Weapons.
What is Watson's magic?
Obviously, the remarkable growth of China's own brand has become a sharp weapon for Watsons' dancing.
In recent two years, Watsons has occupied a market share of 265,438+0% in the personal care products sales market. The number of private brand products has rapidly increased from more than 200 product categories at the beginning to more than 65,438+0,000 at present. Private brand products have won the recognition and trust of more consumers in China because of their reliable quality and good cost performance.
A research report by AC Nielsen shows that private brands are actively promoting the business growth of retailers in all regions of the world. In 2003, among the 36 markets in the world, two-thirds of them grew faster than manufacturers, and more than half of them achieved double-digit growth.
Strengthening corporate brand image with own brand.
Brands can be divided into enterprise brands and product brands. The retailer's corporate brand, classified product brand and product line brand constitute a hierarchical tree brand system.
Corporate brand is located at the top of the retailer's brand system and is the foundation of the whole brand system. From the consumer's point of view, a corporate brand is far from the name of a store. They are the most essential content to convince potential customers, and they are also a very important factor affecting consumers' choice of stores and purchase behavior.
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Therefore, the unique private brand is the most effective means for retail enterprises to realize their business characteristics, which not only enriches the product composition of retailers, but also further strengthens the brand image of retailers in the eyes of consumers with the introduction of private brands, forming differentiated brand identity, thus cultivating and enhancing consumers' loyalty to retail stores.
Private brand, also known as private brand or middleman brand, is a new product developed by retail enterprises through collecting, sorting and analyzing consumers' demand information for a certain commodity. Retail enterprises put forward design requirements from the aspects of function, price and modeling. Establish your own production base or choose a suitable production enterprise for processing and production, and finally register your own trademark and sell the brand in our store.
In the brand system of retailers, corporate brands play a leading role. Self-owned brands must start from the positioning of corporate brands, reflect the connotation and concept of corporate brands, introduce the value proposition of their own products, help corporate brands create value, form brand synergy, and then strengthen corporate brand image and gain competitive advantage.
Because of its unique characteristics, private brand products can only be purchased in specific retail enterprises, so it is easier to form differentiated management of retail enterprises. However, in order to ensure the promotion of enterprise brand, the design of private brand (product) must proceed from the connotation and concept of enterprise brand, and obtain competitive advantage and form customer loyalty through strong support points, namely price advantage, distribution advantage, product advantage and promotion advantage.
Distinguish by own brand
Having a series of popular private brand products is undoubtedly one of the best ways to reflect differentiation.
Watsons takes "personal nursing experts" as its market positioning and revolves around the three concepts of "health, beauty and fun". It conveys a positive and beautiful life concept by providing consumers with unique products, elegant shopping environment and professional information, aiming at helping people who love life and pay attention to quality to shape the unity of inner beauty and outer beauty.
"Health"-"MJ" Mr. Juice Brand
On the basis of adhering to the unified positioning of corporate brands, Watsons adheres to the brand concept of "health", and through geographical subdivision and functional subdivision, aiming at the unique concept of clearing away heat and keeping in good health and Guangdong's humanistic environment, it launches MJ Qingrun series beverages in the form of its own brand, further strengthening the "healthy" corporate image advocated by Watsons and achieving a breakthrough in differentiation.
Because of its unique humid and sultry climate, consumers in Guangdong pay great attention to clearing away heat and heating, so they have the habit of drinking "herbal tea". With the accelerated pace of life, can the refreshing drinks cooked at home or bought in street herbal tea shops be drunk at any time through finished packaging? It is under the background of this market demand that Watsons has devoted itself to research and development from the concept of "providing healthy products for customers". In 2003, it began to launch its own new brand MJ (short for "MJ(“Juicy") sugarcane juice, and in 2004, it re-launched a new product MJ sour plum juice to create a clean and humid beverage market with Lingnan characteristics.
Mr. MJ's juice brand is a targeted private brand (product) developed by Watsons from the perspective of regional consumers on the basis of adhering to the health concept, which avoids the homogenization competition of products and realizes the breakthrough of brand differentiation, not only perfecting and expanding its own product line, but more importantly, enriching the connotation of corporate brands while successfully shaping its own brand value.
Beauty-fashion distilled water, skin care products and cosmetics
The "Mattel" business philosophy of Watsons Personal Care Store is mainly embodied in targeting 18 ~ 35-year-old women. This kind of consumer group pursues individuality, pays attention to personal charm and pursues a comfortable shopping environment.
In view of this target group that pursues fashionable and energetic life, Watson's distilled water is eye-catching and full of freshness: streamlined bottle body, simple and fashionable green packaging and unique double bottle cap design turn simple "water" into a product with unique fashion taste and personal style. After listing in Hong Kong last year, it was loved by consumers. Its fashionable appearance has attracted a large number of consumers who pursue personal image, and won the 14th Hong Kong Printing Award for Excellent Packaging and Printing. The logo of Watson's distilled water brand follows the green theme of Watson's corporate brand itself and is changed to lively bright green to reflect the theme of "beauty". On the one hand, it preserves Watson's professional and pure image, on the other hand, it brings the vitality and vitality of Watson's distilled water to consumers.
In addition, for the needs of female consumers, Watsons has designed a large number of skin care products, washing products and various female cosmetics, which are affordable, exquisite and fashionable, and elegant in taste, and are favored by female customers. According to a recent survey on the personal life concept of nearly 600 female customers, more than 85% of the respondents believe that the richness and exquisiteness of Watsons products, especially women's skin care products and cosmetics, are the primary factors that attract them to shop in Watsons, and their trust in the quality of goods sold in Watsons stores makes them loyal customers of Watsons.
Happy-toys, Sunkist orange juice
Entering any Watsons store, customers are greeted by cheerful music, as well as unique and lovely dolls and candy placed in the store. Some lovely signs such as "heart", "lips" and "smiling face" will appear on the shelves, checkout counters and shopping bags of the company, which will give consumers a happy, warm and interesting feeling and convey an optimistic attitude towards life.
In order to better interpret the brand connotation of Watson's Joy, in June 2004, Watson developed its own brand Sunkist Juice many years ago, and cooperated with Disney Company of the United States to stage the "Disney100th Anniversary Fantasy Ice Tour" project in Shenzhen, which made people feel relaxed and interesting from the perspective of entertainment, and made Watson's "Joy" theme fully reflected, shortening the time with consumers.
Sunkist and Disney have similar consumer groups-optimistic people who value entertainment and are young-minded; Sunkist is a representative of nutritious and delicious oranges, with bright colors and strong sense of joy. Disney has created happy childhood memories for four generations and enjoys a high reputation in the world. The integration of the brand connotation of Sunkist and Disney has enhanced the brand tension of Sunkist and enriched the corporate brand connotation of Watsons.
Provoke the support point of independent brand
The development of private brand (product) needs to fully consider the connotation and concept of corporate brand, but it needs strong support to incite private brand and make it better contribute to corporate brand building. Watson's means are competitive price, chain operation advantage, customer advantage and low promotion cost.
Price advantage-competitive price Compared with other retail enterprises, the products of Watsons Personal Care Store always pursue "the price is consistent with the market demand" rather than "competitive price", so the pricing of products is generally higher. However, in 2004, China Watsons Personal Care Store launched a low-price profit-making activity of 1200 in South China and East China for the first time, and claimed that if consumers found that the same goods were sold at lower prices in other stores, they could enjoy double refund of the difference. This low-price activity not only reinterprets Watson's fashion consumption concept, but also brings unprecedented new shopping experience to consumers who pursue quality of life.
Watsons has selected more than 1200 kinds of health care and beauty products that consumers buy most frequently and have the greatest impact on their purchase expenditure, and the average price is about 5% lower than the market price. Among them, private brand products account for 15% of the goods on sale, and the prices of these private brand products are even 20% ~ 30% lower than those of similar products in other supermarkets. Owning a large number of private brand products is the main advantage of Watson's large-scale low-price strategy.
Retailer's own brand appears as a cheap substitute for manufacturer brand, so it has a strong price competitive advantage. Because of the existence of large manufacturers with overcapacity, troubled manufacturers and many small and medium-sized manufacturers, retailers can seek the lowest-cost manufacturers to process and produce their own brand products on the premise of ensuring product quality. The development, production or sales orders of retailers' own brand products are directly related to manufacturers, which saves many intermediate links and saves transaction costs and circulation costs. Due to the leading cost advantage, the price of Watson's own brand has been 20% ~ 40% cheaper than similar competitive brands. Cheap products, coupled with fashionable packaging design, have always been deeply loved by consumers.
Distribution advantage-chain operation
Chain operation ensures the vast distribution area of retail enterprises and is a strong support point for retailers to implement private brand strategy. First, chain operation saves transaction costs and creates the price competitive advantage of their own brands. Chain operation combines scattered business entities into a large-scale business whole. Through the centralized procurement of stores by the headquarters, the purchase volume is large, and you can enjoy higher price discounts and reduce procurement costs. Secondly, the expansion of the regional scope of chain operation has laid a market foundation for its own brands. Chain operation expands the market position of retail enterprises from the extension, which not only makes it easier for private brands to enter the vast market field, but also greatly prolongs the life cycle of private brands in the market. Finally, the reputation of chain retail enterprises in the original commercial field and the consistent service and image they bring to consumers can also reduce consumers' cognitive cost of their own brands and improve their loyalty.
Watsons Group has more than 3,700 branches all over the world, and it is expanding rapidly by opening one shop every 2.2 days. It is estimated that by 2005, the number of Watsons in the world will increase from more than 3,300 to 4,000, and in China it will increase from more than 40 to 100. Watsons is the fastest growing retail enterprise of its kind in Asia, with an average annual growth rate of 30%. The continuous expansion of private brand products has gained a strong distribution advantage, laid a market foundation for the wide distribution of private brands, and strengthened Watson's corporate brand image from the geographical space.
Product advantages-better understanding of customer needs
Watsons Personal Care Store deals in various products, including 25,000 kinds of cosmetics, medicines, personal care products, fashion accessories, candy, heart-shaped cards and gifts from more than 20 countries. Private brand products mainly include cosmetics and personal care products, as well as juice, distilled water and toys that embody Watson's three concepts of health, beauty and joy.
Grasping the advantages of market demand provides favorable conditions for retail enterprises to implement private brand strategy. Retailers are in direct contact with consumers all the time, and can timely and accurately understand the various demand information of consumers for goods, and can timely analyze and grasp the marketability of all kinds of goods. In the process of implementing private brand strategy, retailers put forward requirements for the development and design of new products. Compared with manufacturers, it has the characteristics of short product development cycle and difficult separation of production and sales, which reduces the risk and cost of product development.
Watson's own brand products are oriented to consumer demand every time they are launched. For example, in drinking water products, Watsons followed closely the customer's demand and showed outstanding innovation ability in all aspects: in 1950s, it was the first to provide glass bottled water for commercial users, 1994, the first "leak-proof sealing system" for Watsons drinking machines, 196, the first 12 liters of domestic drinking water,/kloc. Taking customer demand as the fundamental starting point, we constantly bring fresh ideas to consumers and bring success to the implementation of Watson's own brand.
Promotion advantage-lower promotion cost
Because the retailer's own brand is only sold inside the retailer, its advertisement is mainly carried out in the store by means of advertising leaflets, closed-circuit television and radio with the help of the retailer's goodwill. Compared with manufacturer brand's extensive use of television, newspapers and other mass media for advertising, the advertising cost of retailers' own brand products is greatly reduced. Moreover, the target customers of retailers have regional characteristics, and even if they use mass media for promotion, they only need local media, which is highly targeted and has high economic benefits. In terms of personnel promotion and business promotion, the retailer's own brand is "the advantage is in the first month".
25% of the space in Watson's store is reserved for its own brand, including all general categories and special categories, which are placed in a prominent position in Watson's own brand area. At the same time, Watsons also made a special brochure for its own brand products, detailing different products of various categories. In addition to promotion, there are also in-store distribution and use activities of general samples. Timely distribution of trial products can make consumers feel the quality of products immediately, and at the same time have a rational understanding of the cost performance of Watson's own brand. In addition, Watsons will conduct special training for sales staff to master the most detailed product information and effective promotion skills.
Private brand has become an indispensable part in the development of retail industry. Watsons Personal Care Store, the largest retail chain group of health care and beauty products in Asia, expressed its attitude with actions: its own brand is not only "important" but also "essential".
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