Source丨Teacher Liu's Scenario Marketing ID丨liuchunxiong1964 Author丨_Liu Chunxiong_
The essence of business competition is cognitive competition. Cognitive accumulation is embodied in cognitive symbols, and each era has its representative cognitive symbols. With the changes in social structure and media technology, cognitive symbols have evolved from "local consensus" in agricultural society—word of mouth, to "mass cognitive contract" in industrial society—brand, and then to "value soul engine" in digital society—IP. This evolutionary trajectory clearly outlines the progression of commercial civilization.
Word of Mouth: "Local Consensus" in Agricultural Society
Word of mouth in agricultural society is a highly consensual local consensus formed through long-term, multi-dimensional verification of the reliability and value of people and things, through high-frequency face-to-face interactions within a closed network of acquaintances.
Word of mouth, as the name implies, is passed from mouth to mouth, using the mouth as the medium of communication. The underlying logic of word of mouth is "verify first, then believe." Its content is entirely user-generated content (UGC). UGC can be discordant and out of sync. Therefore, the fermentation of word of mouth requires scenario interactions to achieve small-scale consensus. With consensus, communication is in sync, and only then can accumulation occur, leading to local consensus.
I. Scenario Fermentation Pools for Word of Mouth
Commercial transaction scenarios: markets and fairs These are the most important centers for generating and spreading word of mouth. People not only buy and sell goods here but also exchange information. Formation process: Zhang San bought a sickle from Li Si at the market and found it extremely sharp and durable. After using it, he praised it in front of his fellow villagers. When Wang Wu needed a sickle, Zhang San would recommend: "Go to the market and find Li Si; his tools are good!" Thus, "Li Si's sickle" formed the initial word of mouth.
Production scenarios: fields and production cooperation Whose crops are grown well, whose livestock are raised robustly, is clear at a glance. Formation process: Zhao's rice yields are always 20% higher than others. Neighbors will proactively ask about his farming techniques and seed sources. The reputation of Zhao's "good farming" and the "certain type of rice seed" he uses is thus established.
Public deliberation scenarios: ancestral halls, well platforms, and village big trees These are the "information ports" of the village. Men discuss village affairs and exchange news here. Formation process: Discussions about carpenter Master Sun's craftsmanship, integrity, and fair pricing are repeatedly discussed and verified in these settings, eventually forming a stable consensus that becomes common knowledge for the entire village.
Ritual and social scenarios: weddings, funerals, and festivals These events gather large populations from the village and surrounding areas, serving as key nodes for the "cross-village spread" of word of mouth. Formation process: The Zhou family's son gets married, and they hire Chef Qian from a neighboring village to prepare the banquet. The taste, presentation, and professionalism of the chef are experienced and evaluated by all guests, who then bring these impressions back to their own villages. The reputation of Chef Qian's "excellent banquet cooking" thus spreads.
II. Content and Evaluation Criteria of Word of Mouth
Word of mouth content is typical UGC. It revolves around "people" and "things," with pragmatic evaluation criteria.
Word of mouth about people
- Craftsmanship/skills: Whether one is a "good hand" (skilled farmer), good carpenter, or good blacksmith.
- Character and credit: Whether one is "honest and kind," "keeps promises," and "is trustworthy." This is the core basis for choosing partners (such as tenants, laborers, or business partners).
- Family reputation: Individual reputation accumulates into family reputation, passed down through generations.
Word of mouth about things
- Durability and practicality: Whether tools are sturdy, livestock are robust, and seeds are high-yield.
- Consistent quality: If it is good this time, it must be good next time. Stability of quality is key to establishing long-term word of mouth.
III. Characteristics of Word of Mouth
Slow to form but extremely stable: Word of mouth requires long-term, multi-scenario repeated verification to form. Once formed, it becomes a "social consensus" that is difficult to change. However, there are exceptions. Good deeds stay within the door, but bad deeds spread a thousand miles.
Deeply tied to personal identity: Word of mouth is an individual's "social passport." A bad reputation can make it difficult to move in the community, with no one willing to interact or cooperate. Therefore, people highly value their reputation.
Limited spread: Usually confined to a radius of a dozen to dozens of miles around the market, forming a "local knowledge circle." Good wine needs no bush; in fact, the alley itself is not deep.
High trust and high constraint: Because it spreads within acquaintance networks and undergoes multiple verifications, the credibility of word-of-mouth information is extremely high. At the same time, it imposes strong moral constraints on the behavior of community members.
Brand: "Mass Cognitive Contract" in Industrial Society
The Industrial Revolution and railways pushed goods from local to national markets. The rise of mass media (newspapers, magazines, radio) completely changed the way cognition was constructed. The meaning of brand underwent four key "cognitive upgrades" in this process.
I. Agricultural Civilization Era: Ownership Marks
Farmers used hot branding irons to leave unique marks on livestock to claim ownership, prevent confusion, or theft. This can be considered the most primitive form of brand.
Artisans (such as potters and stonemasons) also carved marks on their works, serving as both signatures and quality guarantees.
II. Early Industrial Society: Marks to Distinguish Sellers
With the development of industrial production and railway transport, goods could be sold nationwide. To differentiate from competitors, manufacturers began to name their products, design logos, and packaging.
For example, workers at Procter & Gamble (P&G) painted stars and moons on crates, which eventually evolved into the famous "Moon and Stars" trademark. The primary function of the brand at this stage was to identify the source.
Modern brands began here.
The American Marketing Association defines a brand as follows: A brand is a name, term, mark, symbol, or design, or a combination of these, intended to identify the goods or services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of competitors.
At this time, the keywords for brand were: identification, differentiation.
III. First Half of the 20th Century: Value Symbols
The rise of mass media (newspapers, magazines, radio) provided platforms for advertising. Brands began to transcend "names" and became promises of quality, consistency, and reliability.
Consumers repurchase because they trust a brand. For example, Ford Model T promised "a car for the masses," and Coca-Cola used advertising to associate itself with the refreshing image of happiness.
This is the beginning of the distinction between brand and word of mouth. Word of mouth is experience first, then spread; facts precede cognition, and content is UGC. With the intervention of mass media, especially when radio became the "stranger in the living room" in 1920, the communication logic changed. After a product was produced, without user experience or consumption (or only trials or market tests), manufacturers could begin mass media communication. Thus, the famous diagnosis of "cognition greater than fact" emerged.
Mass media communication formed an image of quality and trust assurance, which was reinforced when it matched facts. At this point, brand became a profession, combined with communication studies, playing an important role in driving mass consumers. Overall, the content of communication at this stage focused on quality and trust.
IV. Second Half of the 20th Century: Brand Image Era—Carrier of Image and Emotion
Post-war economic prosperity led to increased product homogenization. Brands could no longer just say "my quality is good."
Advertising master David Ogilvy and others proposed that brands need to build unique personality, image, and emotional value.
Marlboro, through the "Marlboro Man" advertising, successfully transformed from a women's cigarette to a symbol of freedom, adventure, and masculinity. Brands began to sell a lifestyle and dreams.
The shift from word of mouth to brand as cognitive symbols was marked by the emergence of mass media and national brands. Word of mouth had advantages in regional markets, while brands had advantages in national communication. This is why I have always regarded the commercial application of radio as the starting point of modern marketing over the past century.
When brands became symbols of image, culture, etc., they were alienated, detached from the original meaning of "identification" and "differentiation," and became nihilistic. It is like crowning successful brands infinitely, making it hard for them to bear the weight.
The core of the brand era is "believe first, verify later." It relies on one-way broadcasting by mass media, with professionally generated content (PGC). Its power lies in building a unified national cognition. Therefore, the trust endorsement of mass media, resource investment, and PGC creative skills are crucial.
IP: "Value Soul Engine" in Digital Society
The emergence of the internet and self-media brought a spiral rise of "negation of negation": brand PGC content is the negation of word-of-mouth UGC, and IP UGC content is a return to word-of-mouth UGC. But it also surpasses in scale and dimension.
I. Alternative Survival Soil for IP in the Brand Era
In East Asia (China, Japan, Korea), during brand development, umbrella brands emerged, where one brand covers one category or even multiple categories. Regardless of how many products or categories a company has, it is one brand, such as Xiaomi's many products, at most using a mother-child brand strategy to differentiate.
In Europe and America, typical product brands are the norm. Coca-Cola, Sprite, and Fanta are product brands, serving as both product names and brands, with high differentiation between brands and limited extensibility. However, Europe and America developed an extensible brand—IP. The concept of IP originated and was widely applied in entertainment industries such as film, animation, and games, and after success, it was licensed across entertainment industries. Therefore, the original meaning of IP is intellectual property.
In the industrial era, film and animation were virtual industries, so IP was also a spiritual symbol. During cross-industry licensing, character images were found in almost all consumer goods sectors, including clothing, toys, food, household items, electronic games, and theme parks.
The core of IP is to inject a "value soul" into products.
II. Widespread Penetration of IP: Brand IP-ization
Many brands in traditional industries are using IP thinking to reshape their businesses and inject value souls into products. They are themselves becoming "IPs" in a sense.
Fashion and luxury industries
- Chanel: The story of founder Coco Chanel—how she liberated women and designed the little black dress and Chanel suit—is itself a powerful IP. The brand's core values of "elegance, independence, and rebellion" constitute the soul of this IP.
- Louis Vuitton: Through collaborations with artists and designers, and by crafting a travel philosophy, LV is transforming from a luxury brand into a lifestyle IP about "travel art and fashion."
Food and beverage and retail
- Starbucks: It not only sells coffee but also sells a "third place" lifestyle and work philosophy. Its seasonal limited products (such as pumpkin spice latte) have become cultural phenomena with strong IP effects.
- Whole Foods Market: It has IP-ized itself as an advocate and standard-setter for a "healthy, organic, and environmentally friendly" lifestyle.
Technology industry
- Apple: This is the most typical case. Apple's IP core is "innovation, simplicity, Think Different." Through extreme product design, retail store experiences, and marketing activities, it has built a strong community of "Apple fans." The loyalty of this community to the brand is comparable to fans' loyalty to Marvel.
- Tesla: Tesla's IP is deeply tied to founder Elon Musk's personal IP, with its core being "disruption, future, sustainable energy." People buy Tesla not just to buy an electric car but to join a technological movement about the future.
Consumer goods industry
- Nike: Nike is no longer just a sports brand; its "Air Jordan" series is a super sub-IP. By telling stories of athletes' personal struggles and victory spirit (Just Do It), it has IP-ized itself into a cultural symbol of "striving and victory." People buy Nike not just to buy shoes but to pay for this spiritual belief.
- Coca-Cola: Its classic bottle shape, Santa Claus image (whose modern image was established by Coca-Cola advertising), and the concept of "share happiness" have made it a holiday cultural IP of "happiness and sharing."
III. Comprehensive IP-ization of Commercial Communication
The mobile phone has become the "sixth organ" of humans, and self-media has become the "market and ancestral hall" of the new century, perfectly matching the generation of IP.
In the internet age, the comprehensive IP-ization of commercial communication is not driven by traditional advertising budgets but by two deeper forces: one is technological, namely UGC content achieving viral fission through self-media networks, providing "explosive power" for the birth of IP; the other is social, namely people's inner demand for "value soul" in an affluent era, providing "cohesion" for the sustained existence of IP through resonance with IP.
UGC viral fission: the "detonator" of IP In the traditional brand era, cognitive construction relied on continuous, expensive "saturation attacks" by centralized media. The birth of IP, however, is more like a "viral carnival" ignited on self-media with the participation of the whole people. Its fission process follows a new set of logic:
- From "watching" to "participating": the magic of co-creation Mass media is one-way "broadcasting," while self-media is two-way "dialogue." Users are no longer passive information receivers but active co-creators of IP. An IP character, a classic line, or a plot meme will be actively recreated by users (secondary creation)—edited into short videos, made into emojis, or turned into jokes. This sense of participation not only greatly enriches the connotation of IP but also makes users regard IP as "our own thing," thus having a stronger motivation to share.
- "Meme" as the smallest fission unit In today's information overload, complex stories are hard to spread, while highly condensed, easy-to-imitate, and re-creatable "memes" have become the most efficient carrier for IP fission. A "meme" is a cultural gene that carries fun and social currency attributes, capable of jumping across different circles. When UGC content forms a series of vibrant "memes" around an IP, it means the IP has penetrated the capillaries of social culture, completing a key step of viral fission.
- Algorithm empowerment and circle penetration Intelligent recommendation algorithms act as a "super accelerator." They can precisely distribute IP content to "potential believers" with similar interests, quickly forming an initial fan circle. Then, through continuous creation and sharing by core fans, IP can break through the initial circle, achieve cross-circle diffusion, and eventually explode into a mass phenomenon.
In summary, UGC fission solves the "awareness" problem of IP. It uses a decentralized, bottom-up approach to push a previously niche symbol into the vast public eye at extremely low cost and in a very short time.
Resonance of value soul: the "cohesion core" of IP However, relying solely on viral spread can only create a short-lived "internet celebrity." What can settle into a long-lasting "IP" must be a symbol that touches the itch of the times and meets deep psychological needs. This is a fundamental shift from "functional consumption" to "meaning consumption."
- Value craving in an affluent era When social productivity surpasses survival needs, consumers' decision-making logic shifts from "I need" to "I like." The functional value of the product becomes the foundation, while the values, lifestyle, and emotional belonging it carries become key to decision-making. IP is precisely the perfect container for this "value soul." Consuming an IP is essentially "voting" for one's identity, aesthetics, and beliefs.
- "Resonance" replaces "one-way indoctrination" The brand era was "indoctrinating," where companies told consumers "what I should be" through advertising. The IP era is "resonant," where it precisely expresses the emotions and propositions that already exist but are unspoken in the hearts of a certain group through its worldview, characters, and stories. Whether it's the spirit of "Just Do It" or the "fragility and resilience coexisting" represented by a virtual idol, when users exclaim, "Isn't this exactly me?", a powerful spiritual alliance is established.
- Consensus cohesion and community belonging This "resonance" effect quickly gathers scattered individuals into a community with high identification. IP becomes the "spiritual totem" and "ID card" of the community. In this community, members not only consume IP content but also confirm and reinforce shared values with each other. This deep emotional connection gives IP strong loyalty beyond the product life cycle and enables it to withstand market competition shocks.
Therefore, resonance with the value soul solves the "loyalty" problem of IP. It ensures that after the viral heat fades, IP still has a firm "base" of supporters, and based on this, it can achieve long-term and sustainable commercial value.
UGC fission and value resonance, one external and one internal, together form a complete closed loop of cognitive construction in the IP era. UGC fission is the "tactic," providing explosive communication paths; value resonance is the "strategy," providing fundamental cohesion. Combining "tactic" and "strategy," a short-lived internet hotspot can ultimately transform into a true IP with lasting vitality.
Scenario: The Fermentation Pool and Consensus Foundation of UGC
Word of mouth is the IP of agricultural society, and IP is the word of mouth of the digital age. Their greatest commonality is their reliance on UGC content for dissemination. This is what distinguishes them from brand PGC content.
However, UGC content inherently has the characteristic of "a thousand people, a thousand faces." Scattered, disordered individual expressions are difficult to accumulate and cannot form effective communication density. So, how do word of mouth and IP break through this bottleneck, achieve cognitive accumulation, and finally reach the communication threshold? The answer lies in the key role of "scenario." Scenario is the "social container" and "cultural fermentation pool" that transforms disordered UGC into orderly consensus.
I. Agricultural Society: Scenario as the "Consensus Melting Pot" of Word of Mouth
In an acquaintance society, the formation of word of mouth is not simple information transmission but a local consensus "refined" through repeated verification and debate in specific, high-concentration social scenarios.
- Specific scenarios provide verification environments: In markets and fairs, the transaction itself is an immediate verification of the information that "Li Si's sickle is good"; in the fields, the abundant harvest is the most irrefutable evidence of "Zhao's good farming." Scenarios provide credible endorsement for UGC.
- Public scenarios promote convergence of opinions: In public deliberation spaces such as ancestral halls, well platforms, and village big trees, diverse individual opinions about "Carpenter Sun's craftsmanship and character" undergo public discussion, eventually forming a single, stable conclusion recognized by the community. Scenarios act as a "consensus algorithm," converging the "thousand faces" of UGC into a "unanimous" social fact.
- Ritual scenarios achieve cross-domain diffusion: Ritual occasions such as weddings and funerals gather individuals from different villages, serving as springboards for consensus to "overflow" the original community. Word of mouth formed here can break through geographical limits in its spread.
Thus, in agricultural society, scenarios successfully solved the accumulation and unification problems of UGC by providing verification environments, consensus mechanisms, and diffusion nodes, condensing it into a powerful local cognitive symbol—word of mouth.
II. Digital Society: Scenario as the "Emotional Engine" and "Meme Incubator" of IP
In the internet age, the scale and speed of UGC have grown exponentially, but the underlying logic has not changed. Various "scenarios" on social media platforms inherit and amplify the social functions of traditional scenarios.
- Scenarios give content "reasons to click" and "resonance context": A video mocking a popular TV series or a funny skit recording a specific life predicament (like "slacking off at work") is itself a scenario construction. Users click and share not just the content but also identification with that "scenario." Content with scenarios naturally has higher communication potential.
- Scenarios condense "emotions" and incubate "meme culture": In a specific discussion atmosphere (such as under a trending topic), scattered emotions (like common dissatisfaction with a social phenomenon) are quickly refined, amplified, and condensed into a highly concentrated "meme" or "emoji." This "meme" is the "consensus unit" of the digital age. Like a seed, it wraps common emotions and cognition, easily replicating and fissioning in the soil of UGC, thus maintaining the unity of core cognition amid "thousand faces" creations.
- From "scenario consensus" to "circle identity": When a "meme" is widely used in a specific scenario, understanding and using it becomes a "passport" to enter a certain circle. IP, in this process, settles from a vague symbol into a "spiritual totem" within the circle.
Scenario is the lifeline running through word of mouth and IP. It successfully organizes chaotic UGC into a cognitive torrent with consistent direction and communication synergy by providing common experience foundations, promoting social convergence of opinions, and incubating efficient emotional symbols (memes). Whether in the past village or today's network, it is the key of "scenario" that unlocks the code for UGC to move from disorder to order, from faint whispers to the strong voice of the times.
Evolution Trajectory of Cognitive Symbols
Looking at marketing history, we can clearly see an evolutionary trajectory of cognitive symbols: word of mouth → brand → IP.
The core factor determining the evolutionary trajectory is media.
Media evolution: mouth → mass media → self-media.
At the same time, media determines the content of communication.
Content evolution: UGC (word of mouth) → PGC (brand) → UGC (IP)
The content of communication determines the core of cognitive symbols.
The core of cognitive symbols: local consensus (word of mouth) → mass cognition (brand) → value soul (IP).
In the above evolution of marketing, media is the decisive force, determining the scope of cognitive communication, the form of content generation, and the core of cognitive symbols.
This is why I regard the commercial application of radio in 1920 as the starting point of modern marketing over the past century, and the large-scale application of internet self-media in 2010 as the starting point of marketing for the next century.