What is Xiaomi’s plan to implant the “Mary Sue” gene into the feverish spirit?
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At the Xiaomi 5X launch conference, Lei Jun made an exception and did not "waste" too many adjectives on the appearance and craftsmanship of this phone. Instead, he left enough time for Wu Yifan's freestyle and hip-hop rap. He even said that he also wanted to "be handsome" and shouted "Where are my fans?" Why did Xiaomi, which has always emphasized making "touching products" and technological innovation and technology-based businesses, have such a genetic mutation? This is probably related to Lei Jun's careful observation over the past year. Specifically, under the overall goal of shipment volume, Lei Jun has broken down Xiaomi into a multi-threaded task chain. The significance of shipment volume is not only to endorse the return to the mobile phone giant camp, but also to effectively contrast the success of the latecomer. In Lei Jun's words: "No mobile phone company in the world can reverse its sales after a decline, except Xiaomi!" Although this statement is actually problematic. Because Xiaomi is definitely not the only one. In 2012, Nokia's global shipments of smartphones were 35.1 million units, 29.16 million units in 2013, and 41.3 million units in 2014, which is also a typical reversal of growth. The astute Lei Jun just chose an impressive statement. In order to achieve the overall shipment target, Lei Jun realized that he had to get rid of the entanglement of Huawei Honor in the online sales channel and fight against OV offline as soon as possible. To do this, Xiaomi must complete at least three improvements. 1. Soft innovation. In the days when Xiaomi was not doing well, Lei Jun emphasized the original intention of technology, which was a necessary step to strengthen the foundation. However, starting from the launch of 5X and MIUI9, Xiaomi turned to appearance control while intending to follow Luo Yonghao's Hammer to strengthen the optimization of software, system and other user perception levels. At the press conference on July 26, Hong Feng, the head of MIUI9, spent one-third of the time introducing functions such as quick search, information assistant, global collection and portal. This is the reason. 2. Few female fans. Baidu Index shows that the gender ratio of Xiaomi mobile phone users is 70% male and 30% female. The difference is second only to Hammer and ranks second among domestic mobile phones. According to Toutiao's "2016 Mobile Terminal Replacement User Big Data Report", Xiaomi's users lost to OV are almost all entertainment-loving, and small city women aged 18-23 account for as high as 43%. 3. New hot products. Since Lei Jun has clearly targeted users, it is natural that Xiaomi 5X has changed from a fan base to a female fan base. Therefore, Lei Jun at the press conference not only emphasized the mainstream appearance, but also mentioned the configurations such as Snapdragon 625, 14nm process, 8-core 64-bit, 4G memory, and 64G flash memory. On the contrary, the camera function has been optimized carefully, from zoom dual-camera, large pixels, background gradient blur, simplified version of PS, and the processing of passers-by in the photo. However, as a strategic product of new retail, Xiaomi 5X has several important deviations in product tone. 1. Is the gene of new retail a fever or Mary Sue? Lei Jun has tried young and handsome guys before. Liu Haoran, one of the spokespersons of Redmi, is a high-quality academic tyrant type of fresh meat. He was admitted to the Central Academy of Drama with the first place in both professional and cultural subjects. His image is compatible with both Xiaomi's "born for fever" and Redmi's "national mobile phone", but Wu Yifan's situation is different. This is not to imply that Wu Yifan is sleeping with his fans, or some other ambiguous accusation, but Wu Yifan, as analyzed by big data, may not have the consumer tone that Xiaomi 5X hopes for. Toutiao previously published a report titled "Counting Wu Yifan" that interpreted this popular young star. From the perspective of fan orientation, Wu Yifan has two points that meet Xiaomi's needs to compete with its competitors: (1) The number of female fans is three times that of male fans, which is an overwhelming advantage; (2) The age group is concentrated between 18 and 30 years old, especially between 18 and 23 years old. Unfortunately, this is the only match between Wu Yifan and Xiaomi 5X. From the perspective of consumer preferences, Megan (the name of Wu Yifan's fans, meaning every you) is obviously different from Mi fans. (1) Megan’s favorite brands are mostly luxury brands, emphasizing the deep connection between personal aesthetics and consumption tastes, indicating that this is a young group of white, rich, beautiful women and Mary Sue. (2) From the perspective of city composition, Megan is mainly concentrated in first- and second-tier cities, namely Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Suzhou, etc., and is not a group of female users in small cities. From these two points of view, the positioning of Xiaomi 5X seems to be clearly different from the group that Lei Jun wants to reach or wants to separate from OV. 2. There is a mismatch in product positioning. Lei Jun has emphasized that Xiaomi 5X is a strategic product of new retail, targeting OV, which means that he should have done a rigorous demand survey, but this is not the case on the consumer side. (1) Price misalignment. The competing products selected for Xiaomi 5X at the launch conference were OPPO's R11 and VIVO's X9S, which was very surprising, because the R11 starting at 2,999 yuan and the X9S starting at 2,699 yuan look like opponents of Xiaomi 6 rather than Xiaomi 5X. This Tian Ji horse racing style of play exposed Lei Jun's ambition. He wanted to instill the concept of cost-effectiveness into the white, rich and beautiful group just as he instilled it into digital enthusiasts in the past, aiming to strengthen competitiveness across price ranges. Unfortunately, it is somewhat unrealistic. According to GFK's estimates, the average unit price (ASP) of Chinese mobile phones rose to RMB 1,868 last year and reached RMB 1,987 in the first quarter of this year. The ASP of mainstream models sold by OV is above RMB 2,500. The combination of mediocre configuration and reasonable price of Xiaomi 5X is essentially a counterattack mentality of the loser who is a spare tire for the rich and beautiful. The trend of domestic mobile phones towards high-end is due to the concentrated outbreak of high consumption demand that has been suppressed for many years, as well as the identity recognition and vanity effect. Consumers may not need others to teach them how to consume wisely. (2) Channel misalignment. Xiaomi currently has 149 stores. According to Lei Jun, it will open 1,000 stores in the next three years and achieve an annual turnover of about 70 billion. Judging from its floor efficiency strategy, it is mainly opened in first-, second- and third-tier cities. Taking Jiangsu, a province with a very developed economy in China, as an example, Xiaomi's official website shows that there are 7 Xiaomi stores. In addition to Nanjing, the others are second-tier cities such as Suzhou, Changzhou, Wuxi, and Xuzhou (according to the data of the China Index Academy, Xuzhou is a second-tier city). The remaining Kunshan is known to everyone as relying on the Shanghai market. According to normal logic, since Wu Yifan's fans are concentrated in first- and second-tier cities, Xiaomi 5X should be sold through Xiaomi stores, which is also in line with the positioning of Lei Jun's new retail strategy products. However, it is very strange that these high-end stores with business areas of hundreds of square meters sell mobile phones starting at 1,499 yuan to white, rich and beautiful women who like luxury goods. This will also bring about a strange phenomenon. The 200,000 OV stores concentrated in third-tier and lower cities sell products above 2,000 yuan, while Xiaomi stores in first- and second-tier cities focus on products around 1,500 yuan. Therefore, Xiaomi 5X is most likely to enter specialty stores to increase sales. Xiaomi stores in Jiangsu cover Yancheng and Suqian, but in cities of this level, OV is more experienced than Xiaomi. As soon as the Xiaomi 5X was unveiled, OPPO quickly launched the A77, which is known as the cheap version of the R11. The starting price of 2,199 yuan is still far from the Xiaomi 5X, which is deliberately high-spec and low-priced. 3. Using an immature product to attack an immature group. The Xiaomi 5X is still far from the strategic-level product described by Lei Jun. It is more suitable to be positioned as a trial and error product. To be a hit product with the ability to fight against OV, it must have at least three capabilities. (1) Eliminate the premium of OV. Lei Jun has always believed that OV has taken advantage of the information gap in the replacement wave of small cities, so he is committed to eliminating the premium space resulting from this gap, which is what people often call the so-called huge profits of low-spec and high-priced products. In the profit-seeking business era, no matter what, this is a respectable effort. (2) Find the right material image. Lei Jun realized that Xiaomi's new product needs a new material image at the fan level, but Xiaomi 5X is not successful. From Wu Yifan to product aesthetics, it has not touched the spiritual characteristics of white, rich and beautiful women. (3) Penetrate the scene. Lei Jun hoped to use MIUI9's software and system optimization to enhance the low-configuration Xiaomi 5X, which was originally good, but it was a misstep from the perspective of competing with OV. Because in today's smartphone world where innovation is lacking, detail optimization for specific usage scenarios is more suitable for male users, and women's focus has never been on interactive experience. The reason why Luo Yonghao's Hammer phone insists on doing so is also determined by the fact that 73% of its users are male. In any case, Xiaomi, which is keen on fighting Honor, has finally advanced to the territory of OV, but it will take some time to expect Xiaomi 5X to stage a reversal. 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. |
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