Chapter 18 Please come in to learn more

Generally speaking, Huawei's products are more than 25% cheaper than those of European and American competitors, and its successful sales experience is mostly accumulated in operating markets such as Russia, Thailand, and South America.The "fat meat" of the global telecommunications market is precisely in Europe and the United States, controlled by a few established companies in Europe and the United States, accounting for more than 70% of the market share.Huawei spokesman Fu Jun summed it up: "Europe and the United States are Huawei's strategic markets. It is not a question of whether to enter, but a question of must enter. But our biggest obstacle is the brand. How can we make customers recognize our brand? "

In fact, as early as 1997, the technical level of Huawei's program-controlled switches was comparable to that of Siemens' similar products.However, if you don't buy Siemens products in Europe, you seem to feel guilty. Li Jie, vice president of Huawei, told reporters: "When a senior executive of Huawei met with a Brazilian customer in 1999, the other party asked two ridiculous questions seriously. One is: Does China have highways? The other is: Does China have its own TV industry?" The embarrassment that also comes from the "cultural understanding" of the West is not limited to these.At the beginning of developing the Russian and Saudi Arabian markets, the other parties refused to believe that Huawei could manufacture the products they needed, so they always gave Huawei people 5-10 minutes of meeting time as a "gift".Since "going out" often encounters embarrassment, Huawei has to work hard on "please come in".

Xu Zhijun, vice president of Huawei, told reporters about Huawei's difficult journey to capture customers in the way of "please come in": From 1999 to 2001, we should say that we had a breakthrough.At this stage, Huawei further sent people to various countries. As for communications, as long as a country has a large population and we think that the demand for phones is large, we will send people to market. However, after a long period of exploration, we found that quite a few countries are very interested My understanding is only on the films made by Zhang Yimou... Customers from a large number of countries mentioned that Chinese people still wear cloth shoes and even have the impression of long braids from the Qing Dynasty. It is actually impossible to sell them tens of thousands or millions of equipment.At that time, we had no choice but to take the last resort, which was also the most primitive and simplest method. It was to let them see what China has been like after more than 20 years of reform and opening up, understand China's high-tech progress in recent years, and understand Huawei's development. situation, rather than staying in their imagination.

Therefore, we formulated a policy at that time, which was to vigorously invite customers to visit China and investigate Huawei.At that time, we had a route called the New Silk Road, which entered from Beijing, then went to Shanghai and Shenzhen, and then exited from Hong Kong, or entered from Hong Kong, then went to Shenzhen, Shanghai, and then went to Beijing to exit. We invited a large number of customers to go This route, look at the achievements of China's reform and opening up, look at Huawei, and look at the operation of Huawei's products in these cities, so as to deepen our understanding of us.In addition to "please come in", we have another way, that is, we paid our own money to print two picture albums, taking photos of some beautiful scenery and buildings in China, and attaching the application of our products. "Huawei in China" or "Huawei in the world" are sent to various countries in large numbers, so that they can learn about China and Huawei through living picture albums.At the same time, we went to various exhibitions, especially Hong Kong exhibitions, and invited a large number of customers to China. At the Hong Kong exhibition in 2002, we invited more than 1,500 customers to visit Hong Kong and see the development of mainland China. .Through these activities, those customers who have visited China and seen Huawei basically have no ideological obstacles or rejection of our cooperation.

We still have a very stupid way, that is, as long as the customers are willing, we will send the products to them, let them use our products to understand our products, and decide whether we have the opportunity to bid and participate in network construction in the future.In this way, after several years of hard work from 1999 to 2001, our sales in the international market have gradually expanded.At the same time, in 2001, we basically achieved sales of more than 300 million yuan. In various countries, the people we sent out basically survived, and gradually the organization was established and the business expanded.

It seems that although Huawei's method of "inviting customers in" is a bit clumsy, its sincerity still greatly shocked customers.A customer from the United Arab Emirates said to a Huawei employee: "Before I came to China, I always thought that the United States was the number one in the world, and our country was the second. Now I know that the United States is the first, China is the second, and we are the third. "In 2001, Huawei finally invited the Russian Minister of Posts and Telecommunications to Shenzhen.The minister was full of praise for Huawei. After six years, Huawei has finally established a brand in Russia.

In order to enhance the competitiveness of the Huawei brand in the international market, starting in 2004, Huawei launched a brand promotion plan called "Orient Express" in Europe. In the second half of 2004, Huawei plans to cooperate with a world-renowned consulting company to conduct a comprehensive evaluation and planning of its own brand, in order to create an international mainstream telecom manufacturer brand.At that time, "Huawei People News" published an intriguing sentence: "Get rid of the narrow national self-esteem is internationalization, get rid of the narrow Huawei pride is professionalization, get rid of the narrow brand awareness is maturity."

Huawei's "please come in" marketing strategy is obviously effective.The Nigerian Minister of Commerce expressed his opinion with the Chinese idiom "Seeing is worth seeing once heard a hundred times".British Telecom (BT) Chief Technology Officer Matt Burrows, who is known for his conservative and strict, believes that "it would be a mistake not to choose Huawei."After visiting Huawei, the heads of some rival companies said with emotion, "I finally understand who is my biggest opponent in the future." In March 2003, at the most difficult moment in the patent infringement lawsuit sued by Huawei against Cisco, it was 3Com CEO Claflin who testified in court and the third-party analysis conclusion submitted by Stanford University professor Dennis Larison. .Both of them were invited to Huawei to visit Huawei's research and development process on site.Especially what Claflin told the American media - "Huawei's engineers are quite talented. They operate the latest equipment and software in a spacious office. They have the most advanced robotic equipment I have ever seen", It also played a super-valuable image advertisement for Huawei in the US market and even the global telecommunications market.In fact, after the Cisco lawsuit, even Cisco believes that "Huawei has won more business interests and market opportunities than Cisco in this lawsuit."

For Huawei, the biggest challenge is time if it wants to complete the journey that European and American multinational companies have traveled in 100 years in more than ten years. In order to seize the opportunity and catch up with the time, Huawei also imagined that, like some Chinese home appliance companies, it will form a joint venture with a foreign company, and use the brand and marketing channels of the foreign company to achieve rapid brand promotion.But even if Ren Zhengfei claims to be a "Rabin student", it is useless to convey the message that "peace is the most important thing". Several big-name Western companies have rejected Huawei's attempt to leverage.Some of them look down on Huawei's olive branch because the two sides are not at the same heavyweight level, while others clearly feel the threat of Huawei's rise and are unwilling to help their opponents sharpen their swords.

What is valuable is that Huawei, which is not afraid of powerful enemies, has not been discouraged.Compared with Western companies, Huawei people are undoubtedly better at moving customers.Huawei has also specially set up an "Islamic prayer room" for Arab customers in the company. When exhibiting at the same time as customers, we will help customers set up the exhibition first.When Algeria was hit by the earthquake and competitors were evacuating, Huawei people insisted on staying "with the Algerian people."Including the Russian market, which has contributed the most to Huawei's international performance today, if it hadn't been for three consecutive years of perseverance, patience, and hard work, the cake in the Russian telecom market would not have been easily given to Huawei.Be anxious about what customers are anxious about, and think about what customers are not thinking about. These slogans that almost every company shouts are shining brightly in the daily behavior of Huawei people all the time.

Faith will move mountains to open.Perhaps this is precisely the best marketing tool that Chinese companies should use.Because compared with the business-like style of Western companies, the Chinese people's attention to human relationships has obvious advantages.Brand building expert Li Guangdou praised Huawei's success: "Huawei is such a representative. Its research and care for customers can be described as meticulous and detailed. Its success has demonstrated 'Chinese Kung Fu' to the outside world. "