Chapter 31 Second, brand products should have their own stores

Years of market experience has made Dong Mingzhu deeply aware that the marketing channels of enterprises are like the blood and meridians of traditional Chinese medicine. Usually, the whole body is free from disease and pain. If there is an acupoint that is not smooth, it will feel uncomfortable.At present, Gree's professional agency model will encounter new problems, but Gree will continue to solve them calmly.Although the outside world has different opinions on the sales channels of Gree Electric Appliances, judging from the actual operation of Gree Electric Appliances in the market, the sales channels of Gree Electric Appliances are reasonable and healthy.The Gree exclusive stores all over the country have played an indispensable role in increasing the market share of Gree air conditioners. "Appear at the terminal with a unified image; face each consumer with the most professional service; appear at the nearest place to the consumer; provide convenient service to the consumer." The service concept of the specialty store makes the Gree brand image go deep into the street. lane.

In March 2006, Gome and Suning, two major home appliance chain giants, began to formulate air-conditioning procurement plans worth several billion yuan in the new year.Gome said that it will first spend 5 billion yuan in cash to sign a contract with mainstream air-conditioning brands, and the purchase volume will reach more than 40% of the overall market share in 2006.At the ordering meeting of Gome Electric Appliances, all the marketing leaders of many major air-conditioning manufacturers were present, except Dong Mingzhu.For the upcoming air-conditioning annual feast, no one wants to let it go. If this large order can be won, the company's tasks can basically be guaranteed to be worry-free.In fact, the production plans of many air-conditioning manufacturers are formulated around the orders of these two sales giants.Undoubtedly, 40% of the sales volume of air conditioners is not a small amount for any air conditioner company.However, there is a special case here. Gome once again got shut out in front of Dong Mingzhu.Dong Mingzhu maintains her consistent attitude, Gree has to set a reasonable price and sell it at this price, if Gome doesn’t sell it, I can sell it elsewhere.Dong Mingzhu's decision was obviously beyond the expectations of Huang Guangyu, chairman of Gome's board of directors.Generally speaking, manufacturers cannot do without merchants, and merchants cannot do without manufacturers. This is an objective law.Although Huang Guangyu admires Dong Mingzhu's courage to break away from chain stores and build his own channels, he still believes that manufacturing companies should focus more on production technology rather than sales.He gave an example that Panasonic had established many free marketing channels in Japan, but almost none of them exist now.Therefore, from this perspective, Huang Guangyu believes that professional stores like Gome are one of the sales channels, and they should be popular, representing an inevitable trend.As for the behavior of individual enterprises to build their own channels, Huang Guangyu believes that it can only be used as a supplement to the sales method, and it cannot be a long-term solution.In this regard, Dong Mingzhu said: I do not agree with this view.The goal of Gree Electric Appliances is not to have good after-sales service. At this stage, after-sales service is already a responsibility and an obligation that your company must bear. Therefore, you should pay more attention to the fact that my products do not need to be repaired, and that is a good product.

Now I tell consumers free maintenance for 6 years. In fact, it is also a big shock to the industry. Why?Because everyone knows that the maintenance is free for 6 years, and the economic power behind it is very large.I propose free maintenance for 6 years, that is to say, I expect that my product will not need maintenance within 6 years.With good products of such quality and such strong brand effect, we should consider selling them in the form of specialty stores instead of simply relying on large channel chain companies.After the dispute between Gree and Gome, the issue of the narrowing of Gree’s channels once drew a big question mark in everyone’s mind, but soon, with the opening of Gree’s first exclusive store, people finally understood that this decision was definitely not out of Impulsive, but deliberate.Some people may think that chain stores will be a trend in the future, but pay attention to high-end products, which definitely have their own specialty stores, and this trend is also the case internationally.Other high-end goods and low-quality products may be more available in hypermarkets.Dong Mingzhu said that what Gree sells is taste and quality. If Gree wants to become a world-class brand and an international boutique, then we should follow our own path.I believe I have the ability to do this.Of course, Gree is a listed company, so I can’t just make promises to others, but we have an internal goal. In the next few years, Gree’s goal is to become a professional air-conditioning company with sales of 50 billion yuan.The reason why Dong Mingzhu holds this attitude is because she has long begun to question the existing sales model of large chain channels.Since Gree’s air-conditioning products withdrew from Gome, Dong Mingzhu has been more active in trying to build her own sales channels. Through early practice, she has strengthened her confidence that this is a controllable chain sales model that will surely play an important role in Gree’s future operations. play a greater role in.

Another reason is that she is not only concerned about the development of Gree, but also the healthy development of the entire industry. Due to the industry recession caused by vicious competition, she does not want to reproduce it in the air-conditioning industry.In recent years, many home appliance companies have collapsed. For example, the color TV industry lost money across the board in 2000, causing the country to lose tens of billions. Some of them were due to their own factors, and there were also many factors in the external circulation field.The vicious competition in the industry has caused many employees to lose their jobs, and the assets of many countries and societies have been lost in vain.The air-conditioning industry cannot follow such an old path, and Gree must play the role of the mainstay.For channels, the vast majority of manufacturers in China can be said to love and hate. The reason for love is because it is impossible to leave it. After all, large channel stores can produce a large amount of goods every year; and the reason for hatred is because of the pressure from the channel. It's too big, sometimes even so big that it makes itself unprofitable.But in any case, there are nothing more than two choices before Chinese manufacturing companies: one option is to go directly to hypermarkets like many manufacturing companies, relying on small profits but quick turnover to earn some meager profits; and the other option, It is a self-built channel.Rely on the establishment of its own channels, get rid of the control of others, and realize the maximization of corporate profits.China's current circulation environment is undergoing some huge changes. During this process of change, various channel forms have emerged. Of course, it is also possible that some newer models have not yet appeared.For enterprises, how to identify the advantages and disadvantages of these channels and make a rational choice, Dong Mingzhu believes: How to use channels is a subject for enterprises. Enterprises can manage themselves well, but it is difficult for you To manage the marketing environment.What is the big chain channel?A large chain is a very large portal platform. The main purpose of enterprises on this portal platform is to capture mainstream consumers.But in the process of catching this mainstream consumer, it has attracted a large number of consumer groups. This mainstream portal is evolving into a media, a media platform to display the corporate image.That is to say, when an enterprise does not appear on this portal platform, it will receive less attention; if it receives less attention, the brand of the enterprise will also be damaged to a certain extent.The brand's popularity, influence, and reputation may all be affected by the company's withdrawal from the hypermarket.This is Dong Mingzhu's risk analysis of companies leaving large channels. For general air-conditioning companies, leaving large channels means that their products cannot effectively enhance their brands. You don't have to.Dong Mingzhu further said: If a model cannot change in response to market changes, it should be said to be traditional and backward. As long as it can change itself in response to market changes, it is advanced.But Gree's model is not traditional. In fact, I think it is not entirely correct to turn the cooperation of a certain dealer into a traditional model and lock the hypermarket into an advanced model.The key depends on what our consumers need. What Gree needs is continuous, long-term and eternal development, not short-term interests.Therefore, we choose to build a channel by ourselves, not that I want to occupy this channel, but I hope that through such an effort, I hope to change the channel's business thinking and make them truly realize that enterprises serve consumers.If this core is grasped, no matter whether it is a large store or a small store, the key to success or failure is the concept.If we pay a little attention, we will find that Dong Mingzhu is not alone in holding this view.

Since 2005, some home appliance manufacturers have tried to carry out channel changes.In addition to Gree, Oaks took the lead in launching channel reforms to promote the process of channel flattening; Midea launched the "Township Air Conditioning Popularization Revolution" and announced that it will invest 100 million yuan to establish at least 10,000 dealer networks in tens of thousands of towns across the country. It is trying its best to capture the third-tier and fourth-tier markets; and the electric appliance is also building its "Happy Tree" electrical chain store network in full swing, hoping that it can "surround the cities from the countryside" and obtain the right to sell independently in the third-tier and fourth-tier markets.Regardless of whether it is a Gree store or a happy tree, let’s not talk about the advantages and disadvantages of these marketing methods, but at least one problem is explained. With the development of enterprises, enterprises should have the right to choose independently, and market competition should be based on fairness. In principle, only those models that are most in line with the actual development of the enterprise are the most reasonable; only those that are most suitable for the marketing requirements of the enterprise are the best.Gree's regional sales model, after several adjustments and improvements, has become a magic weapon for Gree to win the market.The spokesperson of Gree Electric said in an interview with the reporter of "Successful Marketing" magazine that the driving force for Gree's rapid growth is Gree's original marketing model - the form of regional sales companies and exclusive stores.The sales company has implemented Gree's unique "Three Represents" (representing the interests of dealers, representing the interests of consumers, and representing the interests of Gree).The centripetal force and cohesion of dealers towards Gree has been continuously enhanced, effectively avoiding the impact of market competition disorder on Gree.Obviously, in the future marketing, Gree Electric Appliances will stick to and improve the current channel strategy. Gree does not reject any sales channel that adheres to the operating principles of equality, sincerity, and mutual benefit.Chain channels are also part of Gree dealers, and there are many partners for Gree to choose from.

But at present, specialty stores and specialty stores are still the mainstream of Gree's sales channels.The Gree monopoly model is essentially similar to Gome and other major home appliance chains.Gree has many specialty stores in various places. If we regard these specialty stores as a chain store, then if they are connected, they become a chain store of home appliances similar to Gome.The difference is that the Gree store only sells Gree air-conditioning products, while Gome sells everything; the Gree store is small and specialized, while Gome is large and comprehensive.At the same time, in terms of volume, the form of Gree monopoly stores may not be enough to attract enough consumer groups. Compared with the product diversification of major home appliance chains, Gree monopoly stores are still in the middle of nowhere in terms of choice and shopping environment. relatively weak.Therefore, Gree stores have made some evasive actions against the local strength of the Gome chain to launch differentiated and regionalized competition.If going into the store is a kind of destiny for Chinese manufacturing companies, then all the efforts Dong Mingzhu has made on self-built marketing channels are actually continuous exploration behaviors to break this fate. positive meaning, but the effect is not very satisfactory.According to senior insiders of Gree, at present, Gree's self-built channels do not make a great contribution to the company's sales. For this reason, Gree has always given up on large chain channels.There are no eternal friends in the market, only eternal interests. In the face of common interests, Gree is also seeking cooperation in a deeper sense with a broader mind.At present, major appliance stores such as Gome and Suning are mainly deployed in the primary market, and have not yet extended their network to the vast secondary and tertiary markets in China. However, it is an undoubted fact that the sales growth rate of the secondary and tertiary markets is much higher than that of central city.It is understood that the saturation rate of air-conditioning products in the domestic first- and second-tier markets has reached 65%, while the third-tier and fourth-tier markets are still in an extremely unbalanced growth stage that needs to be tapped due to regional differences.This makes Gree's regional sales model still useful for a long time to come.