Recently, I had a closed-door exchange with a brand general manager who has been deeply engaged in the industry for many years. We talked for nearly half a day, and all the content revolved around one question: Where will future growth come from?
The radical transformation of new retail formats is forcing brand owners to "cede power" in an unprecedented manner. Meanwhile, traditional distributors, who still hold the absolute market share, are struggling with increasingly depleted momentum. Everyone is asking: The channels are still there, so why has growth disappeared?
By the end of our conversation, we reached a seemingly universal consensus: All future growth must revolve around consumers.
But this statement immediately plunged us into deeper thought. Over the past three to four decades, hasn't the FMCG industry been shouting "the consumer is king" every day? Which brand doesn't claim to be "consumer-centric"?
But is that really the case?
When we look through abstract language and examine the KPIs that can only be achieved through "channel stuffing," the marketing expenses that flow through black boxes, and the near "blind operation" of headquarters regarding terminal sell-out, we must admit:
What we used to call "consumer-centric" was mostly a marketing slogan, not organizational behavior. Our command center has always been built around the B-end, not the C-end.
This is a misalignment of command authority—because today, if you can't see the consumer (C), you can't command the terminal (B); if you can't command the terminal, you can't win growth.
Our command center must be built around the C-end. This is the only way for brands to survive and break through in an era of oversupply.
The Past Forty Years:
As Long as Goods Entered the Warehouse, the Heart Was at Ease
To understand this "command authority" misalignment, we must first review how we developed over the past forty years.
In the first half of China's FMCG industry, the logic was extremely simple and crude: supply was scarce, and channels were the growth driver. At that time, the brand's command center was built on the "B-end"—that is, distributors, wholesalers, and terminal retailers.
At that time, the general manager's core actions were "channel stuffing" and "distribution." As long as you filled the distributor's warehouse and got the product onto the shelves of even the most remote village mom-and-pop stores, sales would naturally rise.
Because consumers had no choice back then; they bought whatever was on the shelf.
At this stage, the brand headquarters was more like a quota and resource allocation center: providing policies, budgets, and targets, while the channel was responsible for turning on the tap. With a wave of the baton and a policy given, goods would flow down the channel's pipes. In this model, headquarters didn't need to look at consumers; they only needed to look at the "receivables" and "purchase volume" on the reports. As long as the channel pipes weren't blocked, the brand was safe.
But this success also left us with a huge legacy: our organizational muscles were built to "deal with the B-end."
Our KPIs assessed channel stuffing, our fee rates compensated distributors for price differences, and our salespeople went to beg bosses to order two more boxes. We got used to this "push" logic, but forgot whether the person at the end of the pipe really wanted to drink this water.
The Era of Oversupply: The Command Center Became an "Information Island"
But now, the world has changed. This logic has completely failed! Because we have entered an era of extreme oversupply.
Supply oversupply: Homogeneous SKUs explode, promotions become normalized. Channel oversupply: Business formats fragment, traffic disperses. Information oversupply: Media noise amplifies, and investment marginal returns diminish.
Today's consumers face shelves and phone screens full of dazzling choices. They have changed, becoming picky, fickle, and possessing unprecedented choice.
However, our brand command centers still sit in "black boxes" far from the front lines.
I often ask brand leaders: "The tens of millions you spend—where does it actually end up? Does it go to consumer gifts, get intercepted by distributors, or is it arbitraged by terminal owners?" The vast majority cannot give an accurate answer.
This kind of blind operation is gambling with expenses. When you issue orders, you have to guess how the front lines are doing.
Why can new business formats—like snack stores—dare to redefine your game rules? Because they hold the consumer's transaction point and repurchase entry. They have taken away the command authority.
If you still walk by the old map and try to "trick" distributors into ordering more, you will only find yourself getting further and further away from consumers, until you are completely forgotten.
Moving Toward the C-End: Not a Slogan, but Organizational Restructuring
Facing the cruel reality, many brands are starting to think about "direct consumer connection" and "efficient consumer reach." In fact, since the birth of the internet, many brands have been trying this.
Many brands hire a few young people at headquarters to run private domains, open live-streaming rooms, or create mini-programs—and think that's moving toward the C-end.
But moving toward the C-end does not mean doing DTC; nor does it mean bypassing distributors. It means: the basis for headquarters' decisions shifts from "purchasing" to "sell-out and repurchase."
True movement toward the C-end is a migration that starts from the command center. It requires brands to undergo surgery at three levels:
Change of mindset: From "selling goods" to "helping sell" You must completely abandon the mindset of "stuffing goods to distributors." Your task is no longer to sell goods to the B-end, but to establish an altruistic logic of "helping distributors sell goods to consumers." Only when the C-end moves does the B-end live, and the brand becomes stable.
Organizational restructuring: Headquarters must see the battlefield Headquarters can no longer be that lofty center. You must build the command center where the pulse of the C-end can be felt. This means your power, resources, and decisions must be based on consumer feedback, not on regional managers' reports.
Tool revolution: Digitalization must turn virtual into reality This is what I most want to emphasize. In the past, your digitalization was for managing people; now, digitalization is for connecting.
Digitalization campaigns have been carried out in FMCG enterprises for many years. Everyone hopes that digitalization can help brands open up the channel chain, make expenses transparent, and establish efficient connections between brands and consumers. But many enterprises' digitalization is actually "ineffective digitalization."
Digital BC Linkage: The Weapon to Take Back Command Authority
If you now ask a brand president: "Do you know exactly which terminal or consumer your marketing expenses are currently spent on, and how much repurchase they generate?"
The vast majority will shake their heads. This is a typical "command center failure."
In terms of digital empowerment, Dongpeng Special Beverage provides a textbook example. Many people only see that Dongpeng sells well, but they don't see the "BC linkage" system behind it.
Dongpeng implemented "one bottle, one code," where consumers scan the code to receive red packets. This action looks simple, but behind it is astonishing logic: as soon as a consumer scans, headquarters immediately knows who is buying, where they are buying, and when they are buying.
More critically, this system achieves real-time linkage of "five in one."
This logic essentially connects the five points—brand, distributor, salesperson, terminal, and consumer—through a digital nervous system.
For consumers (C-end): You scan, you get red packets, you get incentives. This is the pull.
For terminals (b-end): When consumers scan, terminal owners not only get rebates but also see their business performance through data.
For headquarters (command center): Every cent of your promotional expenses is no longer "pepper powder" sprinkled on the channel, but becomes precision-guided missiles. You can see in real time at the command center: a community store in Chengdu had abnormal sell-out at 3 p.m. today, and you can immediately issue promotional coupons to that specific point.
In an in-depth conversation with Dong Wenbo, founder of Ronghui Digital Technology (Dongpeng Beverage's digitalization employee No. 001, who deeply participated in the entire digitalization process of Dongpeng), he proposed a highly penetrating viewpoint: "Only by achieving BC integration, letting marketing expenses reach the C-end directly while feeding back to the B-end, can brands take back the long-lost command baton."
Dong Wenbo pointed out: There is a core point here, which is to use consumer profiles to reverse-engineer some channel strategies. Many brands have done digital marketing, letting consumers scan codes, but they only treat it as a promotional tool and do not deeply mine and refine consumer profiles and the differences in their consumption scenarios.
"FMCG users are often in the hundreds of millions. To understand consumers, it is unrealistic without the help of digital tools, but you must have a digital strategy that suits you."
In this sense, digital tools are the foundation for "building a C-end command center."
Conclusion:
Chengdu in March: Deconstructing the "Architectural Blueprint" of the Command Center
Finally, let's return to the question at the beginning of the article: Where will future growth come from?
This is also the thinking behind setting the theme of the 11th China FMCG Conference (CFC) we will hold in March as "Moving Toward the C-End."
"Moving Toward the C-End" is not a slogan; it is an extremely painful but necessary organizational revolution. Many people understand the principle, but the real difficulty is: How to transform? How to adjust the organization? How to choose tools? How to change performance?
To thoroughly discuss this topic, in March in Chengdu, [New Distribution x Ronghui Digital Technology] has specially set up a heavyweight discussion forum: "Building a C-End Command Center."
This forum will deconstruct three things:
- How headquarters can take back command authority: from "looking at reports" to "looking at sell-out," and how to rebuild the command chain;
- How digitalization drives BC linkage: how expenses can penetrate the black box, reach the C-end directly, and feed back to the B-end;
- How the performance system can be responsible for sell-out: how assessment and incentives shift from "channel stuffing logic" to "repurchase logic."
Who will speak?
Digital operators: They will talk about the systematic approach from "blind operation to precise command" and how BC integration can be implemented.
Front-line brand leaders: They will talk about how headquarters organization, resources, and performance should be restructured, and how to turn "moving toward the C-end" into organizational capability.
Front-line distributor owners: They will talk about how BC linkage lands in terminals and team actions, and how to turn "strategy" into "sell-out results."
Guest speakers include:
Dong Wenbo (Founder of Ronghui Digital Technology), Cao Yelin (Marketing General Manager of Baiya Co., Ltd.), Lv Guannan (RTM Commercial Director of Coca-Cola China), Liang Jiangjun (Founder of Jiangyi Consulting & Chief Strategy Officer of Zany Growth Network), and several top distributor owners...
2026 will be a watershed for organizational evolution in the FMCG industry.
If you are also deeply anxious about "command failure," and if you want to see the bottom card of growth in the era of oversupply, we'll see you in Chengdu in March!