Traditional Trade Marketing Support
In the Traditional Trade (TT) of the Vietnam market, when you analyze the kinds of goods that are being sold a lot, you can see that most of them are brands with high awareness. For example, many IT and audio equipment retailers include Logitech (Switzerland), GENIUS (Taiwan), A4-TECH (Taiwan), Jabra (Denmark), JBL (America) and there are many more to count on.
Since TT is often purchased in cash, it does not tend to possess the inventory of goods that cannot be sold a lot. Therefore, there is a tendency to purchase low-priced lines of brands with high recognition, which can be sold quickly and converted into cash. We think that Vietnam’s TT market is not a market where new entry makers can easily capture. In order to raise the coverage at TT, it is necessary to carry out detailed sales promotion activities at MT first to raise awareness for consumers. And then carry forward the shipment to TT in big city areas such as Ho Chi Minh and Hanoi and that will work for sure.
However, even if it is deployed in Modern Trade, there is no possibility to automatically ship to TT and again if you do not do sales activities effectively, you cannot extend the shipping rate.
Even when I was doing business of stationery in Japan, I felt that sales to the general shops such as the stationery shops in the town were very troublesome. At first, many shops did not listen to me even though I visited, and thought that “Does it make sense to operate?”.
At that time, I was in charge of Mass Market Retailers such as home centers as well as general stationery shops. Certainly mass merchandisers had large orders and huge sales, although that was not what they were determined for their personality, but the standard products decided by hard work were turned over to other companies, and the sales declined in the blink of an eye.
Meanwhile, the general stationery shop gradually began listening to the story while visiting many times, and finally began to purchase items. After a couple of years, there were a number of shops that used to say things like, “You can order goods by yourself by looking at the inventory situation”. The relationship with those dealers became very strong, even if some competitors suggested somewhat cheap, they would always have to do a lot of struggle to break our bond.
I think that TT in Vietnam has places similar to those in general stationery shops in Japan.
By setting the responsible area of the sales staff, setting the frequency of visits by each store, and by repeatedly walking, the number of shops willing to purchase will increase. Of course, because TT is also doing business, it does not necessarily mean that the number of shippers will increase, but sales staff actively going to the shop will be aware of the sales situation of other companies, market trends, etc. There is a chance to take the information and I believe it will never be a waste of time.
At MAI INTERNATIONAL, we can organize sales team specializing in TT according to customer’s request. We will assist you by delegating the necessary number of sales staff on your behalf. We will make arrangements to educate you and will help you with schedule creation and management. Finally, we will be able to assist you in selling products, so please feel free to contact us.
Marketing support cases for Traditional Trade
PC accessories manufacturer
FMCG manufacturer A
FMCG manufacturer B
A Distributor has delivered products to major MTs, but since distribution to TT has not progressed, MAI International has recruited, trained, and managed sales representatives and sells PC accessories to TTs in metropolitan areas.
Initially, the name recognition was low, and it was not easy to distribute the goods. However, by operating patiently and introducing the brand’s activities at major MTs, the name recognition gradually increased, resulting in the distribution rate and sellout to TTs also improved.
A Distributor was operating to major MTs and TTs, and distribution to MTs has gradually progressed. However, TT’s existing sales teams were reluctant to introduce new products that are difficult to introduce. Even if the incentive was set high, there was a tendency to bring only old products that were easy to sell.
For this reason, MAI International hired a sales team dedicated to TT as a proxy, ABC analysis of the target TT in Ho Chi Minh City, thorough rounding, distribution rate and repeat order rate improved.
The distributor reports that the company’s products have been installed in more than 5,000 stores, but repeat orders from distributors are less than that scale, and they want to know the actual situation. As a result, MAI International’s sales department conducted a survey of about 500 stores in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi in accordance with the distributor’s list. It was found that many stores recommended other competitors’ products when a customer demanded.
As an improvement measure, we announced to each distributor that “Mystery shoppers visit within one month, so if you can propose the product according to the manual, we will pay a reward”. Many salespersons began to actively promote PR, improving the sell-out and repeat order rates.