From August 20 to 22, the 6th China FMCG Conference, the 3rd China FMCG Hard Discount Conference, and the 3rd China FMCG Distributor Conference were successfully held in Shanghai. Over three days, 2,000 brand owners, distributors, service providers, and retailers in the FMCG industry gathered to discuss reshaping corporate capabilities and growth paths.
At the main forum on August 20, Mr. Bei Nianjun, co-host of the conference, founder of Shanghai Heyin Network Technology Co., Ltd., and founder and chairman of the MPP Alliance, delivered a keynote speech titled "Navigating the Era of Shrinking Volume: The New Wave from Traffic to Mindshare," which resonated with many attendees.
Mr. Bei has over 20 years of experience as a professional manager in FMCG multinational companies, having served as Modern Trade Channel Director at Mars China, Sales Director at Müller Dairy, and National Business Director at L'Oréal China. He has extensive practical and management experience in key account marketing, channel development and management, market strategy and planning, and digital operations management.
New Distribution is pleased to report on the highlights of his speech for our readers.
From the Traffic Era to the Mindshare Era
The theme of this conference focuses on the era of shrinking volume, which may sound somewhat negative and heavy. However, everything has two sides.
As Mr. Zhao Bo mentioned, the era of shrinking volume also presents opportunities. I also hope to bring you some hope for the future and thoughts on the mindshare era.
Why do we need to think this way? Because in the era of shrinking volume, one thing is certain: "involution" (intense competition).
This involution takes two forms:
One is downward, pursuing maximum efficiency. For example, simplifying the supply chain to reduce costs.
But in the process of downward involution, we see some small problems. First, can downward involution bring hope? Second, downward involution will erode the unique characteristics of brands.
Therefore, we need another direction—upward involution, as shown in the image above called the "Pillar of Creation," which symbolizes that in the era of shrinking volume, we need a group of people who look up at the stars to see hope.
Finding a new model in the era of shrinking volume that can bring new and sustained growth hope—we define this era as the "Mindshare Era."
The Mindshare Era differs from the past Traffic Era. In the past, whether online or offline, information was relatively concentrated. Now, with information explosion, consumers can obtain information from various channels. Additionally, those who have worked with brands are familiar with "consumer profiles." Previously, profiles were flat; now in the Mindshare Era, dimensions such as time, space, and emotion are integrated, making consumer profiles three-dimensional. Of course, as consumers become more mature, the era of following the crowd has passed; they no longer blindly follow trends. Consumers' individualistic and self-awareness is awakening.
In the Traffic Era, the emphasis was on "more, faster, better, cheaper." In the Mindshare Era, we have a new four-character summary: "optimal, efficient, companion, affordable."
First, consumers do not need too many products; they need to find the best, most optimal, and most suitable product. Second, consumers do not need sheer speed, but they need the highest efficiency to obtain the product they desire. Third, consumers do not need to listen to sales pitches or shouting in hypermarkets; they need brands to quietly accompany them and appear silently when needed.
Fourth, consumers do not pursue extreme low prices; for them, affordable products are sufficient to meet their needs.
From "Heartbeat, Instant Gratification" to "Precise Supply and Demand"
Heyin Network, as a leading service provider in the omnichannel new retail field, initially summarized its omnichannel new retail concept at the strategic level as "Heartbeat, Instant Gratification." This year, we have advanced further by proposing "Precise Supply and Demand" at the tactical level.
This means that in the future Mindshare Era, we will prioritize considering the new "supply" and new "demand," while achieving precision. This is a new operational model for the Mindshare Era.
First, let's look at "supply." Here, we use a brand's street compass map to illustrate.
Through a large amount of instant retail data, we can know all order information. By visualizing accumulated data through demand heat maps, brands can clearly and intuitively understand how many consumers and how much demand exist for their products in a given area or street. At the same time, we can also see the supply situation across all platforms.
When we use street-level buildings as the granularity for digital operations, supply and demand become clear at a glance. In fact, we can carry out smart operations and reshaping of omnichannel channels based on this, because we know where consumer demand is and where distribution weaknesses lie.
However, we have also reshaped traditional distribution logic in three directions:
1. Reshaping Measurement Standards: Those familiar with FMCG know that platforms like Meituan and JD Daojia have their own grid maps, but there is no unified measurement standard. Therefore, Heyin Network uses street granularity as the future measurement standard for population gridification. For example, the consumer attributes of Jing'an Street in Shanghai are completely different from those of a street in Chongming District.
2. Reshaping Coverage: Those in FMCG know about weighted distribution and physical distribution, with many distribution indicators to complete. But in the future Mindshare Era, we need to address two types of supply.
The first is "large supply," which refers to how many distribution stores in the street compass have more than 80% of the full product range. A typical example is traditional large KA chains. From the compass, we can clearly see whether the large supply network for full-category and full-brand demand has been laid out.
The second is a new concept called "all-weather supply," which does not require a large number of brands and products to be fully present in the system, but core SKUs and new products of important categories and brands will complete the supply layout. Representative channels include convenience stores, traditional small shops, and intermediate warehouses.
3. Reshaping Operations: Integrate online and offline operations, and use smart distribution and bC integration as future operational handles to form a complete smart compass supply.
Next is the "demand" part.
How to stimulate new consumer demand? Our strategy is to closely link people and scenarios to create an omnichannel marketing closed loop. There are three core points here.
The first core point is the Scenario Dream Factory:
Scenarios are familiar to everyone; in the future, we will discuss three major scenarios.
The first type is broad scenarios, meaning when the brand is needed by consumers.
For example, Heyin Network once operated a well-known chocolate brand. The brand believed that gifting scenarios were their strong mindshare, but after extensive data and operational results, we found that the brand also had a potential scenario: late-night snacking.
When consumers have late-night snack needs, they purchase this brand, but previously the brand was unaware of this segmented demand in all its marketing and strategy. So when we unearthed this new scenario, it brought a large number of new scenarios and co-creation of broad scenarios for the brand.
The second type is micro-scenarios, which we define as locally satisfying the differentiated needs of a large number of consumers.
The third type is instant scenarios, which are also very interesting attempts in the future. Capturing consumers' fragmented emotional needs and satisfying them immediately through marketing means and strong supply guarantees can be considered as opening the mindshare era with that consumer.
The second core point is the Mindshare Dream Factory:
Using new products as a handle, combined with omnichannel placement and major marketing, to achieve comprehensive coverage of specific and broader audiences.
With these two strategic handles—scenarios and people—let's look at the third core point, the Marketing Three Rings Theory in the overall strategy.
1. Conversion Ring: For example, Meituan Flash Shopping, Ele.me, and other offline channels serve as sales conversion paths.
2. Scenario and Ecosystem Ring: Taking Meituan as an example, they have rich scenarios and ecosystems. Our marketing is not limited to the first ring but also covers the second ring, bringing greater traffic and impact on consumer mindshare.
3. Social Ring: Including Xiaohongshu, Douyin, etc., forming omnichannel resonance, maximizing the linkage of rings one, two, and three.
This is Heyin Network's understanding of the two strategic operational handles of supply and demand.
In the future, precision will be the trend.
We currently use streets as the compass granularity, and in the future, we may further refine to communities. More precise operations and digital intelligence will be the pillars supporting our two major strategies of supply and demand and enabling better and more efficient cooperation with brands.
Co-creation and Win-Win: Navigating the Era of Shrinking Volume
Having discussed many concepts, let me illustrate with three actual cases. These cases are award-winning marketing projects by Heyin Network.
Case 1: Pernod Ricard's Late-Night Bistro
Pernod Ricard is a well-known spirits brand. They wanted to build mindshare with consumers by offering small mixed drinks in convenience stores. So we launched the "Late-Night Bistro" concept.
The first core was to capture the emotional adjustment needs of consumers who are tired after working late at night. The second was that all 24-hour convenience stores like Lawson and FamilyMart would have such activities.
When it formed a strong mindshare resonance, it received a great response, especially with spontaneous sharing on Douyin and Xiaohongshu. We jokingly call it "tap water"—without any paid promotion or KOL outreach, consumers had already closely linked the scenario with the brand's mindshare.
Case 2: An Energy Supplement Brand
This case won the IAI Content Marketing/Scenario Marketing Excellence Award. The brand aimed to attract more young people and be the first choice when they need an energy boost.
However, this category has a wide range of options, so we promoted the product by associating it with post-exercise scenarios, such as cycling home.
We also partnered with schools to penetrate the brand into scenarios where potential consumers could use it. Data showed that the growth rate of mindshare cultivation among young people and recruitment of young consumers was more than double that of other brands.
Case 3: Channel Marketing
This case won this year's Tiger Roar Award in the private domain marketing and business innovation categories, and the case was included in Kantar's white paper. We designed exclusive products for a brand to provide to major channels, operated the channels' private domain traffic, and drove sales growth through a large number of KOLs, while greatly strengthening gifting and New Year scenarios within these channels.
Heyin Network looks forward to creating more achievements with our partners in the future. We have already released the Omnichannel New Retail Map 3.0, covering core viewpoints of omnichannel channels, omnichannel marketing, omnichannel digital, and omnichannel brand for new retail operations.
We hope to be those who look up at the stars and see the future, bravely standing at the forefront and daring to be pioneers!
PS: For those interested in the on-site speech content, please follow the recent posts on the New Distribution WeChat official account. We will compile and publish the guest speeches for our readers.
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