The book was published in 20 15. It has been two years now, and the media's evaluation of Xiaomi has also changed, and it has begun to doubt the availability of Xiaomi's marketing model. Combined with the current situation, reading this book, we can see the logic of Xiaomi's business development and the subsequent changes.
1
The theme of the book is "participation". When I saw the title of the book, I thought the whole article was about participation and marketing. There are 6 chapters in the book, each of which is relatively independent, and the sense of participation does not run through all the chapters.
Among them, the main line is: participation-product-new media, and the remaining three articles are used as supplements to talk about Xiaomi's marketing practices and thinking. Friends who don't have much time can read the first three articles.
My understanding of participation is: do a good job of "product"+"marketing", that is, fan economy.
The above is the illustration in the book, Lei Jun's seven-character formula. The whole book covers the above part, and my feeling is much more than participation.
My understanding of books is to make products user-centered and user-oriented, as shown below.
One side is the product, and the other side is the user. Xiaomi relies on the Internet, and social media establishes communication channels with users. Users buy and use products, and Xiaomi provides services, thus establishing a relationship between products and users. Brand is Xiaomi's positioning of its own products, for which users to provide products? What are their needs? What kind of services are provided for them.
The above correspondence is: product-product, channel-new media, brand (positioning)-brand, service (user relationship)-service. Design is a part of the product, and design is a rich part of the product. Finally, focus on refining, which is to participate in the article.
From product conception to delivery to users, this intermediate product needs to go through many important processes. The innovations of Xiaomi are:
Open up important links. Open up product design, marketing activities and other links, let users participate, and help improve and spread products. So as to accelerate that reach speed of product from company to users.
Fast iteration. The iterative speed of traditional mobile phone system is half a year or a year, and Xiaomi will be iteratively optimized every week, which is also the premise of ensuring user participation.
From the product level, Lei Jun's seven-character formula is like Taoism, which is more abstract and tells you the fighting rules of the Internet. The three or three principles of "sense of participation" are skills, which are more specific and teach you how to do in product marketing.
2
Some viewpoints in the book are extracted:
"Explosives" product strategy. When planning products, we should consider being the first in a certain category. The dispersion of resources will make it difficult to expand the sense of participation, and form a scale effect through focusing.
Social media route. Xiaomi is the first brand focusing on Internet users, and its marketing channel is constantly trying and expanding: Forum-Weibo-QQ Space-WeChat. The forum is the first to establish core users and precipitate old users; Weibo and QQ space are mainly used for word-of-mouth communication; Wechat is mainly used for customer service. In marketing, Xiaomi has done it. Where are the users, we are there.
Word of mouth. In the seven-character decision, "word of mouth" is at the center, and the product's "concentration", "extreme" and "fast" all point to it. In an interview, Lei Jun took Haidilao as an example, and word-of-mouth exceeded expectations. It's too difficult to exceed expectations. In this matter, everyone has been indifferent to Apple for many years, but this does not affect that it has been selling well.
Some products are good, spread generally and have a good reputation. There are general products, good communication and good reputation. Word of mouth is product+communication. The product is the front 1, and the marketing is the back 0.
Design. Design is a part of a product, which includes design and serves the product. Easy to use > Good looking. If you use it first, it will look good.
Activity productization. The whole process of activity is regarded as a product, and the process is equivalent to the function or module of the product, and the process is continuously optimized and improved. For example, by planning to make the purchase activity a topic and introduce traffic for the product, the original one-way purchase behavior has become a very interactive activity with participation.
Product mobilization. Using operational thinking, the activity link is implanted into the function of the product. For example, MIUI's weekly design announcement has a video tutorial, and users can guide them to the forum after watching the video. After the system is upgraded and restarted, users will also be guided to Weibo to show off and share the latest version of the experience.
Let users motivate the team. Establish a platform for the whole team to come in and face the users directly. Front-line product managers and development engineers face users, so as to grasp what users need. The development team is no longer faced with cold data reports, and users are not faced with monotonous update logs.
Positioning. When users make a choice, they will choose the category first and then the brand. When Xiaomi makes all products, he will first consider the category logic. When making mobile phones, create a new category: Internet mobile phones. Doing TV is also creating a new category: the first TV for young people.
Brand tonality. Every brand has its own tonality. Many companies make two mistakes in brand communication: telling "who am I" without telling the truth and engaging in lofty concepts. If you don't understand "who am I" and engage in cross-brand cooperation, the so-called star strategy is all empty.
Loyalty. Internet products emphasize instrumental value, and it is difficult to establish loyalty. Fan culture is to see how many loyal users your brand has. Xiaomi is doing loyalty, then reputation, and then popularity.
Detonate the sense of participation offline. Do "popcorn" offline activities and let users participate in the whole process. Officials organize dozens of meetings every year, and users spontaneously organize more than 500 city meetings. Users vote in the forum to decide which city to hold and how many users will participate in the performance.
Make friends with users. Open the operation process of making products and services, and let users participate. Being friends with users means playing with users, without formal user surveys or high-level publishing.
three
What Xiaomi brings is the impact of thinking frame and way. In the past, everyone played according to the traditional routine, and a new era came. Suddenly, someone did not play cards according to the routine, and they were still doing well. They couldn't help feeling that there was such a game.
The early mobile phone market was in a chaotic state, but now all the survivors are experts, and the competition has reached an incandescent level. In the early days, Xiaomi insisted on advertising as little as possible, not advertising, and not looking for stars to advertise. Now offline stores have also started, below-the-line has also voted, and the stars who speak for them have changed several times. In the face of market changes, Xiaomi has also actively made changes and responded quickly.
Xiaomi's marketing method is also out of a lot of trial and error. If you try and make mistakes quickly, you can correct them quickly.
The core foundation of millet products is cost performance. Liu De mentioned in an interview with Wang Ziru that cost performance is the foundation of millet products, and this will not change.
When you see what others wrote, you should also see what you didn't write. What can be used by me and what can't be used by me, although it is well said. If it doesn't apply, but it can inspire me, it is also meaningful.
Although Xiaomi's marketing is good, it is not suitable for all Internet products. Copying homework is definitely not feasible. Since starting a business, Xiaomi has been worried about resources and funds. Those products that only make pure software may not be fun, even if they make hardware, they may not work. Mobile phones are highly playable and can attract users to participate in the design. Whether other products can do this is another matter.
Starting from the attributes of products, find their own advantages and fully open the channel from products to users. What business activities do you need to go through from product design to user's hands and cooperate with products? In every link of the activity, what are the improvements? We can let users participate, understand their preferences, make friends with them and make the products they want.
On the other hand, what changes can I make to improve my products? Not when talking about demand, my mind says user-centered, and my mouth says from the user's point of view. What's more, on the way from products to users, is it continuing to create value? This is also the inspiration of "sense of participation".
In addition:
Many people will be curious. As a mobile phone company, why did Xiaomi make so many peripheral products? Liu De, the head of Xiaomi's ecological chain, explained the logic in an interview with Wang Ziru.