Zippo George Brestay Duck: How to "play with fire" to the extreme, sales of more than 200 million dollars

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I dark Horse: Zippo Lighter is still one of the indispensable plaything of men, whose fire machine uses the metal appearance and super strong practical effect to prove its value. Since the 1950s, the number of smokers in the United States has fallen by 50%, but last year, the company's sales were still more than 200 million dollars, how did it do?

It is reported that George Brestay Duck George Blaisdell Duke, the third-generation owner of Zippo Manufacturing, is often asked a question: "Is your company still open?" These people are harmless, he said. It's just that Americans don't smoke as much as they used to, so it makes sense for people to question the world's most famous lighter manufacturer. At this time, Duke would come up with the Times answer: "Oh, of course," he said, stretching his hand to the other end of his desk to get Marlboro and his silver Zippo lighter with a wavy pattern, "our business is particularly good." ”

In fact, the company's business is never better.

Although the number of smokers in the United States has fallen by 50% since the the 1950s tobacco boom, the company's sales were still more than $200 million trillion last year, setting the record for its all-time high, with a record of May and June sales in 2014 years. According to Forbes estimates, the company's turnover in the past three years, the composite growth rate reached 14%. All this owes to Greg Booth, the new Gregg Bousse chief executive, who has pushed the legendary lighter produced by the 82-Year-old maker to a young audience and expanded into China.

Since the birth of the first Zippo lighter, the company has gone a long way. In the 1932, Bladford, Pennsylvania, George Bresse (George Blaisdell) saw a friend in the windy days very laborious place smoke, so inspired, it became the beginning of all. This small town in the Allegheny Mountains is still the headquarters of the company. Bracy designed a windproof hood and a distinctive hinge cover, and promised their own lighter lifetime warranty, as long as the purchase of Zippo lighters are willing to send repair, Zippo company will always provide repair services. By supplying Zippo lighters to soldiers during the Second World War, Zippo successfully set itself a pragmatic and American-made image for the next Half-century.

After the death of Bracy in 1978, the Zippo company was left to his family, but the company's successive CEOs were held by people outside the family. By the 1990s, Bracy's daughter Sala Dohn (Sarah Dorn) and her son Duke had bought shares in the hands of all the other family members. "The more family members there are, the more ideas there will be about the direction of the company's future development." That's why, sometimes, private-owned companies fail to succeed. The Duke said he later acquired the part of his mother's shares, "sometimes people lose patience because they don't see success in the short term." ”

In the first decade of the 21st century, the Zippo company suffered a difficult period. How much did the sales actually fall? On this point, Duke would not like to talk about it, but it is certain that he was dissatisfied with the company's performance, as he had seen in his decision to appoint Booth's chief executive in 2001. (Booth has been in charge of the Zippo Company's tool manufacturing subsidiary.) With the acquisition of shares, Duke is now only responsible for himself, so he is willing to take the patience to wait for booth to find a solution.

At that time, the average age of consumers in Zippo was between 30 and 50 years old. The company needs a younger consumer group, and Booth doesn't think so, "Zippo lighters will have to follow all consumers into the coffin, like Sinatra (Frank Sinatra)." (in 1998, the singer was buried with his silver Zippo lighter, and the company later sold a duplicate of the lighter to commemorate him.) )

The main body of the young market that Zippo needs to exploit is those who were children when Sinatra died (18 to 24 years old). To this end, the company will originally put the advertising budget on the plane ads allocated to Google Ads keyword, and began to sponsor all kinds of music concerts. They are inspired by the packaging design of the wine brand Jack and the drama "The Son of Chaos" (Sons of Anarchy), which produces a large number of lighters. (It turns out that skull design is particularly popular.) Zippo Company made a total of 30,800 unique designs last year – an increase of 246% compared with 8,900 in 10 years ago. Part of this is due to the company's new Web zippo.com, where consumers can decide on each detail and customize their own lighters.

The Zippo Company's positioning of its products is amulet and luck-or something similar to a custom belt buckle. "Zippo lighters are a symbol of taste," says Booth, "and sometimes people just use it to show their style." ”

This is also the Zippo company in the Chinese market to follow the direction. When Booth took over the company, the Chinese business did not show much dynamism. Today, sales in the region account for 13% of Zippo's turnover (60% of the company's sales are from overseas). Zippo first entered the Chinese market in 2012 and currently has a team of 15 people in Beijing. It has opened 14 stores in China--the first time Zippo to create its own store--and will open 35 before the end of 2015. All of these stores will uphold the company's consistent brand image of a purely American lifestyle. The shop sells company-designed garments (brand logos are all printed on labels on the lining), similar to the fashion brand J. Crew kind of campus leisure style. The boutiques ' performance was excellent, prompting the company to open two Las Vegas in the United States in the first half of the year--a hotel in Luxor (Luxor), a Hollywood star casino (Planet Yap Casino). Next, Zhi Bao also intends to open a few Las Vegas in the room.

Another area covered by Zippo Company is camping products (barbecue racks, stoves, LED lamps). The business was online in 2012, with sales of about $3 million trillion last year, and the company hopes to reach $20 million by the end of 2016.

At present, some of these products are made in China. With the expansion of sales, the relocation of these overseas production operations back to the Bladford city (population of 8,600 people) will be economically feasible. Zhi Bao has been the largest local blue-collar job employer, employing about 950 workers. The Brestay family is now the biggest funder of the local community, and has even funded the financial shortfall for the perennial loss of country clubs.

But not all of the Zippo companies are going to be booming. In the first place, Booth made an ambitious plan for sales to reach $300 million trillion in 2010. "We ran into a recession, which led to a big setback in sales," he said. "Zippo is also planning to buy more companies, but so far it has not made much headway," he said.

But the current achievements are brilliant enough, which has made Duke worry about his retirement at the end of 2015, when he may appoint a successor within the company. Duke himself has no plans to retire, but he is actively inducing his two more than 20-year-old son to take over, one of whom has been working on a new lighter during college vacations. "It's just a metal box," said the Duke, as he took a deep sip of the cigarette while playing with the Zippo lighter. But, he said, "You can make a big fuss on this metal box." The