Tip: Click the blue text above to follow 'FMCG Distributor Professional Consulting' for more marketing and distributor management insights.
After the Spring Festival, food companies and distributors often see sales 'plummet.' Facing a rapid market decline, many companies set goals like 'keeping the off-season active' and 'ensuring sustained growth.' Off-season promotions, as an effective means to achieve these goals, have become almost synonymous with off-season sales work. How to run a promotion that achieves its intended purpose is the key to sustained sales growth.
Deep Understanding and Correct Perception of the 'Off-Season'
Solving a problem starts with a deep understanding and correct perception. Therefore, a thorough analysis of the causes of the off-season is the prerequisite for solving 'how to do post-holiday promotions well.' The main manifestations of the post-holiday 'off-season' are as follows:
The 'Off-Season' Caused by Consumer Psychology and Habits
After the Spring Festival, due to continuous and concentrated consumption and gift-giving, many people and families have their consumption desires overly satisfied, entering a period of flatness. At the same time, many families have accumulated a large amount of goods, resulting in no desire to consume or give gifts after the festival, creating the post-holiday off-season.
The 'Off-Season' Caused by the Mindset of Various Merchants in the Distribution Channel
When the consumer market shows the above off-season mentality, most retailers and distributors in the distribution channel cater to consumer psychology and habits by adjusting their product offerings. As a result, they may not sell or focus on certain products. This inevitably leads to a lack of product flow, information exchange problems, and directly affects manufacturers' judgment of the market.
Therefore, this reinforces the so-called 'off-season' and further exacerbates the post-holiday slump. The weakening of distribution awareness becomes a major obstacle to planning and executing promotional strategies. As the market carrier and product distribution pipeline, how to stimulate the enthusiasm of the distribution channel is the key to the success or failure of off-season promotions.
Only When the Channel Is 'Unblocked' Can Consumers 'Buy Hot'
Based on the above two analyses, the first step in off-season sales promotion is to 'promote smooth flow,' that is, to encourage all levels of channel distributors to open the pipeline and ensure products meet consumers. The second step is to change consumption habits and awareness to promote consumer purchases. Therefore, if all energy is focused on stimulating consumer demand while ignoring the role of channel distributors, and without their cooperation, products will lack necessary display and shelf presence at retail terminals, making hot sales impossible. Only when the channel is 'unblocked' can the goal of promoting consumer 'hot sales' be achieved.
For example, a dairy company formulated the following strategy after the Spring Festival: 'Consumers can exchange two boxes of this product at any sales outlet by presenting a complete carton before a certain date.' The campaign was initially effective, with sales rising sharply, but after one month, sales declined rapidly and caused numerous consumer complaints. The reason was that the promotion design did not consider the interests of channel distributors, and retailers refused to honor the exchange. Later, on top of the consumer promotion, they added a channel promotion: 'Retailers will be paid 1 yuan in labor compensation for each complete carton recovered.' As a result, sales resumed growth, and the sales curve showed a 'V' shape.
Off-Season Market ≠ Declining Sales
First, let's establish the correct concept of off-season promotion through an analysis of a problem:
A 10 kg cake is to be shared by three people: A, B, and C, with each eating a certain proportion as shown in the figure. Now the cake is reduced to 7 kg, still shared by A, B, and C. Question: How can A, B, and C each eat more than before?
Analysis: For any one of A, B, and C to eat more, the only way is to grab a share from the other one or two to compensate for the smaller cake. To ensure eating more, grabbing others' shares becomes the only choice. A must grab at least 22.6% of competitors' share to reach 78.6% (5.5/7 = 78.6%); B must grab at least 13.7% to reach 45.7% (3.2/7 = 45.7%); C must grab at least 5.6% to reach 18.6% (1.3/7 = 18.6%).
Through this simple analysis, we can understand the off-season market as follows:
The 'Off-Season' Is a Reality, but 'Off-Season Market ≠ Declining Sales'
The cake shrinking from 10 kg to 7 kg is an unchangeable fact, and it's impossible for all three to maintain their previous amounts. However, any one of A, B, or C can eat more than before even with a 7 kg cake, indicating that in market operations, 'off-season market ≠ declining sales; the off-season is not the only factor determining sustained sales growth.' If companies or distributors focus only on the market downturn, rather than expanding their thinking and being proactive, and blindly cut market operation expenses, stop market activities, reduce delivery vehicles, and cut sales staff, they will believe that the off-season means declining sales and that it should be slow. This leads to a marketing misconception.
The Means to Maintain Sales Growth Is to Grab Competitors' Share, and Promotion Is an Effective Tool to Seize Market Share
Food companies often face severe product homogenization, shared distribution channels, and the same target consumer groups. The essence is that multiple players share the same cake. For any one of A, B, or C to keep eating more, the only way is to grab the other two's shares. In a fully competitive market, to achieve sustained sales growth in the off-season, it is necessary to grab competitors' share. Promotion is an effective means to seize market share.
'Amplify' Market Opportunities
On the surface, the off-season market seems overall bleak, but upon careful analysis, it becomes clear that market potential varies significantly. If you dissect and sort out the main factors affecting sales growth and the main causes of the off-season, and examine them under a microscope, you will naturally find potential growth points. As the saying goes, 'Under the macro view, there's nowhere to start; under the micro view, opportunities are everywhere.'
1. Find Growth Points from Products or Product Combinations
Dig deep into product value and find selling points that meet different consumer needs to create new sales opportunities. For example, 'Drink iced Lulu in summer, hot Lulu in winter' changed the habit of drinking Chengde Lulu beverages only cold, increasing winter sales. For distributors, since they represent multiple brands and product lines, they can create seasonal product combinations to achieve the effect of 'products have peaks and valleys, but overall there's no impact.'
2. Find Growth Points from Blank Markets
Blank markets are one of the main factors affecting sales. During the off-season, developing promotional activities to expand into blank markets or weak areas with blank channels and outlets is an effective means to compensate for off-season sales declines and achieve sustained growth.
3. Find Growth Points from Differences in Channels and Outlets
Some products are considered off-season under conventional thinking and consumption habits, but changing sales channels or outlets may yield peak-season results. For example, beer sells well in summer, but as soon as the weather turns cold, it enters the off-season because people think it's not suitable for winter. However, it remains popular in hotpot restaurants, barbecue places, and bars. After the Spring Festival, gifts are generally considered off-season, but in hospitals or gift shops, sales are not significantly affected. Therefore, seizing the sales characteristics of different outlets for development and maintenance can yield unexpected results.
4. Find Growth Points from Competitors
In regional markets, competitors' market performance is uneven. Even the same brand may have different strengths and weaknesses across channels and terminals. Seize the weak points or the weak links of competitors, concentrate efforts to attack and grab their market share. Therefore, always pay attention to competitors, promptly seize their advantageous terminals, and increase our market share.
Seize the Right Timing to Launch Promotions
The success of a promotion depends not only on 'people, money, materials, and affairs' but also on 'momentum' (势). The so-called 'momentum' refers to the 'timing' of doing something. Here are several methods to determine the timing for promotions:
1. Determine Promotion Timing Based on Critical Points of Sales Elements Such as Terminal Inventory, Distribution Rate, and Display Image
Retail terminals are the key link in product sales. The proportion of product in terminal inventory and its display at terminals represent the product's market share in the regional market. When the market declines, it first manifests as a decrease in terminal inventory, a drop in distribution rate, and deterioration of terminal display. Therefore, companies should set warning lines for these factors. Once below the warning line, channel promotions must be launched to ensure terminal inventory, distribution rate, and display image.
2. Determine Promotion Timing Based on Competitors' Market Operation Information
Opportunities to launch promotions and seize competitors' markets include: the eve of a competitor's promotion, the chaotic period when a competitor is changing distributors in a regional market, competitors' weak sales links, and when competitors face crisis events.
3. Determine Promotion Timing Based on 'Festival' Consumption Characteristics
National legal or folk festivals: New Year's Day, Christmas, Winter Solstice, Spring Festival, Lantern Festival, Qingming Festival, Women's Day, Labor Day, Youth Day, Children's Day, Army Day, Teachers' Day, National Day, etc.
Special anniversaries for manufacturers: company founding anniversary, award celebrations, etc.
Special anniversaries for retailers: anniversary celebrations, store anniversaries, etc.
Therefore, in the off-season, companies must not 'wait for money' but must proactively 'make a move' through well-designed promotional activities to drive terminal sales, thereby creating the miracle of an active off-season.
Like this article? Feel free to click the top right corner to share it to your Moments.
About us: WeChat ID: FMCG Distributor Professional Consulting Management Account intro: 20 years of experience in FMCG distributor operations and management, specializing in distributor internal management. We understand distributors better than manufacturers, and we understand internal management better than distributors. Senior marketing experts help your business grow.
Learning and exchange QQ groups:
Group 1: 344257092 (full) ** Group 2: 231512457** Click 'Read the original' below to enter our micro-community for interaction and questions.