During the COVID-19 pandemic, two terms became popular in the marketing world: livestreaming and community groups. Starting from the fifth day of the Chinese New Year, 'remote work' became a buzzword, but it quickly gave way to 'livestreaming.' 'Remote work' is an internal measure, while 'livestreaming' is a marketing tool. Around the tenth day of the Chinese New Year, 'delivery to home' became popular, but it quickly gave way to 'community groups.' 'Delivery to home' is just a delivery method for a specific period, while 'community groups' are a way to connect with users and are effective for the long term. New marketing expert Mr. Fang Gang summarized: 'One who does not reach the community is not a hero; a comrade who does not livestream is not a good comrade.' In recent days, some supermarket shelves have been empty and cannot be restocked (vegetables may be an exception); some stores have not opened, and there is no place to sell goods even if they have stock. As a result, many brand owners have started 'community partner recruitment.' Tsingtao Brewery even laid out plans for one province in Shandong within a few days, and many brand owners are now following suit. However, doubts are also rising. As an emergency measure, it is a new channel after the traditional channel is blocked; as a marketing trend, it should be planned early and normalized. The pandemic period is a breakthrough for normalization. The reason Tsingtao Brewery was so fast is that it had already laid out plans. Early planning is because this is a marketing trend. Community groups are a marketing tool, and BC integration is the marketing trend. Community groups as a marketing tool extend the 2B (to business) of deep distribution to 2C (to consumer), which we call BC integration. I have been advocating BC integration since the first half of 2019, but not many people understood it, and even fewer enterprises implemented it. Li Hui, vice president of Jing Brand, said during a live connection with Yunjiu Live that although BC integration was considered important in the past, implementation was insufficient. After the pandemic, the marketing model should be optimized to accelerate BC integration. The following two parts are excerpts from my sharing on 'BC Integration is the Inevitable Path for Marketing' in the 'Fan Factory' community in May 2019. -01- Community is the direction of channels New marketing must reach the C-end. In what way? That is to achieve BC integration, so community is the inevitable path to the C-end. Traditional deep distribution is B-end marketing. It reaches a dead end at the B-end because traditional sales cannot reach the C-end. Mass media information can reach the C-end one-way, but cannot interact two-way. E-commerce can directly reach the C-end and have consumption online. It was fresh at first, but the cost of traffic rises too fast, and traffic drifts, which is very uncomfortable for brand owners. Doing new marketing must reach the C-end. There are three means to reach the C-end: First, technical means. Technical means are definitely centralized, and centralization means there is no interaction problem; Second, content means. Content means are not an independent means; they must reach the C-end through technical and community means; Third, community means. Because communities are distributed and can interact, community means are the most effective way to reach the C-end. Reaching the C-end through community means and ultimately achieving BC integration is an inevitable path. This path can be achieved by two means simultaneously: either from B-end to C-end, or from C-end to B-end, ultimately achieving BC integration. To achieve BC integration, we need to establish two organizations, or two organizations on the same chain: one is the channel organization, which is the B-end organization; the other is the community organization, which is the C-end organization. In traditional marketing, the B-end already exists. Through community group buying, a C-end community organization is established. We call this 'channel communitization' and 'community channelization.' This is the way from B-end to C-end. There is also a way from C-end directly to B-end, such as IP e-commerce. Traditional IP e-commerce is C-end sales and IP building. However, in 2015, IP monetization became very difficult. Later, we found that IP monetization has a standard configuration: IP + community, and then going offline. So C-end organizations also need to enter communities and go offline. New retail is BC integration from C to B. Alibaba itself is C-end sales. When it acquired some traditional KA (key accounts), it wanted to build BC integration, also from C-end to BC integration. Some may ask, since we already have the C-end, why do we need the B-end? Those who have worked with the C-end will find that the C-end is very unstable, while the B-end is a buffer, stabilizer, and amplifier. Using C to force B is a common tactic for brand owners. Even if there is a problem with the C-end, because of the buffering effect of the B-end, we can free up time to focus on the C-end. Of course, we also find that the C-end is more advantageous in interaction, but the B-end scenario also has advantages. The B-end scenario may provide a better experience than the C-end. Whether it is upgraded products or tiered products, the requirements for experience are higher. Of course, some new technical means have brought us online enterprises, but after the novelty wears off, offline experience is still better. Experience has now become the standard for high-end niche products. For example, many baijiu companies are learning from Lidui's immersive experience. This immersive experience is difficult to achieve online. Offline scenarios and B-end scenarios are very useful for experience. The higher the product, the less influence information-based cognition has, and the higher the requirement for cognition through deep experience. Therefore, for upgraded products and products that are both upgraded and tiered, the experience of B-end offline scenarios is better than that of the C-end. Another reason for needing the B-end even with the C-end is that in China's marketing system, relationships are a unique element. China's channel chain is actually a relationship chain. Because of relationships, the threshold for cognition is lowered, and because of trust, transaction costs become very low. For example, I recently served an agricultural materials company. Agricultural materials are first sold by face, then by effect, and third by policy. Face is the strong relationship formed offline. We have always emphasized that the best cognitive combination is strong offline relationships, strong community interaction, and strong mini-program fission. Offline relationships are usually B-end relationships. BC integration has both strong relationships and strong interaction and strong fission. For the B-end, the B-end itself is a transaction chain that can make products ubiquitous and easy to transact, especially for upgraded products. Second, it is cognition based on relationship connections and trust from strong offline relationships, so it has the role of buffer and stabilizer. For the C-end, especially communities, community groups are relationship-based social interactions, while vertical communities are value-based social interactions. The first benefit is that it has social functions; second, its information can reach the C-end directly without barriers; third, it has strong interaction, and the biggest advantage of communities is strong interaction. Fourth, C-end communities can also enter offline relationships, especially IP e-commerce. Now, the emphasis on offline is even higher than that of traditional marketers. But the difference is that it has the same values, so its stickiness is stronger. In the past, offline relationships for mass products were transaction relationships based on geographic concentration, which are different from offline relationships based on shared values for niche products. -02- BC integration is the inevitable path for marketing Whether it is traditional marketing or the marketing system formed by e-commerce, IP e-commerce, or social e-commerce, they all lead to the same destination. The B-end and C-end together form a channel system. This channel system is different from the distribution channels we talked about in the past, because the C-end reaches consumers, and because the B-end has buffering, amplification, and stability. The new marketing system must be a combination of B-end and C-end. Whether it is new marketing or new retail, it is the same; whether it is traditional marketing or IP e-commerce, social e-commerce, or pure e-commerce, it is also the same. It is called 'different paths to the same destination' and is also an inevitable path. We need to establish two organizational systems simultaneously: one is the B-end channel organization, and the other is the C-end community organization, which can also be called 'channel communitization' and 'community channelization.' We should treat communities as we did with organizational building in the past. This does not mean we need to independently establish a community organization, but rather that if it is a traditional enterprise, we need to empower the sales team to build community organizations; if it is a new enterprise, such as social e-commerce or IP e-commerce, we also need to have the ability to build channel organizations. This is BC integration. -03- Can emergency measures be normalized after the pandemic? In recent days, many brand owners have been recruiting community partners. As an emergency measure for a special period, can it continue after the pandemic? There is much controversy. As an emergency measure, as long as it is effective, there is nothing to criticize. However, if we consider that BC integration is also a marketing trend, and if emergency measures can break through during the pandemic and continue after, it would be even better. So, what kind of community can be normalized after the pandemic? I believe it is a community that activates public domain traffic, not a community that recruits private domain traffic. Most people's understanding of communities is greatly influenced by we-business (social e-commerce, private domain traffic). This type of community is called a vertical community, suitable for niche, high-stickiness, high-value products. Up to now, vertical communities (private domain traffic) are not large in scale, single-product scale is even smaller, and even fewer are operated by brand owners. For mass products, brand owners need to achieve billions or even tens of billions in sales. BC integration must be community groups. Convenience stores are typical community stores, with a small business radius. Community groups are an extension of community stores. Community stores already have strong offline relationships with community users, and communities are just a way to strengthen the connection. Should community groups be self-built or use the existing 2B channel to extend to 2C? Self-building is private domain traffic, while activating is public domain traffic. For mass products, community groups in most categories cannot survive within the community radius because they require extremely high user density and average order value. Some may say, isn't craft beer sold through communities? Isn't Lidui baijiu using communities to drive traffic to cloud stores? But they are not community groups; they are vertical communities! Most mass products must be 2B+2C, must use the public domain traffic of existing channels, and must use 2C as a means to connect with users, not as a transaction scenario. It can be said that vertical communities are private domain traffic, and community groups are public domain traffic. Only public domain traffic can be made larger. China's largest traffic is public domain traffic (traditional channels, traditional terminals), followed by commercial domain channels (platform e-commerce, livestreaming platforms), and then private domain traffic. Community groups as public domain traffic naturally connect offline and community spaces, and do not rely on communities as transaction scenarios, nor do they rely on delivery to home as a delivery method. For community stores, community groups strengthen offline relationships through communities; for brand owners, community groups are a means to extend 2B to 2C. -04- BC integration: What do brand owners do? For mass brands, brand owners do not self-build communities, nor do they recruit partners, but rather activate community groups through community operation capabilities. Community groups have long existed naturally, but public domain traffic always needs activation. The so-called activation means that terminals with communities lack community operation capabilities. Whoever activates the community gains the ability to drive traffic. This principle is the same as traditional channels: there is no need to self-build channels, but rather to select, manage, and utilize them, collectively called channel management capabilities. This is the basic skill of deep distribution. BC integration requires another basic skill: the basic skill of community operation. Zhao Yu from the China Alcohol Forum believes that only a few people can play community groups well; many cannot. Organizers must have high emotional intelligence, good intelligence, not too strong utilitarian motives, must have altruism, and must understand that business is beyond business. It is precisely because the creators of community groups themselves lack community operation capabilities that brand owners have an opportunity to achieve the transition from 2B to 2C through community operation. Source: Teacher Liu's New Marketing (liuchunxiong1964)