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Marketing battles always involve visual competition. JDB's terminal vivid merchandising played an unexpected role during its brand transition.

"JDB" and "Wong Lo Kat" stand side by side on shelves in many supermarkets. If you haven't heard of the fierce commercial war that took place, you might mistake them for "brothers." In fact, both companies have been and are still engaged in a brutal struggle in supermarkets and other terminals to get their products noticed by consumers.

"Vivid Merchandising": JDB's Channel Specialty

On a weekend afternoon in early spring, at a Carrefour supermarket near Maliandao in Beijing's Xicheng District, a middle-aged man pushed a shopping cart through the aisles. A display stack made of over 100 cases of JDB red-canned herbal tea stood out among the many products. The man walked up to the stack, paused for a few seconds, and picked up a pack to put in his cart. His reason for choosing JDB was simple enough to be overlooked: "It was within reach, so I bought some." He also told the author that he had no prior intention to buy JDB, had not compared beverages, and had no preference.

This was undoubtedly a standard impulse purchase, but it represents the reality of most beverage consumption. Paco Underhill, a consumer behavior researcher, wrote in his book "Why We Buy": "The food industry (including beverages) has the highest incidence of impulse buying, accounting for 60% to 70% of purchases." Places where impulse buying frequently occurs are mainly small shops, restaurants, and supermarkets, which are also the most fiercely contested battlegrounds for consumers.

The display stack at Carrefour exemplifies a method of competing for consumers: vivid merchandising. Carrefour is an important KA (Key Account) modern channel customer for JDB, maintained jointly by the modern channel departments under each sales company and the national KA system channel business unit. There are about a dozen such KA terminals nationwide.

For all five major channels (KA, wholesale, small shops, restaurants, and special channels), JDB has developed vivid merchandising strategies tailored to each. For example, the golden position and height suitable for each channel are clearly specified, but the overall requirement is to ensure JDB products at least enter the golden position.

In KA channels like Carrefour, displays are mainly concentrated at intersections of main and secondary aisles with high foot traffic, next to beverage categories on main aisles, and at high-traffic main aisles, as well as escalator entrances/exits and checkout exits. Small shops, restaurants, and special channels are relatively more flexible, with more forms and variations. A salesperson from JDB's Hubei region told "Sino-Foreign Management" that one of his daily tasks is product display. During the 2014 Spring Festival, he set up a 100-case display stack in a restaurant. As soon as customers stepped in, "JDB" would catch their eye. Besides vivid merchandising, posting posters, hanging flags, and providing toothpick holders and menus printed with JDB ads are all part of terminal interception.

JDB salespeople are pre-trained and each has a vivid merchandising manual with illustrations and instructions for placement, angles, etc. In 2006 and 2007, JDB twice held national terminal image innovation competitions to collect outstanding vivid merchandising cases and promote them nationwide. Distributors are also assessed on vivid merchandising; for example, a distributor at a wholesale market near Wangsiying in Beijing told the reporter that vivid merchandising is a key indicator for quarterly rewards. There are dedicated inspectors independent of the marketing and sales departments who monitor the entire market and severely penalize distributors and outlet managers who do not comply with requirements.

"Vivid Merchandising" Interception

Good terminal vivid merchandising enables products to "sell themselves" at the terminal. Terminal vivid merchandising contributes most directly to beverage sales; a display stack or a row of coolers at the terminal has almost 100% accuracy in targeting target consumers. Terminal interception not only reminds consumers but also serves as important advertising.

In the industry, JDB's terminal interception is considered extreme. This channel strategy, first implemented in Jiangxi market, became a killer move for JDB's terminal promotion, helping JDB defeat many competitors and enabling viral spread at the terminal. For example, during the brand transition in 2012, the rapid influx of ads, displays, and posters in stores made consumers aware everywhere that "the sales-leading Wong Lo Kat herbal tea has changed its name to JDB."

However, achieving this is not easy. For larger channels like supermarkets, entry fees and display fees are significant costs, all paid uniformly by JDB. For small shops and restaurants, there are basically no display fees, and salespeople have no resources to gift shop owners, so they rely mainly on building rapport to win them over. Terminal maintenance is the most arduous and difficult work in the marketing process, requiring repeated visits to build relationships—truly "slow work produces fine goods," especially in small shops, restaurants, and special channels.

This is precisely why Guangyao could follow up with "Wong Lo Kat" advertising but lagged behind or even remained inactive in channels and terminals.

Terminal Interaction: The Upgraded Version of "Vivid"

The tricks don't stop there. After the trademark case in 2012, netizens spontaneously photographed JDB's ads and displays at terminals and posted them on Weibo, leading to the hugely popular "JDB Snap" campaign. On January 20, 2013, JDB staged a creative interactive show themed "If You Dare to Shout, I Dare to Give" at Joy City in Chaoyang District, Beijing. All you had to do was shout "Come have a JDB for the New Year" into a machine, and it would immediately dispense a can of JDB herbal tea. In just 8 hours, it attracted 5,000 participants on-site. This wasn't a loss-making venture; JDB staff recorded people's expressions and reactions on DV, edited the videos, and posted them online.

These two seemingly unrelated pieces of information actually point to one thing: JDB's terminal interaction. These lively, fun, and down-to-earth terminal promotions challenge traditional marketing methods. This terminal interaction actually targets consumers' inner hearts, subtly expanding influence. The rise of social media not only makes such terminal interaction possible but also, through information at the terminal, turns JDB elements into public topics.

The owner of a newsstand near the south gate of Communication University of China told the reporter: a year ago, he was often reminded that "the sales-leading Wong Lo Kat herbal tea has changed its name to JDB," and those reminding him were generally consumers buying beverages. According to these consumers, the news came from photos and stories posted by others on Weibo. Most of these photos were of JDB ads and vivid merchandising displays taken by consumers in small shops, restaurants, and supermarkets.

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