Why Can Scenario Value Become a New Blue Ocean for Consumer Brands in 2026?

Looking back at China’s consumer market in 2025, many well-known financial institutions regard it as a year of “asset value reassessment.”

This year, the consumer market was filled with contradictions and differentiation: the household savings rate rose, but consumption driven by emotional value surged against the trend. Pop Mart, Mixue Group, and Lao Pu Gold were dubbed the “new consumption three sisters” by the market, with their market values soaring; from Mao Ge Ping to Bluc, from Auntie in Shanghai to Dongpeng Beverage, dozens of consumer companies lined up to go public; as China rises in global technological competition, AI and smart hardware are also accelerating to become new consumption hotspots…

These seemingly scattered phenomena actually point to the same change: a single, broad evaluation dimension has become increasingly inadequate to explain the current consumer market. Whether it’s emotional value, product innovation, channel efficiency, or user stickiness, the growth logic of different brands is clearly diverging.

Rather than saying “the evaluation criteria have changed,” it is more accurate to say—assessing consumer brands requires a more refined set of indicators.

The CBI500 (China Online Consumer Brand Index Top 500) annual list for 2025 is the “answer sheet” for this new standard.

The CBI series research is the first in the industry to be entirely based on real consumption behavior, filling the gap of macroeconomic indicators in the assessment of “consumption quality.” Led by the National School of Development at Peking University, in collaboration with the School of Management at Sun Yat-sen University, and completed with technical support from Taobao Tmall. The CBI500 list is based on tens of millions of brands, 900 million active users, and millions of searches and purchases, constructing a multidimensional measurement system that transcends a simple “price” metric through 12 dimensions. (You can read the previous article “The Revelation of the ‘CBI500’ List: How Does It ‘Define’ High-Quality Brand Growth? | Dialogue with the Peking University National Development Institute Research Group” for more details.)

Through the brands listed and their directional shifts, we can see the truth of consumption in 2025 and the latest trends for brands in 2026: Who is being reassessed? Who is losing value? Who represents the future?

CBI500 Annual List: Three Main Asset Lines Being Reassessed

From a yearly perspective, filtering out short-term fluctuations focuses on the true assets of brands. For example, the down jacket category, which was boosted by winter demand in the fourth quarter, declined in the annual list; while Apple, Midea, Xiaomi, Haier, and Huawei remained firmly in the top five.

Behind this, there are three core emerging consumption trends that have been recognized by the market, each representing a rise in a type of “new asset”:

First, the pet economy is booming, and “emotional assets” are gaining new premiums. In 2025, 10 pet brands entered the CBI500, with Royal Canin and Maffei both making it into the top 100. Among the top 200, all but Royal Canin are domestic brands. Consumers view pets as “family members” and are willing to pay a premium for this emotional relationship. The rise of domestic brands means that “emotional assets” are shifting from international brands.

Second, emotional consumption fuels trendy toys, and “identity assets” become new social currency. On the CBI500 list, Pop Mart ranks 21st, far surpassing Disney (ranked 104) and LEGO (ranked 133). Nine trendy toy brands entered the top 500. Pop Mart does not sell toys; it sells an identity label of “I understand trends.” When consumers define who they are through purchases, brands become “identity assets.”

Third, smart consumption is brewing a new windfall, and “creativity assets” are in demand. Brands like DJI (ranked 42) and Yingshi (ranked 332) are not just smart hardware; they are tools that “help users become creators,” such as the popular 3D printing brand Tu Zhu. The asset attributes of smart consumption are shifting from “efficiency tools” to “creativity amplifiers.” The capital market’s pricing of these assets depends on how much they can enhance users’ creative abilities.

“All-rounders” Rise, Accelerating from “Growth” to “Accumulation”

When we juxtapose the annual list with the fourth quarter list, we notice some brands’ “shifts.” For example, ubras ranked 87th in the annual list, experiencing a slight decline in the fourth quarter while maintaining a steady upward trend in the first three quarters; Bosideng surged into the top 10 in the fourth quarter, ranking 36th for the year; UGG ranked 45th in the fourth quarter, 71st overall.

The “comfortable underwear” segment represented by ubras once relied solely on the selling point of “no size” and “comfort” to dominate the market. However, starting in 2025, consumers demand comfort, aesthetics, and design, even for outerwear. A single function is no longer a passport; brands are forced to catch up by increasing SKUs, enhancing design, and expanding scenarios.

Bosideng and UGG relied on the seasonal demand for “winter warmth” to surge in the fourth quarter, but declined in the annual list. This is not a problem with the brand but an issue of asset attributes. If a brand’s growth heavily depends on a single season or scenario, its “comprehensive score” will be diluted in the annual dimension. Thus, Bosideng has launched a dual-season product line of “down jackets + sun protection clothing.” UGG has expanded from “winter warmth” to “year-round commuting,” broadening its wearing scenarios.

As a result, consumers are becoming “wanting both,” and brands are learning how to be more “well-rounded.” Beyond a single strength, brands need to run in an increasingly comprehensive and multifaceted arena; only “hexagonal warrior” brands can make it to the top of the annual list.

One example is that in the top 10 of the Q4 emerging brand list, brands like Huazhi Xiao, HBN, Zhiben, and Fan Beauty rank between 200-400 in the annual list, indicating significant room for improvement.

The core capability of emerging brands is their “newness”: the proportion of users aged 18-29, growth rate, and new product launch ability; this is their moat and the reason for their breakout in the emerging list. However, in the coordinate system of the annual list, higher weights are given to “brand awareness,” “brand reputation,” and “brand loyalty,” which require time for accumulation. Emerging brands need to exchange growth for time and young users for brand accumulation. The capital market’s pricing of brands considers both “accumulation logic” and “growth logic,” making the directional focus for emerging brands relatively clear, with the indicators of the “annual list” serving as a good reference.

Looking Ahead: The Direction of Tides in 2026

If “accumulated value” determines a brand’s final position in the annual list, then the CBI fast-moving consumer goods emerging brand list precisely reveals the future assets that are being quietly reassessed by the market.

From the latest CBI fast-moving consumer goods emerging brand list released in Q4 2025, there are three new value dimensions worth exploring for brands:

First, scenario value defines specific moments rather than categories. In the mother and baby segment, the brands ranking high in the emerging list are almost all scenario brands rather than “full-category children’s clothing”: for example, the brand Nian Yi (ranked 83), which focuses on children’s New Year greetings and visiting relatives; the children’s clothing brand toz mama (ranked 95), which targets vacation and leisure scenarios; and the children’s shoe brand Xiaomi Bu (ranked 90), which focuses on children’s sports scenarios, all find new value breakthroughs through scenario segmentation.

In this context, the more specific the scenario, the stronger the brand’s pricing power. The asset value of a brand depends on how many “specific scenarios” it defines; the more vertical, necessary, and ceremonial the scenario, the stronger the pricing power.

Second, packaging value leverages new usage methods and experiences to drive consumption rather than ingredients. In the beauty segment, “single-use essence” has become the main focus for emerging brands. Brands like Quadha (ranked 51), Biolab (ranked 60), and Zhan Mei Ya (ranked 81) show that consumers have moved past the “ingredient-focused” phase—ingredients are foundational, but dosage forms are barriers. Single-use active ingredients are stable, precisely dosed, and hygienic. Competition in the beauty segment in 2026 will shift from “ingredient wars” to “dosage form wars,” with post-use options like freeze-dried, microcapsules, patches, and sprays likely sparking a new wave of enthusiasm.

Third, emotional value transforms “emotion” into “form.” Brands that rank high share a common trait: they sell not functionality, but “emotional forms.” For example, Huazhi Xiao (ranked 1) sells “girlhood,” Off&Relax (ranked 3) sells “healing feelings,” and Zhan Jia (ranked 8) sells “self-pleasure”…

Today, consumers have completed the awakening of “paying for emotions.” The new change in 2025 is that emotion is no longer an “added value” of the brand, but a “core asset.” Huazhi Xiao’s “fairy tale aesthetics” has become part of the product; competition in emotional consumption will shift from “who can tell emotional stories” to “who can turn emotions into perceivable forms.” The more specific and perceivable the emotion, the clearer the brand value.

At a recent exchange event for emerging brands, the Tmall beauty and personal care industry released a set of the latest trends, which can also serve as a guide for innovation in related industry brands.

The consumer market always has “long slopes and thick snow” tracks. The 2025 CBI500 series list is a valuable map that tells you which assets are being reassessed, which are losing value, and which are lying dormant. The winners in 2026 will be those who understand this map. In the future, the CBI list will continue to track and publish, helping practitioners observe the latest trends in consumer tides.