Most industries are divided into low seasons. In the off-season, the income of enterprises decreases and the market risk increases, so some small and medium-sized enterprises can't survive the off-season winter. Most small and medium-sized enterprises ignore the marketing and management of off-season enterprises. In fact, enterprises need to operate with care in the off-season. Therefore, the author puts forward the marketing management concept of "off-season operation". Then, when the industry market enters the off-season, how to carry out the off-season operation, so that the off-season of enterprises is not dull, and there are still rich profits, at least to enable enterprises to successfully survive the off-season winter? The following is the marketing management strategy I brought to you in the off-season. Welcome to reading.
Breaking through the Weak Market: Four Management Strategies
1, reasonably allocate manpower
Some enterprises cut off a large number of employees in the off-season to reduce expenses and recruit a large number of employees in the peak season. On the surface, this seems to save some labor costs, but in fact it makes the enterprise unstable all the time. Such enterprises are prone to two problems:
(1) Employees' sense of belonging is not strong-due to the high mobility of employees, they are nervous and insecure, so it is difficult to get them to devote themselves to their work, and even produce periodic mood fluctuations-when the industry market is about to enter the off-season, employees will have no intention to work and whisper to each other who may be fired. Although only a few employees are fired, this atmosphere will affect all members of the whole organization.
(2) The employee's professional skills are unstable-because the employee's mobility is too high, he leaves his job as soon as he adapts to the job, which makes it difficult to improve and refine the production technology of the enterprise, leaving no experience, and no one wants to learn professional skills for an unpredictable tomorrow. New managers or other employees also need to adapt to the company culture and business model, which will bring adverse effects to the enterprise.
To solve these two problems, we should adopt a differentiated approach-it is not easy to change people in highly skilled, experienced and professional positions, because newcomers will have an adaptation period when they take over such jobs, and the labor value they can produce during the adaptation period is very low, and frequent replacement of employees will greatly increase operating costs. Non-technical repetitive work can take the form of temporary work or piece-rate outsourcing to reduce costs.
2. Strengthen staff training.
There is a saying: make up the net when you are free and fish when you are busy. The same is true of human resource management. In the peak season of the market, we focus on marketing and have no time to take care of others. As the foundation of enterprise's survival and development, the skills training and concept revision of employees are particularly critical, because the ability of organization members will be improved, and the market competitiveness of enterprises will naturally be improved. Through the indoctrination and guidance of ideas, employees have increased their sense of identity and cohesion to the enterprise, and the overall coordination ability of the organization will also be improved. Therefore, the off-season is suitable for practicing martial arts, deepening employees' thinking and preparing for the market fight in the coming year. According to the survey of training institutions, it turns out that the time for most enterprises to train employees is basically before the peak season of the industry, when there are problems in the operation of enterprises, or when they are in transition. Now some wise enterprises have planned employee training in the off-season of enterprise sales, which also shows that the value and management of human capital are paid more and more attention by managers.
3. Straighten out enterprise functions.
An enterprise is like a machine. It can't run at a high speed for 365 days, but it also needs overhaul and maintenance. Therefore, enterprises should take advantage of leisure opportunities in the off-season to repair all kinds of enterprise functions that are too busy to attend to, which is very conducive to the healthy and sustainable development of enterprises. For example, straighten out finance, clean up non-performing assets and idle assets, rationally use funds and optimize bank loans; Repair, renewal and elimination of plant and equipment, technology introduction, etc. ; Major personnel changes, project investment, strategic transformation, channel changes and other behaviors that hurt the vitality of enterprises should also be carried out in the off-season; The strategic planning of the enterprise should also be carried out at this energetic time to avoid adjusting the strategy in the peak season, which will easily affect the sales volume and even damage the brand image and customer satisfaction.
When the sales season came, the deputy general manager in charge of marketing resigned angrily because of strategic differences. After the new deputy general manager took office, the marketing strategy was greatly adjusted, the original major distributors were replaced one after another, and the channels were flattened. After receiving the news, the channel dealer has no intention of selling in the peak season, and finds a way out by himself, or dumping it downstream instead of purchasing goods. What's more, they refused to pay back the money to protest against the behavior of the manufacturers, resulting in the company's sales in the peak season that year was only 57% of the same period last year.
4. Strengthen ties with allies
As a part of the market industrial chain, any enterprise will have upstream and downstream partners, which is very important for its management and maintenance. At present, the relationship between manufacturers is very fragile, suppliers often turn against each other and refuse to supply easily, and dealers rebel and vote for him. Sometimes these behaviors are fatal to enterprises. For example, at the beginning of the sales season, a long-term cooperative parts supplier suddenly closed down and the boss absconded with the money. Because of the shortage of accessories, this home appliance manufacturer temporarily sought cooperation from other manufacturers, but the price was high and the quality specifications could not meet the requirements, resulting in unstable product performance and high return rate and maintenance rate. If we can communicate with our partners, find their problems in time and find other partners as soon as possible, we can avoid these losses. Therefore, it is very important to strengthen the customer maintenance and understanding of upstream and downstream partners in the off-season, so as to hit the market carefree in the coming year.
Breaking through the Weak Market: Six Marketing Strategies
1. Insist on price and improve delivery value.
Off-season price reduction is a means for many enterprises to deal with the depressed market, which can realize the backlog of goods in their hands and reduce the financial pressure. But the danger of doing so is that the brand value may be damaged, and the goods with lower prices will not be recognized by consumers when they rise. Price cuts damage brands, lose profits, lose sales if prices are not reduced, and overstock goods. In this dilemma, we should first adopt the method of "tightening outside and loosening inside" That is to say, increase the thrust on channel providers: increase rebates, off-season delivery and other measures to improve the sales enthusiasm of channel providers. In the off-season, encouraging distributors to purchase goods can not only reduce the financial burden of enterprises, but also promote sales. Although the discount is large, it gives up a lot of profit space, but the enterprise does not suffer, because the profit can basically be offset by the interest on the returned funds. Although it is off-season, the thrust of channels and terminals can still bring unimaginable sales.
With the push of the channel, the next step is to work hard at the terminal to generate pull by improving the transmission value to consumers. Because there is no difference between the goods stored in the channel and the goods stored in the factory warehouse, only when they are bought by consumers can they really be sold out. Off-season promotion is laborious, but we should avoid taking measures to reduce prices, insist on unshakable prices, maintain brands and maintain the sense of value of products. Keep the amount purchased by customers unchanged, and then increase the total value purchased by customers. We can improve the value of goods by giving gifts, providing value-added services and selling goods in combination, thus avoiding price reduction. For example, if you buy home appliances in the off-season, you can get double warranty service time, buy off-season clothes and send them to seasonal clothes, and combine off-season goods with popular goods to sell. Operators should have the idea that lowering prices is not only a way to enhance the value of goods, but also the only way to create more value for customers without losing profits.
2. Launch suitable new products.
New products can often arouse consumers' interest. Properly launching new products in the off-season can set off waves in the stagnant market and improve visibility and attention. If we can introduce new products to make up for the gap in the off-season market, it is more likely to bring unlimited business opportunities to enterprises.
When Nestle sells chocolates in India, because the local climate is very hot, there is no air conditioning in the places where chocolates are sold. Many places are just roadside stalls selling chocolates under the scorching sun. At the high temperature of 35℃-45℃, Huasong's chocolate became liquid, so the hottest nine months of the year became the off-season of chocolate sales. A seller joked that Nestle chocolates are all sold as drinks. This sentence caught the attention of Carlo Donati, chairman and general manager of Nestle India: "Since all our chocolates are sold in liquid state, why don't we just sell liquid chocolate?" . Nestle India immediately launched a liquid chocolate product called "Buguo Valley Bar", which was welcomed by an unprecedented audience. Since then, Nestle's chocolate products have no off-season in India.
However, the fact that the products sold in the off-season can't be compared with the peak season in any case exists, so break-even should be considered when launching new products and promotions. After all, the same publicity and promotion expenses can achieve a much lower effect in the off-season than in the peak season, and try to avoid losing money and earning money.
3. Activity marketing heats up the market.
By launching some activities that target consumers care about and can bring them substantial benefits, the market atmosphere can be promoted, and proper measures can even set off a sales climax in the off-season. The activity can't be a simple discount, but it should be cut from other angles. Taking the jewelry industry as an example, the jewelry culture and art exhibition is held in the off-season, which stimulates consumers' desire to buy through colorful jewelry display and is also an excellent means of brand promotion; Hold a lucky draw for the couple, participate in answering questions or be present, and you will have the opportunity to get free wedding jewelry to try on and take wedding photos. Usually, it is difficult for women to give up the jewelry they have already worn. Even if you don't buy it this time, when there is a need to buy it, when you see yourself wearing a beautiful jewelry in the wedding photo, the first choice for buying will definitely be the products of this brand; It is a good way to cultivate potential customers by holding a professional jewelry design competition for potential consumers of college students and collecting jewelry love stories for non-professional users, so that they can pay attention to and study the products of enterprises. Holding the selection of Mr. Jewelry and Miss Jewelry is also a means to attract attention and attract consumption.
Step 4 Use the situation to attract attention
Usually in the off-season, goods are not concerned by consumers. At this time, some measures can be taken to attract consumers' attention through hot events or creating hot events. Paying more attention will naturally increase the possibility of consumption. For example, in the off-season of winter tourism, a tourist attraction first announced to the outside world that a local martial artist would compete with the "Wulin master" macaque in the zoo to jump over obstacles, climb and run. As soon as the news came out, it aroused widespread concern, and the organizers skillfully combined the information of their newly launched winter tourism projects into the news. Although the activity failed to be implemented in the controversy, it attracted the attention of a large number of consumers, and many people participated in the winter tourism there.
What needs to be noted is that it must not be groundless, but it can only be counterproductive. It is best to find the elements that consumers care about to create the theme of taking advantage of the trend, or to launch marketing activities with the help of the events that have happened. For example, a scenic spot took advantage of Chen Jianmin, an old Chinese medicine practitioner, to challenge the world record by hunger strike, and quickly launched a marketing campaign-inviting Chen Jianmin to carry out this activity in his own scenic spot, and at the same time cooperating with publicity. As a result, the scenic spot has won several times more tourists than usual.
5. Strategic reverse marketing
In the off-season, adopting reverse marketing operation can differentiate competitors and obtain unexpected benefits. Because, after the peak sales season, most people have stopped, removed advertising and promotion personnel, and canceled the promotion policy. Although it is the off-season of sales, we can earn a large share in the small market and earn considerable income compared with the current situation of few market competitors and weak marketing offensive.
Even if you don't reverse marketing, you should do basic marketing work, such as proper advertising, at least in the off-season. Usually in the off-season, the marketing activities of enterprises have basically stopped, and advertisements have been greatly reduced or even completely removed to reduce expenses. However, in the off-season, we should also maintain a certain exposure, because when a brand has not contacted consumers in the whole off-season, it is easy to be forgotten by consumers in the coming year, and it is difficult to accumulate brand value and position in consumers' minds. So in the off-season, you still have to maintain some basic marketing activities so that consumers will not forget your brand.
6. Do a good job in regional differentiated marketing of goods in the national market.
There are obvious regional differences in clothing, household appliances, tourism, catering and other industries. For example, in the clothing market, there can be a difference of three months in the off-season between the north and the south. If we reasonably grasp the time difference and adjust the marketing focus according to the seasonal changes, we can get more profits. A clothing enterprise moves clothes in different regional markets, and all the clothes can basically be sold out before they are out of date and completely out of season. Other stones can be used to attack jade, and cross-regional promotion of products in the off-season will have a good effect, because sometimes A city is the off-season of a commodity, while B city is the peak season of the commodity. Such an operation should accurately grasp the information of each market and take timely action.
The above suggestions on off-season management are put forward from management to marketing, but managers need to innovate in management and marketing, like Nestle, so that your company's goods can have no off-season and enterprises can have off-season.
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