What if Hammer had priced the phone at 1999?

The biggest news in the mobile phone industry recently is probably the price cut of Hammer smartphones. Judging from the development of the whole incident, although it was triggered by a Weibo post, it should have been planned for a long time. Luo Yonghao also said in a media interview that "we will not lie. We will make price adjustments only because of the decline in shipments."

The timing of this price cut is quite sensitive. The 4G version of the Hammer phone has just been launched and has just gotten rid of the suspicion of "data fraud" and entered a normal development track. The price cut at this time is a big blow to Hammer, and it is inevitable that a large number of users who have purchased the phone will turn from fans to haters. The only way to put out the fire is to refund the users.

Having said that, the sharp drop of 1,000 yuan in the price of the Hammer phone showed Luo Yonghao's pricing mistake. Luo Yonghao also directly admitted his strategic mistake on Weibo: "It took us four months to solve the normal production capacity, and we have missed the golden sales period after the release of new digital products."

It is precisely because of this mistake that the original high-end mobile phones did not usher in a sales peak, but instead ushered in a price war for the new generation of flagship mobile phones.

During this period, models with the same configuration such as Xiaomi Mi 4 were released, but few products were priced higher than 1999 yuan. The price of 2999 yuan was not enough to supply, and when it could be supplied, it had to reduce the price. During this period, it was intermittently surrounded by various negatives. This is the current situation of Hammer. Out of stock is actually not new for domestic mobile phones. The marketing created around out of stock is the so-called "hunger marketing".

Think about it this way. If the price of the Hammer phone was set at its current level five months ago: 1,999 yuan for the 3G version and 2,480 yuan for the 4G version, and it was completely out of stock and not put on sale until today, what kind of situation would that be?

The following events all took place in a parallel world:

1. Five months ago, I discovered that a truly anticipated mobile phone was born: Xiaomi Mi 3 was still the main force at that time, and its appearance design was criticized. At that time, there was a short gap in the 2,000 yuan mobile phone market, and users waited hard. At that time, mobile phones of the same price did not have the "sentiment" label. Sorry, we have released it, we have a price, but we are out of stock, you have to be patient enough to wait.

2. With 1 million reservations in hand, Luo Yonghao had enough time to coordinate with the supply chain and deal with various production capacity and yield rate issues. According to Luo Yonghao, this time is more than four months. During this period, only a small number of product pictures and detail pictures were exposed, and occasionally "insiders" claimed to have used the real machine, and various revelations were mouth-watering. Sorry, you still have to wait.

3. Because of the long-term shortage, there will be no exposure of various scandals, no workmanship problems, no one will question "why the camera has no glass", no controversial video reviews, and no famous online fight. All Hammer has is users' full expectations for the "emotional phone".

4. Because it has a long time to optimize production capacity, Hammer has enough time to adjust its supply strategy and will not be questioned for "selling 3G phones in the 4G era". At the same time, Hammer also has enough time to further adjust and optimize the deeply customized system to improve the user experience. This improvement can only be obtained through third-party phones for the time being, because the Hammer phone still needs to wait.

5. At the same time, some competitive products may be launched, but they will not cause any harm to Hammer, which is still very competitive. Hammer has no supply, and without goods, there are no shortcomings, and if there are any, they will not be discovered. When the products are supplied on a large scale in 5 months, although some problems may be exposed, the concentrated exposure of information is large and the time is short, and they will soon be forgotten by everyone, and the Internet is forgetful, especially if Luo can provide good after-sales service. Relatively speaking, being exposed again and again like now is more fatal.

6. It doesn't matter if other people's mobile phones are on sale for 1999 yuan. The worst that can happen is a "rush to buy" versus "sentiment". What? You dare to laugh at our Hammer mobile phone for being out of stock? Fine, fine, if you have stock, don't make reservations for rush buying, and don't sell out in 0 seconds. In essence, everyone is out of stock, so who can laugh at who?

7. On October 27, the long-awaited Hammer smartphone was finally launched on the market. No reservations or purchase restrictions were imposed. The 4G version was priced at RMB 2,480 and the 3G version was priced at RMB 1,999. Netizens rushed to buy the smartphone, and scalpers once raised the price by more than RMB 1,000. The hot sales of the Hammer smartphone also attracted the full attention of the media, as they had not yet reviewed the product.

8. After the launch of the sentimental phone, Hammer immediately entered the "sentimental marketing" mode on Luo Yonghao's Weibo: If you have any opinions or dissatisfaction, come to Weibo to vent them. We will answer your questions and guarantee your satisfaction. Under the influence of sentiment, the "Liu Xiang" in the parallel world will no longer say anything about the Hammer phone in the review: on the one hand, Luo Yonghao has enough time to make everyone unable to find fault, and on the other hand, there may have been a huge group of "Hammer fans" who can't be provoked. Then, Hammer's signature book "My Sentiments" was simultaneously launched on the Internet and e-bookstores, and it was in great demand.

It seems that if you simply don't sell any of them, the Hammer phone will suddenly become more worth buying. In fact, the characteristics of electronic products are like this: the price that you can't afford at the time can be achieved after a few months, so the pricing and supply of mobile phones are also a big deal. After experiencing various scandals, the price of Hammer has fallen to the ground, and the subsequent situation can only be seen one step at a time.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.