"The term 'scenario' is very hot right now, second only to AI, but most discussions miss the point. Talk-only scenario marketing cannot be implemented; it only serves to appease superiors. Only implementation can create real value."
From March 16 to 18, 2026, the CFC Conference grandly opened in Chengdu! On March 17, at the parallel forum "Scenario Marketing: From Shelf to Life," Professor Liu Chunxiong, a professor at Zhengzhou University and Deputy Director of the Scenario Marketing Research Institute, was invited to attend and deliver a keynote speech titled "Three Key Points for Implementing Scenario Marketing," directly addressing the pain point of "much talk, little implementation" in scenario marketing in the FMCG industry, providing practical guidance for industry peers to explore growth breakthroughs in an era of oversupply.
Unlike a purely conceptual presentation, Professor Liu, drawing on years of experience in the FMCG industry and numerous enterprise case studies, clearly proposed three core points for implementing scenario marketing: scenario roadmap, scenario saturation attack, and integrated organization of steps, space, and special tasks.
First Point: Scenario Roadmap
When doing scenarios, what we fear most is treating "sales scenarios" as "consumption scenarios." When discussing sales scenarios, the essence is still focused on shelves and involution, while true consumption scenarios require delving into consumers' daily lives.
I have always believed that not all consumption scenarios are suitable for marketing, nor do all scenarios have communication momentum and sales contribution.
To this end, I divide scenarios into three categories, clearly defining the value and role of different scenarios to help everyone choose the right direction:
- Momentum scenarios: Once you do this scenario, other scenarios will be driven simultaneously; this is called "scenario spillover."
- Kinetic scenarios: The scenario with the largest sales volume, but it is usually difficult to enter directly.
- Long-tail scenarios (side scenarios): These refer to scattered small scenarios. As long as you do well in momentum and kinetic scenarios, the others will naturally rise.
Take Mingren as an example: we selected three scenarios with marketing momentum:
The first is "before and after drinking," where soda water is compatible with alcohol, and drinking scenarios naturally carry communication momentum.
The second is the "fire dragon" scenario (hot pot, barbecue, crayfish). This kind of spicy and fragrant eating scenario is large in scale, highly contagious, and often features internet celebrity live streams. As long as distributors see this kind of explosive momentum, they naturally are willing to invest.
The third is "banquets." A wedding banquet has at least 50 tables, benefiting 500 people, not to mention the social spread from photos posted on WeChat Moments. So Mingren first drives the overall situation by deeply engaging in momentum scenarios.
Look at Huafangwei: their sales doubled during the Spring Festival this year.
They didn't compete with Uni-President or Master Kong on the shelves, but by locking onto two core scenarios—"student snacks" and "gifts"—they drove overall growth.
Jinxing Beer is also like this. Their scenario with the most communication momentum is called "curb side," which, although accounting for a small proportion of sales, is extremely contagious. Also, when Li Du Liquor did banquet scenarios, I proposed no price cuts, no promotions, and no free alcohol—none of the involution methods could be used.
Finally, they discovered a job-to-be-done in the banquet scenario: "announce to the world, leave a lasting memory." Following this model, the results were very good.
Regarding condiments, condiments are not just for cooking; they are for eating. For example, a soy sauce for noodles, if you only talk about product advantages, that's a product perspective; but if you embed "a bowl of noodles for a thousand-mile journey home during Spring Festival," that becomes a scenario with emotion and memory points.
Scenarios have their own emotions, and the public has their own emotions; people's emotions are dominated by scenarios.
For example, for alcohol, whether it tastes good is important, but closing this business deal is my job-to-be-done. So in business banquet scenarios, you'll find that business is more important than the alcohol.
When we shift marketing from the product 4Ps to scenarios, you'll find it has a high-level thinking; it has time, place, people, process, emotion, and ritual, and every element is utilized for marketing.
So we first need to find the momentum scenario, and then find what the job-to-be-done is within that momentum scenario.
In scenario marketing, there are two words that should be resolutely abandoned: "user" and "demand."
There are no users, only "a group of people"; there is no demand, only "jobs-to-be-done." For example, a wedding banquet is a matter for a group of people, and a bowl of noodles for a thousand-mile journey home is the warmth of the whole family. We should "sow in scenarios and harvest on shelves."
Second Point: Scenario Saturation Attack
After finding the scenario, we must thoroughly penetrate it; this is called a saturation attack. The traditional saturation attack is advertising bombardment or deep distribution, but the saturation attack in scenario marketing is a breakthrough at a "point," combining online and offline.
You'll notice that when Mingren conducts "fire dragon" observation meetings, they are carried out online and offline simultaneously. Their goal is: "penetrate one store, light up one street, and stir up one city." They are doing saturation attacks at points, following the principle of "boil the small pot first." Once the small pot is thoroughly boiled, the medium pot follows, and gradually the medium pot is thoroughly boiled.
This strategy is suitable for all types of enterprises. Small enterprises can thoroughly penetrate a specific scenario, those with a certain scale can penetrate a region, and those with strength can penetrate the whole country. The key to scenario marketing is to achieve an absolute breakthrough at one point.
Third Point: Integrated Organization of Steps, Space, and Special Tasks
To do a saturation attack well, we also need to change our past organizational system. If the organization and resources are not saturated, implementation is empty talk. Let's look at how some enterprises do it:
Mingren's organization is now called the "Iron Triangle," which means there are three types of positions in an office: city manager (responsible for To B), scenario specialist (studying scenario implementation), and communication officer (directly deploying communication positions to the marketing frontline), and these positions can be dispatched at any time. Li Du also has a "4-person group": operator + experience officer + communication officer + political commissar, with the core also revolving around scenario experience.
A saturation attack must follow a principle: concentrate superior forces and fight a mobile war. Mingren also has a "flying team" that can be dispatched wherever there is a battle; and a "flying teaching team"—if you don't know how, I'll teach you. The flying teaching team leaves once they've taught, and the flying team leaves once they've won.
If our saturation attack is guaranteed by this organizational system, we truly implement Ren Zhengfei's saying, "let the frontline command the artillery," with winning as the principle, and invest a large amount of communication resources and manpower on the market frontline.
A few days ago, when I was teaching at an enterprise, I mentioned that there are three key points for implementing scenario marketing:
First, the direction of top management must be correct (choosing the right scenario battlefield);
Second, the tactical actions of the grassroots must be effective;
Third, the organizational management of the middle level must be adjusted in place.
Why did I say earlier that most people haven't done scenarios well? Because they only talk about which scenario to choose as the battlefield, but there is no mention of what resources to mobilize or what tactical actions to take.
If you just write the word "scenario" in a report, that's "talk-only." Only by achieving these three essential links can scenario marketing truly be effectively implemented.