The future competition is no longer just about product competition, but also about competition in segmented markets and brand competition. From traditional lighting to the development of lighting fixtures and the lighting industry, to the formation of market segmentation patterns, lighting distributors also play an irreplaceable role in this process. How to transform development strategies and occupy a place in the rapidly changing market has become a problem that many lighting distributors must face.
Enhance market guidance capability
Many times, dealers themselves do not have much ability to guide the local market, either because lighting brands are actively guiding or passively following. More often than not, merchants are just playing the role of porters.
Dealers generally lack awareness of guiding the market and simply believe that as long as the enterprise does a good job in market launch, the terminal has pulling force, and then the merchant follows up, it is enough. So there are very few dealers who have established a market guidance system or a marketing department, without in-depth and continuous research on the local market and consumer situation, without corresponding new product promotion systems, and without professional marketing teams.
For lighting companies, it is not difficult to develop a new distributor locally. However, if the local distributor has proactive market guidance capabilities and can promote new products to downstream retail customers and even consumers, then the value of this distributor is no longer just a simple distributor.
In the gradually segmented market pattern, field segmentation is becoming more specialized, and the previous sales model is increasingly being eliminated by people. Distributors need to step out of the traditional model of distributors, find suitable segmented market channels, and make further efforts in segmented fields to upgrade themselves to market operators, establish professional departments, and build corresponding market guidance systems, so as to have the ability to guide local market consumption trends and product promotion.
Plan your own product line
With the increasing influence of the brand year by year, the operation of the lighting brand market is becoming more mature, and many LED companies are beginning to cooperate with related industries in a wider range of fields, and brand segmentation is becoming increasingly evident. Overall, the length planning of LED product lines is mainly based on competitors and market characteristics. Generally, a slightly higher high-end is beneficial for enhancing brand image, while a slightly lower low-end can achieve price resistance. For new brands that have just entered the market, distributors not only develop LED product lines covering high, medium, and low levels, but also design and develop product lines based on the characteristics of competitors and the market after receiving sales feedback from the market. They appropriately compress the product line and create their own product series with relative advantages.
In contrast, product line width planning should be designed based on the brand's competitive positioning at different stages, with corresponding investment in LED products in different price ranges. The product line width of each price segment should be directly proportional to the sales share of that price segment. The width of the main selling price range product line should be increased, and the proportion of the number of product styles provided to the total number of products in the product line should be equal to or slightly greater than the proportion of sales in that price range, fully ensuring the competitiveness of the product line in that price range; The high-end and low-end price ranges, which account for a relatively small proportion of sales, require a moderate reduction in product line width to minimize cost investment and also provide terminal display space for products in the main sales price range.
The Internet makes information more symmetrical, but the demand for good products is unchanged. The only change is that they are more selective about good products, have a stronger demand for services, have higher requirements for product functions, and have more direct emotional appeals. Therefore, in this era of creating marketing miracles through products, whether distributors can provide a product combination that makes users scream or not determines whether distributors can win in the fierce market competition.
With the continuous development of the lighting industry, many lighting dealers have also realized that the competition in the industry is no longer just product competition and price competition, but brand competition is becoming increasingly fierce. Enterprises use their own products to open up the market, while also deepening their brand in the minds of consumers, so that consumers not only have a certain understanding of the products, but also have a deeper understanding of the enterprise, enabling the enterprise to quickly open up the market when launching new products.
Distributors can strengthen their brand effect by controlling channels, guiding the market, cooperating with local media and government departments, leveraging the company's brand, and strengthening cooperation with similar manufacturers. This way, enterprises with specialization, strength, and product pursuit will gradually become the dominant direction of the market.