Consumption is performance Consumption has two attributes. First, biological satisfaction (functional), which all animals possess. This is the basic layer of consumption, involving the actual use of goods, physiological needs, and human reproduction needs, such as food to satisfy hunger, clothing for warmth, and transportation for mobility. Its characteristics are clear utility, but it easily reaches saturation, following the law of diminishing marginal utility. Second, social satisfaction (symbolic), which is determined by human sociality. Consumption becomes a symbol of personal identity, values, social status, and group belonging. For example, luxury goods represent wealth, environmentally friendly products symbolize a sense of responsibility, and niche brands reflect unique taste. The demand at this level is more elastic and not easily saturated. Even the social attribute of consumption has spawned new branches, such as responsible consumption and reverse consumption, which seem to deviate from the mainstream of social relations but are actually another manifestation of social relations. Responsible consumption is not only about status but also extends to the moral level, such as fair trade and low-carbon consumption, reflecting consumers' participation in public issues. Reverse consumption is when certain groups deliberately reject symbolic consumption, such as penny-pinching, minimalism, second-hand transactions, and localized consumption, seeking a more ethical and community-oriented lifestyle. Essentially, it is still expressing a social attitude of resisting mainstream values through consumption choices. Biological satisfaction in consumption is giving way to social priority. Thus, whether emotional value is provided is becoming the dividing line between 'old-timers' and 'newcomers'. Old-timers still emphasize how good the product (function) is, while newcomers use products as props for social performance. Emotional value in the consumption field is not personal emotion but abandoning personal emotion and embracing public social emotion. Simply put, it is resonating emotionally with more people on internet self-media. The emergence of social media has provided a larger stage for consumption performance, allowing more people to see consumption performances. Don't believe too much in 'self-pleasing consumption'; that is just a narrative script for social performance. Drivers of social priority in consumption Christensen believes that jobs-to-be-done have three dimensions. For example, the three jobs-to-be-done for 'buying a drill bit'.

  1. Functional task: Solve a specific, practical problem—'drive a nail into the wall'.
  2. Social task: Help the user gain recognition, status, or a sense of belonging in a group—'I want to appear knowledgeable and capable in front of my friends.' For example, live-streaming 'hammering a nail'. Now, everything can be live-streamed.
  3. Emotional task: Help the user achieve a specific feeling or emotion—'I want to feel at ease, accomplished, or happy after completing this.' In fact, emotional tasks are also a projection of sociality onto personal psychology. Many emotional needs, such as the feeling of being respected or the peace of mind from eliminating social anxiety, stem from our perception and expectations of social relationships. For example, the emotional task of buying an expensive gown might be 'to feel confident at a dinner party', and the source of that confidence is the expectation of receiving positive evaluations from others (a social task). In a society with material scarcity, biological satisfaction is rigid and has absolute priority. Currently, China's material abundance is immense, though regional and individual differences remain. However, in terms of the quantity of material consumption, we have reached the limit, as evidenced by the prevalence of 'three highs' (hypertension, hyperglycemia, hyperlipidemia) and other conditions, proving that consumption has exceeded the body's carrying capacity. Therefore, the weights of the three dimensions of jobs-to-be-done have significantly shifted.
  4. Biological satisfaction has a 'hard ceiling'. It is constrained by human physiological capacity and physical laws. A person can only eat so much, sleep in one bed, and drive one car. Its satisfaction curve is typical of sharply diminishing marginal utility, quickly reaching a saturation point.
  5. Social and emotional satisfaction have 'soft ceilings', or even 'no ceilings', and can be overturned and redone. Social satisfaction is rooted in the pursuit of relative status, identity, and group belonging. It is a game of comparison and meaning. The reference frame is others and social standards, and meaning itself is fluid and can be redefined. Yesterday's 'fashion' may become today's 'outdated', and new circles and identity labels are constantly being created.
  6. Emotional satisfaction is related to personal psychological experience, emotional connection, and self-narrative. It can be infinite because the pursuit of 'better experiences', 'more unique feelings', and 'deeper meaning' is continuous. It is closely intertwined with social satisfaction, such as the pleasure of being envied. A greater change is the proliferation of self-media. Ordinary people suddenly connect with an unlimited number of people. The platform's precise algorithms allow everyone to resonate with a vast number of 'like-minded' individuals. Individual biological consumption and small-circle social consumption suddenly amplify on massive platforms and gain immense resonance. Faced with this situation, people involuntarily feel the urge to share, hoping to resonate with others through sharing. Taking photos before eating, and phones that were primarily for communication now especially focus on camera beauty features. Even functional satisfaction is provided to serve social satisfaction, such as higher pixel cameras for better sharing. This is the phenomenon of social priority in consumption. So, the drivers of social priority in consumption come from three aspects. First, self-media and social networks provide the possibility. Social media amplifies the visibility of consumption. Consumption behavior moves from the private sphere to the public display space, such as WeChat Moments, Xiaohongshu, and Douyin, becoming a tool for constructing personal social image. People not only consume products but also the social currency attached to them—the value that can trigger attention, recognition, or discussion. Second, consumption becomes a variable in ecological competition. In modern social relations, individuals use consumption for differentiated competition or group identity. For example, buying limited-edition sneakers, high-end tech products, or participating in specific community consumption, such as anime or outdoor sports, may be to stand out or to fit into a certain circle. Third, the diminishing marginal utility of functional satisfaction. When basic material needs are met, the happiness boost from additional material consumption is limited. People turn to social satisfaction—being respected, recognized, and achieving self-worth—which is often realized through the symbolic meaning of consumption. The social language of consumption French sociologist Jean Baudrillard pointed out that consumption is a 'systematic manipulation of signs'. People convey social signals through consumption. First, class and taste. Bourdieu's theory of 'cultural capital' holds that consumption preferences, such as art, food, and clothing, reflect and reproduce social class. Second, identity or circle recognition. Consumption helps individuals position themselves in dimensions such as gender, age, occupation, and subculture. For example, 'moms' buy products recommended by parenting communities, and Gen Z chases co-branded sneakers. Third, relationship bonds. Gift consumption, social dining, and shared experiences, such as travel and concerts, become mediums for maintaining social relationships. In the industrial era, multinational corporations formed a set of social language for consumption. Marketing expert Miao Qingxian observed that while China's high-tech industry has achieved a notable position globally, in the FMCG sector, which is not highly technical, despite many multinational corporations producing or OEM-ing in China, Chinese brands still lag behind multinational brands. When hard power is not lacking, the gap in soft power actually stems from the lack of a social language system for brands. While we continuously strengthen functional tasks like 'better functionality' and cost-performance, we correspondingly lack social language. Multinational brands, through mass media narratives, monopolized the power to define the social meaning of consumption, such as Mercedes-Benz meaning luxury. Coca-Cola defined 'happiness, togetherness, and American spirit'. Social media has given Chinese companies an opportunity to overtake on the curve. The accumulation of Chinese companies' strength and the high development of Chinese self-media seamlessly connect with this opportunity. In the social media environment, the social language of consumption has undergone a profound transformation. Its symbol production, dissemination, and interpretation mechanisms have been reconstructed by technological logic, forming a highly interactive, visual, and circle-based dynamic system. I. How social media reshapes the consumption symbol system
  7. 'Decentralization' and co-creation of symbol production First, user-generated content (UGC) becomes the core. The meaning of consumption is no longer defined solely by brands but is co-constructed by users through content such as 'unboxing reviews', 'good product sharing', and 'complaints about pitfalls'. For example, an ordinary skincare product may become popular due to a blogger's 'acid exfoliation tutorial', being endowed with the symbol of 'scientific skincare'. Second, the viral spread of meme culture. Consumption symbols are simplified into emojis, jokes, or challenges (such as 'the first cup of milk tea in autumn' or 'dopamine dressing'), spreading rapidly through imitation and parody, forming collective resonance.
  8. Visual turn: from 'text narrative' to 'image sociality' First, platform logic drives this. Platforms like Xiaohongshu and Douyin are dominated by visual content, so consumption symbols must be transformed into visual images that are 'aesthetically pleasing', 'easy to photograph', and 'suitable for check-ins'. For example, coffee shops focus on 'Instagram-style' decor, and products become photography props. Second, filters and retouching technology. Beauty filters and atmosphere color grading standardize the visual symbols of the 'ideal life', making consumption a means of shaping digital identity (such as 'exquisite breakfast styling' symbolizing self-discipline and taste).
  9. Algorithm empowerment: formation of personalized symbol systems First, recommendation algorithms customize the 'symbol world'. Platforms push content based on user behavior (likes, searches, dwell time), forming a consumption meaning network that is unique to each person. For example, the same pair of sneakers may be pushed to User A as 'sneaker culture' and to User B as 'cost-performance review'. Second, feedback loops accelerate symbol iteration. Users' real-time interactions (comments, shares) are captured by algorithms, quickly eliminating ineffective symbols and amplifying popular ones (such as a style being pushed to hot search due to high interaction). II. New rules of consumption language in social media
  10. 'Authenticity' becomes a scarce symbol Users are averse to over-packaging. Rough 'amateur reviews' and 'original camera direct output' are more likely to gain trust. 'Real experience' replaces advertising slogans as the new authority. Of course, this 'authenticity' itself can also be performed, such as deliberately showing 'flaws' to create a sense of sincerity.
  11. The rise of circle-specific 'dialects' Vertical communities form exclusive symbols. The Hanfu circle uses 'shan zheng' (genuine/counterfeit) to distinguish identity, and the esports circle uses 'skins' (game appearances) to show rank, which outsiders find hard to understand. The barrier effect of jargon and abbreviations. Terms like 'yyds' (eternal god) and 'duoshou' (hands-chopping) strengthen community belonging and exclude non-members.
  12. 'Social currency' of consumption behavior Consumption is not for use but for sharing. After purchasing, 'showing off' becomes a necessary step, and the likes and comments received are converted into social capital. Competition for scarce symbols: limited editions and co-branded products are highly sought after because they are easy to display scarcity on social media, such as immediately posting 'shoe show' after a sneaker purchase. In agricultural society, Chinese tea, porcelain, and silk became the social language of consumption worldwide. In industrial society, multinational brands monopolized the social language of global consumption. In the era of social media, Chinese companies, with the help of developed self-media, have again gained a voice in the social language system of consumption. Human sociality has not changed, and the sociality of consumption has not changed. The change in media in an era affects the social language system of consumption, which becomes social currency. Correspondingly, the goods consumed also become proof of a person's ecological niche (or obtaining a niche) in social relations. Scene marketing shifts the perspective from the user to the scene, naturally turning to the people and roles in the scene. Roles are the embodiment of ecological niches in the scene. Consumption has always had an element of performance. The difference across eras is only in who sees the performance and how far it spreads. [Moving Toward the C-End] The 11th China FMCG Conference Date: March 16-18, 2026 Location: Chengdu, China