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■★ At the end of 1980s, due to the immaturity of China's circulation industry at that time, P&G sent the sales manager directly to the dealer's office to help the dealer fully understand, accept and practice P&G's marketing ideas, marketing strategies and methods. More importantly, sales managers and dealers jointly build and improve the network, jointly manage logistics and promotion, and directly participate in the training and management of salesmen and promoters, so as to quickly improve and improve the marketing ability of middlemen. Practice has proved that this mode of cooperation has achieved remarkable results. Later, more and more enterprises began to take this model. Later, people gave this model a name-deep distribution.
Soon, people in the consumer goods industry became fascinated with deep distribution, and many people regarded it as the ultimate weapon to solve the channel problem. Others boast that this method is omnipotent, and some related theories have emerged, such as "flat channel" and so on. Unlike everyone's expectation, deep distribution has many advantages and many successful examples, but for many enterprises, it always feels like a bitter medicine that can't cure diseases, which makes them miserable. What is the reason?
Today, the operation mode of deep distribution is quite mature and there are many new innovations. Many people have started new explorations. Everyone is thinking about the same question: what should it look like after deep distribution?
The core of distribution management is division of labor.
The traditional distribution model is manufacturer-distributor-secondary supplier-terminal-consumer, and the whole marketing network is arranged in a pyramid, which is only a difference in quantity for enterprises at the channel level. For a single enterprise, the so-called distribution model, the real core problem is actually who dominates the operation and manufacturers of this network? Or a dealer? What exactly do they do? In the final analysis, the problem of distribution mode is basically the problem of how to divide the work between manufacturers and distributors!
What is deep distribution? As the name implies, it is a distribution model in which manufacturers are deeply involved and network operation is dominant. In an ideal deep distribution model of consumer goods, manufacturers are responsible for business personnel management, network development, terminal maintenance, display and promotion, and dealers are only responsible for part of logistics and capital flow. But in reality, this is only an ideal situation, and no enterprise can fully achieve this goal.
A complete distribution process includes two basic elements, one is the participants in the whole distribution process, and the other is the responsibilities and obligations assumed by each participant.
In the whole distribution process, participants are not only enterprises and distributors, but also a more complete way of consideration should include five categories of participants: corporate headquarters, overseas institutions, distributors, second-batch suppliers and terminals. With the changes of regions and channels, the degree of participation of all interested parties in each work is also different.
At the same time, a complete distribution process includes some work contents, such as the formulation of marketing plan, inventory management, coverage of retail outlets, display management, credit provision, design and implementation of promotion, logistics and distribution, and payment collection.
We combine these specific work contents with the responsibilities of all stakeholders to form a complete distribution model. At the end of the article, we will introduce some analysis tools and methods to you.
It should be pointed out that deep distribution is only one of various distribution modes, which is not necessarily the best for an enterprise. So what kind of distribution model should specific enterprises adopt?
2. What determines the distribution model?
What kind of distribution mode an enterprise should adopt depends on two factors, as shown in the figure, one is the marketing ability of the enterprise itself and the other is the concentration of channel members.
As can be seen from the figure, according to the different marketing resources and capabilities and channel concentration, the commonly used distribution modes are regional general agent, key customers, deep distribution and alliance/integration. However, different models will lead to completely different criteria for selecting distributors, ways of division of labor and cooperation and channel management methods.
It can also be seen from the model that the premise of adopting deep distribution mode is that manufacturers have strong marketing resources and capabilities, and channel members, especially terminal members, are large and scattered. In addition, because the channel conditions in different regions are very different, the distribution model adopted by the same manufacturer will be very different in different regions and different channels, and it is more common for multiple channel models to coexist. For example, an enterprise may adopt deep distribution in key areas and regional general agent in non-key areas. In areas where the modern retail industry is developing rapidly, key account management and deep distribution can be adopted. Therefore, blind pursuit of deep distribution mode will inevitably lead to problems, not according to the current manufacturers' own resources and capabilities.
3. Improve your distribution model
For each enterprise, the products are different, the market environment is different, the enterprise strategy is different, and the distribution model is different. Any enterprise should design its own distribution system and method according to its own situation, and no enterprise has the same distribution system and method. And with the passage of time and the change of environment, the corresponding distribution model will inevitably change. Therefore, any enterprise must constantly improve it.
Commonly used methods to promote the transformation of distribution channels generally include the following five steps:
The first step is to conduct a marketing audit to find out your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats;
The second step is to find out the key factors that should be changed according to the analysis results and make a change plan;
The third step is to train personnel and evaluate the effectiveness of existing distribution systems and members;
The fourth step is to promote the reform of distribution system and evaluate the reform effect;
The fifth step is to enter the next cycle and continue to develop and improve its own distribution model;
The attached table "Suggestions on Channel Improvement and Division of Labor" is a concrete example. Through this table, we can clearly see the responsibilities of all internal and external related members in an enterprise marketing system and the main responsible parties of related work. You can also fully understand the resources and capabilities of the enterprise through this form, and make corresponding improvement directions. Readers can also gradually improve their distribution model through this form.
Four. The future of distribution model
Has deep distribution come to an end? What should I do after deep distribution? Many people have asked the same question. To answer this question, we must understand how the current distribution model is formed. Looking at the development history of distribution in recent ten years, we can easily find that the most important factor leading to the change of distribution mode is the concentration of channels.
More than 20 years ago, the circulation industry in China was in a unified state. Several major state-owned commercial systems, such as sugar, tobacco and liquor companies and non-staple food companies, are monopolists and are in an absolute dominant position. The concentration of channels is so high that manufacturers can't control or even understand the distribution network. This period is called "planned economy era".
Extremes must be reversed. From the end of 1980s, the state-owned commercial network began to collapse, the channels became extremely scattered, and the dealers were very weak. Manufacturers headed by multinational companies have to start the process of training dealers. They teach these dealers how to distribute goods, how to cooperate in sales, how to manage prices, how to manage inventory, how to make promotion plans and how to deal with super terminals. This is how some "big families" survive and develop. At the same time, some weak manufacturers only rely on those dealers who have been educated by multinational companies and have good management consciousness to be regional general agents, while those dealers who are backward in meaning and used to large-scale circulation operations are gradually eliminated. This is the origin of the "deep distribution era".
At the end of 1990s, the biggest change of commercial network was the rise of modern retail channels. Hypermarkets, supermarkets, convenience stores and specialty stores began to develop rapidly. They quickly squeezed out the market share originally belonging to small grocery stores and traditional department stores, and the circulation and wholesale system closely related to these traditional channels also suffered a heavy blow. At present, the wholesale market still accounts for half of China's fast-moving consumer goods circulation industry, but overall, the development direction of channels tends to be concentrated again, and modern retail channels will continue to develop at a high speed. With the rapid enhancement of channel strength, manufacturers and terminals began to cooperate and win-win, and the channel won back the initiative. Now everyone calls it the "terminal age".
For a long time in the future, modern retail channels are expected to develop greatly, and the coverage will gradually develop from big cities to small and medium-sized cities, and finally enter the rural market. Several major commercial retail giants will control most of the market share, the traditional circulation mode will gradually die out, the circulation field will once again move towards monopoly, and manufacturers will once again lose distribution control. Merchants will inevitably occupy a dominant position and become the dominant players in the channel process.
Under this trend, the concern for consumers will be further strengthened. For many products, channel competition will no longer be the decisive differentiation factor as before, and the role of brand will become more important. In order to occupy a more favorable market position and set higher barriers to channel entry, manufacturers will form a solid marketing alliance with merchants, and even there will be a trend of integration of manufacturers. A lot of marketing resources will be used for advertising, promotion, public relations, research and product development and other marketing functions. Once the distribution is completed, it will remain quite stable and will no longer be the top priority of the manufacturer. This era, I temporarily call it the "post-release era".
Of course, the development of distribution history will not be so absolute. Even in the "post-distribution era", various channel models still coexist at present. More importantly, with the development of technology, the direct selling business with advanced IT technology will also develop more rapidly. The main competition is not between traditional and modern retail channels, but between online direct selling and distribution. The market of distribution mode will be greatly weakened, and even in many industries, distribution mode will inevitably die out. This era will become a real "no distribution era".
After a reincarnation, history has started a new cycle, with spiral development and advancement.
How deep the depth distribution is depends on whether the marginal effect can be maximized.
Nowadays, when many enterprises understand "deep distribution", they often only consider it from the perspective of wishful thinking. They think that as long as they go deeper, they will definitely increase sales. In fact, it is "self-built network" and "direct control terminal", regardless of the development stage and actual situation of the enterprise. If we really want to continue to "dig deep" and continue to invest, it will definitely increase sales, then the market will be easy to do. But this is not the case. Many enterprises spend a lot of money to build their own networks, but the increase in sales volume is very limited, and enterprises are also very tired.
When determining the "depth" of "depth distribution", we must consider it from a comprehensive perspective, with the focus on whether "depth" can maximize the marginal effect of resource input. The so-called "marginal effect" generally refers to the existence of an optimal limit of expenditure. Beyond this limit, the growth of sales will stop and will not increase indefinitely. It is useless to spend more money, it is a waste. The same is true for deep distribution. "Depth" is also limited. Beyond this limit, the growth of sales will also stop. At this time, it is useless to go to the "deep", and more investment will only lead to waste.
To maximize the "marginal effect", we need to find a balance between the "depth" of controlling the market and the input of resources (including management costs). At this time, enterprises will neither lose control of the market nor invest too much resources. Of course, it is difficult to find this "point" very clearly, but there are also standards to measure it, namely "professionalism" and "functional orientation" to be discussed below.
A typical example of violating the "marginal effect" in enterprises is "Zhu San" Company. At that time, Zhu San Company was all-powerful, relying on a marketing force of 65.438+0.5 million people, and achieved a peak performance of 8 billion yuan. At that time, you could see Zhu San's poster in any remote mountain village in China. Wu Bingxin, the boss of Zhu San, proudly said that no one in this country can have more than three networks except the postal network. To say "deep distribution", the three companies can be said to have reached a limit. But at the same time, its sales volume of 8 billion yuan has reached the limit, and marketing expenses account for more than 30% of sales revenue. This "depth" distribution has produced great waste; The professionalism in operation is getting worse and worse, and the whole company has seriously deviated from the role of enterprises in the distribution system, thus causing huge internal friction within the enterprise, and the final decline is also in love!
I hope you succeed! !