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Articles by 刘春雄
Browse 419 New Distribution articles by 刘春雄.
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419 articles · Page 1 of 18
Special Channels Are Hot Again
The status of special channels (special distribution channels) has changed dramatically in the past two years. Previously, they were mainly handled by second-tier distributors, with first-tier distributors unwilling to participate. Now, top brands are establishing dedicated special channel departments, highlighting their growing importance. This article discusses the three key characteristics of special channels: they are social spaces for young people, they integrate sales and consumption scenarios (bC integration), and their true value lies in seeding products for later harvest in general circulation.
刘春雄The Era of Private Brands: Major Reshuffling of Leading Brands
China's retail industry's 'Pang Reform' and private brands are just the trigger, initiating a reverse integration of retail, distributors, and brand owners, with greater impacts to come. For retail, it will drive consolidation, especially the growth of retail chains, leading to the disappearance of many independent stores. For distributors, the new supply chain bypasses them, causing their share to decline, and they must transform into category operators, B2b platform operators, or scenario operators. For brand owners, private brands will trigger a major reshuffling of leading brands, as the 'wide category, narrow product' strategy reduces shelf space for many SKUs, and only national brands that represent the top of their category and have emotional connections through brand narratives will survive.
刘春雄First-Tier Brands Should Step Out of Their Comfort Zone!
The mediocrity of first-tier brands is highlighted by two abnormal phenomena: the popularity of private brands (PB) without a corresponding rise in national brands (NB), and the fact that Pangdonglai's private brand quality surpasses that of first-tier brands. This reflects the overall mediocrity of first-tier brands, which have failed to upgrade quality and lead the industry, instead focusing on maintaining volume, leading to consumer dissatisfaction and a decline in brand affinity.
刘春雄When 'User Needs' Disappear, Is Marketing Still Marketing?
Recently, marketing expert Miao Qingxian asked when evaluating marketing theory: if marketing doesn't talk about needs, what else can it talk about? The answer is Clayton Christensen's 'Jobs To Be Done'. If we continue to ask: if marketing has no users (consumers), what else is there? The answer is scenarios. If we ask again: if user needs 'disappear', is marketing still marketing? That's hard to answer. User needs are the root of modern marketing. Uprooting the root of a theory is a serious problem. 'Market orientation...'
刘春雄From "Self-Procurement" to "Private Brand": Pangdonglai's Path Is Hard to Replicate
Driven by the "Pangdonglai renovation" of supermarkets, China's supermarket sector has seen a boom in private brands. Many see Pangdonglai's results but not its growth history. With over 20 years of private brand history, Pangdonglai's journey is difficult to replicate quickly. Without knowing its history, one cannot grasp its essence or learn from its present. Having followed Pangdonglai for over 15 years, I have witnessed its complete transformation from "self-procurement" to "private brand." Reviewing this history may help companies learning from Pangdonglai find their own path.
刘春雄Scenario Roadmap: Momentum Scenarios Break Through, Kinetic Scenarios Drive Volume, Long-tail Scenarios Sustain Growth
Sales expansion is essentially scenario expansion. A product's success depends on how many scenarios consumers associate it with. The scenario roadmap follows the path from momentum scenarios to kinetic scenarios to long-tail scenarios, guiding cognitive spillover in a controlled sequence.
刘春雄The Core of Scene Marketing: Creating Rituals with Products
Rituals are the social expression of emotions, transforming abstract feelings into tangible, observable moments. By embedding products into these rituals or creating new ones, brands can tap into the emotional core of scenes, turning personal emotions into collective experiences and driving engagement.
刘春雄Three Key Points for Implementing Scenario Marketing
At the CFC Conference in Chengdu on March 17, 2026, Professor Liu Chunxiong of Zhengzhou University and Deputy Director of the Scenario Marketing Research Institute delivered a keynote speech on the three key points for implementing scenario marketing, addressing the industry's pain point of 'much talk, little implementation' and providing practical guidance for growth in an era of oversupply.
刘春雄All Roads Lead to C: Building a C-End Command Center for Full-Scenario Reach
Modern marketing has established the principle of customer orientation (C-end orientation), making infinite proximity to or reach of the C-end the inevitable direction of marketing evolution. The evolution of marketing is the history of approaching the C-end, which has gone through four stages: brand department (indirect reach via mass media), marketing department (direct reach via terminal promotion), e-commerce (performance and branding integration via traffic investment), and bC integration (all-domain reach). Now, with multiple paths to C, enterprises need to build a C-end command center to coordinate strategy, unify messaging, and manage resources across channels.
刘春雄In the Age of Social Media, Consumption Itself Is a Social Performance
Consumption is performance. It has two attributes: biological satisfaction (functional) and social satisfaction (symbolic). In the era of social media, social satisfaction takes precedence, and providing emotional value has become the dividing line between 'old-timers' and 'newcomers'. The drive for social priority in consumption stems from the possibilities offered by self-media, consumption as a variable in ecological competition, and the diminishing marginal utility of functional satisfaction.
刘春雄Scenario Saturation Attack: From Boiling a Drop of Water to Boiling the Pacific Ocean
Marketing success is the success of saturation attacks, differing only in their methods. After reform and opening-up, the first round was advertising carpet bombing, followed by channel saturation distribution. Now, the third round is scenario saturation attack, which aims for bC closure within a single scenario, enabling low-cost saturation and rolling development from local to global scale.
刘春雄The IP Iron Triangle: Emotional IP, Scenario IP, and Values IP
This article discusses the evolution from brands to IPs, emphasizing the shift from materialization to personification. It introduces the concept of an 'IP Iron Triangle' comprising emotional IP, scenario IP, and values IP, and explains how these three types of IP can be combined to create a stable and successful IP strategy in the internet age.
刘春雄Emotional IP: Emotional 'FMCG' and Hard Currency for Communication
Emotional value has become a highly sought-after phenomenon, with emotions now serving as fast-moving consumer goods in self-media communication. This article analyzes the soil for emotional FMCG from three levels: the macro era, China's social transformation, and generational groups, and discusses the commercial value and internal involution of emotional value.
刘春雄“The Next Century of Marketing”: The Century-Long Evolution of Word-of-Mouth, Brands, IPs, and Cognitive Symbols
The essence of business competition is cognitive competition. Cognitive accumulation is embodied in cognitive symbols, with each era having its representative symbol. From the 'local consensus' of word-of-mouth in agricultural society, to the 'mass cognitive contract' of brands in industrial society, and then to the 'value soul engine' of IPs in digital society, the evolution trajectory clearly outlines the progression of commercial civilization.
刘春雄From 'Chinese-style Marketing' to 'Chinese Marketing'
Since the reform and opening-up, the evolution of marketing in China has been clear: it began with enlightenment from Western theories, underwent localization based on national conditions, embraced early internet marketing represented by platform e-commerce, and has now entered a new era of internet self-media marketing centered on IP and scenario construction. In this grand historical process, the proposal and practice of 'Chinese-style marketing' is a key transitional node.
刘春雄Scenes Generate Orders: Instant Retail and the Consumer Psychological Clock
After arriving at a restaurant, placing an order for craft beer on an instant retail platform and having it delivered in 15 minutes is a common scene between 18:00 and 21:00 daily. Orders generated by scenes, along with instant retail's rapid response and delivery, are forming a new consumer psychological clock among users. This clock, in turn, challenges traditional commerce, pushing it to align with the new psychological clock and thereby reshaping business models.
刘春雄The Century-Long Evolution of Cognitive Symbols: Word of Mouth, Brand, and IP
The evolution of cognitive symbols from word of mouth in agricultural society, to brand in industrial society, and to IP in digital society, reflects changes in social structure and media technology. This article explores how each symbol functions as a cognitive accumulation mechanism, with scenarios serving as the fermentation pool for user-generated content.
刘春雄“We've Done Everything We Should—Why No Sales?”
Over 20 years ago, when I was deputy editor-in-chief at Sales & Marketing, frontline salespeople at monthly editorial meetings would often complain: “We've done everything we should, but sales aren't growing—what can we do?” This topic later disappeared as deep distribution models revived growth. Now it has resurfaced, signaling that current marketing models have become ineffective. The solution lies in finding the next standard action template, such as bC-integrated user operations, to stay ahead in competitive markets.
刘春雄Media Revolution Is Marketing Revolution
Media plays a fundamental, environmental, and irreplaceable role in shaping consumer cognition, acting not merely as a channel for information but as the shaper, definer, and participant in the cognitive process. The article argues that media revolutions redefine marketing eras, from mass media's 'voice of God' to the internet's 'cacophony of gods', and that understanding media is key to understanding consumer cognition.
刘春雄The Next Century of Marketing: America's 'Roaring Twenties' vs. China's 'Internet 2010s'
By examining the historical context, we can discern the trajectory of social change. Modern marketing, which has influenced a century, emerged in the United States; will China produce a new marketing theory that influences the next century? This article compares America's 'Roaring Twenties' with China's 'Internet 2010s' to explore the beginnings of the last century of marketing and the potential dawn of the next.
刘春雄Fourth Discussion on 'Marketing in the Next Century': Individuals Over Organizations, Technology Breaks All Resource Barriers
Technology breaks all resource barriers, and individuals can surpass organizations in the internet era. This article discusses the historical recurrence of this phenomenon, the shift from individual to organizational innovation, and the need to rebuild marketing systems in response to changing cognitive and communication patterns.
刘春雄Third Discussion on 'Marketing in the Next Century': One-Way Value Proposition vs. Scenario Interaction Creating Value
Value creation is the biggest unsolvable bug in a century of modern marketing. 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 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 will be scenario interaction, value consensus, and the integration of value creation and communication.
刘春雄“Clearing Out Big Brands”: A Break Between Manufacturers and Distributors
The relationship between manufacturers and distributors has changed dramatically in the past two years, with the model that lasted over 20 years now gone. I have a metaphor: 2024 was the “marriage-fearing year” for manufacturers and distributors, and 2025 is the “divorce year.” If we compare their relationship to a marriage, then in 2024, manufacturers couldn’t recruit distributors, and distributors wouldn’t take on brands. In 2025, it has escalated to a “divorce year,” with terminations of partnerships becoming very common. A particularly notable phenomenon, which I call “clearing out big brands,” is intensifying. Initially, I thought it was an isolated case, but as cases multiplied, it became a widespread trend, even signaling changes in brand and channel dynamics.
刘春雄Revisiting 'Marketing in the Next Century': User Marketing vs. Scenario Marketing
This article discusses the concept of 'cross-cycle growth' and defines the marketing of the last century as 'user marketing' centered on user needs via mass media, while the next century's marketing is defined as 'scenario marketing' centered on scenario jobs-to-be-done via internet self-media. It argues that scenario marketing, with its concrete tasks and interactive value creation, is better suited to the new media environment than traditional user marketing.
刘春雄