What are mobile phone fans crazy about?

Anyway, I think it is a very strange thing to be a fan of a mobile phone. Xiaomi has published a book called "Sense of Participation", which is very obscure and half of it is not very reliable - only Diaosi users need a sense of participation, and VIP users need a sense of existence. You can't imagine that a petty bourgeois with a little money, such as a user who spends thousands or tens of thousands of yuan playing mobile games every month, would forward and draw an F code for no reason. (Note: The F code is just a purchase qualification and has no actual value. In other words, you are qualified to spend money to buy our products, which is basically consumer discrimination.) This is why I have always said that the Xiaomi ecosystem cannot be built. It is difficult to expect a Redmi user to spend hundreds of dollars on playing games every month. If he has this money, he will buy a Mi 3. Similarly, a Mi 3 user will buy a Samsung or Apple if he has this money.

Generally speaking, fans are fans of scarcity. What they fan is basically what they lack. For example, fans of celebrities are fans who think they are not handsome or pretty enough, or their singing is not good enough or not eye-catching enough. For example, fans of sports are fans who have this hobby but cannot reach the top, so they follow people who are more professional. Fans of Weibo and WeChat are mostly opinion leaders, professionals, and industry leaders. You can learn a lot of knowledge and opinions from them. If you must extend it to hobbies, such as fans of motorcycles and watches, most of them are fans of a category, and they are mostly fans of collections. They are rarely fans of a single brand. Finally, taking a step back, a fan of a single product is also a fan of a high-end brand. For example, you are a fan of Harley motorcycles, but I have never heard of anyone being a fan of Qianjiang motorcycles. I have heard of fans of sports cars, but I have never heard of fans of Chery.

In other words, it is understandable that an ordinary mass consumer product has loyal consumers, but it is very strange to have fans. Some people use Head & Shoulders, have you heard of Head & Shoulders fans? Therefore, mobile phones that use fan marketing have no special features and are basically out of stock. Relying on out of stock to make up for the shortcoming of scarcity is like turning a mass consumer product into a collectible.

Although many people claim to be Apple fans, in fact, Apple is more of an enthusiast and user. No one has ever heard of an Apple mobile phone meeting in the same city. Although Apple has powerful functions and many things worth studying, no one has held an Apple function tasting meeting. Everyone is just buying like crazy. No one is so funny as to make a big banner and then find a venue for a group of people to hold a meeting, making it like an underground party. I have heard that Andy Lau's fans and Leon Lai's fans fought each other before, and I think it is understandable, but I can't understand it when fans of two mobile phones fight each other. It's just a 2,000 yuan thing, why is there so much trouble? You can buy one for only 4,000 yuan, is it worth it to spit on the Internet for this? Aren't time, energy, and emotions money? So, these are all superficial, and the deeper problem is still the concern of special groups of people.

If you watch American TV series, you often see alcoholics, where a group of people tell each other about their miserable experiences, sympathize with each other, encourage each other, and then strive to recover. This is probably the same principle. Manufacturers also use this principle. First, they give a spiritual sustenance, such as "enthusiasts" or "domestic boutiques", to cover up the fact that they are cheap products, and then organize this group of people together to comfort each other, saying that we buy cheap products not because we are poor, but because we have higher-level pursuits. We are a minority of "enthusiasts" in the crowd. You see, although our products are cheap, you can't buy them. Why? Because this product is good. Those who can buy it are all elites in the crowd, masters of the mobile phone industry. Then add a new comparison standard. Before, people were compared to compare whether they were doing well or not based on their job positions, income, cars, and houses. This is too rigid, so the standard of "run a score if you don't agree" appeared. Then you see that our mobile phones run better than your five or six thousand. The new standard is established, and the psychology has reached a level. Even though you are rich, your phone is expensive and its performance is not as good as mine, you are just a sucker. Then we can gather these smart people together and laugh at those suckers, which will make us happier. Even though you are rich, you are not as smart as us. Well, it's probably like this.

The emergence of Hammer fans also made me do some research. I found a very special phenomenon that more than half of the people with Hammer avatars use Xiaomi phones, and some claim that they are better than Apple. So this fan group has to be divided into two groups. One group is the upgrade group that has used Xiaomi for two years and has improved its living standards, and is looking for higher pursuits. The other group is the group that is a bit painful to buy Apple but can afford it, but there are too many Apples and they can't achieve the corresponding pretentious effect. The biggest shortcoming of Hammer fans at present is that there is no way to establish an objective basis for "running a score if you don't agree". They can only seek to establish a sense of superiority in the direction of shortage and good system, which Xiaomi has played badly. To be honest, it is very difficult. If it doesn't rely on Luo Yonghao's big account to repost, it will not be able to support it psychologically. The copywriting is basically the same. I have never seen such a good one. I really can't go back. People around me cast envious eyes, but it's a bit heavy. . . There is no hard standard for literary descriptions of feelings like this. Except for the price, there is a little psychological superiority to prove that they are richer, but there is no hard support. Compared with the positioning of "enthusiast", there are still great deficiencies and inadequacies. It can only prove that one's taste is special, but it cannot prove whether one is too good or too stupid.

In fact, a normal mobile phone user should use what he is used to. Vain consumers require products that are not necessarily easy to use, but must be expensive and well-known. This is why everyone is scrambling to buy Apple, and why in some small places, the best models are Gionee, which costs 7,000 or 8,000 yuan. Products that are very expensive but most people don’t know about, such as Rittal, are obviously not suitable for showing off at this level. A consumer with a relatively good financial situation will choose the best product within his or her affordability, and will not think that buying an Apple will make him or her superior. Xiaomi Director Sun Peng said, "To put it bluntly, if you want to rely on an expensive watch to show off and increase your own value, it is more cost-effective to buy a limited edition Swiss mechanical watch of 20,000 yuan than to spend more than 2,000 yuan on an Apple Watch." This clearly tells us that the price he tried hard to imagine is still far from the limited edition mechanical Swiss watch, and you can't buy a good one even with an entry price of 20,000 yuan.

In short, being a fan of a mobile phone brand is indeed a rather strange thing. It’s okay for everyone to have preferences, but don’t be a fan of different brands and argue about it to death. I have seen bosses who are not very rich driving Rolls-Royce cars, and I have also seen big bosses who like Passats. For consumer goods, it’s actually just a personal preference. If you must be a fan of something, it’s better to be a fan of something more expensive, otherwise you will feel very ashamed of your obsession today when you have money in the future. It’s just like watching Inter Milan and A Milan quarreling in the past, and then Real Madrid and Barcelona quarreling, which are still understandable, but when you say Henan and Guizhou quarreling, it will feel very strange.

In general, it will be more helpful to follow some outstanding people.

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.