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Channel Marketing: Releasing The Channel Value Of Various Channel Types

2013/7/31 21:02:00 8

the concept of "channel" refers to a series of interdependent organizations that are committed to making a product or service available or consumed. Channel is one of the most important elements of marketing 4P elements. It is a key link for enterprises to successfully achieve products from manufacturers to consumers. In the context of highly homogeneous products and similar prices, channels become the key to win the market for enterprises. The so-called "get the channel to win the world"! 
 in the actual marketing process, due to the size and nature of different enterprises, the standard and method of channel division are different, but generally speaking, the channels of FMCG are generally divided into the following types: circulation channel, KA channel, special channel road and "wife and wife store". 
 circulation channel 
 the original meaning of circulation channels refers to the passage of commodities from the field of production to the consumption field, including the ways, links and forms of commodity circulation. In a strict sense, it should contain all types of channels, but in the fast moving products industry, the circulation channel is a specific concept, generally referring to the two batch of business, wholesale markets and other channels. Generally speaking, circulation channels have the following characteristics: 1. Channel members are more sensitive to prices. In the sales process, they do not pay much attention to the profit of single products, and maximize the overall profit by maximizing the quantity of products sold. 2, the loyalty of manufacturers is very low, the two batch of image is called "wall grass", where there is profit, where to go! 3, ignoring the manufacturer's market price management order, only to pursue profits, often become the "chief culprit" to break the overall price of the manufacturer. 
 aiming at the characteristics of the above circulation channels, we say that the key points to control the circulation channels lie in two controls: one is the quantity control of wholesalers, the other is the control of the price system. The ultimate goal of developing wholesale customers is to quickly achieve coverage of terminal nodes, improve product placement and distribution rates. Too many wholesale customers seem to be able to achieve these goals quickly, but the most direct negative impact of excessive wholesale customers is the confusion of the price system. Wholesale customers often reduce their shipments price in order to compete for the same downstream customers. Therefore, the key point for the distribution channel is to control the number of wholesale customers. In the actual market process, even if we set up a reasonable number of wholesale customers, it is inevitable that wholesale customers will destroy the price system of manufacturers. There are two main reasons for this phenomenon. First, wholesale customers increase their overall profits by increasing sales volume by reducing single box gross profit. Two, by deliberately lowering the price of a product (basically a famous brand product), they attract downstream customers to make profits through product mix. In view of this situation, on the one hand, we should maintain the normalization of the price system as much as possible through communication and management. On the other hand, we must resolutely stop shipment for the two batch of deliberately lowering the factory price, even if we sacrifice part of the sales volume. 
 KA channel 
The full name of KA is KeyAccount, Chinese meaning "important customer", key customer. According to three factors, such as business area, passenger flow and development potential, KA is divided into the following forms: C&C, HM and SM. The main characteristics of KA channel are: each system has its own mature management process and system, including product purchase principle, product display principle, promotion principle, supplier selection standard and so on. The first key point to grasp the KA channel is that enterprises should establish a targeted operation method for different types of systems on the basis of fully understanding and following the management process and principles of the KA system. For example, the Tesco system has set up a special department called "space group" to manage the display of goods on shelves. The annual shelf adjustment has a definite time and frequency requirements. The shelf display of goods is strictly executed according to the layout of the "space group" shelf. No one has permission to change the display standards of shelves before the next adjustment cycle. If a supplier wants to negotiate the entry or adjustment of the new bar code, it must be "fixed" before the confirmation of the layout of the "space group" shelf. Otherwise, only the next adjustment cycle will arrive. The second key point to grasp the KA channel is to fully understand the key details of operating KA channels and take full account of the relevancy between the various elements and coordinate the combination of various elements to maximize the efficiency (the key details to be considered in the operation of KA channel are bar code, location (normal display, special display), price, promotion, sales promotion, inventory, customer sentiment, etc. For example, are barcodes that have entered the shop have a good display location? Can each bar code be effectively paid attention to in the limited promotion schedule? Can we get a good display location during the execution of each sales promotion? The third key elements to grasp the KA channel are the integrity and continuity of the promotion plan. The essence of KA channel's sales promotion is "promotion month and month change." As mentioned earlier, the KA system has its own process of promotion scheduling and management. Therefore, when making sales promotion plans, enterprises should know the promotion schedule of each KA system ahead of time, plan ahead and negotiate ahead of schedule, so that they can get the "promotion schedule" and the best display position to the maximum extent, thus ensuring the continuity of promotional activities. 
 special channel 
 the popular understanding of special channels is non mainstream channels, which refer to channels other than traditional channels such as wholesale markets and KA channels. With the intensification of population mobility, the rise of new consumer groups and consumer demand for consumer convenience, special channels have become an increasingly important sales channel. Special channels can be divided into three types according to the degree of "closure". They are mainly schools, army, prisons and so on. There are mainly airports, railway stations, car stations, gas stations, supermarkets, parks, hotels, etc. 
 nett's characteristics: the consumer characteristics are very concentrated, for example, the consumers of the school are mainly students. Due to the restriction of consumer places, consumers have low sensitivity to brands, low sensitivity to product quality and production date. Consumers are basically passive consumption (such as prison channels, which products can only be consumed, and prison channels are often one of the important channels for enterprises to deal with "on time products"), and are easy to form local consumption trends. 
The characteristics of P: extra channel: the channel has the advantage of monopoly in space. Consumers are restricted by traffic cost or time cost to produce consumer demand within a certain range. Products are generally purchased by special channels, and the retail price of products is generally higher than other channels. 
 special features: most of them are phased consumption or one-off consumption. Consumer groups are relatively fixed (such as unit consumption) and consume large quantities of single consumption. They belong to scale consumption. 
The key points of operation are: 1. Adopt different product strategies and set reasonable price space for different types of special communications. For example, for the airport, railway stations and other special needs to choose a larger margin space products, reserved for the network profit margins are relatively high. 2, the best way to promote the sales mode is to adopt a "customized" approach, aiming at different outlets to take different promotions to maximize the promotional effect. 3, enterprises should set up a special team for special communications to improve their service level. 4, special cost support. 5, increase sales and pay attention to the construction of network image. 
 "wife and wife shop" 
 "wife and wife shop" is a kind of image statement, referring to tens of thousands of retail terminals in street corners. Although the sales volume of these stores is small, the overall sales volume is quite amazing due to the huge number of small shops. The "wife and wife store" on the market mainly presents the following characteristics: 1, convenience, compared with the big stores, the competitive advantage lies in the convenience of consumers to buy 2 anytime and anywhere, widely distributed on both sides of the road, downstairs, telephone booths, newsstands and smoke stalls. 3, small scale, business area and sales are relatively small, but large area of ten square meters and hundreds of Yuan daily sales. 4, the business varieties are relatively concentrated, mainly based on the best seller of consumer goods. The key points of operating small shops are classified management, quantitative management and relationship handling. The so-called classification management is to classify thousands of small shops according to certain standards (size, sales contribution, etc.) into different grades, different visiting levels of different grades, strictly comply with the requirements of "two and eight rules" (20% of shops create 80% sales volume), and ensure the service level of key stores. The so-called quantitative management is what we often call the "six principles" of terminal management (fixed, fixed, fixed, fixed, timed, fixed shop). All the stores are divided according to different areas. Each area is managed by a special person, and the daily visiting lines are drawn up, and the fixed number of shops is visited on each line. The so-called relationship processing is to correctly understand the relationship between wholesale and zero stores. Small shops are important downstream customers of wholesale customers. Manufacturers should bear in mind that the ultimate goal of small shops is to get through the whole channel, rather than to hope and control the terminal stores through their own strength. The Chinese market is vast, and many terminal stores are in every corner. Many small shops must be covered by wholesale customers. It is not feasible to directly control all terminals through the manufacturer through the actual operation process. 
 above is a brief analysis of the key points of the channel type of FMCG in general sense, which is a general guidance method and thinking point. In the actual marketing process, we should combine the specific market conditions, analyze the specific problems, coordinate the relationship between different channel types, determine the proportion of our market resources according to the contribution of different channel types in the specific market environment, so as to maximize the potential of each channel type and release the channel value of each channel type, so as to maximize the value of the whole channel service output!