I am Zhu Chaoyang, with 17 years of marketing career. Whether as an operator or now as a consultant, I have never left the front-line market, always working in the trenches, skilled in practical combat, serving six industries, mainly the baijiu and FMCG industries. Recently, I have been studying replicable growth power; without a set of replicable growth power, enterprise development will eventually become a problem.
Invited by Mr. Lin of Miduo, I am to discuss the topic of marketing digitalization. This topic is not easy to discuss, as currently few have succeeded, but many have voiced opinions. Yet it is something that must be done in the future; without it, there is no future. I will share my thoughts from the past three years and my experiences in serving enterprises, hoping that through my sharing, we can jointly explore and promote the further mature development of marketing digitalization.
I will share in four sections.
What is Marketing Digitalization?
As Shakespeare said, "There are a thousand Hamlets in a thousand people's eyes." My understanding of marketing digitalization:
In simple terms, it is to clearly know through data where our battlefield (regions, distributors, dealers, terminals) is, where our enemies (competitors) are, and where our friends (users) are. Sitting in the office, we can hear the sound of front-line artillery, command precise battles, and always see market dynamics.
Like Chinese medicine diagnosis, which uses observation, listening, questioning, and pulse-taking, previously one person did everything based on experience and feel. Meeting a good doctor, the medicine cures; meeting a quack, the best treatment period is delayed, leaving room for opportunism. Western medicine uses instruments for testing and specific data as reference.
Marketing digitalization uses internet tools to integrate online and offline, leveraging the strengths of each, complementing each other. Through data collection, processing, and analysis, it recombines people, goods, and scenes to achieve efficient matching, improve channel operation efficiency, make brand owners more profitable, reduce costs and increase efficiency, and thus more quickly and conveniently meet user needs.
Marketing digitalization is not about subverting or overturning traditional marketing; it is about upgrading and evolution.
Four Major Misconceptions in Marketing Digitalization Application
Marketing digitalization is not an e-commerce platform; it is not about building an online mall. The logic of e-commerce platforms is direct-to-consumer (2C), which is retail logic.
Marketing digitalization is not about removing intermediaries, directly eliminating them, competing with them, or doing direct 2b business to flatten the structure, thinking it better controls terminals. One offline enterprise directly cut off its distributors, built a large platform, and terminals could order on it. As a result, sales dropped from over 1 billion to just over 200 million, nearly dying.
Marketing digitalization is not about investing in a one-code-per-item, building a mini-program, or making an APP, thinking that is digitalization. Most enterprises I have encountered built a bunch of tools that ended up dormant.
Blindly following others without adapting to the enterprise's specific situation.
Seeing some enterprises improve, they ignore the premise of imitation, do not combine their actual situation, and copy mechanically. In the end, after all the fuss, they return to the pre-revolution state. For example, specialty store enterprises (like Pagoda, Bestore) have different marketing digitalization logic from F2b2C and F2B2b2C enterprises (like Dongpeng Special Beverage).
Why Do Marketing Digitalization?
- Traditional deep distribution faces low efficiency, being too heavy, weak effects, difficulty in recruiting and managing people, high costs, low output, and high organizational management requirements.
Channel push is weakening, and consumer sovereignty is strengthening. But offline channels remain the main contributor to sales. However, in relatively backward and highly fragmented industries, deep distribution is still effective.
Traditional channel operation methods have reached a deep-water period, requiring continuous upgrading and evolution. Use marketing digitalization to give traditional deep distribution wings and usher in a "second spring."
- The consumption environment has changed. Whether it is consumer education methods, consumer decision-making behavior, or shopping methods, all have changed. Previously, traditional advertising and channel push had a big influence; now, people are influenced by those around them, recommendations from KOLs and KOCs, and information obtained by themselves—such as online searches, reading reviews, or participating in activities.
Previously, cognition and transaction were separate; now, what you see is what you get, and cognition and transaction are combined. After seeing KOL recommendations, you can directly order and purchase on a mini-program.
- From the evolution of channel operations, from F2B to F2B2b to F2B2b2C, it can be seen that each upgrade and optimization of channel operations has always produced industry dark horses. At the same time, the endgame of channel operations is operating users, which has reached the very end.
How to Do Marketing Digitalization?
Premise: For traditional offline-led enterprises, if the channel infrastructure is not yet built, first build the channel infrastructure.
The essence of marketing is creating value, disseminating value, and delivering value. The essence of marketing digitalization is to improve operational efficiency, better understand users, quickly reach users, better cater to users, and respond more agilely to user needs.
Ideal marketing digitalization: sales representatives complete channel building, manufacturers use one-code-per-item with rewards to connect consumers, then through operations, continuously reach consumers, build relationships, increase stickiness, timely understand consumer needs and feedback, and optimize and upgrade existing products and services.
From the channel level, through the layer-by-layer association of QR codes, precisely know the distribution of sales movement in the channel chain. Through big data collection, cleaning, and analysis, allocate resources precisely by region, layer, and level to the channel chain, achieving precise investment and targeted hits. To put it bluntly, spend money clearly.
For traditional offline enterprises, two points must be clarified:
First: Empower terminals, help terminals sell through, and achieve BC integration.
Second: Solve the convenience for terminals, distributors, and users.
1. Get on the bus first, then buy the ticket.
Two types of enterprises get started quickly with marketing digitalization:
One type: Industry leaders, because they lack neither funds, talent, nor channel foundation. To maintain their leading position, they continuously innovate and explore future trends.
One type: New consumer brands, which are inherently internet-based and born with digital genes.
For most small and medium-sized enterprises, digital transformation is difficult because it is not a single-point upgrade but a whole-system upgrade and coordination.
Get on the bus first, then buy the ticket. You must have awareness of digital transformation, make preparations, and keep up.
2. Bullets first, then artillery.
It is not necessary to implement all digital supporting measures at once. In the trial-and-error operation stage, you can borrow the MVP thinking from product development. What is MVP? Simply put, it means the development team obtains user feedback by providing a minimum viable product and continuously iterates quickly on this MVP until the product reaches a relatively stable stage.
The benefits: easy to correct and adjust in time; avoid wasting too many resources and energy; accumulate small wins into big wins.
For example: build groups by layer—dealer groups, terminal groups, C-end groups, BC groups (initiated by terminal owners, using their surrounding resources and the store's own traffic).
Build enterprise WeChat, operate enterprise private traffic, etc. These are relatively easy to start and low cost.
3. One chess game, iron triangle.
The difficulty of marketing digitalization is the coordination of multiple departments and people, like gears. One department cannot do it alone; it is not simple linear operation but interlocking gears. It is one chess game, played together.
The iron triangle refers to the marketing department, sales department, and technology department. The sales department (army) is responsible for early market layout, channel building, and moving products from factory to terminal; the marketing department is responsible for planning, images, and copy; the technology department selects suitable tools based on the plan; the sales department executes the plan; the technology department provides timely data feedback based on execution; the marketing department analyzes the feedback data, matches resources, and strikes precisely. Only when the three cooperate perfectly can they succeed; otherwise, they will fall into their own professional thinking and ignore practical implementation.
It is hard to find composite talents who understand marketing, technology, and sales. Establishing an iron-triangle joint organization is the most lethal.
4. Operation is king, closed-loop management.
Marketing digitalization requires operational capability, from discovering sales leads, formulating activity plans, organizing resources, market communication, executing activities, to follow-up tracking and maintenance.
Operation is also a very energy-consuming task. You must have a clear logical framework and supporting assessment and tracking. If you cannot finish like the Eighteen Dragon Subduing Palms in one go, forming breakpoints, the effect will be greatly reduced.
Conclusion
Summarize with a formula: Front-end reconnaissance + middle-platform drive + resource allocation + full effort = growth. From my experience in coaching enterprises, I personally feel the charm of marketing digitalization is infinite. Used well, it can indeed move a thousand pounds with four ounces. I wish all readers to enjoy the dividends of marketing digitalization as soon as possible.
Summary from the Chief Growth Officer Study Group:
Thank you very much for Teacher Zhu Chaoyang's sharing. Teacher Zhu made a very reasonable point: "Marketing digitalization is not about having a bunch of digital tools and thinking it is digital transformation." But in fact, most traditional enterprises, when facing marketing digital transformation, are "easy to say, hard to do." After using a bunch of tools, they end up shelving them.
There are several main problems behind this phenomenon:
Brand owners lack systematic analysis and do not fully understand which key problems digital transformation should solve for the enterprise; they act on a whim.
Middle-level backbone of brand owners, to complete the digital transformation task assigned by the top leader, casually purchase a software to cope with the task. Once the tool is not used well, they blame the tool.
Bosses do not pay enough attention to digitalization. Many leading brand owners choose digital tools just to run a promotional activity. They casually find a supplier for bidding, then quickly launch and quickly take down. Next time they have an activity, they re-bid and constantly change software.
The most bizarre phenomenon: a company used a digital system because it raised funds, and the investor required the money to be spent. After purchasing a digital system, they never used it.
In fact, there are many brand owners in the above situations. They spent money but did not do well. It is recommended to do less of such things. Marketing digitalization is a top-leader tool and a systematic tool. Since you spend money, you must clearly understand what problems the company's current business model has and what problems marketing digitalization should solve.
Currently, most traditional brand owner clients we contact have their main revenue offline, but they cannot clearly understand the dynamics of offline channels. The core problem at this stage is unclear marketing expense flow.
Teacher Zhu Chaoyang has a clear idea: "Manufacturers use one-code-per-item with rewards to connect consumers, then through operations, continuously reach consumers and build relationships." Essentially, through the one-code-per-item tool, using the "reward + connection + reach" approach, marketing expenses are effectively managed, helping solve the key problem of sales expenses not being online.
At the same time, one-code-per-item involves multiple dimensions such as product packaging, production line transformation, terminal incentives, channel verification, and purchase management. If the role of one-code-per-item can be correctly leveraged, traditional brand owners will avoid many detours in their marketing digitalization process.
Currently, many excellent traditional brand owners have achieved remarkable results in the application of one-code-per-item, such as Dongpeng Special Beverage, Yanghe, Junlebao, and Xiangpiaopiao. They cleverly use one-code-per-item digital tools to achieve their own needs, becoming benchmark cases of marketing digitalization in their respective industries.
Dongpeng Special Beverage: In the process of marketing digital transformation, Dongpeng cleverly used one-code-per-item technology to subversively operate the original "One More Bottle" promotion, using the "One Yuan Enjoy" form to deeply connect and bind terminal stores.
Using store push, they maximized the value of terminal promotions, effectively promoted bC integrated operation, and achieved online presence for consumers, channels, and enterprises, solving the problems of deep consumer interaction, full-channel sales, and online promotional expenses, taking the road of lane-changing overtaking.
Yanghe: Yanghe redefined the new scene of baijiu consumption with "one-code-per-item"—solving marketing digitalization needs through "Scan Code for Prizes" and "Every Bottle Has Red Packet Activities," while also solving anti-counterfeiting and traceability issues.
Based on this, Yanghe also built a unified membership value system, using the one-code-per-item label system and big data analysis to obtain precise member profiles, to a certain extent achieving personalized needs for different products in different markets, channels, and consumer groups.
Junlebao: When Junlebao's Yuexian Fresh Milk five-pack new product was launched, they used one-code-per-item on store activity materials and outer packaging to achieve online touchpoints. After consumers scanned the code to participate in the "Fresh Red Packet Rain" interaction, they received a red packet coupon. After purchasing the product, they found the red packet code inside the packaging to scan and redeem, and were directed to Junlebao's membership center.
Junlebao used one-code-per-item as a starting point, turning the previously invisible terminal marketing process into data feedback, finely analyzing user behavior trajectories, and cooperating with the membership cross-border operation center to extend the user lifecycle, helping terminal stores better operate users.
Xiangpiaopiao: Xiangpiaopiao launched the "Scan Code to Win 49,999 Yuan" one-cup-one-code activity through one-code-per-item. In a fragmented, personalized information environment, it allowed the brand to directly connect with terminal users, precisely acquiring new customers.
At the same time, using the marketing combination of "one-code-per-item + membership mini-program + official account," they strengthened user consumption scenarios, gradually adjusting from initially directly sending red packets to a combination of red packets + coupons + points + physical goods, lengthening the consumer experience chain and achieving more precise marketing expense investment. Xiangpiaopiao also used one-code-per-item to grasp user data, achieving deep insight into users and accumulating over two million private traffic.
Source: Chief Growth Officer Study Group (ID: gh_a12c274c27d2) Written by: Zhu Chaoyang
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