Skyworth photography

Recently, Metz, a German TV brand owned by Skyworth, launched a sculpture series OLED TV with a stand-alone price of 199999 yuan and a set price of 359999 yuan, and announced its entry into the ultra-high-end market. The limited production of 10 sets per month and the strategy of booking delivery three months in advance make this TV more and more rare.

The logic of Skyworth's creation of Metz is that China has entered the post-material era, and the trend of high-end consumption upgrading is obvious, so it is timely for Metz to enter the ultra-high-end market. The question is, does Metz conform to the rules of luxury brand operation?

Let's take a look at the background of Skyworth's acquisition of Metz.

20 14, 1 1, Mace declared bankruptcy. The reasons for bankruptcy are as follows:

One is outdated technology. Compared with the status of TV manufacturers, Metz is the only manufacturer in the world that produces a full range of flash products. 1952 began to produce camera flash, 1968 introduced the world's first automatic flash, and in 20 12 introduced the world's first touch screen portable flash. Flash memory is an outdated technology. Although it has an irreplaceable position in the hearts of photographers, no one can stop the wave of mobile phones replacing cameras, even Kodak. In 20 12, Kodak declared bankruptcy, and two years later, Mace also declared bankruptcy.

The second is the lack of core competitiveness. In the field of TV manufacturing, Metz has been focusing on the high-end customer market. Globally, it is a local brand, 90% of its sales are in Germany, and its global sales are only 654.38+10,000 units. At the same time, there is no core competitiveness in technology research and development and manufacturing. Before bankruptcy, Skyworth worked for it.

Third, the content ecology is insufficient. Television used to be a hardware-driven industry. As long as the manufacturing technology is excellent and the brand is influential, the sales volume will not be too bad. However, with the rapid development of the Internet, it also has an important identity: family entertainment center. This requires TV manufacturers to have a complete content ecology. Only when high-end content matches high-end hardware can we make a truly dynamic high-end TV brand.

Less than half a year after Mace went bankrupt, it was acquired by Skyworth for $8 million. It seems that this is a good deal.

In 2004, TCL paid a very painful price for the acquisition of Thomson's color TV business in France. Two years later, Li Dongsheng, the founder of TCL, wrote an article entitled "Eagle Rebirth" to reflect on the lessons of internationalization.

Skyworth's acquisition of Metz is obviously a business thinking. Compared with Thomson, Metz is a "light company" with less than 600 employees, and the factory scale is very small. The most valuable thing is its brand, channel and patent.

In 20 14, the domestic color TV market declined for the first time in 30 years. Skyworth executives judged that the China color TV market has entered the stage of stock competition, and it is difficult to maintain rapid growth. Overseas is a bigger growth point in the future.

This year, Skyworth took a big step towards globalization, setting up branches in Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippines, and setting up a manufacturing base in Southeast Asia in Indonesia.

Skyworth chose to expand its market share in economically underdeveloped areas through low-cost volume, while its two major peers TCL and Hisense chose to vigorously promote their own brands overseas.

In 20 14, Hisense launched VIDAA TV for the American market, and the sales of overseas independent brands exceeded1300 million USD. 20 15 also bought Sharp's Mexican TV factory for $23.7 million and took over Sharp's TV business in North and South America.

In 20 14 years, TCL group achieved operating income of10/billion yuan through international distribution, of which overseas income accounted for 47%.

Due to the poor sales of its own brand and insufficient brand awareness, Skyworth's performance in the sea is not as good as expected. Therefore, Skyworth hopes to open the European market through the acquisition of Metz, thus opening a hole for globalization.

However, Metz, which was acquired by Skyworth, did not perform well in the global market. Five years later, Metz's market share in Germany is still pitifully low, with sales accounting for 3% and sales accounting for only 65,438+0%. In a big TV sales country like India, Metz's sales are also very small.

I had hoped that Metz would fight for Skyworth's internationalization, but unfortunately, it not only failed to meet expectations, but also consumed resources.

It is almost certain that Metz, which has performed poorly in the global market, will hardly be reborn in China.

First, it does not conform to the law of luxury goods. Almost all luxury goods in the world are driven by dreams. The reason why users are willing to pay a high price for an unrealistic thing is to have a dream world. With the development of technology, the iteration of TV is accelerated.

The function of the product and the technology attached to the function are not the main factors affecting consumers, but the dream is.

From 65438 to 0995, Dubois and Paternault did a research on American luxury brands. This paper investigates consumers' attitudes, buying habits and brand cognition towards 34 luxury brands through questionnaires. Through data analysis, a dream formula is obtained:

Dream =-8.6+0.58X Brand awareness -0.59X User purchase behavior.

This formula quantifies the dream value for the first time and scientifically explains the relationship among brand cognition, consumption behavior and dream value.

In this formula, -8.6 means that the brand's dream value is negative when brand awareness and user's purchase behavior are zero. In other words, if a brand has no popularity, then consumers have no desire to spend. At this point, its dream value is negative.

Without popularity, there is no dream. So Mace's most important task at present is to gain popularity.

Creating dreams for users and leading users into the dream world step by step is the first step to the success of luxury goods. Next, the brand needs to realize its dream through a series of system construction. Almost all luxury goods have experience stores under the line, with the purpose of dreaming for users in various senses. The monthly sales of 10 sets and the annual sales of10 million sets are obviously difficult to support its investment in brand experience.

Second, there are defects in product strength. In the audio field, there are many top luxury brands, such as the Voice of Berlin. Obviously, in the field of television, Skyworth also wants to "recreate" a "voice of Berlin". Although audio and color TV belong to the category of household appliances, the underlying logic is completely different.

Audio and sound art are closely combined, and the usage scene is more personalized and personalized, so it has a huge group of enthusiasts. As long as you have top-notch sound quality, someone will always pay the bill. Personalization and artistry make it have the potential of luxury goods. Even Bugatti, the world's top sports car brand with tens of millions of dollars, has to cooperate with Voice of Berlin, which shows how great its luxury potential is.

Unlike audio, color TV technology is updated faster. In some functions, it is close to a computer. Luxury goods are usually associated with extraordinary quality. When the core technology is updated faster, the extraordinary quality established from it will soon lose its charm.

Looking at the global computer industry, no successful luxury brand has global influence. Because every one or two years, the core chip technology will undergo a major upgrade, which means that the computer bought at a high price today will be outdated two years later.

This is why it is difficult to have a real luxury brand in the field of color TV, but it is possible in the field of bags, watches and clocks, because they are never out of date. Hermes bags can be used for a lifetime, and the more they are used, the more valuable they are, while color TVs are eliminated once every two years, and the more they are used, the more they depreciate.

Color TV sets, like computers, are technology-driven. In terms of core technology, Skyworth is not at the top of the pyramid. Samsung and TCL； have mastered the technology of organic light-emitting diodes; The manufacture of organic light-emitting diode panels needs to rely on LG; Hisense leads in R&D laser tv. The lack of core technology makes Metz lack the persuasiveness of luxury goods in quality.

As the entertainment center of the living room, color TV is an ecosystem. In addition to the top hardware, it should also be equipped with top content and perfect sound and painting art. Only by organically combining the three can we give full play to their qualities. However, due to the semi-open living room and the different needs of family members, it is difficult to unify this "extreme".

20 19，B&； O, sales and profit margins both declined. Considering multiple factors and epidemic situation, Metz's failure in China market is a high probability event.

Why did Metz brand launch in China after five years? The real purpose of Skyworth is probably to influence high-end people by introducing Metz, thus providing a stepping stone for Skyworth to "go higher". To put it bluntly, Skyworth hopes that Mace will add points for himself.

This may be wishful thinking in the end. For example, Bugatti, a sports car brand, was awarded to Audi AG of Germany, which greatly boosted the Volkswagen brand to the high-end market? Can Tata Motors Group upgrade Tata by acquiring Jaguar, a luxury car brand? Obviously not.

Metz not only can't give Skyworth extra points, but also has a potential risk: if Metz doesn't operate well, it will have a negative impact on Skyworth brand. Just like the Bugatti sports car, once it is played by the Volkswagen Group, it is estimated that the loyal fans of Bugatti will not agree.

If Skyworth wants to build Metz into a luxury color TV brand recognized by Chinese people, it must be reorganized from the bottom logic. Building a luxury brand has never been a business, it is a long journey based on beautiful dreams, extraordinary quality and artistic pursuit.

If you ask me, Skyworth shouldn't hold such a boring press conference that is badly played by technology companies. Its appearance should be dreamy, and it should be closely combined with a world-class art exhibition and top artists. What's more, we should be eager to show the price card, and the price is very low.

Showing your cards means facing the test of everyone. Skyworth, obviously not ready.

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