---
title: "\"Marketing Digitalization 10 Lectures\" #5: Digitalization Lets Brand Owners Regain Commercial Discourse Power"
description: "The ability to reach C-end consumers and influence their perception is commercial discourse power. Traditional brands gained it through mass media, e-commerce platforms through direct C-end access and traffic control, and brand owners can regain it through marketing digitalization that integrates B-end and C-end. This article explains the sources of discourse power, why it shifted to platforms, and how brand owners can reclaim it via BC integration, content ecosystems, and real-time interaction."
author: "刘春雄"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2020-11-14"
language: "en"
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# "Marketing Digitalization 10 Lectures" #5: Digitalization Lets Brand Owners Regain Commercial Discourse Power

> The ability to reach C-end consumers and influence their perception is commercial discourse power. Traditional brands gained it through mass media, e-commerce platforms through direct C-end access and traffic control, and brand owners can regain it through marketing digitalization that integrates B-end and C-end. This article explains the sources of discourse power, why it shifted to platforms, and how brand owners can reclaim it via BC integration, content ecosystems, and real-time interaction.

****Click "Read Original" for details****
**-01-**
**The ability to reach C-end and influence user perception is commercial discourse power.**
Traditional brands build their brand through mass media advertising, gaining the ability to influence C-end; **e-commerce platforms** gain commercial discourse power by directly reaching C-end and controlling traffic; **brand owners** can regain commercial discourse power by achieving BC integration through marketing digitalization, directly reaching C-end.
**-02-**
**In the traditional marketing era, commercial discourse power mainly rested with brand owners.** Although super terminals gained some discourse power, their influence was still weaker compared to powerful brand owners. Therefore, business leaders were mainly manufacturers like Liu Chuanzhi and Zhang Ruimin.
**In the e-commerce era, platforms gained discourse power.** Whether platform e-commerce like Alibaba and Pinduoduo, or O2O like Meituan, they gained discourse power. Thus, Ma Yun, Huang Zheng, Wang Xing, etc., became the new generation of business leaders.
**Digitalization of marketing refers to the digitalization of traditional manufacturers, because internet platforms are naturally digital. So, does the digitalization of traditional manufacturers help brand owners regain commercial discourse power?**
**Of course, yes.** Although the discourse power cannot be compared to the past.
**-03-**
We can't help but ask: **Where does commercial discourse power come from?**
**The answer is: discourse power comes from influencing user perception. In internet language, it is the ability to influence C-end.**
How did brand owners gain discourse power in traditional marketing? **Mainly by using mass media, reaching C-end through advertising and PR, influencing user perception. That is, the ability of brand owners to build brands.**
Traditional marketing has two major driving forces: brand-driven and channel-driven. Brand-driven uses mass media to reach C-end directly; channel-driven uses channel networks to reach B-end. **Discourse power mainly comes from C-end influence.**
Although many channel-driven companies perform well, they are clearly less influential than brand-driven ones. **Brand is the ability to influence users; brand-driven can force channels to follow.**
**So why did brand owners lose discourse power in the internet age? First, because mass media lost its power; second, because e-commerce platforms reached C-end and influenced C-end perception.**
**Mass media lost power, new media rose, resulting in: mass advertising became ineffective, and new media content fission became the new way of perception. Therefore, traditional enterprises' ability to reach C-end through mass media declined.**
New media content fission is conducive to niche products creating super IPs. Therefore, super IPs are more active than traditional brands, unless traditional brands transform to IP communication models, such as Coca-Cola, Durex, etc. This phenomenon is called **brand IP-ization.**
Platform e-commerce reaches C-end directly, monopolizes platform traffic, and gains traffic distribution rights. Any merchant wanting to reach C-end must go through the platform. **Therefore, discourse power is not with e-commerce merchants but with the platform. Without the platform's "key," you cannot open the door to C-end.**
Our conclusion is: **Whoever can technically reach C-end and have the ability to influence perception holds commercial discourse power.**
**-04-**
**Brand owners regaining commercial discourse power depends on whether they have the ability to connect and interact with C-end.**
**From a marketing technology perspective, the following three methods have some effect:**
**First, mass media still has residual value.** Mass media lost power but did not completely disappear. Although no new brand has risen using mass media since 2009, it is still one way to reach C-end. Although it is no longer the mainstream and has limited discourse power, it can be used as an auxiliary means.
**Second, most traditional marketing departments have adapted to the new media environment.** In 2017, Teacher Fang Gang proposed "killing off" the marketing department, not to eliminate it organizationally, but to transform its functions, "self-castration." Now, although the effects of content fission vary, at least the direction is correct.
**Influencing users with content is effective short-term but hard to sustain long-term. It can attack but not defend. It has explosive power but lacks endurance.**
**Third, digitalization of traditional channels gives brand owners the ability to reach C-end using internet technology, i.e., BC integration.**
In 2019, we proposed BC integration. This is a more important marketing concept than new retail. Retailers naturally reach C-end, but in the past, they only reached them at the point of transaction. The essence of new retail is user online. In the human-goods-field framework, the core is user online.
New retail starts from retailers, connects C-end, and gets users online. This is B2C.
**Brand owners' BC integration starts from the brand owner, connecting distributors (B-end), retailers (b-end), and users (C-end). This is F2B2b2C, full-channel integration, achieving both B-end and C-end users online simultaneously.**
**BC integration, although using B-end as a bridge, technically gives brand owners the ability to have users online and communicate directly with users.**
**-05-**
BC integration, from an internet technology perspective, achieves connecting C-end and getting users online. But technical connection is not influence itself; it builds the carrier for forming influence.
**The formation of discourse power depends on building a new marketing operation system around C-end connection.**
New media "killed off" the marketing department, changing its function from mass communication to content production. So, **there are two major channels for content dissemination:** **First, new media placement.** Originally mass media placement, now new media placement, with differences in media; **second, organized dissemination, especially through channel organizations.** Relying on channel organizations for dissemination requires the sales department to transform from the original "army" to "airborne marines."
The advantages of traditional marketing are brought into play here.
**BC integration also requires "killing off" the traditional sales department.** Some people are sensitive to the word "kill off," thinking it is sensational. In fact, only by "killing off" can there be rebirth. Normal transformation is not impossible, but it is difficult and rare.
**Brand owners regaining discourse power is first a technical issue, then an organizational reengineering issue.**
**-06-**
Platforms gained discourse power, no doubt. Controlling traffic and the "key" to connecting users certainly gives discourse power.
**So, did e-commerce merchants gain discourse power? No.**
In platform transactions, traffic is "bestowed" by the platform (early free traffic) or purchased, and connecting users costs money. Except for a few brands strongly supported by the platform and Taobao brands that influence C-end outside the platform, most are "lost in the platform."
**A few super IPs use new media to form influence, but they are still far from discourse power.** Super IPs rise from niche markets, using new media content fission and the leverage effect of the new generation in new media dissemination, exploding rapidly in the short term, with great influence, seemingly able to compete with traditional big brands in the short term.
However, the weaknesses of super IPs are also obvious: strong explosive power but poor endurance.
**Relying on new media content fission inherently has the trait of liking the new and disliking the old.** New media attention is already at full capacity; when new super IPs rise, old ones are neglected.
We have found that IPs have fashion-like characteristics. Fashion changes quickly, and IPs generally rise and fall quickly.
Watch IPs rise, watch IPs decline.
**When IPs rise, no one can stop them; when IPs decline, no one can save them.**
**-07-**
**Momentum is in C-end, stock is in B-end.**
This is a conclusion we reached long ago. Traditional enterprises have hundreds of billions or trillions in scale, while new e-commerce companies only surpassed tens of billions in 2019.
**Without C-end, there is no momentum; without B-end, there is no scale. BC combination is the best model.**
Traditional enterprise digitalization includes B2B models, which is the digitalization of deep distribution, and BC integration models, such as one-code-one-item and cloud store models.
**BC integration can solve two major problems for brand owners:**
**First, influencing C-end.** As long as C-end is connected via internet technology, brand owners can interact with C-end in real-time, without paying "traffic fees" for each connection like platform e-commerce.
**Second, influencing B-end.** B-end stock remains huge.
We have always emphasized BC-related data because B-end and C-end are mutual levers.
**-08-**
**Reaching C-end and influencing perception is the key to commercial discourse power.**
Marketing digitalization should not be simply understood as transaction digitalization. Transaction is the result of perception.
Besides mass communication and new media communication, how can we influence C-end and perception? **Marketing digitalization, besides transaction online, has two other important infrastructure:**
**First, content ecosystem.** Unlike new media content fission, with C-end online, brand owners also need a content ecosystem platform.
**In the internet age, user attention mainly focuses on three major platforms: first, content platforms like Toutiao; second, social platforms like WeChat; third, e-commerce platforms like Alibaba and Meituan.**
These three types of platforms have formed commercial, content, and social ecosystems. People visit these platforms regularly.
**In comparison, brand owners' malls appear thin.** Few SKUs, little content, short dwell time.
Without a content ecosystem, it is hard to retain users, and there is no reason for users to stay. Over time, it becomes a simple transaction platform.
**Second, real-time interaction with users.** Every click by users on Tmall or Toutiao is instantly responded to by the platform, so much so that users hardly notice. Behind each instant response is an AI calculation.
AI-based instant response differs from human interaction. Human interaction has time lag effects; even the fastest voice response has noticeable lag. AI calculation interaction is completed instantly.
Behind AI instant response is a complex user perception logic, manifested as product portraits and user portraits, and their matching.
E-commerce platform transactions have instant automatic responses and also human interaction between users and the backend. **Marketing digitalization will also form a similar interaction system.**
**User online is only the first step of marketing digitalization. Connecting users and making digitalization a platform for user perception, transaction, and relationships, thereby gaining commercial discourse power, is the highest goal of digitalization.**


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