Friendly reminder: Click the blue text above, "FMCG Distributor Professional Consulting," to learn more about marketing and distributor internal management.
Promotions generally include several components such as advertising, sales promotion, personal selling, and public relations, and are one of the most important elements in marketing activities. Although modern marketing theory has transformed this into "communication," with changes in terminology and practice, the essence remains the same: both aim solely at "promoting sales." The only difference is that one is "product-oriented," while the other is "consumer-oriented." For ease of understanding, "promotion" in the following text refers to "communication" that is "consumer-oriented."
Sales managers in branch offices, representative offices, or general distributors often design and execute promotional plans for regional markets. Some sales managers achieve significant sales improvements because their plans are well-targeted, well-organized, and executed systematically. Others, however, face wasted promotional resources or even negative perceptions from channels, terminals, or consumers due to unclear objectives, chaotic organization and execution, and slow response times, which can adversely affect future sales.
How can one develop and execute an effective regional market promotion? The key lies in whether the sales manager can carry out each task in an orderly manner and understand the "priority, importance, urgency, and sequence" of each task within the overall promotional plan. I summarize this as the "Slow Three, Fast Four" principle for regional market promotions.
I. The "Slow Three" Principle
- Investigation and Analysis of Key Issues
No two regional markets are identical, so copying the successful experience of one market to another without adaptation will yield different results and provide profound lessons. This happens in many companies' regional markets. Therefore, investigating key issues in the regional market is crucial to designing the right promotional plan.
Is the issue due to brand, product awareness, recognition, or reputation, or is it due to channel and terminal management, or consumer recommendation? The complexity and variability of situations introduce many variables into promotional plan design. Thus, identifying the most critical market issue that the promotion needs to solve ensures we don't address product issues when it's a brand problem, or awareness when it's a recognition problem, or consumer recommendation when it's a channel and terminal management issue. However, we must not investigate for the sake of investigation; the findings must be accurate and address the most critical issue needed to boost regional sales. Therefore, investigation and analysis must be meticulous and slow, avoiding subjective or superficial judgments that could lead to erroneous conclusions and misdirect all subsequent efforts.
- Promotional Plan Design
Finding the problem is to solve it, which is the purpose of designing a promotional plan. Regional market promotions require investment (human, material, financial) and methods, and thus need approval from the sales leadership. Many sales managers complain that their promotional plans are delayed or never approved, missing market opportunities, but they rarely analyze why the plans are not approved.
Apart from non-human factors, a scientific and rigorous promotional plan document is a strong guarantee for approval. The direct reasons for most unapproved regional promotional plans are either inaccurate regional market analysis, unclear objectives, lack of innovation or clutter in promotional content, unclear resource budgets, or lack of organizational management. These all reflect a lack of rigor in plan design.
A complete "Regional Market Promotional Plan" document should include: 1. Promotional theme; 2. Analysis of key regional market issues; 3. Promotional objectives; 4. Promotional timing; 5. Promotional content; 6. Execution and management; 7. Resource budget; 8. Effectiveness evaluation.
If regional sales managers do not spend more time on plan design, fail to clearly communicate their promotional ideas to superiors, and instead wait for approval of a vague report, they will miss market opportunities and lose market share and presence.
- Specialized Training for Sales Personnel
Promotional plans rely on the execution of regional sales personnel. It is often said: "Three parts planning, seven parts execution!" and "Details determine success or failure." These views reflect the importance of execution in marketing activities. Experience and lessons tell us that before executing a regional promotion, comprehensive and detailed training for sales personnel is essential.
Let me share a personal story to illustrate the importance of specialized training. I once assisted a client in launching a new product, which included outdoor banners as part of brand communication. We specified standard information for the banners, including standard fonts, colors, content, and dimensions, and provided CDs to regional market leaders. However, during execution, many regions produced banners with different colors and fonts, leading to a chaotic outcome. When asked, some said it looked better, others said the CD wouldn't open—laughable but true. This resulted from a lack of specialized training. Generally, planners and executors differ in profession, quality, and experience, so their understanding naturally varies. Therefore, planners must never assume that what seems simple or obvious to them is universally understood.
Thus, whether a promotional plan is simple or complex, when facing different sales personnel and regional markets, it must undergo rigorous and detailed training before execution. Moreover, this training must be comprehensive and thorough, not superficial.