Do FMCG Companies Need Internet Thinking?

Since 2015, a wave called 'Internet thinking' has emerged, suggesting that if your company doesn't talk about 'Internet+', you'll be left behind. But does the FMCG industry really need this so-called Internet thinking?

The hottest term in 2015 was undoubtedly 'Internet thinking'. Any company's downturn was attributed to not adopting Internet thinking or true 'Internet+'. Under this trend, many rushed to follow. Bosses would assess their company's slump as: 'Our Internet adoption is too low; we need to vigorously develop Internet+.'

A bunch of consultants came out, waving the banner of the Internet, denying traditional marketing. Even a so-called expert named Jin Cuodao jumped out and shouted: 'Positioning is outdated; we need to create explosive products.'

Internet Thinking Is Toxic

After all these years of shouting about Internet thinking, it boils down to 'free' and 'sharing'. First, use a free lunch to extract customer information, cultivate customer habits, then monetize through traffic and later price increases. Under this free lunch narrative, we've seen one Internet company after another burn through cash and then crash. The only benefit was spawning numerous click-farm companies. The 'sharing' concept, apart from satisfying capital's fantasies, made no real progress.

As for the explosive product theory represented by Jin Cuodao, it's worth discussing. Jin's supporting example is Xiaomi. If you applied positioning theory to Xiaomi, it would be a single-function phone. But under the explosive product theory, Xiaomi leveraged its fans and became China's best-selling phone.

OPPO and VIVO glanced coldly and said: 'Stop bragging. We don't have Internet thinking. One positions as a camera phone, the other as a music phone, and we still rank ahead of Huawei and Xiaomi.'

In 2015, the best spokesperson for Jin Cuodao was Diao Ye's Braised Beef Noodles. Talking about Diao Ye (Meng Xing), he's a magical figure who became famous spreading successology on Tianya. His viral post was 'How to Earn Your First Pot of Gold in Today's Sick Society?', which was mostly successology and ended with promoting a chain beauty salon called Nalan. In short, he told stories to promote his own salon. Storytelling was Diao Ye's biggest trait. He even coined terms like 'Dai Fei Liu Shi', 'Xin Di Rui La', 'Bei Lan Fei Er' for his salon—words no one understood. Later, Nalan Beauty crashed. Meng Xing then launched 'A Fu Essential Oil', claiming it came from Greece, with slogans like 'Essential oil is A Fu' and 'A Fu is essential oil'. With his storytelling skills and Taobao click-farming, A Fu ranked first in beauty sales in 2013 and 2014, but by 2016 it didn't even make the top ten.

Diao Ye's achievements provided a case for the word-smith Jin Cuodao, satisfying his Internet thinking narrative. Later, Diao Ye launched a beef brisket noodle in Beijing. Overnight, countless online puff pieces appeared, everyone shouting 'Learn from Diao Ye, do Internet business well', completely ignoring the poor taste and worse management of Diao Ye's noodles. Under Diao Ye's Internet thinking and Jin Cuodao's pen, shops decorated with Internet slang and emojis sprang up like mushrooms. Xi Shaoye Roujiamo, Huang Taiji Jianbing—each had a more exciting story, worse taste, and worse service.

Then came shareholder conflicts and management chaos. Once the novelty wore off, consumers returned to rationality. So you no longer see Diao Ye's noodles or Huang Taiji Jianbing. Xi Shaoye recently claimed to have resolved shareholder issues and aims for an IPO, hoping to scam more capital.

In short, the Internet thinking trend is like a wave waiting for fools. When it comes, we grab a profit, then wait for the next wave.

'There are fools, then there is Internet thinking. Thinking is common, but fools are rare. Thus, thinking doesn't deceive for long; it dies from capital, perishing among PPTs.'

Internet Thinking in FMCG

Time is the test of truth. No matter how big the boast, the truth will out. These so-called Internet thinking ideas have rarely stood the test. Of course, Tencent is still alive and can support Jin Cuodao's explosive product theory, but Huawei and Xiaomi have stopped listening to Internet thinking and started learning from VIVO and OPPO by opening offline stores.

Positioning theory is nearly a century old, and FMCG has a century of history. They survived without the Internet, and they survive with it. That's called heritage. No matter how good the gimmick, if it doesn't solve the FMCG experience, it's nonsense. Consumers still need to experience products at the point of sale; the Internet is just one purchasing channel.

Why Internet Thinking Became Popular

Internet thinking is like superstition. In the economic downturn of recent years, all industries have declined, but one or two new points emerge that seem like a beacon. So, in doubt, you try a brainwashing session. The master speaker gets your excitement with a few words, and you feel you've found a kindred spirit—'How right the master is!'

But tell me, Chen Anzhi, who was a failure before teaching successology, tells you what success is, and you believe him. For example, Li Jiaoshou became famous for 'The Difference Between a 3,000-Yuan Copy and a 30,000-Yuan Copy'. How many people read his WeChat public account for two years? Whose copy improved? Whose product monetized faster? Maybe his net worth grew faster than the changes he brought to your company.

Indeed, a twenty-something with no industry experience, relying on theoretical knowledge on Zhihu and a public account, can make people with decades of experience feel they've wasted their lives. That's his ability. We can doubt the application of his theories, but we can't doubt his ability to make money.

After the superstition, FMCG folks should think: which of your product's problems did these so-called thinking solve? If consumers find your product problematic, are you going to pull them aside and tell a 30-minute story?

FMCG Still Needs to Solve Experience

I took on a hawthorn drink project. If I wrote articles like 'How to Build a 10-Billion Hawthorn Drink', 'Seven Steps to Create an Explosive Hawthorn Drink', 'Kangshifu and Pepsi Will Launch Hawthorn Drinks Next Year—What's Going On?', many distributors would surely read them. Writing such pieces is easy for me—I can even write a 100,000-word adult novel. Then I'd find like-minded people to praise each other, gaining influence without much effort.

If you like that type of article, I suggest you close this public account and watch the 'News Broadcast' or those FMCG public accounts known for advertising.

It's not that I can't write or don't want to please. I've taken ad money; I could brag a bit, fool the advertisers and readers. But as someone with over a decade of FMCG experience, I can't do such things.

When I recommend a product, I recommend it genuinely. I owe it to my readers. Those who read my articles trust this platform. So I must use my experience to share knowledge and correct misconceptions.

No Internet Thinking

This product doesn't boast lofty concepts or fool you with 'embrace the Internet'. It's a new product from a traditional FMCG veteran—Xiao Shi Le. Its marketing focuses on end-consumer experience, a pain point the Internet can't solve. Our thinking is still Trout's positioning theory and the classic 4Ps of FMCG, returning to marketing's most basic essence.

We Are a Small Company

Yes, our company is small; you may not have heard of us. We're from Jiaozuo. Some say hawthorn drinks are a fad that blows over quickly. Indeed, in this information-overloaded era, there's a new knowledge point and a new internet celebrity every day. Even if you look down on this fad, we'll persist. We might rely on Kangshifu's hawthorn juice or Pepsi's hawthorn-flavored cola, using their shade to carve out our own market.

But we'll stick to terminal interaction. We won't just give distributors a low price; we'll do every FMCG move properly. We'll do Spring Festival gifting and restaurant immediate consumption. We aim to be the next JDB or Six Walnuts. We're serious about beverages.

Our Product

Our product is mainly hawthorn and tangerine peel, retailing at 5 yuan. The taste: if your tongue is extremely sensitive, you might detect a slight bitterness at the end—that's the tangerine peel. Overall, it's better than current hawthorn drinks on the market. The hawthorn flavor isn't strong because it's a beverage; we want consumers to finish a bottle and still want another. If it's too thick or strong, it's not refreshing and hurts repeat consumption.

We pursue 'original ecology' in quality, preserving hawthorn's natural taste and aroma, minimizing artificial flavors. To ensure quality, we use new processes that better retain vitamins, reducing heating steps. Currently, we use whole-fruit cold-pressing.

By the way, the hawthorn is from the Taihang Mountains. We buy fresh fruit at harvest, store it in constant-temperature warehouses, cold-press before production, and directly mix ingredients. This is definitely different from the flashy hawthorn paste processes on the market. Naturally, no artificial colors are added.

Although this product is newly launched, it has been praised by several marketing gurus (I won't name them to avoid seeming like I'm pulling in endorsements; let consumers experience it themselves). From market trial feedback, both restaurant immediate-consumption channels and tobacco/alcohol gift channels show quick turnover. In less than a month, 80% of markets have reordered, and some markets have reordered three times.

Our Positioning

'Little fullness, little bloating—drink Xiao Shi Le.' That's our slogan. Our positioning is to help consumers with digestion, and our terminal experience focuses on that. Currently, the market's perception of hawthorn drinks is mainly 'appetite stimulation', with Fujian's 'Kai Wei' as a representative product achieving 1 billion in sales. But the difference between appetite stimulation and digestion is that one treats the symptom and the other the root. Appetite stimulation means when you can't eat anymore, it stimulates your taste buds to make you want to eat more, but whether your body can handle it isn't considered.

That clearly undersells hawthorn's benefits. Hawthorn and tangerine peel help solve digestive issues. Our product isn't just hawthorn juice; it offers consumers a solution to life's problems. Today's consumers care about health and wellness, but some social obligations are unavoidable, and weather affects digestion. Sleeping positions, stress, and especially aging all impact digestive health. Our product helps solve digestion problems.

Chinese people believe in the unity of medicine and food. Hawthorn aids digestion, tangerine peel promotes qi flow. Drinking a bottle of beverage is better than taking a pill.

That's our pure and unpretentious new-generation hawthorn drink—Xiao Shi Le. Our slogan: 'Little fullness, little bloating—Xiao Shi Le.'

Finally, how is this product? Distributors need to experience it themselves. I've laid out the company's and product's pros and cons openly. This is an ad, but it's also my honest opinion. I know you might prefer an article like 'I Use 3,000-Year-Old Spring Water, Crossing 2,000 Miles of Mountains, Just for This Affordable Drink', but I won't. Honest people don't play tricks.

As FMCG professionals and distributors, let's do the market for real, promote products for real, solve product experience for real, and solve consumers' life problems for real.

I think this company's approach to promoting its product shows confidence, courage, and honesty. Or maybe they've taken the wrong medicine and I've fooled them.

But if you choose this product, you'll be like this copy—different from the rest.

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