For example, in early May, Xiaomi had just entered into a strategic alliance with Hong Kong's richest man, Li Ka-shing, who controlled the company through the '3 Group' and the British '3 companies' of the other party. The OPPO will also be officially launched in mid-June. The launch of a new flagship machine in Paris, France, officially began the European expansion plan. Huawei is also regarded the European market as a 'grain-producing region', and its independent brand glory is also about to enter the British market.
In fact, from the market data, domestic mobile phone manufacturers have gradually knocked on the door of the European market.
According to the latest data released by the research organization Canalys, the top three smartphone shipments in the European market in the first quarter of 2018 were Samsung, Apple and Huawei. Although the overall share of Samsung and Apple exceeded 55%, the share of domestic mobile phone brands is also During the upgrade, Huawei’s share rose from 10.9% in the first quarter of last year to 16.2% in the first quarter of this year, while Xiaomi climbed from 0.4% to 5.3%.
'Samsung and Apple have a very strong user base in Europe, especially in the more solid western European market, and the brand awareness that domestic manufacturers can't match. The competitive barriers established by them are still difficult to surpass in a short period of time. However, domestic manufacturers have become more aggressive. The product strategy and pricing strategy, supplemented by more generous subsidies for channel providers, are approaching the share of the head manufacturers. ' Research institute Canalys analyst Jia Mo told the First Financial reporter that Huawei and Xiaomi are currently domestic manufacturers in Europe. The main forces.
However, in terms of average price, there is still a certain gap between domestic mobile phones and international brands. In the data released by the above research institutions, taking the Western European market as an example, the average price of Apple in Western Europe is US$788, Samsung is US$435, and Huawei is 308. The dollar, millet is 179 US dollars.
'Pure low price competition no longer works'
Before the Europeans talked about the less standard Chinese 'Hello, welcome to cooperate', perhaps most of them had already used Huawei, Lenovo and other brands from China, and more precisely the 'custom products' from these brands. .
To some extent, doing ODM products for international brands or foreign operators seems to be the only channel for Chinese mobile phone manufacturers to enter the international market 89-nine years ago. Low prices and unbranding were once their labels.
'At the time Huawei was transitioning from an ODM to a brand, only Vodafone was willing to cooperate with us. All people were skeptical about Huawei, and it was very difficult to make a brand. They couldn't accompany you. ' Huawei consumer BG Yu Chengdong once in an interview Said the First Financial reporter.
In 2011, Yu Chengdong had just started to take charge of the terminal department and implemented the strategy of low-endization. By 2012, Huawei's 15 custom-built customers in Europe had 'rejected' it, leaving only Vodafone to be willing to do so. Trying to cooperate. This situation has caused Yu Chengdong to be controversial. Even within Huawei, people are skeptical about his radical approach. As far as rumor of his class is concerned, it will happen once every six months.
In fact, the essence of the controversy comes from how the brand-based zero-based Huawei mobile phone has opened up in the European market. It is unthinkable to others to voluntarily relinquish existing profits when there is no income yet. The reality also proves the market’s Difficult, when visiting the open market channel provider in the Czech market, Huawei local employees ate a 'closed door' and the only partner purchased 5,000 Huawei U8800 mobile phones. The inventory was digested in three years. The low price strategy is not in Europe. Effectively, therefore, starting in 2013, Huawei has changed its strategy and gradually introduced high-end products to the local market and cooperated with appropriate marketing.
Yanzhan Meng, Counterpoint Research Director, told CFA reporter that the recognition of the brand in the European market is very high, and the sensitivity of consumers to the price is not very high. This is the biggest difficulty for domestic mobile phones to enter the European market. It takes time to build brand power. precipitation.
For the time being Huawei and domestic mobile phone manufacturers, it was not an overstatement for elementary school students to call it a 'brand'. For a fragmented European market, it is not easy to find out the market characteristics of each country one by one. , As in the domestic market, relying on conferences and marketing-driven disorderly competition no longer works in the European market.
'Huawei is also observing that cooperation with Leica, for example, is a breakthrough.' Huawei insiders told reporters that in addition to Leica, Huawei's terminal departments have also been consciously selecting partners around the world for 'cross-border cooperation' in recent years. In addition to technical considerations, it also hopes to use the partner's brand to precipitate 'self-reform'. The other said that, unlike Apple’s concise image, Huawei will study the trends of some key industries and find brand joint points based on research, such as current luxury goods. The industry has a tendency to entertain the luxury of luxury goods. In the field of art, more and more independent designers are emerging. Through cooperation with these industry leaders, Huawei has laid the foundation for building high-end products.
According to the characteristics of the “fragmentation” of many different countries in Northeast and Europe, Huawei has also established the concept of “central kitchen”. The “raw materials” provided to the market sectors of the countries in northeastern Europe are all “semi-finished products” and then they are located The national market and channel staff adjust and settle for the habits, customs and preferences of local consumers. Compared with Samsung’s overseas “centralized management and centralized management” approach, the “central kitchen” approach can balance both the tone of the brand communication and the It also takes into account the cultural and consumer differences in different countries and is more flexible.
But this is not easy. Taking glory as an example, a local person in charge told reporters that the number of people in Europe may not be in one country (Samsung).
'We are also exploring a way to suit ourselves. ' Glory-related business executives in Western Europe told reporters last year at the MWC that when doing promotional holiday projects like this, doing e-commerce overseas is not an easy task. Things. The 'Internet mindset' in China's fire is simply not working in countries such as Western Europe, and rational consumer awareness means that consumers value more than cost-effectiveness.
'Europe's offline logistics is very developed. If it is difficult to do a good job copying the domestic online model, we mainly start with word-of-mouth marketing and engage in consumer interactions on Facebook and Twitter. 'The Western Europe executive said to reporters, and The difference in China is that domestic forwarding messages are rewarded and forwarded, but Europeans only want to share when they want to forward, so the team will also do some interesting activities, or let consumers share the use of the experience. For example, to do some cross Marketing. '
Canalys analyst Jia Mo told reporters that Huawei’s market share in Western Europe is only 5 to 6 percentage points lower than Apple’s in the past few quarters. With glory internationalization and more tactics, Huawei is very likely to be in 2018. In the second and third quarters of the year, the distance between Apple and Apple was reduced.
'Open market' opportunities
For domestic mobile phone manufacturers, if brand power is the first threshold, channel coverage is the second threshold.
Yan Zhanmeng told First Financial reporter that channel coverage is currently the biggest challenge faced by Chinese manufacturers in Europe. Operators still dominate the market in most countries in Europe, with a share of about 60%. 'Open channels also need to enter, However, operators' channels need long-term accumulation of relationships. On the other hand, how to obtain more effective subsidies is also a problem that domestic manufacturers need to face. ' Yanzhan Meng told reporters.
In a market like Europe, consumers are not very sensitive to prices. For them, what brands and what price stalls are more important, which creates a dominant position for operators. So as a mobile phone maker, how to seize For the tariff file, it is very important to get the operator's subsidies. For example, the subsidy rate of the A manufacturer is 50%, the subsidy rate of the B manufacturer is 30%, and the effect on the sales result will be great. 'A high level for Huawei's consumer BG The manager once complained to reporters.
“We used to have lessons before. When we worked with a carrier, one of our cell phone models and Apple was in the same tariff file. At that time, our team was very happy and felt we could be together with Apple. However, in fact, this machine was sold very poorly. Because the operator's subsidy for Apple at that time was very large, the price was very advantageous. Therefore, it is not important which file to put in. It is most important to stay competitive in it. The above person said.
In Jia Mo’s view, Western Europe and Central and Eastern Europe are very different markets in terms of channels. Operator channels in Western Europe still account for nearly half of the market. It is an unreliable sales channel for all manufacturers, and this part needs time to operate. However, with the reversal of the post-paid payment model across Western Europe, more space for low-end and mid-range smartphones has been released, which is undoubtedly an opportunity for Huawei and Xiaomi and other Chinese manufacturers.
The implication is that, as the open market channel provider's voice in the European market is gradually enhanced, domestic mobile phones will have more room to penetrate.
For example, Xiaomi also recently reached a strategic cooperation with CKHutchison Holdings (which owns 3Group, one of the major operators in the United Kingdom, Italy, Ireland, Sweden, Denmark and Austria), which is bound to accelerate its market expansion in Europe. ' The reporter said.
According to public information, Xiaomi founder Lei Jun personally visited Hong Kong businessman Li Ka-shing while Xiaomi formally submitted the IPO on May 3. The Yangtze River-Hutchison Group is a world-renowned multinational enterprise group, and telecom business is also one of its pillar businesses. Changhe has a total of 17,700 retail and telecommunications stores in the world, and has a certain market share and influence in the European telecommunication market including the United Kingdom.
From the cooperation agreement signed by both parties, Xiaomi's products will initially be in the 3 Group stores in Austria, Denmark, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Sweden and the United Kingdom, and in Hong Kong, China, Ireland, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, Fortress, Superdrug And Kruidvat shop for sale.
Prior to this, Xiaomi Company was only a small chopper in the European market, and it entered some markets in Eastern Europe or Southern Europe, but it did not create much waves. This time, through the cooperation of the 3 Group, the products including the Xiaomi mobile phone will It will distribute goods throughout Europe.
Not long ago, the prospectus submitted by Xiaomi to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange showed that in 2015, 2016, and 2017, Xiaomi’s overseas market revenue was 4.05 billion yuan, 9.15 billion yuan, and 32.08 billion yuan, of which the 2017 overseas market revenue was even higher than the same period. The growth of 250%. Xiaomi’s relevant person in charge, Wang Xiang, stated that Xiaomi has entered more than 70 countries and regions. For the first time last year, Xiaomi selected Spain as the first stop in the Western European market. This time, cooperation with Changhe will enable Western developed countries to develop. Consumers experience more millet products.
As the domestic 'king of channels', OPPO also sees the opportunity of gradually opening the European public market.
At present, OPPO has confirmed that it will expand in the international market in 2018. The confirmation of this news is its international public relations manager AlexMacGregor. CEO of Tony Chen of WinFuture also issued a statement on overseas expansion, saying that the company will be in 2018' Accelerating access to the global market'. It is worth noting that, a few years ago, Oppo launched the OppoFind series of smartphones in Europe.
The strategy for OPPO's success in emerging markets such as India has always been focused on physical retailing. In terms of Chinese brands, OPPO and vivo still dominate the smart phone retail sector. However, it is still uncertain that OPPO is planning to adopt a line in the international market. Under the retail strategy, it is still planned to sell smart phones online.
'Over the entire European market share, Huawei has been ranked third for two consecutive years. In the first quarter of 2018, the stability of products such as PSmart, Mate10Lite, P8Lite2017, Honor9Lite and P10Lite was further reduced, further narrowing down with Samsung and Apple. Gap. From the perspective of market share, Huawei’s market share in Western Europe is only 5 to 6 percentage points lower than Apple’s in the past few quarters. And Xiaomi’s surged to only three quarters in Western European markets like Spain. Third place, after Samsung and Huawei, further squeezed the share of European local manufacturers such as BQ, Wiko and other manufacturers such as LG, TCL, ZTE and moto. 'Jia Mo told reporters that the data for 2017 Look, the average price of Apple in Western Europe is 788 US dollars, which is still far higher than the average selling price of domestic brands in Western Europe.
Even with the innovative camera technology of the P20 series and Huawei's years of ploughing in the European market, it has had a good brand awareness, but it is still seldom used as a high-end brand. Huawei still has difficulty in the flagship market in Western Europe and Apple. The iPhone and the Samsung S, Note series compete directly. 'Jia Mo thinks that for the domestic mobile phone manufacturers, the internationalized campaign still needs lasting patience.