Paint coating distributors: Where are the opportunities for development?

As the real estate market is booming, the share of the building materials market is constantly increasing. However, why is the sales volume of raw materials not facing rising raw materials, consumers are increasingly critical and other pressure, the small and medium paint distributors in the end go, what is The development path of small and medium-sized dealers When the author chats with the paint distributor, he will hear some dealers complain that: This year, the paint is too difficult to sell, the industry profits are getting lower and lower, and the brand is too difficult to do. The reporter visited many paint markets across the country and found many successful cases: a second- and third-tier brand will be mainstreamed by its dealers in a certain market; a distributor who has only two or three years in the paint industry can do tens of millions Performance and other enviable cases. Through the understanding and analysis of these cases, some experiences were summed up.

Careful choice of brand first-line brand to the dealer's choice of opportunities without the ever-increasing competition in the market, in the paint market, a large number of paint brands, but really called the influential brand is still relatively small. How to find a brand that meets their needs, has a large room for growth, and has enough stamina to be among many paint brands is something that every dealer needs to think about. In the past few years, most dealers were rushing to cooperate with big brands with the mentality of “backing on the trees and enjoying the coolness”. However, in recent years, with the rapid development of the coatings industry, the competition in the coating industry has become increasingly fierce. The popularity of first-tier brands and the market coverage rate are increasing. Many paint shops in the same market are distributing the same product, Nippon, Dulux Marketing stores are adjacent to each other.

For large distributors, they need a smooth channel for first-line brands to expand sales to get their year-end rebate. For ordinary dealers, the purpose of choosing a first-line brand is to use the brand's market popularity to achieve certain goals. Its own development. However, the threshold of first-line paint brands is very high. They will only cooperate with several large agents in one area, and then they will develop second-tier and third-tier distributors. Caused the ordinary dealers can not have a direct line of dialogue with the paint companies of the first-line brand, if encountered in the sales bottlenecks, will often be eliminated by its agents, dealers in a weak passive position, without the right to speak.

The second and third tier brands should not have the same vision. Compared with the first-line brands, the second and third tier brands do not have high brand awareness. Consumers are not very supportive, and corporate advertising and other aspects of support are not as good as first-line brands. Paint distributors are concerned about the difficulty of doing these products successfully. They always wondered if there are still some vacuum belts that they did not discover. It is difficult to be a brand in a regional market by becoming a Cantonese today and becoming a Shanghai tomorrow.

What is the opportunity? Although there are no first-rate brands in the promotion of means and channels, the gap between product features, quality, and first-line brands is not large. In some market segments, there are some second and third-tier brands. Than the first-line brand also has advantages. The second and third tier brands usually do a better job in terms of flexibility in sales policies and protection of dealers. They are in a big city such as the provincial capital, a decoration material city, a point or a district, and a point sales. The three-tiered cities can be distributed by the second-tier cities with their general agents and an agent according to the company’s strategy. Many companies have now managed to sink their channels into the county-level cities and set up an exclusive agent for the county. To ensure the interests of agents and distributors.

Therefore, for general dealers, how to choose a second- and third-tier brand that is suitable for self-development and local market operation is particularly important as a long-term strategic partner for common development.

Doing a good job of positioning and finding cooperation between brands and companies is often referred to as the relationship between “fish and water” by many people. Both manufacturers and merchants hope to achieve a win-win relationship, but in fact, companies and distributors have their own positions. It is contradictory in many ways.

In the early days of cooperation, companies often wanted to find powerful “big fish”, relying on merchants to quickly open up the market in the local network of personal connections and influence; and businesses are hoping to rely on “big tree” for development and growth. In fact, but after a period of cooperation, manufacturers found that the choice of dealers is not the bigger the better, but to adapt to corporate development strategy and agree with the company's development model and corporate culture is the best. When choosing a distributor, manufacturers should not only assess the strength, but also assess their comprehensive indicators such as goodwill, word-of-mouth, terminal network and marketing awareness, and more importantly, see if the distributor has a strong willingness to cooperate. After many years of market operation, the second and third-line brand companies have gradually established a set of own rules for how to select dealers. The business operations can achieve good results as long as they are used flexibly according to the terms of investment promotion.

However, dealers tend to be passive when they cooperate with companies. They do not have a clear idea and do not know what they want to do. Which brand is more conducive to their own development. What kind of position should the dealers choose for themselves? The second- and third-tier brands with better brands cooperate with each other for a long time, or go with the big brands every day for a day. When the author visited the market, he found that dealers with large business volumes usually have clear ideas, and have their own advantages, disadvantages and future development goals. It is very clear and clear. In this way, it is also very well organized to do things. They know what should be done actively, which should not be done or should be done by manufacturers. And more dealers are paying more attention to the immediate interests. Which corporate policy is good and the profit margin is so large which company goes with it? Today, this company will do this business. The company will change to that company tomorrow. Anyway, just make money. Everything can be done, no principle, no plan, everything is aimed at making money. This practice may temporarily gain some petty profits, but it also loses brand loyalty and credibility. In the future, it will be even more difficult to have the opportunity to cooperate with some outstanding brands. The development of dealers is likely to be a vicious circle.

In fact, each distributor has its own advantages in resources. The development of enterprises needs a clear market position, and the development of dealers is the same. Dealers may wish to list all your strengths, weaknesses, and social relationships, find the most advantageous and reliable resources for your reference, clarify your direction, and then look for a suitable brand to negotiate and cooperate. Of course, in the process of selecting and cooperating with companies, it is also necessary to carefully consider whether the overall strategic direction of the company is the same as your own set goals. For example, if you are rich in resources in the high-end furniture paint market, then you choose a company to do high-end furniture paint-based business cooperation, we all work together to do a good job of all services and common development.

Actually, the distributor selection factory is like a girl selection house, and finding a suitable one is more important than finding a good one.