---
title: "Deep Dive: Nine Trends in FMCG Digital Marketing for 2019"
description: "As 2019 draws to a close, New Distribution reflects on the past, present, and future to identify key trends in FMCG marketing. Based on two years of industry interviews and frontline research, partner Ren Xiaodong outlines nine trends, from digital transformation and live-streaming e-commerce to B2B platform consolidation and the rise of charismatic new products."
author: "任小东"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2019-10-06"
categories: "Brand Marketing, Industry Trends"
language: "en"
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citation: "任小东. “Deep Dive: Nine Trends in FMCG Digital Marketing for 2019.” New Distribution, 2019-10-06. https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/deep-dive-nine-trends-in-fmcg-digital-marketing-for-2019-83b8bc82/"
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---

# Deep Dive: Nine Trends in FMCG Digital Marketing for 2019

> As 2019 draws to a close, New Distribution reflects on the past, present, and future to identify key trends in FMCG marketing. Based on two years of industry interviews and frontline research, partner Ren Xiaodong outlines nine trends, from digital transformation and live-streaming e-commerce to B2B platform consolidation and the rise of charismatic new products.

Preface:
In the golden autumn of October, more than half of 2019 has passed. New Distribution hopes to summarize the past, stand in the present, and look to the future to observe the trends in FMCG marketing; what dividends remain to be embraced, what pitfalls to avoid, and what issues need urgent attention; whose voices of business leaders we need to listen to, and which forward-looking market moves of brands we need to reference.
The following content is an interpretation of FMCG marketing trends by Mr. Ren Xiaodong, partner of New Distribution, based on more than two years of industry interviews, frontline research, and consulting. The text combines Mr. Ren's speeches at the "2019 China FMCG Conference" (Douyin session) and the 8th Hunan Internet Conference, organized by New Distribution, and has been edited and condensed.
In the past, New Distribution has focused on digital transformation and marketing model innovation in the FMCG industry. From germination, growth, explosion, trough, hurdle-crossing, soaring, and head formation, we have seen many companies keenly observe trends, predict them, and seize opportunities. According to the father of marketing, Kotler, from a global perspective, the market undergoes a transformation every five years, with new marketing elements joining or playing new roles. In the Chinese market, the change is even more pronounced, with a full cycle completing roughly every three years.
Mr. Lin Sheng of the internet-famous brand Zhong Xue Gao said that when he studied the development of Japanese companies, he found that from discovering market dividends to their disappearance, the cycle was 5 years in the 1970s, 4 years in the 1980s, 3 years in the 1990s, 2 years in 2010, and now only about 8 months to 1.5 years. Indeed, **the dividend period is only 8 months to 1.5 years, and this rule applies not only to the popularity of new products but also to new traffic IPs and business models.** Since the industry proposed the "second half of the internet," we have deeply felt a series of changes brought by mobile internet, such as B2B, cloud warehousing, social e-commerce, membership-based e-commerce, Douyin merchants, IP, community marketing, growth hacking, unified warehousing and distribution, influencer live streaming, short videos, and so on.
To see trends clearly, one must first understand the new business system. In the theoretical world, representative books such as "Connection" by Renmin University professor Shi Wei, "The Essence of Marketing" by Professor Bao Zheng, "New Marketing" by Zhengzhou University Professor Liu Chunxiong, and "Deep Distribution" by crowdfunding queen Ding Ding have clearly explained the theoretical foundation of the new era. Based on your own business practice, you can use theory to form consistency in epistemology, methodology, and methods across conceptual systems, operational systems, and analytical logic, thereby finding a handle for your business practice.
**Trend 1: Advanced Digital Harvesting**
A company's understanding of digitalization determines the degree to which it harvests digital dividends. **Initially, companies understood digitalization as communication, using new communication tools and new social marketing methods**—for example, the so-called "Two Micro and One Douyin" (WeChat, Weibo, Douyin). Two years ago, Baijiaolan's H5 "Time Killer" was claimed to have 8 million views online, with a conversion rate of 0.03%, sparking industry-wide discussion about digital communication. That was the first stage. **The second stage was understanding digitalization as cooperation with digital channels.** B2B, B2C, M2C, C2M—many channel cooperations were tried, but an awkward fact emerged: products did not fit the channel attributes, leading to the conclusion that new channels are useless. **The third stage, based on previous understanding, was to treat digitalization as a department.** Companies began to establish teams, allocate headcount, recruit technical teams, and assign vice president-level oversight. For example, P&G's transformation in recent years, from banning Taobao to fully embracing B2C, configuring various resources for empowerment and support, allowing iterative growth, and establishing functional teams. **The fourth stage is understanding digitalization as a company-wide digital strategy, with CMO transitioning to CGO, and establishing a big data middle platform, smart marketing middle platform, and business middle platform.** The Chief Marketing Officer becomes the Chief Growth Officer, coordinating the company's production capacity and supply chain with the demand chain for matching, timeliness, and synergy.
**Trend 2: Live-Streaming Influencer Selling Harvest**
Let me share a few industry cases to give you a feel. Bear-shaped明治 (Meiji) biscuits, through one year of Douyin operations, spent less than one million yuan and leveraged 100 million yuan in sales. The Douyin challenge #ShakeBearBiscuitsIntoBalls# achieved over 200 million exposures. In fact, Bear biscuits entered China 10 years ago, and their explosion 10 years later is unexpectedly due to Douyin.
In the very traditional category of grain and oil, Arawana (Golden Fish) obtained 550 million plays with "Shake Out Your Pig Year Gift," with over 1.3 billion views, 180,000 participants, and over 24 million likes.
Also, Douyin entrepreneurship: Yeshi Xiaoge (Hangzhou Juli Culture Wang Minmin) sold 10,000 bottles of beef sauce. With 60,000 celebrity influencers, during the Double 12 period, participants exceeded one million.
What do these data and cases tell us? New social traffic has shifted from WeChat to short-video platforms.
Regarding the difference between Douyin and Kuaishou, I think Douyin follows the logic of a theater, while Kuaishou follows the logic of a square. What does that mean? Douyin is a place to showcase various lifestyles and "drama queens," where brands become props for internet celebrities to play with, allowing "flirting."
In contrast, Kuaishou shows various talents displaying real life and real skills; it's a platform for craftsmen. Currently, the industry is all about Douyin, and Kuaishou's value has yet to be tapped.
**Trend 3: B2B Platform Head Concentration**
**FMCG B2B e-commerce platforms are accelerating consolidation.** The three national platforms are JD New Channel, Alibaba Retail Link, and Yijiupi. In August, Yijiupi received another investment increase from Tencent, with an additional investment of nearly $80 million. Yijiupi's model is hailed by many investors as the most in line with the logic of industrial internet.
Regional B2B platforms, such as Changsha's New Gaoqiao, Xingsheng's Abida, Xi'an's Meitian, Dongguan's Meiyijia, and Shanghai's Kuaile Laizhang, are also not to be ignored in regional markets.
Additionally, the rise of B2B platforms has made brand owners see the necessity of channel digitalization. In the past year or two, leading FMCG giants such as Coca-Cola, Master Kong, and Yili have built their own B2B platforms.
In New Distribution's view, **channel digitalization is a slow and long-term process. Unlike 2C consumer internet, 2B is industrial internet, and endurance is the basic strategy.**
When we discuss FMCG B2B, we are essentially considering the process of channel digitalization. Channel digitalization is not something a 10-person department can figure out. If it is not elevated from tactical to strategic thinking, channel digitalization will never be completed.
**Trend 4: Community Group Buying Platforms Head to Concentration**
Community group buying platforms have already formed a head. Xingsheng is uniquely favored and far ahead. Shihuituan, from seventh place in the industry, successfully rose to second place through acquisitions and mergers. What about the rest? Either continue to be merged or form alliances.
Why alliances? My judgment is that the industry landscape is far from the endgame; we are only at halftime. Currently, four forces affect the industry: native platforms, retail enterprises, AJ (Alibaba and JD), and brand owners. Except for the first, which is obvious, the others are all stirring.
It is understood that community group buying currently leverages about 100 billion yuan in retail, while the total is 40 trillion yuan. This new productivity model has already changed the stock and increment of many brand enterprises, and it deserves attention and research.
**Trend 5: Social Traffic Harvest**
Social e-commerce traffic is essentially the construction of a company's "people network" traffic.
Ordinary consumers are C-end, group leaders are KOCs, industry opinion leaders and talents are KOLs, and key channels are KOTs. Only through internal and external community marketing actions, launching community marketing campaigns, and ecological cooperation and empowerment with large KOL communities can a brand's social e-commerce system be established.
This involves a series of private domain traffic operation skills, IP matrix building, fission system design, e-commerce tool usage, and an operational system for team building with "people" as the network, which requires significant effort.
Community marketing that does not achieve fan channelization and channel fanization is just so-called "WeChat group" operations—bubbles. The BC integration here is no longer narrow but global, full-link, and full-touchpoint.
I summarize the personal network construction of social e-commerce into five channels:
* **1. Weak-tie social e-commerce:** Yunji, Beidian, Pinduoduo
* **2. Semi-acquaintance community e-commerce:** Community group buying companies like Xingsheng Youxuan, Tongcheng Life, Shihuituan, etc.
* **3. Weak-tie community e-commerce:** Kuaituan, etc.
* **4. Weak-tie content e-commerce:** Guide-type e-commerce like Xiaohongshu, official account e-commerce
* **5. Live-streaming e-commerce:** Douyin, Kuaishou, Taobao Live, industry vertical live streaming
**Trend 6: IP Traffic Harvest: Mature IPs/Big IPs Are Better**
Regarding IP, you should all have deep feelings. The brand logic has changed; IP has become the best carrier of brand traffic. **A brand is not necessarily an IP, but an IP is definitely a brand**—this is a golden quote from Professor Liu Chunxiong.
After studying many IP commercialization cases, I personally agree with the saying: The IP you kneel to is the big IP.
In the past, when we built brands, we went from function to emotion to values—these are three methods of brand building, presented in the form of a loudspeaker. Later, we had social marketing tools and viral communication methods, which was the second evolution of building brand momentum. Now, what is brand momentum 3.0? It is IP. **Behind IP are culture, circles, beliefs, values, aesthetic styles, personas, content, and a fusion of trends and fashions.**
These things attract our attention, trigger our emotions, and make us resonate and love them. So we release ourselves through the addictive behavior of "buy, buy, buy." That is the power of IP.
Without IP operations, Single Grain's potato chips would not outsell Lay's in many supermarkets.
Without IP empowerment, Peppa Pig would not have grown from tens of millions to hundreds of millions, thereby leveraging a 23 billion yuan market.
Without IP thinking, there would be no Zhongjie 1948, no Zhong Xue Gao, and no 22-yuan ice cream.
From this, we have distilled three methods for FMCG to leverage IP momentum:
* **1. Buy mature IPs:** For example, Octonauts, Marvel series IPs, etc., suitable for companies with money.
* **2. Mine traditional IPs and redefine them:** For example, Zhongjie 1948, Guobao Lidou, Huogongdian, Huangqiao, the Forbidden City, etc., suitable for new national brands.
* **3. Insight into circles and build circle IPs:** For example, new subcultural phenomena like single, homebody, novice, danmaku, etc., suitable for new startups.
**Trend 7: Distributors Innovate Business Models**
Regarding distributor innovation in business models, New Distribution has summarized four modules and 18 transformation models. In summary, distributors in the new era and new environment must rethink their roles and functions in the circulation value chain, use new technologies, new ideas, and new methods to reduce costs and increase efficiency, further consolidate their market network foundation, and keep pace with the times.
The digitalization of China's FMCG enterprises requires all roles in the supply chain to digitalize simultaneously—brand owners, distributors, retailers, and consumers all need to migrate to the digital planet.
In the industry, new retail has been discussed a lot, while new marketing has only become hot in the past year or so. I believe that without new marketing, new retail cannot emerge or be complete, and cannot form a closed loop.
New marketing is a requirement for brand owners, new distribution is a requirement for distributors, and new retail is a requirement for retailers. Only when these three achieve efficient connection and collaboration between the demand chain and supply chain can consumer demand be satisfied.
For distributors, what is the greatest significance of transformation? It is to gain the right to speak! Without the right to speak, there is no pricing power or operational rights. If you lag behind, you get beaten; if you don't keep up, you get eliminated. To borrow a line from the recent hit movie "Ne Zha: Birth of the Demon Child," I want to give to distributor friends: My fate is determined by me, not by heaven!
**Trend 8: Is Third-Party City Distribution a Distributor's Dish?**
Answer: No! We see that more than 90% of distributors who transform into third-party city distribution fail. The core reason is that **distributors' habitual thinking paths, business paths, professional paths, and organizational paths do not match.** Of course, there are successful transformations, such as OPPO's distributors and Weijie's cooperative customers. Their success is based on having professional operational capabilities and a model of overlapping business scenarios, but I won't go into detail.
For distributors who want to transform into unified warehousing and distribution, I suggest not touching it. The future trend is increasingly refined social division of labor, more third-party, professional, and integrated.
Distributors don't have to do everything themselves. Outsource non-core business (logistics, warehousing, distribution) and focus on network construction and marketing promotion—the things that manufacturers value most and that are most valuable.
From the manufacturer's perspective, promoting a "one-pallet plan" for distributors and retailers is the key to improving fulfillment capability. Think about it: what should the distributor's position, function, and role be here?
**Trend 9: Charismatic New Products = Circle Products = Explosive Products**
The last trend returns to products. In the previous eight trends, we discussed the top-level design of digital transformation, the latest sources of traffic, traffic conversion channels, social e-commerce, B2B e-commerce, distributors, etc. Finally, we land on products, which are the foundation of everything.
From Yuanqi Forest (beverages), Zhong Xue Gao (ice cream), Lechun (yogurt), to Xiaomi series (small appliances/phones), Wang Baobao (cereal), Aige Chibaole (snacks), AKOKO (cookies), Qiaqia (nuts), and other emerging brands, their rise is due to connecting the relationship between voice, traffic, and sales, forming new brand momentum, and then harvesting channels, achieving growth from a few million to 100-200 million in a year.
From this, we summarize the characteristics of charismatic new products:
* **1. Innovative packaging and materials**
* **2. Product design with aesthetic appeal**
* **3. Good physical material quality**
* **4. Copywriting that touches the heart**
* **5. Production and sales integration for cost-effectiveness**
* **6. Shelf thinking with a "photo-worthy" feel**
* **7. New production techniques**
* **8. Charismatic labels and origin**
* **9. Healthy, addictive, social currency, and emotional**
**Charismatic products must solve a consumer's pain point, itch point, or pleasure point.** At the same time, charismatic products are also circle products and explosive products.
Finally, regarding the above nine trends, if you are interested in further discussion, you are welcome to add the author's WeChat for exchange.


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## Citation metadata

- Publisher: New Distribution
- Author: 任小东
- Published: 2019-10-06
- Canonical: https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/deep-dive-nine-trends-in-fmcg-digital-marketing-for-2019-83b8bc82/
- Original source: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/Ow2g9TJVWMHDXd-TjfhuaA

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