Chapter 27 2. Don’t take consumers as test products

Dong Mingzhu, who was born in marketing, once clearly stated: "Marketing alone is not enough, the product is the first." In fact, in a broad sense, "marketing" includes the concept of "product".The purpose of Dong Mingzhu's saying this is to further emphasize the decisive role of "products".Quality is the premise of product sales. Only with good quality can any product be sold at a good price, dare to challenge the big channels, and dare to say that spending money on advertising promotions is not as good as consumer word-of-mouth promotions. "Don't use consumers as guinea pigs."

As a concept that Gree personally practices, before the product is mature, it is never rushed to the market in order to seize the market. Only after all the problems are completely solved, the new product can be officially launched.During the design process, Gree will adhere to the principle of serving consumers, design products based on detailed and meticulous market data, stand in the perspective of users, and meet the actual needs of users to the greatest extent.After the new product is designed, it must also go through trial production, long-term operation experiment, redesign and other processes. After a long test process, only after the product quality really passes the test can it be officially put into production and sales.Today, the competition in the air-conditioning industry is becoming more and more fierce, and price wars, concept wars, and service wars are all full of consumers' audiovisual nerves.When the inverter air conditioner was launched, Gree's "King of Coolness" split air conditioner was put into the research and development stage. The energy efficiency ratio of this product reached 3.35, and the noise was only 34.2 decibels.At that time, one stone caused a thousand waves. Upon hearing the news, other manufacturers began to launch inverter air conditioners one after another. In order to seize the "opportunity" and grab the first pot of gold, they put their immature products on the market one after another. The results can be imagined. As we all know, many products have "crashed" phenomenon.When everyone was grabbing the "opportunity", Gree did the opposite. Dong Mingzhu ordered to hide the "King of Calmness" and calm down to improve product quality.It is also a fan blade, and Gree Electric is studying how to make its air volume larger and the noise lower; under the premise of the same input power, the cooling capacity of Gree air conditioners is striving to output even 0.1 watts more than its peers. Through such measures To increase the energy efficiency ratio of Gree air conditioners.According to the relevant national standards, as long as the surface temperature of the electrical capacitor reaches 70°C, it can be judged as qualified if it can operate normally for 600 hours.But in Gree, the capacitor must be operated under this condition for 1000 hours before it is considered qualified.For the use of some auxiliary materials such as copper pipes, Gree Electric has insisted on using copper pipes made by the world's largest copper pipe manufacturer for many years, because its quality is recognized as the best in the industry, and of course, the price is higher than other copper pipes More than 5%.Through such a series of strict inspections and quality control, Gree was confident when launching its own "Calm King", and it is not difficult to understand that the product has become an instant hit in the market.Not taking consumers as experimental products is the key to Gree Electric's winning the market, and it has also been well received by consumers and the media.

On November 28, 2005, in the "Time and Space Survey" broadcast by CCTV on the "Oriental Time and Space" column, Sina.com announced the household appliance brand with the highest consumer recognition, and Gree Electric became the air-conditioning product with the highest consumer recognition. , In the survey conducted by "Oriental Time and Space", a total of 1,449 consumers participated in the survey. The survey shows that among the four major home appliances: color TVs, refrigerators, washing machines, and air conditioners, consumers choose domestic production. The most consumers choose domestic brands for air conditioners, accounting for 91%. Among the air conditioners, Gree voted the most.According to expert analysis, the main reason is that the quality of Gree air-conditioning is excellent. Whether an enterprise has independent innovation capabilities is reflected in its hard indicators such as technology, brand and patents, and industry technical standards on the one hand, and on the other hand in the system and management of the enterprise. , Is there any advantage in marketing?Although consumers' word-of-mouth and product innovation capabilities cannot be completely equated, if a home appliance product is not even recognized by consumers, then the company that produces it does not care about independent development capabilities.

In the summer of 2006, Chongqing experienced a once-in-50-year high temperature of 44.5°C, and suffered a severe drought for 96 consecutive days.The hot outdoor temperature has caused many brands of air conditioners to slow down.However, Gree Air Conditioner, which once won the reputation of "Desert Air Conditioner", is still alive and kicking and sticking to its post, bringing a rare piece of coolness to the people of Chongqing.It turns out that according to national and international standards, general air conditioners are generally designed for temperate climates with a perennial maximum temperature of 43°C, while Gree air conditioners are designed for normal use in high-temperature climates with a perennial maximum temperature of 52°C. .The Turpan region of Xinjiang is known for its hot weather. The air conditioners of some domestic manufacturers could not work at all, and the machines were so hot that they could spread pancakes.The sales staff of Gree Electric Appliances was fully prepared, and sent the desert air conditioners specially exported to Saudi Arabia, and soon occupied the entire Turpan city. The excellent performance of Gree air conditioners in these markets is all due to the company's high-standard design and strict inspection of products. test.When everyone attributed Gree's success to its unique "Gree sales model", Dong Mingzhu clearly realized that the quality of Gree products is the key to its success.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. the opinion of.Taking the sales department and the quality department as an example, the most common argument is that the sales department believes that without its own market development, no matter how good the product quality is, it will not be sold, while the quality department believes that without excellent product quality, no matter how strong the sales ability is, it will be a "sell". Make bricks without straw".Both understandings are correct, but they are not comprehensive.No matter how strong the sales ability is, it is impossible to sell a bunch of junk; no matter how good the quality is, it is difficult to stand out in the fiercely competitive market without strong sales.From an overall perspective, if one of these two "fists" is not strong enough, it will affect the development of the enterprise.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.What is little known is that Gree has gone through a rather difficult "Long March" on how to improve the quality of its products.

When Gree Electric was first established in 1991, it was already a "latecomer" in the air-conditioning industry.At that time, Gree's dilapidated window machine production line had an annual output of only 20,000 units, while its competitors had reached hundreds of thousands or even millions of units.At that time, Gree couldn't even pay his salary. He visited the bank several times, but was either flatly rejected or rejected.But the Gree people were not discouraged.Gree's designers worked day and night while designing and producing drawings. When they were sleepy, they took a nap on the table and ate instant noodles when they were hungry. And fall...

The air-conditioning market in the early 1990s was still a seller’s market. There were already a large number of orders waiting for the products before they were off the assembly line. Regardless of the quality, they were all put on trucks and sold all over the country.At the beginning of its establishment, Gree was still in the early stage of imitation and manufacturing, and encountered embarrassing scenes in terms of quality.At that time, some Gree window machines that had just been installed could not be started. After inspection, it turned out that the copper pipe of the air conditioner was broken during transportation.Since 1995, Gree has started a comprehensive quality rectification.Set up a branch factory for parts screening. Every spare part that enters the factory must go through various tests, and only after passing the test can it be put on the production line; The operation that is most likely to cause problems in the production process has made unreasonable regulations. Any employee who violates one of them will be dismissed or fired...

A series of "ruthless" measures have steadily improved the quality of Gree air conditioners.Many people know the story of Zhang Ruimin smashing the refrigerator with a hammer, but they may not know that similar things happened in Gree.In order to strictly control product quality, Gree's technical department, quality inspection department, enterprise management office, and assembly branch jointly implement air conditioner quality contracting to the company.At that time, General Manager Zhu Jianghong asked someone to put a big hammer in the factory department of the assembly branch. As long as the product quality was not up to standard, the heads of the four branches would use this big hammer to smash it in public and punish them. Those responsible will be punished.If the quality is up to standard, rewards will be given.When some people attribute the competitiveness of Gree air conditioners to the sales model or after-sales service, Dong Mingzhu has a completely different point of view. She believes that the competitiveness of Gree products is "product strength".In fact, Dong Mingzhu's understanding is higher, farther, and more admirable.She once said in the face of a reporter's question: "My goal is very clear. As a Gree brand, it does not belong to me, nor does it belong to Zhuhai City. I think it belongs to the Chinese. I regard it as a Chinese brand. , to become a world brand, our goal is still far from what we have achieved. To improve technology, we must increase market share.” If someone else dominates this industry, your only feasible strategy is to shrink your The scope of business is to seize one's own place in a certain sub-industry.In the column of CCTV, Dong Mingzhu said: "Becoming a world famous brand is not determined by an advertisement, but more by your technology leadership. We now have more than 700 patents, all of which are developed by ourselves. , from domestic to commercial air conditioners, all of them are our own technology, especially the core technology of centrifuge, which is developed by ourselves. Our first centrifuge with an area of ​​80,000 square meters has been settled in a place in Huangshan. A five-star hotel, I think this is a sign of success. There is nothing that Gree cannot do, but we are not satisfied because we have achieved it, but we have to improve ourselves and put forward more demanding requirements. I hope that Gree can lead the world in this environment.” The domineering Dong Mingzhu never hides her “ambition”: “Our company is a strong company, and it is in a leading position in terms of capital, technology, and management. A simple product or a certain aspect is a leader in comprehensive strength. We no longer say that we are the number one in China. We think this has no weight and is not our goal. Our goal is to maintain a world-leading position , To account for 30% of the global market share, this is Gree's goal, and it will remain unchanged for a hundred years." Why can the advertising slogan "Good air conditioners, made by Gree" be successful?It is because this sentence closely links "good air conditioner" and Gree, so that consumers think of "good air conditioner" and think of Gree, and when they hear Gree, they think of "good air conditioner", just like "Mercedes" and " "Luxury" is linked together, "BMW" is linked with "driving" and "Wal-Mart" is linked with "safety". A certain product has a unique concept in the minds of consumers, and this concept becomes synonymous with the product. "Gree's goal is to make people all over the world trust Gree air conditioners, just like people trust 'Mercedes-Benz' and 'BMW'." product" corporate culture and beliefs.