Source | Value Planet Planet Undoubtedly, marketing is applicable in the FMCG industry. In 2024, Chagee invested a staggering 1.1 billion yuan in marketing, and its brand topic popularity and public awareness saw a leap in the same year. At the FBIF expo, a bottled beverage brand founder also candidly told the author, "Because of continuous exposure on Xiaohongshu, Weibo, Douyin, and offline channels, our product's order rate is 10% higher than competitors." Today, the consumer industry is extremely pursuing practical value and cost-effectiveness on one hand, and on the other hand, extremely pursuing the spillover of emotional value. The role of marketing is gradually being perceived, and its forms are becoming more diverse. Besides using traditional media, spending a lot of time and energy supporting the implementation of innovative media is also a new choice for brands to break out of their circles. Undoubtedly, in this era, seeking deep emotional connections with consumers and becoming their "spiritual substitute" or even "life partner" is always the fastest and most stable shortcut for brands to get closer to consumers. But what role to play, through what medium, how to implement creativity, and how to ensure the bottom line of marketing are all issues that brands and marketers are currently thinking about and solving. Becoming a "Spiritual Substitute" The term "emotional value" is an unavoidable core topic in current marketing. In 2023, the editorial department of "咬文嚼字" (Yaowen Jiaozi) rated emotional value as one of the top ten buzzwords of the year. The concept of emotional value, which truly originated from marketing theory (emotional benefit - emotional cost = emotional value), has expanded in social media discussions and deconstruction to encompass emotional relationships in all social behaviors, starting to refer to a person's or thing's ability to influence others' emotions. Society's attention to emotions is increasing, and the public's demand for emotional connection is gradually strengthening. Emotions have become an important factor in sunk costs, affecting people's lives, especially consumption. In this environment, the consumer industry has formed a polarized trend: on one side, there is an extreme pursuit of practical value and cost-effectiveness; on the other, an extreme pursuit of emotional value spillover consumption, including but not limited to blind boxes, "guzi" (merchandise), and Shanghai's expensive coffee. It can be said that product positioning has begun to shift towards being a "spiritual substitute." "Finding emotional connection is always the fastest and most stable shortcut for brands to get closer to consumers. " said Shen Danyang, General Manager/Executive Creative Director of Zan Yi Shanghai. In his view, brands should always create two things. First, a sense of aspiration. "I think price may only differentiate consumers' consumption concepts, but human aspirations for life will still reach a consensus. When brands choose their angle with life, they need to consider their role in entering public life and which expectation of life they should satisfy." Second, returning to the perspective of accompanying consumers. "Now consumers have too many choices. Brands can no longer be a role to be looked up to, but should become a life partner, accompanying consumers' life scenarios. Now, narratives like 'using me makes you a winner in life' to tell brand stories are actually no longer effective." An indisputable fact is that top brands can always nurture a large amount of UGC content, which has become the most important and convenient way for brands to create and deepen emotional connections. The most typical example is McDonald's. About three years ago, social platforms were dominated by "Crazy Thursday." Until a group of people who always "trouble" McDonald's staff appeared. This group, calling themselves "McDonald's disciples," would identify themselves in the remarks of every order, pleading for some perks, such as extra fries or a box of sweet chili sauce. The "guardian angels" (staff) would not only fulfill the disciples' requests but also write long responses on the remark slips. This kind of emotional response, where "if you keep thinking about it, it will respond," made disciples share their McDonald's life on social platforms more frequently, and these "fan moments" also provided endless inspiration for brand marketing. At the FBIF forum, Li Qi, head of McDonald's China Social Media Editorial Department and Brand Content, admitted that UGC content on social media becomes the most original insight for McDonald's social media and even brand IMC campaigns. McDonald's is also actively building connections and interacting with fans. Fan activities like Pie Day and Big Fries Day have been launched one after another. At the end of 2023, McDonald's even extracted and co-created fan moments shared by 53 netizens, launching a Fan Moments Weekly Calendar, which "has also become an 'alarm clock' that constantly reminds fans to eat McDonald's throughout the year." Li Qi said frankly that the three core elements of Fan Truths are shared, special, and specific. Fans are one of the brand's most important assets, and both sides should treat each other like friends, with mutual respect and equal dialogue. Marketing, Growing on the Shoulders of Life In the context of pursuing emotional connection, using life scenarios as a medium to nurture marketing and brand value has become a new choice for brands. A typical case is Huang Tian'e and Heinz's "tomato scrambled eggs." After the Spring Festival in 2025, a group of wonderful eggs appeared in Hema offline stores. Besides the Huang Tian'e logo, the eggshells were printed with random chicken soup for the soul: "When you don't know what to eat, eat tomato scrambled eggs; when you don't know where to go, go home first" "No problem can't be solved by a plate of tomato scrambled eggs" "Grandma has forgotten many things, but she always remembers I love tomato scrambled eggs" Heinz and Huang Tian'e wrote consumers' memories related to tomato scrambled eggs on 10,000 eggs. This "couple collaboration" boosted social discussions about Heinz, Huang Tian'e, and tomato scrambled eggs by dozens of times, and Huang Tian'e's sales in Hema grew rapidly. This is a disruptive role reversal for the brands. In the past, the public's main impression of Huang Tian'e was "edible raw eggs," while Heinz was more associated with dipping sauces. "When a brand enters the consumer market, the ultimate foothold is not entirely based on brand stories, but starting from consumer life," Shen Danyang explained. "For example, ketchup's role abroad might be to accompany burgers, pizza, fruit salad, but definitely not scrambled eggs. But in the Chinese market, it must consider Chinese dining culture. This is a process of brands actively adapting to life." In Chinese kitchens, the market penetration of soy sauce is about 90%, while ketchup is less than 30%. And all Chinese people fry 100 million plates of tomato scrambled eggs a year, "which is a dish everyone can agree on." "A thousand people have a thousand versions of tomato scrambled eggs. Maybe not everyone can accept using ketchup to make tomato scrambled eggs, but we are just offering one option, not forcing consumers," Shen Danyang said. At the FBIF forum, the head of Meituan Instashopping's brand digital marketing also mentioned the importance of life scenarios. Meituan Instashopping divides user scenarios into 16 major scenarios, mainly divided into four major sectors: home, dining, social, and travel. In the past period, in the cooking and grocery shopping scenario subdivided from the home scenario, Weilong appeared among the top ten brands with the fastest growth. "We looked at some social media user trends and found that this generation of young people is using Weilong to make creative dishes. It's indeed quite 'dark cuisine,' but maybe that's the fun for young people," the Meituan Instashopping brand digital marketing head explained. "It seems that young people's lifestyles are changing. Could this give some brands new inspiration?" She said frankly, "Why do we strongly believe in scenario marketing? We believe that in all scenario marketing we observe, once users' associations are opened in that scenario, they will generate continuous repurchases in the long term." For video websites, content is also part of building life scenarios. For example, in-depth and high-quality content on Bilibili can help food and beverage brands shape their brand persona and resonate emotionally. At the FBIF site, the Bilibili booth, in the creative form of a "content supermarket," showcased variety shows, galas, documentaries, and UP主 videos, as well as the "2024 BILIBILI Z1OO Good Products List" selected based on comprehensive data such as platform content and consumption, showing how "young people's choices" are driven by content power to boost product power. The list page displayed UP主 @记录生活的蛋黄's video using Moutai to make chocolate, which had over 10 million views, sparking young people's desire to explore food. @盗月社食遇记's video "Shandong's client is really generous" with nearly 3 million views made young people reacquaint themselves with Dong'e Ejiao. At the scene, Bilibili also released the "Creating 'Food' Moments, Entering the Heart - 2025 bilibili Food and Beverage Industry Marketing Trend Report" in conjunction with Ruicong Consulting, summarizing eight major food and beverage content trends. "The experience mode of food and beverage is gradually completing a leap from short-term sensory stimulation to spiritual and cultural value." Only by enhancing cultural identity and stimulating interaction with users can brands occupy the high ground of consumer minds in the red ocean of commercial competition. Marketing that starts from content allows brands and consumers to have a deeper connection. Innovative Marketing: Where Are the Difficulties? Of course, emotional value and life scenarios are not a panacea. On one hand, continuous nostalgia cards may be slowly eroding consumer interest. On the other hand, beyond consumer goods, a series of cultural products such as long videos, medium videos, short videos, web novels, and short dramas can provide entertainment satisfaction to the public and quickly connect with consumers. In Shen Danyang's view, more often than not, rather than creating content consumers have never seen, it is more important to evoke consumers' shared memories through content. Brands will be more restrained in creating "old object emotions." "The charm of text and video is that it can connect people to something." Using life scenarios as a medium means brands always need to discover new media forms. The core significance of innovative media at present is to provide consumers with a fresh media form, thereby generating discussion, social interaction, and dissemination, bringing topics and value to the brand. "Media emphasizes dissemination. Most media's role is to broadcast, but innovative media is more about spreading," Shen Danyang explained. "Overall, traditional media will still account for the majority, but traditional media is constantly updating. Ten years ago, Douyin was innovative media, but now it is already mainstream media. Every era will have new innovative media, and it will gradually become traditional media." But the discovery and application of innovative media still have "thresholds." In China, media control is relatively strict. For example, for creative expression, practitioners once proposed using only half of a billboard, but the exposed cables and brackets on the other half would pose safety hazards and not comply with relevant regulations. Brands also need to invest more energy and thought. The process from creative idea to reality is difficult and even somewhat painful. Just working on packaging requires considering production difficulty, food safety, batch production feasibility, and a series of other issues. For later dissemination, cooperation with small outdoor shops also requires the executor to communicate and confirm one by one. The special nature of innovative media determines that it is not a marketing method that can be achieved with a ready-made price. Only brands that truly recognize the value of this matter and are willing to spend time tackling it can implement it. After all, being the first to try something new is definitely difficult. Before the actual cooperation began, Shen Danyang visited Huang Tian'e's offline factory. There, he saw automated equipment, meticulous sterility, and self-bred hen breeds. "Maybe because I've seen it, I know it really requires high costs. I think today, if a brand wants to make quick money, it generally won't focus on agricultural and sideline products." A wrong perception is that after packaging a good story in marketing, the brand sells something originally worth 5 yuan for 50 yuan. When funds are spent on advertising and marketing rather than consumers' lives, it will inevitably face the risk of being questioned for its necessity and rationality. "Demand brings value; marketing is just a breakthrough point. " Shen Danyang affirmed. Under this major condition, marketing is destined to have a red line - values. "I have always felt that the premise of an advertising person is to be a person. You are first a buyer, then a seller. Don't make ads that you wouldn't want your family and friends to see. That red line is mainly drawn for yourself."