AUTHOR ARCHIVE
Articles by 海游
Browse 42 New Distribution articles by 海游.
Published articles
42 articles · Page 1 of 2
Competition among FMCG manufacturers is fundamentally a contest of frontline marketing team capabilities
The competitiveness of an enterprise is often a competition of talent: good strategy plus high-capability talent leads to rapid growth; good strategy plus low-capability talent leads to compromise and failure; bad strategy plus high-capability talent can correct course; bad strategy plus low-capability talent results in a struggle for survival. For FMCG, building a high-capability marketing talent team is not just the responsibility of HR, but a matter for every marketing unit to consider deeply. So what does a high-capability marketing talent team include?
海游How Can FMCG Companies Achieve a Second Takeoff Through Channel Digitalization?
In the past two years, my consulting projects have all been related to channel digitalization. Brand owners have put great effort into digital transformation, often switching system suppliers. I have participated in several bidding projects and have deep insights. The main reasons for switching are not price but the marketing team's bottom-up disapproval, often due to misuse of the system and decreased efficiency, leading to misunderstandings. This article discusses how to achieve a 'soft landing' for system implementation through business scenario research, system adaptation, and step-by-step planning.
海游How Should Beverage Distributors Select Products and Plan After the Pandemic?
Recently, many distributors and industry professionals have focused on Jinan, Shandong, where a new product launch event that could ignite the market is about to be held—the Hao+1 Super New Product Launch. Hao+1 is well-known to many distributors; Liaocheng Haojiayi Bio-Dairy Co., Ltd. is a renowned enterprise in Shandong Province. For beverage distributors, planning in 2020 is extremely tense. In previous years, distributors would have already completed new product selection and ordering conferences by this time, and begun planning for the terminal market. The sudden pandemic has pressed the pause button on all this...
海游May Day Promotional Season: Is It Just About Setting Up Displays and Offering Discounts?
Many people's most direct impression of retail stores is promotions, which often follow a uniform pattern focused mainly on price—lower prices lead to higher sales. Other aspects are handled by routine and copying experience, with little detailed consideration of execution, especially by distributors, who rarely evaluate the return on investment or long-term effects. This article discusses how to run effective promotional activities.
海游As the Pandemic Winds Down and Schools Reopen, How Can FMCG Manufacturers Seize the Campus Market for Growth?
With the pandemic nearing its end and provinces announcing school reopening dates, a battle for the campus FMCG market is about to erupt. The campus market's relatively closed environment, concentrated consumer base, and higher purchasing power make it a crucial segment. This article discusses efficient incremental promotion methods for campus channels.
海游Product Sales = Customer Acquisition Volume × Average Order Value; Without Growth in Customer Acquisition, Sales Cannot Grow!
From the consumer perspective, brand sales growth depends on only two dimensions: more consumers buying the product (increasing customer acquisition volume) and consumers buying more per transaction (increasing average order value). For distributors, sales targets keep rising while sales budgets shrink, making traditional promotional and price-war tactics ineffective. If the target consumer base doesn't grow, sales cannot sustain quality growth. This article explores how brands and distributors can break traditional thinking and use cross-industry alliances to boost customer acquisition.
海游80% of Billion-Level Distributors Only Master 'Selling' Without Understanding 'Marketing'
This article discusses the common problem of large distributors who achieve high sales volumes but low net profits, described as 'strong outside but weak inside.' It offers practical suggestions across five areas: reducing return rates, implementing valuable promotions and ideal retail pricing, guiding unified consumer cognition, adjusting product mix toward new products, and refining operations to cut costs and increase efficiency.
海游How to Turn Around a Market That Has Been 'Ruined'?
In the FMCG industry, marketing teams and distributors often face the challenge of taking over a 'ruined market'—one that has deteriorated from a previously good state, making it harder than a new market due to poor terminal relationships, unresolved issues, and lack of breakthroughs. To break the deadlock, this article proposes a systematic approach: first, set clear goals through 'four determinations' (market, policy, target, incentive), then take proactive actions through 'four do's' (stocking, display, notification, reward), ultimately revitalizing the market.
海游A Letter to Business Office Managers: How to Become an Excellent Manager?
As a grassroots manager, a business office manager must serve as both a参谋 and assistant to superiors and a leader for frontline sales personnel, fulfilling duties of standing guard, keeping watch, and fulfilling responsibilities. The manager entrusts the regional team management to the office manager, who, as the 'soldier-head and general-tail' role, should live up to the mission and do their best. As the saying goes: to forge iron, one must be strong oneself. A manager must possess qualities such as good ideology, refined skills, business acumen, management ability, upright conduct, high drive, and credibility to lead the sales team to achieve targets. In reality, however, some managers are giants of words but dwarfs of action, often making meticulous plans but faltering in execution due to weak basic capabilities.
海游Nongfu Spring, C'estbon, Ganten and Others: The 'Water Head Battle' Is About to Erupt in These Special Times!
Due to the impact of the epidemic, most beverage companies have just resumed work, but some warehouse and road closures still exist. In previous years, companies would have finished order meetings and started terminal layout. This article reviews the process and provides strategic insights for beverage manufacturers to adapt their 'water head' (seasonal pre-season) layout under the special circumstances, emphasizing the need for integrated manufacturer-distributor operations and B2B/B2C integration to seize the upcoming peak season.
海游Revelation: The Epidemic Is a Mirror Reflecting Many Internal Problems of Enterprises...
The epidemic acts as a mirror, revealing internal problems in many enterprises, causing some complacent leading brands to stop smiling, some top managers leveraging corporate platforms to scratch their heads, and some large distributors to be mired in difficulties. From another perspective, Chinese culture emphasizes the balance of yin and yang, and this epidemic can be seen as the mutual transformation of 'yin' and 'yang', 'crisis' and 'opportunity'. Some excellent enterprises, though unable to fully recover losses, operate their systems orderly, while others are in a fluster, like firefighters missing tools, unable to do what they want.
海游Mingren, Schweppes, Watsons, Wahaha, Nongfu Spring, Tsingtao Beer... Soda Water Chaos: How Can Manufacturers Gain the Upper Hand?
Without the impact of the Spring Festival special period, this time would be the peak season for beverage brands' water battles. In 2019, with giants like Nongfu Spring and Tsingtao Beer entering the soda water field, other small and medium enterprises followed suit, making 2020 destined to be an extraordinary year for soda water. The special period has further deepened human health awareness, and soda water's inherent health attributes have surged with the boom in health beverages. This article offers some suggestions on how water companies should strategize.
海游Under the Epidemic, Manufacturers Face a Big Test, Team Building Comes First!
On February 5, the Ministry of Commerce issued a notice on organizing the resumption of work and business for commercial enterprises, actively supporting qualified enterprises including wholesale markets, supermarkets, convenience stores, and community vegetable stores to resume operations as soon as possible. This means that brand owners need to start their resumption work early. This article discusses the team building issues that brand owners face first when resuming work.
海游Complete Guide: How Distributors Can Handle Spring Festival Gift Box Inventory Backlog Amid the Epidemic
Under the epidemic, the backlog of gift box and channel inventory has become a hot topic in the FMCG industry after the Spring Festival, especially for dairy drinks, baijiu, snack gift boxes, and large-pack beverages. On February 4 at 8 PM, New Distribution invited four experts from different fields to discuss via live streaming how distributors can solve gift box and near-expiry inventory problems. This article presents the methods shared by Mr. Zhang Yu, a frontline FMCG researcher, during the live broadcast, along with additional measures compiled by New Distribution.
海游How Should Distributors Resolve the Massive Post-Spring Festival Return Wave in 2020 and Avoid Inventory Backlogs?
On the fourth day of the Chinese New Year, a distributor group message asked how to handle the potentially massive return wave. Due to the novel coronavirus, the 2020 Spring Festival saw reduced gatherings and travel, leading to unsold gift products. Distributors must face the issue, seek brand support, and implement self-help strategies to minimize losses.
海游Unreasonable Performance KPIs: The 'Original Sin' of a Problematic Market!
A discussion with two provincial managers about their personnel incentive plan for a new product reveals that while it worked initially, it now fails due to lack of authenticity, fairness, and tier-specific standards. The article outlines five core principles for effective incentives: authenticity, fairness, differentiated standards by level, non-monetary incentives, and advance incentives.
海游Nongfu Spring, C'estbon, Ganten: The Prelude to the 'Water Head' Battle | A Guide to Expense Planning
At this time each year, major beverage companies are implementing their 'water head' policies, which they highly prioritize. The water head has two missions: first, to seize the funds and storage of distributors, wholesalers, and terminal stores; second, to adjust production capacity and manage logistics constraints between peak and off-peak seasons. To achieve these, investment is essential. This article discusses how first-tier brands and new brands should allocate launch expenses to effectively execute the water head strategy.
海游Manufacturer-Dealer Relations Are Like Marriage: Cherish, Improve, or Part Ways
As 2020 manufacturer-dealer cooperation kicks off, market success depends not only on brand efforts but also on regional dealers' full commitment, especially in FMCG. Year-end and year-start are key times for evaluating dealers. This article discusses how regional managers can assess whether their dealers meet company needs, and dealers can also gauge their fit with company requirements.
海游Discover Market Problems and Create Incremental Opportunities | A Checklist for Regional Managers' Market Visits!
This article discusses how regional managers can effectively visit markets. It emphasizes the importance of going with specific anomalies or issues to investigate, conducting experiential visits across channels and tiers, gathering detailed information on both own and competitor products, engaging in deep conversations to uncover pain points and opportunities, and providing timely feedback to distributors. The goal is to move beyond superficial visits that rely on personal relationships and instead use data and professionalism to drive performance.
海游Practical Guide | Managing Promoters at Retail Stores/Outlets
This article discusses the management of retail promoters, who are increasingly vital for brands competing in large retail chains. It covers the value of promoters, the pros and cons of full-time vs. part-time promoters, different work formats with corresponding KPIs, and challenges in managing this workforce.
海游Practical Tips | Six Elements of New Product Distribution: Time, Place, People; Cause, Process, Result
This article uses the six elements of narrative writing to explain how to successfully distribute new products. It covers timing, target market, team execution, reasons, process, and results, providing practical advice for FMCG distributors.
海游Insights | The Standard for Top Sales Talent Is Not Idealized, but Based on Internal Excellence Benchmarks!
A former leader proudly shared how he became marketing director by highlighting that he had developed five sales managers from his team, two of whom were named annual outstanding sales managers. This illustrates that the real competition among enterprises is for talent, and a manager's qualification is measured by the number of capable leaders they cultivate. The article discusses how regional managers often struggle to find ideal sales talent due to flawed hiring criteria, and proposes five hidden criteria for selecting top performers, along with practical recruitment and attraction strategies.
海游How Jinmailang Uses "Water" to Capture Terminal Traffic!
Jinmailang's "water not landing" strategy uses low-priced bottled water to build brand awareness and create a private traffic pool, enabling efficient terminal distribution and driving sales for other products. The approach optimizes costs by eliminating intermediate links, with a focus on price management and profit integration.
海游“First-tier brands have thin profits, second-tier brands have weak terminals, and third-tier brands die fast!” How should distributors choose products correctly?
Recently, I was invited by a friend to discuss how distributors choose products, so this article will talk about product selection. A distributor's ability to make money is directly related to their product portfolio. It is irresponsible to select products without maximizing portfolio profits and to lead your team towards prosperity without a clear plan. So how exactly should one choose products to sell?
海游