After the traffic era, the growth code for the digital industry may lie in "consumer mindset".

The pace of the mobile and digital industry is always on the fast track. Waves of performance improvements, appearance iterations, and algorithm updates have made the market present a situation of diverse competition.

Manufacturers have repeatedly tried to prove their "leadership" with longer parameter lists and more glamorous advertising videos. However, consumers' feelings may not be in sync: it has become even more difficult to make a choice. Similar appearances, comparable configurations, and identical promotional slogans have dragged people into a maze of information overload. As a result, the price of traffic has been rising, and the supply of attention has become increasingly scarce. For brands, the issue is no longer "whether they can be seen" but "whether they can be remembered."

The Digital Industry Summit jointly hosted by ByteDance and Intel on September 3rd put this dilemma under the spotlight and attempted to offer a possibility: When growth hits the ceiling, the answer to growth may not lie in selling a few more features but in whether a stable "mental anchor point" can be planted in users' minds and methods for quantification and management can be found.

The Weight of Mental Perception: When Digital Competition Enters the "Cognitive Battlefield"

The relationship between brands and users has changed.

Once upon a time, the influence brought by brand promotion exposure was often directly equivalent to sales volume. There was almost a smooth straight - line relationship between users and brands, and reaching users meant conversion. As long as a sufficient number of traffic entrances could be occupied, it was enough to support the growth of sales volume. Now, exposure is just the beginning. What truly determines long - term growth is the position a brand occupies in users' minds.

The mobile and digital industry itself is in a state of overheating. Standardized products such as mobile phones, computers, and smart devices belong to high - frequency consumer categories, with stable demand and a large market. The supply is also booming. On the one hand, it is an inevitable result that the traditional core categories have become more transparent, and product forms and functions are becoming more and more similar. On the other hand, the seemingly high - profit accessories and emerging niche categories are iterating at an extremely fast pace, and any single - point performance advantage often disappears in a flash.

Why must the digital industry talk about "mental perception"? This means that both the paths of piling up hardware parameters and promoting traffic exposure are facing the situation of increasing marginal benefits. In such a high - frequency iterative environment, the labels and cognitions of a brand in users' minds have become valuable assets that can truly retain and precipitate value.

When a mobile phone is not just known for "good photography" but is remembered as the "ultimate concert photography device," it possesses not only a single functional selling point but also a higher - level recognition. This kind of recognition often brings a higher premium space, a stronger willingness to repurchase, and can also reduce consumers' hesitation when making choices.

In an environment where the hardware gap is constantly being narrowed, it is this cognitive shortcut that truly makes the difference.

Consumers are not always completely rational. Faced with a dazzling array of new products, people often rely on cognitive shortcuts to make decisions. Product mental perceptions such as "the ultimate photography device," "a must - have for concerts," and "the king of long - lasting battery life" are easier to remember than any technical parameters. In a few seconds of decision - making time, they trigger choices far more efficiently than the numbers themselves. Therefore, industry competition has gradually shifted from a "performance competition" to a "cognitive competition." Whoever can plant an anchor point in users' minds first will gain more certainty in the current cycle.

This has instead made the "shortcut" of mental perception a long - term path in the current context. Interestingly, ByteDance is trying to transform this vague consumer cognition into a quantifiable and interpretable marketing system.

At the summit, ByteDance demonstrated a mental perception building path based on the Douyin platform. The four - step process of defining mental perception, finding the right people, having the right conversations, and targeting the right people makes "building mental perception" more evidence - based.

The foundation of everything lies in mental perception positioning. The brand mental perception on the Douyin platform can be divided into a three - layer framework: the bottom layer is the product mental perception, which answers the question "why to buy," representing functional cognition and being directly related to performance, price, and functions. The middle layer is the scenario mental perception, which emphasizes "when to think of it" and is bound to specific usage scenarios. The top layer is the brand mental perception, which is the recognition at the emotional and identity levels.

This three - layer framework of mental perception is essentially an induction of consumer psychology. From functional cognition, to scenario association, and then to identity resonance, it constitutes the complete path for users to remember a brand. It is not created out of thin air but is a transplantation of the experience in the consumer goods industry and an echo of the reality in the digital industry.

The practical significance of this framework has also been verified in industry cases.

For example, when launching new products, Xiaomi tried to comprehensively penetrate users' cognition with the "three - layer mental perception" approach: in terms of product mental perception, by binding the "iced Americano" appearance design with coffee culture elements, it created a memorable selling point; in terms of scenario mental perception, by combining night photography with entertainment consumption scenarios, cooperating with livehouse brands offline for implantation, and having influencers conduct short - video dissemination and interaction online, it deeply implanted the label of "the ultimate livehouse photo - taking device" in users' minds, achieving a 100% industry association share; in terms of brand mental perception, through cross - border coffee shops, ecological scenario exhibitions, and an influencer matrix, it created an identity resonance of "Xiaomi is exclusive for the youth."

Ultimately, the linkage of this three - layer mental perception led to a 233% month - on - month increase in orders and a 155% year - on - year increase in search popularity. This means that the management of brand mental perception can not only be observed but also directly translated into the growth of sales volume and word - of - mouth.

More importantly, the mental perception building of brands on Douyin is no longer an elusive mystery but a specific result that can be measured and observed. Through AI and data modeling, ByteDance can quantify the penetration of a brand at different levels and even predict the relationship between mental perception accumulation and sales volume. The survey results show that brands that start building mental perception on Douyin have a faster accumulation of audience assets and a higher increase in business compared with ordinary brands.

The message behind this is clear: The gap in mental perception will ultimately become the gap in business.

AI: The Accelerator for Shaping Mental Perception

The value of mental perception is clear, but its formation is often slow. The process of being remembered requires long - term exposure and repeated verification, and it needs to be gradually accumulated through repeated experiences.

After the mental perception positioning is completed in the four - step process mentioned above, clarifying the matching degree among consumers, content, and influencers used to be a process that definitely required experience and perspective.

The reality of the mobile and digital industry, however, is that the pace is too fast. The popularity of new products may only last for a few weeks, and the wave of topics comes and goes quickly. The window of opportunity for brands to precipitate mental perception almost disappears in a flash. The contradictory tension between the fast - paced market operation and the slow - variable process of building mental perception is the real difficult - to - implement dilemma in the industry.

This is also the direction in which ByteDance has invested a large amount of resources in the past few years. If mental perception is the destination, then it is trying to shorten the journey with AI.

"AI is revolutionizing the influencer content marketing industry," ByteDance judged at the conference. In its view, the first value brought by AI is to make exposure more precise. Based on interest profiles, search behaviors, and consumption paths, AI can identify potential consumption motives and deliver content to the most suitable people. Photography enthusiasts will be pushed long - focal sample photos, and fitness influencers will see experiences of sports headphones. Each exposure is more like a customized service.

The deeper value lies in understanding. AI can not only know where users are but also infer what they are thinking. With the help of ByteDance's AIGC tools, brands can quickly produce materials that fit the context of different circles, thus turning a one - way promotion into a two - way resonance. For mobile and digital manufacturers, this ability is particularly important. The window of opportunity for new product iteration is extremely short. Only by making the content "have the right conversation" quickly can the accumulation of mental perception keep up with the industry pace.

This means that with the support of AI, good content can achieve more refined content communication, more efficient content cooperation, and thus obtain more certain marketing returns.

At the same time, AI interpretation is not only about the fit of users' emotions and interest groups but also about the matching of influencers and the adaptation of interactive gameplay. This targeted exposure is more efficient and closer to users than the previous one - size - fits - all approach, truly achieving broader public participation and more accurate circle penetration. It also means that brands no longer use limited budgets to bet on a "probability" but can choose the right way to talk to the right people at the right time.

These capabilities have been verified in the industry. LiberLive's stringless guitar used AI to capture the public's desire for music and the difficulties in learning to play on Douyin. Taking this as an opportunity, it launched the "#5 - minute play - and - sing challenge," achieving a phenomenal spread on the platform. At the same time, in cooperation with ByteDance, through variety show implantation, cross - border influencer linkage, and official live - streaming performances, it quickly drove business growth. The overall store business expanded by 200%, making it the top brand in the digital musical instrument category and directly driving the prosperity of the entire track.

Xiaomi's cooperation with Nanjing Hongshan Zoo bound the folding screen with "preserving cute animal photos" through the platform's interest - based recommendation mechanism, forming a differentiated memory among female users who love cute pet content. Eventually, it gained more than 100,000 new brand fans.

Content is the anchor point that stimulates users' yearning. With the support of AI, these diverse needs are further explored. The successful cases have verified that in the context of ByteDance, AI is not just a tool for improving efficiency but an accelerator for mental perception, enabling brands to accumulate scalable cognitive assets in a shorter time.

In addition, the potential of AI in the Douyin ecosystem is constantly expanding. OnePlus deeply implanted the "gaming" scenario mental perception in users' minds through cooperation with Douyin game IPs, PEL professional tournaments, and star streamers, driving the total exposure of game tournament live - streaming rooms to reach 650 million. The search - related mental perception increased by four times, and ultimately, the "gaming" scenario mental perception jumped to the top in the industry. OPPO Reno13 joined hands with Douyin's "Campus Live Plan," creating a music festival atmosphere through the linkage of 15 universities. The event achieved over 500 million exposures across the network, with the topic playback volume reaching 26.3 billion times, and the penetration rate among the core campus population exceeded 50%.

More importantly, with the support of AI, ByteDance has truly made the management of mental perception measurable and traceable. Different from traditional advertising, AI - driven advertising is not just about creating exposure but can provide real - time feedback: whether a video strengthens the impression of the "ultimate concert device," and whether an event makes the label of "young players" more solid.

With the mental perception measurement system established by ByteDance based on four major indicators, namely, brand - specific association share, industry association share, reputation, and preference, brands can clearly see their positions at different levels, accurately capture their mental perception occupancy status in the industry, and even predict the relationship between mental perception building and actual sales.

From traffic to the coordinates of mental perception, this closed - loop makes mental perception transform from a vague concept into an asset that can be managed, a new realm of brand growth.

In the current situation where traffic is becoming more and more expensive and attention is becoming increasingly scarce, this "accelerating ability" is a core variable related to growth for digital brands.

Conclusion

The marketing logic of the digital industry is undergoing an irreversible shift. Traffic is still important, but it no longer has the ability to form a closed - loop. After a wave of explosion, if there is no mental perception to undertake, the sales curve often quickly returns to zero. Through repeated verification, the industry has gradually realized that what can truly cross cycles, form premiums, and drive repurchases is not short - term traffic spikes but the long - term accumulated cognition in users' minds.

In this sense, mental perception is not some cutting - edge "tactic" but an inevitable path for the digital industry. Whether it is mobile phones, computers, or other digital devices, as the functional gap is becoming easier to catch up, what determines the situation will be users' first reactions in a certain scenario. Who comes to mind for night photography, for folding screens, or for sports headphones? These seemingly subjective answers are becoming the most objective dividing lines.

At ByteDance, AI and mental perception have become the two - wheel drive. It is not answering the question of "how to obtain more traffic" but "how to transform fleeting attention into long - term assets." For the digital industry, this means a logical shift: from the story of traffic to the story of mental perception.

In this shift, it is certain that victory or defeat may no longer be determined by a half - step lead in parameters but by a half - beat lead in mental perception.