The seminar on the "CBI List of Rising FMCG Brands" was held, where academics and investors dissected the path for brands to break through the bottleneck.

How can emerging brands seize opportunities in the current Chinese consumer market?

On August 20th, the second phase of the "China Online Consumption Brand Index (CBI)" and the "Global Brands China Online Top 500 List (CBI500)" was released. These were jointly developed by the National School of Development at Peking University, the Institute of Digital Finance at Peking University, and the School of Management at Sun Yat - sen University, with technical support from Taotian Group. This quarter, the project added a special research on the emerging brand list in the fast - moving consumer goods (FMCG) industry, focusing on new brands that have been established for a short time and are growing rapidly.

On September 16th, the research group held a special seminar on the "FMCG Emerging Brand List" to introduce the research results and jointly discuss the development status and breakthrough paths of new consumer brands. Huang Yiping, the dean of the National School of Development at Peking University, Ji Yang, a special researcher at the Institute of Digital Finance at Peking University, and Ji Yun, the general manager of the FMCG, Sports & Outdoor, Luxury Goods, and Automotive industries at Tmall, attended the meeting.

In addition, representatives from more than a dozen investment institutions, securities firms, and financial advisory institutions, including Fengrui Capital, Cathay Capital, Tiantu Capital, BAI Capital, Heiyi Capital, Tianshan Capital, the investment department of Proya, Qingyi Venture Capital, Baojiehui Fund, Hangzhou Business Travel Fund under Hangzhou Xiabai, Hexiang Venture Capital, Zhandao Capital, Jiuqian Consulting, CICC, and Tianfeng Securities, were present at the meeting. Founders and senior executives from many emerging brands on the list, such as BeBeBus, Simpcare, Ermu Tao, BabyGanics, Deckers, TaryClub, EHD/SDX, and Momol, also participated in the discussion.

At the meeting, Ji Yun said that this list from the National School of Development at Peking University will be refined into a "data investment banking product" on the Taobao and Tmall platforms. It is hoped that it will bring more reference dimensions for brands and investors, enable more objective evaluations of brands, and help brands discover more business opportunities, supporting emerging brands to survive market cycles.

"The platform has the obligation to use our data, capabilities, and insights to help brands. We aim to turn a brand that can survive for 1 year into a 3 - year brand, from a 3 - year brand to a 10 - year brand, and even help it go public and become the next Proya, Maogeping in China, or even a world - class brand," he said.

The Innovation Trend of Emerging Domestic Brands Is on the Rise

Currently, the Chinese consumer market is receiving a dual boost from policies and capital. The state strengthens market confidence by releasing policy dividends. Although industry competition is intensifying, structural opportunities still exist. In this market environment, brand merchants must build differentiated barriers through quality innovation, establish brand awareness, and quickly respond to market changes.

Professor Huang Yiping pointed out that Chinese innovative brands are now in a golden age. He mentioned, "As long as domestic brands' new products meet the needs of young people, users' recognition of them may even exceed that of European and American brands. I think this is a golden age."

For this reason, the series of research on the China Online Consumption Brand Index (CBI) launched the emerging brand list in the FMCG industry. The list only considers FMCG brands that have been established or entered the Chinese market for no more than 15 years. Based on the main CBI500 list, the indicator system has been optimized according to the characteristics of new brands.

Among the 50 emerging brands on the list, domestic brands account for an absolute majority, with 48 brands from the Chinese mainland. This reflects that the trends of entrepreneurship, innovation, and brand building in the Chinese FMCG industry are on the rise. Ji Yang, a representative of the research group, said, "When we pick out the fastest - growing brands from all 500 or 1000 brands, we are pleasantly surprised to find that they all have a common feature: they have made product innovations in niche scenarios."

Representatives of the emerging brands present shared their business experiences and financing experiences. Many brands mentioned that in an era when consumer demand is becoming more and more segmented, it is an important factor for new brands to stand out by understanding the needs of the core customer group, continuously exploring niche markets through product innovation, seizing promising new tracks, and continuously attracting consumers to make repeat purchases.

In response, a relevant person in charge of Tiantu Capital commented, "For emerging brands, we first focus on what is new - whether it is new in scenarios, product innovation, brand narrative innovation, or user understanding innovation." A relevant person in charge of consumer investment at Cathay Capital also mentioned that product power, channel power, brand power, organizational power, repeat purchases, and consumer evaluations are important dimensions for judging the value of emerging brands.

The Golden Age of Consumer Investment Is Back

Shen Ying, an executive director of Fengrui Capital, believes that now may be a good time for consumer investors to lay out their targets. "Many founders of emerging brands have persisted through the ups and downs of the financing market, even when they were almost out of resources. We have also observed how founders have persevered in the past few years. We think this is a very valuable asset."

Investment institutions generally believe that the FMCG Emerging Brand List, as a "brand data investment bank," plays an important role in systematically evaluating the brand value and development prospects of new brands, especially in dimensions related to track selection, customer group operation, product innovation, and channel operation.

In the system adopted by the list, the "track opportunity" dimension quantifies the industry opportunity space through indicators such as the size of the niche market, entry barriers, and the red - blue ocean index of innovation. At the same time, two important indicators on the list, the "scale of high - value customer groups" and the "transaction amount of old customers," the former reflects the ability of new brands to attract core user groups, and the latter reflects the brand's loyalty and repeat - purchase level, which have a significant impact on the development of emerging brands.

Wang Jiaqi, the person in charge of the consumer track at Tianshan Capital, said, "We think this list and index are very meaningful. We hope to have a method and a set of indicators that can truly quantify brand strength. Our approach is very similar to this logic." She also mentioned that the institution will focus on evaluating the future growth potential of consumer brands in dimensions such as track opportunities, brand operation, and product innovation capabilities.