---
title: "Not All No-Name Brands Are New Consumption | 7,000 Words on What New Consumption Really Is"
description: "In 2021, China's business scene is undoubtedly dominated by new consumption. As with any hot sector, it goes through four stages: good teams get recognized, speculators pile in and inflate a bubble, the bubble bursts and weak players exit, and returns revert to the mean. Currently, we are in the second stage of bubble expansion, where even no-name brands with superficial packaging and fake collaborations call themselves new consumption. However, market fundamentals will eventually prevail, and true new consumption is defined by non-consensus insights, addressing core unmet consumer pain points, extreme product pursuit, brand building, and a youthful team spirit."
author: "沈帅波"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2021-06-07"
language: "en"
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---

# Not All No-Name Brands Are New Consumption | 7,000 Words on What New Consumption Really Is

> In 2021, China's business scene is undoubtedly dominated by new consumption. As with any hot sector, it goes through four stages: good teams get recognized, speculators pile in and inflate a bubble, the bubble bursts and weak players exit, and returns revert to the mean. Currently, we are in the second stage of bubble expansion, where even no-name brands with superficial packaging and fake collaborations call themselves new consumption. However, market fundamentals will eventually prevail, and true new consumption is defined by non-consensus insights, addressing core unmet consumer pain points, extreme product pursuit, brand building, and a youthful team spirit.

**-01-**
**Undoubtedly, 2021 in Chinese business is the year of new consumption.**
In China, whenever a field heats up, it inevitably goes through four stages of evolution.
First, truly good teams go from being unnoticed to being appreciated, until they gain many resources and make many valuable innovations.
Second, speculators see profit and flood in to fish in troubled waters. A bubble gradually forms, more people pour in—even those who never understood new consumption claim to have focused on it for 100 years. The bubble keeps expanding, and everyone says it's amazing.
Third, due to the objective laws of development, the bubble bursts, no-name brands are washed out, and those only looking for short-term gains withdraw automatically.
Fourth, industry returns revert to the mean. Major resources gravitate toward truly outstanding surviving projects.
**Overall, we are now in the second stage of new consumption: the bubble expansion phase.** In the past, everyone had clear ideas about what was a no-name brand and what was a real brand—even if you couldn't articulate it, your money would vote accurately.
But today, a no-name brand can slap on a macaron-colored package, even collaborate with a knockoff Supreme, claim to have signed a design director who might be the tenth ex-Hermès designer, and call itself new consumption—without long-term brand philosophy, product ethos, or even a respectful team.
Due to the soaring bubble, some half-baked investors, driven by FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out), keep entering to take over.
**But the market has objective laws and will eventually return to normal.**

**-02-**
I've recently visited many consumer goods companies. I've found that whether they make alcohol, shampoo, noodles, or toothpaste, there are some common threads. Their commonality is internal, not superficial. **Among them, one company perfectly embodies all these points. This has made me, who has recently felt a lack of fresh stimulation, very eager to explore it deeply and share it with you.**
Who is it?
**It's called [Liran].**
The brand [Liran] was born just two years ago, with the pandemic in between. **Positioned as a comprehensive personal care brand for men**, its product lines cover skincare, grooming, hair care, fragrance, and makeup.
In 2020, its first year, it achieved nearly 200 million RMB in GMV across all channels. Several single products reached monthly sales of over 10 million RMB upon launch. And this year, GMV up to May has already surpassed last year's total.
Many friends reading this will think, "Men's consumption is worse than a dog's."
Why do I focus on this "small track" company?
After all, I've written widely circulated articles on super categories, like "Only Super Categories Have Super Companies Behind Them" and various "Trillion-Yuan Businesses of XX."
I've changed. Ha, men.
**If I can clearly explain how they grew big in Hard mode, that's surely more valuable than writing about Easy mode. Also, please read on.**

**-03-**
**Let's first look at the real state of this track.**
Friends who know me may recall that ten years ago I worked at a top domestic listed daily chemical company. It's not that the company lacked good resources or people, but although they talked about "men's" products rising every year, they never truly did.
There are deep-seated reasons for this.
In the past, men's products were basically derivative lines of women's brands (XX For MEN). For example, if you were refined and had high consumption, you'd buy the corresponding high-end women's brand like SKII FOR MEN or DIOR FOR MEN. If you were less discerning, you'd buy L'Oréal Men, etc.
Only a few brands specialized in men, but they were often part of large brand groups, accounting for only a few percentage points of the company's size. For years, they said men's growth was fast, but the base was too small. Because of this, they rarely got real attention from the group. Independent men's care brands were generally rare. From the consumer side, there were perceptions like "straight men don't care for themselves," "straight men at most use face wash," "even if they buy a set, they rarely stick with it," "the shower gel a man uses at home is bought by his wife," "men don't care about brands," and "men's consumption ranks below dogs in the household." All this made the ceiling for this business very low.
But do these past facts equal future trends? Everyone in the industry believes that men's products are something that doesn't exist today, might not exist tomorrow, but definitely will exist the day after. So the core is timing, and I believe that time has come. Because men's care is not just skincare; in fact, big brands in skincare, hair care, and styling are doing well, with near-monopoly market shares. Clear dominates men's hair care with nearly 70% market share, with annual GMV over 5 billion RMB in China. Other men's-specific category brands face similar competition, and these dominant brands haven't innovated or refreshed their brand image in years. Abroad, many men's DTC brands have started growing, like Harry's, which is valued at $1.7 billion.
And we see on Tmall's skincare market, the proportion of men buying for themselves has been growing in recent years, now approaching a quarter. In hair care, men account for 35%+; in hair styling, 40%+.
Second, in the past, it was single category, single brand, and they've all validated men's from zero to one in individual dimensions. Next, the category should evolve to full-category penetration of the large population, because for men, a single part's need is incomplete; conscious people will gradually advance to other categories. So for men, personal care is the complete need. Therefore, this requires a super brand based on the complete need of men's care. Liran is precisely building a full-category men's personal care brand.
The men's track Liran is pursuing differs from the industry consensus in beauty and personal care—it's a "non-consensus."

**-04-**
Why do non-consensus? **Phones didn't need many buttons; fifteen years ago, that wasn't consensus.**
**Live streaming isn't lowbrow and can sell a lot; a few years ago, it wasn't consensus.**
**Chinese characters on the chest can be trendy; five years ago, it wasn't consensus.** Let's look at the three soul questions:
**Question:** What is the essence of innovation? **Answer:** Non-consensus.
**Question:** Is micro-innovation innovation? **Answer:** The essence of micro-innovation is improvement after consensus, so it's not true innovation.
**Question:** Why is true innovation not valued in Chinese business? **Answer:** Because China's huge market and early development stage make copying and land-grabbing the best short-term competitive strategy, which over time becomes a market of bad money driving out good.
Although everyone publicly says they want innovation, in their hearts they often think about how to harvest with an idea, copy it, and make money first. In the past, doing consensus business always yielded certain and generous returns, so why do non-consensus?
But today, all this is gradually changing.
**Victories of non-consensus are emerging in various fields.**
On one hand, in business competition, when B-side consensus on a business is highly formed, it triggers exponential competition. Because everyone thinks it's profitable, in the end few can make money. And when C-side forms a certain consensus, people feel that bad designs, though bad, have always been like that, and minor adjustments don't change anything, so the whole industry starts to involute.
Today, when most obvious consumption needs can be easily and cheaply satisfied, all business innovation will point to: non-consensus.
**So, this is the first point of true new consumption: it often comes from non-consensus.**
How does Liran practice "non-consensus"?

**-05-**
**Discover the core unmet pain points of the target audience.**
When analyzing a company, the typical approach is to first talk about how great the brand positioning is, how big the blue ocean is, how awesome the founder and team are, then how brilliant certain tactics and strategies are, and finally add emotional value and talk about great ideals. But I think such analysis is useless.
Why?
Because MBA often excels at backward reasoning. But in reality, true entrepreneurship has no chance for backward reasoning. It tests the founder's ability to cross the river by feeling the stones.
**Therefore, he must find his core grip: what product that addresses C-end pain points are you providing?**
Like sugar-free sparkling water for Genki Forest. Today you can say 1-2-3-4-5 why it succeeded. But that's useless. Before it reached the critical point of explosion, the business school's 1-2-3-4-5 didn't hold. Let's look at the underlying logic and core pain points behind several of Liran's super single products.
**Question:** What is men's makeup? **Answer:** Hair styling products: setting sprays, hair clay, wax, etc.
Just as straight men judge whether a woman has makeup almost solely by whether she's wearing lipstick, men judge whether they've groomed themselves by whether they've styled their hair (even if it's thinning).
After styling, they feel more confident; going out with flat hair makes them lack confidence in speech. It also makes others think they're sloppy or don't value the meeting.
**Question:** What is the purpose of men wearing perfume? **Answer:** It varies. In first-tier cities, the primary need for men wearing perfume is likely, like all luxury goods in duty-free shops, to emphasize self-expression, self-pleasure, and attracting the opposite sex.
But in the three northeastern provinces, the primary purpose is to remove odors from eating heavy-flavored barbecue.
In lower-tier cities and counties, since men may not change clothes daily, removing odor is a step before having a fragrance.
Therefore, first removing odor from clothes and then leaving a fragrance men like—"clothing eau de toilette"—is the superset of "perfume."
I've proposed a viewpoint at many industry summits: It's not because of new demographics that there's new consumption. It's not that because more people have better living conditions, they'll naturally spend more on things not worth spending more on. Nor will they spend on things they don't need.
**The essence of new consumption is respect for users, insight, and satisfaction.**
And what is the dividend? Once you truly satisfy, people become your organic advocates, because this generation of consumers supports intellectual property, loves sharing, and is willing to pay a premium. And channels have become diversified, no longer controlled by a few, so good things spread on their own.
There's another dividend: combining contemporary changes and consciousness trends, you can gain insights into potential needs that weren't valid before but are now reasonable. As Jobs mentioned in a speech: "Starting with what incredible benefits you can provide to users and where to get customers, rather than sitting down with engineers to figure out what awesome technology to tackle, is the right product philosophy."
**Therefore, the logic of new consumption is product first. Finding the 'trump card,' finding the point of repurchase, and finding organic advocates is the most core step.**

**-06-**
**After identifying the need, pursue and understand the product to the extreme.**
Is that all?
Obviously not.
Because being able to think through these things still doesn't constitute a true moat. Others can quickly find OEM factories to copy and lower prices. The real moat is the extreme pursuit and understanding of the product after discovering the need, and building group brand mindshare.
Let's first look at the extreme pursuit and understanding of the product.
In 05, we said men's makeup is hair styling products. When someone with insight hears this, they can immediately go to the Pearl River Delta and find at least 100 OEM/ODM factories to produce and label products.
**Understanding this pain point is the first layer, but it's not enough. There's a second layer.**
In the past, everyone focused on the result of styling, but no one focused on the process—whether the styling technique is good. The styling product only determines a small part. And whether the styling is good depends on whether you washed your hair.
But how many men can wash, blow-dry, and style their hair in the morning? Sleeping 20 more minutes is more important than anything. So the core scenario for Liran's product combination is to solve the problem of men being busy/lazy, rushing out, unable to wash their hair but unable to accept messy hair.
First, use the white bottle volumizing spray—spray it to absorb oil and solve the morning oily flat hair. Then use Liran's black bottle styling spray—it has some moisture when sprayed, so you can directly shape with your hands, friendly for those with clumsy hands, and it dries after shaping, holding all day. In the morning, you can quickly style and go out in one minute.
So Liran's overall product logic focuses on problems users find unreasonable or that haven't been addressed. Therefore, this product exploded upon launch and is currently the No.1 styling product on Tmall.
**So when the problem is elevated, the product's essence shouldn't be a hair wax, but the two steps above: first, de-oil and volumize; second, strong hold.**

**-07-**
**Achieving the above, congratulations, you're a great guerrilla leader, or a mountain king, at the level of Zuoshan Diao.**
Because the other side is what only teams with ambitions for the world focus on: truly focusing on and building brand mindshare. Among the countless business owners I've met, those in To C industries fall into two distinct schools. One is channel-first, terminal-first. They rose in an era of weak brand awareness; occupying channels means occupying everything. Overall, they are gradually improving their brands, but it's not their core gene, they're not good at it, and their past first-mover advantages remain, so they haven't reached the point of desperation.
The other school is brand-first. Unfortunately, many of them never grew big. Because the Chinese market is extremely bloody. If you only have a brand belief without the ability to fight with bayonets, you won't survive until your core competency can be used. That's why many brand executives from big companies fail when they start their own ventures.
**If both are strong, they're basically kings. For example, Nongfu Spring.**
Many bosses, deep down, don't want to build a brand. Don't be fooled by their loud talk. They just want to make money. No need to argue; I've seen too many samples.
**But to become a king, you need to make sacrifices. Being a big brother always requires giving. Building a brand means restraint, doing some things and not others. The process of restraint is the process of curbing short-term profit maximization.**
For example, is shooting a corporate image film valuable? You say yes, but it often can't bring higher returns than promotions in the short term.
For instance, today I had rice noodles at the airport. There were eight pieces of meat in the bowl, and I was touched. This shop, without a doubt, is a chain brand. Because opening at the airport is to enhance image and visibility.
But an individual business at the airport should not put meat in the bowl. Because they open at the airport to make money; they're not a chain, and they don't want to build a brand.
**So, whether you truly want to build a brand deep down is more important than knowing the methods.** When we talk about mindshare, there's actually controversy in the industry today. The main point is: with too many brands, information overload, and platform algorithms controlling your screen, can you still build mindshare?
Indeed, various fast-moving consumer goods brands for women flash by like fireworks.
Here we need to analyze men's logic. In offline shopping scenarios: women like to browse, even if they initially only wanted to buy a comb. So women shop for hours and come home with bags of stuff, but no comb. Men think about what to buy or are stimulated by ads, then go directly to the store for that brand, buy it, and go home.
In online shopping, men directly open the shopping app, search for the brand, or search by function/category, select a price range, compare a bit, buy, and finish. Women still like to browse back and forth. So, what is the essence of men's brands?
"For them, if you can meet my needs, I basically won't switch during the period before I completely leave that consumption segment." **This is why men's brand loyalty is extremely high.**
For example, in men's clothing, except for a tiny minority of trendy men, most people even want to buy everything from underwear to ties in one store. That's why "men's wardrobe" is a great advertising slogan.
We found that Liran's cross-selling ratio is as high as 80%+. What a dream number. On one side, occupying men's minds is about meeting needs and appropriately leading needs. On the other side, it's about leading spirit and spiritual distinction. **We can see all top men's sports brands emphasize sports technology on one hand and spiritual core on the other. Whether it's 'Just Do It' or 'Anything Is Possible.'** Liran's current English name is "make essence," and later the brand will change to "make sense," precisely to express the brand viewpoint: "Men's care is a matter of course."
Men, through make sense personal care, make their image more appropriate—this is something that should naturally happen.
Actually, the implication is: hope to abandon traditional perceptions. Men's personal care is not just about making you handsome and stylish, or more attractive to women. It can also simply and directly tell you that men's care is a matter of course. This is a leadership of social consciousness.
**So the fourth point of new consumption is extremely important: you must have firm belief and persistence in your brand. Your primary goal is not to make money.**

**-08-**
"Why are you so fond of dressing up?" This line is not only in Liran's latest ad film.
It's actually what Liran's founder Huang Weiqiang's mother has said to him since childhood. (My mom says that to me too.)
This is not an isolated case. Before gender consciousness is clear, boys also steal their mother's lipstick. I believe many people reading this article have done that.
I first met Weiqiang one morning after many failed attempts to meet, in the lobby of a hotel in Shanghai's Xintiandi. The lobby bar was still empty. He didn't talk about grand ambitions; we discussed products, categories, and the industry.
Later, we met at his company. Their office is in a co-working space, and the team has grown from 30 people last year to 150 now.
On the company wall, there's a Lego wall where each employee has a custom figure with their name. He said that when the company celebrated its second anniversary, they built this wall with the team, and each Lego piece was assembled bit by bit, because "Liran has you."
He said HR found him a new office, a bit more expensive, but he didn't think it was necessary. I asked why. He told me that because it's still a very early stage, "Always Day One" is his creed.
He talked about how he understands product design and packaging, why Japanese products are covered with stickers, why this layout, why sans-serif fonts, etc. He talked about the next product plans and design philosophy. Not much emotional embellishment, no self-aggrandizement—just pragmatic and professional.
Finally, he said: "Thank you for your time." That's a phrase I usually say to countless founders. Only empathetic people are good brand people. **With sufficient social vision, systematic training from the formal system, and extremely high sensitivity, they are even better founders.** **I vaguely feel something different about this generation of new consumption people.**
At the start of their ventures, they hope to solve specific problems.
They often have good education and have experienced growth and tempering. But they also find that what they want to achieve is more than just predictable things.
They all grew up in an era of national prosperity, and they always believe in a youthful China. They always have a youthful dream.
So, they attract more like-minded people to create their universe together. Their product system and brand philosophy unfold along their universe, not along past physical attributes. **At the same time, the team building this has a sense of youthfulness.**
What is a sense of youthfulness? Perhaps it's like Li Ronghao's lyrics "Young and promising, not inferior," with a refusal to compromise with the world, a need to prove oneself, and a rejection of greasiness and seniority-based views of relationships.
**And teams full of youthfulness are always looking for increments. They use people's beautiful aspirations to make products and brands, not exploit human weaknesses to sell goods.**

**-09-**
On the day I met him, they showed me the brand TVC to be announced the next day. I was shocked. Especially the first three lines touched me; as a man, each one gave me a vivid image.
**It's said many men don't want to hear these three sentences:**
**"There's no Ultraman in the world."**
**"I think you can't do it."**
**"Why are you so fond of dressing up?"**
The first is about childhood love. The second about confidence and self-esteem. The third about the requirement for one's own image.
At first, men dressing up equaled feminization, not masculine. It equaled a tiny minority.
Later, men dressing up equaled refinement and attention to detail. But it still equaled a minority.
But one day, men will dress up because of sincerity, appropriateness, and pioneering spirit. And this spirit is what most people desire.
**Sincerity, appropriateness, and pioneering**—these three keywords are also Liran's brand spirit.
True power forms and changes little by little. And when this power quietly gathers in our hearts, suddenly one day you find that your friends think the same way; streams merge into rivers, becoming a torrent.

**-10-**
Finally, let's sort out what new consumption is:
**1. Through insight into C-end pain points, discover a changing trend, which often differs from the industry consensus.**
**2. Discover the core unmet pain points of the target audience.**
**3. After identifying the need, pursue and understand the product to the extreme.**
**4. Truly focus on and be willing to pay the cost to build brand mindshare and assets.**
**5. The team building this has a sense of youthfulness.**
I believe [Liran] has set an example for new consumption. That's also the main reason I use it as the core case study today.

**Postscript:**
Because my life involves long-term high-density input and high-density output, plus high-intensity physical and mental work,
being a professional writer is an extremely painful job.
Out of 100 visits, perhaps 90 are basically similar, making you feel flat, boring, and dull.
But those 10 real collisions always make you feel it's all worth it.
In Zweig's timeless work "Decisive Moments in History," 14 moments are recorded.
The fall of the Byzantine Empire, Balboa gazing at the Pacific, Handel's miraculous spiritual revival, Goethe's tragic love in old age, the minute at Waterloo, the hero's moment, the struggle in Antarctic exploration, Cicero, Wilson's dreams and failures, and the divine creation of the Marseillaise. These 14 historical moments miraculously descended upon 14 protagonists, either lifted high by fate into the halls of heroes, or mocked and cast into the ranks of eternal regret.
When strong individual will collides with historical destiny, sparks fly, and such moments illuminate the sky of human civilization.
I think in this great era of new consumption, a group of such people will emerge. In their prime, they discover their mission and use all their strength to achieve it.
**And what I hope to do is: truthfully and accurately record these moments.**

Source: Jinjibo Finance (ID: jinbubo) Author: Shen Shuaibo
Tips: If your tip is used, you'll be paid 400-2000 RMB.


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