---
title: "What Exactly Is \"New\" in New Marketing?"
description: "The article explores the essence of new marketing in the digital age, contrasting traditional funnel-based advertising with modern consumer-centric approaches. It emphasizes the shift from brand-driven to consumer-driven content, the importance of social currency and IP, and the need for new organizational and channel strategies."
author: "赵波"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
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published: "2018-10-07"
language: "en"
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# What Exactly Is "New" in New Marketing?

> The article explores the essence of new marketing in the digital age, contrasting traditional funnel-based advertising with modern consumer-centric approaches. It emphasizes the shift from brand-driven to consumer-driven content, the importance of social currency and IP, and the need for new organizational and channel strategies.

Click to read the original article for details.

**1. Marketing**
What is marketing? Marketing is the act of influencing and prompting consumers to purchase your products through techniques and means.
In the past, marketing could generally be categorized into two types: **media advertising and channel distribution.**
Media advertising typically uses centralized online media to convey brand product appeals to consumers, and through a series of offline marketing tactics, prompts them to buy our products.
In the traditional era, the underlying logic of traditional marketing was the **funnel principle**: **brands used pervasive advertising to make everyone see, most remember, and a few consume.**
As long as the brand could make the numbers work, it would continuously widen the funnel mouth, making more people aware and placing products in more stores. **Through a combination of advertising influence and point-of-sale traffic, a closed-loop transaction was formed.**
The advent of the internet changed how consumers access information and make purchases:
- The internet made it extremely cheap for consumers to obtain information;
- Consumers no longer rely on advertising and brands to ascertain the true value of products;
- Consumers have more products and channels to choose from.
In short, the internet leveled information asymmetry. The choice of information has shifted from brands to consumers.
But we must recognize that the essence of marketing hasn't changed—it's still about using techniques and means to influence consumer decisions. However, the methods, structure, and logic have all changed.
**In the digital age, updated marketing methods are needed.**
So, what are the new methods?
I think Teacher Liu has explained this very clearly in his description of scenarios:
**Traditional advertising creates content "for the product," and you go find consumers.**
**New marketing creates content "for consumers," and consumers come to you.**

**2. Communication**
This is an era of decentralized communication.
Recently, Pinduoduo and community e-commerce have been very popular—this is a result of decentralized communication.
In the digital age, the shift from PC to mobile is essentially a manifestation of social going online. Tencent never figured out how to release the social dividend, and finally community e-commerce and Pinduoduo realized it.
In the past, we called it the funnel principle; in the social era, it's called the ripple theory.
Think about yourself: isn't most of your information first obtained from your Moments?
Don't you first forward or express emotions about the information you get through Moments?
It's like throwing a stone into a calm lake: the more frequent the ripples, the farther they spread. The more successful your communication.
In short, communication is no longer "manufactured" by brands but "consumed" by consumers.
How to create ripples?
I believe the core of creating ripples is **the ability to create social currency for consumers.**
As mentioned earlier, consumers already have the right to choose information. The core of making them actively obtain or share content is whether your content has four values:
- **Social:** altruism, showing off, social identity (social currency);
- **Emotional:** resonance, recognition, following;
- **Growth:** self-improvement, purchase decisions;
- **Entertainment:** killing time, releasing stress.

**3. Cognition, Transaction, Relationship**
In Teacher Liu Chunxiong's new book "New Marketing," the concepts of scenario, IP, community, and communication essentially reinterpret the marketing framework logic based on the internet from the consumer's perspective in the era of consumer sovereignty.
**Scenario is the product logic, IP is the brand logic, community is the connection logic, and communication is the marketing logic.**
The book introduces an important concept: the trinity of cognition, transaction, and relationship, meaning that **in the past, online and offline were separate, parallel marketing processes; now, through mobile internet, they can be integrated.**
Let me give an example scenario:
While waiting for the bus on your way to work, you see this poster:
You notice an activity: buy two get one free. On impulse, you scan the QR code and purchase. After payment, you're prompted to share with friends to get a free coffee, so you casually send the coupon to your colleague via WeChat.
By the time you reach the office, the coffee has arrived. Your colleague, like you, brings the same coffee to the meeting, and you two smile at each other.
This scenario is familiar, right? If described in one sentence:
**"What you see is what you get; no fission, no marketing."**

**4. Traffic, IP**
Traffic is a term from the internet era, but in traditional business, the logic of traffic has always existed.
The key to traditional business success lies in location: the better the location, the more foot traffic, and the less worry about business. That's traditional business logic.
Why do hypermarkets dare to charge entry fees? Simply because they have customer traffic. If you want to sell your products here, sorry, please pay the toll first (purchase traffic).
In internet business, which position is most expensive? It must be where users have the highest open rate and most views. Essentially, it's still traffic. However, the logic of traffic has shifted from offline location to online PV and UV.
So, regardless of industry, online or offline, the prerequisite for good business is sufficient traffic.
In traditional distribution, channels were highly fragmented. To gain sales, brands had to distribute products to 6 million small stores. The daily customers in these stores were traffic, but this traffic was not private but shared. Because the stores were small, their bargaining power with brands was weak, so whoever could distribute products to these stores could obtain enough traffic.
But in the mobile internet era, the characteristic of 2C e-commerce is a very obvious Matthew effect: channels are too concentrated, and the distribution of traffic is in the hands of platforms.
Distribution costs have shifted from traditional human management costs to the cost of purchasing traffic from channel owners. In the past, it was controllable; now it's uncontrollable. If brands still want to acquire customers through "public domain traffic," there will always be competitors with lower costs or willing to pay higher prices (to buy traffic), ultimately causing brand traffic costs to spiral out of control.
This forces brands to find ways to **rebuild private, independent traffic.**
What's the best way to obtain independent traffic? **In the past, it was brand; now, it's IP.**
Without discussing intellectual property, I think IP is the collective memory of a specific group of people in a certain field.
I chatted with Yin Yiqian from Sports and Entertainment DreamWorks, and her explanation of IP was spot on:
IP has a fixed, clear fan profile. It can transcend time and space, have sustained heat, and allow people of different ages and values to have common views and cognition.
There's a misconception: many people mistake hot topics for IP. For example, the recent hit "Story of Yanxi Palace" is not IP; it can only be called a hot topic. Although everyone discusses such hot topics for a while, once the drama ends, the topic fades. It can't accumulate fans, so it's not IP.
But One Piece, the Forbidden City, and Doraemon are IP because they are the collective memory of a group of people over a period, transcending space and withstanding the test of time. That's true IP.
However, hot topics and IP can transform: continuous output of hot content can form IP, and IP can also become a hot topic at a certain time.
Because acquiring traffic is particularly difficult, the essence of marketing, as stated at the beginning of this article, is to influence user choices. In other words, marketing can help users reduce decision risk and increase familiarity, and IP naturally has this affinity.
Teacher Liu calls IP the traffic index; I think IP is more like a low-lying area for brands to capture traffic.

**5. KOL, Community**
Earlier, when discussing communication, I didn't mention a highly related keyword: KOL. The reason is that even KOLs must possess one of the abilities: social, emotional, growth, or entertainment.
But KOLs can only become KOLs because they have followers.
Hitler didn't need to brainwash all of Germany; he only needed to influence his followers, and the rest was done by those around him.
**Community is a tool to gather KOL fans or followers, output strong content, and amplify it. Community is the amplifier of ripples.**
Teacher Liu says community is the router of IP; I think community is more like a loudspeaker for communication.
Only strong communities can generate strong momentum and produce the 1990 effect.
**1990 effect:** 1% of KOLs attract 9% of fans, and 9% of fans ignite 90% of followers.
The so-called momentum is like water at high altitude, and community is the dam of a power station, converting momentum into usable electricity.
Summarizing Teacher Liu's entire book, I believe "New Marketing" proposes four "nots":
- **Not "manufactured" but "consumed";**
- **Not satisfying needs but creating needs;**
- **Not you going to consumers, but consumers coming to you;**
- **Not deliberately creating communication, but letting consumers actively spread it.**

**6. New Organization, New Channels**
New marketing cannot be separated from new infrastructure, which means new distribution methods.
Traditional brands are based on traditional deep distribution logic, which is correct. But when consumer sovereignty is in the hands of consumers, product requirements have shifted from **"I also want" to "I only want."**
This poses different requirements for product development, production, and supply chain:
- Shift from single temperature layer to multi-temperature layer;
- Shift from long shelf life to short shelf life;
- Shift from fewer SKUs to more SKUs.
This presents extremely high challenges to brand production and supply chains. From the past single deep distribution long chain, it becomes a combination of short, medium, and long chains. Distribute short-shelf-life, multi-SKU, multi-temperature products to different channels to meet mass, niche, and personalized consumer demands.
Unfortunately, most brands currently have an unfriendly attitude toward new channels. There are two main reasons: **one is the large existing inventory; the other is outdated organizational drivers.** This requires time for companies to change, and I won't elaborate here.
But in a sense, this also creates opportunities for new brands to overtake on the curve.
This concludes this section. Borrowing a quote from Teacher Zeng Ming:
**Traditional brands can survive with new methods,**
**New brands using traditional methods truly can't rise.**
This is a reading reflection on Teacher Liu Chunxiong's new book "New Marketing." Friends interested in this book, please click the mini-program link below to purchase.

**On October 23-24, during the Autumn Sugar and Wine Fair, New Distribution will host the "2018 FMCG City Distribution Logistics Conference."** We will invite industry experts, FMCG warehousing and distribution specialists, and distributors who have transformed to unified warehousing and distribution platforms to discuss and answer questions about future trends in FMCG city distribution logistics and practical cases of distributor transformation. We hope to bring you different inspiration and thinking! The specific agenda is as follows:

**List of Participating Companies**
(In no particular order)
- Hunan Zonglan Diandan Network Technology Co., Ltd.
- Jingbang (Wuhan) International Freight Forwarding Co., Ltd.
- Mengniu Dairy
- Qinghai Hanxiang E-commerce Co., Ltd.
- Unilever Service (Hefei) Co., Ltd. Shanghai Branch
- Huicong
- Hunan Xuan'ang Food Co., Ltd.
- Guangzhou Tongdaoren Information Technology Co., Ltd.
- Qingdao 888 Trading Co., Ltd.
- Uni-President Enterprises (China) Investment Co., Ltd.
- Hunan Province Zhongxiang Gongpei Logistics Co., Ltd.
- Shenglong Ingredients
- COSCO Shipping Logistics Warehousing and Distribution Co., Ltd.
- Guangxi Yongpai Liquor Co., Ltd.
- Shangqiu Kangrong Trading Co., Ltd.
- Jinan Dingzhong Trade Co., Ltd.
- Liaoning Bimai Agricultural Technology Co., Ltd.
- Kunming Xiongjia Trading Co., Ltd.
- Shaanxi Houheng Trading Co., Ltd.
- Guangzhou Dingwo Enterprise Information Consulting Co., Ltd.
- Shaodong Jiajiale Commercial Firm
- Boda Trading
- Industrial Bank Changsha Branch
- Wuhan Muchen Convenience Store Chain Co., Ltd.
- Fujian Fuxing Yuncang Logistics Co., Ltd.
- Guizhou Yilimi E-commerce Co., Ltd.
- Jiangxi Xiao Laoer E-commerce Co., Ltd.
- Jinshan Koufu
- Shanxi Taihang Yuanjing Supply Chain Management Co., Ltd.
- Shanxi Dezhun Supply Chain Management Co., Ltd.
- Shaoyang Tongdeli Trading (Xiangbang Logistics)
- Huanfu
- Tongda Express City Distribution
- Beijing Xinjingxiang Food Co., Ltd.
- Wuhan Huizhong Tianhong Liquor Co., Ltd.
- Changsha Paide Biotechnology Co., Ltd.
- Chao'an Tuqiang
- Guizhou Yihe Bopin Supply Chain Management Co., Ltd.
- Jiangxi Kang'en Industrial Development Co., Ltd.
- Xiangtan County Yisuhe Town Yuhua Paper Store
- Luoyang Yuanlang Trading Co., Ltd.
- Tongchuan Yaozhou District Huayuan Supermarket Co., Ltd.
- Hunan Yongfu Jiujiu Trading Co., Ltd.
- Zhejiang Chengchengtong Logistics Co., Ltd.
- Chongqing Kaiguo Materials Trading Co., Ltd.
- Beijing Xianmaixianmai Data Technology Co., Ltd.
- Hanchuan Qixing Trading Co., Ltd.
- Tongxin Jiuzhi Trading Co., Ltd.
- Guizhou Meiguo Guoguo Network Technology Co., Ltd.
- ......

**Representatives of Distributor Transformation (Proposed)**
(In no particular order)
- Chairman of Jiangsu Huashang City Distribution Network Co., Ltd., Rong Jun
- Chairman of Hubei Yijiaren Logistics Co., Ltd., Wang Bo
- General Manager of Sichuan Chengdu Xingrenxing Trading Co., Ltd., Jiang Shuming
- Chairman of Shandong Yunbang Warehousing and Logistics Co., Ltd., Liu Jichen
- Chairman of Chongqing Lingyu Consumer Goods Supply Chain Management Co., Ltd., Tu Mingyu
- Chairman of Guangzhou Zhongshan Wanrong Marketing Co., Ltd., Yang Su
- Chairman of Sichuan Bajie Supply Chain Management Co., Ltd., Yuan Xia
- Co-founder of Hubei Pengdun Meiyitian Supply Chain Management Co., Ltd., Li Qiangyun
- Chairman of Henan Xuchang Jiulegou E-commerce Co., Ltd., Zhang Jianyong
- Founder of Hebei Changyi Logistics Co., Ltd., Ma Haichao
- General Manager of Hebei (Chengde) Wulian Yuncang Co., Ltd., Meng Yucun
- Chairman of Xinjiang Urumqi Su'an Jinchi Logistics Co., Ltd., Zhang Xun
- Chairman of Jilin Sansheng Lianggou, Zhang Hailing
- Founder of Hebei Dunjie Supply Chain Management Co., Ltd., Qiang Huitao
- General Manager of Hunan Damei Supply Chain Management Co., Ltd., Liao Lei
- ......

-END-


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