In recent years, with the rapid development of tea, coffee, and bakery chain formats, as well as the acceleration of private label strategies by leading supermarkets like Sam's Club, Hema, and Pangdonglai, a large number of supporting supply chain raw material and ODM companies have emerged, preparing to move from behind the scenes to the forefront. Unlike the B2B large-customer model that relies on orders and is constrained by others, every supply chain company boss harbors a dream of owning a brand—truly mastering market discourse and securing a place in the C-end market. However, transitioning from a supply chain company to a C-end brand may seem like a step away, but in reality, it's like switching to a new track and starting over. In the past, they built moats through large-scale production, deep binding with major customers, and extreme cost control; but the rules of the C-end game are completely different, requiring a comprehensive ability to deeply understand consumers, continuously shape brand value, and directly engage with users. These two models, from their underlying logic, belong to two different worlds. Specifically, the bottlenecks in transformation are mainly reflected in the following five aspects. Conflict in Mindset: Supply chain is order-oriented; C-end is user-oriented The core of a supply chain company is "order thinking." Essentially, it only needs to serve dozens of core large customers and meet their needs promptly, which still remains at the marketing 1.0 stage. To build a C-end brand, one must switch to "user thinking": To understand what thousands of consumers are thinking, capture the differentiated needs of different groups, strengthen one's strengths, and achieve brand breakthrough and growth—this is already the logic of marketing 3.0. If the brand manager of a supply chain company cannot make the leap from "order thinking" to "user thinking," then supply chain companies building C-end brands will carry inherent shortcomings from the start. Differences in Product Logic: Supply chain is raw material thinking; C-end is story thinking The product logic of supply chain companies essentially revolves around releasing factory capacity. It emphasizes rational hard indicators like raw materials, processes, and equipment, building advantages in standardization and high efficiency—this is typical "raw material thinking." In contrast, the product logic of C-end brands is completely different; it revolves around the needs of target users, focusing on the emotional appeals of specific groups in specific scenarios. A C-end product must first convey warmth and carry brand narrative, and only then derive differentiation, high aesthetics, and functional value. As with Hengmei Health, its strength in raw materials is undeniable, but when it personally enters the C-end, it must learn to turn cold "raw materials" into "consumer goods" with stories. From B-end to C-end, this is not just an extension of product form, but two different species in product logic. Differences in Channel Capabilities: Supply chain companies are narrow and deep; C-end is wide and shallow Supply chain companies essentially play the role of "supporting factories" for upstream large customers, and their channel model exhibits typical "narrow and deep" characteristics. The advantage is that as long as they secure a few core large customers, they can thrive; But the other side of the coin is that they are prone to "large customer dependency," which is both armor and a fatal weakness. Once core customers adjust their strategies or are lost, performance may decline sharply. However, the approach for C-end brands is completely different. It follows the logic of "seize a trend, target a group, create a scenario, solve a pain point," often starting from traffic pools like live e-commerce or new retail, breaking through the market with a hit product, and then gradually building its own moat. The corresponding channel model is "wide and shallow": it must lay out e-commerce, test live streaming, enter supermarkets, develop distributors, and even build direct-operated stores. Once this diversified channel network is established, it often has stronger anti-risk capabilities and smaller performance fluctuations, thus building a true barrier for the enterprise. Reshaping the Value Network: Supply chain is asset-heavy C-end is brand marketing asset-heavy Clayton Christensen once profoundly pointed out: "What truly determines the future direction of a company is the value network, not managers; managers only play a symbolic role." Among these, the customer value network is the invisible hand that determines life and death. Supply chain companies are precisely "coerced" by their customer value network. Due to deep binding with upstream large customers, limited funds and resources are continuously absorbed into production lines to pursue extreme economies of scale. This is their survival rule and also their path dependency. The value network for C-end brands is completely different. Behind them are thousands of target users constantly raising new demands, driving companies to invest resources in brand marketing and user operations. Supply chain companies focus their business on large customers, so C-end brand building is naturally weak from the start. From production thinking to brand thinking, from pursuing scale to creating premium, this is not only a leap in capability but also a difficult jump to break free from the gravity of the original value network and leap to a new one. Insufficient Organizational Capabilities: Supply chain companies have R&D and technical talent C-end has brand marketing talent Most supply chain companies started as OEMs for large customers, with core capabilities accumulated in two areas: one is building cost and advanced manufacturing barriers through production, and the other is accumulating deep R&D technology and large customer marketing talent through long-term collaboration with large customers. In contrast, the operational focus of C-end brands is completely different; it relies more on deep user operations and precise product marketing, with talent advantages often concentrated in positions like product managers, brand planners, and content operators. When supply chain companies attempt to cross over to C-end brands, the first thing they face is the mismatch between organizational genes and talent structure—the inherent team cognition and talent shortcomings become the first deep ditch on the transformation path. We believe that the transformation of supply chain companies into C-end brands is tantamount to "second entrepreneurship," which is not only an expansion of business but also a reinvention of the entire new business model. For companies to achieve "entrepreneurial success," they must fill gaps in mindset, product logic, channel capabilities, value network, and organizational capabilities.