---
title: "Without Securing the High Ground of the 'Business District', a Brand Cannot Establish Itself in a City!"
description: "China's media landscape has become fragmented and pervasive, leaving consumers numb to traditional advertising. Brands and distributors must now engage consumers through experiential, in-store marketing in urban business districts, which have become hubs for consumer activity and brand building."
author: "高级研究员 海游"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2020-05-04"
language: "en"
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# Without Securing the High Ground of the 'Business District', a Brand Cannot Establish Itself in a City!

> China's media landscape has become fragmented and pervasive, leaving consumers numb to traditional advertising. Brands and distributors must now engage consumers through experiential, in-store marketing in urban business districts, which have become hubs for consumer activity and brand building.

China's media has long been fragmented and pervasive. For consumers, it has entered a stage of "numbness." In the past, shouting through the big喇叭 of CCTV could make a product sell well, but that no longer exists. Consumers need warm media, need to experience products firsthand, and need to build cognitive fluency. So what should brand owners and distributors do, and where?

With the continuous advancement of urbanization, "business districts" have gradually become consumer hubs, offering everything for eating, drinking, and entertainment. They are also excellent venues for consumer awareness and experience. Today, I'd like to share some of my thoughts on how brand owners and distributors can break into the "business district."

**-01- The Definition of a Business District and the Initial Work of Creating a Model Business District**

**In core cities, it can be said that "those who win the business district win the city." Whether a brand has influence in a regional market depends on its overall performance in high-traffic areas.**

Modern business districts include KA, CVS, MA, dining, leisure, and entertainment venues, making them ideal for one-stop experiential services for consumers.

For distributors, a model business district must meet the following three principles:

**1) The model business district must have sufficient foot traffic density, and your products must meet the spending power of the majority of consumers.**

For example: If the per capita spending power in the business district you plan to develop is a few hundred yuan, promoting a thousand-yuan bottle of baijiu there will not succeed.

**2) The model business district should include as many of your product's target channels as possible, so that future promotional activities can reach a wider audience.**

For example: If you are marketing a hip-hop style sparkling water, prioritize business districts with more of these channels: internet cafes, street dance venues, KTVs, bars, KA, CVS, MA, dining, etc.

**3) When selecting a target business district, you must have confidence in making your product the number one brand in that district, both in momentum and sales volume, surpassing competitors.**

The specific initial steps are as follows:

**1. Lock down the business district and unify thinking**

Compile and compare all business district information within the region, and lock down the initial development targets based on the three principles of a model business district.

The team should discuss collectively, instill the idea, and understand what ultimate effect this will achieve and how it will impact everyone's sales and income.

**2. Address employees' execution concerns**

Doing business districts aims to use points to drive areas, focus resource investment, use advantageous terminal stores to drive disadvantaged ones, gradually erode competitors' market share, and eventually besiege and reduce the brand share to the lowest point. Through discussion, predict the difficulties that may arise in this process and how to overcome them.

**3. Prioritize and designate stores**

Once the target business district is locked, the target terminal outlets are also locked. At this point, do not grab everything at once. The order of attacking terminal stores is:

**For already cooperating outlets, optimize visibility; for non-cooperating outlets, prioritize developing core outlets (high foot traffic, large business area, comfortable environment); for non-cooperating channels, prioritize familiar channels to ensure smooth operations and efficiency first.**

**4. Continuous offline activities and sustained buzz**

From the launch of the business district offensive, brand promotion activities and consumer promotions should be conducted non-stop, with as much momentum as possible, to support the advancement of the business district.

**-02- Omnichannel Requires Emphasis on Display to Establish a High-End Brand Image**

**1. Modern channels are the face of the brand; make them presentable**

Modern channels, especially KA hypermarkets, are the best windows for brand display. To comprehensively increase regional sales, the primary task is to make your brand deeply rooted in consumers' minds. Operationally, you must seize the first display position, sparing no expense if the budget allows, even reducing the budget for regional media advertising.

If the budget cannot support obtaining the first display position, then you must create multi-point displays, exclusive displays, and vivid image displays in the store, making them large and eye-catching, ensuring that peripheral displays surround the first display.

In short, the best approach is: **the first thing consumers see outside the store is your brand display, and inside the store, your brand display is everywhere. If not, ensure that multi-point displays have an overwhelming advantage.**

**2. Secure high-energy point-of-sale visibility and establish standardized channel displays**

High-energy terminal outlets (hypermarkets) require displays that are novel, distinctive, and eye-catching, but other channels require standardized displays; otherwise, consumers cannot establish a unified cognitive framework, which will inevitably affect the display effect.

For example: If your product is beverages, in traditional circulation stores, do cut-case displays, cooler displays, and shelf displays. In the dining channel, do large-area stacked case displays and liquor cabinet displays behind the cash register. In the nightlife channel (bars, KTVs), do illuminated shelf displays.

**Product display is the best advertisement for a brand, allowing close contact with consumers, building awareness through physical perception, and thereby generating transactions.**

It should be noted that there are too many brand advertisements today. The best way to make consumers aware is to create an excellent product IP, but creating a super IP requires many conditions, and success is uncontrollable.

**The simplest and most effective method: standardize and unify across a thousand stores, repeatedly reinforcing consumer perception.**

**3. Promoters must assist sales next to displays**

In my view, **floor stacks and shelves are silent brand images, while promoters are vocal brand images. The combination of silent and vocal is a qualified vivid display.**

In the target business district, especially during high foot traffic, what truly attracts consumers are the promoters next to floor stacks and shelves. Promoters are also the ones who truly convey product information to consumers, and it is through transactions that relationships with consumers are formed.

Therefore, **pay attention to the selection (height, weight, attire, image, temperament, etc.) and training management of promoters to ensure consistency and accuracy of information output.**

**-03- New Product Interaction to Build Private Domain Traffic**

The mainstream demographic in business districts is young people aged 18-35. They have a strong ability to accept new things and are the main force in consumption awareness and spending power. They are the best audience for manufacturers to promote new products. Many brand owners organize large-scale roadshows in business districts for brand communication.

**1. New product interaction to create an experiential atmosphere**

Business districts are the best landing point for new products, and new products are also the best takeoff point for business districts. When brand owners promote new products, the comprehensive cost investment is incomparable to other products. With sufficient ammunition, it is easy to deepen consumer awareness and instill the brand. A combined interactive model is recommended:

**Large-scale roadshows** (can be combined with the business district, increasing consumer participation through interactive games) **+ multi-point experience promotion tables** (one person per table, multiple free tastings) **+ key in-store promotions** (experience + purchase with gifts), ultimately creating a city card for this business district and this brand.

**2. Leverage media resources to build private domain traffic in the business district**

The stronger the brand, the stronger the product trust endorsement it brings to consumers, thus enabling "worry-free purchases." Building a brand image is not an overnight task, but combining online media to build private domain traffic can accelerate brand power formation. The recommended operations are as follows:

> **1) Traffic with traffic:** If there is a celebrity endorsement, the business district should prominently display the bundled promotion of the celebrity and the product; **2) Content with traffic:** Products can be empowered through differentiation, culture, etc., and bundled promotion; **3) Search with traffic:** For example, if a product is an official Olympic Games sponsor, attract consumers to search for information through free tasting activities to gain traffic; **4) Social with traffic:** Brand mixers and interactive events within the business district are the best venues.

The above are the unique attributes of business districts. **The essence of business is traffic. Fully exploiting it and converting public domain traffic into private domain traffic is one of the most important means of building a brand.**

**-04- Return to Basics and Do the Fundamental Work Well**

I have said a lot above about business district layout and atmosphere creation. To do well in business districts, you must also have solid skills and do the basic work well, including visits, distribution, display maintenance, brand promotion, customer maintenance, and rebates. Among these, two key points are:

**1. Strengthen distribution rate**

The distribution rate should be high, striving for 100%. For tough nuts, develop a one-store-one-plan approach, breaking through one by one, leaving no dead ends.

**2. Ensure after-sales service**

Do not allow expired products. Handle near-expiry products promptly. Achieve zero negative reviews across a hundred stores, and let word-of-mouth spread.

The above two points are easy to understand. **The ultimate goal of the business district is to bloom in the city center and radiate to the entire region. Terminal store owners are also regular customers of the business district. If they see products everywhere in the business district and have a pleasant cooperation experience, then the line business personnel will achieve twice the result with half the effort when promoting.**

**Finally:**

All core cities have business districts. Business districts are the result of reasonable layouts by government urban planning and real estate enterprises. Their ultimate purpose is to serve the regional population. They are the window of the city and also the window of the brand.

**If brand owners and distributors capture the consumer group in the business district, they capture the mainstream consumption orientation of consumers.**

By seizing the business district as a breakthrough to occupy the city, and then radiating from the business district to surrounding consumer groups, achieving point-line-surface networked interaction, they can ultimately rapidly improve the overall distribution rate and market share in the regional market, achieving the goal of brand regional dominance.

**Extended Reading:**

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