Click 'Read Original' for details. Marketing has three transformations: terminal as media, sales as communication, and PR as implementation. These are the three fundamental principles for FMCG marketing personnel operating retail terminals and building point-of-sale visual merchandising. With increasingly fierce market competition, achieving these three transformations requires good customer relations and sufficient market expenses. However, almost all sales personnel feel that funds are insufficient, no matter how they try to save. Mr. Fan Xianguo, Chairman of Jinmailang, once joked: "If I give 2 jin of beef with every pack of braised beef noodles, what do we need marketing personnel for?" Indeed, the value of a marketing person is to maximize sales with minimal market resources; this is the mission and meaning of a marketer. Generally, manufacturers and distributors share common issues in using market expenses: 1. Those with spending authority do not directly spend. Market expenses are controlled by senior executives (marketing department). They allocate based on historical data analysis and the company's marketing strategy, dividing by product structure, market regions, key projects, etc., then design detailed rules and regulations. Subordinates apply, use, and verify step by step, with a top-down approach. 2. Those supervising spending are inflexible. After market expenses are used, leaders at all levels check compliance. Headquarters also deploys market audit departments to verify according to regulations (more like inspection formulas), ensuring proper use. 3. Those who actually need to spend have no authority and are exhausted by applications. Under this mechanism, frontline sales staff become execution tools with no flexibility, losing a sense of ownership, leading to serious waste (key terminals lack sufficient funds and are abandoned; non-key terminals overspend with poor ROI). Summary: In a war: the commander (resource holder) thinks about establishing a base; the colonel (strategy executor) thinks about capturing cities step by step to achieve the commander's goal; the soldier (ultimate resource user) thinks about eliminating enemy forces to achieve the colonel's objective. In business, market expenses are like bullets. Imagine a soldier needing to shoot the enemy—does he need to ask his superior? The reason to use bullets is not regulations but whether there is an enemy ahead. So the problem arises: in market operations, the commander thinks about the colonel's job, the colonel thinks about the soldier's job, leaving the soldier with nothing to think about. Most market expenses are spent on in-store visual merchandising displays. This article focuses on how to use market display expenses to enhance terminal point-of-sale visual merchandising. Most companies follow the 'market formula' set by the marketing department for terminal displays, but common problems during execution include:
For small terminal store owners, display fees are the same regardless of sales volume.
Once display standards are met, additional displays are not rewarded.
Display fees are the same for high-traffic and remote locations.
Display fees are the same whether next to the cash register or in a corner.
Display maintenance is the salesperson's job; other manufacturers' displays are ignored.
Monthly display fees are fixed, lacking motivation.
Inability to develop fortress customers or obtain competitor display information.
Salespeople prioritize quantity over quality.
Terminal stores prioritize form over sales. How to effectively solve the above problems? The core is only 3 points:
Fully empower frontline sales staff.
Stimulate store owners' enthusiasm: more work, more reward; more display, more gain.
Third-party inspection; inspection is better than trust. Our ultimate goal for displays is to make them serve multiple missions: media, communication, and sales. Below is a display method (Heaven-sent Wealth God) used by a leading brand to communicate with terminal store owners, for your reference: Specific display steps: 1. Selection of display target stores: fully empower sales representatives.
Authorize sales reps to execute, giving them a budget or reward amount.
Based on the 80/20 principle, select the top 20% of stores by sales from last year or historical data as candidates.
Alternatively, choose stores where competitors are strong and our products have been at a disadvantage but sales are high, to completely defeat competitors. 2. Inform terminal store owners: turn passive into active, more work more reward. Before the activity, proactively inform selected store owners. Suggested script: "The company has a display activity: stack X boxes to win 1 box, X boxes or more to win X bottles per box, redeemed every X months. The more you stack, the more rewards. Participation is voluntary; we only select the best stores, no forced participation." 3. Calculate the detailed benefits: visible interests. Sales reps calculate visible in-store locations, especially at the entrance, checkout, high-traffic areas, and stackable spots, and inform the owner. Suggested script: "Your store can stack about 20 boxes. According to company policy, you can win X boxes in X months, about X dozen boxes a month. Very cost-effective and generous!" 4. Display and stock pressure: combine display with sales, ensure sufficient stock.
Encourage the owner to sign and order immediately.
Clear space for stacking, leaving it empty for the display! 5. Immediate delivery: seize prime locations. Require the distributor to deliver immediately, within 24 hours, and place products in the cleared space; do not deliver to the warehouse, leaving no room for competitors. 6. Immediate inspection and reward: demonstrate company integrity.
The supervisor counts in-store inventory (warehouse stock not counted). If less than a full box, count as a full box for reward. If the supervisor arrives in the afternoon, add the bottles sold in the morning to the count. Remind the owner to replenish promptly to avoid insufficient stacking. This makes the owner grateful to the company and sales rep, deepening customer relations! 2. Issue a reward redemption slip to the owner. The supervisor must inspect on time and issue reward slips. 7. Timely reward redemption: say what you do, do what you say.
- The sooner rewards are redeemed after inspection, the better. Owners are happy to receive rewards, and immediate redemption makes them even happier.
- Also suggest stocking some of the company's best-selling beverages. No quantity requirement; just have stock to sell, never force stock. Owners will gladly accept. Precautions:
Design activity plans based on prefecture-level cities to consider market competition. This plan is not one-size-fits-all because each city has different conditions and competitors. In principle, use the same reward intensity within a city.
Plan long-term, considering ROI.
Keep the activity confidential before launch; surprise attack. Announce activities period by period, but keep absolute secrecy before start. Do not let competitors prepare.
Keep the activity plan fixed, not changeable. Design precisely before start: activity cycle, reward intensity, inspection cycle, redemption process, etc. Once the plan is set and activity begins, do not change easily to ensure policy continuity. Establish company credibility; promises must be kept. During design, conduct pilot store surveys.
Expand activity scale gradually; do not rush. Start with a small scope, increasing the number of stores gradually.
Redemption must be timely and proactive. During proactive redemption, there is an opportunity to encourage owners to try new, well-selling SKUs they haven't stocked. Expand results to other products, increasing the company's product presence in stores and strengthening company strength.
Allocate activity expenses to sales reps for management. Trust sales reps fully. Allocate planned expenses per person; supervisors inspect and redeem.
Sales unit heads must control ROI. Control the expense ratio: Expense ratio = Reward amount ÷ Total sales amount. In summary: Market expenses have always been a challenge for all marketers. Under the dual demands of profit and sales, using resources reasonably is a test of a marketer's basic skills. Any method that stimulates terminal store owners' display desire and increases sales reps' sense of ownership will achieve at least 80% success in terminal displays. Finally, pay attention to process management and details; this will gather strength at the terminal, strengthen brand visibility, improve resource efficiency, and achieve sales overachievement. From August 22-24, the '2018 China Digital Innovation Conference (2018FDIC)' with the theme 'Finding New Growth Engines' will be held in Shanghai, hosted by the China FMCG Industry Association and organized by New Distribution. The conference lasts 3 days, focusing on two main themes: marketing and supply chain, with six parallel forums: brand, channel, communication, B2B, intra-city logistics, and innovative retail. We will invite industry experts, CEOs, and brand executives to deeply interpret the trends and drivers of digital transformation in the FMCG industry. We will invite over 500 FMCG enterprise executives, 200+ B2B industry CEOs, and 1000+ FMCG industry leaders to discuss how to use digital tools to achieve rapid growth again in the digital era. This conference will bridge brand owners, distributors, retail enterprises, and marketing agencies, helping FMCG manufacturers obtain the latest information, understand best practices, and master more transformation skills. Proposed invited companies Conference time: August 22-24, 2018 Venue: Shanghai Baohua Marriott Hotel Agenda: 8.22: Full-day check-in; 14:00-17:30 Distributor intra-city logistics parallel forum; 18:30-21:00 New Distribution Night Gala Dinner 8.23 Theme: Marketing Digital Innovation; 9:00-12:00 Main forum on marketing digital innovation; 14:00-17:30 Parallel forums on brand, channel, and communication 8.24 Theme: FMCG Supply Chain Digital Upgrade; Full-day FMCG Supply Chain Conference Registration: Registration is now open. Long press the QR code below or click 'Read Original' to register. Limited-time group discount pricing is available! For inquiries: Ticket inquiries: [contact]; Media cooperation inquiries: [contact] Highlights of previous New Distribution conferences: Click the links below to review the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th FMCG + Internet conferences. -END-