This article is republished from the WeChat account: Weijiu
By time node, after May, manufacturers and distributors have typically completed their first round of post-holiday stocking, and the general mindset is that big sales will wait until the Mid-Autumn Festival.
Experienced merchants know that whether Mid-Autumn and Spring Festival sales can exceed expectations depends on the key time nodes of June, July, and August.
So what work should be carried out in these three months to achieve sales growth beyond the same period? The author analyzes this for readers from two dimensions: time and market cultivation.
Part 1: Key Tasks by Time Node
(1) Promotions for the Dragon Boat Festival and Father's Day: Focus on supermarket and tobacco & liquor store channels, mainly with consumer purchase-with-gift promotions, and can introduce WeChat likes-for-wine activities for dissemination.
Supermarkets mainly use consumer promotions like buying wine and getting gifts, for example, with the theme "A Gift for Father," where buying 2 bottles gives a set of wine glasses, and buying 4 bottles gives a set of tea sets.
Tobacco & liquor stores mainly use promotions like buying wine and getting tasting wine or cigarettes, for example, on June 1st, launching an activity where buying 4 cases gets 2 cases of bottled tasting wine, and in-store promotions like "A Cup of Fine Wine for Father," where consumers buying 2 bottles of finished wine get one bottle of tasting wine.
Ensure terminal materials are in place. Limit the number of cases terminals can stock to maintain product prices after the activity. This achieves small-scale terminal stocking while maintaining product activity and promoting terminal sell-through to a certain extent.
(2) Promotions for Teacher Appreciation Banquets and Graduation Banquets: In 2014, the admission time for the first batch of undergraduate admissions in Beijing was July 11-16, so manufacturers or distributors should finalize all policies for teacher appreciation and graduation banquets by July 1st at the latest. Policies should be tailored for both types of banquets. In addition to existing policies like one bottle of tasting wine per table, additional physical gifts or travel incentives can be added based on product market expenses.
The activities can be divided into three parts:
Free gifts for promotion and traffic: For example, "Fine Wine Gifted to Top Scholars - Yipin Jingzhi Gifts." After the college entrance exam results are announced, target students based on the second-tier line. For example, students who score above the second-tier line can bring their ID to the distributor's location to receive 2 bottles of tasting wine for free. Sharing the activity on WeChat and collecting 38 likes can earn an additional bottle of tasting wine.
Targeted banquet policies: Choose physical gifts based on the product's cost space, with gifts suggested as special items for college-bound students. For example, buying 5 cases gives a high-end trolley case; 8 cases gives a tablet; 10 cases gives a laptop; 15 cases gives a trip for two to visit prestigious universities in Beijing.
Terminal material promotion: Carry out roll-up banner or stack displays in core supermarkets and tobacco & liquor stores, with promotion recommended to start in mid-to-late June.
(3) Army Day Commendation and Interaction Activities: Leveraging Army Day, manufacturers or distributors can carry out activities such as condolences to the military system and free wine for demobilized soldiers, to strengthen brand heat and interaction with consumers.
Part 2: Key Tasks for Market Cultivation
▌ Case 1: Expanding New Regions - Hiring People and Adding Vehicles to Develop Blank Township Markets Mr. Wang, a distributor in a county-level market in Hebei Province, represents a regional product. He has large sales in the urban market, with 8 salespeople and 6 vehicles in his trading company, of which 2 are responsible for township markets. There are 12 townships around, 4 of which have good sales, while the rest are farther from the city and have average sales.
With sluggish urban sales growth, Mr. Wang added 2 salespeople and 2 box trucks to specifically develop township markets. The 4 townships with good sales are supplied directly, while among the remaining 8, 4 remote townships are set up with sub-distributors, and the other 4 are focused on direct supply development.
In May, network mapping and first-round distribution were carried out in townships, and in June, core network sell-through promotion work was planned. By the Mid-Autumn Festival activities in August, incremental growth from new regions and networks is expected.
▌Case 2: Core Network Building - Large Off-Season Display Activity in Core Tobacco & Liquor Stores In Feicheng County, Shandong, a Yanghe distributor launched a core network building activity in May. They selected 50 core tobacco & liquor stores in the urban area and carried out a cash-purchase activity where the amount of product displayed equals the amount given as a gift.
The gifted products are distributed over 12 months. The author visited nearly 10 of these stores, and terminal owners gave positive feedback. Many tobacco & liquor stores displayed three or more dedicated counters, creating a strong visual impact.
One owner displayed 5 counters with a total of 180 bottles. According to the policy, the display fee per counter is 3 bottles per month, which is not a big incentive, but locking in core terminals and changing the conventional display policy proved effective. The annual atmosphere of core stores was effectively guaranteed, and the enthusiasm of core store owners for recommendation greatly increased.
▌Case 3: Core Consumer Cultivation - A County-Level Distributor's Sell-Through Weapon In a county market with a population of 600,000, distributor Mr. Zheng represents a regional brand, with expected sales of over 10 million in 2014.
An important weapon for promoting his mid-range products is factory tours. From March to August 2013, Mr. Zheng organized over 600 terminal customers and core consumers to visit the distillery, giving each person 2 bottles of wine on return. These 2 bottles are usually used by consumers to invite a table of friends to drink, and they introduce the distillery's scale and strength at the table. This is equivalent to integrating resources to hold 600 tasting sessions in the county market, indirectly influencing 6,000 people.
As a result, terminal sell-through speed in the region has significantly improved, and terminal stocking volume and confidence have increased rapidly. Mr. Zheng plans to organize another 400 people for factory tours from June to August 2014, achieving a scale of 1,000 people visiting the factory, driving the regional market to break through 20 million.
▌Case 4: Team Building - Establishing a Group Buying Department, with the Boss Leading Development of Wedding Banquets and Small Enterprise Group Buying Mr. Zhang, general manager of a trading company, has considerable experience in operating low-end liquor. In 2013, he took on a regional distillery's 100-yuan price point product. After more than a year of operation, he tried all his low-end liquor methods, but results were still unsatisfactory.
In April last year, he took his team to the factory for training and realized that mid-range products require three-dimensional cultivation, and a single circulation channel is hard to cultivate quickly. After consideration, Mr. Zhang split his original large circulation team and established a wedding banquet and small enterprise group buying department, personally leading sales work. After a 2-month pilot, the number of wedding banquets tripled, and 5 private enterprises in the county began using the product. Sales momentum began to rise, and the annual sales target had a solid foundation.
June, July, and August are the three months when manufacturers and distributors lay the foundation for annual sales. The author has sorted out core tasks from the two dimensions of time nodes and market cultivation, but different product positioning and regional market attributes require different methods. In short, there is no off-season market, only off-season thinking.
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