Compared with the mature market operation mode of other beverages, the marketing of dairy industry has just begun. Therefore, many dairy companies have spared no expense to introduce talents from various beverage companies. But as far as I know, the survival rate of these paratroopers is not very high, mainly because the paratroopers in these beverage industries don't know much about the unique operation mode of dairy enterprises. In the following article, the author will briefly explain the main differences between milk and other beverage industries.
Brand positioning difference
I don't want to talk about the role of positioning. Good management and channel strategy can quickly enhance the competitiveness of enterprises in a certain period of time, but if enterprises want to maintain long-term vitality, accurate brand positioning and effective brand communication system are essential guarantees.
Category determines positioning:
The premise of brand positioning is to confirm what category the product belongs to. Carbonated drinks have the positioning of carbonated drinks, tea drinks have the positioning of tea drinks, fruit juice has the positioning of fruit juice, and sports drinks have the positioning of sports drinks. ...
This sentence seems to be nonsense again, but not many dairy companies can really grasp this accurately. A master's positioning for a well-known dairy enterprise-vitality milk. The master's basis is that vitality positioning has not been applied in dairy enterprises, and it is novel and unique. There seems to be nothing wrong with this positioning, but in fact he just ignored one point-milk is not a drink. It is understandable if you position drinks as energetic and fashionable, but at present, the positioning basis of milk must be "health". No matter how manufacturers and local brands promote milk sources and technological content, the results will never change, and the promotion of dairy brands must be rooted in the concept of "health".
Imagine if consumers see two kinds of milk in the supermarket-one is "full of vitality" and the other is "from the prairie", which one will consumers choose? If you want to choose vitality, there are countless other drinks to choose from. If you want to choose nutrition, the prairie should be the best choice.
Consumption habits determine positioning:
Generally speaking, carbonated drinks, tea drinks, sports drinks, etc. It belongs to perceptual consumption. Under the influence of advertising and terminal publicity, consumers may change their consumption products at any time, so their consumption flexibility is greater. For milk, it belongs to the category of rational consumption. The main purpose of consumers to buy milk is to ensure the health of themselves or their families. Once consumers choose to consume milk, their consumption habits will be difficult to change for a long time, and their consumption elasticity is small. Therefore, the positioning of dairy brands should also pay attention to rational positioning such as health, nutrition and freshness.
Some people may ask, at present, many dairy enterprises are positioned as health, nutrition, honesty and reassurance, but the market operation is not ideal. Why?
They violate another principle of positioning-brands must be distinguished from similar products, and this difference is meaningful to consumers. At present, the three best-selling brands on the market-Yili, Guangming and Mengniu-are precisely the most obvious differences from other brands. Yili's "natural pasture of soul" contains the concept of grassland; Mengniu "milk from grassland, milk drunk by astronauts", while focusing on the concept of grassland, further enhances the rational quality appeal with the help of event marketing; Bright "healthy and bright", focusing on the concept of science and technology, is also effectively different from other competitors in positioning. These are exactly what other dairy companies have not done. Without a unique and clear positioning, it is difficult to distinguish it from other similar products, which will eventually cause great resistance to the overall market operation and get twice the result with half the effort.
Product life cycle determines positioning:
Product life cycle is a relatively basic theory in marketing course, but in the real dairy enterprises, many enterprise managers don't understand its true meaning, which also causes undue misunderstanding on brand positioning.
The life cycle of carbonated drinks, tea drinks and purified water is basically close to maturity. Therefore, seeking differentiation and effective market segmentation for small and medium-sized enterprises or newly involved enterprises is of great benefit to their future development, and it is easy to establish their own competitive advantages for specific target groups or in specific local markets. The life cycle of milk is still in a period of rapid growth, especially liquid milk, with an annual growth rate of over 30%. Therefore, it is not necessarily a wise decision for some powerful regional brands to give up mainstream liquid milk prematurely and specialize in a few market segments when the overall market structure is still unclear.
Some dairy companies contacted by the author think that the time is ripe to subdivide the dairy market and decide to give up mainstream liquid milk products and specialize in differentiated markets. In my opinion, there may be two misunderstandings in this method:
Myth 1: The timing of market segmentation is inappropriate.
At present, the dairy consumption habits of Chinese consumers are not very mature, and the average consumption of milk is far from meeting the health requirements of Chinese people, and there is still a lot of room for growth. Therefore, pure milk and yogurt will remain the mainstream products in the market for some time to come. The marine biological milk, high-iron milk and high-calcium high-dimensional milk introduced by many enterprises are still in the stage of manufacturing concepts or establishing an image for enterprises, and the actual sales situation is not optimistic.
As some weak enterprises, without the support of strong scientific research and marketing forces, it is best to do what we can, seize the opportunity and launch truly differentiated products that meet the needs of consumers on the premise of perfect market research and segmentation. Instead of blindly launching products that seem to be "differentiated" but actually have no fundamental differences and market demand, they become victims of the market.
Myth 2: mainstream products give up prematurely.
Some powerful local brands have obvious advantages in regional personnel structure and channel construction. With the rapid development of dairy industry as a whole, mainstream liquid milk will have a good growth space in two or three years, and it can be used as a "golden bull" product to bring a lot of cash to enterprises. Therefore, the author believes that these enterprises should not be eager to give up mainstream liquid milk products at present, but should recognize the development trend of dairy industry, whether it is mainly normal temperature milk or fresh milk. At the same time, we began to develop differentiated products as a new profit growth point for enterprises to prepare for the smooth transformation of enterprises in the fierce competition in the future.
Enterprise management differences
The difference in enterprise management is the most disastrous area for airborne troops in many beverage industries of dairy enterprises, and it is also a minefield that airborne troops have to face.
In the beverage industry, due to the intervention of international famous brands such as Liangle and the large-scale investment of domestic factories, it has a good driving effect on other domestic beverage enterprises, and has greatly improved the quality of personnel, management experience and operational ability. Most dairy enterprises have just transformed from state-owned enterprises, and there is little foreign investment, so there is a big gap in management and operation.
Airborne troops or teams airborne in dairy enterprises have little or no experience in the management and operation of state-owned enterprises. It is hard to imagine that even a small milkman may be inextricably linked with the chairman of the company. Therefore, if you don't understand the interpersonal relationship of the enterprise and reorganize blindly, it is likely to detonate the mine and eventually blow yourself to pieces.
A well-paid airborne marketing director and sales director of a dairy company. After they entered the company, they made drastic reforms. Adjust the organizational structure, reorganize business processes, and establish a visiting system and a reporting system. The starting point is impeccable, but it infringes on the interests of all aspects of the enterprise. In the end, at the marketing meeting, the managers of each branch collectively bombarded and the reform plan could not be implemented. The final outcome is that the two people walk together and the enterprise recovers as before.
The solution in this respect can only be understood, but not expressed. I don't want to describe it through too many words. Having a good solution is only the first step in the long March. After all, in many state-owned enterprises, power struggle is the fundamental guarantee to decide the final victory.
Difference of entrance structure
The milk source belt enterprises operating in the national market are similar to other beverage industries in channel construction, either directly or through distributors. However, because there are many regional brands and fresh-keeping products in the milk industry, it is very different from other beverage industries in some aspects.
The center of gravity of regional brand channel moves down;
At present, almost all beverage industries have the problem of shifting the center of gravity of channels. However, due to the large number of regional dairy industries and the fact that channels are the most effective weapon against other competitors, it is necessary to shift the center of gravity to a greater extent.
A dairy enterprise has set up a number of prefecture-level distributors, which radiate downward to various towns and villages. Because the distribution ability of prefecture-level dealers is not strong, the distribution is basically operated by manufacturers, and the goods are directly sent to the second batch of merchants in towns and villages. Polar dealers are idle in the surrounding areas, but they have to extract the price difference of 1 cent per bag, which seriously affects the competitiveness of products. Every day, enterprises are thinking about what kind of promotion measures should be taken to compete with competitive brands, but they don't consider that as long as the focus of channels is simply moved to towns and villages, they can get huge space for price reduction or promotion and enhance the competitiveness of enterprises.
Building milk delivery channels for families;
The main difference between milk and other kinds of drinks in channel construction is concentrated in the part of fresh-keeping milk, which mainly involves the daily distribution. The difference between milk and other drinks in weekly, weekly or monthly distribution is mainly manifested in the requirements of logistics capacity and the sensitivity to sales. But this problem is not a big problem for experts who have been engaged in the beverage industry for many years, and they can adapt to it with a little adjustment. However, it is rare to see milk delivered to households in other beverage industries, which requires in-depth investigation and research.
The construction of milk delivery channels mainly involves the determination of the number of milk stations, the division of milk station areas, the construction and management of milk stations, and the recruitment and training of milk delivery personnel. At present, many enterprises adopt the strategy of recruiting temporary milk delivery staff for the newly developed milk delivery market, but after running for a period of time, certain disadvantages will be exposed. Such as: milk delivery is not timely, and after-sales service is difficult to carry out. Therefore, the author suggests that if there are enough milk ordering users, we can consider recruiting full-time milk delivery staff, gradually eliminate those who work part-time or for several dairy companies at the same time, and strengthen the daily management of milk delivery staff to facilitate the smooth development of after-sales service.
As for the collection of milk money, there are also some problems. After entering a new market, many enterprises adopt the policy of drinking milk first and then collecting money, which will play a positive role in the development of the market at first, but once this habit is formed, there will be some problems in the recovery of milk money. In particular, the milk money of many enterprises is in the hands of milk delivery workers, and some milk delivery unions collect milk money privately six months or even a year in advance, amounting to tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands, and absconding with the money sometimes occurs, which has to attract the attention of enterprises.
Conclusion: The difference between milk and other drinks is far more than that. The sudden withdrawal of many foreign brands from the China market also proves the uniqueness of competition in the milk industry. Therefore, people who parachuted into the dairy industry from other beverage industries must seriously study the unique market operation mode of the dairy industry, and remember: milk is not a beverage!