e-commerce inspection tour will be held from August 15-18, visiting Qianmi Network and Alibaba Retail Link in Nanjing and Hangzhou. Distributors interested in transformation can join us for on-site inspections:
Activity Schedule: Time: August 15-18
15th: Check-in at designated hotel in Nanjing; 16th: On-site inspection of Qianmi Network, then high-speed rail to Hangzhou in the afternoon; 17th: Participate in the "FMCG Distributor B2B Transformation Exchange Summit"; 18th: On-site inspection of Alibaba Retail Link in Hangzhou;
Distributor friends interested in transformation are welcome to join us to learn and inspect on-site:
Organization Format
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Participating distributors only need to pay a registration fee of 200 yuan. Other expenses are self-covered. Note: This inspection is limited to distributors only.
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Photos from previous inspections:
Group photo of the 3rd B-end e-commerce inspection, from top to bottom: Yunbao Shangmeng, Weijie City Distribution, Wanshang Yizhan.
Group photo of the 2nd B-end e-commerce inspection, from top to bottom: Jinhuobao, Caiba, Yishang.
Group photo of the 1st B-end e-commerce inspection, from top to bottom: Piduoduo, Beiquan, Yishang.
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