--- title: "Regional Manager Market Operation Skills Essential Manual Series Part 2" description: "This chapter focuses on regional market survey and inventory, emphasizing the importance of knowing yourself and your competitors. It provides methods to estimate market capacity, analyze competitor sales, identify main consumption venues, and understand product structures, among other key indicators." author: "方刚" publisher: "New Distribution" email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com" telephone: "+8615854817671" published: "2014-12-17" language: "en" canonical: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/regional-manager-market-operation-skills-essential-manual-series-part-2-cb50adb5/" markdown: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/regional-manager-market-operation-skills-essential-manual-series-part-2-cb50adb5.md" original_source: "https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/5R6g1l3OJPsQorO41daWdQ" translation: "https://xinjignxiao.com/zh/articles/%E5%8C%BA%E5%9F%9F%E4%B8%BB%E7%AE%A1%E5%B8%82%E5%9C%BA%E6%93%8D%E7%9B%98%E6%8A%80%E8%83%BD%E5%BF%85%E5%A4%87%E6%89%8B%E5%86%8C%E7%B3%BB%E5%88%97%E4%B9%8B%E4%BA%8C-cb50adb5.md" attribution: "New Distribution — https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/regional-manager-market-operation-skills-essential-manual-series-part-2-cb50adb5/" usage_policy: "https://xinjignxiao.com/ai-policy.txt" --- # Regional Manager Market Operation Skills Essential Manual Series Part 2 > This chapter focuses on regional market survey and inventory, emphasizing the importance of knowing yourself and your competitors. It provides methods to estimate market capacity, analyze competitor sales, identify main consumption venues, and understand product structures, among other key indicators. **Friendly reminder: Click the blue text above to follow "FMCG Distributor Professional Consulting" for more marketing and distributor internal management content.** Chapter 2: Regional Market Questionnaire and Inventory Mnemonic: Know yourself, know your enemy, know the environment. 1. What is the beer market capacity in your region? Method: Total population * 30 liters / 1000 = KL (tons) = market capacity For example: If a county-level market has a total population of 710,000, the market capacity is 23,000 tons per year. Tip: Per capita consumption in county towns is higher than in rural areas; consider setting a difference of 5-10 liters per capita. 2. What are the annual sales volumes of major brands in the market? What is their market share (brand total sales / total market capacity)? What is their coverage rate (number of distribution outlets / total market outlets)? Method: Competitor sales data is only known to competitor distributors or corporate marketing agencies, making it difficult to obtain. However, you can use field surveys. For example, if conditions allow, classify and count competitor inventory at all outlets in the market. Competitor inventory / total outlet inventory = sales share; sales share / total market capacity = competitor sales volume. If the above method is not feasible, use sampling surveys. You can also predict competitor sales by surveying their distribution rate. (Distribution rate - 20%) / = competitor sales volume. 3. What are the main consumption venues? Mainstream beer consumption venues can be divided into on-premise channels (consumed on site, such as restaurants, KTVs) and off-premise channels (such as convenience stores, supermarkets). The characteristics of mainstream consumption channels are venues for mid-to-high-end products or leading outlets with the highest volume. 4. Mainstream brand flavors/packaging/specifications: Beer degrees (wort concentration, alcohol content), bottle capacity, cartons, plastic wraps, turnover baskets, etc. 5. Product structure Method: The main purpose of product structure analysis is to analyze the mainstream price system in the market. For example, if the mainstream price band for on-premise is 5 yuan, then in the early stage of entering the market, consider sticking to this price band and adopt a follow strategy! 6. Analysis of the top three competitors' first-tier prices, second-tier prices, terminal prices, retail prices, discounts/rewards, and control methods for catering and circulation outlets. Method: Ask at competitor warehouses or storefronts Visit outlets and ask Ask distributors or delivery personnel. Outlet control methods mainly include: exclusive agreements, display tactics to seize shelf inventory, bundle offers, tiered stocking pressure, etc. How to break into competitor exclusive stores and counter their display actions will be a professional course (covered in later chapters). 7. Channel member information of mainstream competitors in the market: first-tier and second-tier distributors (location, phone, sales volume, direct-sales type, distribution type, direct-distribution type) Method: Outlet visits and surveys: Ask terminal owners who delivers their beer? Direct-sales type: Distributors directly control terminal outlets. Characteristics: Sales volume is not large, but they mostly control key catering outlets with strong customer relationships, beneficial for market launch and consumption cultivation. Distribution type: Distributors serve as the logistics and capital platform for the manufacturer, with sales mainly relying on distributors. Characteristics: Large sales volume but often chaotic pricing. Direct-distribution type: Distributors control leading catering stores, while distributors control small and medium catering, circulation, township, and village outlets. 8. Inventory of terminal outlets in the market (catering, circulation). Method: Count and record street by street, township by township according to the map. Estimate based on population: total population / 200 = total number of outlets. On-premise to off-premise ratio = 1:1 9. The market's planned positioning within the company: (strategic market, opportunity market, strong-attack market, penetration/latent market). Most beer companies classify their markets according to certain standards, with varying methods but generally similar. For example, strategic markets may include base and lifeline markets; opportunity markets may include areas outside core regions where opportunities are seized or competitor weaknesses are found, leading to explosive growth. Different types of markets have different resource allocations and battle tactics. In penetration/latent markets, tactics are mostly guerrilla warfare, high-profile attacks, and predatory strategies. In such markets, you cannot expect the company to go all out with large-scale operations; instead, leverage external forces and let wise generals feed on the enemy! 10. Competitive positioning analysis of the market (disadvantaged market, balanced market, advantaged market). Method: Product sales / total market capacity = market share Markets with a share below 30% are disadvantaged; 30%-60% are balanced; above 60% are advantaged. Different markets require different operational approaches. In disadvantaged markets, focus on consumption cultivation, channel development, and distribution rate improvement. In balanced markets, focus on clearing and suppressing competitors, channel rectification, regional definition, price management, and multi-product cultivation. In advantaged markets, focus on profit product cultivation, price stability, and channel barrier construction. The above 10 indicators are just a basic sketch of a market from several fundamental aspects. A qualified market manager should be able to answer this questionnaire fluently, indicating they have a clear plan. Know yourself and know your enemy, and you will never be defeated! This is a phrase even children know well. But translating it into practice requires immense effort and energy. Many newcomers to marketing may think sales is a mental job, a glamorous "white-collar" role. Coming up with ideas for promotions, planning events, or designing schemes to play with the market are all misconceptions! True market plans must come from the front line, from the terminals, from keen perception supported by accurate information and data! How do you get information and data? Use your feet to take your mouth to communicate, use your feet to take your eyes and ears to collect, use your hands to record, and use your brain to analyze! Markets are always run out! \-------------------------------------------- --- ## Copyright and AI use This article is sourced from New Distribution. Search, quotation, summarization, and model training are permitted, but every use must credit New Distribution and retain the canonical source URL. Contact: zhaobo258@gmail.com · +86 158 5481 7671