Why Lenovo's mobile phone is failing? Arrogant, conservative, and out of touch

Lenovo Group CEO Yang Yuanqing's internal speech sent to the people across the country today criticizing Lenovo's mobile business for being too slow has gone viral.

The most explosive passage was, "This is no longer the PC era where you can win by relying on operations, channels and brand advantages. The competitiveness needed now is completely different. I told you several times last year that you need to wake up. I even said that you can't wake up even if you hit you with a hammer. You are too slow and are missing opportunities."

This sentence is so accurate. I was moved by it, so I want to say something, from the perspective of a media observer, about why Lenovo phones are no longer popular.

Before expressing my opinion, I must make a few points.

First, my company WeMedia has indirectly become a cooperative channel, and my media Bianews has also reported on Lenovo mobile phones. The interests and identity issues must be explained clearly, which is related to where you stand.

Second, what I said does not mean that I can do anything to make Lenovo mobile phones successful. So, in order to prevent the audience from shouting "u can u up, no can no bb" in advance, I will first exempt myself as a media person. The media is just an observer. Please leave me alone. It does not mean that WeMedia can solve the problem. The problems Lenovo mobile phones are currently facing may be problems faced by many similar companies.

In short, I declare that I am an observer in this article, and no other mobile phone manufacturers sponsor me, so I can stop the gossip. Okay, I started to criticize, why Lenovo mobile phones are not good enough.

1. Who is using Lenovo phones? My personal understanding is that whether a mobile phone product is good or not includes hardware and experience. I cannot talk about technical parameters and terminology, but in order to make my readers understand, I can give a ranking of mobile phones that I think are good products.

I am an Apple dog. Whether it is hardware, touch, or software services, the iPhone is top-notch. So Apple will undoubtedly be the number one in my mind.

I don't think other Android phones have high scores. I have used Samsung S4, and I am currently using vivoX5max and Xiaomi 4.

Samsung series can be rated negative. If I leave the S4 fully charged at home without using it, it will run out of power when I get home at night. It has countless crap apps built in that you can't uninstall, and it treats consumers as nothing. Since then, I have resolutely stopped using Samsung phones.

vivoX5max and Xiaomi 4, these two mobile phones are evenly matched. Each of them has modified its system, and the operation is getting closer and closer to iOS and is smoother.

My understanding of Lenovo phones is still stuck in the Four Leaf Clover era, and I seldom see people around me using Lenovo phones. Maybe people in our circle are not the target users of Lenovo phones?

All brands are conveyed through products. I can see friends around me using the products mentioned above, as well as OPPO, OnePlus, etc., but I rarely see Lenovo phones.

It seems that all Lenovo phones can only be described as Lenovo phones. I have no idea which one, what model, I can't remember.

2. Brand awareness is still stuck in the era of technology, industry and trade. After I shared Yang Yuanqing's email this morning, a friend asked whether Lenovo is a state-owned enterprise or a private enterprise. Haha, I said that no matter what kind of enterprise it is, as long as you don't think it is a mobile Internet company, it is a failure.

A. Failure to sustain social marketing. Lenovo actually did a lot of interesting communication in the PC era. In 2008, there were classic cases of Red Book Girl and Love Online, which beat other PC companies by at least 18 blocks and created a new situation of interactive marketing. Unfortunately, it failed to sustain in the mobile phone era, and the limelight was snatched away by other brands that understood social marketing better.

B. New external partners cannot enter, and they must outsource from a certain PR company. Times have changed, the communication environment has changed, Lenovo contributed at least 30% of the annual revenue of a certain company when it went public, and most other partners can only get subcontracts from the company.

The advantages of this are stability, reliability, and no mistakes. The disadvantages are aging, rigidity, and inability to reach the new generation. Of course, Lenovo Mobile is also good at Weibo marketing, and jokesters often make fun of a certain product, which is very good. But most of the orders are still placed by a certain company, and Lenovo's own marketing and public relations personnel are only responsible for paying.

Haha, everyone can take out money, right? . . . After all, if you have money, you can do whatever you want.

C. They cannot stand negative news and use advertisements to target the media for their own good news. Lenovo should be a big customer of many media. They are not allowed to show any negative news. If they do, they will stop advertising. In the end, the media will always show a good situation and be jubilant. However, they do not know that many negative news can actually reflect the problems. The consequence is that decision makers only see the good news for themselves, are anesthetized, and are self-satisfied. They are lying in the hotbed of a good country and are robbed of the limelight by Xiaomi, Meizu, vivo, and Honor.

You are such a big company, why are you afraid of negative things? Negative means there is a voice and a topic. You only advertise that Lenovo phones are amazing. Do you think consumers are stupid? You can fool them once, but can you fool them again next time?

The time when Xiaomi was at its most popular should be when there was the most negative news and quarrels. There were so many negative news, and the boss could see the fire and be on the front line. Well, I guess the boss of Lenovo mobile phones only saw all the positive news, and the fire was all in other people's trenches.

Use money to eliminate negativity, newspapers, magazines and the Internet are all prosperous, and you can no longer hear any voices from the outside world. This is using money to destroy yourself.

3. Executives are arrogant and have poor execution. This is a case study. They are all true stories. With the comparison, you will know which mobile phone manufacturer is better.

A. Last year, Beijing was hit by smog. The creative department suddenly came up with an idea and prepared to make an H5 to let netizens participate. It was called "Take a blue sky photo to kill Beijing people". I thought it was very interesting. Everyone has a desire to show off. Everyone likes to show off on the pain of others. This is the core of communication and can make users happy or unhappy. After the program was launched, a sales colleague reminded me that this could be sold. You can't use a mobile phone to take a photo of the blue sky. At this time, whoever takes a good photo of the blue sky, doesn't it mean that this mobile phone is awesome? Although it is not taken with this mobile phone, it is a leverage, which will make users feel that your brand has ideas and knows how to mobilize user emotions.

So I immediately expressed our creative marketing idea to the two mobile phone brands. The WeChat era is great. I communicated with the executives of the two companies directly on WeChat. One of them said we would consider it, but there was no news until a day passed. The other one said nothing and immediately formed a group and said it was interesting and everyone should do it.

So we worked with this company. One of them is called Lenovo Mobile and the other is called Huawei Honor.

People from all over the country uploaded photos of their local blue skies and white clouds to make Beijing people angry. The good times didn’t last long. The next day, Beijing was clear. If this game still made Beijing people angry, we couldn’t play it anymore. We immediately changed the theme to “Don’t show off, Beijing also has a blue sky.” So Beijing people started to show off again. . .

This is just a small case, but social marketing is actually fragmented marketing. Anyone who wants to grow big has to start from scratch.

B. Let's talk about the second case. In 2014, we hosted the self-media annual meeting. At that time, vivo was the general sponsor. We are a media platform, so of course we hope to set up a stage for more people to perform. Some manufacturers said, "You already have vivo, why are you looking for us?" But another company still expressed its willingness to participate, no matter who the sponsor is.

The media is only responsible for setting up the stage. How you perform and how you perform well is your own skill. But if you want to talk about exclusivity, this kind of thinking is wrong. The market is built together. Is it meaningful to be exclusive and hide in a corner?

I tried to contact that manufacturer several times, but the same executive finally asked me to forward the email to the secretary, saying that he would contact us. Until now, the secretary has not contacted us. Haha, how can there be such a clear boundary between Party A and Party B now, my friend... I can't figure out whether I am Party A or Party B.

Another manufacturer is Honor. Liu Jiangfeng, who has already left the position of Honor CEO, came to the venue in the afternoon and accepted the barrage of comments from the audience. Netizens’ words can sometimes be very direct, but this is actually an opportunity to reach out to users.

Now, among Chinese mobile phone manufacturers, apart from Xiaomi, vivo and Huawei series of mobile phones should be the brands that are widely mentioned by users. Why?

Not pretentious, down-to-earth, the boss appears in the trenches to listen to the gunfire. Turning grief into strength, taking advantage of the negative situation, is the plot reversal.

Are you ok? Do you Nike? Don't laugh at Lei Jun anymore, this is exactly the plot twist of being close to the people. Everyone likes a leader who enjoys the company of the people. If you keep pretending, you won't be able to see your toes.

I really like domestic mobile phone brands such as Xiaomi, vivo, Honor and OnePlus. They are playing with users and even flirting with users.

Now, don't distinguish between Party A and Party B, and don't distinguish between manufacturers and users. God's voice is getting bigger and bigger, and consumers are getting smarter. If you keep pretending, you will get yourself into trouble.

Conclusion:

I have said a lot of things, but I was inspired by Yang Yuanqing's hot email. I think the spread of this email is more than the revenue brought by Lenovo's mobile phone brand budget in a year. I have seen those ads, but I will not discuss them. It is precisely because I saw the internal conversation about this hot product that I think it is a bit interesting.

Why? He touched my emotions. I am just a user. Without emotional resonance and emotional communication, how can you let users pay for you?

Of course, in my heart, I believe that every generation has its own talents, and each will be the leader for three to five years. A company cannot be the first in the industry for a long time. You have to give the new king a chance. The genes of the company will determine its future development. However, Lenovo gave the new king too many chances...

Changing a coach is like changing a knife. I wish the new coach Chen Xudong good luck.

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.