---
title: "Opportunities and Challenges for Brands Going Direct-to-Consumer in New Channels and Scenarios"
description: "Feng Yuehai, Head of InStore Business at Qiesheng Technology and CEO of Miya Technology, delivered a keynote at the 'BC Integration' forum. Titled 'Opportunities and Challenges for Brands Going Direct-to-Consumer in New Channels and Scenarios,' he analyzed how FMCG brands can choose digital tools, build consumer awareness around O2O scenarios, and leverage integrated online-offline channels to drive sales, proposing three core insights: both emerging and traditional brands have opportunities in 2B2C under new scenarios and channels."
author: "冯越海"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2021-10-08"
language: "en"
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# Opportunities and Challenges for Brands Going Direct-to-Consumer in New Channels and Scenarios

> Feng Yuehai, Head of InStore Business at Qiesheng Technology and CEO of Miya Technology, delivered a keynote at the 'BC Integration' forum. Titled 'Opportunities and Challenges for Brands Going Direct-to-Consumer in New Channels and Scenarios,' he analyzed how FMCG brands can choose digital tools, build consumer awareness around O2O scenarios, and leverage integrated online-offline channels to drive sales, proposing three core insights: both emerging and traditional brands have opportunities in 2B2C under new scenarios and channels.

**Feng Yuehai, Head of InStore Business at Qiesheng Technology and CEO of Miya Technology**, delivered a keynote at the 'BC Integration' forum.
Under the title **'Opportunities and Challenges for Brands Going Direct-to-Consumer in New Channels and Scenarios,'** he provided an in-depth analysis of **how FMCG brands can choose appropriate digital tools in the new market environment, build consumer awareness around O2O scenarios, and efficiently leverage new channels that combine online and offline to drive sales.** He proposed three core insights:
**Both emerging and traditional brands**
**have good opportunities in 2B2C under new scenarios and channels.**
**Emerging brand case:** Before the Mid-Autumn Festival, Daily Dark Chocolate launched a first wave of livestream preheating for its 'Oat Chocolate Mooncakes,' followed by a series of intensive actions: on September 14, it seeded content on mainstream platforms like Xiaohongshu, Bilibili, and Douyin. On September 15, it held livestreams on Douyin and Tmall, focusing on brand image building. On September 16, it executed an offline handoff by placing products on 3,000 FamilyMart new product shelves and in cinema channels.
It is important to emphasize that the choice of channels and scenarios for brand promotion and offline marketing is closely tied to brand positioning. Daily Dark Chocolate chose the FamilyMart chain because it aligns with its consumer base.
Through the combination of new channels and scenarios, Daily Dark Chocolate achieved two major results: record-breaking Tmall livestream for new product launch and rapid acquisition of initial fans and loyal members through livestream seeding. **Thus, choosing which online channels to promote on and how to integrate them with offline channels has become the biggest challenge for brands today.**
**Traditional brand case:** The concept of 'new marketing' is not difficult for emerging brands, as they are digital natives. The challenge often lies with traditional brands. However, some traditional brands have successfully completed digital transformation and fully implemented 'new marketing' concepts.
For example, a well-known domestic daily chemical brand executed a nationwide new marketing campaign using the Alipay scenario. The brand first leveraged Alipay's main venue regular activities and monthly promotions for initial product exposure and preheating.
Then, by channeling Alipay's online traffic to offline terminals, it covered hundreds of small retailers and thousands of stores in second- and third-tier cities within just four weeks. Combined with the development of a private domain mini-program, this laid the foundation for the campaign's promotion.
In subsequent campaign execution, the brand achieved over 50% coupon redemption, driving transaction value exceeding 80 million yuan and related transaction value exceeding 100 million yuan.
Moreover, these transactions did not come from well-known NKA clients but from small customers in markets in second- and third-tier cities. **Therefore, the penetration and reach capabilities of digital tools in new channels and markets are crucial for brands.**
From the above two cases, we can see that both emerging and traditional brands have good opportunities in 2B2C under new scenarios and channels. So, under the backdrop of BC integration, how can brands (upstream in the marketing chain) and retailers (downstream) collaborate in new channels and scenarios to drive efficient operations and performance across the entire marketing chain?
**Scenario-based operational capabilities powered by digital tools**
**are key to building consumer awareness and improving sell-through.**
Retailers, especially major chain customers, have already widely adopted digital scenario construction. Offline digital tools and scenarios have completed the first round of coverage for consumers and retailers.
However, how can this coverage be linked to brand marketing? How can brands conduct operational activities in new scenarios and channels while staying relevant to their business systems? **On one hand, it's about applying digital tools; on the other, it's about enhancing scenario-based operational capabilities. These are the two biggest challenges brands need to overcome.**
Digital tools, such as business middle platforms and data middle platforms, are complex and heavy. For instance, Feihe only completed its middle platform construction in 2020, a very complex and heavy process. But the connotation and extension of digital tools are vast, and many cutting-edge digital scenarios are based on them.
**Brands should not blindly invest in heavy data tool construction. In other words, not every company is suitable for building heavy data or business middle platforms. Many operational strategies are incubated through operational scenarios.**
Using small scenarios to quickly apply digital tools for transformation and upgrading, and prioritizing broad connection with consumers, is the first step in brand digital upgrading. If we fail at this first step, future connections with more scenarios, digital capabilities, and operations will be impossible.
**First, connect with consumers.**
**Second, excel at customer and scenario operations.**
**Finally, talk about data empowerment.**
**So today, our primary issue should be whether we can truly connect with scenarios like small stores in second- and third-tier cities, online scenarios, and NKA head merchant scenarios using digital tools.**
Second, within these scenario tools, can we use our operational plans to effectively manage consumers?
Third, can we use data and even algorithms to empower and improve operational efficiency?
If companies do not follow these three steps, the final ROI, including the construction process and outcomes, often falls short of expectations.
In the digitalization process, the first step is to use the most reasonable digital tools to connect with 2C customers and consumers at different levels and scopes.
For example, the consumer groups on Douyin and FamilyMart have fundamentally different mindsets. This difference cannot be analyzed through digital analytics alone; it must be judged and distinguished through digital scenarios and operations, based on data-driven analysis.
**First, use data tools to achieve connection. Second, accumulate data samples through continuous operations. In this process, we will find that online and offline operations are two different topics.**
Online operations have become highly specialized. Take livestreaming: few brands have the courage to set up a dedicated livestream team. Livestreaming is a very professional topic, from operational planning, livestream design, to promotion. The core is content operations, which involve different strategies, media, and technology combinations to create a complete online operational scenario and content.
Offline operations are even harder. For example, coupons are a popular vehicle and an excellent touchpoint for connecting with consumers.
There are many channels for distributing coupons: WeChat, Alipay, mini-programs, official accounts, and even offline interactive games and smart screens. But the core question is: in what scenario should coupons be issued, and what brand objectives should they match? Which scenario aligns with consumer mindset and marketing goals? For instance, whether the goal is to clear inventory, gain more exposure, or drive more consumption, different objectives determine the choice of offline scenarios and operational tools.
**Finally, the hardest part for brands in operating different scenarios is data feedback and insights. Because there are many natural barriers between online and offline operations, it is often impossible to integrate online and offline data, nor see a unified consumer profile or operational effectiveness.**
**Therefore, in the process of online and offline operations, brands must go through three different stages of data application.**
The first stage is visualization, allowing brands to see their operational results. The second stage is using algorithms and models for prediction. The third stage is AI application.
We have always considered operational result visualization as a pain point in brand 2C operations. We have developed different data insight content and dashboards around industry and market conditions, including media and traffic insights, and even audience insights, hoping that brands can promptly observe data feedback from various aspects when implementing BC integration.
Additionally, through offline scenario operations, we provide brands with intuitive displays and content on competitive market, market research, distribution rate, and sales share, hoping that across different business formats, as operational and sales activities are promoted, brands can intuitively see changes in market share across different cities.
In the future, it may be possible to implement 'one city, one strategy,' allowing brands to see how each marketing campaign affects market share in different cities.
 _Note: This article is from Mr. Feng Yuehai's keynote at the 2021 (4th) China FMCG Conference, organized and published with his review and authorization._
_Click **Read Original** to see more highlights from the 2021 (4th) China FMCG Conference..._
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