-01- The Anxiety of Lao Wang and Zhang 2020 is the zodiac year of Lao Wang, a beer distributor, and it seems to confirm the old saying that everything goes wrong. The sudden outbreak of COVID-19 has left Lao Wang and his family quarantined at home. Lao Wang, who had hoped to boost sales during the Spring Festival, was thwarted by closed retail stores and restaurants. Even if distant customers wanted goods, logistics disruptions meant the beer on order stayed in the warehouse. Most of Lao Wang's friends are distributors dealing in various categories. Those in dairy are worse off than Lao Wang, while those in baijiu are relatively optimistic, relying on pre-Spring Festival stockpiling and longer shelf life to get by. Grain and oil distributors see considerable sales, but their sales are proportional to risk, as they also bear the responsibility of ensuring people's livelihoods. In February, as companies began to resume work, Lao Wang noticed from his social media feed that many FMCG companies were recruiting community leaders, such as Red Bull, Nongfu Spring, Jinmailang, and Jingjiu. However, the beer brand he represents remained silent. Meanwhile, Zhang, the owner of the beer brand Lao Wang represents, was also anxious. Although it's a regional brand with good sales, if not for the pandemic, he would have started holding ordering meetings for distributors after the Spring Festival. -02- Tsingtao Beer's Three Axes Recently, Zhang discovered that Tsingtao Beer in his city had also started recruiting community leaders and even launched contactless delivery services. From the promotional posters, Zhang noticed that Tsingtao Beer's community leader recruitment covered almost the entire province where he is located. Like Zhang, Lao Wang also noticed this news, and he also found that Tsingtao Beer had not only launched community group buying and contactless delivery but also initiated a distributor program. Lao Wang discovered that Tsingtao Beer's integrated online-offline marketing campaign had begun as early as early February, focusing on community group buying and contactless delivery. If contactless delivery is a special response to the pandemic, then community group buying was already being planned in 2019, allowing Tsingtao Beer to quickly launch community group buying projects in Shandong and Henan during the pandemic. This shows that community group buying is not a short-term self-rescue measure for Tsingtao Beer but a marketing innovation. In addition to the above two projects, Tsingtao Beer also launched a distributor program. Consumers can register easily to enjoy various product discounts and earn commissions by sharing customized posters to WeChat groups and Moments. Tsingtao Beer's three axes, through all-staff distribution and online-offline linkage, not only improve employee cohesion and ensure production but also help distributors relieve inventory pressure and boost distributor confidence. It can be said that the pandemic has given Tsingtao Beer a golden opportunity to enter social e-commerce, and this is inseparable from the efforts made by Tsingtao Beer's early layout. If mobile internet and WeChat provide the software foundation for social e-commerce, then its professional operations team, complete logistics system, and vast offline distributor network provide the hardware support. Online, Tsingtao Beer leverages the robust logistics systems of JD.com and Cainiao to reach consumers quickly. Offline, tens of thousands of distributors and dealers across the country extend Tsingtao's offline delivery coverage to multiple provinces and cities. Bored at home, Lao Wang registered as a Tsingtao Beer distributor and found that he could enjoy discounts and earn commissions by sharing generated posters that led to purchases. After trying it, Lao Wang quickly told Zhang about it. They discussed it and found that the distributor program didn't seem suitable for their products. Why? First, Tsingtao Beer's ability to launch the distributor program is based on consumer trust in the brand, suitable for first-tier brands because they are already ingrained in consumers' minds. Second, because of the brand effect, consumers are willing to use personal trust as a endorsement to promote it among friends, WeChat groups, and Moments. Most importantly, the commission model stimulates consumers' interest in sharing, and to earn commissions, they will push the product to friends who regularly drink beer. -03- The Strategic Layout Behind Tsingtao's Integrated Path With the pandemic, consumers cannot shop offline, so they can only order online through internet tools. But due to logistics disruptions, traditional e-commerce platforms cannot deliver in time, so communities are used to connect products and consumers. Famous marketing expert Liu Chunxiong once said that all marketing must move toward 2C, such as e-commerce and micro-commerce, which is the convenience provided by the internet. Traditional channels are 2B, but with internet tools, 2B can move to 2C, which is the main goal of community groups: BC integration. The essence of community partners is BC integration. A key point of BC integration is the community, which connects offline and community groups, plus mini-programs. Thus, the three dimensions of offline, community, and network are all connected. With offline channels blocked and online demand surging, this gives Tsingtao Beer the perfect opportunity to enter social e-commerce. Moving from 2B to 2C forms BC integration. Tsingtao Beer's three axes connect the three dimensions of online, network, and community, leveraging their respective advantages. Online logistics efficiency is improving, offline cost systems are rising, and future efficient express logistics and cold chain logistics add more imagination to the new model of connecting the three dimensions. Under the pandemic, consumer behavior has also changed. Over a month of lockdown has accustomed consumers to online shopping. In fact, since Tsingtao Beer began laying out community group buying in 2019, it indicates that this is not a short-term pandemic response but a long-term strategy for social e-commerce. With the advent of the 5G era, consumption habits will inevitably shift online, and the pandemic has accelerated this change. But for companies, if it's purely a short-term self-rescue to help distributors relieve inventory pressure, then there's no need to invest too much effort in social e-commerce. Because as the pandemic ends and offline consumption recovers, although online shopping has become a habit, companies need to invest more energy online. Without long-term planning, companies will quickly lose interest in social e-commerce. Additionally, the biggest change brought by the pandemic is that users increasingly share and obtain information through social networks to purchase related products, so consumers' information consumption and decision-making patterns are more inclined to online. The shift of consumption demand online requires companies to have professional operations teams, because such teams can provide complete logistics after-sales service and personalized promotional plans for social e-commerce layout. Online channels closely connect companies and consumers. For example, community group buying uses leaders and groups to break down barriers between consumers and brands, but the product is more important. Because a single product cannot meet the needs of consumers in multiple scenarios. For example, Tsingtao Beer has a rich product portfolio, such as Classic, Pure Draft, August, Hongyun Dangtou, Whole Wheat White Beer, and Pilsner. There are also products popular with young consumers like Classic 1903 Night Owl, Classic 1903 Midnight Canteen, and Craft IPA. These can meet the needs of different consumers in different scenarios. At the same time, a rich product portfolio, with the help of social e-commerce, can help companies cultivate loyal users and super users, and through consumer feedback, help companies optimize product structure, which is key to subsequent operations. Finally, don't treat social e-commerce as the main battlefield for product increment. Take beer, for example; it's an impulsive consumption product, and most consumers choose to buy offline or use home delivery services. They rarely trade through community group buying. Compared with offline channels, beer sales in community group buying are significantly lower, and it requires distributors or dealers to have strong supply chain capabilities; otherwise, the logistics cost of door-to-door delivery will greatly erode product profits. But for now, increasing sales is not the main purpose of Tsingtao Beer's entry into social e-commerce. It's more about brand promotion, potential customer mining, consumer education, and channel sinking. Connecting the three dimensions of offline, online, and community. Providing more precise channels for future new product promotion and private customization. Tsingtao Beer's layout in social e-commerce is a forward-looking, strategic move and a concrete manifestation of new marketing methods. Imagine that once Tsingtao's social e-commerce matures, it will surely form a large base of loyal consumers who are both product users and promoters. Then its short-shelf-life craft beer can quickly reach consumers through social e-commerce channels. Additionally, based on communities, private customization can be offered, and even offline Tsingtao craft beer stores can be opened near communities. Finally, returning to the beer industry, beer companies entering social e-commerce is first a long-term behavior. If it's treated as a short-term self-rescue, it's clearly not suitable. Second, if the goal is to increase sales, it's also not suitable. After all, the beer category's attributes determine that its sales scenarios are mainly offline. But if it's to enhance brand power and increase consumer stickiness, social e-commerce is a good opportunity. Tips will be paid 400-2000 yuan once the tip is adopted.