Chapter 21 Prosperity in Spring Breeze: Focus Crazy Staking

"Racing horses to enclose land" was originally a method for the so-called Manchu officials and aristocrats to enclose their own fiefdoms when the Manchu Qing Dynasty entered the customs, that is, no matter how far the horses ran, the land belonged to the horse riders.However, in today's increasingly fierce business competition, staking land has been endowed with new era economic connotations-land staking means the expansion of market share, the expansion of enterprise coverage and the possibility of a substantial increase in profitability.Therefore, in essence, staking land is not a simple ridicule of modern business techniques.

Compared with the staking of well-known domestic home appliance retail chains such as Gome, Suning and Yongle, the staking of the building TV advertising market is more low-key and pragmatic. Relevant information is rarely published in newspapers, and even if there is, it is only a few words. In a word, this also adds a bit of mystery to advertisers in the building TV advertising market.In fact, with the help of the staking in the building TV advertising industry, we can vaguely see the traces of the development of Focus Media. On the other hand, with the active participation of capital from all walks of life, it can be foreseen that commercial competition, including the building TV advertising market, is constantly escalating, and full competition and striving for more market share have become the key to making the "cake" of the industry bigger. Effective Ways.

There is a saying about development within Dashang Group: if you develop fast, you will die soon; if you don’t develop, you will die.For Dashang Electronics, its profound meaning actually refers to how to grasp the rhythm and frequency of enterprise expansion.But in the advertising industry where the competition is one after another, it seems that there is still hidden danger at every step, even though many advertisers are afraid of the huge investment of funds and manpower that need to be borne for the staking, and they are walking on eggshells, can they? ? , without enclosing the land, how can you catch up with the international advertising media giants?

Two years ago, when the first batch of LCD TVs showing advertisements appeared in the elevator waiting halls of some office buildings in Shanghai and Beijing, few people would have expected the huge potential of this advertising market.Two years later, this type of LCD TV has spread across tens of thousands of buildings in dozens of large and medium-sized cities in China, covering more than 30 million middle- and high-income earners every day.Due to its vivid expression, clear audience positioning, and certain mandatory ratings, in-building TV advertising has been favored by mid-to-high-end advertisers. After just two years, it has rapidly grown into an important advertising medium.Focus Media is also struggling to grow in the wave of building TV advertising development.

The smart Jiang Nanchun is not indulging and satisfied with the status quo of Focus.He has set his sights on the era after entering the WTO. China's advertising media industry, which is bound to open up, may encounter strong impact from foreign international advertising giants and predators. "Wolf is coming" is not just an exaggerated lie, but also a realistic warning.International electronics and financial manufacturers and organizations have a great impact on the Chinese market. While shaking Jiang Nanchun's heart, it also prompted him to realize: "Limiting the market to Shanghai, Beijing and other places is undoubtedly just a 'superficial touch'. It seems like a conservative and stable strategic deployment, but this kind of deployment is difficult to resist the invasion of foreign forces, and it is even more impossible to catch up with the progress of international advertising giants."

As the saying goes, "everything is forewarned, and nothing is foregone."The external crisis requires Jiang Nanchun and his focus to take action.As a result, while various forces were vigorously carrying out the "land enclosure movement" in the resident, Jiang Nanchun and his Focus Media were not to be outdone, and ran wildly to enclose land, and their rapid momentum swept across the country. Initially, Focus targeted Shanghai's high-end white-collar consumer groups to work and live in large office buildings, businesses, restaurants, high-end apartments, etc., and circled them.From Jinmao Tower, Hong Kong Plaza, Shanghai Mall, Bund Center to China Merchants Tower, Overseas Chinese Tower and other top office buildings in Shanghai, without exception, they fall into the "mastery" of Focus.

Different regional cultures and economic development levels make people have different consumption concepts, consumption psychology, consumption patterns, consumption capabilities and consumption tendencies.Jiang Nanchun realized this in the process of leading Focus Group to staking the land.Therefore, in the enclosures of different cities, Focus has planned detailed expansion plans and instruction manuals for attracting and convincing customers according to the region and urban economic level, imprinting a distinct regional brand on the development of advertisements in different cities across the country, and highlighting the characteristics of Focus’s refinement. , has also won the trust of many advertisers.

The effect of the staking is immediate.According to the prospectus of Focus Media, through direct sales and franchising, the company's business has covered 44 large and medium-sized cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Shenzhen and other major domestic cities in a short period of time before listing. There are 10,477 commercial buildings with 17,872 LCD screens.If the 3,149 display screens in the 423 store network are added, the total number reaches 21,021.According to the listing prospectus, it can cover 15 million middle and high-income people every day. In the fourth quarter of 2004, the company's sales revenue was US$11 million, compared with US$24.6 million in the same period in 2005, an increase of more than 100% compared with a year ago, and the growth rate is impressive.

staking the land, the biggest advantage of Focus is the pre-emptive strike, and it is also a kind of barrier. In the second quarter of 2005, Focus’s commercial building video business has covered more than 50 cities across the country, and signed contracts with more than 20,000 buildings for 3 to 5 years, covering more than 30 million mid-to-high-end audiences. Enjoy priority renewal rights.Through staking all the way, Focus has seized many opportunities in building resources and has become an out-and-out industry leader. But the pace of Focus has not stopped. Jiang Nanchun and Focus focus on another piece of cake that has not been divided up in the emerging advertising media field.

After the frantic staking space war in full swing, the channel war began to spread to refinement and penetration.While Focus Group continues to staking land in major and medium-sized cities, its business philosophy and model have also begun to show signs of differentiation from its main rival, Juzhong. Juzhong Media plans to focus on the high-end office buildings, hotels and apartment markets that it has already occupied, and at the same time radiate its outlets to more places where high-income people come and go, such as golf courses, tertiary hospitals, etc., and at the same time start to build a network of convenience stores.The person in charge of Juzhong Media said that after the new round of financing, Juzhong will step up acquisitions and mergers, with the goal of covering 50 cities and 30,000 buildings by the end of 2005.

Focus Media, while consolidating its advantages in the building market, has positioned its expansion target at hypermarkets to find new profit growth points.Jiang Nanchun once said: "The funds raised from the listing of Focus will be mainly used for the laying of hypermarket network and convenience store network. Subdivided channels." Some of the expansion methods originally locked and focused on Focus Media were not very successful, and the corresponding advertising effects did not appear.At this time, Jiang Nanchun was not sure about the extent to which he would be able to achieve a break-even balance when targeting hypermarkets, large supermarkets, airport broadcasting networks, and golf broadcasting networks.However, Jiang Nanchun's many years of experience as an advertising person also made him deeply feel that many things that seemed impossible at first contained huge opportunities. The important thing is whether he can gain insight into these market opportunities.The shrewd Jiang Nanchun will naturally not let go of any opportunity to make a profit.In fact, it is also conceivable that Focus, while trying to make a piece of the big building market, also wants to share another big piece of the cake. Tom Peters believes: "Leaders must be able to see things other than immediate interests that ordinary people cannot see. They need to have the ability to stand on the top of a mountain and look far away." Facts have also proved that Jiang Nanchun's vision is indeed unique , Focus once again proudly appeared as a winner in the direct "hand-to-hand fight" with its opponents.In the subdivided market after the staking, Focus has an absolute advantage in commercial buildings, stores, hotels, etc., while Juzhong is slightly ahead of Focus in commercial and residential apartment buildings, hospitals, and convenience stores.The accurate market positioning of Focus makes its advantages fully manifested in commercial fields such as office buildings. Chu Tianshu is extremely eye-catching.After the commercial buildings such as office buildings fully bloomed, Jiangnanchun and Focus have also eaten a big cake of hypermarkets and hypermarkets, filling the gap in the field of video media in domestic stores. Huang Guangyu, the president of Gome, has one of the biggest characteristics in his work. He acts as fast as an "eagle". His "sharp knife" technique is very famous in the industry.He has a mantra "do it with three-point confidence", which is widely spread in the industry. However, shopping malls actually pay attention to natural selection and survival of the fittest just like nature.No matter how fast a lion runs on the vast grassland, it can hardly walk an inch in the jungle; no matter how fierce a tiger roars in the forest, it loses its momentum when it enters the water. This is the reason why "a tiger falls in Pingyang and is bullied by dogs, and a dragon swims in shallow water and is played by shrimps".In the ups and downs in the business world, you can't escape this theorem after all: you must have a clear conscience when you do things, and do what you can to start a business; keep the territory you are familiar with, and don't go to the unfamiliar "market" easily. Adhering to such a business philosophy, Jiang Nanchun has never lost his basic rationality as a businessman, even though Focus has been staking the land seemingly crazily.Because he knows very well that looking for business opportunities in an unfamiliar market that he doesn't understand at all is completely chasing after the original.Its starting point does not start from zero, but from a negative number; even if there is hope, there may be more despair. It is also true that for a joint venture company in Hong Kong, the partner is trustworthy and the business is good, but Focus only holds 20% of the shares.We must know that the partners of this company have been in charge of PCCW’s media business, and have held senior management positions in Loral, News Corporation and China.com. Coupled with the company’s good performance, perhaps many people will not easily give up the idea of ​​​​expanding their shares. .And why is Focus so stingy with money that it doesn't expand its control over the shares of this joint venture company?Why didn't Focuson enter Hong Kong with its own strength that has gradually grown and grown in the business world?Many people were puzzled by this, but Jiang Nanchun replied: "Hong Kong has always been a strange place, with different cultural characteristics and different economic environments. I don't know much about it." Then he said: "We are not familiar with overseas markets. familiar, usually in the form of franchise.” Jiang Nanchun has his own set of plans from the overall strategy of Focus to some detailed analysis, including how to suggest to customers how to use different lengths of advertising time in different locations, and even the creation of advertising slogans.But going to unfamiliar markets has become one of Jiangnanchun's many "golden rules".The shrewdness of a businessman like Jiang Nanchun shows the calmness and rationality behind the focus madness.This also laid a deep foreshadowing for the future professional development of Focus.