Get rid of domestic mobile phone profit shackles Vivo seek differentiated path

Not often appearing in public, less and the industry peer exchanges, a decade without media, even in the face of their own distributors, Vivo founder Shen is also surprisingly low-key, but is such a company, in 2014 domestic mobile phone market has become the high-end price in the "mobile Black", brand advertising occupies the mainstream entertainment programs "The first seat".

"Before someone said Vivo tyrants, sitting on a plane to scatter money, in fact, is a misunderstanding, advertising for Vivo is a brand investment, not just as a cost." "For the first time in ten years, Shen has made several" explanations "for the media. He said that this time is to strengthen communication with the outside world, so that more people understand vivo, and the previous exchange with the domestic counterparts is not much because of fear of sound, resulting in decision-making interference. At the same time, he stressed that the enterprise has no sales target KPI assessment, and market share is never his pursuit of the goal.

For the industry's concern about capital operations, Shen said that in the short term there is no plan for listing and financing, and will not consider taking stakes in upstream and downstream enterprises.

According to the mobile phone industry market monitoring data provided by GfK, as of October 2014, GSM 3G LTE in the overall market, vivo by virtue of the highest share growth rate, stable in the top six, 2014, Vivo forecast total sales of nearly 30 million units, compared with the same period last year, nearly one times. IDC analyst Jian Jianmeng to "the first financial daily" that the mobile phone industry generally 5% of the profit is good, but vivo and other domestic minority brands can do more than 10% points.

Small incision in the big market

Differentiated positioning and brand value are important factors that affect the development of mobile phone brands. 2011 only entered the smartphone market vivo, the choice is to fi gene into the differentiated market, built in the industry highly differentiated path.

At present, Vivo's three major product series has been formed, the ultimate fi Vivo x series, fi Extreme audio and video Vivo Xplay series, as well as fi the ultimate shot Vivo Xshot series.

"In fact, vivo before the launch of mobile phones, 2011 and Germany Roland Berger, such as a number of well-known companies to cooperate in depth, the conclusion is that in the Internet era, must go to extreme differentiation." And because of the android underlying reasons, the market on the phone in the music quality has not been a breakthrough, so Vivo chose the ultimate audio and video as a breakthrough, and constantly adhere to and breakthroughs. Judging from the result, Vivo was looking for the right direction. Vivo chief marketing Officer Feng said.

Shen This differentiated incision called "chicken theory," he told reporters, big companies do not want to do, or even do not want to do with the strength of the field, it is vivo into the field. Vivo in market research found that listening to music is ranked in the user's mobile phone demand for the top five, this is not a niche market, but there is no company terminal attention to this area. So when all the phones in the hardware blending set prices, Vivo choose to start from the HiFi to develop mobile phones.

And for the market segment the most difficult to solve the supply problem, Vivo also encountered a lot of difficulties. For example how the United States Cirrus Logic Company Professional grade FI chip transplant to the mobile phone, in the beginning, the United States partners once thought "vivo crazy", blunt difficult, technical bottlenecks also unpredictable.

"This process is very difficult, for professional-grade chip, a single model may be used in one year is tens of thousands of pieces, and the essence of the mobile phone is the mass consumer goods, a professional chip used to the mobile phone, the face of a problem is the supplier think you can start?" Will consumers accept it? But after running-in, the final result is X1 in the initial stage of the IPO, the supply is very tense. Vivo chief operating Officer Hupper told reporters that from the distrust of suppliers to large-scale cooperation, vivo experienced an uneven process.

In the face of the same time manufacturers together "scale war" approach, Shen reporters, from the overall point of view, operator subsidies do play a role in accelerating the industry, but when the permeability is sufficient, it will no longer need subsidies to stimulate the industrial transformation of manufacturers. This is also the original Vivo decided not to participate in operator collection and customization reasons. "A brand in the full market competition to survive, will be truly healthy." Shen told reporters.

IDC analyst Jian Jianmeng to reporters, based on the understanding of the user, Vivo in the brand publicity are based on this group of users as the goal, grasp the pain point, differentiated on the way to find their own development.

Future challenges

But competition in the mobile phone market is far more brutal than it might think. In addition to the rapid advances in hardware, this year's mobile phone on the "big Thing" is the internet thinking of the traditional manufacturing industry subversion. And as a representative, the success of millet, in addition to the Reguen Rebs pushed on the altar, there is the internet thinking pushed on the altar, and many mobile phone manufacturers also because of their involvement in the "Internet" and ate a loss.

"On this issue, whether it is like other manufacturers to set up a separate Internet electrical goods card, in fact, the management of vivo last year for six months, but ultimately rejected the plan, we still want to rely on the Internet platform to the user's online online experience to do a good job." Feng told reporters.

In addition to focusing on distraction, Vivo's management has come to the conclusion that the Internet model has changed the way it communicates, and the nature of the business model has not changed.

Vivo Chief Sales Officer Yu Xudong further explained, Vivo three years ago set up the Electric Corps team, these years mainly in the electric business marketing means to try. For example, this year's Big hot micro-letter payment, Vivo is the industry's second to get micro-letter micro-payment authority of the brand, and on the micro-letter platform for the xplay3s of the first sales.

"We need to form an identity in the process of practicing corporate values." Shen told reporters, "This society does have some way to make quick money, but enterprises can go far must attract like-minded talents, but it is not important to leave people on the way, it is important to find the right and mutually agreeable people." ”

"Vivo is not too familiar with other enterprises to survive the path, so choose to walk a familiar road." Shen said, "Vivo's main business is mobile phones, but the areas that can benefit from the main business will also consider investments, such as the layout of mobile internet around mobile phones, especially the layout of content." ”

In this kind of change, many manufacturers use Gao, describe the way of the dream to the interior, to the outside to show a beautiful blueprint, but Shen that this way can not be sustained to attract talents, staff stability for the enterprise, Vivo will not only find talent, and through the benefit-sharing mechanism to retain talent, We have a distribution mechanism, including options, based on corporate culture, so the middle and high level is relatively stable.

Our business is focused and does not say that mobile phones do the thinking of real estate, never the idea. How much capacity can be done through this code of conduct. For example, 100 million on hand, at most, 100 million capable. If you have 100 million on hand and want to do 10 billion things, you'll have to chew. Why do many companies die? Is that the money chain is broken, because often do more than their own ability, we have how much capacity to do how much. Shen told reporters.