Hammer cuts prices, is sentiment bankrupt?

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On the morning of October 27, the WeChat Moments were flooded with a piece of news, that is, the price of Hammer T1 was reduced by 1,000 yuan. This news is undoubtedly explosive. After all, Hammer, which is positioned as a mid-to-high-end smartphone with sentimental positioning, once drew a clear line between itself and domestic smartphones. This price reduction is still a bit surprising. Donglou believes that in addition to the insufficient production capacity mentioned by Luo Yonghao that missed the best sales time, there are three deeper reasons for the price reduction of Hammer smartphones:

1. In the price war of domestic mobile phones, Hammer mobile phones cannot be immune

First of all, in the current competition among domestic mobile phones, price war is still the main theme. In particular, Meizu's previous price cuts are a clear proof of the fierce price war. Speaking of feelings and style, Huang Zhang and Meizu, who he leads, are not lacking, but they still cannot resist the reality that domestic mobile phones are generally below 2,000 yuan and are forced to reduce the price to 1,799. They even started a war of words with Xiaomi, and the reason why the price of Xiaomi 4 is currently 1,999 has not been reduced is because there are other low-priced Xiaomi mobile phones for users to choose from. According to Lei Jun's Weibo on October 22, the shipment volume of Redmi Note will exceed 10 million units by the end of this month. This proves that the lower-priced Redmi has become a guarantee for Xiaomi's sales, and this has once again lowered the price competition bottom line of domestic mobile phones. The situation of vicious competition among domestic mobile phones at low prices is irreversible.

Therefore, in this context, despite Hammer's heavy advertising, such as the slogan: "It is so simple, elegant and easy to use that you can hardly believe it is a domestic mobile phone", Hammer intends to draw a clear line with domestic mobile phones and avoid low-end price competition, but the torrent of low-price competition from domestic mobile phones is already unstoppable, and Hammer phones are really hard to stay out of it.

2. Smartisan T1 has a bad reputation and faces a crisis of trust

On the other hand, the price of over 3,000 yuan makes it stand out among the current domestic mobile phones. This also means that when users buy it, their expectations for it will be much higher than other domestic mobile phones. Excessive user expectations are a heavy burden for Hammer phones to bear. When users actually get the phone, if it does not meet their expectations, it will inevitably bring bad reputation. Especially in the era of widespread social media, the fermentation and spread of negative word of mouth will be faster and faster than ever before.

Therefore, although Luo Yonghao worked hard to repost the microblogs full of praise for the Hammer phone on Weibo, it is really difficult for one person to restore the bad reputation of the Hammer phone product. Some of these bad reputations come from the backlash of real users, and there may also be some attacks from friendly companies. But it is undeniable that the reputation of the Hammer phone is not just the praises reposted by Luo Yonghao on Weibo. We can constantly see some negative comments about the Hammer phone from some channels, such as the fragile screen, the incorrect position of the camera, the rough workmanship of the phone, the edge of the hand, "the whole panel is crooked", "the logo on the back shell is bubbling", etc. Even the Tmall pre-sale incident during the 11th period brought some trust crisis to the Hammer phone. Although Tmall later admitted that it was its responsibility, the "emotional" halo of the Hammer phone has lost a lot of luster.

3. Luo overestimated his influence and encountered constant public relations crises

On the other hand, Luo Yonghao may have overestimated his media influence and adopted a confrontational or refuting attitude towards reports from major technology media. The most typical example was the verbal dispute with Wang Ziru at Youku. It seemed that he had "beaten Wang Ziru to a pulp", but it directly put himself on the opposite side of the media.

At the same time, Luo also overestimated his own public relations capabilities. He turned a blind eye to the negative media opinions that continued to ferment, and only responded through his Weibo and WeChat platforms instead of establishing direct communication channels with the media. This also caused the Hammer phone to miss many positive publicity opportunities.

In short, the price reduction of Hammer T1 is an inevitable choice of market feedback. Without major technological breakthroughs, relying solely on a process design similar to Apple, after consuming the feelings of loyal fans, it is inevitable to return to low-price competition with other domestic mobile phones. This is also the real reason why Luo Yonghao risked being slapped in the face and besieged to reduce the price. Feelings are priceless, but the market is priced. Between feelings and survival, Luo Yonghao made a wise move, but whether he can save the sales decline of Hammer phones remains to be seen.