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How can brands grow beyond price competition?

Evidence and cases on product strategy, category innovation, marketing, and channel coordination in China’s consumer market.

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4701 articles · Page 169 of 196

Brand Marketing

Traditional Enterprises: Time to Change the Main Course

Consumer goods manufacturers are struggling, not only due to economic downturn and e-commerce disruption, but also because their once-reliable 'signature dishes' are no longer appealing. At a forum during the 2016 Chengdu Spring Sugar Fair, I coined the term 'change the main course' to emphasize the need for product upgrades, which resonated with the audience. Even the best dishes can tire consumers, and if companies don't change their main offerings, consumers will overturn the table and switch restaurants.

刘春雄
Consumer & Categories

China's Beverage Market Has Fully Entered a 'New Era of Consumption'

During the 2016 Chengdu Spring Sugar and Wine Fair, the author visited various beverage exhibition halls and observed that China's beverage market has entered a 'new era of consumption.' This is manifested in four aspects: the chaos at the fair with many new products but cautious buyers, the shift of the main battlefield from rural to urban markets, the younger generation of distributors with different preferences, and the polarization of consumer demands between health-conscious and trend-seeking groups.

胡伟
Brand Marketing

Marketing Channel Transformation: From Terminal Supremacy to Traffic Supremacy

Overall, whether for baijiu or beer, the current performance situation is not optimistic; baijiu is only rebounding from a low point. To rescue performance, they need to inject strong vitality into marketing channels. The previous channel promotion strategies relying on terminal interception and store breakthroughs are no longer sustainable. In the new normal, a key point in 2015 is that most liquor companies are consciously embracing 'Internet+' and have made many explorations. Data shows that mobile consumption nationwide has risen from 35% in 2014 to 65% in 2015.

华勇 代秀辉
Consumer & Categories

Summer Peak Season: Complete Implementation Plan for Beverage Terminal Promotional Gift Packs

The beverage consumption peak season typically begins at the end of April, making in-store consumer promotion crucial for sales performance. To boost distribution sales, major companies usually launch corresponding gift pack promotions during this period. This article presents a brand's implementation plan for terminal promotions from April to June, covering policy details, operational procedures, precautions, costs, and verification, as well as additional guidelines for June sales activities.

张山
Brand Marketing

8 Ways New Products Die

New products are crucial for companies, yet most fail, often leading to corporate decline. This article analyzes eight common reasons for new product failure, from imitation and overpricing to poor coordination and channel mismanagement, offering insights to avoid these pitfalls.

王同
Brand Marketing

Why Procter & Gamble Is Declining and Will Never Recover

Personalized demand is sweeping the market. Companies that recognize this change must adapt their products to meet customers' individual needs and build shorter, more flexible supply chains to stay relevant. Procter & Gamble, a 179-year-old giant, has seen declining performance globally and in China despite various自救 measures. Its market share in China continues to fall, and its CEO admitted that no core category is growing in China.

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Brand Marketing

A Hit Product's Awkward Position: Bentley vs. Ruilin—Blackberry Juice vs. the Black Water Crowd

Just as Bentley and Ruilin logos are strikingly similar yet distinct, blackberry juice and the many 'black water' drinks flooding the market look alike but taste completely different. Despite the market confusion, quality and differentiation will ultimately prevail, as seen in past FMCG battles.

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Consumer & Categories

Alcohol Confirmed as Carcinogen: Baijiu Industry Caught in the Crossfire

For a long time, few cancers were directly linked to alcohol, leading people to underestimate its carcinogenic effects. However, recent research has shown that alcohol can cause cancers not only in the liver but also in the digestive tract, respiratory tract, and skin. According to a 2014 World Cancer Report, 3.5% of cancers were caused by alcohol, and one in every 30 cancer deaths was alcohol-related.

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Consumer & Categories

Even if you are Master Kong! Without product innovation, you are doomed!

Uni-President and Master Kong have been engaged in a prolonged price war. Ultimately, consumption upgrading helped Uni-President turn the tables with its rapid innovation capability.

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Consumer & Categories

From Preserved Fruits to FMCG Aircraft Carrier: The Management Code of Tianwo International Chairman Lin Jianhua

The food industry is extremely challenging; the key is to excel in every detail and wholeheartedly consider consumers, ensuring every action meets their demands and dedicating full effort to work to achieve success. —— Lin Jianhua, Chairman of Tianwo International. This article is republished from the WeChat public account: Sales A.

小镇青年朱迪
Brand Marketing

Eleven Incurable Diseases of Chinese Enterprises!

This article outlines eleven common brand management failures in Chinese companies, using examples like Wuliangye's brand overextension and the short-lived success of products like Shangwutong, to illustrate issues such as lack of brand planning, short-termism, and weak brand support.

朱玉童
Consumer & Categories

Lift, Cut, Stick, Move, Arrange, Stuff: Standard Actions for Beverage Display in Mom-and-Pop Stores

Every March and April, major beverage manufacturers launch their annual water war, and the daily basics for every frontline sales rep are to push inventory into stores, stock shelves, and fill coolers. But there's real skill in how to do this. The author summarizes six standard actions for terminal operations: lift, cut, stick, move, arrange, and stuff. These six words help sales reps know what to do and how to do it at the store level. Lift: as the name suggests, it means pulling our products out of the small store's warehouse, but where to lift them to? That's where the skill lies.

赵波
Brand Marketing

Regional Manager Solving Problem Markets: One Goal, Two Priorities, Three Transformations, Four Basic Requirements, Five Key Tasks, Six Marketing Links

A regional manager is someone who can plan, develop, manage, and strategize a regional market, lead the sales team to meet challenges, solve market problems, and achieve sales targets as required by the company. A problem market arises from company policy or guidance errors, poor attitudes of market personnel, or wrong working methods, leading to unresolved issues that accumulate. The boss judges a regional manager by results: regardless of approach, the one who catches mice is a good cat. For problem markets, risks and opportunities coexist; if the manager fails to solve issues within the boss's expected timeframe, the boss may replace the manager, but success can be a springboard for promotion.

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Consumer & Categories

Condiment Industry: How to Create a Big Flavor of Profit?

In the first half of 2015, while growth in most food and beverage sub-sectors slowed to single digits, the condiment industry maintained double-digit growth, leading the food industry. With consumption upgrading, rising living standards, and an increasing share of dining out, the condiment industry has broad growth space. Currently, per capita spending on condiments in China accounts for only about 0.4% of total consumption expenditure, leaving more than double the development space compared to countries like Japan.

小镇青年朱迪
Brand Marketing

Qili vs. Red Bull: How Should Qili Really 'Qili'?

Qili, Lehu, and Dongpeng Special Drink have failed to challenge Red Bull's dominance in the energy drink market, not because of product or corporate strength, but because Red Bull has firmly occupied the position of 'authentic' energy drink in consumers' minds. The article suggests that Qili could reposition Red Bull by leveraging the negative perception that Red Bull contains hormones, proposing a strategy of 'no hormones, safer refreshment'.

柯磊
Brand Marketing

Articulating 'Price' and 'Value' to Sell High-End, High-Priced Products!

'Price' is often inseparable from 'value', but 'value' can be completely unrelated to 'price'. For example, when you buy an item from the market, your family might say, 'It's so expensive, not worth it,' or 'It's cheap, worth it!' This means that the level of 'price' often depends on the level of 'value'; conversely, human emotions, friendship, etc., have only 'value' but no 'price'. The following scripts can be used as reference in the sales process of 'three high' products.

姚楚雄
Brand Marketing

Tuopai Turmoil Signals 2016 May Be the Most Dangerous Year for the Liquor Industry! Entering a Period of Drastic Transformation

In 2015, China's liquor industry failed to undergo deep adjustment, leaving problems for 2016. National liquor production reached 13.12 million kiloliters in 2015, up from 12.57 million in 2014 and 12.26 million in 2013, indicating overcapacity remains unresolved. With the economy slowing, consumer demand shows no rebound. Recent turmoil led by Tuopai in the Sichuan liquor camp signals that in the remaining eight months of 2016, the baijiu industry may enter a normal adjustment phase, with many enterprises paying for unresolved issues from the previous year.

路胜贞
Brand Marketing

Selected Quotes from a FMCG Expert's WeChat Moments

Chang Rong reflects that while business seems harder, it's actually about industries becoming more professional, weeding out the dishonest and flashy, leaving those who are quality-focused and diligent. The real crisis is not financial but a crisis of morality and trust.

各路大咖
Consumer & Categories

Five Ways to Keep Products Moving in the Off-Season

The off-season often makes many baijiu companies feel uncomfortable, like arthritis patients facing rainy days. In this long and helpless season, should we rest and recuperate, or strive to do something to save the market? Striving to do something is to make the 'off-season not off,' and almost all companies are aware of this issue, but many think more and do less, merely making some sales adjustments, holding insignificant meetings, or repeating annual new product development, waiting for the sales season; or formally doing some perfunctory training courses, just going through the motions.

孟跃
Consumer & Categories

Do You Understand Product Trends?

The annual Spring Sugar and Wine Fair concluded in Chengdu with total transactions reaching 23.02 billion yuan, including 11.87 billion for alcohol, 8.71 billion for food and beverages, 1.39 billion for condiments, and 1.05 billion for food machinery and packaging. The article analyzes trends across categories: liquor shifting to mid-low price bands targeting younger consumers, light beverages emerging as a hot category, and snacks trending towards multi-flavor fusion and convenience.

丁忠卫
Brand Marketing

The Cute Little Ecosystem Trap

Marketing rules are constantly being rewritten, and the laws of competition have become incomprehensible overnight. But nothing has really changed—the soul, the logic, and the competitive fundamentals of resources, products, and brands remain the same. The so-called ecosystem is just a new label for these old concepts.

路胜贞
Brand Marketing

Three Key Points for Launching New Products?

The complete flow of a product is 'manufacturer-distributor-retail store-consumer', meaning distributors purchase from manufacturers, distribute to retail stores, and finally retail stores sell to consumers. Completing this channel flow means the new product has been launched. In a narrow sense, new product sales are about clearing the flow chain, and how to effectively do so is key. This article offers advice for distributors on effectively launching new products by focusing on three key points: distributors willing to push, retail stores willing to sell, and customers willing to buy.

童苗强
Brand Marketing

These 40 Companies' Past Achievements Owe Much to These Slogans—How Many Have Accompanied Your Growth?

Over more than 20 years of business battles, with just one slogan, hundreds of companies have completed the upgrade from 0 to 1, although some have since fallen or faded into silence. 1. Brain Gold: 'No gifts this holiday, only Brain Gold'—this legend must be placed first, as it boldly equated Brain Gold with gifts, aired for many years, known to all ages, and was shortlisted among the top ten vulgar ads, later spawning many versions. Of course, it helped Brain Gold maintain the top spot in single-product health supplement sales for over a decade. Recently, Brain Gold has done something unexpected again...

邓超明
Brand Marketing

Is WeChat Business Dead? Some Say 2016 Is the Decisive Year After the Shakeout!

What exactly has happened to WeChat business over the past few years? It is no longer a new industry. Compared to the crazy agent stockpiling of 2013 and 2014, WeChat business now seems to be drifting away from people's lives, especially as many irregular, small, or unbranded operators who relied on agent stockpiling and recruiting downlines have gradually faded out. WeChat business started in 2012 with small garment factories and workshops, whose operators generally had low education, indirectly leading to many chaotic practices at its birth. It flourished in 2013 and 2014 with the nationwide craze, but 2015 was the year of shakeout.

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