The smartphone industry is changing so fast that many in it can’t keep up. However, it is particularly important for enterprises to adapt to market changes and adjust their business strategies. In May 2017, Meizu Technology adjusted the company’s organizational structure and divided the company into three business divisions: Meizu Business Division, Meizu Business Division and Flyme Business Division, confirming the rumors of meizu Meizu business division. In fact, there are many representatives of mobile phone brands operating independently from their parent brands, such as Huawei and Honor, Coolpad and Daishen…
Fierce market competition, Domestic mobile phone brands love “separation”
Retail sales of smartphones in China have reached 117 million units, according to data released by German research institute GFK on Monday. Retail smartphone sales in China are expected to reach 464 million units in 2017, up 4 percent year-on-year, while the market size is expected to grow 16 percent year-on-year (in DOLLAR terms). In addition, data from market research firm Strategy Analytics showed that in the second quarter of 2017, three of the top five global handset makers by shipments were domestic — Huawei, OPPO and Xiaomi.
According to the above two surveys, the sales volume of domestic smart phones is on the rise, and the reputation of domestic brands has been established in the international market, and China’s mobile phone brands are in a stage of rapid jump. Therefore, in order to seize a higher market share, huawei, Meizu and other mobile phone brands have created new mobile phone brands from their parent brands, with the intention of getting more trump cards and occupying more markets through separation.
Honor is the Internet mobile phone brand launched by Huawei. After being independent, honor 3C, Honor 3X and other products have been launched, and it has become the “rising star” in the mobile phone market. According to Xeno, Honor sold 35.131 million units in the first eight months of 2017, making it the top-selling Internet mobile phone in China. Huawei’s sub-brand, which many had initially discounted, has now carved out a niche of its own and become a significant presence in the smartphone market.
After huawei’s independent glory, Meizu will sell Meizu and Meizu Blue independently recently. According to meizu’s official website, Meizu has its own official website and will adopt a new domain name. In this adjustment, Li Nan, vice president of Meizu technology, said: Meizu blue positioning young good products, the brand has been independent operation, but the outside world has been regarded as meizu blue sub-brand. And after be evil spirit blue mobile phone completely independent come out, evil spirit blue will be more focused in product respect, better explain the definition of youth good taste.
To sum up, in the highly competitive market, after mobile phone brands become independent from their parent brands, they have not only played their own piece of the world, but also disappeared, and still struggling… But no matter what happens after independence, we still have a question: why do mobile brands love to split up?
Brand awareness is one of the factors that consumers consider when buying mobile phones, and brand influence has always been a factor that affects the market pattern of smart phones. After a series of independent operation of mobile phone brands, people can not help wondering: Huawei, Meizu and other brands are themselves a loud big brand, why do they want to set up a new mobile phone brand?
Magic blue: solve the problem of brand aging
In the past two years, the domestic smartphone market competition has been turbulent. Under the impact of new brands, meizu, Coolpad and other old-guard brands of Tough Weiji have appeared brand aging phenomenon. The so-called brand aging refers to the decline of brand popularity and reputation in the market competition, sales shrinkage, reduced market share and other decline phenomenon.
Last year, 12 of meizu’s 14 shows featured big names, making headlines but disappointing sales. Meizu sold only 22 million phones in 2016, missing its annual target of 25 million, according to survey data. This year, Meizu and Meizu set up business divisions respectively, which indicates that Meizu has also realized the aging situation of the brand and started to solve it.
As is known to all, it is very difficult for a big brand like Meizu to overturn the original market impression and achieve breakthrough and innovation. Therefore, the problem of brand aging is imminent, and it is equivalent to waiting for nothing to change at this time. Therefore, it becomes the best choice to create a new brand and realize its independent operation. On the one hand, meizu magic blue is the most potential brand consumption. Meizu’s years of supply chain resources and design experience can give Meizu more excellent design and quality, so as to win the market and reputation in the price range of 1000 yuan that young people can accept. On the other hand, Meizu wants to contend with OPPO, Vivo, it is much more difficult to change itself alone, and it is much easier to re-open by relying on magic spirit blue and reshape new magic spirit blue brand.
In this way, meizu is still dependent on meizu in terms of resources, and the earnings of Meizu can also return to meizu, feeding the mother. Of course, if Meizu wants to stand firm in the fierce market, it must have long-term technical accumulation and sufficient brand premium ability. Blindly immersing the two brands in the chaotic market for a long time, it is better to break out of the siege separately, and maybe open up a new sky in the fiercely competitive market.
Generally speaking, the independence of evil spirit blue broke the imprison of old brand. But at the same time, magic blue also needs a clear long-term strategy, and strive to improve the comprehensive strength in products, technology, service, marketing and other aspects, so that products are more competitive, so as to completely get rid of the shackles of the mother brand.
Glory: Fill the gap of Huawei’s Internet mobile phone brand
The domestic mobile phone market has undergone earth-shaking changes in the past few years, due to the rapid rise of new Internet brands such as Meizu and Xiaomi with local advantages, which has disrupted the original mobile phone market pattern. With the advent of more and more Internet-branded mobile phones, the competition in the mobile phone market is becoming increasingly fierce. The establishment of the Internet mobile fan ecosystem has also become the key to compete for market share.
In the era when artificial smart phones are priced at more than 3000 yuan, the price of Internet mobile phone brands is only 1000 yuan or even lower. Its higher cost performance, attracted many working-class consumers. For Huawei, the core competitiveness of other Internet phones is not terrible, but a large number of loyal fans behind it. Therefore, in order to successfully establish a mobile phone brand, Huawei must pay attention to the operation of fans, and the glorious independent operation is an important way to attract fans and establish the fan ecology.
In the early stage, huawei mobile phone fan forums were relatively quiet, with most of the content focusing on user feedback on product optimization, and the interaction between fans was not satisfactory. In addition, Huawei’s phone sales are mainly offline, while Honor’s sales are only through e-commerce. After independent operation, the online and offline after-sales service system becomes more and more mature, and consumers can enjoy more and more services.
In addition, the early Huawei lacked Internet thinking, let alone the concept of fans. Most of the people who have access to the Internet are young people, and the mobile phone consumer group has also changed from the post-80s to the post-90s who are familiar with the Internet. In order to attract a new generation of consumers, Honor follows young people’s ideas in the design, pricing, styles and sales of mobile phones. In quality control and innovation pursuit have been greatly improved.
In a word, brand appreciation, content realization and product premium are all ways for mobile phone manufacturers to explore. No matter which way they choose, they cannot do without the support of users.
Mobile phone brand “split” has joy, but also worries
After the Internet phone boom, coolpad, Huawei and other mobile phone manufacturers have launched new brands. Among them, some of the more and more popular after the separation, and individual mobile phone brands gradually lonely after the separation. Thus, mobile phone brand separation, there are joy and worry.
First, brand reputation influences each other. The bad development of the new brand will affect the reputation of the parent brand, and the reputation of the parent brand fails to improve, so it is difficult for the new brand to make a sound. Take Da Shen mobile phone for example, after coolpad was acquired by LeEco, it gradually disappeared from people’s view.
Second, it is a new challenge for traditional mobile phone manufacturers to operate their sub-brands independently. The independence of mobile brands means abandoning past brands and relaunching them. However, the re-shaping of brand image requires a lot of resources, time and energy, and it is not easy for consumers to re-understand these two brands. In addition, facing the current “chaotic” industry pattern of the domestic mobile phone market, the new brand must make breakthroughs in product, marketing, channel, supply chain and other aspects in the short term, so as not to be easily eliminated.
Third, the handset maker’s existing resources split in two, which could erode value. Independent brands need independent teams and thinking to operate, which will result in the diversion of original resources. The rapid growth of new brands will consume a lot of resources, which will drag down the overall operation progress, slow technological update and less innovation. In the case of limited resources, independent sub-brands may lead to the dispersion of resources. At this point, the separation of an independent brand is really not conducive to the development of the whole.
On the whole, in the smart phone market, traditional mobile phone brands will be eliminated if they do not change. In order to increase sales, mobile phone brands need to adjust their business strategies. The establishment of new mobile phone brand, the formation of mobile phone brand ecology, close the distance with fans, to improve sales, enhance the effect of brand effect, is one of their choices in the mobile phone market.
Liu Kuang, meditation on the Internet, wechat official account: Liukuang110