Is selling ballpoint pens a good business?
I guess you probably don’t think so.
But some people started by selling ballpoint pens and made 50 billion in just a few decades.
This sounds like a fantasy.
However, this is the real real world.
Always challenge our imagination more than the fairy tale world.
Most of you have heard of or seen Chenguang Stationery .
As of the end of 2020, Chenguang Stationery has covered 1,200 cities, with more than 80,000 retail outlets using the “Menguang Stationery” sign.
Especially in the business district near the school, the coverage rate of Chenguang Stationery reaches 80%.
The stationery industry is not sexy to investors.
Because the gross profit margin is low and the growth rate is slow.
But Chenguang Stationery is the most successful company in the stationery industry.
Since 2020, the company’s share price has almost doubled, and its market value has exceeded 80 billion yuan.
The founder, Chen Huxiong, the three siblings, has also become the richest man in the stationery industry with a net worth of more than 50 billion .
Fan Deng’s 2019 new book Low Entrepreneurship
to buy
Chen Huxiong entered the society at the age of 17.
At first he worked as an operator in a toy factory with a monthly salary of 50 yuan.
Two years later he left the toy factory and started a sales pitch.
Because it is in Shantou, one of the earliest open special zones.
Chen Huxiong sold many imported goods that were unavailable in inland areas at the time.
In the process of promoting imported stationery, Chen Huxiong established business contacts with Xinhua Bookstore.
While he wholesales imported stationery to Xinhua Bookstore across the country.
While cooperating with Japanese and Korean stationery companies.
Through wholesale stationery, Chen Huxiong’s business is getting bigger and bigger.
In 1997, affected by the financial crisis, the Japanese and Korean stationery companies that Chen Huxiong cooperated with went bankrupt one after another.
The agency business could not go on, Chen Huxiong decided to make his own brand, and “Menguang” was born.
I have to say that Chen Huxiong entered the stationery industry due to the right time, place and luck.
But when Chenguang was first established, there were already many giants in the stationery industry.
Chenguang Stationery can surpass these giants and sit firmly on the top spot in the stationery industry, relying on strength.
Chen Huxiong came from a sales background in the market, so Chenguang’s marketing and operations are particularly good.
Chenguang’s marketing model is a pyramid model of “layers of investment and layers of sharing”.
The company cultivates only one distributor in the regional market, and this distributor is responsible for the market development in the region, and the income is also owned by the distributor.
This can leverage the power of distributors to quickly lay out the network.
Chenguang will formulate a series of KPIs such as turnover for first-tier distributors.
In order to “rush performance”, these distributors will continue to distribute goods and stores in their own areas.
Chenguang also took a fancy to the existing stationery store channels in the market.
Chenguang authorizes these stationery stores to use their own brands for free.
Not only that, Chenguang even helped the stationery store decorate for free.
These stationery stores do not need to pay a penny, they only need to sell a certain percentage of Chenguang products according to the agreement.
You don’t need to invest, and you can add some extra income.
It is not a small temptation for existing stationery stores.
If you are the owner of a stationery store, you will definitely be tempted and willing to cooperate.
Such a marketing model saves Chenguang’s spending on channel construction.
Relying on this style of play, there are more than 80,000 retail outlets using the “Menguang Stationery” sign in 1,200 cities across the country.
With strong terminal network resources, Chenguang’s success will come naturally.
After solving the channel problem, the new products of Chenguang Stationery are very fast.
And the packaging design of many products is very beautiful.
It will also cooperate with various brands to launch limited joint stationery, which will push the price of the company’s products higher and higher.
For example, Miffy Rabbit series refills, Confucian temple prayer products and so on.
As a result, the gross profit margin of stationery has been continuously improved, from 32% to 41%.
The success of Chenguang Stationery really impresses people.
In a traditional industry with slow growth, low customer unit price and low gross profit margin.
If you find the right method, are willing to dig deep, and keep working hard, you can also achieve extraordinary success.
In this era when every entrepreneur wants to follow the trend, it is especially worth thinking and learning.
Just as the founder Chen Huxiong said, don’t over-chasing outlets, and world-class companies can be born in every industry.
This article was originally created by the WeChat public account Fu Diary , if reproduced, please indicate!
