Vivo founder Shen Debut: not Gao Wayward brand

Wearing a half-frame glasses, wearing casual suits, feet on black shoes, Vivo founder and CEO Shen walked to the media. He said it was the first time in ten years that the media had been confronted. If you search for news 10 years ago, you will find that he is more of the founder of the Yongping under the status of his subordinates, appear in the news report.

Yongping, the legendary business figure that created the Little Overlord learning machine, step by step high brand, retired to the United States in 2002, no longer manages the specific affairs, the company by Shen waits for the person to take care of. In 2011, Shen led the team to release the Vivo smartphone brand and embarked on a fast track. Although these three years is the domestic mobile phone competition intense three years, but vivo by virtue of unique product positioning, large-scale advertising marketing and channel control, has become a key player in the domestic smartphone.

Use the chicken theory to do the cell phone

2011, the Millet mobile phone release, this cost-effective and internet thinking packaging products, the promotion of the beginning of the market and the user's attention, the development has not been long to usher in a group of followers, many domestic mobile phones to launch its own brand of electricity, to kill 2000 yuan or even the thousand-yuan machine market.

But Vivo did not choose to follow the bandwagon. In 2011, Vivo released its first smartphone V1, its main sound and user experience, and in 2012, X1 released the handset, which won the world's thinnest smartphone and the world's top fi-level smartphone, at a price of $2498. Since then, Vivo released all products have followed the ultra-thin, hifi&smart such product positioning, until the release of the X5 Max, 4.75mm once again become the world's thinnest smartphone, with a variety of HiFi professional chip, the price is as high as 2998 yuan.

Why would you choose to use HiFi and ultra-thin as a starting point? Shen said that in the early years the company had a theory called the theory of chicken, meaning that 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 the sound 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.

"Mobile phone is an important part of personal things, everyone has the likes of everyone, no brand can eminence, can find their own position, find a niche for their own market, the day as well." "Shen said.

Relentless insistence has made the market a more visible and more crowded game. The hammer phone, released this May, is not equipped with a professional-grade hifi chip, but Luo says it "can challenge all hifi stereos" by tuning, and the Phantom MX4 Pro, released recently, also has a complete fi solution.

Vivo, who was the first to eat crabs, got the rewards he deserved: 2014 's turnover was 100% higher than last year's, and sales were close to 30 million. In the statistical organization Garter Q3 Statistic data, vivo shipments ranked in the domestic smartphone market 7th place.

Lu Junquan, chief analyst at Garter, believes that Vivo's product strategy and pricing strategy is sustainable when most competitors are making low profits with low prices, keeping profits at a good level.

We're not the owners of the money on the plane.

Of course, Vivo's success can not be separated from large-scale brand marketing.

"Hello everybody, welcome to watch Vivo smart phone" Happy Camp "!" This advertising word has almost gone deep into everyone who likes to see "Happy Camp" in the heart. Recently, vivo to 350 million to get the 2015 "happy stronghold" of the title; Vivo is also sponsoring the "Non-interference", "Two Days and One Night", Sohu American drama and a number of video site stickers advertising ... Netizens jokingly, money, is so willful.

Also take the tyrants-type advertising mobile phone manufacturers are oppo, it costs 400 million of the name of Hunan TV "Idol came". But in addition to these two, few other manufacturers have spent so much on brand marketing. A mobile phone manufacturer of advertising in charge of the Phoenix Technology said, very envious of vivo, OPPO "tyrants-style" advertising, in contrast, the factory's advertising "small said not export." ”

Vivo chief market Officer Feng told Phoenix Technology, Vivo's products focus on the 18-35-year-old young people, so advertising is also around them, and "Happy Camp", video patch advertising user groups and Vivo focused user groups have a large overlap, the choice of these advertising media is "focus", Instead of throwing nets in the sky, aimlessly.

Shen said that Vivo was not the owner of the plane, "although the investment in brand building every year, but this is not a cost, not a cost, but an investment." ”

Industry analysts believe that, with the arrival of 4G, the domestic three or four-line city will usher in the peak, and Hunan TV just has a summer student audience and three or four-line audience premium rights, which coincide with the vivo of the main consumer, so advertisers are more recognized.

This approach can be found in the predecessors of success stories. According to media reports, in 1991, Step by step high "small overlord" the first advertisement in CCTV debut, only 400,000 yuan advertising fee has played a good role in starting the market, orders to increase rapidly; 1992, the small overlord with 2 million yuan advertising fee to achieve 100 million yuan output value, pure profit of more than 8 million yuan ... So far, the small overlord learning machine advertising is still a generation of classic memories.

Stick to your duty.

Silence for ten years, Shen finally from behind the scenes to the podium, with the media to share the experience of operating vivo three years.

He said that the reason to stand out, is to feel that the consumer's understanding of vivo is not enough, to stand out in addition to passing the brand value point, more important is to disseminate the values of the brand, so that consumers understand the vivo.

"Duty" is the value that Shen always wanted to emphasize to the media and consumers, his definition of this is: Always keep the heart, insist on doing the right thing, and try to do the right thing.

At this level, he sees the interests of consumers, employees, partners and shareholders as important. The pursuit of user value and experience, to create Hifi&smart products, which is to protect the interests of consumers, from the grassroots to the top, as long as the management and technical personnel, have the opportunity to obtain options, which is to protect the interests of employees, to help the transformation of provincial agents to meet the challenges of the electrical At the same time, all levels of companies to create vivo culture and brand of Preachers, which is to maintain the interests of partners.

Such values led Vivo to embark on a path of development: in most mobile phone manufacturers are in the development of electricity commodity cards, vivo but do not consider to do a new electric commodity card, "everyone will only walk the road, Millet Road We will be more rugged"; In the industry Gao become the trend, Shen said, If I had a billion on hand, do a billion capable thing, if there are 100 million to do 10 billion of things, that is more than enough; when millet valuations nearly 40 billion dollars, Shen said "vivo in a short period of time without any idea of listing, and do not need financing, most of the listing is to get some money, But we are not short of money. "Although the board will make plans for next year, Shen says the board never assesses the plan and the company's vision is to pursue healthy and long-term development."

Yongping once interviewed in the media, said, "I understand the ' ordinary mind ' is in the Forgotten Victory and fame based on the efforts and struggle. For an entrepreneur, only focus on the long-term, do not care about the gains and losses of a temporary, can continue to grow and develop. "Everyone wants to hear a novel story from me. People may not believe me when I tell the truth. In fact, do business is really so, 99% of the sweat +1% inspiration, I call the Normal heart. ”

It is said that yongping before going to the United States, these corporate cultural values have been a systematic collation, and systematically written down. Clearly, such values have been spread from the yongping era to the present.

Challenges facing

Data from a variety of sources have shown that the domestic smartphone market is becoming saturated, and growth has begun to decline compared with the past. Lu Junquan said that, in addition to the iphone with large screen phones will be in 14 Q4 and 15 Q1 growth, other handset manufacturers if looking for incremental, have to focus on the low-end and 4G market.

Domestic mobile phone war has been burned to the thousand-tier market, ZTE Mobile phone Zeng Xuzhong also revealed that in such a market environment, only the domestic 4G thousand machine market may also have explosive growth. However, Vivo currently has no plans to enter the low-end market. How to maintain a good growth rate in the already slowing market is a common problem faced by vivo and other domestic manufacturers.

Some manufacturers aim at the overseas market, choose India, Malaysia, Thailand and other countries as a new battlefield. Huawei ZTE began laying out overseas markets a few years ago, Millet has also entered Singapore, the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, India and other overseas markets; vivo from this year's layout, has already set up branches in India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Shen said, is expected to carry out 10 years of overseas market training.

In the international market, in addition to the face of patents, channels and other issues, another important factor is localization. Millet, for example, has hired Hugo Baba to take charge of overseas markets, but it has been challenged by false sales and theft of privacy. Vivo in the early stage of internationalization, relying on the domestic team to open up, but did not take a localized operation strategy, to its internationalization has brought many risks.

Second, the last three years, is the smart phone hardware rapid upgrade of three years, the mobile phone in a few years to the PC for more than 10 years to complete the road, but because there is no breakthrough technology innovation, the industry's rapid upgrading of hardware tend to end. Handset makers are starting to look for new directions. For example, millet, has started to invest in eco-chain enterprises, hoping to establish a complete set of intelligent home system. Lei also said that the hope of "replication" 100 millet model companies, through software, hardware and services, the construction of millet mobile phone industry-wide chain. "Internet of Things" "All things interconnected" is becoming the future trend of development, mobile phone is only one of the links.

By contrast, Vivo has not yet started the layout. Shen said that Vivo's main business is mobile phones, "but as long as the main industry, can make the main business people benefit, will invest." "It is reported that Vivo has begun to focus on other areas outside the mobile phone, but on the specific direction, Shen did not disclose."