Chapter 13 Meet Benji on the Bund

No one believes that BenQ will emerge suddenly in this battle of giants. Unlike MP3, keyboard and other products, in the field of LCD, BenQ challenges those world giants.Those who play LCD are giants.This is the conclusion of the IT industry on LCD manufacturers. In fact, the global LCD panel production is mainly concentrated in the hands of three or four manufacturers. Great distance. When Mingji decided to enter this market, no one was wary of her.This is not a game that anyone can play, the boss thinks so.Even when this little brother challenged the industry standard many times, they were still belatedly aware of it, and when they finally realized it, BenQ LCD had already made a leap—in both the future and the reality, BenQ had begun to surpass preparation.

The domestic LCD market started in 1999. At the beginning of 1999, Samsung, Philips, ViewSonic and LG had a certain influence in the mainland market. At that time, LCD also dominated the market with 10:1 as the main product series. The price of 13-inch was generally around 4,000 yuan, and the price of 14-inch It is around 5,000 yuan.As a hardware product, liquid crystal displays are subject to huge price constraints - the overall cost of other hardware for consumers to configure a computer is almost equal to the cost of buying a liquid crystal display, and the market prospect has always been bleak.

Although there were already media predictions at that time, in the field of displays, liquid crystals would inevitably replace CRTs.But even LCD makers themselves are apprehensive about the prospect, and few think it will become a reality anytime soon. The liquid crystal that pursues environmental protection, energy saving and health has obvious defects, such as color saturation, response time, multi-angle visual defects, image smearing, etc., which discourage consumers, and the price is the primary limiting factor. In 2001, the "Economic Observer" quoted Shaohai Market Research Company's fixed-point research materials on LCD monitors in Shanghai. The results showed that the prices of 15-inch LCD monitors of well-known brands recognized by consumers were mainly concentrated at around 3,000 yuan, and it was generally believed that the price too high.

Different from China's IT history as a latecomer who robbed the already divided market many times, this time BenQ is facing a market that is far from being developed, but competitors have not yet found the key.Also at the end of 1999, BenQ officially entered the LCD field and began to compete in this field with South Korea's Samsung, LG and other brand products that had already made their mark. "At the beginning of 2000, LCD was still positioned as an aristocratic product. Many consumers didn't know what LCD was or what a LCD monitor was, because everyone knew that a monitor was a CRT." For this market, BenQ (formerly ACER) ) LCD product manager Tian Zhiying recalled.

Things started to change in 2001. July 7 became a memorable day in the history of the development of LCD in China.On this day, Lenovo, a leading domestic PC manufacturer, launched China's first LCD computer concept, a Pentium 3 CPU processor, plus a 14-inch LCD monitor, priced at 9999 yuan, the high growth rate of LCD products At the same time, driven by Lenovo, the LCD market in mainland China began to blaze wildly, and many manufacturers who later became leaders in the LCD industry have invested in the field of LCD displays. "We at BenQ probably did the first wave of activities in July 2001. The activities at that time were mainly price competition, which brought the price of our 13-inch LCD to less than 4,000 yuan. Pulled the price of our 14-inch LCD. It was within 5,000 yuan. Then the concept was developed that DIY with LCD can also be within 10,000 yuan." said Zhu Jun, a senior manager of BenQ who participated in the promotion of LCD.

Although driven by manufacturers such as Lenovo and BenQ, the market has been stirred up, but this kind of movement is more of a short-term effect of "being the first to eat crabs". Incredibly high prices.Although the media everywhere declared that a liquid crystal era is coming, but the reverse of the market is unremarkable.In 2001, when the industry believed that the LCD market was officially launched, Lenovo Mainland China, which was most likely to achieve a breakthrough, finally achieved an annual sales volume of more than 100,000 LCDs, but it was far from the expected sales of 600,000. A slap in the face of the manufacturer.

Like its competitors, BenQ, which first achieved mass production in the domestic LCD field, had to continue looking for direction in a sleeping market after an accidental frenzy. The inability of LCD to grow is largely due to its high price and low quality, especially its own defects. For a long time before 2001, the biggest selling point of LCD monitors was radiation protection, and manufacturers also focused on health factors such as eye protection as the main point of communication. Not only are panel manufacturers not making progress, but LCD manufacturers are also avoiding it. Unlike ordinary LCD manufacturers, BenQ’s promotion of LCD has the advantage of integrating the industrial chain. As a member of the same group, AUO has always been among the top five panel manufacturers in the world, and panels are the core components of LCD components. accounted for more than 80% of the total cost.

When Zeng Wenqi talked about LCD, he liked to repeat the importance of AUO. In fact, it was the existence of AUO that made Zeng Wenqi out of the quagmire common to many LCD manufacturers in the second half of 2001 and found the start-up company. The fulcrum of the market. "This is an era of revolution, not an era of progress." When talking about the LCD market in 2005, Zeng Wenqi said.Zeng Wenqi's so-called revolution is response time. The response time of the liquid crystal display is the speed at which each pixel of the liquid crystal display responds to the input signal, that is, the time required for the pixel to turn from dark to bright or from bright to dark. The feeling of trailing shadows.In a CRT display, the electron beam hits the phosphor to emit light immediately, and the residual glow time is extremely short. Therefore, the response time of the traditional CRT display is only 1~3ms. The liquid crystal display uses the twisting of liquid crystal molecules to control the light on and off. The twisting of liquid crystal molecules requires a process, so the response time of LCD displays is significantly longer than that of CRTs.This is also where the LCD will form a smear, which is the most troublesome place for users.

Focusing on the product itself is the starting point for BenQ when analyzing the LCD market.Tian Zhiying, a senior manager of BenQ, recalled that the response time of the main LCD monitors on the market at that time was 30 milliseconds and 25 milliseconds.From a technical point of view, the response time of the LCD monitor is 30 milliseconds, which can basically meet the needs of DVD playback, and the response time of 25 milliseconds will cause smearing in the process of playing some intense games.All brand owners do not focus on the improved response time of the LCD itself. "Response time is an epoch-making parameter in the field of liquid crystal displays. The premise is to start from the human point of view and from the product itself." Regarding the original choice, Zhu Jun said, "From a health point of view, how to get the radiation dose? Reduction is the key to CTR, but liquid crystals do not have it at all. After AUO and we paid attention to this parameter, our products are close to CRT in terms of response time."

30 milliseconds = 1/0.030 = display 33 frames per second 25 milliseconds = 1/0.025 = display 40 frames per second 16 milliseconds = 1/0.016 = 63 frames per second After communicating with AUO many times about LCD response time, BenQ began to reduce the response time of LCD as a selling point of its LCD monitors. AUO's excellent technical capabilities ensured the release of the 16ms concept. In October 2001, BenQ officially promoted a new product with a response time of 16 milliseconds, and claimed that 16 milliseconds of liquid crystal could reach the level acceptable to the naked eye of the human body. It already had the technical foundation to replace CRT, and problems such as smearing could be basically solved.

The media, which has not found any excitement throughout the year, is obviously more interested in this new industry selling point than consumers.At the beginning, when mentioning LCD monitors, the response time must be mentioned. At this time, the market began to form two camps. One side was BenQ, which claimed that response time would change the fate of LCD monitors, and the other side was BenQ. Unmoved brand owners including Samsung, Patriot, LG, Philips, etc.Beginning in October 2001, Samsung and LG said through the media that response time is not the core technical issue of LCD displays, and consumers care about size, brand and health. In November of the same year, Patriot began to promote his "No "bright spot" liquid crystal, and think that "the seemingly inconspicuous little bright spot on the LCD panel is an important factor for the quality of the liquid crystal, and whether there is a bright spot or not has therefore become an important watershed to distinguish the quality of the liquid crystal display."At the same time, Taiwan's TPV also launched its non-bright spot LCD in China. "I remember when I first started working on this response time, I found that all competitors deliberately boycotted your selling point because they didn't have it at the time. At that time, they would promote other things, such as power saving, health or other selling points, etc. Wait, or just say that your selling point is not good, so when we were doing publicity, even our own sales staff would have doubts, is this thing useful?" Zhu Jun said. BenQ, which proposed a new product standard, has fallen into new difficulties. How can it be recognized by the market?How to make this new technology that can effectively solve the problem of liquid crystal display smear accepted by peers, and then jointly expand the LCD market that has not been opened? BenQ, which has a 16ms advantage, needs a fulcrum to start the market. BenQ saw the problem—if it didn't open up the market with a unique product and get more brands into the standards war, the explosive growth of the LCD market would be delayed. "If you talk about your selling point very bluntly, it doesn't make much sense to consumers. Consumers don't understand what response time is, and you can't spend a lot of time educating them, so we needed to combine 16 milliseconds response time at that time. Launch products with the significance of the times." Zhu Jun said. Soon, BenQ launched a cross-age product FP581 that is still being mentioned constantly. "FP581 was first made by AUO and BenQ." Zhu Jun described, "FP581 looks very slender and beautiful. Its appearance looks more like a handicraft than an IT product." FP581 is considered in the industry as the world's first LCD computer with a response time of 16 milliseconds for large-scale market promotion. In addition to the selling point of 16 milliseconds, FP581 adopts an ultra-thin body design with a thickness of only 3cm, which is only ordinary Half the thickness of a liquid crystal display; in terms of product function and technology, FP581 adopts BenQ's unique "Smart Integration" technology, which can integrate the parts in the display to reduce the weight and volume of the product; at the same time, it adopts Auto Phase technology, which makes It can process the signal immediately when the monitor is connected to the computer, so that the picture can be stabilized quickly; its "iKey" technology can help users automatically adjust various basic settings. FP581 has become the heavy blow of BenQ LCD to the market. "The selling point of response time is combined with this product. The series of advertisements we played at the time was called too vanity, one was about lips, and the whole picture was a red lip and a blue lip, very close together , the bottom is our product, we want to reflect two points, the first is that she is ultra-thin, like sexy lips, and the second point of expression is that she is super fast, with a response time of 16 milliseconds." Jun Zhu said to the The first ad for the FP581 was impressive. In the second advertisement of FP581, BenQ uses FP581 as a mirror, and a beautiful woman wipes her lipstick on 581, fully embodying the concept of vanity. At the beginning of 2002, BenQ also specially launched the 581 Lianzi Mania suit after launching the new BenQ VI. It matched the FP581 with a wireless electric mouse suit, and then changed the appearance of the whole set into lavender purple. 1,000 sets were sold in a limited number nationwide. Once FP581 was launched, it became a hot spot in the market. Whether it is a competitor, a channel provider or a consumer, it is from this LCD monitor that they learned about BenQ LCD and the industry standard of 16 milliseconds. After a large number of advertisements and terminals landed, BenQ’s FP581 became the most dazzling product in the LCD market at that time. When Samsung and ViewSonic were still looking for parameters and talking about prices, the response time of BenQ’s FP581 became the most mentioned terminal. noun.In terms of sales, FP581 grew rapidly and soon became the sales champion of the same model. Not only that, but also from the beginning of this product, sellers in Computer City, some consumers and dealers, all began to explain that the basic product looks beautiful.By the end of 2002, BenQ launched the 591 again on the basis of the 581. BenQ people called 591 "too ostentatious", and 591 has reached a new height in terms of technology. "First of all, it achieved an ultra-brightness of 500 lumens, which was the highest standard in the industry at the time. It also had the fastest response time, highest contrast, brightness, and viewing angle, all of which were the best." Zhu Jun said. The 591 that is too ostentatious is considered to have three major features, one is the ostentatious appearance, the second ostentation refers to its visual ostentation, super high brightness, color contrast, saturation, etc., the display of the image will be very good, the third The first thing to show off is the auditory show off. The speakers are directly built into the monitor. This is also the first product in the industry to put 3D surround sound technology on the LCD monitor. 581 and 591 have completely subverted the market's understanding of response time and LCD appearance, and a series of CRT market fogs have also directly led to the promotion of LCD status. Confidence in CRT monitors was shaken. In August of the same year, LCD prices were unfrozen. BenQ not only raised the response time, but also lowered the price of mainstream LCD FP557 to 2999 yuan.After BenQ, a large number of domestic and foreign manufacturers followed suit and lowered the price of LCD monitors to less than 3,000 yuan. On September 19, Lenovo launched the ultra-fast LCD computer with standard configuration of P4 2.0 and 15-inch LCD at 7,999 yuan, setting off the second wave of popularization of LCD computers.Samsung then lowered the prices of a large number of mainstream products, triggering an avalanche of LCD prices. By November, the prices of some small brand LCDs had dropped to around 1900.The most critical price gap between LCD and CRT was shortened at once. When several products were overwhelmed, and BenQ jointly created the world's third largest TFT-LCD (thin film liquid crystal) panel manufacturer with a new concept of 16 millisecond industry. BenQ's affiliated company AU Optronics officially settled in September 2002 In Suzhou, a new space has been formed in terms of product manufacturing costs (AUO also provides LCD panels for some other IT brands).Zeng Wenqi, who set off a dispute over industry standards and ignited the second LCD price war, knew that whoever shortened the supply channels of raw materials for LCD production, who was the first to reduce the production cost of LCD displays, and who could master the core technology of panels would be the first to win. The first piece of cake that can be grabbed in the skyrocketing LCD market in the future.AUO settled in Suzhou, so that BenQ has enough upstream resources to prepare for the next market blowout. BenQ will not only obtain a lower overall panel cost, but also have a total of 7 types of products ranging from 15 inches to 20 inches. Different models of products have the strength to keep their prices in line with the international market. While prices were falling, new industry standards were formally formed in 2002. "From 2002 to 2003, 16 milliseconds gradually replaced the original 25 milliseconds and 30 milliseconds. Originally, Samsung and LG said that they would never follow 16 milliseconds. They said that 16 milliseconds was a useless parameter, but in fact, in 2002 The products they made were also changed to 16 milliseconds. They found that there was no way, so they changed to 16 milliseconds." Zhu Jun said, In December 2003, BenQ continued to lead the era of response time. With the support of AUO, BenQ officially released the first domestic 17-inch LCD monitor FP756 with a response speed of 12 milliseconds in Xi'an on the 11th of that month.Interestingly, at the same time, Samsung Display announced the launch of a 12ms full-process response time LCD, and claimed that its product was the world's first LCD product with a response time of 12ms.Samsung, which has been the industry leader for many years, finally began to focus on response time. When Samsung and BenQ continued to refresh the record of response time, LG also began to step into this field, and launched its first product with a response time of 12 milliseconds in April 2004, thus 12 milliseconds began to become the mainstream of the market. The fierceness of the response time battle in 2004 may become a climax in the LCD market. On August 27 of that year, ViewSonic announced that it was about to launch the world's first 8ms 17-inch LCD monitor.ViewSonic claims that this product completely solves the problem of smearing in LCD monitors with a breakthrough ultra-fast response time of 8 milliseconds, but after the press conference, it has never produced a finished product. As the originator, BenQ presented four 19- to 23-inch large-screen LCD monitors on September 8 at the "BenQ with Wide View" press conference. As the press conference drew to a close, BenQ unexpectedly showed The 8ms FP71E+ display sample has been approved, and this product has also become the world's first 8ms response time LCD display.In 2003, Samsung Electronics, which competed with BenQ for 12 milliseconds with a high profile, officially launched the 8 millisecond journey in November. It announced a 19-inch LCD 913N with a rapid response time of 8 milliseconds. The world's first LCD monitor with a response time of 8ms in the 19-inch series. 2005 is likely to be the year of the end of the LCD display response time competition. In March of this year, ViewSonic first launched the world’s first 4-millisecond LCD display. On May 31, BenQ Dentsu launched a 4-millisecond LCD tour across the country. Announced in Xi'an that it sold the world's first 4 millisecond LCD monitor.The launch of 4 millisecond products by the two companies can be described as mobilizing the crowd. Not only did they hold a press conference, they even used the very provocative word "terminator" in the promotional draft. After BenQ launched 4 milliseconds, ViewSonic upgraded its products to 3 milliseconds. On October 19th, BenQ officially announced that it has once again set a new record for the response time of LCD monitors, launching 19-inch FP93G X and 17-inch FP73G X, two LCD monitors with the world's fastest grayscale and a response time of 2 milliseconds.Shortly thereafter, ViewSonic also announced the official debut of the VX922, a gray scale 2 ms LCD "Zorro" machine. So far, the battle of response time starring BenQ has entered a new calm period. Some insiders pointed out that the response time has finally broken through the gray scale of 2ms and also broke through the limit of human vision. The so-called visual delay can no longer be detected by the naked eye. It is difficult and unnecessary to develop products with lower response times. It took BenQ less than 3 years to turn the response time that no one mentioned in the past into the most important criterion for judging the quality of LCD computers-the major professional media in the LCD market reviews at the end of each year. Call her one of the industry-changing standards. As expected by BenQ, with the continuous escalation of the response time competition, the LCD market began to grow explosively. According to the statistics of Display Search, since 2004, the year-on-year growth rate of global LCD display shipments has been between 20% and 20% for six consecutive quarters. By the second quarter of 2005, the penetration rate of liquid crystal displays in the display market had reached 66%. In a market that is starting up, this time, BenQ has defined the market as an industry pioneer, but the well-known BenQ is obviously more concerned about how many LCD monitors it can sell. The fascination of the LCD market lies not only in the millisecond battle, but also in its unique market environment—not only being restricted by upstream panel manufacturers, but it is very easy to cause price drops and price increases in the opposite direction in terms of market prices. At the end of 2002, global panel manufacturers raised prices, but BenQ took the lead in introducing the concept of response time under such a passive situation, and for the first time lowered the price of 14-inch products to below 3,000 yuan. At the beginning of 2004, with the overall rise of panel raw materials, many small LCD manufacturers were eliminated. It was in this market that BenQ went against the trend and launched its first civilian product 71G with market penetration. BenQ's long-term optimism on the LCD market is undoubtedly the motivation for making actions that are beyond the expectations of its opponents, and the launch of 71G is a symbolic event. "From the original FP581, our products have always paid attention to industrial design and industrial appearance. After 2004, we have several new products one after another. One is the metal man 71G. Before our products, such as too show off, too Vainglory, these products are mid-to-high-end products in our product line, and also the highest-end products in the industry, and they are products with high sales volume." Zhu Jun analyzed. BenQ's 581s completed their market positioning, while the 71G was a product to grab the market. "For 71G, we also have a lot of considerations. We use a consistent approach to promote a concept and directly hit a selling point. For example, it is 16 milliseconds, or 12 milliseconds. It is priced and then sold. But we found that this This product has several features." Zhu Jun said, "This product has a very strong metal texture, and it feels square and square, with sharp edges and corners; some specifications of this product, including its response time, Including his service life, including his Ren Zhen, although it is an entry-level product, it is relatively advanced among all entry-level products of all brands in the industry." Sensitive packaging of hardware products has always been BenQ's strong point. In view of the characteristics of 71G, BenQ people called him the metal man, and in the process of packaging, he endowed him with the following personality: * Octavia brain: 71G’s response time is 12 milliseconds, which is the best technology in 2004. 12 milliseconds, 12 milliseconds means that this metal man has a sharp mind; *Handsome appearance: 71G's appearance is tough and simple, which shows that he has a stern appearance, which fits the image of a handsome man; * Strong physique: Passed the test of 50,000 hours of service life, the average industry level is only 30,000 hours, which shows that this man is very strong in physique; * High education: The safety certification in the industry is all in TCL95 or TCL99, including TCL99 is still the main one now, and 91G passed TCL03 at that time. The high-standard safety certification makes it have a high education. *Flash connotation: 71G has a DVR interface, adopts BenQ's latest imaging technology, Shencai technology, so it has a flash connotation. 71G is the first product that BenQ has been widely recognized by the market and dealers after defining the market standard.Tian Zhiying, who has participated in the promotion since the FP581 era, believes that the metal man belongs to the entry-level model, which is relatively cheap and the most cost-effective model in the BenQ LCD system. In the market environment at that time, LCD was becoming a mass consumer product. The price gradually dropped. At that time, the price of BenQ's 71G 17-inch was around 2200 yuan, and the basic price of 15-inch was around 1900 yuan. This was already an acceptable price for consumers. For DIY, almost more than 80% would directly choose LCD monitors.BenQ must increase marketing efforts on entry-level products with the largest market capacity. At the end of 2004, BenQ held the year-end general meeting of dealers. Traders from all over the country gathered in Suzhou. The metal man made the dealers' eyes shine, and the five-sentence summary was recognized by the industry. "Consumers don't know what 12 milliseconds is, and it is difficult for dealers to memorize a product's technical selling points or specifications, but we use the 12 millisecond response time for perceptual marketing, and the communication cost of the entire channel will be greatly reduced. Low, everyone will understand immediately." Zhu Jun thought. 71G's high cost performance and perceptual packaging made some dealers start to vigorously promote it.A case in Guangzhou is also a good illustration of channel recognition in the promotion process of 71G.After obtaining the general distribution right in Guangzhou, this distributor of BenQ took the initiative to promote 71G in the regional market. "As an entry-level product, it is a product with a very large volume. To produce a product with a very large volume, it must be well-known in the channel." The dealer later said in a product exchange with BenQ that his The first wave of activities is to increase the popularity of the channel. The activity is called "Metal Man Gives Dollars" - all installers who sell this product in Guangzhou will get one dollar as long as they sell a Metal Man. In just a few days, the entire Guangzhou market knew that BenQ had released a new product called the Metal Man, and the sale of a Metal Man can also be paid in US dollars. In this way, it quickly separated from similar products. market acceptance. After giving away US dollars, the dealer launched the "Metal Man Gives Red Wine", this wave of activities is directly aimed at consumers - as long as you buy a metal man, you will get a bottle of Great Wall dry red wine.The agent of Great Wall, which jointly promoted the promotion, also sent four models of BenQ to be computer promoters, and provided a three-meter-high inflatable model with a slogan that metal men love to drink Great Wall dry red. It was held in Guangzhou Computer City in March. , The models promoting wine were wearing super shorts, holding red wine in one hand and a metal man in the other, promoting everywhere. After the event, just one model of 71G sold more than 1,000 units in a month. In April, BenQ cooperated with dealers to launch the "Metal Man Manchester United's Choice" campaign, presenting a Geely razor endorsed by Manchester United. One week after the event started, Metal Man has become the hottest LCD monitor on the market. There is a 465 units were sold in one day on Saturday.In Guangzhou, a single model basically monopolizes the entire market.Compared with products of the same model, the price of metal men is 5-10% higher, but the sales volume is far ahead in the market. "Successful positioning, and after giving them a good name, they will do a lot of work, and then our dealers, shop assistants, and all terminals will continue to roll around this theme, and they will be able to, in a short period of time, Let everyone be familiar with this model." Tian Zhiying said. In the process of 71G promotion, a series of price reduction activities became the main reason for the smoke in the LCD market in 2004. Just when the metal man was grabbing market share, LG Display launched a price reduction campaign called "Spring Thunder Action" in February 2004. LG's main LCD monitor L1510S fell from 2,799 yuan to 2,288 yuan, a drop of up to 20%.Meige, which started at the same time as BenQ, took a more surprising move, reducing its mainstream 15-inch LCD monitor AY565N from 2499 yuan to 1999 yuan, a drop of 500 yuan.Entering the summer vacation, MeiG launched the "17-inch LCD Famous Value Collection" action, taking the lead in reducing the price of the hot-selling 17-inch LCD monitor AY765 to below the psychological defense line of 3,000 yuan.After that, LG also reduced its 17-inch LCD L1710S from 3999 yuan to 3488 yuan in the summer "Hurricane Action", and Qili, ACER, Philips and other manufacturers also dropped to the same price.By September, Lenovo announced the launch of a 7,999 yuan home computer with the selling point of "P4+LCD", pushing the market attention of large-screen LCD to a climax.And a large number of small brand manufacturers began to clear their goods at the end of the year-the panel price rose again, which led to the break of the product chain of these manufacturers, and the situation of clearing out finally appeared. 2004 is considered to be a watershed year for LCDs. In terms of overall sales and market share, LCDs began to approach CRTs, and 15-inch LCDs with a response time of 12 milliseconds became the new market protagonist. In 2005, the price cuts in the LCD market remained the same. As the initiator of many price wars, BenQ began to consolidate its market position in this year. At the beginning of 2005, Philips adjusted the prices of all series of LCDs. BenQ then adjusted the prices of the mainstream 12ms LCD monitors, adjusting the prices of FP737S to 2199 yuan, FP71G to 2299 yuan, and FP537S to 1799 yuan. The lowest price among the matching products of major manufacturers. In June, in order to seize the summer market, BenQ once again launched a large-scale price cleansing operation, which greatly lowered the prices of its 15- to 17-inch LCD monitors, especially in the 17-inch field, FP737 (white) and FP737 ( Black) dropped by 500 yuan respectively, and its 12ms FP756 simply took a 10-meter high platform diving, jumping from 4799 yuan to 3999 yuan. In September, BenQ began to take the 19-inch market, and its FP91G was quoted at 2,999 yuan, which has a very high cost performance.There are only two types of 8ms 19-inch digital LCD that broke through the 3,000 yuan mark among first-line brands in that month, and FP91G+ is one of them. After October, the display market began to become deserted. BenQ adjusted the price of FP91G+ again from the original 2999 yuan to 2799 yuan. Then ViewSonic’s 19-inch VE910s took the lead in reducing the price by 119 yuan from 2999 yuan to 2880 yuan. In December, BenQ won the 2004IF award with its innovative design of the butterfly wing base, and adjusted the FP783 that appeared in the US "Business Weekly", and its price dropped to 2699 yuan. From the entry-level high-end machine F71 to snatch the low-end blowout market, to the strategic price reduction combination of 15-inch, 17-inch, and 19-inch in 2005, BenQ has attracted the attention of the industry in the LCD field. In the first half of 2005, the growth rate of LCD's domestic self-owned brand was 60%, while BenQ achieved a high growth rate of 300%.The pattern of domestic market share has also changed from Samsung’s dominance in 2004 to Samsung, Philips, and BenQ’s “three pillars”. The top three accounted for nearly half of the market, and the gap between BenQ and second place Philips was less than 0.8 percentage points. Spent 6 years, BenQ finally stood in the ranks of giants. Why is BenQ defining the industry? "When a new game rule comes out, it is a point, and it is formulated by a brand." Zeng Wenqi said about the battle of LCD milliseconds. BenQ defines this point as the response time. Within 2 years after BenQ launched the LCD with the concept of milliseconds, the domestic LCD market began to start, and other brands also began to follow up on a large scale.Whether it is 12 milliseconds, 8 milliseconds, grayscale 4 milliseconds, or 2 milliseconds, BenQ is the pioneer, and it also makes itself in the leading position forever, becoming a technology myth in the market. Success in the LCD market is also inseparable from BenQ's upstream and downstream integration capabilities.At present, the top five in the domestic market: Samsung, Philips, BenQ, ViewSonic, TPV, etc. all have their own LCD panel support organizations and form a close relationship with them. "Manufacturing has to go to research and invention, and research and invention has to go to brand. AUO has no brand and cannot promote it, but BenQ has it. The combination of these two brands is so wonderful. We can jointly formulate the rules of the game." Zeng Wenqi believes that as BenQ After BenQ launched its 16-millisecond 17-inch LCD, a subsidiary of the group, AUO's market capacity also began to increase rapidly, and quickly became the first in the market in this 17-inch product series.This kind of technical support from upstream companies is undoubtedly the guarantee that BenQ can start the battle of millisecond progress one after another. Abandoning the technical marketing methods of LCD products in the past, and choosing emotional marketing is another key for BenQ to define the market.The BenQ brand emphasizes the enjoyment of happy technology. From 581, BenQ’s LCD appeal is emotional. Later, 591, 791 and Metal Man, BenQ and other brands have different marketing strategies. It is said that in many computer cities , Consumers all remember too show off, too vain, metal man, butterfly machine, don't know the model.This shows the lasting and unique lethality of BenQ's perceptual marketing. In the case of BenQ, it is difficult for us to find a price war of slashing and killing, but in the field of LCD, BenQ is a price killer that everyone fears. The opponent can only follow up. The model system began to cut prices, which can be confirmed in the LCD market in 2005.Every price action of BenQ is fast and accurate, directly hitting the most popular product models in the market, and once the market recognizes it, it starts to make higher or more selling models. The direct result of this is that BenQ not only did not cut prices because of The reduction of profits, on the contrary, increased sales through price cuts and increased gross profits.BenQ's sales increased by 300% in 2005, and its price strategy undoubtedly played a decisive role. LCD is not only a market-oriented product for BenQ, but also a field that heralds future trends.The topic of BenQ LCD will go back to 2004. On May 13 of this year, at the most fashionable Shanghai Bund in China, BenQ held the "Bund 18 Meets Milan—BenQ's Two-yuan Compatible Life Aesthetics" "Display new product launch conference. As the protagonists of this press conference, BenQ's three stylish LCD models FP72V (nicknamed "Aibo"), concept model (nicknamed "Octopus") and FP785 (nicknamed "Milan"), all represented the BenQ brand in 2005 The iF Design Competition in Hannover, Germany.Prior to this, these three products belonging to the future have already been to Milan and Paris. In just over 2 months after stunning China in Shanghai, a 783 LCD from BenQ was listed on the International Edition of Business Weekly, with the title of the cover titled "Asia's Latest Design". This honor became the most imaginative one in the Chinese IT industry event. Where is the future of LCD? In 2004, BenQ showed all these for China, but behind the magnificent and gentle Shanghai night, it was the more intense battle of Chinese LCDs in the coming year. Will this be the start of another definitional battle for BenQ? Note: In the second series of "Cases", we published the article "BenQ: Selling Touch". In view of everyone's interest in BenQ's unique marketing methods, we republished this series about BenQ's marketing methods in this issue的文章，值得一提的是，这些都是蓝狮子财经书系即将出版的《BenQ：快乐营销》一书里的内容，请关注。