In the beverage industry, what do you think is the ideal off-season marketing strategy?
1) timely launch of new products, timely launch of some new products in the off-season, can effectively cut the market share of competitors. From the perspective of creating momentum, we can strengthen the position of corporate brands in the minds of consumers. For enterprises with limited marketing budget, limited advertising and appropriate new products can achieve good influence. Nestle is good at the off-season new product surprise strategy, and can even be said to be the driving force of "off-season success". Timex, a watch brand, launched 200 new models for consumers who are sensitive to trends in the off-season, emphasizing fashion and high-tech design, which made the sales of Timex increase by about 30%. (2) Discovering new consumption patterns and product uses, and discovering and guiding new consumption habits are powerful ways to tap off-season sales. Some unique consumption patterns, such as "hot drinks" in winter-boiled drinks, boiled dew, boiled ginger cola, hot coconut juice and even boiled jujube beer, are all innovative marketing patterns in the off-season. (3) Adhere to moderate promotion. Based on the principle of "input is proportional to output", some enterprises greatly reduce their expenses in the off-season. Doing so will only make the sales pressure greater and the off-season lighter. In the market of Shaanxi province, the price of a tonic wine was greatly reduced in the off-season, that is, the display fee was cancelled, which reduced the salary and commission of the staff, resulting in the decline of the display quality and the loss of sales staff. The peak season is coming, so we can't catch it. On the contrary, maintaining a moderate promotion in the off-season, especially creating strong pressure on competitors, can often achieve twice the result with half the effort. Samsung, Philips and other TV manufacturers' off-season promotion in September 2002-165438+ 10 not only brought about 35% sales growth, but also increased the sales of flat-panel products by 10% year-on-year. Most marketing experts know that it is a wise marketing method to invest limited funds in promotional activities that can stimulate consumers in the off-season. It is worth noting that off-season promotion cannot rely too much on simple price reduction and discount. In order to reduce inventory pressure and increase cash flow, a large discount will destroy the brand image of the enterprise and affect subsequent sales. The alternative strategy is to consider increasing the added value of products and adding some services, which will not only increase short-term sales, but also cause too much negative impact on consumers who have already bought products. (4) Strengthen and develop off-season channels. When they enter the off-season, the main channels in the peak season will shrink sharply, but other sales channels will begin to show their value. This is the off-season channel For example, bottled drinking water, in the off-season of autumn and winter, supermarkets, wholesale markets, retail stores, stalls and other normal channels have shrunk dramatically. After a cold summer, the bath center and sauna center have entered the busy season for customers. People will feel thirsty after bathing and sauna, and the water consumption is very large. If we can win most of the bath centers and sauna centers in a certain regional market, the sales volume is still considerable. The channel strategy in the off-season is nothing more than two aspects: on the one hand, we should strengthen the channels with small sales fluctuations in the off-season; On the other hand, according to the characteristics of products, develop new channels to adapt to the off-season sales of products. For example, some enterprises focus on developing urban regional markets and strengthening wholesale channels in the peak season, while focusing on developing rural markets and large institutional customers in the off-season, successfully achieving off-season sales. (5) In the off-season of market transfer, there are not only time constraints, but also geographical constraints. In other words, at the same time, in different regional markets, the off-season is different, at least to some extent. For example, some products have the characteristics of "south light and north light" and "south light and north light" replacement. A considerable number of products enter the off-season in the domestic market and the peak consumption season in the international market; When there is a low season in cities, there may be no signs of low season in rural areas or urban-rural fringe areas. China has a vast territory, spanning many climatic zones, and there is more room for market transfer. For example, summer clothes, when the north of our country enters winter, the south is still sunny. The long-term benefit of highlighting the off-season lies in sales volume. Sales volume is a periodic indicator, that is, "sales volume in a certain period". This period is as short as one year and as long as one or two months. Therefore, the off-season is only in terms of short-term interests, and there is no difference in the long-term interests of enterprises. Therefore, off-season marketing focuses on gaining momentum. What is the potential? It is something of long-term value: word-of-mouth building, brand building, strategic value, etc. These are all enterprise trends and actions that play a role in the long-term market position of enterprises. (1) The establishment of word of mouth The most important thing to establish word of mouth is to close the distance with consumers and gain their goodwill. The simplest and most effective way is to increase the chances of consumers' product experience and brand feeling through some special public relations activities. Especially in emergencies, take the initiative to contact consumers and increase their brand association and brand participation. Word-of-mouth marketing of Samsung microwave oven in off-season is to set up a number of counters in downtown areas of major cities, distribute "Samsung daily microwave oven cookbook", "Samsung microwave oven runner cookbook" and "Samsung microwave oven woman cookbook" to consumers, and offer free "microwave oven cooking class", and place microwave ovens in schools, office buildings and other areas to heat food for consumers and win good feelings. Scullers is a famous sportswear brand. In the off-season, the "Sculls Looking for Women's Designers Competition" was held. Every woman has the opportunity to sign up for the competition, design her own clothes, shoes, hats and accessories, and set up advertising kiosks in downtown areas to display the winning works. In addition, rowers also planned the off-season promotion activities of "Lucky Weight Loss". Any woman who loses a certain weight within the time specified by the company can get Scullers products in proportion to the weight she has lost in the Scullers store. These activities attracted many women to participate, and won the hearts of female consumers by word of mouth. (2) Brand building Brand building and word-of-mouth building complement each other and both want to occupy consumers' brains. Word of mouth pays more attention to "being kind to others" and gaining a good impression. The brand focuses on erecting a value and spreading the feeling of this value. On the one hand, brand promotion in off-season can make advertisements get rid of the troubles of sales targets to a great extent, on the other hand, the publicity cost in off-season is low and the benefit ratio of brand promotion is high. And when the peak season comes, the brand will win a high brand recall rate and brain share. However, off-season brand promotion is also a marketing strategy with heavy financial burden, which can not achieve returns in the short term. Most brands can't afford large-scale advertising in the off-season and are caught in a dilemma. On the contrary, for companies with strong strength and abundant cash, they actually use their ability to invest in large-scale advertising in the off-season to establish brand advantages, and finally drive weak competitors out of the market. In the competition with Coca-Cola, Pepsi pays great attention to maintaining or increasing advertising investment in the off-season. For other market challengers, it is also necessary to maintain brand advertising in the off-season. Industry leaders spend about 10% ~ 12% on advertising, while challenging enterprises account for 20% ~ 25% of sales. Building brand equity and increasing brand added value through advertising and public relations activities in the off-season can make the company stand out quickly when the market situation improves. (3) Strategic Value At one time, ice cream companies rarely advertised outside summer. The "anti-seasonal marketing strategy" of a brand, that is, the abnormal strategy of starting advertising in winter, reaching the peak in spring and gradually stopping in summer, has achieved great success in cost and effect. This is the off-season marketing strategy with strategic vision. Entering the peak season, it occupied the strategic commanding heights in advance. Finally, this strategic behavior has evolved into an industry marketing model. This is the high-end realm of off-season marketing. Prepare to "profit in peak season, build momentum in low season" for peak season marketing, but the ultimate goal of enterprises is to make profits, and build momentum is also to serve this ultimate goal. In addition, the off-season is always the off-season, "the peak season increases, the off-season decreases", and "increase" is always greater than "decrease". It is always easier to take "increase" than to rob the opponent naked. And off-season marketing is sometimes not worth the candle. A very simple example: it takes several times of effort to sell refrigerators in winter, and it may be business in summer. Therefore, the off-season market will never be the main battlefield for decisive battle with opponents. The purpose of paying attention to off-season marketing is to serve the peak season in addition to appropriately increasing sales and pursuing long-term interests as mentioned above. The harvest of "the enemy slaughters us to fight" is only a strategic harvest and a tactical shock, and the persistence of long-term interests is only the need for enterprises to continue to operate. So, how to prepare for the arrival of the peak season? (1) Pay attention to pioneer marketing. In the peak consumption season, the limited sales staff of enterprises can only serve limited customers through limited sales channels. Under the fatigue of established channels and established customer business, there is little energy and time to develop new channels and new customers. In the off-season, if we just wait for the arrival of the peak season, the best result is that when the peak season arrives, the sales channels and customers will remain at the original level, and the sales performance will stagnate. More likely, due to the increase of competitors or the aggressive marketing of competitors, when the new peak season comes, the original sales channels will shrink, the number of customers will decrease, and the sales performance will drop significantly. Therefore, in the off-season, enterprises should not only seize the time to analyze, classify and manage existing customers, but also actively explore new marketing channels and develop new customers and markets. At the same time, they should sum up experiences and lessons, plan the next market development plan and train marketing personnel. (2) Test consumers' acceptance of product price and value. Consumers are often more sensitive to their own expenses and product prices in the off-season, so this is the best time to test product prices and value acceptance. Test consumers' acceptance of new products and prices in order to carry out large-scale national promotion activities when the peak season comes. The experience of Nestle marketers is: "If consumers can accept your new products and their prices in the off-season, the marketing activities of new products in the peak season will be much simpler." Henkel Company tried to sell non-traditional 200 ml household cleaner in the off-season, and adjusted the price three times in order to find a balance between consumer acceptance and corporate profits. Coca-Cola Company also launched 200 ml glass bottles of Coke in some cities in the off-season of 200 1 to test whether the channels and logistics distribution can adapt to this new packaged product. Generally speaking, in the off-season, the risk of trial marketing is relatively low, which will not have a particularly great impact on the original product portfolio of enterprises. At the same time, the cost of channels, advertising and logistics is relatively much lower. (3) Excessive inventory level adjustment is a huge financial pressure and operational risk for enterprises. If it is in the hands of dealers, dealers are likely to slash prices to clean up inventory, so as to reduce inventory pressure. However, when the peak season comes, the inventory level is too low, which easily causes enterprises to fail to grasp the sudden demand growth. So, off-season sales? /ca & gt;