---
title: "In the Era of Channel Fragmentation, FMCG Brands Need to Grow Like Liquid"
description: "Channels are fragmenting, and so are consumers. For FMCG brands, the old approach of using one brand language, one product logic, and one sales playbook across all channels is becoming increasingly untenable. Sam's Club, Pinduoduo, Xiaohongshu, Douyin, convenience stores, snack collection stores, and mom-and-pop shops all sell goods, but the consumer psychology, sales dynamics, and decision-making behind them are no longer the same. At the 11th China FMCG Conference on March 17, Liang Jiangjun, founder of Jiangyi Consulting and Chief Strategy Officer of Zan Yi Growth Network, shared insights on liquid brands, channel narratives, and building a C-end command center."
author: "梁将军"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2026-04-10"
categories: "Brand Marketing, E-commerce & Instant Retail, Retail Formats"
language: "en"
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original_source: "https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/yN8c0Sq33B2Mht89FnYvoQ"
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citation: "梁将军. “In the Era of Channel Fragmentation, FMCG Brands Need to Grow Like Liquid.” New Distribution, 2026-04-10. https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/in-the-era-of-channel-fragmentation-fmcg-brands-need-to-grow-like-liquid-1f258bb4/"
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---

# In the Era of Channel Fragmentation, FMCG Brands Need to Grow Like Liquid

> Channels are fragmenting, and so are consumers. For FMCG brands, the old approach of using one brand language, one product logic, and one sales playbook across all channels is becoming increasingly untenable. Sam's Club, Pinduoduo, Xiaohongshu, Douyin, convenience stores, snack collection stores, and mom-and-pop shops all sell goods, but the consumer psychology, sales dynamics, and decision-making behind them are no longer the same. At the 11th China FMCG Conference on March 17, Liang Jiangjun, founder of Jiangyi Consulting and Chief Strategy Officer of Zan Yi Growth Network, shared insights on liquid brands, channel narratives, and building a C-end command center.

Channels are fragmenting, and so are consumers.
For FMCG products, the old way of using one brand language, one product logic, and one sales playbook to dominate all channels is becoming increasingly difficult to execute. Sam's Club, Pinduoduo, Xiaohongshu, Douyin, convenience stores, snack collection stores, and mom-and-pop shops all appear to be selling goods, but the consumer psychology, sales dynamics, and decision-making processes behind them are no longer the same.
On March 17, at the 11th China FMCG Conference, Liang Jiangjun, founder of Jiangyi Consulting and Chief Strategy Officer of Zan Yi Growth Network, shared his thoughts and explorations on liquid brands, channel narratives, and building a C-end command center.
The following is an excerpt from his on-site speech (partially abridged), compiled by New Distribution for our readers.
## FMCG Growth: First Look at How Channels Are Changing
When discussing FMCG growth today, we can no longer just look at the overall market size; we must examine where the incremental growth is actually coming from.
Based on the insights from this sharing, FMCG in 2025 is not without growth, but growth is increasingly concentrated in a few channels and new business formats.
The overall offline market is contracting, but warehouse membership stores, discount stores, and snack collection stores are still growing; e-commerce is not growing evenly either—platforms like Douyin and Pinduoduo continue to expand, while traditional shelf-based e-commerce is under pressure; at the same time, private labels are becoming a new source of growth.
The core conclusion behind this is straightforward: the first principle of FMCG remains channel supremacy.
It's not that brands don't matter, nor that products don't matter, but rather that today, almost all brands, distributors, and service providers are being reshaped by channel changes.
Platforms run promotions daily, live-streaming rooms offer low prices every day, and new business formats keep emerging. Everyone is forced to adjust prices, pace, and resource allocation. On the surface, it seems like brands are competing fiercely, but deep down, it's the channels that are competing, and everyone is being pushed forward by the channels.
This also explains why many companies, despite implementing digitalization, product upgrades, and content marketing, still feel they can't grasp growth.
The problem may not be that they aren't doing enough, but that they haven't identified the right main line. Growth doesn't happen evenly; incremental growth will only occur in companies that truly understand channel changes and are willing to redo their products and sales logic around channels.
Looking ahead to 2026, what FMCG really needs to study is not just how consumers have changed, but **how different channels are defining consumers in their own ways**. Whoever understands this first is more likely to capture the next wave of growth.
## Brands Can't Be One-Size-Fits-All
## They Need to Deform Like Liquid
The most core concept in this sharing is the "liquid brand."
In the past, when doing FMCG, many people assumed that brands should remain consistent. No matter which channel they entered, the core selling point, brand tone, and packaging logic should ideally stay the same, which was understood as brand consistency. This logic worked in the past, but today, it's increasingly insufficient.
Because today's channel differences are too large. Consumers entering Sam's Club and those entering Pinduoduo differ not only in purchasing power but, more importantly, in decision-making styles; people on Xiaohongshu don't want the same things as those in convenience stores; mom-and-pop shops and Douyin don't follow the same logic.
If a brand looks the same, speaks the same, and sells the same in all channels, it actually indicates that it hasn't truly entered the current retail reality.
The so-called liquid brand, simply put, means that a brand should be like liquid, changing shape according to the "container" of different channels.
When entering Sam's Club, it should make consumers feel professional, reliable, and endorsed; when entering Pinduoduo, it should make consumers feel honest, transparent, and without unnecessary premiums; when entering Xiaohongshu, it should make consumers feel a sense of lifestyle and aspiration; when entering convenience stores, it should be more like a solution on standby. What changes is not the brand's foundation, but its expression, product organization, and sales methods in different channels.
Many brands are already adapting to channels, such as offering different specifications, weights, packaging, and prices. But this is not enough.
Because this is often just surface-level adjustment, essentially "catering to channels" rather than "understanding channels." Truly effective adaptation is not about splitting the same product into different versions to sell, but about reorganizing products, marketing, sales, and supply chains around the consumer psychology within that channel.
In other words, the real bottleneck for brands and distributors today is not the inability to distribute, but that they are still at the level of "matching goods" and haven't truly translated channel narratives into consumer experiences.
This is also a point emphasized repeatedly in this sharing: future growth essentially comes from **extreme channel-scenario response rates**.
Whoever can respond to consumers in a specific channel with lower decision costs, more accurate products, and smoother experiences will grasp the basic incremental growth. The next step for FMCG is not just covering more channels, but whether they can become the right version of themselves in different channels.
## Different Channels Require Different Narratives
If we further implement the "liquid brand," what we really need to solve is: how to speak, sell, and develop products in different channels.
First, look at warehouse membership stores.
The core of this channel is not just large packaging or cost-effectiveness, but "professionalism as a life butler."
Consumers pay membership fees essentially to purchase screening ability and certainty. So when entering this channel, brands shouldn't just make packaging bigger and unit prices lower, but should make themselves more like expert-level solutions.
For example, nuts are not just a mix of ingredients; they can be reorganized into a more professional, decision-saving daily nutrition solution. Consumers aren't buying a bag of goods, but "you've already chosen for me."
Next, look at snack collection stores.
This is not a family shopping scenario, but more like an instant stress-relief station. The characteristics of this channel are proximity to home, many SKUs, small packaging, low unit price, and high impulse. Brands here can no longer talk about grand responsibilities and long-term value, but should talk about the moment, freshness, and reward.
Low-alcohol fruit wines, small snacks, and quirky flavors are more likely to succeed in this channel, provided they make consumers feel "I want to grab one right now" within seconds. In such scenarios, products often sell not just functionality, but instant emotion.
Convenience stores follow another logic.
They are more like energy supply stations for urban white-collar workers, and also like emergency points on standby. People stay in convenience stores for a short time, have clear goals, and many purchases are immediate and remedial.
In this channel, products that originally emphasized "deep repair" or "long-term improvement" need to adjust their expression to be shorter, more urgent, and more direct.
For example, instead of talking about long-term skincare, talk about quick recovery after staying up late; instead of talking about complete functionality, first solve the immediate problem. FMCG products in convenience stores need to learn to solve urgent problems first, then talk about other values.
Online channels have even more obvious differences.
Pinduoduo's focus is on "pragmatism stripped of premiums." Consumers don't want brand hype; they want you to clearly explain costs and functions, making them feel that money is spent on the product itself.
Xiaohongshu's focus is on "curator of life aesthetics."
Consumers buy not just functionality, but a slice of ideal life. Products need to have aspiration and fit into a certain ritual and lifestyle. Douyin is more like "answerer of lifestyles." It doesn't require you to tell a complete brand story, but to quickly cut into specific pain points and explain scenarios and solutions in content.
Mom-and-pop shops cannot be ignored either.
Their focus is not grand narratives, but a sense of certainty in a community of acquaintances. Consumers here often buy not novelty or content stimulation, but "people around me use it," "the boss approves," and "buying this won't go wrong."
What works best in this channel is not complex concepts, but stability, reliability, and familiarity.
So, true channel adaptation is not about one brand making seven different packages, but about one brand learning to speak seven different languages in seven scenarios.
## C-End Command Center
## The Core Is Turning Emotional Signals into Organizational Capability
After discussing channel differences, the final question is: how can these insights truly become enterprise capabilities?
It's not just about supply chain flexibility, nor just about splitting the organization by channel, but about establishing a true C-end command center.
Its core is to form a response mechanism around consumers, scenarios, and channel signals. In other words, companies cannot wait until trends have already emerged to review from data; they need to capture those emotional signals that haven't been fully quantified but are starting to surface earlier.
This is precisely what many organizations lack most today.
In the past, people were more accustomed to looking at rational data—sales, conversion, advertising efficiency, and platform reports. But many new consumer changes don't first appear in reports; they appear in content emotions, scenario changes, and user expressions. By the time a category has formed a trend on Douyin, deciding whether to follow up is usually half a beat too late.
A truly effective organization doesn't just know how to calculate numbers; it also needs the ability to see ahead of time how consumers are changing through emotional insights, aesthetic trends, rising pain points, and social content.
This is also why the capability of a C-end command center cannot be understood merely as marketing capability, but as a "narrative translation capability."
New signals constantly emerge at the front end; the middle platform needs to translate these signals into propositions and strategies for different channels; the back end then responds through more modular products, supply chains, and organizations. In this way, brands are no longer passively following channels, but can more quickly and accurately turn consumer changes into business actions.
In the end, what FMCG faces today is not "too many channels," but "whether the same brand can understand so many different channel logics."
Achieving this doesn't rely on intuition or data alone, but on both rational analysis and emotional capture; being able to read reports and also read crowd emotions; being able to manage uniformly and also respond differently.
This is the capability that a C-end command center should truly build.
Final Thoughts
Today, the real challenge is not distributing goods, but being accepted by consumers in different ways across different channels.
In the past, it was about distributing a unified brand to different channels; in the future, it's more like the same brand growing different forms in different channels.
Sam's Club wants professionalism, Pinduoduo wants transparency, Xiaohongshu wants aspiration, convenience stores want immediacy, and mom-and-pop shops want certainty. The more channels fragment, the less brands can rely on a single answer to solve all problems.
So, the so-called liquid brand is not a new concept packaging, but a response to the current retail reality. Whoever can truly translate channel narratives into consumer experiences will have a better chance of capturing new growth; whoever can further turn these changes into organizational capabilities will truly be able to build a C-end command center.
In 2026, FMCG competition is not just about products, but about a brand's ability to retell itself according to channels.


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## Citation metadata

- Publisher: New Distribution
- Author: 梁将军
- Published: 2026-04-10
- Canonical: https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/in-the-era-of-channel-fragmentation-fmcg-brands-need-to-grow-like-liquid-1f258bb4/
- Original source: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/yN8c0Sq33B2Mht89FnYvoQ

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