Chapter 24 Chapter 1 Suning’s Marketing Innovations That Triggered Three Great Changes in the Industry

In the eyes of many people, Suning is a super carrier with thousands of stores. "Buy electrical appliances, go to Suning", this familiar slogan also makes many people simply understand Suning's marketing as selling electrical appliances.In fact, the sales of electrical appliances in terminal stores is only the tip of the iceberg of Suning's corporate marketing.If we simply regard Suning as a "company selling electrical appliances" and talk about Suning's marketing innovation, we only see the part of the storefront, so it is impossible to know the real Suning.Suning's marketing is just like the Western proverb: "Morethanmeettheeyes. (The truth is far more complicated than it looks.)"

Standing on the perspective of industry transformation, pursuing the concept of big marketing and strengthening the awareness of innovation are one of the forces behind the miracle of today's Suning chain.It can be said that Suning's 20-year marketing history reflects the evolution of the entire home appliance industry.Every major transformation and innovation of Suning changes an enterprise and affects the entire industry. The reason why Suning’s innovative marketing was able to trigger a huge change in the entire industry is mainly due to the following two points: First, the corporate strategic view of dual vision.Zhang Jindong often told Suning's marketing executives that it is necessary to lower the head to pull the cart and look up at the road. It depends on whether the long-term road is feasible and whether the road in front of you is solid.The commonality of excellent companies is to formulate corporate strategies with a dual vision. Through business intuition and conscious planning, they not only focus on short-term operations, but will not ignore and overdraw realistic living conditions for the very tempting goals of the future; they also focus on long-term operations. Future visions will not be ignored and abandoned for the sake of immediate interests.Every time Suning innovates, it not only has realistic considerations, but also takes into account long-term interests. It is based on the present and looks to the future.

Second, the corporate personality of the growth of compatibility.Suning's innovation pursues a harmonious upstream and downstream relationship, professional division of labor, common profit and common development.In the face of competition in the same industry, Suning has always believed that competition is eternal and opponents are relative.We must respect our opponents and cultivate them.Where there is a market, there are competitors, and we will be more vigilant and develop consciously if we have competitors. In the mid-1990s, with the development of China's economy, Chinese home appliance consumers began to hope for faster, closer to life, more favorable, and better services. Enterprises were obviously unable to meet these needs in terms of hardware or software; and the Chinese home appliance market gradually changed from undersupply to oversupply, and most manufacturers at that time were also unable to adapt.Therefore, both consumers and manufacturers are calling for breakthroughs in China's home electric current industry. It is against this background that Suning Appliances has boldly stood up, complied with market requirements, carried out changes in business formats, and took the lead in transforming into chain retail and establishing itself. retail terminal system.

In the industry, Suning is famous for its low-key, so low-key that people outside the industry often misunderstand.When home appliance chains swept China and people were looking back on the history of Chinese home appliance chains, many people, even some insiders, did not know the fact that Suning is not a follower of home appliance chains, but a pioneer; The pioneer and pioneer of the chain industry, not the imitator who started halfway and turned out. Suning is the witness of the entire home appliance industry in China.Suning believes that if one looks at its own growth history as a history of marketing development, it is itself a process of division of labor and collaboration between Chinese distributors and upstream manufacturing companies.During this process, the supply of home appliances in the Chinese market has changed from undersupply to oversupply, from large durable consumer goods to daily necessities, and from luxury goods to necessities.In the meantime, the relationship between manufacturers is constantly evolving according to market dynamics. The transition from a seller's market to a buyer's market involves twists and turns. Most of today's home appliance chain companies are not witnesses of this history. It is very difficult without personal participation. Get it.And it is this special transformation period that gave birth to the Chinese home appliance chain business.

It can be said that China's home appliance commercial enterprises entered a period of rapid growth at the end of the 20th century, and the strong driving force for their rapid growth came from the home appliance chain model.Chinese commercial enterprises with Suning as the leader summed up their own practices, drew on the experience of Japanese home appliance chain companies, combined with China's national conditions and industry development characteristics, and created a home appliance chain model with Chinese characteristics.After only 6 years of rapid development, China's home appliance chains have moved from the region to the whole country, showing strong vitality.It was after 2000 that many people became familiar with home appliance chains.After all, in the new century, there are home appliance chain stores all over the street and numerous promotional advertisements in the media, making it impossible not to pay attention to them.However, everything in the world has its origin, and nothing will fall from the sky inexplicably.The birth of any new thing must go through a painful breeding process.

Tracing back to the starting point of Suning's home appliance chain road, we have to turn the calendar to 1996. In 1996, the entire air conditioner market and even the home appliance market encountered a historic turning point. Prior to this, the supply of home appliances in the domestic market was in short supply, and home appliance manufacturers tried their best to introduce production lines from abroad to expand production capacity.Under the condition that the supply of home appliances is in short supply, the home appliance manufacturers enjoy high profits and operate extensively. They pay more attention to the production of home appliances and do not need to worry about the market. The production of home appliances is handed over to the wholesale link, and channel marketing will also come to fruition. That's it.The so-called sales of home appliance manufacturers are nothing more than balancing product supply in different regions and adjusting channel policies.Strictly speaking, this is still production-oriented supply under the planned economic system, rather than market-oriented marketing under conditions of full competition.

The "huge profits" of the home appliance industry have produced a siphon effect, and many companies have flocked in with the support of local governments. Home appliance brands "suddenly come like a spring breeze overnight, and thousands of pear trees bloom."Just take air conditioners as an example. In 1996, there were nearly 300 air conditioner manufacturers in 18 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions across the country. At that time, there were more than 100 air conditioner brands on the market.Faced with the temptation of high profits, many people joined the sales force, leading to an increase in commercial circulation.At the same time, some powerful wholesale companies began to enter different regions to build distribution networks.However, extremes lead to opposites, and things always go to the opposite irresistibly at the peak.The joint expansion from home appliance manufacturers to distributors has led to an era of oversupply of home appliances coming soon.

The market competition is becoming increasingly fierce, the living space is compressed, and the profits are diluted. The home appliance manufacturers can't sit still, and they start to pay attention to the market.At the beginning, the instinctive reaction of home appliance manufacturers was to devour their peers in the industry.As a result, home appliance manufacturers fought each other with needles.Limited to the marketing concept at that time, the methods of competition were simple and extensive, and the main means of market competition were advertising wars and price wars, and they were unstoppable.

In the high altitude, manufacturers have invested heavily in publicity through various media, advertising bombing, and increasing their brand awareness.As long as you open the newspaper, turn on the TV, and listen to the radio, people can always hear and see all kinds of gunpowder-flavored advertisements.With the intensification of the advertising war, as a unique historical phenomenon, the "King of Advertising Standards" came into being. On the ground, the fighting was even more bloody.The price war has caused major damage to manufacturers.Soon, the entire home appliance industry was plunged into a sea of ​​cannibalism, and the market balance that had been maintained for many years was suddenly broken.

The flames of war soon spread to downstream distributors.At that time, many home appliance brand owners successively initiated market channel model reforms, put forward the reform ideas and goals of "controlling terminals and realizing channel flattening", and "surgered" on agents one after another.They changed their previous practice, not only stopped supporting the home appliance wholesale sector, but took action to block the big players in order to gain control of the terminal market. In the late 1990s, "cutting big households" became a popular vocabulary in China's home appliance industry.

In this wave, Suning, as the "big crocodile" in the air-conditioning industry, bears the brunt of being the target of "cutting the vassal".The strategic allies who were helping each other before, suddenly, one party became a stumbling block to the other party's "channel flattening".Faced with the "blocking" of home appliance manufacturers, Suning CEO Zhang Jindong expressed his understanding from the perspective of business management: "Actually, this matter itself is not a question of who is right and who is wrong. This is an inevitable law of market development. As the market gradually Supply exceeds demand, what is the way out for manufacturers? It is to reduce the price of products, penetrate into more segmented markets, and further expand the market space. In this process, it is necessary to comprehensively reduce costs, including intermediate links such as channels, There must be some sorting out." Zhang Jindong believes that it is normal for manufacturers to have differences in business models and marketing methods, but the two parties cannot fundamentally confront each other because of this.From the perspective of game theory, due to information asymmetry, the relationship between competition and cooperation has evolved into a relationship of competition and opposition, and the outcome of the opposition is that both sides suffer.If there is information communication and mutual understanding in the competition and cooperation relationship, the competition and cooperation relationship will become a win-win relationship.In all competition and cooperation relationships, cooperation is always an overall optimal strategy. At that time, Zhang Jindong enlightened the aggrieved Suning people, saying: "The relationship between enterprises and enterprises is like the relationship between countries. There are no permanent friends or enemies, but only eternal interests. As long as there is a professional division of labor among manufacturers, There is a common basis of interests. When facing a major test, we should not complain or blame, but should be more rational, and we must be more aware that we must improve ourselves, and we must have the ability. We can only highlight ourselves and let others discover you again The existence value and utilization value. The fundamental way out is that our operation model must help upstream suppliers solve problems, and make suppliers feel that we are indeed valuable, and that we have core expertise that they cannot do.” As the old Western proverb goes, Rome wasn't built in a day.Microsoft started from the most basic operating system MS-DOS, transferred to applications, and then transferred to Windows, and achieved success step by step.Bill Gates said deeply: "The world doesn't care about your self-esteem, but requires you to achieve something before you feel good about yourself." Therefore, Suning chose to actively adjust its business model to adapt to the changes.On the one hand, Suning seized the opportunity of the melee in the air-conditioning industry and the continuous entry of new brands, and continued to develop new partners to maintain its traditional advantages in wholesale distribution business; on the other hand, it repositioned its overseas offices and focused on wholesale business Turn to focus on retail business, transform some offices into subsidiaries, open professional retail stores in places where conditions are ripe, and try to carry out chain operations, take the road of chain monopoly, and expand and strengthen retail business. In February 1996, Suning held a high-level meeting, and Zhang Jindong officially made a strategic transformation decision: return from the "wholesale focus" to the "retail focus" and try to carry out chain operations. In fact, this was a very painful decision for Suning.When this decision was made at that time, Suning's internal opposition was fierce. Facing the uncertain future, some people were afraid and some were worried.Because, the reality is that everyone feels the same: in the wholesale business, four or five people can complete hundreds of millions of business a year, but the road ahead is difficult and tortuous; Taiwan and Taiwan are sold, and hundreds of people are busy with sales of less than 100 million a year. This situation reminds us of such a story: the hunter shot one of the wolf's hind legs, and the wolf ran away lamely; Turning around, he decisively bit off his injured leg and fled quickly.Enterprises sometimes need to learn from the wolf's wisdom of "breaking the leg to protect the body", learn to give up, and break when it is broken, so as not to leave future troubles.For many enterprises, in the critical stage of growth, they cannot make reasonable trade-offs, and there will be endless troubles. Peter Drucker pointed out in "Management Challenges in the 21st Century" that when business managers doubt whether to give up or not, they must seriously ask themselves such a question: "If we have never done this With what we know today, will we do it?” If the answer is no, managers should continue to ask: “What should we do now?” Through this questioning, the conclusion of whether to give up or not can be finally drawn.He believes that when the previous advantages can still allow the company to have "a few years of good life", the company should choose to give up. In "Only the Paranoid Survive," former Intel chairman Andy Grove argues that strategic inflection points occur in all businesses as a direct result of specific forces affecting a particular business.When the previous strategy fails to work, a new strategy must be launched, and the enterprise will enter a new strategic high ground, which is the strategic inflection point.Giving up the memory business and focusing on the development of CPU chips, Intel keenly grasped the inflection point of its own strategy. In an emerging market, it staking its land and delineated its own market boundaries. Zhang Jindong is an entrepreneur with great foresight, strategic vision, superhuman courage and decisive decision-making.He clearly realized that the advantages brought by the home appliance wholesale business to Suning will be eroded bit by bit in the process of home appliance manufacturers "controlling terminals and flattening channels". pass.Change is imperative.For home appliance distribution companies, the retail terminal is the foothold and value of their own life in the future. On the one hand, "Falling flowers and flowing water spring to spring", Zhang Jindong does not miss past achievements and brilliance, and patiently persuades employees; The strong man broke his wrist and unswervingly adjusted the business structure.At that time, the annual sales of the wholesale department were more than 2 billion yuan. Under the strong compression, Suning withdrew resources from the wholesale department and concentrated on the retail business. Zhang Jindong looks at trade-offs this way: "It is difficult to give up past success, but you cannot achieve tomorrow's success without giving up. When you are in a dilemma in the market, victory depends on whether you can surpass your past success." On March 28, 1996, Yangzhou Suning Jiaojia Appliance Co., Ltd., Suning's first remote subsidiary, was established, and Suning's Yangzhou air-conditioning franchise store opened immediately, and Suning began to move towards chain operation. Perhaps the Suning people at that time did not realize that when they opened this store, they opened up a brand new era of Chinese home appliance chains.When the American Apollo 11 manned spacecraft landed on the moon, astronaut Armstrong said: "That's one small step for a man, but one giant leap for mankind." A small step, but for China's home appliance industry, it is an unprecedented big step. In May 1996, with a business area of ​​1,000 square meters, Nanjing Suning Dingjiaqiao Shopping Mall, the largest air-conditioning franchise mall in China at that time, was completed and opened. In 1997, in response to the abolition of the large household policy by manufacturers, Suning successively established more than 30 air-conditioning chain stores in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hefei, Hangzhou, Xuzhou, Changzhou, Wuxi, Zhenjiang and other regions. In 1998, after more than three years of hard work, Suning's strategic transformation achieved initial results. Suning won the title of China's largest air-conditioning dealer for the sixth consecutive time with a sales performance of 2.8 billion yuan. The "Suning" trademark became Jiangsu's first famous service trademark.At the same time, the Nanjing logistics service center with an investment of 30 million yuan and an area of ​​more than 30 mu was also put into use this year. "After Suning's transformation, suppliers welcomed this format very much." Suning people recalled.After three years of transformation and exploration, Suning has initially established a nationwide chain management system for home appliances.Many home appliance manufacturers invested huge resources to build their own networks, but the effect was not satisfactory, so they chose to continue their cooperation with Suning.The initial success of Suning's home appliance chain model has also given hope to more commercial distribution companies and embarked on the road of chain development. However, just as many commercial distribution companies imitated Suning to build a chain network, Suning once again made a strategic decision: from a single air-conditioning retail chain to a comprehensive home appliance chain operation. In 1999, in Xinjiekou, Nanjing, known as the "No. 1 business district in China", the Suning Appliance Building with an operating area of ​​nearly 10,000 square meters opened. Suning officially shifted from a single air-conditioning business to comprehensive electrical appliances. The opening of Suning Appliance Building, a large-scale comprehensive electrical appliance shopping mall, is another extremely important strategic turning point in the history of Suning’s development.Saying goodbye to a piece of history means writing a new chapter in history.Since then, under the guidance of the belief that "scale overwhelms everything, and speed determines destiny", Suning has started a rapid expansion of home appliance chains. Nowadays, people who are accustomed to chain operations may not take Suning's home appliance retail business seriously.However, in the era when the wholesale business was still prevalent, Suning, who made this choice, was "the first person to eat crabs".In the era when state-owned stores were still dominant, and at the very moment when manufacturers were blocked, Suning resolutely gave up its advantage in wholesale and tried a brand-new business model in the industry first. This is nothing less than a great change. Today's people may find it hard to imagine that Zhang Jindong's business motives for triggering a great change are so simple.He said: "Household appliance manufacturers and distributors are two links in the same industrial chain, and there are two kinds of resource division and cooperation between manufacturers. Manufacturers are good at technology and manufacturing, and merchants are good at marketing and distribution. Manufacturers and distributors should seek Cooperate to realize the integration of the superior resources of the two, and the two sides complement each other and bring out the best in each other. If you don't let me do wholesale, don't you want me to do retail?!" Zhang Jindong's innovative theory of manufacturer relationship, which seems to be in line with the mainstream international standards today, seemed trivial in the context of many Chinese home appliance manufacturers scrambling to build their own specialty store networks at that time. Although Zhang Jindong's advanced insights have not attracted the attention of the society, the home appliance chain model he started and its terminal network all over the country have allowed home appliance manufacturers to see Suning's professionalism and efficiency.As a result, home appliance manufacturers once again turned their attention to channel companies, and the two sides worked together for a common goal.As a matter of fact, home appliance manufacturers bypass commercial distribution companies and build their own channels, which completely violates the law of division of labor and cooperation in large-scale production and distribution in modern industrial society. The investment is huge, but the effect is minimal. In a prosperous scene, Suningshe specializes in wholesale and retail, abandons the secondary and tertiary markets that have been in business for many years, strengthens the construction of self-operated retail terminals, and embarks on the road of direct chain sales.Suning's choice is a historic breakthrough for China's home appliance industry.Incorporating it into a broader international perspective, it can be clearly seen that Suning's helpless move under the "cutting down of large households" by domestic home appliance manufacturers is actually in line with the trend of the times. In the 1980s and 1990s, in Western developed countries, some companies widely introduced the principle of socialized mass production and highly specialized division of labor into the field of commercial circulation, and unified management of many stores in different regions with a single capital, through large-scale procurement and large-scale sales. , to obtain scale advantages and share scale benefits, has gradually become the leading force in social and economic life.In the United States, Japan and Europe, the proportion of the chain industry in the total retail sales of commodities in the whole society has been rising continuously.Today, the development of chain stores has become a worldwide trend.The world's retail giants Wal-Mart and Carrefour overtook established manufacturers such as General Motors and Ford Motor with a history of one hundred years in a short period of time, which fully demonstrated the strong vitality and vigorous expansion of the chain business.The business transformation led by Suning has made up for the gap in China's home appliance industry. In the development of China's home appliance industry, if there is no corresponding distribution channel and sales ability, it will be difficult to make a leap forward.The home appliance chain retail model pioneered by Suning has another significance for China's home appliance industry. The need for large-scale production of manufacturing enterprises to quickly divert and sell products.The state advocates the transition from a planned economy to a market economy, and competition is a very important factor for the ultimate realization of a market economy. The home appliance chain enterprises represented by Suning compete for the right to speak in the market from the traditional department store format, in fact, they are removing market obstacles for home appliance manufacturers.No force can eliminate old formats so quickly.Traditional department stores are a very large platform, and they are committed to targeting specific consumer groups with a high profile; while chain home appliance companies, as category experts, attract mass consumer groups.It can be said that the introduction of professional retail chains has injected unprecedented vitality into the home appliance industry and together created an era of mass consumption of home appliances. The vigorous development of the home appliance retail chain industry has finally changed the market structure—the era of home appliance manufacturers unilaterally dominating the market is gone forever, and the era of manufacturers cooperating to promote economic growth and share the fruits of economic growth has arrived! Many companies focus on the 4Ps emphasized by traditional marketing theories, and excessive competition in the homogenized Red Sea.Suning has realized: "To do a good job in the market, we must first build up our back-office service capabilities." Only when the back-end services, logistics, and informatization are built well can Suning achieve a qualitative leap.At the same time of external expansion, Suning pays more attention to the improvement of the ability of the background support system, from the simple competition of scale and price to the collaborative competition of comprehensive competitiveness such as organization, personnel, procurement, service and information.Suning's three-dimensional collaborative competition emphasizes that competition can be carried out three-dimensionally at multiple points, and at the same time, each point is synergistic and complementary.On the basis of building internal back-office advantages, Suning externalizes its internal advantages, driving and improving the efficiency of the entire industrial chain with its own professionalism and high efficiency. Alfred Chandler, a business historian and one of the founders of strategic management, said: "The long-term leaders of every industrial revolution have succeeded by following the superior strategy." At this stage, it is particularly important how to establish an advantage strategy for continuous competition, differentiate competitors, differentiate competition, establish industry thresholds, and build corporate firewalls to prevent competitors from competing. If it is said that creating a new business model of home appliance retail chain, Suning has found a way for home appliance dealers to self-mutate, successfully avoided the blockade of upstream manufacturers, corrected the upstream overcorrection with the channel's functional positioning and value return, and laid a solid foundation for Suning. The interdependence between the upstream and downstream industrial chains, then, Suning has to solve two problems. First, how to satisfy stakeholders, especially how to make upstream home appliance manufacturers not only "rely on" Suning, but also "trust" Suning? Second, how to jump out of the homogeneous competition among peers and form your own genes and advantages so that competitors cannot copy them? "When we open a store, others follow suit, and even compete to open more stores; we do promotions at the terminal, and others do the same...Comparing speed, scale, and price wars, these traditional routines are easy to be learned or even ignored. To catch up," Zhang Jindong said, "We have to jump out, find the invisible strength of the opponent, and practice internal strength." In 2005, the development of China's home appliance chain business reached an astonishing peak: 280 Gome directly-operated stores were added, and the total number of stores reached 430.Suning, Yongle, and Dazhongnian added 180, 90, and 50 new stores respectively, and the total number of stores reached 280, 192, and 115 respectively.As home appliance chain stores are blooming everywhere, in order to attract consumers, home appliance chain companies use sales promotion as a weapon to go shopping crazily. China's home appliance chain industry soon entered the Warring States Period. Zhang Jindong understands that at the beginning, home appliance manufacturers engaged in vicious competition in order to expand the scale, which quickly diluted the profits of the entire industry and fell into a quagmire from which it was difficult to get out.If Suning, like its competitors, only pursues the number of stores opened and blindly expands sales, it will only intensify vicious competition. In the long run, it will not only endanger its own development, but also drag down the upstream and downstream industrial chain of China's home appliances. "People see businesses as services themselves. People buy experiences, not products, and if they don't meet people's expectations of buying experiences, businesses pay a high price," says innovation researcher Ana Kira. Zhang Jindong is not a service marketing theorist with an academic background, but through his own business practice, he truly feels that "service is the only product of Suning", and to do a good job of this "only product", Suning must The strategic option can only be "practice internal skills, avoid impetuousness, strengthen the background, and seek development", continuously improve the satisfaction of consumers, home appliance manufacturers and other stakeholders, and ultimately benefit the market, consumers and the entire home appliance industry chain. Those who are good at chess seek power, and those who are not good at chess seek sons. It is better to seek one power than to seek ten sons.The national layout, opening a family of stores, is tantamount to seeking a piece in a game of chess.The confrontation between masters is often not on the chess board, but on the mental and temperamental confrontation hovering over it. Therefore, Suning is committed to strengthening the "power of the backstage" and creating an invisible aura.Under the background of domestic counterparts frantically staking land through capital operation mode, compared with the speed and scale of opening stores, and taking price as the main means of competition, Suning chose a differentiated competition path and gave up the extension-led expansion model to serve Chinese home appliances. The chain industry and the home appliance industry chain have injected new connotations.The competition model established by Suning is: to focus on connotative growth, supplemented by external expansion; based on background construction, to promote front-end expansion, to externalize internal advantages, and to drive and improve the efficiency of the entire industrial chain with its own professionalism and high efficiency , leading China's home appliance industry to intensive competition with self-disciplined business practices. "In the early stage of enterprise development, Suning has formed its own characteristics, that is, giving priority to the background, which has become a kind of mindset of ours." Zhang Jindong believes that industry competition is an eternal existence.In years of competition, Suning has summed up its own winning experience: constantly innovate platforms, and must compete dynamically with opponents on different platforms, rather than statically.According to what Zhang Jindong said: if someone fights you with bare hands, you must have a guy in your hand; if someone else has a stick and sword, you must have a gun. Maybe he is very good at martial arts, but you have already shot him before he approaches you. knocked him down.If your platform is not superior to your opponents, and you are not ahead of your opponents in terms of competition means, you will not be sure of winning. Manufacturing companies all emphasize that "we must have our own core technology."For many years, Zhang Jindong, who has dealt with manufacturing companies, insisted that commercial companies also "must have their own core technology." "Retail is not without technical barriers." Zhang Jindong is very confident about this.In his view, the "invisible background" such as sales system, logistics distribution, after-sales service, and talent reserve are Suning's core technologies, endowing the Suning brand with a profound heritage, and it is the source of strength for Suning to win in the era of scale after the home appliance chain. If the national chain has woven a huge network of stores, then Suning has woven four larger networks invisible to outsiders through the background construction-digital neural network, logistics distribution network, after-sales service network and talents. echelon network. Digital neural network: The practice of the retail industry shows that it is the information system that created the Wal-Mart multinational chain business empire.Supporting the myth of Wal-Mart's "everyday low price" is its largest database system in the world.When some home appliance chain companies were still weighing the pros and cons of informatization and hesitated, Suning took action; when they realized that informatization management was the general trend and followed up one after another, Suning's informatization platform had already been upgraded. Today, many home appliance chain enterprises in China still use the early ERP system originally developed in Suning.Today, Suning has completed multiple generations of information system updates.The gap is so large that no need to repeat it.The advanced informatization network not only improves Suning's management, marketing and service efficiency, but also optimizes the supply chain relationship - the high degree of informatization makes B2B seamless connection a reality.Through B2B docking, transparency and openness have reduced the degree of manufacturers' game, and the long-standing problem of poor supply chain fit has been solved.Unparalleled informatization has made the upstream home appliance manufacturers and competitors look at Suning with admiration. Logistics distribution network: Like informatization construction, professional logistics construction is the last thing many chain enterprises are willing to spend a lot of effort on.Self-built logistics is equivalent to doubling chain costs.Every time you enter a city to open a store, you need to build a logistics base. Such a huge investment in capital and management is not something every channel provider is willing or able to afford.Unlike other home appliance chain enterprises following the example of European and American retailers and outsourcing logistics to third parties, Suning is willing to invest huge sums of money to build its own logistics system.Self-built logistics may seem to develop slowly, but the benefits are immediate and have long-term effects. The value of a large in-house logistics network is obvious.First of all, due to the controllability of management, the reputation of Suning brand will not be damaged due to the logistics network of others.Secondly, Suning invested in self-built logistics system, correspondingly reducing the logistics pressure of upstream home appliance manufacturers, so they are more willing to choose to cooperate with Suning.Finally, Suning shares central warehouses with home appliance manufacturers, which enhances logistics and distribution capabilities, speeds up logistics and distribution, and better meets consumers' timely, fast and convenient shopping needs. After-sales service network: Suning has always believed that "how much service capability can we do so much sales business".Under the action of the impetuous mentality of "fast fish eat slow fish", many enterprises regard service as a slogan and a mere formality.However, due to the increasing openness of the market, the wider and faster information transmission, more and more alternative products, and the increasingly mature and rational consumers, they are more and more eager to obtain personalized, professional and customized services. Enterprises are required to upgrade their products and services, shift from product orientation and sales orientation to marketing orientation, create customer value, and build a new type of customer relationship. Suning believes that service resources are the most worthy of investment and have the most long-term value.The service network constructed by Suning is unrivaled in China like its chain network.Perhaps the service that consumers see is just a shopping query, but a telephone return visit, but for Suning, it means terminal sales and backstage operation system - Suning marketing center, chain store center, logistics distribution center, after-sales service center 1. A series of operation processes in which the customer service center quickly responds to market changes and more accurately meets consumer needs under the efficient and orderly interactive operation. Talent echelon network: Chain operation is a huge project, involving front-end management and back-end information system support, and requires the participation of professionals from all aspects.Compared with developed countries in the West, China's chain business, especially the home appliance chain, started relatively late and is facing a bottleneck of industrial talents.In order to speed up the development of itself and the chain industry, Suning launched a large-scale talent training model, which not only established a talent echelon for itself, but also trained a large number of professional blue-collar workers for outsourcing companies.The general improvement of the after-sales service level of China's home appliance industry is inseparable from Suning's professional and large-scale formal training.In particular, employees of outsourced enterprises have received professional training from Suning and mastered scientific standardized management experience, which has improved the standardization level of China's chain business as a whole. In Suning, we have seen that it is actually very simple to obtain the so-called "key advantage", which is to specialize in "troublesome things" that the industry's peers and upstream companies are unwilling to do.Through the four networks formed by sparing no efforts in the background construction, plus the front store network, Suning finally presents a set of three-dimensional competition system that is enviable and unattainable.With service as the center of value discovery and generation, and shared value as the ultimate goal, Suning has built two huge interactive networks of "visible" and "invisible". In the process of forming a business ecosystem, it has Own three-dimensional strategic advantage. "When you are just a bridge, you have to be prepared for the day when others cross the river and tear down the bridge; but when you are a road network that reaches all directions, others cannot leave you." Talking about the original intention of finding the core technology, Zhang Jindong once said so. The terminal "clearly repairs the plank road" and the background "secretly keeps the old warehouse". Suning has cultivated both internally and externally, becoming a veritable "builder", building an irreplaceable expressway network between suppliers and consumers, and making it a benign The operating business ecosystem promotes the common development and shared value of members in the system. 老子曰：“唯其不争，故天下莫能与之争。”苏宁率先从前端之争转战后台之争，开辟了与竞争者倚重资本强力推进前台扩张所截然不同的成长路径，在有效规避“规模不经济”风险的同时，将自己的竞争模式与中国家电连锁业的同质化竞争模式区隔开来。与此同时，伴随着市场充满了更多的不确定性，经营风险加大，以及资本本能的逐利行为，苏宁的内涵式扩张模式受到了推崇，发挥出标杆效应，引领中国家电连锁行业集体转向，由粗放式经营时代进入集约化经营时代。 三星（中国）投资有限公司大中华区总裁朴根熙这样评价苏宁引发的这场转型：“以苏宁为代表的中国家电连锁业，以全球最快的速度，对中国流通体系进行了革命性的变革，对流通的现代化和效率化作出了很大的贡献。其结果是，家电连锁业在中国的零售流通方面占据了很大的比重，占据了中国零售流通的领头地位。” 在独树标杆，成就行业第一之后，苏宁开始新一轮认真改写行业规则的行为。按照行业规律、按照自己的规划，着力提升自身服务供应商、服务消费者的能力，从品类研究切入，丰富商品经营，从店面销售突破，建立专家型销售队伍，最终提高全产业链的效率和竞争力。 市场如同一个神奇莫测的万花筒，在政治、经济和社会各种力量的作用下，异彩纷呈，而竞争、变化则是永恒的主题。 面对不同阶段的竞争，张近东不断地一再告诫员工，特别是高管：“当市场上有领先者的时候，胜利取决于能否超越同行；当自己是领先者的时候，胜利取决于你能否放下过往成功的包袱。” 2009年，苏宁登上中国商业连锁业第一的宝座。面对一个全新时代，苏宁要怎么做？ 营销大师菲利普·科特勒说：“市场比营销变得更快。因而，营销一定是在随时变化中，是一个动态过程，必须随着企业战略定位、产品生命周期、市场发育程度、消费者需求特性、区域市场差异、企业资源匹配、社会人文环境以及竞争状况的不同而变化。” 虽说苏宁长期以来相当低调，内敛含蓄而不张扬，外界对苏宁内部的商业运作不甚了解，但业内人士普遍认为，苏宁从小到大、从弱到强，有一种内在的成长动能，在不断积聚的势能中，以动态力量“不断从一个战略高地转向另一个战略高地”。事实上，张近东的大营销思想，从苏宁诞生之日起，就为它奠定了有别于竞争对手的基因。 2008年3月，在苏宁电器和清华大学联合主办的中国家电连锁行业趋势论坛暨苏宁电器发展策略研讨会上，张近东第一次在公开场合表露了苏宁的雄心—三年之内领跑中国家电连锁行业。苏宁正式公布了未来三年的四个发展方向。 其一，以效益为导向，致力于提高单位面积产出、人均销售产出、可比店面增长，避免“规模不经济”。 其二，挖掘顾客需求，满足顾客的服务体验需求，引导市场消费，提升苏宁的品牌价值，回归零售的本质工作。 其三，深化与其相关联的上游制造业、下游消费者和横向合作伙伴的关系，共享价值。 其四，对组织效率、系统管控、人才培养、文化凝聚等方面的发展瓶颈进行改进，弥补短板。 概括起来讲，未来三年苏宁的发展模式将遵循四大原则：“数量增加与质量提升平衡发展，前台扩张与后台建设协同进行，业务运营与资本经营理性互动，模式变革与组织优化同步开展。” 此次会议苏宁释放了一个信号，它要“回归零售的本质工作”和进行“模式变革”。2009年3月16日，苏宁连夜召开了一次高层会议，正式决定全面推进“营销大变革”。 从批发业务转向家电零售连锁业务，苏宁走上了做大规模之路；从店面扩张转向后台核心技术，苏宁走上了做强企业之路。那么，此次营销大变革，苏宁希望由此走上做久品牌之路。 此次营销大变革，表面上看是苏宁为了继续改善产业链上下游的生态关系，对自己的内部进行调整，而实际上它是一次颠覆性大变革。 随着竞争日益激烈，商业企业一味地以降低价格扩大规模，由扩大规模而增加扣点，从增加扣点来提高利润的商业模式走进了死胡同。因为生产企业为了满足自身利益和商业企业的要求，在供应链模式没有发生根本性变革的情况下，自然会在增加商家扣点的同时提高价格，提高厂家自身利润。结果，价格的提高带来客户的流失，最终丧失的是厂商赖以生存的市场空间。 营销转型变革的方向和关键点就是“实现市场导向，为客户服务，为客户的客户服务，建立自己的核心竞争能力”。在苏宁看来，核心竞争力与核心技术不完全是一回事。尽管在一段时期内已经拥有了领先的核心技术，但是苏宁还需找到自己的核心竞争力。 市场调研机构对中外家电连锁企业毛利水平的调研结果显示，以百思买和梅地亚为代表的欧美巨头的毛利率高达23%～25%，而国内连锁代表苏宁、国美的毛利率大约是17%。造成毛利率普遍较低的主要原因，就在于目前中国家电连锁企业的赢利模式仍以供应商的扣点和返点为主，缺乏自主采购定价权和销售定价权。苏宁营销变革的出发点在于，在赢利上摆脱过分依赖供应商返利的现状。一方面，各大厂家纷纷抱怨，苏宁一天天壮大，每年都要求增加0.5%～1%的毛利率；另一方面，苏宁也觉得无比委屈：房租上涨、人工费用上涨、规模扩大，毛利率提高也是理所当然。 按照国际惯例，上游供应商和渠道商应该分工明确，上游负责生产产品，营销环节则由渠道商负责，供应商和渠道商就是买卖关系，渠道商自主采购、自行定价、自行销售、自负盈亏，根本无须供应商的扣点、保证、毛利承诺。然而，在中国市场上，定价权和销售权都掌握在供应商的手里，产品的销售价格完全由供应商说了算。比如，苏宁连锁店里的销售人员，供应商派驻的人员占了一半以上。苏宁事实上只是提供了一个销售平台，无法向消费者争取利润，只好向供应商争取更高的扣点和返点。造成苏宁等商业企业今日被动局面的，其实是计划经济种下的因。由于中国幅员辽阔，不同的区域经济发展水平差距巨大，与此相对应的，是条块化的批发、零售流通体系，制造企业为了有效地管理市场，避免窜货，不得不控制产品的销售价格。 在条块化的流通体系下，传统的百货业态以国有商业企业为主导，热衷于赚取返点折扣，不关心产品本身，不关心价格，不关心库存；顾客需求、产品价格和商品进销存，都成了供应商考虑的事情。目前中国绝大多数制造企业，都是从传统的百货时代走过来的，养成了从生产到营销都直接掌控的习惯。在惯性的驱使下，他们不放心、不甘心轻易放弃终端销售权。 而零售商业的本质，就是面向消费者，通过附加在产品本身的流通及其他服务，实现产品的价值增值，在商品买卖中赚取利润。这是当今世界连锁零售商获取利润的普遍方式，也是未来中国家电零售业的发展方向。 苏宁非常清楚，历史有其惯性，通过圆桌会议沟通、谈判，不可能一下子解决历史遗留问题。改变他人难，改变自身易。苏宁按照一贯的做法，把变革的重任放在自己的一步步改变中。 通过考察、研究欧美和日本的连锁企业，苏宁发现，国外连锁零售巨头之所以有较高的毛利水平，在于它们有自主销售能力。于是，苏宁设计的变革路径，是从单纯联营逐渐扩大自主经销的比例。 苏宁设计的自营模式有两个维度。其一是产品维度，在加强消费者研究的基础上，丰富自己的零售专业知识，在产品采购选型上形成自己的主见，不断扩大产品种类。通过销售数据库分析，预判市场需求，将相关的数据信息反馈给制造企业，双方协作，以买断、包销的方式生产和销售更多适销对路的产品；同时，针对市场个性化、定制化需求，提前制订商品采购计划，以定制、代工、贴牌等形式，形成差异化的经营路线。其二是销售维度，通过精品店、社区店、乡镇店进行品类经营，建立专业化的营销队伍，积累经验，提高零售终端的运营效率。 以既有的渠道、物流、服务优势为基础，从商品研究到顾客研究到采销互动，苏宁营销变革的战略路线图清晰明了。从长远看，苏宁倡导、践行的正是真正意义上的零售企业的价值回归，它必然导致全产业链专业分工的新型竞合模式出现。 不难看出，以全产业链新型竞合模式作用于市场，苏宁作为一个组织者、建设者，将在更高的层面、更广的范围构建一个商业生态系统，制造商、代理商、零售商和消费者构成一个完整的供需链，利益协同，价值共享，实现规模化的相容性增长。 苏宁倡导的营销变革，完全符合现代大生产、大流通的发展趋势。经济学家指出，如今的国际竞争已经不是单纯的企业之间的竞争，而是进入到了一个前所未有的产业链竞合时代。 市场变化是莫测的，在任何一个行业里，谁都无法逃脱大势所趋。任何看似偶发的事件，犹如蝴蝶效应，都会导致企业丧失竞争优势。只有整个产业链从博弈走向分工合作，实现资源配置的最优化，提高抗风险能力，才能实现整个产业的良性发展。未来企业与企业的竞争，不再只是某个环节的竞争，单个产业链环节上的优势并不足以形成企业的最终优势，各环节的协同效应，才真正是产业链相对于单个产业链条环节的优势之所在。 因此，正是产业链和建立在此基础上的整个价值链的综合竞争力，决定了企业的竞争力。苏宁认为，构建商业生态系统，打造产业价值链，共生共赢，是自己与合作伙伴基业长青的必由之路。 在苏宁人一次又一次的大大小小营销创新中，有没有一种东西贯穿始终？也就是说，在应万变的过程中，不变的根本是什么？其实，苏宁的营销思想归根到底来说有两个基本点：其一，服务好供应商，其二，服务好消费者。供应商和消费者是苏宁每次营销变革与创新的出发点和最终归宿。苏宁“将服务视为永恒的看家本领”，不仅强化服务态度，更要提升服务能力，这是苏宁不断完善自我、突破自我的原动力。 纵观中外企业发展，一个显而易见的事实是：那些卓越的企业领袖，都为其企业打上了自己鲜明的烙印，以个人独特的思想与品格影响着企业的营运，形成了不同企业独特的企业文化和核心价值。一个企业的长久生存，最重要的条件不是企业的资本、产品或管理技能，而是正确的企业价值观和营销战略。企业的命运如何最终由价值观决定，核心价值观决定企业发展方式，决定企业对社会的贡献大小。 今日的苏宁，固然离不开成千上万个苏宁人的共同努力，但是谈苏宁，无论如何绕不开其创始人张近东。张近东的超前意识、长远目光、务实谨慎、低调稳健、认真执著和社会责任感，对苏宁的影响是深远的。 在业界，苏宁似乎是不折不扣的稳健派。“零售业是一场没有终点的马拉松，来不得半点投机，要坚持每一步踏踏实实，需要时间和耐力。”谈及企业的发展，张近东认为：“苏宁不排斥并购，但一定要清楚，零售网络并购，一加一不一定等于二，更不一定大于二。并购之后一定要全面整合。靠吃兴奋剂比赛是没有用的，只有靠内功才能赢得最终的成果。我知道这个市场一定是我们赢，因为苏宁追求的是长远的东西，我认为这是一个价值观决定的问题。” 在张近东看来，中国改革开放之后的30年是民营企业发展千载难逢的机遇期。有些创业者缺乏持续激情，小富即安，急流勇退；有些创业者急于求成，热衷快富暴富、希望瞬间把企业做大，浮躁的心态决定了“其兴也勃其亡也忽”的悲剧。虽然市场变化莫测，新技术蓬勃兴起，并不意味着踏踏实实、一步一个脚印的执著精神就过时了。张近东不仅身体力行，也一再要求苏宁高管要静下心，以负责任的心态踏踏实实地做事业、做实业。 张近东认为，中国经济转型，就是需要中国人踏踏实实来做。苏宁创业之初，没有任何背景，没有多少资本，是一个原生型民营企业，从一个经营面积仅为200平方米的小店起步进入中国500强，迈步世界500强。他相信，更多的企业只要踏踏实实做事，也可以成功。 有一种观点认为，苏宁踏踏实实创业、循序渐进发展比较吃亏。对此，张近东说：“确实，从短期看，我们在很多方面有付出，有投入，一时看不到回报，比如信息、物流、乡镇店等平台，苏宁也不一定非要自己做。事实上，我们的很多业内同行都是交给第三方承担的。媒体认为那才是主流……但是，我们不会因为别人怎么做，就放弃自己的价值观。我觉得能够带动、带领苏宁真正成为标杆，让整个行业合作共赢，这才是我们要达到的目的，期间所吃的亏也是必须付出的代价。” 张近东说：“现在提倡和谐发展，企业尤其是大企业不应该片面追求利润最大化，而应该追求利润长远化，只有企业社会价值最大化，企业利益才能长远化。即便在商言商，也一定要讲共赢。 苏宁相信这样的原始真理：付出才有回报。苏宁不崇尚侥幸，不相信奇迹。苏宁正直本分、勤逸稳健的价值观体系，可以简单概括为：在贡献社会、服务别人的过程中成就自己；在成长自己、壮大自己的过程中提高服务别人的能力，提升自己的行业地位。一方面强调服务他人，一方面强调做实自我。 苏宁的营销创新之路，可以说是苏宁不断升级服务供应商和消费者的过程，也是苏宁寻找自立、建立自己核心竞争力的过程。 在创业发展早期，张近东就意识到服务的价值，明确以服务为企业核心竞争力，坚持“服务是苏宁的唯一产品”，建立自营服务。 和一般企业的营销不同，苏宁从空调经营起家，空调是一个半成品，三分质量七分安装，没有服务就没有营销。很多企业的营销靠两张王牌：一个是以广告轰炸树立品牌，另一个就是价格促销，终端推广。零售企业普遍在用，但是苏宁跟别人不一样，苏宁是把服务作为自身营销中一个非常重要的王牌，这是苏宁的一个核心特色。早期苏宁在南京的口碑就是由服务态度决定的，上门服务不喝用户一口水，不吃用户一口饭，不抽用户一根烟，不收用户一分钱，做完之后擦拭干净……这些细节上的付出，为苏宁赢得了尊敬和回报。 一直以来，苏宁与广大供应商精诚合作，为打造和谐的厂商关系而不懈努力。苏宁秉承“服务供应商、服务消费者”的经营理念，以家电业上下游的共同利益为出发点，旨在建立平等互利的厂商合作关系。凭借着良好的商业信誉和品牌知名度，苏宁得到了国内外家电巨头的大力支持。 苏宁走上家电连锁之路，某种程度上也可以说是被家电制造企业“逼上梁山”的，但是苏宁对此却表示由衷地理解。即使成了“连锁之王”，苏宁对待供应商也从来没有“变脸”，没有自我膨胀，店大欺客。为什么无论地位和待遇如何，苏宁始终把自己定位在一个服务者的角色呢？ 苏宁的解释是：在行业里面，我们经历了产品供不应求到供大于求、利润从高毛利到微利的时代。在市场发生巨大变化的过程中，对厂家来讲，就是更进一步的拓展市场，建立渠道，树立品牌。而苏宁扮演的角色就是代理、批发，帮助厂商进一步拓宽市场，广泛建立渠道，实际上是在提供中间服务。特定的历史、特定的经历、特定的感受，是很多零售商所没有的，这就使得苏宁与厂家的合作有着很深的历史渊源和纽带关系。 而在众所周知的厂家“砍大户”过程中，苏宁从过去帮助上游企业发展的功臣，骤然间变成被封杀的对象。从苏宁自身来讲，当然有心理不平衡的地方，但理性来看，苏宁又认为，这是市场选择的必然。无论是从事批发业务还是零售业务，苏宁认为，自己只是以不同的方式为上游制造企业服务，自己的身份和角色发生了转变，但服务的本质没有变。正是由于理性地看待双方的利益，苏宁与厂家的合作始终没有根本的分歧，殊途同归，共同服务消费者。 而就苏宁与厂家的关系、情感来说，更是源远流长。仅以张近东个人来说，他就是从营销出身的，特别是在创业初期，苏宁的采购、销售、服务资源的调度，他都亲历亲为。在与厂家长期合作的过程中，他与上游厂家的中高层管理人员建立了深厚的感情。有这样一个事例，过去空调厂家派驻南京区域的分公司、办事处人员，后来在公司内部的地位都非常高，一方面是在南京这一个空调集散地与苏宁合作容易出业绩，另一方面是，高层在竞争激烈的市场制高点与张近东打交道，更锻炼人。因此，在家电行业，许多在南京工作过的人员被公司总部提升为高层管理人员，反过来，又进一步加强了与苏宁的合作关系。作为整个家电行业的见证者，苏宁和上游厂家可以说是一路同甘共苦的战友。张近东和很多家电制造企业的创始人与高层都是多年的朋友。相同的经历、同样的市场感受和理解、英雄惺惺相惜的情感认同，确保双方在利益不一致的时候，都不会作出过于激烈的反应。 尽管同甘共苦、建立感情是双方合作的基础，但是在商言商，苏宁清楚，弱国无外交，吨位决定地位，企业的市场地位是由其实力决定的，“厂商之间的合作始终是门当户对的”。苏宁不惜暂时放慢发展速度，投入巨额资金自建物流基地，自建信息化系统和服务体系，自己培养“正规军”，苦练内功，不断升级自己的服务平台，就是为了提高自己内在的实力和能力，与不断升级的供应商需求和消费者需求相匹配。“从今后的发展趋势来讲，一定会有很多厂商要依赖我们这样的渠道。我们必须要有能力让他们依赖，一定要保障他们的生存和发展，让他们信赖我们的渠道，没有后顾之忧。” 相融共生，这正是产业链的实质。一个企业要发展，必须处理好与周边经营环境的关系，营造一个良好的商业生态环境，进而在一个动态的系统内释放价值，共享社会经济增长的成果。 苏宁，从依靠厂家到为厂家所依靠、依赖、信赖，以内生增长为企业发展的价值观，以动态营销作为企业创新的驱动力，始终将服务作为商业运营和商业实践的灵魂，最终成就为中国家电流通行业的标杆。