The era of scene marketing is coming: how cross-border e-commerce can reshape the user profile?

I. The Old Map No Longer Works

Anyone in cross-border e-commerce can feel it:
whether you’re running an independent site or a TikTok Shop, the deeper you dig into user profiles, the less you actually grasp.

For years, we believed one logic — find the “core audience,” draw a precise persona, then you could target ads precisely and make sales explode.

But have you noticed — these personas are increasingly fake?
That “28-year-old, earning $3K a month, loves travel and fitness” looks neat on paper, yet it’s an illusion.

In reality, that same person might:

• scroll financial news anxiously in the morning,

• get hooked by a kitchen-storage TikTok before lunch,

• grab a protein bar after the gym,

• then binge cat videos on the couch and impulsively buy pet toys.

A single person’s desires and emotions can switch countless times in a day.
If your ads or influencer partnerships still rely on fixed labels, they’re missing the mark.

We used to say, “I know who they are.”
Now we must ask, “Do I know what they’re doing right now?”

II. The Death of Personas: Humans Are Fluid Desires

For two decades, classical marketing taught us to describe people by demographics —
age, gender, occupation, income, interests —
and to build the perfect “persona” before designing content and allocating budgets.

Reality tells us otherwise:
humans are not static labels, but shifting bundles of desire.

A 90s-born mom might post baby photos in the morning, rant about marriage online in the afternoon, and buy matching family outfits at night.
A British office worker tracks stocks at dawn, laughs at memes during lunch, and gets sold a kitchen gadget in the evening.
An American student might lift weights in the morning, film a side-hustle vlog at noon, and buy a used camera past midnight.

That means:

No matter how accurate, a persona is only a snapshot of the past.
You might spend millions on data profiling, yet a user-generated meme could spread your brand faster.

Old maps are static; user needs are dynamic.

III. Theory Retires: From “Owning Minds” to “Entering Scenes”

Twenty years ago, Positioning taught us that marketing was about “owning a place in the customer’s mind.”
Information back then was one-way:
a prime-time TV ad or a month on a magazine cover could lock in brand awareness.

Today, the consumer’s mind looks like TikTok’s For You feed —
dozens of stimuli per second,
touched by your story one moment, mocking it the next.

Your multimillion-dollar brand asset might be outpaced by a user’s meme.
Your proud slogan could become next month’s punchline.

So “owning the mind” no longer works.
What matters now is —

entering scenes, tapping emotions, and speaking in real time.

Leading cross-border brands have already shifted from defining users to responding to moments:

They no longer ask, “Who are they?”
They focus on, “What do they need and want to share — right now?”

IV. TikTok as an Amplifier: Scale Through Context

TikTok pushes this shift to the extreme.
It isn’t a shelf-based marketplace; it’s a stage where content sparks desire.
Most purchases are born in the instant between “no need” and “want it now.”

That’s why viral TikTok products usually last only 3–6 months:
the engine isn’t “market demand → product iteration,”
but “content trigger → emotional activation.”

Successful brands design around scenes:

• Immediate-need scenes: kitchen storage, pet care, home gadgets

• Emotional scenes: gifts, couple moments, surprise unboxings

• Micro-moments: office trinkets, travel must-haves, gym accessories

A video succeeds not because of the creator’s follower count,
but because it nails the emotion of this very second.

One Nordic seller, for example, sold $200K in a month —
with only eight minimalist kitchen videos.
No fancy persona data, no mega-influencer roster —
just razor-sharp scene relevance.

V. The Co-Creation Era: Users “Play” the Brand

Brand building used to be one-way storytelling —
hire celebrities, shoot commercials, burn budgets.
Now, brand identity is played into existence by users.

Your ad could become a remix meme within hours.
Your product demo could be cut into reaction clips that go viral.
Your ambassador’s scandal could drag your brand into ridicule.

Brands must now build minute-level monitoring and hourly-level response systems.
A brand is no longer a “story,” but an unscripted dialogue —
you start it, users continue; they start it, you must keep up.

Strategy no longer lives in annual PPTs,
but in comment sections, livestreams, and fan remixes.

VI. Three Hard Truths for Cross-Border Founders

1️⃣ Defense first.
Ten ads may go unnoticed, but one bad review can go viral.
The race isn’t about shouting loudest, but flipping the fewest times.
Before spending on exposure, perfect your service, logistics, and after-sales flow to minimize negativity.

2️⃣ Real-time beats strategy.
Your annual plan may expire in a week.
What works today is hour-level content planning and minute-level response.
The real strategy is built by doing and iterating live.

3️⃣ Let the young ones lead.
If you don’t speak TikTok’s language, don’t force it.
Let those who get memes and rhythms write copy, make calls, and reply to comments.
They’re worth more than a million-dollar ad spend.
Young team members aren’t “executors” — they are the dialogue between your brand and your users.

VII. Conclusion: Change the Map or Get Lost

The battlefield of cross-border brands
is no longer in meeting rooms or 4P frameworks,
but in TikTok’s feed, Xiaohongshu’s comments,
and every spontaneous act of shopping desire.

This is an era where scenes, not segments, are the coordinates.
Cling to the old map, and you’ll only drift further away.

Marketing has never been a formula —
it’s a live map that updates every second.
And now, it’s time to redraw yours.