---
title: "Does the Old Playbook of FMCG Still Have a Future?"
description: "Marketers, planners, and SME owners—the backbone of traditional enterprises—are mostly in a state of confusion and anxiety. This article explores whether the old, low-level operational tactics in the FMCG industry still have a future amid new consumption environments, and how traditional players can adapt."
author: "冯云飞"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2019-04-27"
language: "en"
canonical: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/does-the-old-playbook-of-fmcg-still-have-a-future-02735960/"
markdown: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/does-the-old-playbook-of-fmcg-still-have-a-future-02735960.md"
original_source: "https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/_0-KYFn1nzBCuJ3YRVMm4w"
translation: "https://xinjignxiao.com/zh/articles/%E5%BF%AB%E6%B6%88%E5%93%81%E7%9A%84-%E8%80%81%E6%89%93%E6%B3%95-%E5%88%B0%E5%BA%95%E8%BF%98%E6%9C%89%E6%B2%A1%E6%9C%89%E6%9C%AA%E6%9D%A5-02735960.md"
attribution: "New Distribution — https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/does-the-old-playbook-of-fmcg-still-have-a-future-02735960/"
usage_policy: "https://xinjignxiao.com/ai-policy.txt"
---

# Does the Old Playbook of FMCG Still Have a Future?

> Marketers, planners, and SME owners—the backbone of traditional enterprises—are mostly in a state of confusion and anxiety. This article explores whether the old, low-level operational tactics in the FMCG industry still have a future amid new consumption environments, and how traditional players can adapt.

**Marketers, planners, and SME owners—the backbone of traditional enterprises—are mostly in a state of confusion and anxiety.**
**Introduction: Does the old, low-level operational side of the FMCG industry have a future?**
The question of "confusion during the blending of new and old FMCG tactics in a new consumption environment" first came to my mind through a senior marketing consultant in China. With extensive frontline experience in marketing management and channel development, he is often invited by FMCG platforms to train participants, mostly SME owners and distributors. After several sessions, he felt "bored." Why?
On-site, he found that most SME owners still focus on low-level operational topics such as "how to recruit distributors, how to distribute and drive sell-through, how to manage salespeople, and how to manage distributors." In an already oversupplied mature market like FMCG, do SME owners and their products/brands that remain stuck at the bottom-level operational stage really have a future?
Under the impact of "new markets, new models, new technologies, and new methods," where is the future for marketing directors, regional managers, and sales representatives who rely on traditional tactics and channels?
**Taking "channel operations" as an example, traditional tactics are indeed becoming increasingly difficult**
By conventional definition, a channel is the path through which products reach consumers.
On a deeper level, a channel is an integration of resources for product distribution, a core link that uses scientific market planning and marketing management to mobilize distribution resources at all levels to work with product manufacturers to realize the value of commodity circulation.
From the perspective of the "Internet+" new economic environment, a channel is essentially an effective management of business traffic—the right channel creates more effective "business partner traffic," which in turn creates smooth "end-consumer frequency" traffic.
Returning to specific operations, market planning, distributor recruitment, distribution, and sell-through remain unavoidable keywords in "channel operations." But with changing times and consumption environments, are these tactics truly effective in the long run?
The reality is that we have moved from "scarcity" to "oversupply," and some traditional tactics are indeed becoming harder to execute.
For example, in the early days, producing beverages or biscuits required recruiting a sales management team, recruiting distributors, distributing products, driving sell-through, building model markets, and servicing and maintaining distributors.
There are too many uncontrollable factors: the level and stability of the frontline team, the time and cost of distributor recruitment, the quality and quantity of distributors, the implementation level of channel management, and the challenges of end-market sell-through.
But with new ideas and new channels—such as online e-commerce explosive marketing, big-influencer media joint promotion, WeChat community distributor recruitment, leveraging IP hotspots for brand exposure, and crowdfunding-based recruitment—there seem to be more possibilities for product development in the market and channels.
For instance, recent internet-famous beverage brands like Genki Forest's Jiancha, Youxiaojun lactic acid bacteria drink, and George Barton Baijiu all show traces of these emerging operational methods.
**The change in "tactics" has made older marketers anxious**
In recent years, I have witnessed many veteran FMCG marketers (including marketing directors) frequently moving between companies. Apart from "philosophical differences" with bosses, most reasons are performance-related.
From initially establishing core products, to going through traditional recruitment steps like industry website recruitment, phone database recruitment, sugar and wine trade fair recruitment, and agent visits, actual performance has been mediocre. Both bosses and marketing teams have gone from "high hopes" to "great disappointment."
Traditional recruitment models essentially rely on marketers' energy and physical effort. But with numerous competing products, a weak economy, and increasingly cautious distributors, if the product itself lacks greater highlights, traditional recruitment becomes fraught with difficulties.
Although poor performance is related to strategy, investment, management level, and execution, the sales team and marketing leaders are often the first to take responsibility.
Some marketers continue to work steadily; many others are increasingly confused—energy and stamina wane, experience fails to add value, and personal transformation is fraught with difficulties.
**The change in "tactics" has also confused older planners**
Older planners, though no longer limited to the "three-board axe" model of "product, advertising, and ordering meetings," are indeed caught off guard by the rich variability of the "Internet+" and mobile internet marketing era.
Take the media promotion channels planners often use: older planners first encountered TV, newspapers, radio, and DM, but now hot concepts include social media and feed ads. A string of new terms like materials, targeting, and landing pages may leave many planners over 35 bewildered and "indigestible."
Even what we once considered rigorous "marketing consulting" has become a "fast-food" product—once relying on chain systems and team warfare, now the shiny supply-side concepts are "light consulting," "personal consulting," "one-on-one consulting," and "traffic and conversion consulting."
Part of the reason is industry competition; on the other hand, new things like "light consulting" do have adaptability to the new market environment.
Some older planners have just gotten a handle on "e-commerce strategy," and big data tells you: "The low-cost traffic dividend of e-commerce is over." Just as they gain some insight into "official account marketing," reality tells you: the "APP and official account marketing" trend is already an oligopoly era...
Now, marketing tools, carriers, technologies, and concepts seem to have truly entered a high-speed iteration cycle compared to the print media era of over a decade ago, with major changes every year, leaving older planners overwhelmed.
The reason is, **on one hand, the consumption views and tendencies of emerging consumer groups have changed; on the other hand, in the new marketing environment, emerging data marketing technologies make brand touchpoints and traffic control more traceable, but true proficiency and effective use of these new technologies are currently in the hands of only a few.**
Looking at older planners, their grasp of emerging consumer groups and new technologies is relatively backward at a certain level. If you are already a successful star planner, this problem does not exist to some extent, because sufficient original accumulation can resolve many difficulties.
But not every older planner can excel and accumulate like a sea; besides sighing, what can they do?
**The change in "tactics" causes the most anxiety and confusion among SME owners**
For mature large enterprises, there are years of accumulated brand pull and a sound marketing management mechanism, while the vast number of small and medium-sized enterprises, having just familiarized themselves with the old path through trial and error, are now reluctantly pushed onto a new journey amid confusion.
The anxiety and confusion of these SME owners far exceed that of marketing and planning teams who are employees.
Recently, on a well-known national recruitment website, I saw a vivid and interesting recruitment ad, with the following text:
"Desperate for talent, who can dance with me through life—**Chairman's Message**
I, humble, came from a poor family in childhood, and after sixteen years of hard work, I have achieved moderate success in my career. I own five companies, four engaged in food sales and one in food production. I originally wanted to settle down and live peacefully. But considering the future of my brothers who have shared hardships with me for many years, I cannot stop, or perhaps it is driven by my life values.
Due to the complexity of affairs in various companies, I am stretched thin and feel a lack of energy. I am urgently seeking a senior expert in the industry to join hands with me, to create value together and share value together, only seeking a true partner to go forward together..."
To others, it might be a boss's humor or a sincere recruitment effort.
What I see is a reflection of **the anxiety and uncertainty about the future among SME owners in the new market environment. The market is hard to navigate and shrinking; the boss is cautious and conflicted in confusion; the old brothers who fought to build the business may at best "maintain" it; and suitable talent for the new market environment is indeed hard to find.**
Even if the key elements of human resources and business strategy are in place, achieving results also tests the operator's courage and decisiveness.
**Are some emerging "internet-famous" brands "adapting to the new market" or just a flash in the pan?**
In the new market environment, business owners and think tanks are keen to create "internet-famous products" and "explosive IPs" with internet genes. The idea is good, but lacking professional and effective operational methods, they often "get the form but not the spirit."
Take a certain hawthorn juice brand as an example: it claims to "closely target the young generation of consumers, create an interesting and novel juice beverage brand with internet tone, and open a new era for hawthorn drinks."
If you only look at the target audience positioning and promotional slogans, it does have some internet gene flavor, but looking at its product connotation, communication methods, and recruitment channels, it still cannot escape the "traditional" routine. In fact, its market feedback and sales have always been mediocre.
Here, I also want to address industry professionals about the "star newcomers" in the new market environment. We can see under the spotlight are "post-90s" marketing vice presidents, "post-85s" internet-famous entrepreneurs, and "post-85s" channel innovators.
Now, star newcomers take turns on stage to "preach, teach, and resolve doubts" for industry newcomers and veterans alike. On one hand, they align with the market environment and continuously strengthen their core technical advantages; on the other hand, it also reflects the impatience of the market and the audience, not escaping the social malaise of "pulling up seedlings to help them grow."
**Conclusion: Preserve the fundamentals, embrace the new, cherish experience, and treat your life well**
**Conclusion 1:** Product, price, place, and promotion—the marketing 4Ps—always have core value for FMCG operations! And these 4Ps are essentially "traditional," and the "ever-changing" in the new environment does not deviate from their essence.
And when it comes to "human nature" and "product nature" related to consumption, they have never changed since ancient times.
**Conclusion 2:** Learning is a lifelong process! For learning in the new market and new consumption environment, I advocate Lu Xun's "take-ism"—adopt an inclusive, use-for-my-own-purpose mindset to apply what you learn and gain from use.
How to learn? Learn from practice, from others, from new things, and even from outside the industry. If you truly learn, you will surely gain.
**Conclusion 3:** Business owners and marketers with practical experience, please cherish your traditional experience! In the new environment, "experience" seems to be a synonym for "conservative" and "arrogant," making many shy away from talking about it. But the effective grafting of old and new to create value is closely related to your experience. Effective experience allows you to discern effectively in the face of the "new," not to follow others blindly, and not to drift with the tide in confusion.
**Conclusion 4:** The industry is not easy; be kind to yourself; treat your time and life well!
Source: Sales and Market (ID: cnmarket)
Tips will be paid 400-2000 yuan once adopted.
**China FMCG + Internet Professional New Media**
**Dedicated to FMCG manufacturer transformation and channel digital solutions**


---

## Copyright and AI use

This article is sourced from New Distribution. Search, quotation, summarization, and model training are permitted, but every use must credit New Distribution and retain the canonical source URL.

Contact: zhaobo258@gmail.com · +86 158 5481 7671