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” Looking back on the past three years, the high-end strategy has profoundly affected Xiaomi, and a brand new Xiaomi has begun. “
All of Lei Jun’s speeches at the Mi 13 series conference on December 11 were interpretations of this sentence.
Starting from the Mi 10 series, “high-end strategy” is the most important proposition composition of Xiaomi in the past three years. Lei Jun made it clear at the meeting of group executives and business department general managers in February this year: ” The high-end road is the only way for Xiaomi to grow, and we will unswervingly implement the high-end strategy. “
I have also continued to follow up on the progress of Xiaomi’s high-end strategy in the past grain factory reviews and analysis . For example, I wrote in my comments on the third quarterly report that the smartphones released by Xiaomi in Q3 have significantly improved from the perspective of product strength. The 12s Ultra released in July and the folding screen Mix Fold 2 released in August have all won the awards of GSM Arena and XDA Developers and other mainstream foreign media praise . In the third quarter report, Xiaomi’s shipments in the high-end smartphone market (retail price above RMB 3,000) in mainland China increased by 14% year-on-year.
As for how to look at the three-year answer sheet of Xiaomi’s high-end strategy, as I often remind everyone, I will also distinguish my identity, whether I am an ordinary consumer or an observer of Xiaomi Group .
As an ordinary consumer, what I care about is simple: appearance, experience and brand .
From the perspective of appearance , I think the dual series of Mi 13 and 13 Pro this time are both online in appearance, and with the same specifications of the market announcement, the posters and advertising videos have a sense of high-end. Friends who are familiar with me know that I bought the top-of-the-line 12s Ultra and Mix Fold 2 for dual-wielding use. The texture of these two phones makes me impeccable. Therefore, although I haven’t been able to get the latest 13 series in Hong Kong, I believe that it will not disappoint me in terms of texture.
From the perspective of experience , I focus on two points: system and ecology . What impressed me most about MIUI14 this time is to start with the experience, without too many fancy functions, but work hard on streamlining and smoothness, interconnection, privacy protection and family services, and go a step further on the basis of MIUI13. Ecologically, this time also released the high-end earphone Buds 4 and the watch Watch S2 with the same online appearance, building a high-level family bucket product line.
From a brand perspective, as an in-depth user, the Xiaomi brand has always been a bonus item. But for most consumers, the brand is still a very important identity symbol, and it will take quite some time for Xiaomi to replace Apple’s position in the hearts of consumers. However, I would like to provide an observation dimension around me, that is , although Apple is still the mainstream in Hong Kong, more and more users use Xiaomi mobile phones. I posted before that after the release of Xiaomi 12s Ultra this year, someone rushed to Hong Kong Adventist Hospital and asked me: “Is this Xiaomi’s latest mobile phone? This lens is so beautiful! Hong Kong needs to add more than 1,000 articles!”
However, when I jump out of the identity of an ordinary consumer and go behind the scenes to observe, we will see that in order to realize the appearance, experience and brand in the hands of consumers, the invisible efforts made by Xiaomi are huge:
1. The high-end strategy is a deep collaboration between software and hardware.
Regarding the ability of software & hardware integration , I often mention it in recent articles. In my opinion, the threshold of hardware is higher than most people imagine; and the threshold of combining hardware and software may not be imagined by most people. In the future consumer electronics industry, the ability to “combine hardware and software” is one of the core competitiveness, and this has been implemented as an important corporate strategy of Xiaomi Group.
First of all, it is the guarantee of the internal organizational system. At the Mi 13 press conference, Lei Jun mentioned that in order to promote the “combination of software and hardware”, Xiaomi first merged the MIUI team into the mobile phone department, merged with the BSP system software department, and then merged the AIoT system department and the interconnection software department. Formed a system software platform team that goes deep into the bottom of the hardware vertically and horizontally manages all Xiaomi businesses .
Secondly, it is continuous technology investment and research and development. Compared with traditional Internet companies, Xiaomi has a deep layout in smart unmanned factories, chip business, robotics laboratories, new energy vehicles and Xiaomi industrial investment, and fully empowers through capital, brand, technology, design, supply chain and sales channels Manufacturing in China, and exporting high value-added products with Chinese brands to the world.
2. The high-end strategy is to align the entire product line.
The high-end strategy of Xiaomi that I see is not the high-end of a single product, but the comprehensive high-end of Xiaomi Group’s package of products , from mobile phones, cars to IoT ecological products.
I wrote in the Q3 financial report comment that Xiaomi’s Mijia brand has begun to enter the high-end market, releasing a series of high-end IoT ecological products, such as the Mijia full-effect air purifier Ultra at 5,499 yuan, and the Mijia water purifier at 4,599 yuan The 1600G and 6999 yuan Mijia cooking robot, etc., are basically the most high-end product lines in their respective tracks. I also mentioned in my analysis article on Xiaomi cars that the first Xiaomi car will also be benchmarked against high-end cars .
3. The essence of high-end strategy is still the expression of values.
Professor Kevin Keller proposed a very classic brand equity model . The top of the pyramid of brand equity in the model is “brand resonance” . Professor Keller believes that strong and powerful brand equity can be achieved under brand resonance. Active brand loyalty. Therefore, brand identity, vision and performance are important, but how to connect people through emotions requires a lower level of values. In my opinion, Xiaomi’s high-end strategy this time is still an answer sheet based on existing values.
First of all, it is “let everyone enjoy the better life brought by technology”. Jin Fan mentioned at the Mi 13 press conference that the brand-new concept of MIUI interconnection is “people-centered, connecting people and external things” . This concept is a continuation of the overall framework of “Xiaomi Technology Ecology” mentioned by Lei Jun at the annual press conference in August this year, namely:
“Starting from smartphones, to wearable devices, smart homes, and then to smart manufacturing, smart electric vehicles, and bionic robots, it revolves around people’s life and work, better serves people, and closely connects people and everything.”
Therefore, we can clearly see that Xiaomi’s high-end strategy is changing from “performance first” to “experience first”, and this change is fundamentally “let everyone enjoy the better life brought by technology” as the value behind it All functions such as privacy protection, family service, Xiaomi Hearing, etc. are all around people’s life and work, so as to better serve people.
Second, is the “cost-effective model.” Many people have suggested that high-end and cost-effective are in conflict, and Xiaomi’s impact on high-end is a denial of the cost-effective model. But I think that high-end is not the opposite of “cost-effectiveness”, but a reinterpretation of the concept of cost-effectiveness .
I wrote in the 2022 Xiaomi Investment Outlook that the “sex” in “cost performance” is not a simple hardware stack, but the complete experience of the product , including brand, purchase, use, after-sales and so on. Many Apple users feel that the SE series is cost-effective, not because the price is close to the hardware BOM, but because the overall experience of Apple can be bought with 3000+ RMB. I am pleased to see that Xiaomi has clearly jumped out of hardware absolutism. At the launch of Xiaomi Mi 13, it has also greatly reduced the parameters and performance content that science and engineering men care about, and paid more attention to humanities and intuition.
Therefore, in the 3-year answer sheet of Xiaomi’s high-end strategy that I have seen, each answer is supported by positive values. I believe I have seen a brand new Xiaomi.
As the 16th century British archbishop William of Wykeham said: ‘ Manners Maketh Man .’ ( Of course, Uncle Colin said it more handsomely ). I have always insisted that if one day Xiaomi becomes high-end, it must be the values that shape Xiaomi—— Values Maketh Xiaomi .
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