I. You Must Work on Terminals In the baijiu industry, there are three types of companies:
- Those that don't work on terminals and die;
- Those that work on terminals and die;
- Those that work on terminals and profit. If you don't work on terminals, selling goods to distributors without corresponding terminal support, your products won't enter mainstream terminals and won't become market protagonists. If you don't work on terminals, attempting direct sales through e-commerce, trunk projects, bribery promotions, or relying on personal networks for 'circle marketing'—all such efforts will face diminishing returns: development slows, maintenance costs rise, and value declines. To achieve performance, you must first abandon the illusion that 'success without terminals is possible,' firmly believe that 'not working on terminals means death,' and recognize that any attempt to bypass terminals is opportunistic, starting with self-cleverness and ending in failure.
II. The Key to Terminal Marketing Is 'Cost Planning Capability'
Tactics are not mysterious; the cost management behind tactics is the key. Terminal marketing tactics reached completeness by the 'Red Peach K era' in 1998. Red Peach K, building on Coca-Cola's foundation, established an 'integrated marketing communications' system with terminals as the hub, including product displays, posters, counter stickers, the role of 'terminal administrators,' and techniques for managing first-recommendation rates and general customer relations; including coordination of terminal visual identity with outdoor ads like bus stickers and wall signs, community promotions, free clinics, and TV media and newspaper soft articles. In short, terminal marketing tactics were largely complete by Red Peach K. After Red Peach K's failure, some teams moved to Slek and Midea—marketing techniques continued to develop, such as Slek's innovation in terminal display tools, but fundamental breakthroughs became rare. However, no matter how perfect tactics are, they cannot guarantee success. Because implementing any tactic has costs; different planning and management lead to vastly different costs and returns. Mastering tactics is not difficult; mastering the cost management behind tactic implementation is not so easy.
The core of baijiu terminal marketing is terminal personnel skills, image, and brand. Low- and mid-end baijiu has no loyalty; product cost-performance is nearly homogeneous. The path of 'packaging design + clever pricing + natural supermarket sales' is narrowing; broad terminal recommendations and the influence of terminal personnel are key to consumer choice. For high-end liquor, the weight of 'service' and 'comprehensive personal network benefits' in brand benefits is increasing. The significance of fame and government approvals is declining, which is why circle marketing thrives and 'that jar of wine in life' emerges.
Terminal marketing personnel represent extremely high cost investment. The main weapon of physical stores against e-commerce is personnel brand—the cohesion personnel have with consumers. Terminal management teams, terminal promotion teams, and terminal planning teams are all costs and expenses. Investment may not yield returns; small investment may not lack big returns. With declining supermarket foot traffic, promotion staff being diverted by supermarkets, and distributors falsifying headcounts, 90% of companies' investment in supermarket promotion staff becomes a formality. Retail outlets like liquor stores have low foot traffic, making it nearly impossible to bear promotion staff costs, or even the transportation costs of terminal managers. Consumers bringing their own liquor, declining total consumption of baijiu in the catering system, sharply rising promotion consumption, and homogenization of promotion investment make catering promotions a potential cost trap.
The core of terminal marketing planning is not tactic planning but cost planning. How to reduce costs, or how to improve the return on cost investment? In 1999, when Zeng Xiangwen served as marketing commander for Chengdu Hailang Dairy, he proposed 'sticky promotion': competitors like Huaxi and Guangming promoted to sell goods, but since dairy value is low, sales couldn't cover promotion costs; Shuangcha Milk sold 'membership qualifications'—buying one bottle meant subscribing for a year! Shuangcha Milk created a miracle in Chengdu: return on investment was hundreds of times higher than competitors like Huaxi, Shahe, and Yangping! Total profits approached Huaxi's. In 2001, serving Guangdong Shuijingfang, with support and inspiration from General Manager Jiang Jie, Zeng Xiangwen formulated the 'Core Terminal Strategy' and created tactics like 'brand experience venues' and 'doing terminals beyond terminals.' This theory also served companies like Yantai Changyu Wine. Beijing Shengchu Company, based on core terminal theories, proposed the 'disk-in-disk' model: heavily buying out core restaurants, willing to lose money to do them thoroughly, then diluting core terminal costs through the popularity of the big market, effectively solving the problem of terminal marketing not covering costs. In 2006, Zeng Xiangwen proposed 'dual-terminal marketing,' implemented in Hefei, the hometown of the disk-in-disk model. Some techniques were validated, such as weak brands like Anhui Shahe Wang doing 'group buying in restaurants bought out by competitors,' which reduced restaurant entry costs and improved promotion efficiency. Within a month, this model signed contracts with about 100 mid-to-high-end restaurants in Hefei, putting companies using disk-in-disk at a disadvantage. Zeng Xiangwen summarized techniques like 'Entry Fee Strategy' and 'Flying Over Toll Stations.' Some techniques (only the store-entry part) were used by Shanghai Shenxian Distillery, with a success rate of 50% in Fengxian and Nanhui. In response, Shengchu added 'consumer disk-in-disk' to the model, increasing resistance to 'doing group buying in others' terminals.' Zeng Xiangwen combined the 'dual-terminal model' with 'high-price competition' techniques to dilute costs with higher prices. He raised prices for Hainan Zhengye Zhongnong pesticides, boosting sales by 100%; shaped high-end brands like Rufeng Taishan for Shandong China Tobacco; and raised prices for juice companies in Nanjing and Hefei by 300%, with sales rising sharply. In 2013, Zeng Xiangwen returned to Chengdu to serve '12 Sea Mineral Water,' continuing the 'high price, high promotion' strategy, with prices double that of French Evian. He focused on the most high-end communities like Lushan International, top kindergartens like Jinwanhui, and some high-end KTVs; partnered with Beijing Laoshe Teahouse to radiate to high-end tea houses. In short, not working on terminals means death; Without appropriate techniques to reduce costs or improve return on cost investment, blindly following others in terminal work is suicide.
III. Terminal Strategy Tactics are moves; strategy is the 'internal strength' to use moves, including cultivation and application.
Brand Building Some companies dare not work on terminals because it seems to require burning resources, like purchase-gift intensity, displays, roadshows, and personnel promotions. Other companies are rich but foolish, bravely spending money, thus putting on the red shoes of terminal consumption, racing toward losses without stopping. The only way to escape terminal consumption is to build a brand, using the brand as a tool to consolidate terminal resources, rather than competing on product quality and price. We often see that with the same purchase-gift, the stronger the brand, the greater the attraction to consumers; or, to achieve a certain sales volume, the stronger the brand, the less reliance on promotion intensity. However, most companies don't know that the key to terminal input-output is not tactics but the 'brand' beyond tactics.
Terminal Layout A clear, rigorous terminal layout can significantly reduce terminal operating costs and improve efficiency. Layout is divided into three levels: geographic layout, time layout (order and rhythm of entering terminals), and format layout. Terminal selection, geographic layout, time rhythm layout, competitive layout, layout of sales terminals, consumption terminals, and brand promotion terminals, matching of five major promotion resources, linkage and interaction between terminals and between terminals and various consumers—all must be identified at a strategic level and managed with strategic tools.
Channel Strategy Structural and target differentiation in terminal incentives, innovation in terminal cooperation models—any point can reduce costs, improve returns, or even achieve core competitiveness and disrupt industry structure. Examples include the US dollars in Anhui liquor boxes in early years, lighters from Jiangkou Chun Zhuge Liang in Guangdong, and exquisite small gifts from Shuijingfang.
IV. Terminal Management Many companies have terminal management, but management costs are high or management becomes a formality. We believe the premise of terminal management is 'terminal quality.' Set rules first to avoid confusion: each terminal marketing plan first establishes a quality system, then all participants jointly evaluate and constrain. Marketing quality management was proposed by Mr. Xu Jun, senior consultant at Kotler Consulting Group. We first fully experimented with it when serving Shandong China Tobacco, and it succeeded. This system helps us evaluate in advance the quality of business teams, distributors, and terminal staff, and scientifically assess the value of each link afterward, maximizing the efficiency of incentive resources. We believe performance is driven mainly by two forces: innovation in marketing strategy and tactics, and innovation in marketing management, primarily incentive management. Our pioneering quality management system enables lower terminal marketing costs and better results. Based on quality management, supplemented by innovation in promotion team management models, we build promotion teams with first-class individual combat capability, making competitive advantages more comprehensive. With the rise of e-commerce, WeChat, and Weibo, terminal marketing content has been enriched, but terminal marketing has not become outdated. Not only has it not become outdated, it has become even more important.
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