" The long-term success of fast-moving consumer goods was never about riding hotspots by luck, but about the precise capture and deep satisfaction of user needs."
In November 2025, the 'Hachimi' meme swept social platforms through viral spread; Joyoung's Hachimi soybean milk sold out 90,000+ units within one hour of launch,
Over the same period, dozens of FMCG brands moved at the scent, flooding out 'Hachimi' meme posters and short videos, yet without any product innovation or demand adaptation, and their eventual exposure
Both rode the hotspot, so why can some brands 'become famous in one battle' and accumulate long-term value, while others 'bloom for a night' and become passing traffic? Where exactly does marketing win or lose?
01 The 'Change and Constancy' of the Marketing World: No Matter How New the Form, the Essence Stays the Same
The first principle of marketing is the inevitability of 'discovering and satisfying needs.' Every accidental hit is the inevitable result of capturing needs. Following trends only grabs short-term traffic,
1. The First Principle of Marketing (Kotler's 'Discover and Satisfy Needs')
The inevitable success of Hachimi soybean milk lies in precisely capturing Gen Z's latent need to 'complete in-group identity with memes and heal high-pressure emotions with cuteness,' using the product
Those follower brands that failed violated this core principle exactly: they neither discovered users' real jobs nor provided corresponding solutions, merely consuming the hot
2. What Changes: The Forms and Tools of Communication (from ad bombardment to meme marketing + AI empowerment)
Marketing has entered a new era of 'meme economy + AI acceleration': circle memes like 'Hachimi' become natural carriers of spread, and AI tools (such as multi
Follower brands only grasped the surface of 'change': blindly copying meme symbols and applying communication forms, yet never using tools to dig into the real needs behind the meme, ending up stuck at
02 Penetrate the Product, Strike the Three Layers of 'Function + Emotion + Social'
Kotler's 'discover and satisfy needs' is not single-dimensional functional fit, but deep coverage of users' full-scenario demands. In the Hachimi soybean milk case, this principle
1. Base Layer: Functional Needs (solving the 'usability' problem)
Precisely meet Gen Z's core dietary demands of 'health and convenience,' featuring a low-sugar formula (zero sucrose, low calorie) and 150g independent small packaging (
Function is the 'pass line' of need satisfaction and the basic premise for users to choose a product: emotional value without functional support is just a 'castle in the air,' but function alone cannot
2. Core Layer: Emotional Needs (solving the 'delight' problem)
Using AI-generated 'round-headed elderly-cat' cute packaging, the catchy 'Hachimi' BGM, and the playful copy 'I, your Hachimi,' it precisely meets Gen Z's
3. Sublimation Layer: Social Needs (solving the 'show-off' problem)
The product becomes Gen Z's 'circle entry ticket'; users check in and show off their orders on social platforms, signaling the identity of 'getting the meme, following the trend,' gaining peer-group
03 JBTD: Four Paths to Implement 'Discover and Satisfy Needs'
Christensen admitted: 'Users buy a product to get a certain important job done in a specific scenario.' For FMCG, the JBTD framework can be used to implement
Step one: Decompose the 'user's job to be done,' penetrate surface behavior to find core needs
Operating steps:
1 Use AI public-opinion monitoring tools to capture user comments and social dynamics under hot topics, covering multi-channel data sources such as news, social platforms, and short videos, through self-
2 Use AI data-analysis platforms to rank by the matrix of 'job importance × pain-point intensity,' locking the core job while filtering out 'pseudo-needs' (
3 Use emotion-recognition models (such as a BERT+BiLSTM hybrid architecture) to accurately judge users' demand intensity for various jobs, improving the accuracy of need insight
Hachimi soybean milk: by analyzing 'Hachimi'-meme-related content with AI tools, it found users mentioning 'want a physical merchandise,' 'want to interact with fellow fans,'
Step two: Match the 'job scenario,' turning abstract needs into product solutions
Operating steps:
1 For core emotional jobs, use AI content-generation tools to turn abstract demands into perceptible product language (e.g., 'healing' → cute packaging, playful copy
2 For social jobs, design 'low-threshold sharing points' (such as good-looking appearance, topical copy, limited-edition marks), and use AI tools to predict spread effect
3 Safeguard the basic functional job, verify functional fit through user-need quantification tools, avoiding 'form over substance';
Hachimi soybean milk: emotional job 'healing' → AI-generated cute-cat packaging + catchy BGM; social job 'circle identity' → exclusive 'Hachimi'
04 The Ultimate Romance of Marketing Is Deep Respect for Demand
The Hachimi soybean milk craze was never a 'victory of the meme,' but the inevitable result of Kotler's first principle: followers see 'traffic symbols,' winners see
Hotspots will go out of fashion, memes will cool down, but users' real needs always remain; give up the fluke of following trends, hold to the essence of needs, and let every marketing act become an inevitable success
