Click to read the original article for details The Awkward Position of Chinese FMCG Brands Globally First, let's consider a phenomenon: in our perception, which Chinese consumer brands are recognized by consumers worldwide? Tsingtao Beer, Lao Gan Ma? Can you name a third? Probably not. Especially in the past two years, although many new consumer brands have risen, few have succeeded abroad before returning to China. We must remember that China is a manufacturing powerhouse; in all industries except high-precision fields, Chinese products can be said to dominate globally. Although domestic brands like Huawei, DJI, Xiaomi, and OV have gone global, in the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector, there are almost no Chinese brands recognized worldwide. However, foreign brands such as P&G, Nestlé, Coca-Cola, Unilever, Mondelez, Pepsi, Budweiser, Carlsberg, and other global consumer giants are thriving in China. Lao Miao holds the view: Building a brand is harder than building high-tech. Chinese technology is going global, but Chinese consumer brands have not yet. This is undeniably an awkward fact. Do Chinese brands really not consider going global? Actually, no. We see Taiwanese enterprises like Uni-President and Want Want, which typically expand into Southeast Asian markets while doing business in mainland China. But among domestic brands, only a few top FMCG brands focus on going global. This is understandable: In the past three decades, the Chinese market has grown rapidly; there was no time to look abroad when there was so much to do at home. In Some Areas, Chinese Marketing Is Already Ahead of the World This is fundamentally different from the marketing logic of the industrial era, which was based on limited supply: On one hand, information explosion has fundamentally changed how companies communicate; on the other hand, the long-tail demand brought by infinite shelves has led to an explosion of innovative brands. All marketing theories are essentially practical theories, developed by frontline marketers through market exploration and summarization of numerous methods based on new environments and infrastructure. These methods have not yet been distilled into theory, but they are the most effective practical approaches under the new era and technology. Currently, China's vast market, advanced infrastructure, and highly competitive environment have produced online operational experience that is undoubtedly ahead of the rest of the world. Opportunities for Going Global Due to the low value and high logistics costs of FMCG products, traditional FMCG entrepreneurs must invest in local factories and distribute through layers of distribution networks to reach consumers, which creates high barriers. However, with the Belt and Road Initiative targeting Southeast Asia, Central Asia, and Africa, our manufacturing and operational capabilities still have certain opportunities. Moreover, Li Ziqi provides another perspective. Li Ziqi has over 27.54 million followers on Weibo in China, and simultaneously, she has over 16 million subscribers on YouTube overseas, making her the most-subscribed Chinese-language channel. Each of her videos garners over 5 million views. (Screenshot of Li Ziqi's YouTube channel) This influence far exceeds that of official media, and also surpasses any brand's advertising reach, with long-lasting popularity. Li Ziqi's videos skillfully combine Chinese cuisine with her IP, giving foreigners an excellent impression of her. So when I saw Li Ziqi launching products, I sensed that beyond her IP, as a new consumer brand, she indeed has the potential to go global. The rise of China's national power will inevitably drive cultural rise, and brand rise will follow. Therefore, brand going global cannot be separated from culture going global. Li Ziqi's potential stems from the anxiety brought by industrialization and the internet. There is a universal longing for an idyllic pastoral life, which is not only rooted in Chinese culture but also a universal need for nature and return among all urban dwellers. Hua Bin has always emphasized that building a brand requires three elements: cultural matrix, brand parasitism, and super symbols. Brands cannot be separated from the cultural matrix. Li Ziqi unconsciously blends Chinese culture, Chinese cuisine, and the global urban residents' longing for pastoral life. This means Li Ziqi naturally has the potential to represent Chinese cuisine globally. But behind this, there is a deeper logic: Li Ziqi has a huge wave-making ability, which is quite different from the domestic innovative brands' tactics of planting grass on Xiaohongshu and harvesting via live streaming. From an opportunity perspective, there is a huge chance for domestic brands to overtake on curves when going global. On one hand, there are new transaction forms and opportunities based on algorithmic logic; on the other hand, domestic marketers have rich practical experience in e-commerce operations, cross-border e-commerce is maturing, and TikTok's rise abroad brings enormous possibilities for innovative brands to go global. Problems in Going Global The biggest problem for internet-famous brands like Li Ziqi is that their approach is to create influence overseas and then influence domestically. In fact, not only Li Ziqi, but almost all brands that appear to be selling well abroad are, in a sense, PR tactics. Almost no FMCG brand has its strategic focus on the global market, and Li Ziqi is no exception. Because the strategic focus is not global, the product strategy is clearly based on domestic needs. Since traditional big brands dominate main categories, innovative brands can only operate in niche long-tail categories on e-commerce platforms. We see Li Ziqi's Tmall store primarily sells luosifen (river snail rice noodles), with various specialty pickles and local snacks as sidelines. But such a category structure is typical of impulse purchases, with extremely low repurchase rates, making it difficult to achieve huge sales or expand offline. This is highly disproportionate to Li Ziqi's enormous influence and reputation. It's like using a cannon to kill a mosquito. So the biggest flaw of internet-famous brands is that they only squeeze the brand onto the consumer's mental shelf, but fail to get the product onto the shopping shelf. This is the awkward position of all innovative brands today: they talk about countless concepts, but due to over-segmentation and long-tail, they cannot generate repurchase. Second, cultural differences. The cultural differences between Chinese civilization and Christian or Islamic civilizations are still significant, which means Chinese brands face an insurmountable gap in cultural communication when entering non-Chinese markets. Therefore, even if many brands export, they only do business with the Chinese community and do not truly consider breaking out. Third, today's innovative brands, despite having strong internet branding experience, still follow the logic of infinite shelves. Infinite shelves make it extremely difficult to create true brands; this limitation is hard to overcome domestically, and I think it will also be encountered abroad. But whether it's opportunities or limitations, global consumers are inevitably entering information cocoons, and fragmentation is an indisputable fact. So fragmentation is not bad; the key is that in the domestic e-commerce environment, starting a new consumer brand is like doing a show in a snail's shell—overly competitive. Why don't entrepreneurs go global, look at global consumer needs, and use Chinese culture and Eastern cuisine to conquer the world? This is a question that our generation of marketers should seriously consider. Are you "watching" me?