During the three years of the pandemic, the FMCG industry saw two major changes. First: Facing the uncertainty of sudden "lockdowns" during the three years, once lifted, the first task for practitioners was orders, delivery, and inventory pressure. The primary guarantee was that channel distributors had stock, which led to some basic market actions (display, merchandising, etc.) not being strictly executed. Over time, this self-defeated their capabilities. Second: During the three years, community group buying was exceptionally hot, and the residual heat of B2B had not dissipated. Especially in 2021, capital-backed community group buying had an unprecedented impact on FMCG, making many practitioners feel that FMCG was about to "change." Additionally, the "internet celebrity" effect brought by lockdowns became increasingly rampant, with words like "explosive products," "explosive popularity," and "explosive volume" impacting practitioners, causing them to genuinely reject basic actions and fail to return to their original intentions. This year, for FMCG manufacturers, the primary task is to correct course and return to the original intention. True offline competition still relies on the previous "core skills." Today, let's talk about one of the core skills: Display.

What is the core value of display? First, look at a set of shelf display images from Zilin Vinegar Industry. What display matters are involved here? Do you think the sales of this vinegar will be good?

1. Typical category-related display: Placing vinegar next to the dumpling area This establishes consumer purchase motivation. Dumplings dipped in vinegar is a national consumption habit, fitting the consumption scenario, and easily forming category association. So placing vinegar next to dumplings easily triggers purchase motivation.

2. Displaying high-priced vinegar on low-priced dumplings The display does not match consumers' purchasing power. Purchasing power does not mean whether consumers can afford the vinegar, but rather that in most consumers' minds, the main item is dumplings, and vinegar is a condiment for dipping, with a primary and secondary distinction. That is, the price of vinegar should not be higher than that of dumplings, or ideally, the price of vinegar should be about one-third of the dumplings' price. This is the purchasing power ordinary people are willing to pay. There is a small issue here: In the first image, the vinegar price is clearly higher than in the second image, but the dumpling price in the first image is 50% of that in the second (dumplings in the first image are 25, in the second are 52). So it is recommended to swap the positions of different-priced vinegars to match consumers' purchasing power.

3. Lack of necessary merchandising materials There is no better way to trigger consumers to buy vinegar. How can we trigger consumer purchases? From the consumer's perspective, they are surrounded by various advertisements every day, so much information is subjectively blocked, forming an "information cocoon." If nothing attracts their attention, buying dumplings is just buying dumplings, and everything else is ignored. So how to trigger? Suggestion: Place explosive tags with the note: "Dumplings are delicious, don't forget to buy vinegar." This serves as a reminder and better triggers consumer purchase behavior.

The core values reflected in the above display: First, correct display is not just about making the product look better, but also about selling better. Display without sales logic is meaningless. Second, humans have five senses: sight, hearing, smell, touch, and taste. Online communication can only solve the first two, while offline display can bridge the last meter of connection with consumers. Display without communication logic is meaningless.

Thinking about display behavior from a competitive perspective To gain a competitive advantage in a regional market, one must start from three aspects: product competitiveness, channel competitiveness, and consumer competitiveness. Display is the best promoter for shaping offline competitiveness.

1. Product competitiveness: Label products by coverage and turnover rate, resulting in four dimensions.

Dimension 1: Core products: high turnover, high coverage Display strategy: Increase facings, multi-point display, stacking boxes, cutting boxes, freezing, and other merchandising services, mainly brand display.

Dimension 2: Key products: high turnover, low coverage Display strategy: Strengthen outlet development and introduction incentives, increase facings.

Dimension 3: Potential products: low turnover, high coverage Display strategy: "Ride on the coattails" of the first brand to gain traffic, do more category displays.

Dimension 4: Opportunity products: low turnover, low coverage Display strategy: Strengthen standard development and introduction of outlets, benchmark against the first brand's traffic.

In terms of product competitiveness, the core work of display is to use differentiation, focus, and other means to highlight the product from the shelf, effectively convey product information to target consumers, and thus gain a leading position in market competition.

2. Channel competitiveness: We must know that the general principles of display in different competitive market structures are different. For example: A brand developing a blank market, the first task of recruiting distributors and distributing goods is large-scale display, intending to explode the market with displays everywhere, but the results are often unsatisfactory. Without brand endorsement and lacking consumer "awareness" connection, the "blooming everywhere" gives consumers "blindness." The result is that products on the shelf become near-expired or expired on a large scale, and exit the market. It is not that display has failed, but that market changes have made display adaptive. Different markets, channels, and channel distributors match different display requirements. We briefly list a few points for reference: First, markets can be segmented by regional population and per capita annual consumption amount, and different segments can match different display strategies. Second, according to the market competitive landscape, such as stronger than competitors, equal to competitors, or weaker than competitors, design different display strategies. Finally, design the display process and reasonable supervision strategies based on the distributor's capabilities and willingness. In short, from region to channel distributor, from channel distributor to channel, display logic must match and be closer to the market, so that products can gain competitive advantages in the channel.

3. Consumer competitiveness: Acquiring new customers, repeat purchases, and average transaction value are core means to build product power. At this time, the core of display is to formulate matching guidelines based on different consumer promotion activities. The goal of display strategy is to cooperate with various consumer activities, build matching scenarios, merchandising elements, etc., to attract and stimulate the purchase desire of target consumers.

Review of display operation elements This part is a cliché, but it must be discussed. Here are five key points.

1. Four pieces of information that display must convey: First, convey who you are. This requires displaying brand information, product information, price information, etc. Second, convey to whom the information is directed. That is, show how the target consumer is positioned: age, gender, occupation, etc. Third, convey what information. That is, show the purpose: what to sell, what consumer needs to solve. Finally, use display to shape information differentiation, i.e., be different, otherwise the shelf becomes a product grave. Information overload brings decision difficulty to consumers; when there are too many choices, they often give up choosing.

2. Seven principles of display: Easy to identify, obvious, easy to reach, full and sufficient, first in first out, vertical display, and related unity.

3. Excellent display model: Excellent display merchandising is not—anything, everywhere, only POP materials, only one display, etc. Excellent display merchandising should be—innovative/creative, arousing consumers' purchase impulse, interacting with the consumption scenario, eye-catching but not abrupt, clear and accurate price signs, etc. The display model includes correct location (what shopping flow? what display props?), suitable products (brand, packaging, flavor), perfect in-store support (correct display form, visibility & merchandising, auxiliary materials), and influential promotion (price, promotion, slogans, maintenance).

4. In-store golden triangle—positioning principle: They are along the path of three key points: a. entrance; b. checkout counter; c. around the most frequently purchased products in the store.

5. Four principles for evaluating display effectiveness: Visual: match customer sightlines to maximize attraction; Interaction: whether it matches the consumption behavior habits of the target consumer group; Differentiation: whether key products or themes are displayed differently to stand out among many products in the store; Sales: whether it promotes sales and image enhancement.

How to effectively implement display No matter how good the display strategy, if it is not effectively implemented, the result is still zero. Below is a summary of display issues I found after visiting the market, totaling 10 items:

1. Brand display VS category display: Emphasize brand display in large stores, strengthen category display in small stores. 2. Shelf life control: Large stores with paid displays have issues with digesting old stock, harming brand image. 3. Display standards and implementation: Tracking and checking of displays need strengthening; standards exist, but implementation needs checking; an organization that ensures execution between standards and implementation is needed. 4. Brand window: Large supermarkets like Wumart, Yonghui, Walmart, etc., have paid for displays, but there is still much room for improvement; they need to be included in the visit system, and better customer relationships will improve results. 5. Consumer promotional items: The selection of consumer promotional items should consider the consumption scenario; lack of consumer promotional items is unfriendly to new product acquisition, repeat purchases, and average transaction value. 6. Merchandising construction: Materials are single, atmosphere creation is insufficient, and sales and consumption scenario construction need strengthening. 7. Market reference: Market consumer acquisition, repeat purchase, and other display actions are insufficient. 8. Display awareness: Display forms are single, multi-point construction is less, emphasize sales but also market. 9. KA cost-effectiveness: KA momentum is out, but some stores' periodic cost investment makes overall display costs high; consider how to increase sales or reduce display costs to improve cost-effectiveness. 10. Display price system: In terms of price, ensure channel normal profits while maintaining product price competitiveness, especially adjustments to bundled sales and retail price systems.

The above summary is relatively comprehensive, but the forms are too scattered. A closed-loop methodology for display is needed; otherwise, these trivial issues cannot form the next guiding actions for display execution. Therefore, it is recommended to form a closed loop from management—process—execution.

From the management level, consider the standardization, authenticity, checkability, and incentivization of results. From the process level, consider the reasons for non-compliant displays: unclear standards? system deficiencies? implementation not in place? After discovering problems, improve the process immediately to ensure that incomplete processes do not lead to non-compliant results. From the execution level, consider whether it is lack of knowledge, unskilled, improper attitude, or inadequate checking. Only when these three form a closed loop can display be truly effective and become easier over time.

In conclusion:

The original intention and ultimate purpose of product display are to make customers inadvertently purchase unplanned items. For sales terminals, product display has become an important means to attract consumer attention and increase sales. After the baptism of the pandemic and capital market, I also hope that more FMCG manufacturers can quickly return to offline, return to basic market skills, and give their products more competitive advantages.