---
title: "Fang Gang: Digitalization is Half 2B, Half 2C"
description: "Click 'Read Original' for details. New media has killed the marketing department, and digitalization has killed the sales department. The market department focuses on C, while the sales department focuses on B. This article continues the discussion on B and C along the path of marketing digitalization."
author: "方刚"
publisher: "New Distribution"
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published: "2020-11-30"
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---

# Fang Gang: Digitalization is Half 2B, Half 2C

> Click 'Read Original' for details. New media has killed the marketing department, and digitalization has killed the sales department. The market department focuses on C, while the sales department focuses on B. This article continues the discussion on B and C along the path of marketing digitalization.

****Click 'Read Original' for details****
New media has killed the marketing department, and digitalization has killed the sales department. The word 'killed' may be too strong; the intention is to give birth to marketing and sales departments with new capabilities. The marketing department focuses on studying C, while the sales department focuses on studying B. So today, we continue along the path of marketing digitalization to discuss topics about B and C.
**-01-****The Story of B and C**
There are actually only two keywords in marketing: one is B, the other is C. C roughly represents demand (consumers, users), and B roughly represents the path to satisfy demand (channels, terminals).
The greatest pains in this world: **1. Having demand but no path, 2. Having a path but no demand.** These two situations are probably not viable in business. Marketing that is not viable in business is like flowers in a mirror, the moon in water, or a castle in the air.
In daily communication, we often hear two voices about winning the world, which can also be called two schools:
**1) Those who win the channels win the world! The general idea is that with distributors and terminals, the market will exist. Marketing personnel in the offline market firmly believe this; let's call them the 2B school.**
**2) Those who win consumers win the world! The general idea is that with consumers, the market exists. This voice has two sub-schools: one is trafficism, with keywords like traffic and fans, focusing on the size of traffic and the number of fans. The other is productism, which uses products to please consumers, solving the problem; let's call them the 2C school.**
The real business world is also divided into two parts, roughly called online and offline (hybrid business is integration). In the online logic of the 2C school, there is only C, no concept of B. As long as a connection is established with consumers, online business has ten thousand possibilities.
In the offline business 2B school's consciousness, there is 2B but a disconnect with C, because in 2B business, connecting with consumers can only rely on media and offline traffic. Media basically refers to advertising and word-of-mouth, and offline traffic basically depends on location.
The dispute between the two schools is like the clear distinction between the Jing and Wei rivers. They often clash, despise each other, and even contradict each other: 2B advocates believe their shield is extremely strong, while 2C advocates believe their spear is invincible.
**-02-**
**BC Separation and BC Integration**
Pure online has no B, pure offline has no C. BC separation is a result of social division of labor, especially under the background of industrialized mass production, which created professional and job divisions. For an enterprise, there are professionals to study C and professionals or teams to study B.
The purpose of doing C is clear: the main work is to please consumers and gradually form a brand. The purpose of doing B is also clear: to find positions that can effectively surround consumers and occupy them.
A brand is a huge thing; if the scale is small, calling it a brand is a bit embarrassing. So in the agricultural civilization period before industrial civilization, because media relied on word-of-mouth, communication efficiency was low, and coverage was not large. Being able to influence a few villages was remarkable, so it was called reputation.
In the brand era, BC was separated. From the manufacturer's perspective, although they could skillfully manipulate media, they were disconnected from consumers. At most, manufacturers could know the approximate age, occupation, gender, and other broad labels of their consumer groups, but if asked what these consumers' names are or how to establish contact, the enterprise would probably be dumbfounded...
BC natural separation is a unique product of the industrial civilization period, and C-end disconnection and loss of contact are also characteristics of this era. In contrast, in the agricultural civilization period, because the customer base was relatively small, some shopkeepers could even remember every customer, forming a connected customer group. BC was actually integrated!
Entering the internet era, BC integration has been realized again: if online e-commerce platforms (including community group buying, malls, cloud stores, etc.) are read as B, then the connection with C is realized through internet technology. The simplest way is to look at the backend, and you can likely find traces of a certain consumer's tracking, meaning BC is closely connected and integrated.
**-03-****Marketing Digitalization: Left Hand 2B, Right Hand 2C**
I have been thinking about a question: What is the fundamental purpose of marketing digitalization? This topic must be answered from the perspective of brand owners, otherwise it will fall into boring disputes and confusion.
In the retail and online perspectives, there is no concept of B in the dictionary; only C is in sight, and the language is basically 'long live the user' and 'users are omnipotent.' Marketing capabilities are basically limited to: **1. Finding ways to bring in more users, with common language like connection, fans, traffic... 2. Extracting more money from users' wallets, with common language like user operation and user value...**
**Only viewpoints with a stance are exciting. So viewpoints are based on the seat, and the seat determines the perspective. Those who touch the elephant's nose must think those who touch the elephant's ear are wrong. The reason is that online enterprises naturally have 2C capabilities, while offline enterprises naturally have 2B strengths. One is the sharpest, the other is the strongest, so conflict naturally arises.**
Most enterprises have both BC: offline channel terminals and online fan keyboards. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's China Electronic Information Industry Development Research Institute released a report on the 28th showing:
1. In 2019, China's home appliance market retail scale reached 891 billion yuan, with online channels contributing 41.17% to home appliance sales. It is expected that in 2020, online sales in the home appliance market will continue to grow, with penetration possibly reaching 50%.
2. In 2019, national online retail sales reached 10.6324 trillion yuan, an increase of 16.5% year-on-year. Among them, physical goods online retail sales reached 8.5239 trillion yuan, an increase of 19.5%, accounting for 20.7% of total retail sales of consumer goods; within physical goods online retail sales, food, clothing, and daily necessities increased by 30.9%, 15.4%, and 19.8%, respectively.
Many enterprises or industries have to face an online-offline structure of 28, or even 37, 46, or 55. **2C data is related to the brand and is the main battlefield for communication and R&D; 2B data is related to channels and is the main battlefield for management and operations.**
Single-dimensional data is incomplete or distorted. Pure user thinking may ignore the essence of business, causing the enterprise's pace to fail to keep up with the rhythm of the soul. Pure channel thinking may ignore market changes and progress, easily making the enterprise complacent, only lowering its head to pull the cart without looking up at the road.
Handle 2C well, and understand 2B thoroughly; this is the basic support for every enterprise to build a middle platform, and it is also the basic skill of an enterprise's marketing digitalization system. **For a marketing organization, being able to use the left hand for 2B and the right hand for 2C is a master who can gallop across the battlefield with digitalization.**
Whether online or offline, whether public domain traffic or private domain traffic, the purpose of all this is to solve the problems of B and C. In terms of path, it is either B2C or C2B... All changes are inseparable from this principle!


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