Chapter 15 2. Continuously create customers

Whether an enterprise can develop for a long time depends on whether it can be recognized by more and more consumers. Through continuous exploration and transformation, from simple to complex, from amateur to professional, from single to multi-variety, Gree's marketing strategy has reached the point where competitors cannot follow suit, and can realize choices at any time, showing strong flexibility sex.In terms of production, Gree Electric has always insisted on ensuring the quality of its air-conditioning products, and would rather bear higher production costs and longer R&D and experiment time for this purpose. "Peaches and plums are speechless, and the next will form a trail."Gree believes that a good product can speak, which is why Gree's advertising investment has been relatively small. The high quality of Gree air conditioners has ensured word of mouth among consumers.As a durable consumer product, air conditioners determine that consumers will carefully consider its cost performance when purchasing. Gree insists on quality engineering, which makes Gree air conditioners have essential differences and thus appear unique. For Gree Electric, "creating customers" means focusing on long-term development, effectively developing and utilizing various resources, providing customers with high-quality products and services, and satisfying customers' requirements as much as possible, so as to continuously expand the operation of Gree Electric Only by continuously "creating customers" can we achieve "satisfactory profits and incremental returns to scale, and promote the long-term, stable and rapid development of Gree Electric Appliances." Create demand.How to continuously create customers and let consumers pay?Dong Mingzhu claimed that, in fact, the only feasible good strategy is for enterprises to provide consumers with distinctive technical products and better services, so that enterprises and consumers can maintain a sustainable and benign "in-law" relationship. In this way, Consumers will be willing and willing to pay for Gree's products.First of all, we must understand a truth: enterprises are not for making money and simple profits, but should organically integrate responsibility and society, and be sincere!Only in this way can the behavior of the enterprise be highly recognized and recognized by all walks of life and consumers!Dong Mingzhu explained why consumers are willing to buy Gree air conditioners in the past 20 years. A high-quality product unquestionably wins.In a complete marketing system, products always come first.Without good products, everything is out of the question.Compared with similar air conditioners, Gree air conditioners are probably the most expensive.But Gree air conditioners are the best sellers.It is the general psychology of consumers to like good quality and low price.But when cheap and good-quality air conditioners are always unavailable, more and more rational consumers prefer to spend more money to buy good-quality air conditioners, and it becomes a matter of course.Gree's air conditioner can achieve the number one sales in the world, not because of price wars, not because of low prices, but because of Wumart. This is Gree's product competition strategy.Gree's "real" culture determines that Gree will not falsify the quality of air conditioners, and Gree's "real culture" concept of being an enterprise determines that Gree will not engage in price wars in the long-term strategy, because it will only mess up its own position.For Gree, selling products is not the goal.The products are sold, the consumers are satisfied, and more and more consumers are trusted. That is the goal of Gree.Due to the late start of China's market economy, many companies are still in a state of oversupply at the beginning of their business, so the idea that selling products is the last word has taken over the mainstream. Many companies do not think that consumers like me in the market competition. , I have the market, but how to deceive consumers away, there is a market, which eventually led to the short-lived appearance of some enterprises.When the phenomenon of oversupply in the air-conditioning market appeared, many merchants had to use various means to engage in "market price competition", among which, the most commonly used one was "price war".The price war seems to make consumers cheaper, but in fact it is the consumers who suffer the most.Because price wars often contain elements of deception: although the price has come down, the corresponding product quality has not been guaranteed.Although consumers spent less money, they were more angry.What's more, the air conditioner bought home will not work soon.

When the price war is not easy to use, various manufacturers have launched a variety of after-sales services.Although consumers suddenly became "God", the quality problem of the product has not been solved in fact.Products are always bad, and consumers are also distressed. In such a vicious circle, its products gradually disappoint consumers.Gradually, instead of creating customers, they are driving away customers.In Dong Mingzhu's eyes, products are more important than marketing.In the home appliance industry where sales are paramount, Dong Mingzhu has always held high the banner of a tough style of "payment first and then shipment". She once used a sales cost of 4 million yuan to create a sales performance of 10 billion yuan.Regarding the sales performance of Gree Electric Appliances and Gree Electric Appliances' less dependence on the emerging large chain stores in the circulation field, Dong Mingzhu put forward his own views: "When it comes to sales, everyone thinks that marketing is an element of enterprise development, even Many people regard marketing as the supreme thing of an enterprise. In fact, this is a misunderstanding. Combining the development history of Gree Electric, it can be concluded that products are more important than marketing. Without the backing of high-quality products, marketing can only It’s empty talk.” Gree has ranked first in sales in the industry for 12 consecutive years, firstly because of its strong sales channels, and secondly because of its excellent product quality.Judging from the reaction of the market, Gree has now achieved the effect of being deeply rooted in the hearts of the people through quality.Due to the development of the Internet, many people will first go to the Internet to learn about the advantages and disadvantages of air conditioner brands when purchasing air conditioners.Among the most recommended air conditioners, Gree is the first, and the reason for being recommended is "reliable quality".In this way, Gree has attracted a large number of customers virtually.Really reliable marketing is not based on price, but on excellent quality.

In 1998, a newspaper wanted to buy 500 Gree air conditioners, hoping to get a discount on the price.In order to drive more collective consumption, Gree agreed to the discount, and the newspaper was very happy.In the second year, the newspaper came to buy air conditioners again, and asked for a further price cut, on the grounds that another similar air conditioner was 500 yuan lower than Gree.Although it can be regarded as a major customer, Dong Mingzhu realized that if the price continues to be reduced, it will be detrimental to the company's development, and this is not Gree's style of doing things.Dong Mingzhu told the newspaper that she would not cut the price any more, but the newspaper bought another air conditioner.I thought the matter was over like this, but in 2000, the newspaper came to the door again. This time, the other party stopped talking about the price, and only wanted Gree air conditioners because of the good quality of Gree.It can be seen that users do not just stare at the price. When they have a real comparison of product quality, they will have a more rational choice.The reason why Gree air conditioners are so popular is that they meet the real needs of consumers.When Dong Mingzhu worked as a salesman, she dabbled in many original marketing stories about foreign success.Dong Mingzhu once said in an interview with the media that the most unforgettable thing is "two stories of selling shoes": Lalouble Shoe Manufacturing Company and Wellsnow Manufacturing Company each sent a salesman to develop the shoe industry market , one named John Jackson, the other named James Elson.On the same day, the two of them came to an island country in the South Pacific. On the day they arrived, they found that no one from the king to the poor, from monks to ladies, wore shoes.That night, John Jackson sent a telegram to the headquarters: "God, people here never wear shoes, who would buy shoes? I'll go back tomorrow." James Elson also sent a telegram to the headquarters Telegram: "Great! Nobody here wears shoes. We're starting from scratch the footwear market that dominates here. I propose to ship all of the company's stock here. Also, I've decided to move my family here. Take root for a long time." Two years later, people here have put on their shoes...

Dong Mingzhu admired the second shoe seller very much, and believed that this was the real foresight and forward vision.The business philosophy contained in this story is: first create a product for which there is no obvious demand on the surface, and then develop the demand for it.Although this is a potential demand, it is also the real demand of customers.Gree did not pay attention to strict control of product quality at the beginning.Until 1993, Gree air conditioners had the same problems as other domestic air conditioners such as noise and high repair rate.In this regard, there are two opinions within the company: one opinion is that quality improvement is a slow improvement process, and what Gree needs to do most is to occupy the market first and launch an impact on competitors in terms of scale and price.

This is actually a way of first easy and then difficult; another opinion is the quality reformers represented by Zhu Jianghong.Generally speaking, there are always many departments in an enterprise. From the perspective of local interests, each department is indispensable. It is for this reason that many people always hold different opinions on which department is more important.Taking the sales department and the quality department as an example, the most common argument is that the sales department believes that without excellent product quality, no matter how strong the sales ability is, "a clever woman can't cook without rice".From this point of view, it is not surprising that Dong Mingzhu, who is accustomed to thinking about problems from a global perspective, attaches great importance to product quality.Dong Mingzhu considers the issue from the overall situation of the enterprise, not from her own interests.Today, enterprise competition has reached the era of 100% customer satisfaction, and the commitment and goal pursuit of 100% customer satisfaction are truly competitive.Therefore, Gree Electric Appliances determined the core concept of "Gree Air Conditioning - 100% Customer Satisfaction Project", which is to create 100% customer satisfaction, strive for 100 points, and make customers the real God.The communication theme is determined as "creating 100% satisfied customers is the sustainable pursuit of Gree people".In order to advocate a new concept of competition in the air-conditioning industry, Gree Beijing Branch did not use any hype concepts, searched for more than 10 years of old users in Beijing, solicited and selected "Gree Air Conditioning Quality Witness Ambassadors", and established the "Ten Years Club" .Then organize "witness ambassadors" to Zhuhai to visit the Gree air-conditioning production base, so that they can get a close look at Gree Electric Appliances.In today's society, if a product wants to win the favor of consumers, it is obviously not enough to rely on its excellent product quality.The after-sales service is also increasingly showing its unique competitive advantage.Haier played the service card relatively early in China, and played this card to the extreme.When mentioning Haier until now, people can immediately think of the popular slogan "sincere forever".Air conditioning is an industry that has relatively high service requirements, unlike color TVs and refrigerators.After the air conditioner is bought home, if the installation is not standard, it will cause damage to the living environment of the user, and if it is serious, the quality of the air conditioner will also be affected, so there is a saying in the air conditioner industry that "the quality is three points and the installation is seven points".The unique service concept of Gree air-conditioning is: the service of air-conditioning products should be strengthened in the pre-sale.That is to say, try to solve all kinds of problems that may arise before the user uses the air conditioner.This includes two aspects: first, the quality of the air conditioner must pass the test, and second, the installation of the air conditioner must be standard.In view of this, Gree not only put forward the slogans of "strengthening the service of air-conditioning products before and during sales", "not treating consumers as experimental products", "strengthening quality awareness and surpassing after-sales service", but also strictly controlled the quality Factory customs, production customs, storage and transportation customs, installation customs, and strive to achieve zero defects.Over the years, Gree Electric Appliances has been adhering to the service concept of "air-conditioning services should pay more attention to pre-sales and in-sales services" and "every little thing you do is a big deal for Gree", strictly controlling product quality before sales and effectively ensuring installation quality during sales And successively launched innovative service measures such as "quick response force", "expert service", "free return visit", "installation inspection system", "six-year free warranty" and other innovative service measures, which became popular among consumers as "buy air conditioners, choose Gree" The good reputation and word-of-mouth have won the trust and favor of the vast number of consumers, and thus maintained the leading position in the industry for many years in market share. Became "2006 Users' Trusted Air Conditioner Brand".

For customers, the service attitude, professional knowledge and service skills of enterprise employees are very important. Enterprise employees directly determine the quality of products and services provided by enterprises to customers, and have a huge impact on enterprises and customers. of.Customers are at the service terminal, and the value of front-line personnel is to satisfy customers.Here is a short story about Wang Yongqing, the "God of Management".When Wang Yongqing first ran a rice shop, every time he delivered rice to new customers, Wang Yongqing carefully recorded the capacity of the family’s rice tanks, and asked how many people in the family were eating, how many adults, how many children, and how much food each person had. Based on this, estimate the approximate time when the family will buy rice next time, and write it down in the notebook.At that time, without waiting for the customer to come to the door, he will take the initiative to send the corresponding amount of rice to the customer's home, and take out the old rice in the vat, put the new rice in the vat first, and then put the old rice on top, so as to avoid the remaining rice. Rice grows moldy over time.Many customers were deeply moved by Wang Yongqing's small gesture, and they decided to buy only his rice.The same is selling rice, why can Wang Yongqing achieve this level of business?The key is that he used his heart!Study customers with heart, study customer psychology, study customer needs, and study how to meet customer needs.Not just selling simple products to customers, but turning customer needs into our own service items, and giving them to customers together with products.The basis of market competition is the competition of people. When salespeople can provide customers with professional and enthusiastic services, and when products continue to create a little more value for customers, customers will be more firm and durable in their choice of your products.In a highly competitive market, Wang Yongqing created the brand image of Midian by improving product value and detailed services, and established an image value that is different and surpasses that of other Midian.Wang Yongqing's business is getting better and better. He started from a millet shop and eventually became the "big boss" in Taiwan's industry today.Therefore, touching service is not only covered by smiles and service slogans, it is integrated in every detail of work.If you want to measure it, the standard of measurement is: Do you carefully consider the convenience and interests of customers in every link of interaction with customers?In today's situation where technology is highly developed and products are converging, if an enterprise wants to survive and develop, only when it is willing to give convenience to customers, give customers benefits, and give customers effective and valuable services can it create a unique image value of the company Charm, win the hearts of customers.Over the years, many air-conditioning brands have fallen one by one in the fierce market competition, but Gree, like a well-nourished child, continued to thrive and eventually became the leading industry.

It can be said that it was not Gree that defeated many opponents, but these enterprises themselves defeated themselves.Gree continuously provides customers with high-quality products and services, thereby attracting and retaining customers, and establishing a good customer relationship with customers can gradually increase the company's revenue.Conversely, if the business cannot provide value to customers or provides less value than competitors, customers will transfer to competitors.There are many reasons for companies that fail, but the fundamental reason is that the product quality is not up to standard, the service is not in place, and finally lost customers.But Gree understands the real needs of customers, and its commitment to 100% customer satisfaction and goal pursuit have the real height of competition, so that Gree has won more and more consumers.