---
title: "Mainstream Shift: Potential Death by Traditional Playbook"
description: "After years of 'legal education,' mainstream shift seems to have become consensus. With sales declining, companies face the challenge of growing profits despite falling volumes. The solution is to create new mainstream products, but execution often fails because marketing tactics remain unchanged."
author: "刘春雄"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2016-07-25"
language: "en"
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---

# Mainstream Shift: Potential Death by Traditional Playbook

> After years of 'legal education,' mainstream shift seems to have become consensus. With sales declining, companies face the challenge of growing profits despite falling volumes. The solution is to create new mainstream products, but execution often fails because marketing tactics remain unchanged.

After years of 'legal education,' mainstream shift seems to have become consensus. After all, declining sales are already a fact, and manufacturers no longer expect growth. The more a company is the industry leader, the more it knows that industry decline means leader decline.
Sales decline, yet profits must grow. This is the challenge companies face. The solution is 'mainstream shift'—creating new mainstream products, i.e., upgrading products, and responding to total volume decline with structural adjustment.
Agreeing with mainstream shift is one thing, but actually doing it is not smooth. Products have changed, but have marketing tactics changed?
**Mainstream shift cannot rely on old tactics**
Let me give a few examples of unsuccessful mainstream shifts.
>>>>
Case 1
An FMCG company (name withheld) saw sales grow for over 30 years, but last year sales declined for the first time. A few months ago, they launched a new upgraded product. Because the manufacturer was traditionally strong, distributors cooperated in distribution. However, due to short shelf life, the new product quickly approached expiry, and sales were poor. So the manufacturer was forced to discount and promote.
**Comment:** This is the old tactic for traditional products: new product launch, first distribute, then promote. This approach worked in the past, but why does it fail now? From this case, we see a major change.
**Change 1:** Where have high-end consumers gone? In the era of channel dominance, consumers were in channels, so distribution was enough. Later, high-end consumers moved to supermarkets, so terminal promotions were enough. Where are high-end consumers now? A purchasing director at an international retail giant said: In the past, supermarkets had two peaks: morning for elderly and housewives, afternoon for office workers, which was high-end consumption. But now, the afternoon peak is gone.
Since high-end consumption is not in channels or supermarkets, we must ask two questions: First, is it useful to distribute and promote high-end new products in channels and supermarkets?
Marketing expert Mr. Fang Gang said that deep distribution (distribution and promotion) is a sales magic tool but a high-end killer. This is using scale thinking to do value.
Then someone might ask: Since high-end consumers are not in channels or supermarkets, where are they? Each industry may differ greatly. That is not for me to tell you; it is what you need to find. If you don't know where high-end consumers are, then don't do high-end new products.
>>>>
Case 2
A beer company launched a high-end new product last year. The quality was good, and everyone who tasted it praised it. Advertising was heavy. But two phenomena: First, those who tasted it wanted to buy but couldn't find it because terminals had no stock; second, terminals that had stocked it said it didn't sell well, so they stopped reordering and stopped promoting. This year, they increased advertising and distribution, but results were still unsatisfactory.
**Comment:** Advertising in the sky, distribution on the ground. This was once extremely effective, but why does it fail now? I think there is a second major change.
**Change 2:** What influences high-end consumption? In the past, 'low-price, low-end' consumption was heavily influenced by TV. All industry giants invested heavily in TV. But now, when communicating, we must pay attention to two phenomena: First, high-end consumers were never greatly influenced by mass communication. Even before the internet era, TV ads were not necessarily effective. For example, luxury goods rarely advertise on TV. Second, in the internet age, are high-end consumers influenced by the internet? Certainly. I think high-end consumption is most influenced by circles—recommendations among high-end acquaintances. The internet itself is becoming mass communication. For high-end consumers, the internet merely expands the circle of their social network.
>>>>
Case 3
Evergrande Spring Water. Since everyone knows this case, I'll go straight to comments.
**Comment:** Evergrande's judgment that mineral water upgrade was correct, the product was good, and internet and TV communication and distribution were also good. However, why is Evergrande Spring Water widely criticized? It involves three judgments:
**Judgment 1:** High-end is not mass. High-end is high-end because it is not mass. Of course, after many years, it might become mass, and the mass might occasionally consume. This is an important judgment and determines that it is difficult to distribute widely. Indeed, there is a trend of treating high-end as mass for distribution.
**Judgment 2:** High-end becoming mass is a slow process, not explosive. So making high-end a hit product may be wrong thinking.
**Judgment 3:** High-end has small volume but high value. Conventional products are low-margin, high-volume, following the scale approach. High-end products have small volume but must maintain high gross margins. For example, conventional products might have 20-30% gross margin, which is already high, but high-end should be at least 50%, some even over 70%.
**Marketing methodology for mainstream shift**
Brand relies on advertising; sales rely on distribution, promotion, and deep distribution. This is the marketing methodology for conventional products.
For years, this methodology has been deeply ingrained, even though promoting it was difficult at the time.
In the internet age, what is the playbook or marketing methodology for high-end products? There is no standard answer. If there were a standard answer, it would already be useless, like the conventional product methodology above. But I can propose several key concepts:
**Concept 1:** KOL. KOL stands for Key Opinion Leader. For conventional products, you might use mass communication to 'incite' demand. For high-end products, you need to identify KOLs.
Mr. Fang Gang has a vivid metaphor: KOL = internet 'disk-in-disk' (a term for channel control).
What do KOLs do? They are the origin of marketing communication; they can influence others. In short, they are the starting point for precision communication.
Finding KOLs has two key points: First, target the right KOLs. According to social marketing expert Ding Ding, KOLs have four selection criteria: 1) love to try new things; 2) love to share; 3) professional; 4) influential. Meeting two criteria makes them a KOL; meeting all four makes them top-notch. Second, have enough KOLs to form a wide coverage of communication.
**Concept 2:** Experience. Some people believe in experience, like KOLs, seeing is believing; some believe in acquaintances; some believe in mass communication. High-end consumption falls into the first two. So after identifying KOLs, let them experience, then spread the word. Even if it's free experience, effective experience, it must be experienced.
**Concept 3:** Circle communication. Circle communication is communication among acquaintances. After the internet, circle communication is largely being replaced by social marketing. Now, high-end products still rely mainly on circles, using internet tools for communication. The higher the end, the harder it is. High-end circles may be quick to accept new ideas, but usually conservative in lifestyle.
-END-
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