Sold out in 1 sec to break the trade monopoly of Japan: every detail of hot seller must be “weighty” | Behind the hot sellers
How do SMEs survive in a red ocean market, and sell like hot cakes?
Editor's note: CYzone and Koochang Institute of Entrepreneurship co-launched the column “Behind the Hot Sellers”
Before we discuss about how to make a hot seller, we should first get to know the real successful cases. iPhone is definitely one of the best. It competes with the entire mobile phone industry with just one brand, one system, and several models. Yet it has achieved, as it were, the biggest success in the mobile phone history.
That is because it achieves the ultimate in doing everything.
01. The failing companies are those who have not achieved the ultimate of their products.
While Apple redefined mobile phone. More than just meeting user expectations, it greatly exceeds them. So is Xiaomi. Mr. Lei once said, "What is good stuff? A good stuff is something that exceeds your psychological expectations.” By means of exceeding users' psychological expectations forcefully, Xiaomi’s mobile phones and many other products thereafter could always capture countless fans among young people.
At present, China is undergoing a third upgrade of consumption, or what we call the big consumption upgrade. Given this context, buyers’ consumption habits are also quietly changing, from the pursuit of material itself to the feelings brought about therein. In a nutshell, it is to pursue improved quality of life through material quality.
As it comes to Chunmi, the original idea that I and our startup team shared was to build a brand like Xiaomi in the kitchen appliance industry, to develop products that exceed user expectations, and to push smart upgrades to Chinese kitchens. And the idea just coincides with the concept of Xiaomi and its CEO Mr. Lei - To do the best, or just leave it.
The first product, Mijia IH Rice Cooker, was priced at 999 yuan. It was not cheap seemingly, but we were confident since we had broken the monopoly of Japanese high-end rice cookers in pressure control technology. From this perspective, the "Mijia IH Rice Cooker" had greatly exceeded the user expectations in terms of both product competitiveness and price. Our confidence was later verified by the impressive performance of sales, for Chunmi’s first product was sold like hot cakes in the kitchen appliance industry.
Making such a hot seller product, however, is certainly not so easy as building up the confidence. What's more, the hot selling did not stop. The follow-up IH rice cooker series was sold by 1 million sets. Our induction cooker, priced at 299 yuan, not cheap either, was however sold out in 1 sec as soon as it was put online for sale, a miracle indeed.
In this respect, as it were, Chunmi had made “weighty” efforts.
02. Operating a business is a matter of system engineering, and every detail must be “weighty”
Why should we use "weighty" to describe it? Can't it be something even heavier? In the kitchen appliance industry, Chunmi could not compete the giants in its early days of business. Despite the less strength, we still own our own "weighty power”. Adequate talent reserves, Internet thinking in pursuit of perfection, advanced technology in high-dimensional industries, and design-driven operation shall constitute our "weighty power”. This is also our advantage over traditional giants. With right people, right ideas, right technology, and right decisions, our less "weighty power" can somehow shake the big kitchen appliances market in China.
In actual application, we have achieved our “weighty” organizational structure, “weighty” product definition and “weighty” supply chain.
The "weighty" organizational structure should be constantly adjusted according to the company's business development. At first, we used a partner system, which soon encountered a bottleneck. So we made changes, sent the incompetent partners to learn and invited professionals in. 32 departments became 11 centers. Decisions are jointly made by different decision-making committees. After all, they are experts in their respective fields. At the same time, we give more opportunities to young people. That is also a kind of training for the company's future. However, the current organizational structure is definitely transitional, laying wires for business divisions in the future.
“Weighty” product definition I often comment in the company that making a product is like looking for a mate: what effects do you expect, from appearance to connotation, from dating to marriage? My answer comprises of four points: to value design, to ensure consistency, to guarantee inside equals outside, to remain stable and give pleasant surprise. That is, you must have the confidence to show it, ensure there are no flaws in close-up, make it externally attractive and also stand the test internally. But this is not enough. Good products must understand users. But user needs don’t necessarily result in buying of our products. We also need to make a difference and put technology in the right context to really create value and make a good product. Such should have laid a good foundation for hot selling.
“Weighty" supply chain I would like to stress that Chunmi is an Internet company, and what we do is Internet appliances, which, other than traditional appliances, demands high on production capacity climbing, because the Internet alters from day to day, and the popularity of Internet products exist in the first few months only - if the production capacity fails to climb to the peak in the first month, the first batch users would be lost. That tests the supply-chain integration capabilities. So we have to screen factories. Our products are designed in accordance with 3C standards, so we must transform the factory, build the MES system and track product quality.
Now I will share some red ocean survival rules for SMEs: how to survive in the red ocean market, and how to sell like hot cakes?
Focusing on user needs, driving brand development with designs, maintaining Internet thinking, and constantly digging into the product - that should be the path to real consumption upgrades, and the way to bring different changes to the quality of life.
We believe what we do is meaningful and can change the pattern of the kitchen and improve consumers’ quality of life. In the future, there will be more challenges awaiting us ahead, but as long as our original intention remains unchanged, our originality spirit stands firm, and our belief to achieve the ultimate of products carries on, our success will be inevitable.
