Mobile phone marketing strategy

D.E. Schultz, the founder of mobile phone marketing strategy integration marketing communication theory, once said: After entering the 1990s, only "channels" and "broadcasting" can produce differentiated competitive advantages. The role of channels is very prominent in the mobile phone market in China, and a large number of mobile phone stocks make the consumer-centered complete buyer's market almost a reality. For manufacturers, whoever occupies the market will have the opportunity and the foundation for sustainable development. Channel is an effective way for products to enter the market and a bridge between product producers and the market. Mastering and controlling the sales channels means mastering and controlling the market. Nowadays, mobile phones tend to be homogeneous in function, appearance, price and even advertising, so it is difficult to win competition only by the independent advantages of products. The differentiated competition of channels has increasingly become the focus of the development of domestic mobile phone manufacturers, so the market competition of manufacturers should be in marketing channels in the next few years. First, the development history of China's mobile phone channel model. The development of mobile phone marketing channel mode in China is closely related to the popularity of mobile phones and market competition. According to the different development modes of channels and mainstream dealers, it can be roughly divided into three stages: 1. At the beginning of the formation and development of the mobile phone market in China, on the one hand, due to the high price and low penetration rate of mobile phones, users were concentrated in cities; On the other hand, because the mobile communication market was monopolized by China Telecom, this period was exclusively underwritten by China Telecom. The only places selling mobile phones are the business hall of China Telecom and some small shops that appeared later. The latter mainly deals in parallel mobile phones. During this period, China Telecom occupied a dominant position in the market, both in distribution and retail. Under the underwriting condition of China Telecom, the real marketing channel system has not yet formed. 2. The stage when the national general agent controls the sales channels. At present, the background of the change of mobile phone marketing channels is that China Telecom has liberalized the sales of mobile phones, and professional mobile phone retail stores have emerged, which have rapidly emerged in large cities across the country. At this stage, a complete distribution system was gradually formed, and the national general agent controlled the sales channels of mobile phones and became the main force leading the mobile phone market. 3. The coexistence stage of multiple sales channel modes. At present, the change of channel mode stems from the rapid development of domestic mobile phone manufacturers, that is, since 2002, domestic mobile phone manufacturers have entered the market without the support of national general agents and turned to provincial distribution system, breaking the market monopoly of foreign brands on the national distribution system. With the increase of domestic brands' market share, the status of national general agent began to decline. In addition, another important feature of this stage is the rise of various sales models and channels, while the number and sales scale of terminal retailers have also dropped significantly. Among them, from 200 1, professional household appliance chain enterprises began to enter the field of mobile phone sales. Gome, Suning and other household appliance chain enterprises relied on the historical advantages of cooperation with household appliance manufacturers and began to use domestic mobile phone sales as a breakthrough to penetrate into mobile phone channels. At the same time, some agents began to consider establishing their own brand retail chain stores and building a strong terminal network. The position of operators in sales has been strengthened again, and the mode of hypermarket has also appeared in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen. Second, the channel members of China mobile phone market constitute the channel members of China mobile phone market, mainly including manufacturers, agents, retailers and operators. 1. Manufacturers According to the data released by the Ministry of Information Industry, the number of mobile phone manufacturers in China increased from 5 in 1997 to 37 in 2002, and mobile phones changed from "resource-based" products to ordinary products. Manufacturers also gradually withdrew from the dominant position of the original industrial chain and were gradually restricted by channel providers and operators. At present, the domestic mobile phone market is characterized by homogeneous products, rapid price evolution, open channels and similar promotion. It is urgent for mobile phone manufacturers to correctly understand their position in the industrial value chain, get rid of the past practice of decoupling market from business, and give full play to the ability of the entire mobile phone industry chain to cooperate. 2. Acting China has a large population, rapid economic development, rapidly increasing mobile phone penetration rate and rapidly expanding market capacity. At present, the capacity of China mobile phone market exceeds 200 million. Faced with such a huge market, mobile phone manufacturers are often unable and unnecessary to deliver mobile phones directly to consumers. Therefore, mobile phone dealers and agents have become necessary. In the late 1990s, with the separation of mobile phones and cards, foreign brands of mobile phones flooded into China, and China Post Putai, Yin Tian, Bee Star and other national distributors appeared. Mobile phone agents can also be said to be terminal channel providers. Their rise is almost entirely related to the business of foreign brands in China. In a sense, the national general agent is the sales department of foreign brands in China and the beneficiary of international brand mobile phones. The mobile phone distribution system in China has been developing along the three-level distribution system of national general agent, provincial agent and city and county agent established by Motorola and Nokia. Foreign mobile phone manufacturers have always been the partners and main business providers of big agents. With the increasing dissatisfaction of mobile phone manufacturers with the traditional hierarchical agency system, the absolute advantage of traditional agents is gradually disappearing. Various forces are intertwined and conflicts occur from time to time. There will be various distribution modes for a long time to come, but there is no doubt that the hierarchical agency system, which once dominated the mobile phone channel in China, is no longer the mainstream of the market. 3. Retailers Mobile phone retailers in China include professional retailers, home appliance chain stores, professional chain stores and general stores (shopping malls and supermarkets). Since 200 1, the mobile phone sales channel has entered a new historical stage. An important feature of this stage is the rise of various sales models and channels, and the number and sales scale of retail terminals have dropped significantly. Since Beijing and Shanghai, professional mobile phone chain retailers such as Dixintong, Xie Heng Telecom and Zhongfu Telecom have appeared in the mobile phone market in China, and professional household appliance chain enterprises have also begun to enter the field of mobile phone sales. Gome, Suning and other home appliance chain enterprises began to rely on the historical advantages of cooperation with home appliance manufacturers, taking domestic mobile phone sales as a breakthrough and infiltrating into mobile phone channels. At the same time, some agents began to consider establishing their own brand retail chain stores and building a strong terminal network. At the same time, online sales channels such as shopping malls and supermarkets have also begun to gain a certain market share. Sales of traditional retail terminals are declining, and consumers are increasingly concentrated in these chain stores and hypermarkets. 4. Operators and service providers in developed countries of mobile communication industry (that is, China's network operators: China Mobile and China Unicom) often firmly control the sales channels of mobile phones, but in China's mobile phone market, its retail and distribution are two separate independent systems. In the United States, Singapore and other countries, Internet service providers usually buy a large number of mobile phones from mobile phone manufacturers such as Nokia or Motorola, and then sell them to consumers together with corresponding service support systems. In order to attract users, suppliers often offer large discounts to reduce the price of mobile phones, shift profit points to information services provided to customers, and earn profits through information fees used by consumers. In China, since 2003, the close cooperation between mobile communication operators and mobile phone manufacturers has gradually developed. The dominant position of operators in the mobile phone industry chain is more and more obvious. The customization and bundling of mobile phones make operators directly participate in the marketing of mobile phones, and also play a leading role in the function, price and application of mobile phones. Third, the new trend of the development of mobile phone market channels in China Under the trend that mobile phone sales are more and more like ordinary fast-moving consumer goods, in order to gain profits through the advantages of sales volume, the hypermarket model has become popular. In addition, traditional IT distributors have also entered the mobile phone distribution market. Although IT distributors have not yet dominated the mobile phone sales, their strong channel coverage has become a threat to traditional distributors. In the next few years, the mobile phone channel may have the following trends: 1. The flattening development trend of channels, the change from seller's market to buyer's market gives customers autonomy, and the customer's goal has become the value of enterprise transactions, so the core of modern marketing has also changed from the demand for product functions to the demand for customer value. This requires manufacturers to communicate with consumers more directly and quickly, while the decline of product promotion function of other channel members, the narrowing of distribution profit space and manufacturers' higher requirements for channel radiation and control can only make channels shorter and shorter. As a sales model, channel flattening simplifies the sales process, shortens the sales cost, and makes enterprises have more profit space. Flattening is not simply to reduce which sales link, but to optimize the original supply chain and eliminate the links with no added value in the supply chain, so that the supply chain can be transformed into a value chain. Because the essence of channel flattening is to reduce redundant links, improve the efficiency of channel operation, and build a complete, organic and efficient network system among factories, merchants and users, so that thousands of users can communicate and interact with manufacturers and merchants through this network. After the mobile phone is delivered from the mobile phone manufacturer to the final consumer at the channel level, the intermediate channel will probably extract 15%-20% of the profits. Compressing intermediate channels naturally means that manufacturers can get more profits. The mobile phone market in China has been in the stage of channel flattening, and it is still going on. Further flattening channels, reducing channel costs and controlling retail terminals have become the fundamental points for the success of mobile phone sales. Therefore, for international brand mobile phone manufacturers, it is necessary to make great efforts to implement the regional agency system and reduce the intermediate links of channels in order to reduce the intermediate costs of channels. However, for domestic mobile phone manufacturers, it should be noted that channels cannot be infinitely flattened. Too flat channels will increase the cost of mobile phone manufacturers, so manufacturers need to consider the balance between efficiency and effect. 2. Diversified development trend of channels Due to the gradual popularization of mobile phone consumption, consumers began to diversify (business people, students, rural consumers, etc. ), leading to the diversification of consumer demand and consumption habits. Some consumers like to go to mobile phone retail stores, some are willing to go to mobile phone supermarket chains, and some may prefer to go to general electric stores, and so on. If we want to cover as many consumers as possible, it is natural to develop diversified sales channels accordingly. Diversified channel models may become the mainstream in the future. China's mobile phone market channel is in the process of being dominated by manufacturers and agents to retailers and operators. More and more mobile phone manufacturers will consider how to effectively avoid the risks of different channel models and reduce the possible profit losses caused by these channel models. Diversified channel mode is an expedient measure in this transitional stage. 3. Centralization of channels At present, the whole mobile phone industry chain is basically centered on manufacturers, who organize R&D, production and sales. However, with the increasing market power of channel providers, they may replace today's manufacturers and become the organizers of the future industrial chain. Of course, this requires many conditions. First, the degree of specialization of channel providers. With the increasing diversification of market demand and consumers, whoever knows consumers best can bring more value to consumers, thus becoming a decisive force in the industrial chain. The shortest distance between channel providers and consumers is its natural advantage. However, the specialization of the former channel providers is not enough to fully and timely grasp the needs of consumers and their changes. Second, the standardization and production of R&D. Only when R&D and production are standardized can these resources be easily obtained from the market, and those "amateur" channel providers will not be subject to others. 4. Operators intervene in mobile phone terminals. In order to ensure the promotion of CDMA, China Unicom had to personally rescue the market and purchase a large number of CDMA mobile phones from mobile phone manufacturers. In order to promote GPRS services, China Mobile also purchased1100,000 GPRS mobile phones from Eastcom and Motorola. China Mobile has recently passed the regulations of the Ministry of Information Industry, obtained a mobile phone sales license, and is ready to formally enter the mobile phone channel in China. As a new force, the participation of operators has intensified the competition and complexity of mobile phone channels. If domestic brands want to win more market share from international brands, they must stimulate greater enthusiasm and creativity of channels. 5. The market position of mobile phone hypermarkets is increasingly prominent. Gome, Suning and other home appliance chain stores have brought revolutionary changes to the mobile phone retail market, which have had a fundamental impact on the original mobile phone sales channels. Its advantages such as wide coverage, large purchase volume and flexible operation are incomparable to traditional mobile phone dealers. However, considering the interests of traditional channels, most mobile phone manufacturers only let home appliance chain stores underwrite some models, which temporarily eased the contradiction. Otherwise, it is likely to cause the rapid expansion of hypermarket channels and quickly replace the original agents. The new trend of mobile phone channel in China not only brings new development opportunities to channel members, but also challenges. For those channel members who are in a weak position, how to improve their own strength and gain a competitive advantage in the channel structure will be the basis for their sustainable development. For those channel members who are currently in an advantage, how to actively adjust channels, pursue the combination of efficiency and effectiveness, and find their own balance point is to enhance their own strength and establish their own channel status.