Have distributors noticed a problem in the past two years? Online influencer brands are emerging one after another, but offline, few major brands have launched successful new products. Take beverages for example: Coca-Cola, Master Kong, Uni-President, and Nongfu Spring seem not to have introduced any entirely new product categories in the past two years. We can understand that existing products of major brands already occupy a significant portion of these companies' energy. On the other hand, the way major brands launch new products is not as effective as it was two years ago. Moreover, consumer demands are indeed changing; they prefer niche, diverse, and personalized products, but major brands focus more on big single products. This inherently conflicts with consumer demands. In contrast, online influencer brands have quickly catered to the consumption needs of some young consumers, continuously launching a variety of new products to quickly meet consumer demands. In a sense, they have also squeezed the space and opportunities for new products from major brands. However, this phenomenon poses a new challenge for distributors: we need to continuously find new products suitable for future sales to optimize our business performance. But when major brands fail to launch new products, distributors must think about how to sell online influencer products well. In summary, why should distributors sell influencer brands? 1. Traditional major brands lack innovation;\n2. Consumer demands are diverse, and existing major brands often struggle to meet them;\n3. Retail customers also have procurement needs for influencer brands;\n4. Being an influencer is the beginning of long-term popularity; if a product can't even become an influencer, it's unlikely to achieve long-term success;\n5. It provides opportunities for future potential development. Influencer, as the name suggests, refers to products that have a certain reputation online and a certain sales volume. Moreover, influencer products have a certain fan base that recognizes them and is willing to consume them long-term. Since such products can be called influencer, they must have very strong eye-catching ability, with topics and hot spots, and sufficient aesthetic appeal, making them very popular among young people who love trying new things. -02- Characteristics of Influencer Brands: For an influencer to be discussed, the premise is that it didn't exist before, and the topic is scarce. Therefore, such products are born on the infinite shelf, with typical characteristics of being niche, personalized, and having topics that outweigh content. Moreover, because they are niche and long-tail products, most do not adopt large-scale production. Like craft beer, small-batch production leads to high operational costs and relatively high prices. Because of the high prices, these brands must use online platforms and technology to sell. Their transaction chain is very short from the beginning, often directly from brand to consumer, with few intermediate online links. This results in the price system not considering intermediate links like distributors, wholesalers, and retailers from the very beginning. In terms of operational capabilities, they focus more on traffic and conversion, and are more prominent in content display. However, these things are completely different from offline sales logic, which means these brands have not developed an offline distribution marketing system from the start. But anyone who has done offline knows that offline operations are actually more difficult than online because online communication is with algorithms, platforms, and consumers, with fixed targets. Offline communication involves countless distributors, wholesalers, and retailers, each with their own interests, and balancing so many people across so many links is not easy. -03- Which Online Influencer Brands Are Worth Cooperating With Since we are going to sell influencer products, the premise is that their fame and influence are already known to you. Being known means they have the ability to break out of their circle, i.e., beyond their inherent fan base, their visibility has covered non-core fan groups, which is a prerequisite for cooperation with any product. Secondly, such products should have a relatively broad coverage of people. For example, Zhong Xue Gao, although expensive, is suitable for all consumers, especially children, and has corresponding coverage breadth. Moreover, the appearance and quality of these products must be up to standard, and the brand itself should have a willingness to invest offline. Finally, distributors should evaluate where this product will be sold, whether it matches their channels, or matches the channels they intend to enter. -04- How to Find These Influencer Brands Actually, these brands are not hard to find. We can proactively contact the owners of Tmall flagship stores and discuss offline agency matters with them. Some influencer brands are also trying to expand into offline channels and are recruiting distributors through various media. You can also follow their official WeChat accounts and leave messages in the background. Regularly attending industry exhibitions can also show many brands recruiting distributors. Finally, if you really can't get in touch, you can proactively contact New Distribution, and New Distribution is willing to help distributors find these influencer brands. -05- How to Sell These Influencer Brands Offline? Many influencer brands have very few points of sale in physical spaces, so distributors must not flood the market with distribution; instead, choose selective channels to sell, and channel matching is crucial. Additionally, in the local market, don't limit yourself to offline; community group buying, localized communities, WeChat groups, and shopping guides' Moments can all be sales points, as long as they match the consumer group and consumption scenario. When selling, in principle, don't overly pursue sales volume, but focus on profit. Niche products are for adjusting the product structure and creating topics. Through topical sales, phased sales, promotional sales, opportunistic sales, and combined sales, achieve the activation of your own marketing. When encountering major online festivals like 618, Double 11, etc., learn to coordinate with online tactics. During online promotions, do full-network linkage and combine with the brand's promotional nodes. But no matter how you promote, profit assurance is the premise; don't do business at a loss. Finally, pay attention to turnover rate, especially offline. Don't just distribute and forget about it. Timely do terminal merchandising and track sell-through, adjust promotional policies promptly, and ensure maximum sales effectiveness. -06- What Issues to Pay Attention to When Cooperating with Influencer Brands When cooperating with influencer brands, pay attention to product quality stability. Some brands have unstable OEM factories, leading to issues like taste and quality problems, batch instability, etc. Make sure to understand this clearly before becoming an agent. Additionally, some influencer brands use packaging mainly for express delivery, which can lead to two extremes: one is too simple, the other too flashy. The packaging may not be suitable for shelf display, so adjust the sales format based on the product's packaging characteristics. Use more stack displays and posters to compensate for packaging deficiencies. When signing contracts with influencer brands, pay attention to protecting your own interests. Some innovative brands are not very stable themselves and are constantly changing, so prioritize your own interests to avoid unnecessary losses later. Pay attention to regional protection policies: Online, offline, social networks, B2B—today's channels are much more complex than before. This leads to channel overlap and chaotic product sources. Pay special attention to this. If large-scale online channel crossing damages the offline market, how to solve it should be written into the contract in advance. Solving online price-breaking issues: Online promotions often lead to price-breaking. Communicate in time before this happens to avoid post-event communication. Price protection content should also be written into the contract. Guarantees for near-expiry and loss issues: Some new products are hard to sell through, and influencer brands need to provide support. These contents should be communicated in advance. Finally, promotions, materials, and other issues: Communicate in time, even proactively. If the manufacturer lacks offline experience, distributors can even assist the influencer brand manufacturer in solving this problem. -07- In Summary, Several Principles 1. For innovative brands, many company teams lack offline experience and are unfamiliar with local markets and channels. Distributors should try to take the lead in operations initially.\n2. Distinguish between opportunistic products, strategic products, and tactical products, and coordinate well with your main brands.\n3. Innovate: use new teams, new play methods, and play new products well on new traffic platforms; explore all possible models: full-network sales, online sales, social circle sales, KOL sales, content marketing.\n4. Try: do it with a trial mindset, with a normal heart; profits and losses are possible, but you must have the ability to continuously launch new products.\n5. Entrepreneurial mindset: the boss must personally participate in the game. | Founder of New Distribution, FMCG industry channel expert, author of over 400,000 words of FMCG industry research articles. For communication, you can add WeChat by long-pressing. When adding, please indicate your unit, position, and name.