Agent Brand: Strengthening? Or Weakening?

Not long ago, when I was attending the founding meeting of the China Construction Machinery Industry Association's agency work committee, I saw many agents confused about whether or not they should strengthen their brand.

There are two main reasons for the confusion: first, the whole machine manufacturer hopes that the agent will highlight the manufacturer's brand. Two, from the development status of the overseas construction machinery industry, the agents mostly appear in front of the users with the manufacturer's brand.

If it is concluded that China's construction machinery agents should follow the "big deal" and "follow the rules", it does not seem to agree with the actual situation of the Chinese market at this stage.

In fact, at present, most local agents, especially those who are more successful agents, are basically agents of many brands at the same time, seldom appearing in the name of a manufacturer's brand.

Whether the agent brand should be strengthened is actually a reflection of the competition between the manufacturers and agents of the domestic construction machinery market for the market dominance at the present stage.

The author believes that, at the present stage of the development of China's construction machinery market, the brand of agents should be strengthened, especially those with a certain scale of construction machinery agents. They should quickly strengthen their brands. Strengthening agent brand is not only a matter of interest to agents and manufacturers, but also can better promote the healthy and rapid development of China's construction machinery market.

Agent brand is a powerful supplement to manufacturer's brand. Foreign engineering machinery agents basically follow the principle of "strengthening manufacturer's brand and weakening agent brand". Agents display brand names when facing users, and their brands are often concealed consciously.

However, there is a very important premise that manufacturers can fully meet the interests of agents, especially profit demand.

We often say that agents are "mercenary" and driven without interest. Agents can not cooperate with manufacturers, nor are they willing to be overwhelmed by their brands in the manufacturer's brand.

On the other hand, the domestic construction machinery industry is another scene. Those who are willing to highlight the manufacturer's brand are often small and medium-sized agents. Those who are willing to highlight their brands are often some big agents, showing a trend of polarization.

In fact, from the agent itself, if we can rely on a strong manufacturer brand, and fight not to fight their own brand is actually not matter.

The key question is whether the manufacturer's brand is strong enough to make the agent "commit himself to life".

Although China's construction machinery market is the fastest growing market in the world today, the total sales volume of the construction machinery market is still less than half that of the world famous engineering machinery brand Caterpillar Inc.

It is in such a market that there are more manufacturers than the total number of construction machinery manufacturers in the world. Taking wheel loaders as an example, the total number of more than 100 manufacturers in large and small enterprises is several times the total number of manufacturers of similar products all over the world.

Under this kind of industry background, agents want to be bigger and stronger quickly. The profits gained from the single brand can hardly sustain their development speed. Therefore, the development mode of agents with Chinese characteristics, such as "Construction Machinery Supermarket", "construction machinery market" and "construction machinery confluence", has become an inevitable phenomenon.

From the point of view of the development of construction machinery industry at home and abroad, the agency sales mode has been widely recognized, and most domestic manufacturers have implemented or are ready to implement the agent system.

In the future, manufacturers, agents and users will form the "iron triangle" for the survival and development of the construction machinery market.

In this case, it is necessary to distinguish between the brand name of the manufacturer and the brand of the agent simply, which is not a good thing for the development of China's construction machinery industry.

China's construction machinery industry must not only rely on the rapid development of manufacturers, but also rely on the rapid development of agents.

Therefore, the author thinks that the agent brand is a powerful supplement to the manufacturer's brand.

The agent brand can become the incubator of the manufacturer's brand. According to the usual thinking, the agent should be obedient to the manufacturer. Then, how can the agent brand become the incubator of the manufacturer's brand?

First, let's look at the purpose of cooperation between manufacturers and agents.

The reason why manufacturers need agents' cooperation is to enter new markets at lower cost and to gain profits in the new market.

That is to say, agents, as the "snake of the head" in the new market, have natural advantages in terms of "land, people and". This is the condition that manufacturers do not have.

Even if the manufacturer's brand is very well known, it does not mean that entering any new market can go straight in and get the trust of the local users at once.

In particular, Chinese users, influenced by thousands of years of traditional culture, have always believed that "hearing is false and seeing is believing."

And for the "survival by profit" business, brand awareness will not have any practical significance if it can not be converted into sales profits.

Therefore, a good agent brand is a good guarantee for a good manufacturer to enter the new market quickly.

Second, let's look at the actual impact of the manufacturer's brand.

People in the industry know very well that China's construction machinery market is an immature market, especially the low level of overall quality of users.

This brings about a problem. The user's recognition of the brand is not based on the brand's position in the industry, but the actual influence of the brand on them.

Even though Caterpillar, the world's most famous construction machinery brand, is not particularly clear or even heard of by many domestic users, its brand's actual influence may be very weak.

At this time, the agent brand can make full use of its incubator function, and promote the sales of the manufacturer's brand with the brand of the local user's trust.

Third, let's take a look at the status quo of manufacturers' brands.

Not every manufacturer brand is a well-known brand, not every manufacturer is a large enterprise. There are still more low profile brands and more small businesses in China's construction machinery industry.

If brands do not have a high reputation and enterprises do not have strong economic strength, can they not survive and develop?

Such manufacturers brand, if choose a highly well-known agent to cooperate, agents brand will become their "ship to sea" the best strategy.

According to the author's understanding of the construction machinery industry for many years, there are four ways to strengthen the brand of agents: to choose a good product, to design a good image, to provide a good service, and to have a good network.

1. choosing a good product and choosing a good product is the first requirement for strengthening the brand of an agent.

Because the establishment of agent brand must rely on the user's recognition of the brand, and this recognition is based on the user's recognition of the product.

Choosing a product that is most suitable for the needs of local users is often able to quickly narrow the distance between agents and users, so that agents can win the trust of users.

It is worth noting that user demand is a comprehensive concept, including product performance, quality, price, service and many other aspects.

Therefore, without good products, the brand of agents can not be established, let alone development.

2. to design a good image, it must be explained that the image is a system, not an enterprise sign (LOGO).

Why do we all think that the image of the world famous brand is not only comfortable but also professional?

The reason is that the image of others is carefully designed, and many of our brands are very casual.

Just like a woman, make-up and make-up are different in appearance.

The design of agents' brand image is not focused on marking (LOGO), but on the systematic application of labels. In particular, the application must reflect the characteristics of construction machinery industry.

3. provide a good service agent is an intermediary service provider, the agent brand is a service brand, and the establishment and development of the service brand must be implemented on the two words of "service".

Engineering machinery is a kind of product with strong dependence on service (especially after service). Without good service, it is unimaginable to establish a good agent brand.

The author thinks that the service of agents is divided into two levels. The low level service is strictly carrying out the service contents and standards promised by the manufacturer to the users. The high level service is based on the former, providing users with more user needed service contents and providing users with higher standard services.

Only by providing users with a higher level of service can the agent brand truly realize its establishment and development.

4. the value of establishing a good network agent brand is bidirectional. To the manufacturer, it is the distributor's distribution ability, which is the service ability of the agent to the users.

Whether it is for manufacturers or users, agents themselves without a management standard, a larger sales and service network, agent brand building is also of no practical significance.

It's like a frog in a well, even if your brand is strong again, after all, it has limited influence and little help to your career.

The above is only for the development of domestic construction machinery market.

What needs to be explained is that strengthening agent brand is not the only way for agents to develop in the future, but it is a feasible way which is more suitable for China's national conditions.