Clearly a duck, why learn the Quanjude way of thinking? -01- We've never lacked people who flatter, but the embarrassment is flattering the wrong person. As a representative of traditional business owners dabbling in new trends, Dong Mingzhu's livestream e-commerce journey has been full of twists and turns. After a dismal first attempt with only 230,000 yuan in sales, her performance skyrocketed: 310 million, 700 million, 6.54 billion, and finally, Gree announced a record 10.27 billion yuan in sales during a 618-themed event. From Douyin to Kuaishou, then JD.com, Taobao, and Gome, Sister Dong has tried every platform. Finally, some self-media couldn't sit still and produced chicken soup articles like "Only Dong Mingzhu has grasped the essence of livestream e-commerce." Thus, a story of a traditional entrepreneur embracing new things, like a prince and princess living happily ever after, swept the internet again. This is what platforms love to see, and it's the kind of excitement that "trend theorists" love to join. However, playing by the usual rules is not Sister Dong's style. Just as platforms, MCN agencies, livestream e-commerce cheerleaders, and newbie leeks were about to hand Dong Mingzhu the crown of "Livestream Sales Queen," she slapped them in the face: "Livestream e-commerce is just hype." Forgive me for laughing out loud. Since Teacher Ma retired, there have been fewer and fewer entrepreneurs who bring joy to the public. Sister Dong is one of them, and we should cherish her. This kind of "turning against people" behavior wasn't what Old Miao expected, but it wasn't entirely surprising either. What kind of person Sister Dong is doesn't matter; where she stands is crucial. Gree is an outstanding representative of excellent manufacturing enterprises. If Sister Dong's livestream e-commerce does well, who should she credit? Who should she promote? Would she thank the internet? Would she thank the "trend" of livestream e-commerce? Would she thank the platforms for their support? We can guess with our toes that she would definitely attribute her livestream e-commerce success to Gree and to physical enterprises. That's her stance. So Dong Mingzhu would say, "Livestream e-commerce is hype; products should win on quality," and she cleverly pleases consumers by adding, "Justice is in people's hearts; the people have a scale." -02- In recent years, various commercial platforms have developed rapidly and gained the upper hand in discourse. Many business owners have blindly followed the platforms: when platforms tout new retail, they follow new retail; when platforms tout livestream, they follow livestream. They get sold and count money for others, and they look like they'd never turn back. But Dong Mingzhu won't. She won't forget that she's a manufacturer, a product brand, and a representative of physical enterprises. What she says will definitely favor manufacturers, not e-commerce platforms. Otherwise, she'd become a "guide," a "puppet," or a "Li Hongzhang." Sister Dong is definitely not a "Li Hongzhang." Few in the business world know as clearly as she does "who is the enemy and who is the friend." Nowadays, young people know Sister Dong mostly from the "10 billion bet" with Lei Jun. But what truly established her as the top sister in the business world was the battle with Gome back then. To protect Gree's core interests, Gree chose to cut off supply to Gome rather than be "eaten alive" by a retail platform. Remember, at that time, Gome was the number one in home appliance retail. What a tough guy Huang Guangyu is, the media recently reminded us. Their leverage over home appliance manufacturers was even greater than today's e-commerce platforms. So what? You retail platforms play your core competitiveness, and I, as a manufacturer, play mine. Can you eat me? If I listened to everything you said, I'd be finished. Without the butcher, do we eat pork with hair? Gree bypassed the exploitation of large retail platforms through its own distribution alliances and self-built specialty store system, achieving its current leadership in air conditioning. Those suppliers who signed humiliating agreements with retailers and did whatever they were told have instead declined one by one. While suppliers generally endured humiliation and compromise in the face of large retail platforms, Gree became famous in one battle, showing the might of "Made in China" and establishing its position in the business world. It revealed the true nature of these so-called platforms as "paper tigers." How badly was Gome beaten in that battle? Until 2014, Gome leaders collectively visited Gree to discuss strategic cooperation, trying to make amends for the past conflict, even the "Empress Dowager" came out. Today's e-commerce platforms are clearly more sophisticated than Gome was. Although they are notoriously ferocious with ordinary suppliers, they are gentle and charming with manufacturers who hold the end users. For brands with influence like Gree, and big shots with their own traffic like Sister Dong, the platform's stance is simply "support" (they probably wouldn't dare say "empower" to Sister Dong). Since the platform gives such face, Sister Dong is happy to cooperate. After a round of livestreams, sales were impressive. But expecting Sister Dong to "turn traitor" and become a puppet because of a few sugar-coated bullets is obviously impossible. Sister Dong will definitely take the manufacturer's stance. That's why she has the "livestream is hype" and "product quality" theories. Similarly, there's "old revolutionary" Mr. Zhang Ruimin. He said that companies doing livestream e-commerce are "pitiful" because it relies on "the lowest price on the internet," and you have to enter a "price war." -03- Livestream e-commerce has been hot this year, and with popularity comes both fans and critics. Fans say livestream e-commerce is the trend, from people finding goods to goods finding people, another new retail revolution. Celebrities, entrepreneurs, and government officials are all diving in, traffic is concentrating on livestream, and if you don't catch up, you'll be eliminated again. Critics say livestream e-commerce is tacky and low-end, just a remake of TV shopping, with fake fans, fake orders, returns, low prices, MCN fraud, fake sales data, and platforms and training institutions harvesting leeks. Once the trend passes, it'll be dead pigs everywhere again. But few people think from their own perspective: Should I support it or oppose it? What are the benefits or harms of supporting it? Do my enemies support it or oppose it? Chairman Mao wrote in the "Report on an Investigation of the Peasant Movement in Hunan," "The peasants are rebelling in the countryside," and "from the middle classes upward to the right wing of the Kuomintang, all without exception describe it as 'terrible.'" But "if you have established a revolutionary viewpoint," you will surely think "the peasants' actions are completely correct, and their actions are very good." "Terrible" and "very good" are not first about facts, but about stance. In the eyes of revolutionaries, even if the peasant movement is "excessive" or "overcorrecting," it is correct, revolutionary, understandable, and necessary for the revolution, not to be questioned. In the eyes of the Kuomintang right wing, even ordinary peasant movements are called "hooligan movements" or "lazy peasant movements." This is called "Stance determines everything; fans are naturally correct. " -04- In recent years, major platforms have seized the discourse. From the standpoint of online platforms, livestream e-commerce is naturally revolutionary and an unstoppable trend. Currently, online platform traffic growth is showing fatigue, and e-commerce's share of total social retail sales is hard to expand significantly. If not for this year's pandemic, e-commerce platforms would be having a harder time. Compared to offline, where are e-commerce's shortcomings? After solving the initial trust issue, there's now only one key point: experience. Because of poor experience, e-commerce platforms struggle to capture consumers' "impulse" random purchases. Because of poor experience, online platforms can only account for 20% of retail market share, far from challenging offline's dominant position. That's why there are pseudo-concepts like "new retail," and why they tout "reconstruction of people, goods, and places" and "providing consumers with content and services that exceed expectations at all times"—correct but useless words. Now that "new retail" has quieted down, platforms have discovered that "livestream" might be the way to solve the problem.
First, compared to text and images, video, though not as good as physical goods, significantly improves the experience and has made great progress in fooling people into impulse buying. Second, compared to "new retail," the barrier to entry for livestream is much lower. It can create models, build a few top ordinary influencers, make most people think they can do it too, ignite the wealth dreams of ordinary entrepreneurs, and thus mobilize a mass movement to accelerate traffic flow to online platforms. Isn't that how e-commerce platforms rose with small merchants back then? So, from the platform's standpoint, livestream e-commerce is great, glorious, and absolutely correct. It's the tide of the times, where those who follow prosper and those who resist perish. No problem. But if you're a manufacturer or distributor, following the platform in shouting this is like having your head squeezed by a door. You should spread Sister Dong's "livestream e-commerce is hype" to the world, let everyone know. The more people agree, the better for your business. If you're Gree or Haier, do you lack such a sales channel? Do you lack such a display platform? Nonsense, of course not. For you, livestream e-commerce is like "catching a rabbit on New Year's Eve—with or without it, you still celebrate the New Year." Your brand is strong enough; you can jump on board anytime. If you're a small, unknown brand hoping to sell a "small goal" through livestream and reach the peak of life, Well, come on, keep in formation—all the pitfalls of livestream e-commerce are prepared for you. If you don't manage your brand well, don't make good products, and blindly chase trends, then you're destined to be a leek. -05- People must have a stance. Without a stance, there's no position, and you might accidentally become a "puppet." "Puppets" never have combat effectiveness. Teacher Liu Chunxiong said, "Business thought also has a stance. " Whatever stance you have, you express that kind of business thought. If ordinary people express it wrong, their methods go astray; if bosses express it wrong, the whole company goes astray. Many small bosses read an EMBA and then go home and ruin their company because they took the stance of a large enterprise. Many companies go to training, learn a bunch of "reconstruction of people, goods, and places," learn community operations, traffic * conversion rates, and come back to mess up their company because you, as a manufacturer, took the stance of a platform. In recent years, platforms have been advocating "platform thinking," not because you really need it, but because your mastering it is beneficial to the platform. Commercial brainwashing starts by making the other party lose their stance. Teacher Liu said that when "new retail" was hot a few years ago, an industry conference invited him to talk about "new retail." He said, "Ma Yun proposed new retail from his stance; why are you defecting to it?" Coincidentally, Old Miao has encountered similar situations a few times. I said, "What do you think if I talk about 'new retail is all hype'?" The organizers were very moved, and then rejected me. It's a pity to think about it; if it had happened, they and Old Miao might have become famous. In recent years, concepts have come out quickly, and many bosses say they can't keep up. I tell them, no need to follow; stand firm on your stance. If someone speaks from the same stance as you, listen; if not, treat it like a fart—just let it go. We're clearly ducks, why bother learning the Quanjude way of thinking? Source: Old Miao Tears Apart Marketing (ID: yiheyingxiao) Author: Miao Qingxian Tips will be paid 400-2000 yuan once the tip is adopted.