**Brand owner Lao Wang recently noticed that sales of his products in convenience stores are declining, and a marketing campaign he just launched didn't make much of a splash. At the same time, Lao Wang also noticed that a competing product in the same category was seeing high enthusiasm from stores for stocking, and customers were flocking to buy it with purpose. Lao Wang wondered: with the same products, the same channels, and the same offline distribution, why did the competitor perform so well? What should he do with his products? To answer this question, we need to understand the essence of the matter. The essence is: How to make your brand fully penetrate the consumer market. Regarding brands fully penetrating the consumer market, the BC integrated marketing model, which is widely discussed now, is gradually becoming the preferred choice. The retail channel brand I used to work for was actually exploring BC integrated marketing at the retail end early on, internally called "integrated marketing," which also involves simultaneous linkage of B and C ends, but currently it's more about integrating marketing channels and executing at the operational level. In this article, I will discuss the underlying logic of "convenience store BC integrated marketing" from a systematic perspective, and how to promote its implementation. This discussion can serve as one of the reference materials for FMCG brands on how to organically combine with convenience stores when making comprehensive plans for BC integrated marketing. **Why Convenience Stores Need BC Integrated Marketing The more chaotic the world, the more you need to understand the underlying logic. Friends in FMCG brands know that the main method for traditional channels is to push inventory, with the mainstream thinking being "if someone sees it, someone will buy it." The steps of getting goods to the terminal—product exposure—store promotion can generate a certain sales volume. This is "deep distribution," which bluntly is a "human wave tactic." It doesn't require much technical skill, but many people use it, and the more people, the higher the labor costs. But there is a basic reality in this era: mobile phones and social media have fully become the drivers and standard for marketing. Users have more and more channels to get information, with increasingly diverse forms, more extreme content, richer interactions, and they increasingly cater to lazy homebodies. Push algorithms are becoming more precise, and users' tastes are becoming more discerning... These changes have led people to start dividing into circles that match their preferences, and as a result, consumption has begun to stratify into circles. The "CCTV + big money" marketing model no longer works. The stratification of users into circles means brands have to be present on different channels and platforms, using different contexts (like Bilibili's unique context)**, and they need to know how to play with users, engage them, create content users like, and also understand the platform's algorithmic push rules. Only by spending money on ads on platforms can brands meet users. This is the logic of online operations, and you really can't skip online because people are lazy and go out less. If you lack an online channel layout, it's hard to influence users' minds. Does it have no impact offline? Of course it does. Besides traffic being squeezed, the mainstream consumer group in convenience stores has also changed: Gen Z and Gen Z0 are the main force. They are digital natives, closely connected to the internet world. They generally live well-off lives, and their consumption views are vastly different from Gen X and Gen Y. Gen Z's consumption concepts are: consumption for emotion, consumption for persona, and consumption for social interaction. Gen Z0 users are increasingly able to identify shopping information, harder to impress, more segmented into circles, more reliant on word-of-mouth within their circles, and even harder to find. They are scattered across platforms like Soul and Oasis that many people may never have heard of. Seeing this, can the logic of deep distribution still recreate its past glory of sweeping the offline market? I think it's difficult. Users now get information online, and even when shopping offline, they might be looking at their phones while walking. In street-side milk tea shops, young people are everywhere scrolling through Douyin or playing games. If they can't see your brand in their favorite worlds (games, Douyin, Bilibili, etc.), how can you talk about fully penetrating the consumer market? You might say: there are still opportunities in lower-tier markets, so I'll do lower-tier markets and use deep distribution for stocking. Are lower-tier markets an opportunity? Maybe for now. But marketing methods in lower-tier markets are also more localized, or "earthy." Mixue Ice Cream & Tea's rise from lower-tier markets is a perfect example; brands also need to learn to adjust their marketing strategies. But I think, after the full popularization of mobile internet, it may not take many years for lower-tier markets to receive sufficient consumer education and become another form of deep distribution involution we see today. Anyway, there's a dividend now, so go grab it quickly. Traditional brands think that just stocking products in channels will drive sales, but as offline foot traffic gradually decreases, and more brands start reaching consumers in advance through e-commerce, seeding platforms, and community circles (digital operations that capture user awareness early), the already shrinking number of in-store customers is locked in before they even enter the store. Is offline finished? No, quite the opposite. Amid the powerful wave of online subverting offline, it's too hasty to say offline has been abandoned. Even if offline physical stores see reduced traffic, they still have a certain constancy. Most users still live a routine life of a few fixed points, and offline remains one of the important consumption channels. So, offline physical presence must be deeply laid out. Overall: Deep distribution is about stocking, stocking, stocking—if you see it, you'll definitely buy. The key to convenience store BC integration is to educate, reduce burden, and convert for the small b end; and for the C end, deeply seed, intervene in cognition, precisely lock in, and promote user liking, because only when they like it will they consume. When B and C are fully linked, it's comprehensive sales promotion. Once sales promotion is solved, distribution is no longer a problem. For the convenience store system, if they don't start BC integrated marketing, they, like brands, face the same traffic loss problem and are helpless. ****What is the Thinking Behind Convenience Store BC Integrated Marketing? When brands directly face the C end to start BC integration, the chain logic is F2C2b2B. But in the convenience store scenario, the method has slight changes. If brands understand the convenience store chain scenario, they can consider integrating it into the larger F2C2b2B logic: Among convenience store brands capable of promoting BC integration, they basically have online + offline marketing channels laid out. When a product is introduced into the system, the optimal solution for pushing to small b and marketing to C end is to start both ends simultaneously: influence C end to come to the store to find the product, while also allocating goods to small b or encouraging them to order independently. Why simultaneously? Because small b often hesitates about new products, and for them, the strongest real feeling comes from C-end feedback, which becomes a strong motivation for them to actively stock up. When implementing BC integrated marketing in the convenience store system, common problems encountered are: B end (referring to supervisors): assessment-oriented, do what they're told. (This article won't elaborate on pushing supervisors; see previous series articles for details) b end (small stores): don't know, unwilling to do, don't know how, too hard to do. C end (users): don't know, not attracted. I propose the system construction thinking for convenience store BC integration as: "5 Online-izations." 1. Product Online: Set up the online mall, including coupons, products, pickup vouchers, etc. 2. Management Online: Bosses and managers grasp progress and data in real time, including BI reports, data visualization, progress management, and interference factor analysis. 3. Training Online: Train and manage tasks for supervisors and stores. This includes showing benefits, operating standards, business information, activity resources, integrated learning-practice-testing, and task acceptance. 4. Content Online: A full set of marketing materials, specifically product links, marketing posters, promotion scripts, product brochures, QR codes with parameters, etc. 5. Marketing Online: Support b end in following up and closing deals. Such as community management, one-click publishing of relevant materials, accepting user consultations, ordering and payment, user segmentation and grouping management, distinguishing user intentions and private chats, promoting conversion, task reminders, distribution, etc. These 5 online-izations achieve the following refined operation goals: 1. Manageable: Bosses and managers know how far they are from target sales, understand real-time progress, and can adjust strategies at any time. In traditional practices, after store products and marketing activity materials are laid out, if adjustments are needed, it takes at least half a month from notification to material delivery to execution. But with the popularization of smart retail tools, you can change store POS ads, face-scan payment ads, self-service payment ads, membership machine ads, electronic shelf labels, and even smart broadcasts at any time, shifting from slow reaction to fast reaction, allowing rapid response to adjust strategies and optimize marketing effectiveness. 2. Traceable: These 5 online-izations organically connect the entire business chain. If any link is poorly done or broken, it's clear: Is training insufficient? Targets not communicated? Supervisors not following up? Stores not executing? Or is the user end not interested? Everything is in hand. 3. Convertible: Traditional users pay and leave, but in the BC integrated marketing logic, users are deposited in the convenience store's private domain (communities, official accounts, video accounts, mini-programs), and in private domain operations, there are many effective conversion methods to convert users and drive repeat purchases. 4. Repeatable: Content and activities can be repeatedly delivered to users. In an era of fragmented information, this repeated reach is necessary. If users don't see you here, they might see you there. As long as users can see you, it can maximize their awareness and participation in activities. 5. Accumulable: Traffic is accumulated in your own private domain system, forming the platform's user and digital assets. The strategic significance and development value of these assets cannot be measured by simple current sales data. In a highly competitive market environment, traffic has already affected the survival foundation of brands. Regarding private domain construction, some brands have strong private domain operation capabilities themselves, or entrust professional operation companies to manage private domain on their behalf. If they want to exchange traffic with convenience stores, they can add a link to guide users into the brand's private domain during the design of marketing activities. Of course, whether convenience stores will cooperate with brands depends on whether both parties can agree on interests. The underlying logic of the 5 online-izations is to organically connect the entire business chain, rather than doing one end and losing the other. It's about thinking and building in a systematic way. ****How to Use Convenience Store BC Integrated Marketing Well? After understanding the system construction logic of convenience store BC integration, how can FMCG brands make good use of this capability of the convenience store system? I think there are two things to do well: first, empower the b end; second, convert the C end. 1. Empower the b end. Whether the b end can be mobilized depends on 3 points: Is there money to be made? Is there too much work? Is it interesting? Regarding making money, I've mentioned in multiple articles that for the b end, you must discuss how to share profits well, so I won't elaborate here. Regarding too much work, small b stores have trivial in-store affairs. You need to "reduce their burden" and achieve "three-izations": standardization, one-click operation, and automation. Minimize adding overly complex work for small b. Each action should have advance reminders, the action path should be simple, and even the system should complete certain specific tasks automatically—that's already the biggest help for small b. Regarding being interesting, provide them with three value points: First, learn more. For example, provide training courses. These courses should be short and concise, each covering micro-knowledge points. Don't have courses that are half an hour or an hour long. They should be able to master a small operational skill that can be used immediately, applied immediately, and see results immediately. Why? Who has seen stores seriously listening to lessons? Learning is essentially against human nature, and moreover, many course designers have limited abilities, and courses designed to be boring and against human nature are everywhere. Especially after the popularization of short videos, people's comprehension abilities are weakening, and their brains are increasingly unwilling to think. Professional jargon is ignored, while extremely down-to-earth content is praised by everyone for being understandable. Professionals trapped in the "curse of expertise" are becoming less popular, while those who can explain professional things in plain language have many followers. Second, know more. Including industry changes, resources provided by brands, etc. Third, interact more. For example, provide forum exchanges. But this could be a double-edged sword. Many franchise companies pay attention to this because headquarters worry about negative information exchanges among stores. For convenience store brands with weak franchise management capabilities, it might even cause instability in the franchise system. 2. Convert the C end. There are three key points for C-end conversion: lifecycle, content is king, and comprehensive reach. 1) Lifecycle: According to the AARRR model, it's acquisition, activation, retention, revenue, and referral. At different stages, I propose the following operational strategies: Acquisition stage: including channel selection, content attraction, and distribution for traffic generation. Activation stage: focus on key behaviors, guide user behavior, and guide users to continuously participate in activities. Retention stage: achieve through personalized recommendations, fine-grained recall, and task systems. Revenue stage: promote monetization and continuous repurchase through humanized marketing, price leverage, and membership systems. Referral stage: open up the entire traffic dissemination loop, set key elements for dissemination, and provide spiritual and material rewards for referral. 2) Content is king: What problems should content solve? Essentially, it solves people's inner needs and anxieties. By setting benefits, emotions, interactions, personas, social currency, etc., create high-quality content to attract users. I'll have a dedicated article later to share about content creation. 3) Comprehensive reach: Users now often make consumption decisions in the car, on the toilet, or on the pillow. So brands should plan with the convenience store system to reach users across all scenarios, channels, and time periods, seizing every possible moment to deliver brand information to users. The underlying logic of converting the C end is to create high-quality content based on users' different lifecycles, reach users comprehensively, and achieve sales conversion. Final Thoughts: BC integration is a big topic, especially for brands. Convenience stores have a natural advantage with small b. Regarding using the BC integrated marketing model to acquire and operate traffic, it can be said that as long as you want to do it well, you can do it extremely well. Some convenience store systems have already moved relatively fast in exploring BC integration. If brands can learn about this information in advance and integrate their business with it, they can leverage the convenience store system to accelerate the realization of their BC integrated marketing process. Why wouldn't brands do that? Bio: Liu Fang, new retail private domain marketing consultant, personal business brand and private domain consultant, with 17 years of experience in the retail industry/FMCG B2B industry, columnist for multiple business media platforms, invited new consumer private domain traffic mentor for "Wu Xiaobo Channel" 890 New Business School/New National Products Promotion Association (online + offline), and operator of a well-known retail brand's tens of millions of private domain traffic and multiple 100K+ viral articles. Are you "watching" me?