Source | Teacher Liu's Scenario Marketing ID | liuchunxiong1964 Author | Liu Chunxiong

Value creation is the biggest bug in a century of modern marketing, and it is unsolvable. When I saw 'scenario interaction, co-creating value' in Zhang Ruimin's statement that 'scenarios cover products, ecosystems cover industries,' I saw the soul of scenarios in marketing. This soul fully endows scenarios with immense value in marketing. In the last century, marketing's value formation process was internally created (with a hint of shutting the door and building the cart) and one-way communicated. In the next century, marketing's value formation process will be scenario interaction, value consensus, and the integration of value creation and communication. ****Value Proposition, One-Way Creation Value is an extremely important concept in marketing, but it is extremely weak in marketing theory, with very little discussion, almost invisible. It can be said that it contradicts modern marketing's value creation and user orientation, turning user orientation into mere 'empathy.' Brands create value, media disseminates value, channels monetize value, and consumers consume value. In this value chain, the core is: where does value come from? Where does the value proposition in marketing come from? And how is the value proposition expressed? When C.K. Prahalad proposed the viewpoint of 'value co-creation' in 'The Future of Competition,' he called the traditional value creation model the 'enterprise-centric view' paradigm. It has the following characteristics:

First, value is created solely by the enterprise;

Second, value is 'embedded' within the enterprise through R&D, design, manufacturing, and other links;

Third, it is unilaterally transmitted to passive consumers through marketing and channels;

Fourth, the market is the place where the enterprise realizes value. The basic logic is: company creates → market exchange → consumer consumption. Simply put, it is that the brand creates a value proposition, and consumers unilaterally accept it. To put it more severely, it is shutting the door and building the cart. Prahalad believed that the traditional value creation model is outdated. He proposed a consumer-centric co-creation model. First, value is no longer the product of the enterprise alone, but is co-created by the enterprise and consumers in interaction;

Second, consumers are no longer the end of the value chain, but co-creators of value and active participants;

Third, value resides in the personalized, experiential usage process of consumers. The basic logic is: enterprise-consumer interaction → co-creation of value → personalized experience. C.K. Prahalad said that enterprises should transform from 'designers and distributors of value' to 'builders and promoters of value co-creation platforms.' The core capability of an enterprise is no longer control, but empowerment and connection. The DART model proposed by C.K. Prahalad for 'value co-creation' made progress in interacting with consumers, but it still fails to address the problem that the brand unilaterally defines the value proposition and value creation occurs within the enterprise. This is an inherent flaw of a century of modern marketing. The DART model can add interactive elements, but it cannot change the problem of unilateral definition of value. Let's look at how traditional value propositions are expressed. Because value propositions must be disseminated through mass media, they must comply with the 3C principle: clear, concrete, and competitive. This is manifested in slogans. The once-thriving brand departments and brand consulting companies in China were dedicated to refining brand value propositions, forming expressions, and disseminating them through mass media. In the internet age, they are all dying out. ****Scenario Interaction, Co-creating Value Using DeepSeek, I compiled Zhang Ruimin's views on scenario co-creating value. Personally, I feel it is hard to surpass his views, so I excerpt them below. I. The End of Traditional Value Creation Traditional model: Value is created unilaterally by the enterprise and delivered to users. The enterprise produces products, sells them to customers through marketing and channels, and once the transaction ends, the relationship basically ends. Value creation occurs within the enterprise (R&D, manufacturing), and users are 'passive recipients' of value. The essence of the Internet of Things is the 'Internet of People,' which is the real-time connection between users and all things and services. This means that the enterprise's focus must shift from 'products' to 'users,' and from 'transactions' to 'interactions.' Value is no longer inherent in the product itself, but in the continuously evolving scenario needs that arise from the ongoing interaction between the product and the user. II. Scenario Interaction Creates Value 1. Scenario It is not simply a 'situation,' but a dynamic, personalized user life segment that includes specific goals and emotions. For example: not the general act of 'cooking,' but a specific scenario full of pain points and needs, such as 'a new mother who wants to prepare a nutritious, delicious, and quick breakfast for her child, while worrying about the child being picky.' 2. Interaction It is not one-way advertising or feedback, but a continuous, two-way, co-creative dialogue between the enterprise and the user. This interaction occurs continuously through touchpoints such as products (e.g., smart home appliances), communities, and apps, with the aim of uncovering and defining 'pain points' and 'itch points' in the scenario. 3. Value Creation Value is no longer the exchange value of the product, but the best experience the user obtains in a specific scenario (experience value), and the enterprise's sustainable income from providing this experience (shared value). Core argument: Value is discovered, created, and amplified in the collision of 'scenario' and 'interaction.' Without interaction, it is impossible to gain insight into the real scenario; without scenario, interaction loses direction and meaning. III. Core Mechanism: How to Create Value through Scenario Interaction? The specific practices of Haier's 'RenDanHeYi' model and 'Ecosystem Brand' strategy can be summarized as the following closed loop: 1. Networked Touchpoints: From 'Products' to 'Connected Devices' Haier transforms traditional home appliances into 'connected devices' (networked appliances) that are connectable, interactive, and iterative. For example, a smart refrigerator is no longer just a cold storage box, but becomes an entry point for managing household dietary health. These 'connected devices' become touchpoints for 7x24-hour interaction with users, continuously collecting scenario data. 2. Community-based Interaction: From 'Customers' to 'Lifelong Users' Through 'connected devices' and apps (such as Haier Smart Home), Haier gathers users into online communities. In these communities, users share usage experiences, raise needs, and complain about pain points. Haier's micro-entrepreneurial teams ('chain groups') interact directly and frequently with users, discovering new scenario needs from these interactions. For example: Users complain in the community that 'the washing machine always damages delicate fabrics,' which gives rise to a new scenario solution: 'a washing machine that can intelligently identify fabrics and automatically match the washing program.' 3. Service-oriented Value: From 'Hardware' to 'Scenario Solutions' The carrier of value creation is no longer a single hardware product, but a 'solution' that covers the entire scenario. Classic case: 'Haier Food Internet.' When a smart refrigerator identifies a steak inside, it is no longer just a cooling device. It can: Interact: Ask the user through the screen what taste they prefer (sirloin, fillet). Activate scenario: After the user selects, the refrigerator can link with the oven to preheat automatically and recommend a cooking program. Extend ecosystem: If the user lacks sauce, they can order sauce from ecosystem partners with one click through the refrigerator. Create value: The user obtains a one-stop food experience from storage, cooking, to seasoning (experience value); Haier obtains sustainable income through hardware sales, sauce revenue sharing, service subscriptions, etc. (shared value). 4. Ecosystem Organization: 'Chain Group' Structure Supporting Innovation To quickly respond to fragmented and dynamic scenario needs, Zhang Ruimin broke Haier's bureaucracy and formed 'chain groups.' 'Chain groups' are self-organizing, self-driving, self-appreciating micro-entrepreneurial teams that quickly form around a specific user scenario (such as 'smart balcony,' 'healthy air'), integrate internal and external resources, jointly create value for users, and share the added value. This organizational model ensures that the entire process of discovering scenarios, rapid interaction, and providing solutions is agile and efficient. Zhang Ruimin's views achieve the unity of epistemology, methodology, and methods, solving the core problems of marketing in the next century. Although specific methods vary by industry, Zhang Ruimin's views differ from C.K. Prahalad's. Prahalad's views were novel, but limited by the era, 'co-creating value' was extremely difficult in terms of technical means. The emergence of the internet and the Internet of Things has solved this problem. ****Integration of Value Creation and Value Dissemination The media ecosystem determines the value dissemination model. Enterprises create value internally and then disseminate it through mass media. This model persists in the internet age in the form of PGC. The PGC model treats internet media as mass media, with thinking still stuck in the mass media era. Who participates in scenario value co-creation? Manufacturers, distributors, retail stores, and users can all be in the scenario. Therefore, the final value formed is scenario consensus. Every participant is a contributor. At the same time, scenarios are also UGC triggers, and scenarios are the primary factor in UGC fission. Therefore, value co-creation, UGC value fission dissemination, and finally the formation of value symbols (IP) become a natural assembly line. In the internet self-media era, paid PGC may not be effective, while free UGC sometimes works wonders. However, a methodology from scenario to UGC fission has not yet been discovered, and most UGC fission is just accidental miracles. To discover methodology from miracles, the key is to go deep into scenarios and interact with scenarios. This is the problem that scenario marketing needs to solve.