Author｜Zhang Nianchao
Original title | Consumption upgrade and channel sinking
On a business trip to Beijing this week, I did two things: First, I visited friends from the China Institute of Macroeconomics and asked about general trends, especially at the individual and micro level. Today, facing bottlenecks, a clear direction is more important than methods; the other is to be a guest on China Central Radio. Tongli Marble Ceramics was selected into the first batch of enterprises in the "70 Years of Chinese Home Furnishings 70 People Tour". During the dialogue, they gained insight into the direction of the demand for ceramics from the young elite. and confusion about purchasing.
Both exchanges discussed a common topic: consumption upgrading and channel sinking. In fact, this is not a new topic. It has been debated in the past few years. Today, most operators are working hard. Aside from talking about consumption upgrading at a macro level, many companies will think that consumers need better things, so they will transform their products into high-quality, high-priced products, which will lead to a narrowing of consumption positioning. This kind of upgrade should not be considered a consumption upgrade, but a business repositioning. Judging from the operating results, it has not achieved the effect and purpose of the upgrade. Similarly, the same is true for channels sinking. It is more about dividing the original advantageous areas into smaller ones. Channels are sinking. The regional advantages of brands are gone. The burden on small units is heavy. There is also the so-called contracting system and regional center mode.
In 2019, all business formats have shifted from the micro space to the macro space, and from competition among micro individuals to competition in the utilization of the macro environment. That’s it: talking about development in terms of individuals, talking about the future in terms of isolated industries, and then talking about growth in terms of channels and marketing are all relatively difficult current situations. This also triggered: 2019 is actually a revolution in the individual economy.It is also a revolution in the collective survival of the industry, especially in the new consumption era of de-branding and intermediation. To this end, we have sorted out some points from the conversation:
1
Consumption upgrading: using the money to buy existing items to buy higher quality and better things instead of using more money to buy better things . Therefore, it is necessary to consider whether the product is a consumption upgrade or a consumption positioning upgrade.
2
Channel sinking: to facilitate consumer purchases and decentralize prices, it does not necessarily mean reducing sales levels, nor does it move to secondary markets. From calculating one's own costs to integrating upstream and downstream costs, this is the essence of channel sinking. Only when the overall cost decreases can it be proved that the channel is sinking, not necessarily the apparent flatness of agents.
3
Market difficulty: The market difficulty is the same regardless of the level, and the opportunities are equal. Don't think that there are opportunities in the third- and fourth-tier markets. The third- and fourth-tier markets are just as difficult to operate as the first- and second-tier markets. If the first- and second-tier markets do not do well, it will be equally difficult to survive in the third- and fourth-tier markets. After all, in the third- and fourth-tier markets, you can neither control the prices of low-quality products, nor the product lines of large wholesale companies, nor can you control the prices of brand-name companies.
4
Channel changes: Channels are always changing, from retail to distribution, home decoration, engineering, etc., each era has different priorities. Today's market cannot be solved by channels. Don't blame the impact of channel changes. If you blame it, blame the cruelty of the times and your own inability to keep up.
5
Marketing changes: Weak marketing is not something that only happens today. Market active periods also exist, but your marketing is still at the bottom and you cannot perceive changes. The transformation of marketing is not from strategy to strategy, but from economies of scale to profit economies, from selling goods to winning by profit.
6
Leader employees: Don’t blame employees for not working hard. Circle economy requires not just methods, but the ability to grasp the market and allocate resources. In the future, employees' abilities will be far less important than their IP, connections, comprehensive qualities, and job experience. Whether you have leadership-type employees is very important.
7
Win-win competition: Competition is never aimed at killing opponents. The attitude of competition determines the future of an enterprise. Blind channel and price competition will put yourself in trouble.
8
New relationship: From the perspective of product circulation channels, the traditional buying and selling agency system has developed into a strategy and interest bundling system, a resource sharing system, and the same price in multiple places. system. No matter what method you use to ask your agents, it is just a matter of strategy and cannot represent a trend.
9
About the future: The social status of an industry determines the overall future of the industry. It is not the advancement of technology and the survival of the fittest among enterprises. The transition from industry thinking to social thinking is the responsibility of the enterprise. A kind of breakout. Just like a cloth seller, it will be difficult to achieve anything if you only consider the development of the cloth industry. You must consider the clothing industry to go further.
10
About the brand: If the brand is weakened, the brand IP will be strengthened. Today's Internet celebrities are the best example. They are not brands, but the embodiment of IP. Deintermediation has become inevitable, not only channels, but also brands.
In the past, we talked about consumption pain points, but now we talk about consumption upgrades and channel sinking. In fact, they are all similar, but from different perspectives. As far as the development of enterprises is concerned, it is no longer effective to think about the future from a micro perspective, and answers should be found from a larger field.
