Marketing mix of discount stores

Due to the limitation of business area, discount stores often limit their sales to 800- 1000, and at the same time implement a dual-brand strategy, that is, discount stores have their own brands and

dime store

Best-selling brands with fast turnover, of which private brand goods account for about 60%-80% of the total. This is the optimal proportion of discount stores in the long-term development and evolution process. In this range, not only can the cost be controlled as much as possible, but also the brand attraction of discount stores to target customers can be exerted as much as possible. Judging from the current development of discount stores, China discount stores should greatly increase the proportion of their own brands, but the development of their own brands is not unlimited. According to empirical research, whether goods are suitable for adopting private brand strategy often depends on the following five factors. That is, low-tech obstacles to production; Overcapacity of manufacturers; The investment of manufacturers is low; Almost different from products; The nature of goods, such as products that require high preservation and quality assurance, such as cooked food and aquatic products, and products that need on-site processing or goods with high purchase rate and turnover rate.

At the same time, according to the difficulty of supply chain transformation in practice, the proportion of best-selling products can be controlled as appropriate. In August, 2002, Shenzhen 10 disco quietly closed, and the difficulty in supply chain transformation was an important reason for its closure. Because the discount store has a small proportion of its own brands at present, most of the goods need to be purchased from agents. At this time, if you directly place an order to buy similar private brand goods, it will easily arouse the resentment of large channel agents. However, it is an unavoidable link for retailers to truly step into the right track of discount store development, commodity category structure adjustment and supply chain reform.

When summing up the successful experience of European discount stores, relevant experts pointed out that the development of European discount stores largely benefited from their product values of emphasizing quality over profit. The emphasis on the quality of goods is precisely the weakness of China discount stores. In order to cope with the fierce market competition and maintain their own low prices, most retailers adopt the development strategy of "low quality and low price" and control their own costs at the expense of commodity quality, which is a typical competitive myopia. For example, at Yansha Outlets, it claims that it will not ruin its reputation with "junk goods". Although its "brand+affordable" discount business philosophy is vividly interpreted in the store, it is still not enough time to grasp the "out-of-season" brand goods. Although foreign outlets have sold seasonal goods, they are mostly limited to a one-year cycle, not the backlog of goods three or four years ago, and the quality is generally as good as new. However, some products displayed on the counters of Lufthansa Outlets are obviously too old, and some products are wrinkled and hung without ironing, which seriously affects the image of brand manufacturers and the reputation of Lufthansa Outlets. A research report on the development of Wal-Mart in many retail fields shows that consumers' demand for authenticity, stability and fairness of merchant pricing is more important than the commodity price itself. What consumers need is not a pure low price, but a price that makes them feel "value for money".

But in fact, most domestic brand discount stores are still obsessed with the contempt of traditional commerce for consumers' rationality.

For example, LCX Youth Theme Store, one of the three major discount stores in Beijing, takes the road of "international boutique". Its 1200 square meter storefront claims that all products are first-line brands, and more than 300 brands in the audience take turns to go into battle, and the price is below 50%. However, even after the discount, these brands are not cheap. According to reports, the cheapest lady is the Turkish brand TAIFUN, the original price is 2200 yuan, and it is still 880 yuan after the discount, but the clothes in the whole store are very old, and some of them seem to have been transshipped many times. The sharp contrast between the price and its products clearly conveys a very untrue price information to consumers.

As a brand discount store, it is aimed at some consumers who pursue famous brands but lack economic strength. For these consumers, although discount stores sell out-of-season goods, they are still their favorite. Their slogan is "brand guarantee, good quality and low price" However, compared with the rapid development of foreign famous brand discount stores, the road of domestic famous brand discount is bumpy, which is related to the immature pricing strategy.

In foreign countries, because operating costs can be effectively controlled, foreign outlets can often get a discount of one or two. This intermittent ultra-low price stimulus can keep customers' enthusiasm for outlets, while in Lufthansa, customers can only get a 5-6 discount, which makes consumers' buying impression very dull, and of course it is difficult to arouse consumers' buying enthusiasm. At the same time, in the product pricing strategy, the price-performance ratio of products in the eyes of customers is an indispensable reference. Because consumers are not sure whether the product is an internationally famous brand, the price of the product is too high, which will make consumers face too high purchase risk. For the cash-strapped unfashionable consumers in discount stores, they will not take risks. Therefore, in commodity pricing, it is necessary to comprehensively consider the weight of quality, appearance and brand in consumers' minds, estimate the price-performance ratio in consumers' minds, and then determine an acceptable price for 20% target consumers according to the "28" law of customer purchase. For example, LCX's low-priced product cognition itself sends a "inferior" signal to consumers, and the pricing is much higher than consumers' expectations for similar products. No wonder consumers will give it a "luxury dump" evaluation. The business area of discount stores is usually limited to 500-2000 square meters, depending on the variety and regional competition.

In terms of site selection, discount stores are usually located in areas with convenient transportation, and strive to minimize land rent to control costs as much as possible. Of course, in the actual location, according to the types of discount stores and the different market competition, the specific location strategy will be different. For example, brand discount stores are more attractive and more suitable for young people.

dime store

It is suitable to be set in downtown areas and commercial centers of some cities, but considering the strength of discount stores at present, it emphasizes avoiding direct conflicts with direct competitors, such as department stores and brand stores with brand sales counters. Non-brand discount stores, because they are consumer goods, are suitable for opening in urban residential areas and expanding to small and medium-sized cities and rural markets. Of course, they should also avoid some supermarkets, supermarkets and other low-cost competition formats. In order to save costs as much as possible, the store environment of discount stores should strive to simplify the design and layout. For example, in some foreign non-brand discount stores, goods are displayed and sold in small packaging boxes instead of the usual display racks. The upper part of the original packaging is cut off and opened, and it is sold in the designated display position intact, which is quite similar to the domestic grocery store.

In the store design of brand discount stores, the warehouse style with strong industrial color has always been favored. For example, Yansha Outlets is a copy of this minimalist design in China. This design is a gradual return to the luxury of retail store layout, and it is also a realistic requirement for low-cost operation of discount stores. On the other hand, the store layout of LCX in Times Square is not so much a brand discount store as a new type of open department store concept store, because the design of the whole store is far from the low price concept of discount stores. The essence of promotion is to make customers have a pleasant and impressive shopping experience. In the traditional promotion mode, promotion, promotion, advertising and public relations have always been the four magic weapons used by marketers. However, with the deepening of people's understanding of the concept of promotion, marketers began to find that the original promotion did not only rely on tangible action demonstrations, but sometimes intangible factors such as service, humanized design of stores and active atmosphere of stores portrayed consumers' buying experience more deeply.

Discount stores use this strategy. For the need of cost control, discount stores generally do not promote direct stores, and even provide extremely limited personnel services. It only relies on its unique store design, frequent shopping surprises and limited but most critical service supply.

In discount stores, due to the adoption of dual-brand strategy, the trust crisis caused by brand dispersion is largely avoided, and the purchase risk of customers is reduced; In brand discount stores, because most of their products are out-of-season, out-of-date or defective brands, the price tag of goods will generally indicate clear reasons for discount, so as to help customers make correct decisions with true and honest information; In the creation of the store atmosphere, its unique and simple warehouse design itself is very attractive to customers, coupled with intermittent shocking discounts, the fiery shopping atmosphere of the store can be imagined; Discount stores never offer discounts on key services. Outlets abroad claim to leave consumers room for regret. At the same time, some research shows that customers prefer various value-added services of unconditional return, but unconditional return will undoubtedly make discount stores face great cost pressure. In order to minimize risks, discount stores can take some flexible measures. Promise to return the goods, but don't refund the cash, just change a card similar to a shopping voucher and shop at a discount store for a limited time; Or promise to return cash, but if the goods are reduced in price, they will be refunded according to the reduced price. This not only meets the unconditional return demand of customers, but also effectively avoids some malicious returns from discount stores, greatly reducing the cost pressure brought by discount stores.