Chapter 17 4. Branding is not just advertising

In the past few years, the air-conditioning market has been full of gunpowder, and many companies have invested heavily in self-promotion and advertising, which has indeed increased their popularity. In 2008, Haier, Midea, and Oaks invested 100 million yuan one after another, becoming the three giants of home appliances that won the bidding of CCTV advertisements.Gree is also the most distinctive in brand building among many air-conditioning companies, and it is worth learning from companies that are trying to catch up or surpass them.In terms of brand building, in addition to the professional image that Gree has always created, the most prominent point is that it is persistent in brand building, not eager for quick success, and has not promoted the concept fancyly for many years.In fact, "A good air conditioner, made by Gree" was not an advertisement of Gree at first, but a slogan that Gree put forward to every employee, which was later used as a slogan, and the slogan has not changed for more than ten years, and it is deeply rooted in the minds of consumers. It deeply impressed the impression that "Gree is a good air conditioner".Although Gree has been developing rapidly and its leading position remains unchanged, consumers who don't know where to go can't tell right from wrong after various brands dominate.It's not that Gree doesn't advertise, and it spends more than 100 million yuan in advertising fees every year.Dong Mingzhu’s view on advertising is: it’s effective, but it’s only a flash in the pan, and it must be supported by strong product quality, which can be icing on the cake but not instant help.Gree's style is to do more and do better than talk less, put your head down, do things honestly, believe that consumers are not fools, and will eventually understand what kind of products they really need.Therefore, she does not agree to blindly use advertisements to increase Gree's market share, and she pays more attention to word-of-mouth from consumers.Where is the core competitiveness of air conditioners?Noise, cooling capacity and energy saving are the three most basic criteria, and are the core functions of the air conditioning product itself.

With the advancement of technology and changes in consumer demand, the research and development trend of air conditioners in recent years is basically to add and develop some additional functions based on their core functions, such as silent technology, ventilation function, multi-angle air supply mode, etc.Logically speaking, the above-mentioned additional functions did not affect the core functions of the air conditioner. All air conditioner manufacturers promote the basic functions of the air conditioner on the basis of solid foundation. They can also treat some additional functions of the air conditioner rationally, knowing whether they are core functions or not. Functions cannot be reversed.With the fierce competition, the "speculation concept", like other industries, has been picked up by many air-conditioning companies and used as a sharp weapon.

In 1999, "healthy air conditioners" were popular in the air conditioner market. For a while, activated carbon, negative ions, fresh air, and even Chinese herbal air conditioners appeared frequently.Due to the "SARS" in 2003, many air conditioner manufacturers have found new selling points, and "healthy air conditioners" have a new term. Overnight, air conditioners have changed their appearance, instead of playing "quality card" to "health card" .The concept of health is flying all over the market again. Technologies and functions such as "sterilization", "sterilization", "Kling" and "Palic" are dazzling and confusing. For a time, as long as the air conditioner is no exception in the market, everyone is "healthy". air conditioner".Gree never hypes or follows the trend. It always faces consumers in a real way, firmly grasps the core of air-conditioning technology to make continuous breakthroughs, strengthens technological upgrades, maintains the consistency of air-conditioning quality, and wins unanimous praise from the industry.Dong Mingzhu pointed out that the addition of some functions to air conditioners is entirely due to the needs of the market and to cater to consumers' consumption psychology, but these functions should not be deified, and the hype of the concept should be enough.It is an act of misleading consumers and dishonest to consumers by blowing up concepts so miraculously.According to her understanding, sterilizing air conditioners cannot effectively identify beneficial and harmful bacteria. While killing harmful bacteria, they often also kill beneficial bacteria.And it is not good for people to live in a vacuum without bacteria.

As for the oxygen bar air conditioner manufactured by a certain brand, she believes that it is a nihility concept that does not conform to scientific principles by taking advantage of people's psychology of health needs.In addition, for many so-called inverter air conditioners on the market, Dong Mingzhu believes that the technical content of inverter air conditioners is relatively high, which cannot be mastered and owned by ordinary brands. Misnamed.In addition, for the same technology, there should be no grades. As long as the technological content is the same, frequency conversion cannot have conceptual grades.What she said was aimed at some manufacturers who further promoted the level of frequency conversion technology in order to attract consumers' attention after mastering the frequency conversion technology.Dong Mingzhu asserted that in the field of frequency conversion, only Gree Electric has mastered the real core technology.The highest state of frequency conversion is comfort.What can support the market for a long time is the strength and real technology of the enterprise, not the hype of the concept.Dong Mingzhu analyzed that the comfort and health of Gree's Sleeping Dreams and Sleeping Beauty air conditioners have resulted in thousands of sales per day, which proves the infinite charm of Gree's inverter air conditioners in the market. As a leader, it must satisfy consumption. The needs of readers, this is the most important - and to achieve this "most important" is not by slogans but by unparalleled strength.The hype of the concept comes from inspiration, which refers to creating a unique sales statement in sales, which has three characteristics: First, each advertisement must state a proposition to consumers, such as buying this product, you will get some benefits; The second is that this proposition is very unique; the third is that it must be able to strongly impress millions of people and attract the attention of consumers.Each product will have its own selling point, which needs to be explained by the manufacturer and persuade consumers through storytelling.Convincing consumers is an art, which of course needs to be based on products and be product-oriented. No matter how unique the sales rhetoric is, it must tell the truth to consumers and be able to deliver.Practice is the sole criterion for testing truth.The reason why Mercedes-Benz is more expensive than ordinary vehicles is because its failure rate is extremely low, because a Mercedes-Benz with excellent quality can not only represent the identity of the owner, but also bring him a safer and more worry-free driving experience.We must admit that most enterprises use relatively ordinary technology and equipment and produce the same ordinary products, but what is certain is that the production and processing techniques of many products are much more complicated than coffee and ice cream. Wisdom, as long as the production of products can be endowed with rich cultural connotations, our products have every reason to sell better.

However, the concept has to be real and believable.Don't rely too much on advertisements, especially don't use false advertisements to mislead consumers. I believe that a good product is a good advertisement, and the word-of-mouth of users is the best advertisement. These simple business concepts are full of Dong Mingzhu's confidence in her own company and products, and revealed Out of the honesty of consumers and full trust in consumers' ability to identify.Due to the influence of the leadership concept, Gree naturally keeps a low profile when implementing advertising.In terms of publicity, Dong Mingzhu advocates keeping a low profile and not boasting herself too much. She has always insisted that the brand is made and made, rather than blown out and packaged.Dong Mingzhu often emphasizes: To be an enterprise does not require too much government public relations, nor does it need to package itself as a famous brand through a large number of advertisements.As long as product quality and technology research and development are done well, and sales and service are maintained at a certain level, the competitiveness of the enterprise will naturally increase, and there is no fear that the product will not be sold.Only when the product quality is good and the core technology is mastered, can the enterprise truly grasp the initiative.In Dong Mingzhu's view, Gree culture is different from the corporate culture of many other companies. She does not need to use concepts to "create" a company, but to do everything well in a down-to-earth manner to achieve a company.Gree not only does not use consumers as test products, but also, as an industry leader, will stand up and uphold justice when its peers go too far at certain times.In this war of concepts one after another, Dong Mingzhu called for various concepts to be cooled down, and more attention should be paid to the reliability of air conditioners.Then, out of its own corporate interests and industry responsibilities, Gree revealed the truth about healthy air conditioners, and published signed articles in media such as Workers’ Daily, bringing the 1999 battle for healthy air conditioners to a close.Gree will have its own new products every year, benefiting from the accumulated research and development results, Dong Mingzhu is confident that new products in the next ten years will be guaranteed.In order to effectively reduce noise, Gree has launched an exclusive patented sleep product, so that people will not feel the movement of the air conditioner during sleep.The doors and windows must be closed when the air conditioner is in use, resulting in stale indoor air. Gree has added a ventilation function to the product to keep the indoor and outdoor air quality consistent.Many elderly people feel uncomfortable and have sore shoulders after using the air conditioner. Based on this, Gree adjusts the air conditioner function according to the change of the body temperature.The harvest is that whenever a new air conditioner is launched, there is almost no need to promote the product, and the supply will exceed the demand. This further makes Gree feel the importance of technological leadership, so that it can win every step and research the product in a down-to-earth manner.When promoting its new products, Gree always adheres to a cautious attitude to let consumers gradually accept them.Energy saving and frequency conversion have always been the research direction of household air conditioners.

Some people used to think that air conditioners only need air-conditioning and cooling, or heating in winter. However, the noise and energy consumption of air conditioners exist objectively, and traditional products cannot guarantee consumers a comfortable home environment.The emerging inverter air conditioners are energy-saving and environmentally friendly, but they are relatively expensive, and some consumers do not understand them.Gree strives to gradually guide consumers and prove to them that if an ordinary air conditioner costs 1 yuan for electricity, then an energy-saving air conditioner only needs 60 cents to 70 cents. The air conditioner has the guarantee of quality and use effect.Gree, which has always been the leader, breaks the concept carefully created by many people with realistic new product quality, and also makes many people go crazy.In order to combat Gree, many people have spent a lot of thought and done a lot of things.Some companies in the same industry mobilized employees and all dealers to click on webpages everywhere on the Internet and fabricated facts to attack Gree.At the morning meeting of the employees, all shouted: "Down with Gree!" to boost morale.Some "experts" have been distorting and attacking Gree's business model for many years, ignoring the market sales data and asserting that Gree is not good enough. There are endless tendentious reports on Gree from various media.This external environment cannot be said to be favorable.Although Gree and Dong Mingzhu have won many honors with their excellence, ordinary consumers will still be misled and affect Gree's image. Dong Mingzhu just laughed off these reports. This "fly" behavior.

In September 2006, Gree won the title of "China World Famous Brand", the first and only world famous brand in China's air-conditioning industry; Obtained the "Exemption from Inspection for Export" certificate issued by the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine of the People's Republic of China, and became the first enterprise in China's air-conditioning industry to be exempted from inspection for export; in January 2007, the Gree brand was awarded the "Most Competitive Brand" by the Ministry of Commerce; in July 2007, Gree Electric was jointly awarded the title of "National Quality Advanced Group" by the Ministry of Personnel and the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine of the People's Republic of China. It is the only enterprise in the home appliance industry that has won this honor.The acquisition of these top honors in the industry has once again consolidated Gree's position as an industry leader.Air conditioner dealers generally report that Gree air conditioners have the lowest repair rate among the many brands they operate.Although Gree is "not good at advertising", a large number of consumers have a soft spot for Gree air conditioners.Gree has experienced the transformation from a small enterprise with an annual output of 20,000 units to 15 million units now. From an unknown small brand to a well-known brand-name product today, Gree air conditioners have been exported to more than 200 countries and regions around the world. The proportion of brand sales in export volume is increasing.Gree puts forward higher requirements for itself, not only should it be a good air conditioner, but also a high-end, exquisite and exquisite air conditioner.Therefore, while achieving "good air conditioners, made by Gree", we put forward a new slogan "high-quality air conditioners, created by Gree".Indeed, in the field of air-conditioning, air-conditioning has long since changed from a luxury item in the past to a mass consumer product now. Consumers are quite familiar with air-conditioning, and they are already very rational when purchasing air-conditioning.Therefore, air conditioners with strong brands and high cost performance will be more and more favored by consumers, and the strong air conditioner brands will become stronger.Brand value enhancement is not just as simple as advertising.In fact, products and quality are the life of a brand; technology and research and development are the soul of a brand; sales are the cornerstone of a brand; communication is the wing of a brand.