AOKANG Marketing Strategy Decryption Does Not Take The Unusual Road

One of the marketing modes of "AOKANG marketing strategy declassified": do not take the unusual road editor's note: in the increasingly competitive Chinese footwear industry, the AOKANG group led by Wang Zhentao is undoubtedly a dark horse.

In 1988, it started with 30 thousand yuan of funds and 10 workers, and developed into 600 million yuan of assets and more than 5000 employees in 2003. The annual output is 10 million pairs and the output value exceeds 1 billion yuan.

AOKANG group is developing at an amazing speed. At present, its market share ranks second in the same industry and the first in Zhejiang province.

AOKANG shoes, Kanglong casual shoes and beautiful ladies fashion shoes are rated as "state inspection free products", among which AOKANG brand shoes were awarded "China's famous brand products" in September last year.

What is the secret of rapid development of AOKANG group?

When we were concerned about AOKANG, we found that the leaping development of this enterprise is closely related to AOKANG's new marketing ideas.

On the occasion of the 15th anniversary development of AOKANG group, the author approached the enterprise and tried to interpret the mystery of AOKANG's rapid development in 15 years from five aspects: marketing mode, terminal management, logistics management, promotion plan and future trend.

The people of Wenzhou are well known for their good business practices. Wang Zhentao, AOKANG's family leader, has won the highest prize of the second golden award of Chinese outstanding marketers, the sales general manager award, and has the reputation of "China's marketing master".

Since its development in 1988, AOKANG group has gone through four stages in its marketing mode.

The first stage is the wholesale system, which belongs to the extensive stage of production and marketing separation.

Wang Zhentao, along with the one hundred thousand salesmen of Wenzhou, traveled north and south to promote their products.

Dealers take money to purchase at AOKANG's sales outlets, and then sell them to the market and shopping malls.

At this time, the mode of marketing is that manufacturers get low production profits and lose network resources.

The second stage is the joint venture system.

Wang Zhentao began selling leather shoes in 1986.

At that time, the quality of leather shoes in Wenzhou was uneven, mainly in the middle and low grade, but only in the form of "stalls". It was difficult to enter the regular shopping malls.

Wang Zhentao quietly came down and analyzed the market situation. He believed that merchants were mainly distrust of Wenzhou goods and were afraid to take risks and influence their business reputation.

If you make your own products, the quality is guaranteed, and if you have the "registered trademark" and give full play to the advantage of Wenzhou's leather shoes, you will be able to open the door of the big shopping mall.

When Wang Zhentao returned the shoes he had made on his back to Wuhan, when he found a manager in a familiar shopping mall, the manager praised not only the shoes he produced, but also the persistence of the young man.

However, due to the limitations of the "state-run" system and the mode of supply and marketing, the manager still can not decide how to accept the "private enterprise" shoes.

At this point, Wang Zhentao put forward the idea that he had already thought of, he wanted to rent the counter, produce and sell himself, and pay the rental fee ahead of time, so that he could not let the shopping mall take risks.

After several persuasion, the manager promised to rent him 1.5 counters first.

After a month's trial, the sales volume of one of his counters is higher than that of the 10 counters in the mall.

The manager took the reassurance.

Wang Zhentao personally stood at the counter to listen to customers' opinions on style, code, color and quality, and sent the information back to the factory in time to adjust the production plan. Often 35 days, customers' requirements could be realized on the counter, and business became more and more popular.

In this way, Wang Zhentao boldly broke the original system of shopping malls, spread the tentacles of information directly to the market, and implemented the "vendor pool", which started the first shot of "attracting factories into stores".

Later, in the large and medium sized shopping malls in the country, shops and counters were distributed at once and distributors, and became the "two legs" of AOKANG marketing.

So far, Wang Zhentao has set up more than 800 stores and counters in shopping malls throughout the country, which has played a very positive role in AOKANG's primitive accumulation, expansion of scale reproduction and brand awareness.

The third stage is the franchise system and the introduction of chain monopoly.

By the end of 1997, with the intensification of market competition, consumers have put forward higher requirements for the style, service and brand awareness of products.

As a result, the marketing strategy of "vendor pool" and "multi-level distribution" originally implemented, especially because of the high cost of "multilevel distribution" and the difficulty of ensuring the brand effect, have obviously failed to meet the requirements of the market.

It is necessary to have a brand new marketing mode and establish a marketing network and marketing method that meets the needs of the market so as to gain the upper hand in the new round of competition.

Under such circumstances, Wang Zhentao, President of AOKANG group, decided to take the lead in the development of the footwear industry in China, introducing the sales model of "McDonald's" franchise, boldly introducing chain stores, and making an early commitment to the exploration and practice of franchising.

In January 1998, the first AOKANG franchised store was officially unveiled in the Shang Tang town of Yongjia County, Zhejiang. This is also the first chain store in China's leather shoes industry, which caused a sensational effect on the day of its opening.

Since then, AOKANG's marketing has embarked on a new chain of franchised businesses, and enterprise development has embarked on the fast lane.

So far, AOKANG group has set up more than 30 provincial branches in the whole country, opened more than 2000 chain stores, and set up 5 foreign branches in Italy, Holland, Spain, Indonesia and other places, forming a marketing pattern of East West interaction and North South echo.

Driven by AOKANG, a chain of wind has sprang up in China's leather shoes market.

At present, all kinds of large and small leather shoes brand shops spread all over the country, making China's leather shoes market four smoke, showing a situation of fighting for all.

The marketing mode of this chain monopoly has played an important role in the rapid replication of the network and the promotion of the brand. Especially, the manufacturer has obtained two profits, both the product profit and the brand profit.

The fourth stage is multi brand management system.

Since entering the new century, the competition of leather shoes market is becoming increasingly fierce, and the market segmentation is increasingly obvious.

The advantage of an enterprise in marketing is gradually weakening.

Facing the new situation, we must adjust the marketing strategy in time.

At this point, brand extension seems to be a fashion.

Many large enterprises have done almost the same thing in one industry, and have begun to extend to a new industry with the advantage of the original brand.

In Wenzhou, some enterprises that originally made leather shoes started to dress again; some enterprises that originally made clothes began to make leather shoes.

When the hot wind of brand extension once spread, the two terminal management of "AOKANG marketing strategy decryption": the "four unification" brings the national interaction AOKANG people to the development of the enterprise into three stages: the first stage 1988 to 1991 is the initial stage of the enterprise.

In the past four years, they have completed two accumulations, one is the accumulation of funds, two is the accumulation of shoemaking experience, and the second stage is from 1992 to 1994, which is the starting stage of enterprises.

There are four main signs: first, in 1992, 2 new factories were built, and about 1600000 yuan was invested in the purchase of domestic machinery and equipment, and 300 new employees were employed. The output value reached 12 million 800 thousand yuan in that year.

The two is the standardized construction of joint stock cooperative enterprises.

The three is to grasp quality and create brand. In 1994, AOKANG trademark became the first well-known trademark in Wenzhou. AOKANG shoes were rated as the first batch of famous brand products in Wenzhou.

Four, Deng Xiaoping's South inspection speech has brought opportunities for the development of enterprises.

The third stage, from 1995 to present, is the stage of rapid development of enterprises.

In June 1995, Wenzhou Wenzhou Group Co., Ltd., the earliest shoe leather enterprise in Wenzhou, was established.

In 1996, the company's output value reached 118 million, profits and taxes 15 million yuan, ranking second in the leather shoes industry of Zhejiang province.

In 1997, the three scale jump of enterprise scale was achieved: in June 1997, it rose to Zhejiang AOKANG Group Co., Ltd. in July, the Ministry of Agriculture approved AOKANG as the township enterprise group and the second largest enterprise in the country. In August, the State Administration of industry and Commerce approved AOKANG as a national no regional group.

The output value of the year reached 238 million, profits and taxes 35 million, double the 96 years, and profits and taxes increased by 20 million. It is the best economic efficiency of township enterprises in Zhejiang Province, ranking first among peers.

In February 1998, AOKANG first boarded the position of China leather shoes king and became the top ten enterprise in the country.

The annual output value was 378 million, profits and taxes were 48 million yuan, and increased by more than 50% over the 97 years. This development speed is the fastest in the same industry in the whole country.

In 1999, enterprises were named the top 50 famous brand products in Zhejiang province and the top 100 private enterprises in China.

In 2001, the output of AOKANG reached 7 million pairs, the output value was 820 million, and the profits and taxes were 120 million. According to the six economic indicators of China Leather Industry Association, AOKANG was ranked the first in the same industry in the country, second in Zhejiang.

In 2002, the company's output reached 8 million pairs, and its output value exceeded 1 billion, and realized profits and taxes 180 million.

Behind the impressive numbers of this group, we are seeing the rapid expansion of AOKANG's nationwide franchised network.

From the first one in 1998 to the more than 2000 now, what is the secret of AOKANG's chain operation?

Chain operation has been introduced into China since 1980s.

It has not attracted much attention in the first ten years, but it has developed rapidly in the past two or three years.

According to statistics from China Chain Store Association, as of June last year, there were 2100 chain stores nationwide, with a total number of shops of 32 thousand, with an annual sales volume of 230 billion yuan.

Chain operation is a magic weapon for the rapid expansion of an enterprise. It is an inevitable choice for an enterprise to push its products to a broader market after gaining a certain reputation.

Generally speaking, the chain operation of modern enterprises can be divided into direct chain and special chain.

Direct chain store is a kind of exclusive store opened by enterprises, and special chain is a franchise chain. The output of enterprises is not only physical products, but also an invisible management mode. This invisible management mode is the most important factor for the existence of chain stores.

Generally speaking, when the enterprise develops to a certain scale, these two ways will be adopted to expand the marketing network of the enterprises. On the one hand, we should set up direct stores by direct chain stores, so that we can play the role of the image store and publicize the brand culture of the enterprises.

If the commercial pedestrian streets in some important cities are directly invested or controlled by headquarters, they are subordinate to property rights; on the other hand, they are operated by franchisees by special chains, and have no affiliation with headquarters in terms of property rights.

When a number of self operated stores are opened, they will immediately consider franchising chains to expand franchised stores and expand competition and publicity.

First, it can become a sample shop for franchisees; the second is to develop franchised stores by means of franchise chain, with less capital contribution at headquarters and no larger investment. Thirdly, the marketing network of enterprises is expanded by means of franchise chain.

AOKANG has adopted these two models, and since January 1998, it has opened the first shoe store in Yongjia, and has established a franchise chain on a large scale.

So far, more than 2000 chain stores and more than 800 specialized shops have been successfully opened.

Although franchised stores do not need to invest too much money in headquarters, it is not easy to operate successfully.

If there is any problem, it may lead to a total loss.

Therefore, for headquarters, there must be a set of operation models that match the development of our enterprises. In this regard, AOKANG has accumulated a lot of valuable experience.

First of all, AOKANG will set up a franchise store to minimize the risk involved.

For example, they have to go through field investigation and detailed market investigation and analysis to select their partners' character, reputation, financial strength and location of their stores before they first establish franchisees.