How does the food industry do a good job in brand planning and marketing? We analyze how the food industry builds its own brand from the aspects of brand, product, price, and channel.

Brand

Dealers all know that the reason why first- and second-tier products are easy to sell, but the third- and fourth-tier products are not easy to sell is the influence of the brand. Dealers often have their own brands. There are two demands: one is to create a product of its own to enhance channel competitiveness, and the other is to enhance the brand awareness of its own company through the creation of its own brand.

At the same time, many dealers have also ignored an issue, the protection of their own brands, including trademarks, packaging, and patents. Only by protecting their own brands can the legitimate rights and interests of dealers be protected.

Products

The first hurdle that dealers face when building their own brands is the product. The quality of the product determines whether the brand can develop sustainably, so when dealers build their own brands What rules should products follow?

1. Create differentiated products

The purpose of dealers to build their own brands is to increase profits and improve channel competitiveness through product mix, so differentiation Products are very important, but unfortunately many dealers tend to launch their own brands based on which products sell well, and appear on the market at low prices. There may be a certain amount of sales in the short term, but as time goes by As the homogenization of products in the entire market intensifies, such private brands will eventually be eliminated.

To give you an example, if you are a frozen product distributor, distributing quick-frozen dumplings of Sanquan and Missian brands, and if you are making your own brand of dumplings, you will definitely not make good profits. If you develop other categories of quick-frozen products, such as conditioning products, you can enrich your categories.

In fact, for dealers, to create differentiated products, more emphasis should be placed on differentiation in packaging, design, specifications, and selling points. When building a private label, there is no "flower" in the product itself. The key here is to make differentiation based on the consumption characteristics, consumption preferences, and even channel characteristics of the local market.

2. OEM production mainly, lightweight investment

OEM (original equipment manufacturer) is: product development and manufacturing according to the original unit (brand unit) entrustment contract, using the original unit Trademark, a cooperative production method sold or operated by the original unit. That is the OEM we are familiar with.

Leave professional matters to professionals. In reality, the first thing a large number of dealers do when making their own brands is to spend money to set up factories and buy equipment. After investing a lot of money, they find that they are familiar with every product ingredient but do not understand production at all. The quality of the products is difficult to compliment, and The large amount of capital investment in the early stage brought about a serious debt crisis.

Using OEM production can control product quality. In addition, the professional production team is very efficient in both new product development and mass production. The most important thing is that dealers do not need to invest huge amounts of money. funds to purchase equipment.

Although OEM production can help dealers save costs, there are also risks, such as product batch quality. Since we do not have our own production team, it is difficult to ensure product quality in production, and we can only rely on strict post-processing. Inspection system; Secondly, during the peak sales season, OEM manufacturers are likely to compress OEM products in order to increase their own output. Dealers must sign an order contract with the manufacturer in advance. Of course, these two risks can be controlled within a reasonable range as long as the dealer manages them well.

3. Personalized packaging

Packaging is an important factor in improving the competitiveness of its own brand. Good packaging can make dealers’ own brand promotion more effective with half the effort, so dealers are designing When packaging your own brand, you must make it clear which channels your own brand is suitable for, whether it is for the traditional channel market or for the terminals of young consumers. Good-looking packaging design is the key to improving the competitiveness of your own brand and first- and second-tier brands.

4. Differentiated specifications

After determining the product and packaging, private brands can improve their competitiveness through specifications, create specifications that are different from the mainstream products in the market, and transform the products into To better penetrate into channels, especially for snack foods, making the packaging larger or smaller can adapt to different sales scenarios.

Price

Pricing is the second hurdle faced by private brands. Of course, this is based on products. Most dealers set their own brand prices relatively high. Low, trying to gain sales through low prices, this is a short-term behavior. Whether a product can settle in the market depends on product quality. If a dealer sets the price lower than the market price, then the quality of its own brand products will definitely not be complimented.

So how should the price be determined? Generally speaking, it is lower than first- and second-tier brands and higher than third- and fourth-tier brands. Of course, this ultimately depends on the dealer’s product cost. This requires dealers to conduct sufficient research on the market.

Channels

For dealers, channels are the ones they are most familiar with. Therefore, after many dealers have their own brands, they will fill them with their own brands in a short time. All channels, but the results are mostly not ideal. This is because private brands are not suitable for all channels. Many successful dealers of private brands will choose channels suitable for their products, such as supermarkets, hypermarkets, and convenience stores. With the development of new retail channels, many dealers have also sent their own brands to innovative channels, such as community group buying.

In such channels, private brands can quickly reach end consumers, and the repurchase rate can be used to judge whether the private brand is recognized by the market, thereby attracting the attention of the B-side.

Different types of dealers, dealers at different growth stages, and dealers in different competitive situations (categories, brands) all have different purposes and goals in developing their own brands. They want to make money. Whether to increase profits, increase product portfolio and improve channel competitiveness, or transform into a brand owner to build their own brand, dealers need to think carefully.

In the new retail era, the emergence of innovative channels is undoubtedly a blessing for dealers’ own brand promotion. Convenience stores and community group buying allow their products to quickly reach consumers, while Douyin, The rise of social software such as Xiaohongshu has made dealer brand promotion no longer as difficult as it used to be. What we have to do is to take a serious look at ourselves and make good products. Face the market with a heart that is neither arrogant nor impetuous, face the terminal with a heart of humility and awe, and face products with a heart of innovation and change.

This is the worst of times and the best of times. The road to rise and fall depends only on the dealer's thoughts.