Commercial competition mainly includes: [2]
1. Product competition. It mainly refers to the behavior of enterprises to win more consumers and users by producing and operating products with quality, variety, color, style and other commodity methods superior to similar products of other enterprises. Product competition is the material basis of business competition. [2]
2. Competition of business elements. Business elements include geographical position Business facilities, information, funds, channels and operators quality Etc. The competition in this respect is often related to the development stamina and development ability of enterprises. [2] 3. Service competition. It refers to the behavior that enterprises compete for and occupy the market by providing various high-quality services for buyers and users. [2]
4. Price competition. It mainly refers to the behavior that enterprises sell commodities of the same quality at a lower price than other enterprises' commodities in order to attract consumers and expand sales. [2-3]
Brand is the core of business competition. [3]
（1） We should establish the traditional concept that "service" is also a commodity. Commercial enterprises provide "service" only to complete the circulation of materials and play the role of distributing materials. Commerce is not a production unit. With the development of cognition, the essence of consumers' purchase of goods in stores is to purchase "utility" and "use value". "Service" is also "use value" with "utility". Therefore, "service" is also a commodity, but this kind of commodity is often not sold alone in stores, but sold together with physical commodities. Because the service "commodity is sold together with physical commodities, this kind of collocation must have strong relevance. It must help to realize the use value and value of material goods. Otherwise, consumers are unwilling to accept this collocation. Since "service" is a commodity, there must be a price. Gross profit is the price of service. As a valuable commodity, service should be clearly priced. The practical effect of "ten points of profit" is nothing more than that. There is nothing wrong with the clear price of service goods. [2]
（2） Renew the mode of competition, "service" should also be sold on the right track, and pay attention to quality. "Service" has utility, and it is sold as a commodity. This kind of service "commodity also has a problem of marketability and quality. Products are produced by factories, and there is no quality difference for the same kind of goods. Therefore, business competition is mainly manifested in service competition, and how to formulate differentiated competition strategies to distinguish competitors to better win customers. A successful operator is to create a better service to meet the needs of customers. The needs of consumers are diverse, and any investment enterprise can fully meet these needs. With a limited number of manufacturers and a broad market, enterprises can always find the ones with comparative advantages as long as they carefully investigate customer needs, investigate and understand competitors, and develop their strengths and avoid weaknesses according to their own capabilities and strengths. Service "to position the market and gain its market share. With the transformation of the competition mode, the competition will no longer be squeezed into one runway. Competition will enable each to take his place, and the market will be more prosperous.
"Service" should not only be marketable, but also pay attention to service quality and provide "high-quality" services. The concept of overall quality tells us that the so-called "high quality" refers to the degree of meeting the needs of consumers (users). Consumers are real. They always look for the services they need according to their purchasing power ". More than they can afford ", consumers are very honest: sightseeing is a kind of appreciation and enjoyment, shopping or shopping in small and medium-sized malls. As long as commercial enterprises really understand the potential needs of consumers, they can design marketable products according to their purchasing power. Services ". This quality service "will surely win customers and occupy the due market share 。 The essence of the competition of commercial enterprises is the competition of service quality. （3） The price of "service" reflects the value of service effectiveness. Therefore, commercial competition is also the competition of service promotion. The traditional service "is the gross profit of commodity price, which is the circulation cost plus profit. Its function of baking is only circulation service. Commercial competition is also manifested in the competition of supply, smiling service and price. The focus of the competitive review is on the sales link. This stereotyped traditional way of thinking makes it impossible for business competition to jump out of the strange circle of profit giving promotion: increase gross profit and commodity prices if you want profits.
Today's commercial "service" mainly provides the function of how to make the use value and value of goods better realized in the process of consumer use, and bring benefits to consumers. Business competition becomes the competition of service promotion. At present, consumers' tendency has also changed from pursuing famous brands to pursuing quality and after-sales service. As consumers' demands are different and changing, businesses are required to innovate constantly to meet consumers' demands. When an enterprise's market share changes, it indicates that consumer demand changes, so there is a transfer of market share. This kind of competition urges businesses to constantly innovate and forge ahead to maintain their market share and enterprise vitality.
Since commercial "service" has "utility", it has "exchange value" and "value". Its price is determined according to the use value of its "utility" and the degree of market scarcity, instead of being defined as "a few points of profit" as in the era of planned economy.
The most important part of business competition is no longer sales. It is important to identify the needs of consumers and innovate to create different service strategies and methods. It includes marketable products, services, pricing and sales channels. At the same time, it can be seen that the success of service promotion depends not on one move, but on the innovation success of the overall combination function of the service system.
（4） The market is distributed according to efficiency. To improve efficiency, we must focus on improving efficiency and adding value. The price of previous products mainly depends on manufacturing costs. The price is cost plus profit. Gross profit is the circulation cost plus business profit. Under the condition of market economy, commodity prices are measured by the law of value. If enterprises want to make profits, they can only rely on technological progress to improve conversion efficiency. When the efficiency of the enterprise is higher than the average efficiency of the society, it will make profits, otherwise it will lose money. At present, the average expense rate of domestic commercial enterprises is about 10%. Even if it is like Beijing Wangfujing Department Store, the expense rate is about 6%, and the value-added tax is close to 10%. No wonder many people of insight said that it is difficult to generally implement the high commercial expense rate, which is a fatal problem to improve efficiency after the launch of the "ten point profit", but it should also be noted that the "ten point profit" is still being implemented, and some are still being implemented. "Eight points of profit" and "six points of profit". More importantly, with the further deepening of reform and opening up, the market will have no borders. Foreign chain stores will squeeze into the Chinese market in various ways. Their expense rate is less than 3% (excluding loan interest). If commercial enterprises want to survive and develop, they may have no choice but to improve their operating efficiency.
It should also be noted that due to the increasing technical content of commodities, the demand for commercial enterprises to provide related series of services is also increasing. It includes making consumers familiar with the performance characteristics of the commodity and the benefits it may bring to consumers, as well as other auxiliary services needed to ensure the better realization of the use value of the commodity. For example, the first photo cabinet group of Hangzhou International Building not only provides all kinds of cameras, but also has all kinds of accessories for all kinds of cameras. It holds a lecture on the use and maintenance of the camera cabinet to introduce how to take good life photos. The cabinet group of small household appliances held a lecture on the use and maintenance of microwave ovens, so that housewives could understand the use value of microwave envy and their good helpers, thus stimulating the purchase desire and generating purchase behavior. Just like Shanghai United Auto Trading Market, it attracts customers by relying on special services, provides one-stop services for entry companies to apply for licenses, and does a good job of verification for customers, and provides banking, information, business, catering and other services for entry companies for service fees such as license plate, road maintenance, and insurance. The trading market often carries out small trading activities to promote information exchange inside and outside the market, Users are willing to run "Liantai". The increase of these added values not only creates profits for the trading market, but also promotes the prosperity of the automobile business when it is weak.
（5） Seize the opportunity, combine with the national conditions, set up the advantages of the group, meet the challenges, businesses pursue scale, grade, luxury, and take all kinds of promotional measures. With the gradual deepening of reform and the introduction of laws and regulations to stop profiteering, an open, fair, honest, credit, and orderly competitive environment is gradually forming. After repeated edification, consumers' consumption awareness has also gradually matured, and some abnormal big money consumption has also been curbed. Businesses finally realize that the biggest consumption in the market is often the working class after all. They are most practical and require honest sales and quality service ". What is needed is cheap goods. In order to adapt to this trend, a new hot spot and cyclone have begun to surge and rise. There are more than 500 supermarkets in Shanghai ", and there are three in Hangzhou after the" ordinary people's chain stores ". Jinlong Supermarket, introduced by the general manager of Hangzhou Small Commodities Corporation, is based on the residential areas and suburban shopping malls. Instead of decoration and refinement, Jinlong Supermarket is only for a comfortable environment and all-round open shelf sales. Reduce commodity prices by reducing housing prices and labor force. Customers also praised repeatedly. cheap. Some goods are indeed about 10% cheaper than other stores. It seems that businesses have another good opportunity and hot spots will be formed again. This question has been raised again, whether we can persist. It works well in the West, but will it work in China? I'm afraid this fear is not superfluous. There are certain conditions for the emergence and growth of anything, and it is impossible to copy and copy mechanically. There needs to be a process of digestion, absorption and re creation based on China's national conditions.
We should absorb Western supermarkets, chain stores Warehouse mall In order to adapt to the rapidly changing market demand, they have changed their management methods from the previous top-down vertical indicative management to the connection of member units through the network to form a mutual cooperation network. The management mode is changed from "square matrix" to "flat", and the intermediate links and layers are removed through computer management. The network senior management plays the role of commanding, coordinating and communicating with various departments. In order to effectively improve management efficiency and response speed to the market, reduce costs, eliminate redundant functions and organizations in the system, and improve efficiency through professional division of labor. Social collaboration and mass production are carried out through collaboration and standardization to achieve scale efficiency, thus greatly reducing costs and improving efficiency. At the same time, by changing management means and adopting computer aided management, the management efficiency will be further improved to make the whole business level reach a new level. All units connected to the network can share resources and information within the network. Centralized distribution of remote goods, reduction of inventory, reduction of capital backlog, and acceleration of turnover can also improve their own operating efficiency, create operating characteristics and advantages, and improve and enhance the enterprise's operating quality and competitiveness through socialized cooperation based on their own operating resources and advantages. In short, commercial competition is mainly about commercial service and service quality. Service volume includes applicability and economy of service quality. Enterprises must consider the affordability of consumers from the standpoint of consumers, correctly determine the quality cost and quality benefits, and then make business plans to achieve the business objectives of enterprises. In the face of the scattered outlets and the small production management mode that has not yet been shaken off, Chinese businesses cannot meet the challenges alone. Only by changing the concept of operation, creating conditions, combining scale, deepening reform and restructuring advantages, and strengthening scientific management, can we improve efficiency and efficiency. We should seize the opportunity, grasp the opportunity, practice internal skills, improve our quality, and meet the challenge.
Plastic door and window profiles are the main materials of plastic steel doors and windows used in the construction industry, which have developed rapidly in China since the late 1990s. Royal Canadian Group set up a subsidiary in Shanghai in 1997, positioned in the high-end product market of plastic window profiles, and achieved good business performance. However, after entering the second half of 2001, the market environment has undergone tremendous changes. Stimulated by the strong demand of the market, many places have launched production projects of plastic window profiles, and the supply capacity has expanded rapidly. In addition, the aluminum door and window technology has also made important improvements, which has set off a strong sales heat wave across the country, and the plastic window profile market has changed to the direction of oversupply.
With the increasingly fierce market competition pressure, enterprises have significantly reduced prices for sales. Although the sales of royal products that did not reduce prices have not changed much in coastal areas, the mainland market has declined significantly. After investigation and analysis, the company's marketing personnel suggest that the pricing method be adjusted. If different prices are charged to customers who purchase different quantity segments, the maximum discount range can increase to 18% with the purchase volume; For customers who place orders in the off-season, give them a low discount; For customers in economically underdeveloped areas with low consumption levels, further additional price reductions will be made. The decision-making level of the enterprise accepted the proposal of price adjustment and achieved good results.
In the above case, the Royal Plastic Window Profile adopts a differentiated pricing strategy. The so-called differentiated pricing means that different prices are set according to different factors such as the purchase object, time and place. The corresponding English word is "Price discrimination", which is literally translated as "price discrimination" - a derogatory term that reflects the questioning attitude of economists to this kind of pricing method in the past. They either do not believe that there are realistic conditions for differentiated pricing in the market, or think that differentiated pricing wastes resources, so they have negative comments. Later, with the progress of economic analysis, the mainstream opinion changed and gradually regarded it as a normal pricing method. The Chinese translation method was also changed to the neutral expression of "differentiated pricing".
Differentiated pricing is the operation method of many businesses. During the Spring Festival transportation in 2003, some domestic airlines used special ticketing software to manage pricing. A basic method is to differentiate pricing. For example, during the peak period of travel such as Spring Festival travel, the price is set higher, and in the off-season, the price is set lower through discounts; At the same time, the high price is set for the popular routes, and the low price is set for the routes with less passenger flow; Set high prices for customers who buy tickets near the travel time, and set low prices for customers who buy tickets in advance. Economist Zhang Wuchang once sold oranges on the street on the New Year's Eve, and later wrote the "Words of Orange Sellers". He summarized the experience that the key to selling oranges without losing money is to be good at bargaining. Selling high prices and low prices to some customers is also the use of differential pricing. In addition, the cinema sets different ticket prices for daytime and evening films, the railway provides lower ticket prices for college students or the elderly, and the publishing house sets a price difference of several times for the hardcover and paperback of new novels, all of which are examples of differential pricing.
The strategy of differentiated pricing adopted by manufacturers is, of course, to increase the competitiveness and profits of enterprises. Under the ever-changing product and market conditions, the successful implementation of differentiated pricing strategy needs to meet two basic conditions: first, market consumers must have different willingness to pay and demand elasticity, and can be identified by manufacturers; Second, it can effectively separate consumers with different prices.
Different buyers are willing to pay different prices for the same product and service, which is called different willingness to pay in management economics; When prices change, the degree of change of consumers' purchase volume is different, which is called different demand elasticity. Given a certain price change ratio, a large change in the buyer's demand quantity is called a large demand elasticity, and a small change is called a small elasticity. Only when the elasticity of consumer demand is different and can be identified, can manufacturers charge different prices to different consumers. The basic principle of differentiated pricing is to set a higher price for buyers with less demand elasticity and charge a lower price for customers with more demand elasticity.
The information of plastic door and window material market shows that when the price of royal plastic window profile products rises relatively due to the price reduction of other manufacturers, the sales volume in coastal economically developed areas has less impact, which shows that Price sensitivity Low, demand elasticity is small, so it can maintain high prices. However, the income level in the mainland is low, and the sales volume has declined significantly, indicating that the demand elasticity is high, so it is necessary to set a lower price through discount. In addition, compared with traditional wood, steel Aluminum alloy doors and windows Compared with, using Plastic profile The doors and windows are not only beautiful and easy to maintain, but also have the advantages of good heat preservation and energy saving, especially suitable for high temperature and cold regions. Therefore, in regions with cold and warm climates, consumers' demand elasticity and willingness to pay will also be significantly different, and different prices can be set accordingly. In other cases of differentiated pricing, the difference between the buyer's willingness to pay and demand elasticity should also be considered. Customers who book tickets near the Spring Festival are often time sensitive, with high time opportunity costs and low demand elasticity, so they can set higher prices. Passengers who book tickets early are willing to accept time constraints, indicating that their time sensitivity is relatively low, their demand elasticity is relatively large, and they should set a lower price. How to identify customer preferences and demand elasticity when selling oranges like Professor Zhang Wuchang? It may be possible to guess from the clothes and demeanor of the visitors: those buyers who wear suits, wear shoes, carry briefcases, and are in a hurry often belong to customers who are insensitive to price and have less elasticity of demand, so they may as well ask for higher prices; Customers who look like housewives and have good bargaining skills should be determined to reduce prices.
The conditions for separating different groups of consumers receiving prices are also obviously crucial. Otherwise, facing arbitrage opportunities, some consumers will become "middlemen", and it will be difficult for manufacturers to make profits if they buy at low prices and sell at high prices. In the case of royal plastic window profiles, this condition was met ingeniously. The doors and windows are not suitable for long-distance transportation, so the profiles need to be transported to the sales place for processing. Because such products have large transportation volume, low unit volume value, high relative transportation cost, and manufacturers generally adopt direct marketing in the high-end profile market, the markets in various sales regions are generally isolated from each other, effectively avoiding the opportunity of reselling arbitrage for middlemen.
Airlines have natural convenience in segmenting customers. Since the ticket itself has such characteristic information as the passenger's name, it is impossible for others to resell discounted tickets to make profits by checking valid identity documents when traveling with the ticket. According to a similar principle, since it is easy to print tickets with different shapes and colors for different sessions, cinemas can effectively segment audiences by selling daytime and evening movies at different prices. It is slightly difficult for railway transportation to divide the audience in terms of differential pricing between students and general customers. From the actual situation, it is mainly supported by the school's collective purchase and the steward's spot check on the identity of discount ticket holders. As Zhang Wuchang did when he set up a stall to sell products, he had to divide the buyers of oranges in order to distinguish the prices. Maybe only through the division of work and cooperation of several peers could he lead customers who seemed to have different willingness to accept prices to negotiate prices separately from each other.
Business practice has invented some ingenious means to make it possible for businesses to identify their demand elasticity differences through consumers' choice behavior, and make them separate by themselves. Rebate promotion is often used for overseas film sales: if consumers fill out a form and provide invoices for three films purchased in the past when purchasing films, they can get a rebate of a certain amount (such as US $1.5) when purchasing the next film. Experienced businesses know that some customers who buy film are more sensitive to the price and some are not sensitive. Usually, only a few buyers are willing to fill in forms and keep receipts, but because of the high time opportunity cost Price sensitivity Lower customers usually think it is not worth wasting time and effort for a little rebate. Therefore, it is required to fill in the rebate form and keep the receipt, which plays the role of identifying and separating different consumers. Some foreign supermarkets Packaging of daily necessities Coupon is printed on the outside. Customers can get different discounts when they present the coupon at the next purchase. This marketing method also has the effect of different pricing. Research shows that only 20%~30% of buyers will cut off the coupons, collect them and use them in practice. Compared with consumers who are unwilling to spend time saving coupons, the patience shown by using coupons shows that they are more sensitive to price, that is, they have higher demand elasticity. With coupons, manufacturers can divide consumers into groups with different demand elasticity and price acceptance willingness at a very low cost, and set different prices for them to increase profits. At present, there are many supermarkets set up by foreign retail giants in Beijing, and many foreign popular pricing methods have been introduced, but such differentiated pricing strategies as discount coupons are rarely used. Why have foreign retailers who attach great importance to pricing not yet widely used such differentiated pricing methods? One possible explanation is that most of the consumers who go shopping in these supermarkets are car owners, while most of the buyers who drive to the supermarkets in Beijing at this stage are middle-class residents. Generally, they are insensitive to small price changes of daily food or groceries, and the profit space increased by discount coupons may be small. [4]
