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Articles by 方刚
Browse 114 New Distribution articles by 方刚.
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Wahaha, Baixiang, and金星: Old Brands Reborn, Catching the Torrential Traffic
At the November 2024 Wahaha distributor conference, Zong Fuli unveiled her first report card since taking the helm, with revenue of 72.8 billion yuan, matching the scale of a decade ago and achieving an annual growth of over 20 billion yuan compared to 2023's 50 billion yuan, a 47% year-on-year increase. This growth was driven mainly by strong sales of bottled water and AD calcium milk, with bottled water sales up 188% and AD calcium milk up 70%. A one-year growth of 20 billion yuan for a giant brand is unprecedented in China's FMCG history, possibly a peak that will never be surpassed.
方刚Abolish the Sales Department! One of the Discussions on Marketing Digitalization
Five years ago, I wrote an article advocating the abolition and rebirth of the traditional marketing department as a communications or IP department. Now, many companies have completed this transformation. This article discusses the current state of the sales department, which is often large and inefficient, and argues that digitalization and data-driven approaches should be used to transform or even abolish it.
方刚Returning Offline: The New Street Battle
From the human-wave tactics of traditional deep distribution to the traffic tactics of e-commerce, and now back to offline—this is a process of negation of negation, spiraling upward. The boundary between online and offline is roughly clear: large items, high-value-added products, and long-tail products are online battlegrounds, while FMCG, high-experience products, and instant-consumption goods are offline's stronghold. The future split is roughly 70% offline, 30% online. This is the opening article of the 'Returning Offline' series.
方刚New Brands: Born Online, Built by Capital, Stuck Offline, at Risk in Street Fights
New consumer brands often start online, grow with capital, but face challenges offline where street-level competition determines success. The article discusses the lifecycle of these brands, the importance of distribution channels, and the need to master offline tactics to become giants.
方刚A Discussion on the Premiumization of Beer
Premiumization has become a common and synchronized move in the beer industry, with major companies incorporating it into their long-term strategies. Those who lag behind will suffer or even be eliminated. How far can beer premiumization go? This is a topic of common concern among many friends.
方刚Goodbye, Salesmen!
2020 marks the beginning of the digital marketing era, accelerated by the pandemic. As traditional channels and the internet fully integrate, the role of salesmen will be replaced by digital systems, turning them into 'human components' within these systems.
方刚Prosperity in Both Urban and Rural Areas, Quickly Go to Market!
The 2021 Spring Festival saw over 100 million people staying put, boosting urban consumption, while compensatory spending lifted rural markets. Sales at key retail and catering firms reached about 821 billion yuan, up 28.7% year-on-year. The article urges bosses to visit markets, regain rhythm, and use data-driven decisions.
方刚Fang Gang: Digitalization is Half 2B, Half 2C
Click 'Read Original' for details. New media has killed the marketing department, and digitalization has killed the sales department. The market department focuses on C, while the sales department focuses on B. This article continues the discussion on B and C along the path of marketing digitalization.
方刚Abolish the Sales Department! — Musings on Marketing Digitalization
Five years ago, I wrote an article advocating for abolishing and restructuring the marketing department into a communications or IP department. Now, it's time to apply the same logic to the sales department, which is becoming inefficient and outdated. The article argues that marketing digitalization, with BC-linked data, can replace the traditional sales force and lead to more effective marketing.
方刚Community! The Battlefield for New Marketing and New Retail
Modern commerce operates across three spatial dimensions: geographic, community, and cyberspace. The smallest business units in each are community, social group, and cloud store, respectively. The article argues that the path from community to social group to cloud store forms an integrated system, and that community marketing, centered on community and social group, is the key to brand digitization and the battleground for new marketing and new retail.
方刚Community Marketing: Dual-Line Deep Distribution Online and Offline!
Community marketing is defined as exploring consumer characteristics and channel features in residential, work, and entertainment scenarios based on geographic location, against the backdrop of urbanization. With 1.4 billion people and over 400,000 communities expected by 2020, community marketing is seen as a system covering the majority of consumers, with two centers: to-store and to-home, and four keywords: deep differentiation, e-commerce, community, and delivery. The key concept is dual-line deep distribution, where offline and online channels are integrated for comprehensive coverage.
方刚Offline: Build One Store Well; Online: Build One County Well
Offline, build one store well—this is the requirement for connection dimension and depth; online, build one county well—this is the requirement for communication density after three-dimensional connection. The operational logic of three-dimensional connection can be summarized in one sentence: offline, build one store well; online, build one county well. Offline, building one store well means the store is the best unit for initiating three-dimensional connection, starting from a single store, expanding to communities, then to networks, thereby connecting three spaces. Online, building one county well means the county is the smallest unit for judging communication and transaction density. In marketing, density is cognition, and density is brand. Achieving high-density communication ignition in a county can be replicated in a city or province.
方刚Standard Guidelines for Channel Inventory Loading
Inventory loading is a required skill for sales personnel, often executed before peak seasons or new product launches. However, improper execution can lead to overstocking, failed techniques, or expired goods. This article outlines four common loading methods—dealer loading, order loading, ride-along loading, and blitz loading—along with their blind spots, and discusses pitfalls in promotions, pricing, and channel management, offering self-check questions to avoid common mistakes.
方刚Terminals Hard to Enter and Defend? Step-by-Step Guide to Defeating Competitors!
Many companies sign agreements with terminals, such as volume commitment, display, exclusive (price band or full-store), and promotion agreements, using key terminal personnel to control competitor product flow. These agreements are often gray-area and legally questionable, but they are common and effective in FMCG. This article breaks down offensive and defensive tactics for exclusive terminals, including how to respond when competitors buy stores, how to break into competitor exclusives, and how to control and expel competitors from your exclusive stores.
方刚How Can Traditional Salespeople Use WeChat to Build Terminal Relationships?
In the mobile internet era, instant messaging tools like WeChat have transformed sales interactions. This article discusses how salespeople can build and enhance terminal customer relationships through both online and offline methods, using WeChat to improve communication, drive sell-through, and create effective marketing campaigns.
方刚Eight Key Internal Management Checks for Small and Medium Distributors
Small and medium distributors often operate like versatile frontline fighters, but their growth depends on improving internal management. This article outlines eight key areas—from vehicle sales visits and business processes to salary structures and assessment results—that distributors must refine to enhance operational efficiency and market competitiveness.
方刚The Art of Leading Troops for Regional Managers: Strict Military Discipline, Three-Point Agreement, Appropriate Elimination, and Rewards and Punishments
For an enterprise, the regional market manager is an important organizational unit in the marketing system, and enhancing their capabilities is a key part of marketing. This article defines the regional manager as a person who leads troops into battle, compares the enterprise to a feudal state, and discusses the responsibilities and standards for regional managers, as well as how to lead their 'troops' effectively.
方刚Goodbye, Mass Market!
Recently, New Beer, together with seven teachers including Liu Chunxiong, Zhao Dayu, Ding Ding, Niu Enkun, Zhao Bo, Bao Yuezhong, and Chen Fenghua, organized an immersive study tour for over a hundred group members from seven major communities. Before the tour, they participated in Ubrew's 3,000-kilometer heavy-load cycling event to Sanya, which took half a month and covered 11 cities. During the tour, I shared a topic: Goodbye, Mass Market! This topic was something I had been observing and pondering during the Ubrew Sanya ride, and after arriving at Lidu, through immersive experience participation and in-depth exchanges with Commander Tang and Teacher Liu Chunxiong, a thinking framework gradually formed.
方刚New Marketing Organization Transformation: Evolving from B-end to C-end Organizations
Liu Chunxiong defines new marketing with the core theory that all 4Ps are communication. Traditional marketing organizations are B-end, while new marketing organizations are C-end. Over the past 30 years, marketing has evolved from sit-selling to mobile selling to connected selling, reflecting shifts from material scarcity to abundance and from material needs to aspirations for a better life.
方刚Transformation? First Cut: Eliminate the Marketing Department!
Traditional FMCG companies are losing the ability to capture consumer demand. The article argues that the first step in transformation is to eliminate the traditional marketing department, replacing it with a new structure that integrates with e-commerce and focuses on consumer engagement.
方刚Chinese Beer in the Era of Segmentation
The article discusses how China is in an era of market segmentation, where consumers are divided into different groups with distinct preferences. It traces the history of Chinese beer, analyzes the global beer market, and examines the current state of mainstream, imported, and craft beers in China, predicting future trends.
方刚Offline Marketers (Distribution) vs Online Marketers (Traffic): Which Space Do You Live In?
During a recent visit to Guiyang Cigarette Factory, a discussion with Mr. Liu Chunxiong on new marketing and new retail sparked a topic: can current FMCG marketers be categorized, and what are the characteristics of each type? Twenty years ago, Sales and Market magazine reported that China had 80 million marketers, though this is a broad term. Over 30 years, Chinese marketing has evolved through stages from production-led to channel-led, creating various schools of thought. The key factors influencing demand are geographic and virtual spaces, leading to a split between offline and online marketing worlds, each with its own practitioners and languages. Recently, as online dividends fade, there is a trend toward integration and hybrid talents, such as those using communities that bridge online and offline.
方刚Assessing Distributors: Eight Dimensions to Determine Their Level!
This article outlines eight dimensions to evaluate a distributor's management level, including vehicle sales visits, business processes, salary structures, regional division, assessment results, commission orientation, bottle return commissions, and driver-salesperson wage composition. It emphasizes the importance of internal management systems for improving competitiveness.
方刚Deep Dive | China's Beer Industry: From Territorial Scramble for Market Share to a Rally Toward Mid-to-High-End!
The Chinese beer industry is undergoing a pivotal shift from scale-driven market share battles to a strategic focus on mid-to-high-end products. This is exemplified by Heineken's partnership with China Resources Snow Breweries, aiming to combine Snow's dominance in the low-end with Heineken's premium brand strength.
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