Laocunzhang is another industry anomaly in the mass liquor era besides Niulanshan. Because it is not a listed company, it is not easily noticed and exploited by the keen capital market early; also because its selling price is lower than Niulanshan, it is regarded as an un-copyable outlier by most mainstream enterprises in this industry that pay taxes in a standardized way. However, after multiple verifications, the author speculates that its actual sales may be astronomical. Considering multiple factors such as reasonable avoidance of low-end liquor tax burden, authorized remote filling, and sales discounts, several industry experts speculate that the actual shipment sales may be close to 6 billion, but this data has not been confirmed by the manufacturer. With annual sales of 6 billion, the company mainly produces bare-bottle liquor and makes a profit of over 600 million. In Hebei, Henan, Shandong, Tianjin, northern Anhui, and northern Jiangsu, it is the first bare-bottle liquor brand, and it has strong development momentum in Zhejiang, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hubei, and Hunan. It has always been imitated but never surpassed. It is the low-key, people-friendly, and connotative Laocunzhang. What has made it the leading brand in the bare-bottle liquor market? What has made it firmly occupy the consumer mind of China's working class? And what has made it invincible in competition with local white liquor brands across the country? Brand Positioning: "Mass Liquor, Common People's Liquor" Route In terms of brand positioning, Laocunzhang does not go high-end. It consistently adheres to the "mass liquor, common people's liquor" route, targeting migrant workers and low-end working class, and insists on making low-end products its core strategy. Based on this brand positioning, it focuses on the three-level main markets of counties, townships, and villages, steadily advancing and doing deep and thorough work. Most importantly, it aims to be a national brand and never regards itself as a local northeastern brand. Strategic Implementation: "1+1+1+3" In terms of operational strategy, Laocunzhang has long adhered to the "1+1+1+3" strategy. What is the "1+1+1+3" strategy? 1 core competitiveness, 1 high-altitude media support, 1 reasonable layout of excellent distributors, and 3 represents high distribution rate, high flexibility in promotions, and high-quality service. The core competitiveness that Laocunzhang insists on is "high profits created by low costs." In the past golden decade, high-end liquor flourished under the support of the government system, and cost awareness was almost forgotten by the industry. However, Laocunzhang meticulously cultivated this "low-cost" high-profit soil that the industry had forgotten. The profit advantage brought by "low cost" is very obvious and direct: with price difference plus product policy, each bottle of 11 yuan liquor can bring 2-3 yuan profit to the terminal, and distributors can have 20-30 yuan per box profit; each bottle of 6 yuan liquor can bring 0.8-1 yuan profit, and distributors can have 10-15 yuan per box profit. The low-cost advantage of Laocunzhang mainly comes from the following four points:

  1. Integrate small distilleries for "remote filling";

  2. Scale effect makes raw materials and promotional items cheap.

  3. Recruit strong distributors, and market development and maintenance can leverage distributor resources. In terms of media placement, Laocunzhang focuses resources on high-altitude media. From the full product placement in Rural Love 1-7, which became popular from CCTV to local satellite TV, it brought Laocunzhang liquor to every consumer who loved the drama. This is like another interpretation of the close relationship between The Voice of China and JDB, but the difference is that Laocunzhang achieved brand upgrade in its communication:

  • Phase 1: Fan Wei endorsement, celebrity effect, emotional appeal, people-friendly route. "Don't treat the village chief as a cadre"
  • Phase 2: Create word-of-mouth effect, spread product quality "good taste, comfortable to drink"
  • Phase 3: Brand upgrade, advocate positive upward, "live well, improve every day" In terms of distributor layout, Laocunzhang integrates excellent distributor resources and achieves high efficiency in regional markets through the high cooperation of one excellent distributor. Laocunzhang generally selects large-scale distributors in various regions as agents. In terms of selection criteria, it prefers excellent distributors with good market foundation, strong influence, experience in liquor or food and beverages, strong channel network, and personnel delivery capabilities. Its customer layout generally has two modes:
  1. Prefecture-level city direct distribution mode: direct sales in the urban area of the prefecture-level city, and select distributors in core counties for distribution.
  2. County-level customer direct distribution mode: direct sales in the county urban area, and select distributors in key townships for distribution. On the basis of the three "1"s, achieve absolute market occupation through high distribution rate, high flexibility in promotions, and high-quality service. Achieve channel occupation with high distribution rate: 1. Deep cultivation of county, township, and village strategic orientation. Most mid- and low-end liquor enterprises operate in rural markets only as a habitual behavior, without a real strategic orientation, just to sell products. However, Laocunzhang has a clear three-connect grid project for county, township, and village markets: Build the three-connect project of "people connect, road connect, village connect," focus on terminal coverage in county towns, network distribution capability in townships and villages, effective terminal control capability, main push capability, and self-order rate. Especially in the village-connect project, the manufacturer requires and assists county-level distributors to enter every natural village in every township, regularly conduct product promotion, distribution, prize redemption, and follow-up visits, and regularly communicate with village-level retail outlets. 2. Assault team assistance. Periodically adopt concentrated assault actions, generally divided into two types: one is purely promotional brand promotion, organizing a large number of vehicles (all with promotional advertisements) for convoy tours and broadcasts; the other is channel product promotion, concentrated distribution, with the manufacturer dispatching business assault teams to provide supportive personnel promotion. Assault team members earn 8,000-10,000 yuan per month, with strong combat effectiveness. Generally, within half a month, they can complete 80% of terminal network construction and atmosphere stirring in county markets. The invested resources are vertically delivered from the manufacturer to the terminal by the assault team, which can strengthen distributor confidence in the short term. Then the distributor team takes over market maintenance, and the assault team moves to other markets for rolling development. 3. Monthly distribution normalization. Almost every month, a round of distribution is carried out, whether in the off-season of summer or the cold winter. For example, in a county market, it fully covers the county urban area plus more than 10 townships and every natural village's terminal outlets. Achieve sales with high flexibility in promotions:
  3. Prizes are set according to distributor regions and product introduction timing. Promotional item suppliers are selected by the regional manager, and product prize coupons are made by the regional manager with distributor assistance and sent to the manufacturer, then placed inside bottle caps during production.
  4. Whether targeting terminals or consumers, Laocunzhang's promotional activities are flexible and varied, with many gifts. Through tiered promotional push, they are all daily necessities for the people, extremely attractive. The pull of prizes enhances terminal customers' selling power and consumers' purchasing power. Common promotional practices can be summarized in the following five aspects:

  1. There is a prize redemption note inside the bottle cap. The most common prize is a lighter, and others include electric bicycles, color TVs, refrigerators, rice cookers, electric baking pans, and other daily necessities close to consumers. With the overall improvement of people's living standards in recent years, the quality and grade of these promotional items have also upgraded.

  2. Buying a whole box of Laocunzhang liquor gives a free wine glass.

  3. Collect bottle caps to redeem gifts. The more caps collected, the better the prize.

  4. Cash in the bottle cap: sometimes RMB, sometimes US dollars.

  5. Promotions during major festivals, such as giving towels, socks, stainless steel bowls, rice cookers, belts, etc., all common daily necessities for the people. Achieve market stability with standardized organization management and high-quality service: 1. FMCG-style management. Establish terminal work maps, formulate visit routes and follow-up routes, implement standardized visit operations for terminals. Product orders, display, vividness, atmosphere creation, customer relationship maintenance, and promotion execution all have operation standards, with supervision, evaluation, and assessment mechanisms to ensure terminal work quality. Management is table-based and institutionalized: manage business personnel's work process through a series of tables, such as customer sales plans, terminal follow-up tables, terminal visit information tables, terminal development tables, inventory management, and promotion tables; check and improve execution effects through a series of work systems, such as morning and evening meetings, weekly meetings, and monthly meetings. 2. Work standardization. Terminal vividness "six have": have customer information registration, have business contact cards, have POP, have explosive stickers marking prices, have product samples, and have display momentum. In addition, the salesperson's work manual includes detailed terminal distribution techniques, including interest attraction, promotional policies (buy gifts, discounts, practical promotional items), competition stimulation: create scarcity (limited quantity, limited time, limited participants, limited conditions). Prize sales (lottery, box-opening prizes, batch number lottery), etc. 3. Considerable income guarantee. Distributor business personnel earn 5,000-8,000 yuan per month, far exceeding peers, with high enthusiasm and low turnover. Looking at Laocunzhang's野蛮 growth path, we will find that its core success model is "low cost + high efficiency." Low cost is a barrier, and its replication has certain difficulties. But the awareness of "low cost" must be present. The mass liquor trend has become an inevitable industry adjustment period, and it is difficult to achieve profit growth through the "excessive profits" of high-priced products. Therefore, liquor enterprises must first confirm the development strategy centered on mass liquor, and then establish a strong "low cost" awareness. High efficiency is more referential for us. What is high efficiency? In the final analysis, it is organization. In today's homogenized marketing methods in the white liquor industry, it is difficult to achieve long-term high growth through innovative marketing actions. Only by making improving operational efficiency the strategic core of company development, like Laocunzhang, through clear division of labor, applying effective actions to the extreme at specific points, and summarizing them into models for promotion on a broader scale. The author believes this is the greatest value and profound thinking that Laocunzhang brings to our white liquor industry. The following is Laocunzhang's terminal visit process manual, with professional and detailed content, worth learning for everyone in the industry: 1: Preparation before entering the store What needs to be prepared: Contact cards, posters, price tags, hanging tags, towels, transparent tape, marker pens, double-sided tape, customer information, sample liquor! 2: Before entering the store

  1. Put the prepared small materials into the tool bag, carry promotional materials, and observe the position where the store pastes promotional posters.
  2. Tidy up your appearance and prepare to enter the store. 3: After entering the store Greet with a smile and confidence, briefly introduce yourself, communicate with the boss in a relaxed and natural way, and politely understand the sales status of our products and competitors. 4: Organize the shelf While the boss prepares the prize tickets, we organize the display:
  3. First choose the best position (adopt the principle of high rather than low).
  4. Wipe off the dust on the shelf and the liquor bottles.
  5. Maximize the display area, 1-2 more facings than competitors.
  6. Paste price tags, mark prices, and use double-sided tape and transparent tape for pasting. 5: Redeem prizes for customers 6: Suggest orders Terminal order formula: Off-season order = (last period inventory + last period purchase - current period inventory) * 1.5 Peak season order = (last period inventory + last period purchase - current period inventory) * 2 Timely replenish customers to ensure safe inventory within the visit cycle. 7: Leaving the store
  7. When leaving, say to the boss: "Wish you a prosperous business, I will visit you again next week."
  8. Paste promotional posters: seal the edges with transparent tape and paste firmly. 8: Register customer information Timely register the store's information. Source: Yuanjing Consulting If the tip is adopted, a reward of 400-2000 yuan will be paid. China FMCG + Internet Professional New Media Committed to FMCG manufacturer and distributor transformation and upgrade and channel digital solutions Copyright issues | Business cooperation | Project consultation | Reader submissions