Click ↑ "FMCG Distributor Professional Consulting" for more marketing and distributor internal management content. Despite the current challenging sales environment, many best-selling products remain active in the market, which is closely related to the marketing strategies and promotional methods of food companies. Around the theme of "How Best-Selling Products Are Made," the reporter interviewed several excellent food companies, and combined with their respective star products, summarized their experiences and viewpoints in market operations and product promotion, hoping to provide reference and inspiration for food manufacturers and distributors. Case 1: Wahaha Develop a Distributor "Inventory Clearance" Plan to Resolve High Channel Inventory As a leading enterprise in China's food and beverage industry, Wahaha has continued to grow rapidly and set the goal of "building a thousand-billion kingdom." However, against the backdrop of sluggish sales, Wahaha has encountered some problems in the market, such as declining sales of old products, new products not keeping up, and excessive inventory pressure on distributors. To this end, Wahaha has actively taken measures in price difference adjustment, channel unclogging, and terminal promotions to help distributors resolve sales difficulties. Due to weather and other reasons, some Wahaha distributors had excessive inventory in August this year, occupying their capital and warehouse space. Therefore, at an internal meeting held in September this year, Wahaha addressed the high inventory issue caused by slow-moving products, stating that it must help distributors digest inventory. To this end, Wahaha formulated a specific "inventory clearance" plan, requiring each market to organize a 5-6 person clearance team, while distributors provide personnel and vehicles to sweep through wholesale and retail channels, aiming to clear inventory in a short time. It was also noted that during the clearance, all products in the distributor's inventory should be cleared simultaneously, leveraging the advantage of "many hands make light work" to boost distributor confidence with a fast-paced, lightning-style clearance and quickly open up the situation. In addition, to leverage the holiday market to drive product sales, Wahaha required all provinces to organize large-scale consumer-oriented case promotions and free tasting events before National Day. The case promotions used price differences, such as offering a free parasol with the purchase of a case. The price difference between Wahaha beverages' ex-factory price and retail price is 15-17 yuan per case. For example, Nutrition Express retails at 4 yuan per bottle, a case costs 60 yuan, the ex-factory price is about 43.5 yuan, leaving a difference of 16.5 yuan; the cost of a parasol is about 9 yuan. For distributors, the price difference from promotional activities is much higher than channel profits. Moreover, during the National Day holiday, self-driving travel increases demand for beverages, and parasols can shield from both rain and sun, greatly enhancing consumers' willingness to buy by the case. Additionally, with more wedding banquets during National Day, distributors can collaborate with catering clients on promotions, with the manufacturer providing free fruit juice or wine products and actively advertising. The free tasting samples and advertising costs are borne by the manufacturer, while other promotional items are covered from the product price difference, borne by the distributor. Thus, the high inventory problem faced by Wahaha distributors was largely alleviated through a joint manufacturer-distributor effort. Case 2: Wushang Three Keys to Creating Best-Selling New Products: No Inventory Pressure, Control Pace, Dare to Invest Hangzhou Wushang Food Co., Ltd. launched its room-temperature lactic acid bacteria beverage, Wushang Yijunduo, relatively early in 2012, and within two years, achieved sales exceeding 100 million yuan in Zhejiang, Anhui, Jiangsu, and Jiangxi provinces. Behind its rapid sales success, besides solid product quality, close manufacturer-distributor cooperation is indispensable. Facing increasingly fierce market competition, many companies try to shift pressure onto distributors by using ordering meetings, advance payment requirements, and other means to force inventory on them, resulting in poor sales. Wushang, however, does the opposite. In terms of shipping, Wushang does not have strict quantity limits; orders of 300, 200, or even 100 pieces can be shipped. Sometimes, when a distributor orders too much at once, Wushang will advise against it based on actual market research. Wushang General Manager Ni Yongkang stated that this approach can largely avoid product blockage at the terminal, and without inventory worries, it helps build distributor confidence and stimulate healthy product turnover in the market. Additionally, persisting with terminal promotional activities has become another major factor in Wushang's success. It is understood that Wushang provides long-term free tasting support to distributors. Free tasting is divided into three types: first, free tasting, mainly conducted by promoters cycling through major supermarket terminals. This form can only achieve single-point sales and cannot create large-scale effects. Second, paid tasting, i.e., bundled sales. Wushang also organized a scratch card activity in June this year to boost terminal sales. The third form, still being planned and tested, is home delivery. The company cooperates with courier companies to deliver products to consumers' homes, giving away two bottles per household along with coupons, proactively promoting to stimulate consumer purchase desire. Zhejiang Shangyu Baichuan Trading Co., Ltd. primarily distributes products such as Nongfu Spring, Master Kong noodles, Xiang Piao Piao, and Arawana cooking oil. General Manager Yu Rongguo has nearly 30 years of market operation experience. In the second half of 2012, Yu Rongguo began distributing Wushang Yijunduo and, with the manufacturer's assistance, expanded the market and maintained prices, mainly addressing early product turnover issues, quickly increasing monthly sales to around 1,000 pieces. Starting in 2013, as distribution coverage expanded and products began to turn over, Wushang began cooperating with Baichuan Trading on terminal promotion and large-scale free tasting activities, and Wushang Yijunduo's monthly sales in the local market reached 5,000-6,000 pieces. This year, Yu Rongguo further refined the market, and Wushang Yijunduo's monthly sales successfully exceeded 10,000 pieces, becoming the number one room-temperature lactic acid bacteria brand in the local market. Yu Rongguo stated that the entire industry currently faces sales difficulties. For distributors, the product brand is not the most important; the key is whether the manufacturer can provide sufficient support and cooperation. The core work of distributors is to achieve proper terminal displays and establish product image to attract consumers. Wushang has full confidence in its products and is more willing to cooperate with distributors. It not only dares to invest in entry fees for A and B class outlets but also organizes weekend promotional activities at core outlets, which has a good pulling effect. What impresses Yu Rongguo most is Wushang's attitude of not putting pressure on distributors. "The establishment of best-selling products relies on a healthy pace of new product launches. Distributors' confidence comes from the terminal; when terminal sales move, distributors naturally become bolder. And Wushang has shown this healthy promotional momentum." Yu Guorong laughed and said, "At first, I ordered a few hundred pieces at a time, but now I order two to three thousand pieces each time." Case 3: Ma Dajie Implement the Five-Step Principle for New Product Launches to Make Promotion More Effective The rise of oat chocolate has created a new trend in the candy market, and as one of the leading brands of oat chocolate, Ma Dajie has also achieved good sales results. Its marketing director, Yang Xuebao, believes that Ma Dajie's success is due to its emphasis on new product promotion. Once a new product is launched, the company always follows a set five-step principle for promotion, and these five steps cannot be reordered or omitted. Step 1: Internal System Upgrade. At the initial launch stage, the entire company must pay attention to new product promotion. First, intensify efforts to adjust and upgrade internal systems, with all departments coordinating for the new product's launch and operation, especially training the company's team members to ensure they have a comprehensive understanding of the product. Step 2: Hold a Mobilization Meeting. The mobilization meeting should create a firm momentum for promoting the new product. To do this, two things must be done: first, clarify the reward mechanism for sales personnel and incentive measures for distributors to fully mobilize the enthusiasm of relevant personnel; second, clarify unified consumer promotion methods to ensure consistent actions. Step 3: Product Distribution. Do a good job of vivid displays, ensuring sufficient distribution volume and wide coverage. Step 4: After distribution, arrange reasonable staffing to guide consumers to make trial purchases. Ma Dajie's strategy is "one static, one dynamic." "Static" means directly promoting Ma Dajie products as the main recommendation through supermarket promoters, store owners, and clerks. For example, Ma Dajie's newly launched Zhiai chocolate (2 yuan/28g) is mainly sold in campus channels and small circulation stores nationwide. Whenever a customer enters the store, clerks or promoters will promptly introduce Zhiai chocolate. "Dynamic" means going out to do promotions, with company salespeople leading distributor salespeople to conduct tasting promotions nationwide. On Saturdays and Sundays, they conduct promotional activities in the snack food sections of 10,000 stores or supermarkets nationwide. In short, during the initial promotion period, every opportunity for customers to make trial purchases should be seized. Step 5: Coordinate with media promotion and advertising. However, not all advertised products can sell well; there will inevitably be some capital consumption. Therefore, it is not recommended for small and medium-sized enterprises to make media advertising the main activity too early. Only after sufficient distribution and trial sales have achieved certain results should advertising and media promotion be run to add icing on the cake. Through these five steps, Ma Dajie's new products can quickly achieve distribution and contact with consumers in the shortest time, achieving good sales results. On November 23, Zhiai chocolate achieved sales exceeding 10,000 yuan in a single day at a single store in Jimo Jialejia, Shandong. By 17:00 that evening, Zhiai sales at that supermarket had reached 10,247.26 yuan. These achievements are all due to Ma Dajie's well-planned and clearly structured new product promotion strategy. Case 4: Maijishi Follow Social Hotspots and Organize Product Promotions with Relevance As an emerging bakery company, Maijishi has maintained steady and rapid development. In 2013, Maijishi's sales scale exceeded 100 million yuan, and in the first half of 2014, it maintained a 50% growth rate. In October this year, Maijishi launched a new product, Fresh Cake, with promotions both online and offline. It plans to adjust its category structure in the second half of 2014, increase efforts in high-end bakery products, and provide products at high, medium, and low price points. Now, Maijishi is at a new starting point, planning to add new supporting facilities in 2015 to seek greater development space. Zhang Fangying, Zhejiang Regional Manager of Maijishi, believes that Maijishi is currently in a rising phase. Although the consumer base is not large enough, it has developed very rapidly in the past two years, and even the sluggish sales environment has not slowed Maijishi's rise. It is understood that Maijishi currently does not do advertising but only terminal activity promotions. Zhang Fangying shared her views on this: "For small and medium-sized enterprises in the start-up and development stage, investing millions in media advertising is hard to see results. It's better to use these funds for terminal building and promotion, using points to drive the whole, doing meticulous work, and then following up with terminal publicity. When promoting, try to avoid discounts and promotions because giving up profits does not bring much profit growth; instead, it shrinks the product's future growth space, which is very detrimental to the company's long-term development. Therefore, it's better to put effort into the form of promotion, using different themes and products to attract consumer attention, which can also achieve the effect of boosting sales." Maijishi often designs and organizes promotional activities creatively, especially focusing on combining product characteristics with social hotspots. For example, Maijishi has a traditional Dutch maple syrup waffle, and during promotion, it coordinated with the local "Dutch Windmill Festival" in March, successfully gaining attention from consumers and tourists. In April, Maijishi leveraged the popularity of "Dad, Where Are We Going?" and the early spring scenery to launch a "Spring Outing, Where Are We Going?" activity, guiding consumers to "eat Maijishi during spring outings." This summer, the World Cup craze swept the globe, and Maijishi seized this opportunity to promote alongside the World Cup... In addition to these hotspot-related promotions, Maijishi also pays attention to details, with staff at sales outlets conducting regular promotional activities such as tastings and free movie tickets for purchases during holidays and anniversaries. Case 5: Zhenniu Master Off-Season Marketing to Get a Head Start in Sales The candy industry has entered a stage of full competition, placing higher demands on companies' market operation capabilities. Ding Yanshan, Chairman of Jiangxi Zhenniu Food Co., Ltd., stated that Zhenniu's main product, "Chengnan Gushi" candy, promotes Jiangnan wedding characteristics. From August to January each year, the wedding candy market experiences two sales peaks (August-September and December-January) and one market decline period (October-November). To this end, Zhenniu Food has formulated a reasonable sales strategy based on its product characteristics, with the core being to grasp off-season marketing. 1. Promotions to Seize Market High Ground. After the busy August-September period of grabbing goods, customers, and orders, October-November is a relatively idle season for distributors. At this time, distributors can free up time and personnel for market development and promotional introduction, warming up for the December-January candy battle, and occupying distributors' warehouses, funds, and supply. Generally, candy distributors in each region have 2-5 brands on hand. This requires companies to actively use promotional intensity, methods, and variety as bargaining chips to guide distributors to proactively cooperate with Chengnan Gushi activities. 2. Deep Distribution Shows Its Power. Zhenniu Food found through data analysis that a medium-sized county has 10 candy distributors (wedding candy shops), each representing 5 brands. Assuming each brand's market share is similar, each brand only occupies 1/50 of the market. This is an undesirable result for all brand companies. If manufacturers and distributors can carry out deep distribution of wedding candy to seize local terminals and wedding candy shops, they can break this pattern, not only bringing sales growth but also greatly enhancing brand influence and market share. Therefore, October-November is a good time for deep distribution, providing opportunities for product sales. 3. Embedding Festive Culture to Accelerate Sales. Zhenniu Food has embedded festive culture and brand image in its 500+ distributors and 200+ candy specialty stores nationwide. From promotional posters, store signs, store boards, counters, and flyers to price tags, small ornaments, and work uniforms, it has comprehensively enhanced the product's cultural influence, providing brand culture-oriented guarantees for full market sales. There can be an off-season in the market, but not in thinking. Through the above marketing methods, "Chengnan Gushi" candy achieves "no off-season," comprehensively enhancing cooperation stickiness with distributors. It is expected to achieve delivery volume of over 15 million yuan in November 2014, setting a new record for November sales. Case 6: Haolilai Combining Online Buzz and Offline Promotion, New Product Becomes Best-Seller in Half a Year In 2014, with the overall economic environment not optimistic and market sales unclear, Fujian Jinjiang Haolilai Food Co., Ltd. decisively made strategic adjustments, abandoning the traditional model for new product introduction and instead relying on a strong e-commerce platform, cooperating with high-quality national e-commerce companies for full-network operations. Under the vigorous promotion of full-network e-commerce, the "Dashenge Extremely Face-Saving" snack noodle product gradually became popular online. On this basis, Haolilai Food quickly laid out offline channels comprehensively. Lin Desheng, General Manager of Haolilai Food, gave a specific interpretation of the company's promotion strategy: First, based on important leisure markets such as Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shanghai, Hunan, Hubei, Sichuan, and Chongqing, it captured various brand snack leisure chain channels, completing the first strategic step; then it cooperated with domestic high-quality leisure food alliance merchants to fully occupy the high-end leisure food field; after completing full coverage of leisure channels, the company made strategic layouts for the most direct sales outlets—campus stores nationwide; finally, concentrating all resource advantages, it selectively attacked major terminal supermarkets nationwide, relying on personalized displays, weekend giveaways, tastings, and other promotional forms, fully launching the "Dashenge's Face Project" series of activities, sounding the clarion call for a full-scale offensive into supermarket terminals. Through the above strategic deployments, Haolilai Food completed a comprehensive network construction, and the "Dashenge Extremely Face-Saving" snack noodle series achieved best-seller status in regional markets within just half a year of launch. Case 7: Shuokeli Manufacturer-Distributor Joint Action with Five Measures to Boost Terminals and Keep Off-Season Active In spring 2014, Guangdong Shuokeli Food Co., Ltd.'s series of sports drinks officially launched and now cover major sales channels in large and medium-sized cities. Sales Director Guo Xiaohui stated that through close cooperation with distributors, Shuokeli has gained recognition from most merchants and consumers in the market. However, sports drinks have now entered the off-season, facing difficulties in sales and slow turnover. Shuokeli has timely introduced countermeasures. Guo Xiaohui believes that all beverage brands currently face varying degrees of sales difficulties, and there is no shortage of new brands stirring the market with low prices. Overall, this year's sports drink market sales have been mediocre, and companies need to use effective sales methods to consolidate sales channels and boost distributor confidence. To this end, Shuokeli decided to strengthen the development, maintenance, and cultivation of the off-season market. In September, Shuokeli conducted a market survey, using relevant data to understand the number of terminal outlets and core terminal layout for Shuokeli sports drinks, as well as the heat of terminal sales and under what circumstances consumers are more willing to buy. With this data, we gathered national distributors for a symposium and finally formulated the following market execution plan: 1. Conduct a new round of distribution to increase product exposure, achieving distribution rate and terminal shelf rate of over 60%, and increase the assessment coefficient for terminal development in the sales team's KPI; 2. Discover and cultivate core terminals, using peak-season sales growth to drive sales at ordinary terminals, thereby establishing price and sales benchmarks for Shuokeli sports drinks in the market to enhance market confidence; 3. Implement standardized terminal management in the team; 4. Improve sales personnel's individual combat capability and sales skills; 5. Implement vivid terminal sales policies. Through these five simple but very effective measures, distributors have already reported good news since September. The market sales of Shuokeli sports drinks have significantly improved, team execution and market attack confidence have increased, and terminal outlets continue to rise. In fact, the key to using market sales methods lies in close cooperation between manufacturers and distributors, and whether they can jointly respond when market problems arise. Under the current sales situation, manufacturers and distributors should strengthen communication on these issues, truthfully reflect the situation at the front line, discuss and find solutions, thereby consolidating the sales market. Source: Huatang Business School --------------------------------------------