Millet fame, talk about many, praise all have

Millet fame, talk about many, praise all have, but praise mostly for the surface and fragments, not for managers to reveal a complete millet success of the truth and way. It's a hassle! Managers need not idols, but benchmarking. Idols are used to worship, benchmarking is used to analyze and learn.

I have a tribute to Millet, which I began to praise Gree and Huawei ten years ago. I do not worship millet, but respect, so recommended managers to study millet. Because Millet is the benchmark of the Community business era, it has created a new model, method, a new way, simply "through the construction of customer community to organize the industrial value chain." This is a bit abstract, I will probably use 10 articles to decompose it step-by-step.

Millet's road to success is suitable for all enterprises, especially for small enterprises. This is quite different from the previous benchmark. We look at a lot of dazzling halo of large enterprises, but can only worship and difficult to learn. Millet is not, it can be small enterprises, can also grow into large enterprises, and in the size of large enterprises, still maintain the soul of small enterprises, this is really worth thinking of millet.

Some people will think I say nonsense: Millet is 80 billion yuan sales revenue, 30 billion U.S. dollars market value of the company, how there are small business soul? How do other small businesses learn? This is exactly what I want to read. Millet is a customer community company, which means that you can do a small and refined in accordance with the millet model of the community, you can do a large and wide community, you can be in accordance with their own values and resources to choose the conditions, rather than blindly seeking large, not dead.

Recently saw a lot of Mr. Lei and his friends circle of speeches or articles, Mr. Fu, aged Mr., Liangning, etc., speak extremely well, let people admire. But one thing, I'm against it: they've all learned the Lei routines (Steve Jobs, of course), good at opening conferences, doing PPT, telling stories, showing feelings, and attracting a crowd of fans screaming. But for managers, this is just a new way to operate the market, not the growth of enterprises. Including Mr. Li Vanchang's new book, "The Sense of participation," I read it in one breath, but still feel that Mr Li still hides a lot of internal thinking, it seems that they now want to let people know that millet is a very cattle company, and do not want to tell others how it turned cattle.

Many people will be misled, learn their table, and do not know their reasons, inevitably following, neither fish nor fowl. Then discouraged, said a "I am not millet, nor lei," and turned away. Then the value of millet is really underestimated, and even buried.

I try to restore the practice of millet to theory, the truth of its success to show you, and then you decide to learn or not to learn, what to learn or what not to learn. First of all, I do not know Mr. Lei and his partners, also do not understand the inside of millet, is completely an objective researcher, under the stupid kungfu to read to you.

is the preface.

The book belongs to the story. Millet marketing for many, but marketing is the strategy and mode of means. To profoundly understand millet, first from the Millet strategy and business model. The business model of millet is copied from Apple. This is a master of practice: When you enter an industry, the first to the leader of the enterprise model to see through, and then find ways to surpass it, beyond the imitation of it, to the death of imitation!

Millet is a company that imitates apples to death and goes beyond. Let's take a look at how millet imitates the apple model.

1. Apple's business model

(1) starting from the ipod: The starting point is not the product, is the customer lifestyle

The Apple model originated in the ipod. In that period, the market was the principally of various brands, including Samsung's Yepp. But all brands are selling products, and Apple is competing on another level to provide solutions for consumers ' musical lifestyles: Ipod+itunes+music. So Americans say jobs changed the record industry, not the music player.

So, when a lot of people say, in this era, the boss first is a product manager. This is seriously misleading! The boss must always be a Customer Manager first. Mr. Drucker made it very clear: the purpose of a business is to create customers. You do not understand the customer, not the Customer Manager, how to create customers?

Apple makes the ultimate product because he knows the customer and he knows the lifestyle of the customer. Millet is the same, I will elaborate on the rear. I have visited Samsung's senior executives, he told me: Samsung Yepp quality is first-class, but unfortunately, we stay in the product thinking, the result of customers can not use Yepp to enjoy music, only as a recording pen.

Samsung then tracked Apple in depth and restored the ipod based on Apple's purchases (parts were procured from Samsung), but Samsung just thought Apple was doing another player. By the time Samsung understands the Apple model, Yepp has disappeared and other brands have MP3/MP4/MP5.

Therefore, the first point of the Apple model is to adapt to the customer's lifestyle to provide solutions. This concept is not new, as early as 1960, marketing master Levitt said "customers need not the drill, but the hole." But we often forget. And Apple's product design is so beautiful that it's easy for people to ignore it. When Apple launched the ipod, Jobs's main focus was not on the design but on the integration of records and the licensing of the music industry.

Product design is the second, and products conform to the customer lifestyle, become a part of the customer lifestyle is the first. See the Millet mobile phone, we understand this reason more, because it is not by design to win.

(2) iphone replication: not selling products, but providing solutions

The iphone completely replicates the ipod model. Apple isn't selling smartphones, it's a Digital Life solution: Ios+iphone+appstore. Apple's mobile phone is subversive design, but almost all brands of mobile phones are copied from the Apple style, but in addition to millet, no one copied the essence of Apple mode.

When Nokia was bought, there is a stark contrast: Nokia Symbian has only 300 apps and a few users, while Apple's iOS app is 800,000, and it's very convenient to use, while Nokia's phones are not very different from Apple's and better quality, according to professionals, Take a Nokia phone with the Apple phone collision, the survival must be Nokia.

Nokia's applications are too narrow, Apple is not, not just communication, work, entertainment, life ... It is better adapted to customers ' lifestyles in the Internet and mobile internet age.

Only Millet understand this truth, so in the introduction of millet mobile phone, they first did a year of software: Rice pomelo System (MIUI), and the cultivation of 500,000 of users, only millet mobile phone once launched on the flat step lake. Focus, extreme, word-of-mouth, fast, as well as the sense of participation, rapid iteration and other competitive techniques, are established in the era of rice pomelo.

Objectively speaking, the early Millet mobile phone is not very good. Mr. Lei slipped and said, "Sell your mobile phone like a computer." What do you mean? There are two kinds of computer: Brand machine and save machine. ThinkPad and other brand-name machine emphasis is the best performance, but the price is higher, and their own purchase parts save machine, emphasis is the best parts, but the machine performance is poor, and the price is cheaper. Early Millet is in accordance with the Zhongguancun supermarket of the way in the sale of mobile phones, emphasizing the performance of components, desalination machine performance problems. But the millet advantage place, is the rice pomelo system and its application software.

Millet into the mobile market, China has 1500 mobile phone manufacturers in the low-end mobile phones, now there are more than 200, the future of concentration will be further improved. These dead manufacturers are not the poor quality of mobile phones than millet, but they are selling products, and millet in compliance with the customer's lifestyle, but also to build a customer community. The first half of millet is learning Apple, the latter part is beyond the apple.

(3) Apple's business expansion: providing solutions around customer digital lifestyle

The IPod and iphone models are not accidental, but Jobs ' thinking about the lifestyle of customers in the internet age. Management Wisdom has edited an article: Jobs's most important 70-minute interview, which has 1995 years of jobs thinking. The next Apple model starts with this thinking, and according to Jobs, Apple has to provide a holistic solution to its customers around the digital lifestyle.

I use a picture to show Steve Jobs ' thinking, which is called "Cross Mode":

Apple is a deep understanding of consumer life in the digital age. The longitudinal axis of the cross is an Apple series Terminal equipment and its solution, it can extend continuously, and each device is interconnected; one end of the horizontal axis is a unified system software, the application software is derived from this foundation, the other end is the computer and service center. Jobs believes that computers are indispensable, a processing center in the digital age, not a simple tool, because a lot of information on terminal devices needs to be concentrated. After centralized processing, the 020 full service of the closed loop is completed through the cloud service and the Apple Experience store.

Can make a simple imagination: you accompany the family to play, with the iphone to take a lot of photos, back home you can easily download it to the imac, with convenient software edited into a book, and then sent to the Apple Cloud Service center, there will help you make a beautiful album, and then Express to you, Or you could have walked by the Apple Experience store.

This is Apple's business model.

The power of this pattern can be realized through an example: when Apple announced it would launch the iwatch, the US financial analyst wrote in the study, "If 3%iphone users buy the product, Apple's sales will increase by 2.3 billion dollars and 5.7 billion dollars if the purchase rate reaches 8%."

To put it another way: Apple has a loyal customer, and can around the customer's lifestyle to provide 10,000 yuan value, Apple's sales are 10,000, if 10,000 customers, sales revenue becomes 100 million, if it is 100 million customers? What if a 100,000-dollar value is provided around each customer's lifestyle?

And the value of this model is that you do not necessarily make apples (this is a small probability event), but you can be made into Apple mode: You can only serve 1000 people, you can only for this group of customers a part of the lifestyle services, even if only 1000 yuan worth, you are a 1 million sales scale of the enterprise , as long as you can understand this group of customers deeply, establish a strong relationship with them, adapt to their lifestyle to do a consistent service, you can continue; then you can try to serve 2000 or more people, or serve a little more than 1000 people, and you can grow, and that growth is sustainable.

That's what millet does. So I said, Millet has a big business in the future, but the soul of small enterprises. Many people do not read the growth of millet, followed by shouting seven words or a sense of participation, learned the fur. Apple and millet back to the source of the enterprise to think, that is: you are for who do what services.

Many traditional enterprises sell tens of millions of, hundreds of millions of, or even China products, but do not know who is sold, do not know why customers buy or not to buy, in addition to the buyer and seller, the enterprise and customers have no relationship. The customer base of the enterprise is not reliable, the business scale loses the strategic meaning, is very apt to overturn.

(4) Apple's competitive strategy: from non-customers to establish relationships, shielding competitors

The next question is, how did Apple build the empire? If we just talk about the Apple model, there is a lack of it, that is, it is a Big Mac enterprise, how do we learn? So, understand the Apple model, but also understand how Apple from small to large and gradually build this model and subvert the strong competitors.

The first Apple was the weak in the industry, with IBM and Microsoft in the Computer field, Nokia and Samsung in the Mobile field, which are the leading brands in their respective fields, and the resources are far superior to those of Apple. Instead of competing with rivals, Apple has started to build on the "non-customers" of these companies, and on the product line, it is not just a series of products but a gradual extension.

I write articles to explain the product line strategy later. First of all, many people are extremely appreciative of Apple and Millet's single product strategy, in fact, this is the appearance. Product line strategy is part of the competition strategy, Nokia and Samsung are relying on multiple products, fast replacement product strategy to defeat Motorola, and later Apple to rely on a single product to defeat Nokia, but Samsung is still relying on multiple product strategy to follow Apple. Therefore, it is not a single product or multiple product strategy, but in the competitive landscape thinking strategy, and then make the choice of product line strategy.

Let's begin by outlining how to build a strategy from a "non-customer" perspective. This is the most effective way of weak, millet is also doing so.

Start with the source. Jobs put Scolley from Pepsi-Cola to Apple, the famous phrase was rendered very entertaining, "you want to sell a lifetime of sugar, or with me to change the world." As a result, Scolley into the apple, but found that jobs was a technical fanatic, regardless of the customer.

Apple was in decline, Jobs was forced to flee, and he resented Scolley, but Mr Jobs eventually understood the idea of Scolley: Technology or product success is always a one-time, based on customer success is sustainable. Scolley understands customers, but does not understand digital technology; jobs knows digital technology, but he doesn't understand customers in the early years, so both fail. And back to Apple jobs, through the technology and customers, put technology into the customer's lifestyle to provide solutions, put marketing to the customer's values to build brands, so far Apple soar.

Apple's Cross mode is "non-customer" start, and then constantly affect and develop customers. When Jobs returned to Apple, Apple had a hard time running. Jobs ' ipod and iphone have been shunned by the most powerful rivals, starting with "non-customers – young people who have not yet become mainstream consumer groups" – to nurture customers.

It was learned from Scolley. Pepsi's challenge to Coca-Cola has been denied its FA. Pepsi Big bottled, do cost-effective, do brand marketing, Coca-Cola is easy to follow up, and then use a strong first-run advantage Shing. There is a law on strategy: the most effective way for a leader to maintain an edge is not to innovate, but to follow the challenger's strategy, so that the challenger never has a chance to transcend. So it's impossible to weak with simple tricks unless the leader is suicidal.

Finally, Scolley led Pepsi-Cola from "non-customer", around the Non-mainstream consumer groups-young people, began to provide solutions-sweeter more bubble cola, began to conform to the values of young people to build brand-passionate generation. With the "non-customer" gradually become the mainstream consumer groups, Pepsi really and Coca-Cola separate.

One of the reasons behind me is a separate Wen chapter detailing.

Mr Jobs understands this, bypassing strong rivals and nurturing brands from "non-customers". Lei also understands this, bypassing powerful Apple and Samsung, starting with "non-customers"-not people who consume less, but young people-to start nurturing brands. This stamina is strong, these customers in the early days of consumption to know the apple or millet, and only know Apple or millet, as long as Apple or millet to meet their lifestyle and values, competitors are screened out.

Low consumer groups and young people are two distinct concepts. Low consumer groups are those who do not have the potential to consume growth, while young people are weak in consumption at the present stage, but have strong potential for growth in the future. As young people become mainstream consumers, millet, like Apple, has the opportunity to grow in tandem with customers.

2. The imitation and transcendence of millet to Apple

I said before, because of its importance, repeat: When you decide to enter a field, you must first see through the leader's model, and then find a way to go beyond, can not go beyond the death to imitate. Of course, it's imitating patterns and principles, not imitation tricks.

Mr Lei clearly sees the Apple model and then imitates it, pointing to the non-customers of Apple and Samsung. Apple's understanding and layout of technology, as well as the combination of technology and customer lifestyle, is not comparable to millet, but millet in the construction of customer relationships beyond Apple. Apple is still in the concept of brand and fans, Millet has been building a customer community, and in the community to establish an integrated relationship with customers.

(1) Millet business model

Millet is built entirely in Apple mode, as shown here:

Compared with Apple, Millet is now missing is the digital processing center: computers. I guess this is just the order of the strategic layout of millet. At this stage, the focus of Millet is two: one is to build a customer community, this is the foundation. Therefore, millet spend great efforts to develop millet nets and the same city, from the beginning of the layout of the home and cloud of millet services (although still very weak, but in development). Secondly, it is to extend the terminal equipment and solution along the customer's digital lifestyle, and the short term extension of the product line points to the substitution of traditional manufacturers. Because the traditional manufacturers in the domestic market lack of new thinking, more vulnerable to attack, such as television or smart home equipment. When the roots of these two businesses are further robust, millet will certainly enter the computer field, targeting Lenovo, thus building a complete digital lifestyle solution to form an apple-like cross mode.

A friend of an investment bank asked me if the development potential of millet has ended with the weakening of the typhoon-changing tide of smartphones. I say you imagine, Mi King now has 65 million users, using the Apple logic in front of the calculation, if it can provide each customer 10,000 yuan per year value, is 650 billion yuan annual sales, is now 10 times times. What if we add more customers and extend services?

You know, Apple's market value is 500 billion dollars, millet is only 30 billion dollars. What people admire about Apple is not the ipod, the IPhone, the iwatch, but you don't know what else he's going to create and subvert. Apple has a lot of opportunities to integrate technology, products and services around the customer's digital lifestyle to extend it.

Millet is the same. And millet is more powerful, is to recognize the value of building a customer community, which will let Millet has a solid customer base.

According to this understanding, Mr Lei is bigger than Mr Yang. Mr Yang has gone beyond a large number of peers to put forward the concept of PC, but that still rests on product and product line thinking, rather than providing a system solution around the customer's digital lifestyle.

Because the strategic focus of different, Huawei has not been able to block the mobile phone in the field of millet, Konka or Skyworth in the field of television, Lenovo can in the computer field, Haier can be in the field of intelligent home to block the footsteps of millet?

(2) Millet's strategic focus: building Customer Community

Mr. Lei, a dull-hearted man, is a "Typhoon mouth pig", and many people forget that we still have an old saying, play pig and eat tiger. I am for Haier, Lenovo, Gree, Skyworth such traditional brands worry. But these enterprises, after all, the foundation, as long as the timely change, can be proud of the forefront, to avoid Nokia or Kodak such a bleak ending.

Mr Lei may be one of the few enlightened people of Chinese entrepreneurs. He understands that to create customers, and beyond the level of brand, word-of-mouth and fan economy, focus on building a customer community, in the community to build business and customer integration, and thus shielding competitors from the community. This is where I said that millet goes beyond Apple.

You say your product is good, can anyone hear? Will someone talk to you? Millet has never been the best mobile phone, I believe, Huawei and other enterprises can be better than millet, the price is also cheap, but the customers of Millet community will go to see Huawei a glance?

The key to strategic thinking, Mr. Porter says, is to find the critical point of success in building barriers. The strategic barrier of millet is not built on mobile phones, nor on rice pomelo, these are means only, but in the customer community.

This is not the era of internet marketing or E-commerce, but the age of community commerce, the Internet is only a part of the community. Marketing is not about influencing customers, but building customer communities. So millet did not stay in E-commerce and millet online, but resolutely to the line, the construction of the city and Millet home.

Many enterprises do not understand, but also on the surface hype Internet thinking and so on. Millet is set up a benchmark. And the value of millet is that small businesses can learn, and even pop can, you can fully focus on building a building, a community, a school or a village of People's community, to provide them with solutions.

What does community business mean? How to build a community? How to understand customers? How to insight into the lifestyle of customers? How to find the market entry point in the competition pattern? Wait a minute. I will be in the back through the millet mode of in-depth analysis, as well as other industries business cases, to report to friends.

Wen/Bai