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Articles by 方刚
Browse 114 New Distribution articles by 方刚.
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114 articles · Page 3 of 5
What's Wrong with Deep Distribution?
Deep distribution has become synonymous with meticulous cultivation. Many manufacturers, when aspiring to and implementing this 'intensive' model, often fall into the dilemma of 'intensive but not refined': more people but no performance growth; more standards but worse management; intensive cultivation but no fine work; abundant harvest but not necessarily a bumper yield. What exactly is the reason?
方刚Assessing Distributors: Eight Dimensions to Determine Their Level!
The large-scale practical training course "Sales Manager Managing the Market: The July Battle" is now recruiting students! If you are a professional manager in the FMCG industry, struggling with poor performance, unresolved market issues, or not knowing how to operate in July, don't miss this online live course. For course dates and registration, click 'Read Original'. We can see that most distributors have been fighting on the front lines for years, somewhat like 'military generals' of mountain bandits. Many small and medium distributors are all-capable: delivering goods, collecting payments, negotiating, shipping, unloading...
方刚Three Preparations and Five Precautions: Mastering the Contract System to Activate Your Team and Achieve Sales!
The large-scale practical training course "Sales Manager Managing the Market: The July Battle" is now recruiting students! If you are a professional manager in the FMCG industry, still troubled by poor performance, unresolved market issues, or not knowing how to operate in July, you must not miss this online live course. For course dates and registration, please click "Read the original text"! Once a distributor's vehicle sales model is mature, they can introduce the "contract system," which means contracting the vehicle and market to subordinates for independent accounting, with the distributor collecting "rent." But the premise is that the distributor must firmly grasp the initiative and strengthen management of the contractor.
方刚Recruitment, Management, and Retention: How Can Distributors Solve Their Assessment and Management Difficulties?
Distributors face challenges in assessment and management, including reliance on senior staff with lenient management, seasonal staff shortages, lack of process-based performance metrics, and difficulties in penalizing underperformers. The article outlines common pitfalls to avoid and describes four stages of distributor management evolution: the 'big pot' stage, commission-based stage, contract stage, and business unit stage.
方刚How to Classify and Define the Many Types of Distributors?
Choosing a distributor is a required course for every marketing manager, and finding a suitable one is a coveted goal. However, in practice, distributors play both angel and devil roles, making them deeply loved and hated. The selection of distributors is often proportional to brand strength, with strong brands setting high standards and weak brands having low thresholds or no choice. This article categorizes distributors from various perspectives to help managers understand their options.
方刚Advertising, Promotions, Price Cuts All Fail... How Should Weak Brands Operate in the Market?
For an enterprise, especially an FMCG company, the most headache-inducing issue in the early stages of product manufacturing is the product itself. Once the company gets past this period, it is often troubled by brand issues, such as weak consumer recognition and insufficient market pull. As a weak brand, how can it resolve these brand-related troubles? (1) Invest heavily in advertising. There is a famous saying in the advertising world: 'Without advertising, you wait to die; with advertising, you court death.' Weak brands typically lack sufficient funds, making heavy advertising investment unlikely, especially in today's increasingly cluttered advertising environment.
方刚How Do Top Brands Cultivate Township Markets?
When we walk on country roads wearing Baleno and carrying LV bags, or sweat in the fields in Adidas T-shirts and Nike shoes, it would be a shocking sight. A famous brand is inherently a brand, which seems basic common sense, but this is precisely the obstacle for famous brands going to the countryside: because they are famous brands. In rural areas, we believe in the power of brands, but brands are not necessarily the only force. For example, in rural markets, Tsingtao Beer may not sell more than 'Qingniao Beer' (a counterfeit), because rural consumers have limited information and education, making cheap counterfeits attractive. However, on a deeper level, we might wonder: why do famous brands lose to copycats, like regular armies failing to eliminate bandits? Is it because the regular army is incompetent or the bandits are too cunning?
方刚The "Ten Steps" Standard for FMCG Terminal Visits
Terminal visit eight steps, according to legend, were created by Master Kong during its channel intensive cultivation. However, currently, it has become a basic skill in the FMCG industry. Today, we break it down into ten steps for detailed explanation.
方刚Standard Operating Guidelines for Channel Stock Pressure
Stock pressure is a required course for sales personnel. Before peak season or new product launches, almost every manufacturer habitually pushes stock into the channel. However, while some succeed brilliantly, others fail miserably. This article analyzes the blind spots in four common stock pressure tactics—dealer pressure, order pressure, ride-along pressure, and blitz pressure—and offers self-check points for promotion, pricing, and channel management to avoid pitfalls.
方刚How First-Tier Brands Defend Against Second- and Third-Tier Brands Eroding Their Market Share
This article is excerpted from Mr. Fang Gang's book "FMCG Veterans All Do This: Regional Manager Playbook." It discusses how base markets, characterized by high distribution and share, can be undermined by terminal blind spots and blind zones, and provides six strategies for defense, including process management, information flow, channel barriers, and competitive suppression.
方刚How to Carve Out Your Competitor's Terminal Blind Spots in the Market?
This article is excerpted from Mr. Fang Gang's book "FMCG Veterans Do It This Way: Regional Manager Playbook". High distribution rate and high share are basic features of a base market, but behind the impressive numbers, there are always terminal resistances that sell less or even refuse to sell your product—these are terminal blind spots. The article explains how to find, analyze, and attack competitors' blind spots to create market fault lines.
方刚Mastering Terminal Sales: Analyze Three Factors, Master Four Principles, Implement Five Countermeasures, and Check Six Points
This article is excerpted from Mr. Fang Gang's book "What FMCG Veterans Do: Regional Manager Playbook". The terminal sales management model is sales = number of terminals × turnover rate × number of SKUs. To achieve terminal sales, three key factors (occupancy rate, control rate, visit rate), four principles, five countermeasures, and six inspection points are discussed.
方刚Channel Promotions: Why Do They Fail to Please Despite Offering Profits? Why Bumper Harvests Don't Translate to Bumper Gains?
This article examines why channel promotions in the FMCG industry often fail to yield expected results, despite significant investment. It argues that the root cause lies not in the promotions themselves but in the lack of management capability, brand strength, and market foundation, leading to a situation where companies 'intensively cultivate' but cannot 'fine-tend', and 'reap bumper harvests' but not 'bumper gains'.
方刚How Can Second- and Third-Tier Products Defeat First-Tier Brands Through Channels?
This article is excerpted from Mr. Fang Gang's book "FMCG Veterans All Do This: Regional Manager Playbook." When financial resources, brand, and management are inferior, achieving "overwhelming victory under overwhelming conditions" is only a pipe dream for second- and third-tier brands. Facing attacks from national big brands, almost all second- and third-tier enterprises are troubled by this issue. In fact, the market for second- and third-tier brands is not large, but there are many unhealthy markets and practices.
方刚Is Bigger Sales Volume Always Better? Wrong! Beware These Traps!
This article is excerpted from Mr. Fang Gang's book "What FMCG Veterans Do: Regional Manager Playbook". Sales volume is the most basic indicator of a market, but it's not everything. The article categorizes sales into four types (drug, waste, defective, and premium), explains how sales are generated, and warns against common sales traps.
方刚Products Not Moving, Teams Hard to Manage: What Should a Regional Manager Do?
This article is excerpted from Mr. Fang Gang's book "FMCG Veterans All Do This: Regional Manager Playbook." It addresses two common problems: products not selling and teams being difficult to manage, offering self-check tools and management strategies.
方刚How Should a New Regional Manager Tackle a Deteriorated Market?
This article is excerpted from Mr. Fang Gang's book "FMCG Veterans Do It This Way: Regional Manager Playbook". It outlines the common problems of the worst markets and provides a systematic approach to address them, emphasizing a positive mindset, comprehensive market research, seeking support, and targeted solutions.
方刚Regional Manager Market Inspection: Look, Walk, Meet, Improve, Follow Up, Support
This article is excerpted from Mr. Fang Gang's book "FMCG Veterans All Do This: Regional Manager Playbook". It redefines the role of regional managers and outlines a systematic approach to market inspection, including preparation, field visits, dealer meetings, improvement plans, and follow-up support.
方刚The Art of Leading Troops for Regional Managers: Strict Military Discipline, Three-Point Agreement, Appropriate Elimination, and Rewards and Punishments
This article is excerpted from the book "FMCG Veterans All Do This: Regional Manager Operation Tips" by Mr. Fang Gang. For a company, regional market managers are important organizational units in the marketing system, executing specific marketing actions and serving as the foundation of the marketing system. Therefore, enhancing the capabilities of regional market managers is a crucial part of corporate marketing.
方刚Adapt to Every Move, Stay Orthodox and Surprise: The Inner Kung Fu of Regional Managers in Market Operations
This article, excerpted from Mr. Fang Gang's book 'What FMCG Veterans Do: Regional Manager Playbook', discusses the principles of offense and defense in market development. It emphasizes strategic planning, understanding the competitive landscape, and executing attacks with precision while maintaining a strong defensive posture.
方刚Online Encroachment, Offline Weakness: 'Sissy' Enterprises Will Die in 2016!
Traditional FMCG companies are facing declining sales as online channels disrupt offline dominance. To survive, they must strengthen offline channels while leveraging online engagement, using dual teams and key principles to drive sell-through.
方刚Before Complaining About Weak Brand Power, First Execute Well!
For an enterprise, especially an FMCG company, the most headache-inducing issue in the early stage of product manufacturing is the product itself. Once the company gets past this stage, it is often troubled by brand issues, such as weak consumer identification and insufficient market pull. As a weak brand, how to solve these brand-related problems? 1. Invest heavily in advertising. There is a famous saying in advertising: not advertising is waiting to die, advertising is seeking death. Weak brands are weak partly because they lack sufficient funds, making heavy advertising investment unlikely, especially in today's advertising-saturated environment where credibility is in crisis.
方刚In Today's Era, Is Deep Distribution Still a Viable Path? How Should Companies Cultivate Their Markets?
Deep distribution is merely a tactical system. In China, modern channels represented by supermarkets and the internet, with a strong Western style, move unimpeded in urban markets, while traditional channels represented by mom-and-pop stores remain deeply entrenched in the vast county and village markets. Modern channels have leveraged consumers as leverage to gain direct dialogue with manufacturers, gradually displacing intermediate channels (distributors). This Westernized channel characteristic has led many companies to become accustomed to this long-pass direct operation style, and the direct management and rapid response of direct channels have created illusions among many corporate marketing layers...
方刚Seven Suggestions for Small and Medium Distributors to Improve Their Business Level
Many small and medium distributors work on the front lines year-round, like mountain-bandit-style warriors, capable of everything from delivery to negotiation. To elevate their business level, they must focus on team management, internal processes, and performance assessment, rather than just seizing opportunities.
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