On May 14, 2018, 360 mobile announced a two-year strategic cooperation with JD. The two sides will integrate their respective superior resources and carry out in-depth cooperation on 360 mobile phone’s first release right, Internet of things, boundless retail and so on. The 360 mobile phone, which has not been released for a long time, has not been widely noticed by consumers in the domestic mobile phone market, nor has it set off a buying frenzy.

Data shows that the annual sales of the Chinese mobile phone market totaled 449 million units in 2017. Huawei, OPPO, Vivo, Apple and Xiaomi are the top five smartphone manufacturers by sales, and the top five mobile phone brands occupy 78% of the market share, basically occupying the majority of the market. The total sales volume of 360 mobile phones in 2017 was about 5 million units, with a market share of only about 1.1%, which is far behind the top five. What is the problem behind 360 mobile phone?

First, the channel is not perfect

As far as online retail is concerned, mobile phone brands such as Apple, Huawei, OPPO and Xiaomi are overwhelmingly ahead of 360 mobile phones. According to the 2017 Home Appliance Online Shopping Analysis Report jointly released by The Saedi Research Institute of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and China Electronics News, the retail volume of China’s mobile phone online market accounted for about 27% of the total retail volume of the mobile phone market in 2017. That means more than 100 million phones were sold online last year alone. However, the online sales volume of 360 mobile phones is relatively poor for the whole smart phone market, only 4 million, accounting for 80% of the total sales volume, which is caused by the single online channel of 360 mobile phones.

360360 mobile and JD are strategic partners. 360360 mobile ranked sixth in the top ten online sales brands of JD mobile in 2017, which should be a relatively gratifying result. However, the strength of consumer electronics on platforms such as Tmall and Suning can not be underestimated. Focusing only on cooperation with JINGdong and ignoring other channels makes 360 weak.

360 mobile phone offline retail volume is also not optimistic. For the smartphone industry, offline retail still dominates. Data show that in the first half of 2016, about 250 million smartphones were sold in China, with offline sales accounting for 76.36%. In 2017, offline accounts for about 73%, although the proportion has declined, it still dominates. However, the offline sales of 360 mobile phones reached about 1 million units in 2017, which is a terrible performance for the mobile phone industry. The lack of efforts in offline retail of 360 mobile phones is the main reason for the dismal offline sales.

Each mobile phone brand is committed to developing offline market to occupy a larger market and attract more customers. Xiaomi and other brands continue to establish stores to expand offline sales. 360 mobile phone team has also realized the importance of offline retail and wants to develop offline retail. Now it has set up its own physical store, but it has no advantages compared with other smart phone brands in offline retail capacity.

Second, the industry competition is fierce

360 mobile entered the domestic mobile phone industry relatively late, so it has no competitive advantage in the mobile phone industry. In 2012, Qihoo launched a series of “360 special models” in collaboration with several mobile phone manufacturers, including Haier, TCL and Shaheen, but failed to deliver due to poor sales. In 2015, 360 mobile phone made a comeback, but the competition in the smartphone market in that year was white-hot, and consumers had already made choices about the mobile phones they wanted to buy. Therefore, neither the return in 2015 nor the strategic cooperation with JINGdong in 2018 made much waves in the mobile phone industry.

On the one hand, foreign smart phone brands occupy a part of the domestic market share. As we all know, Apple is undoubtedly one of the most popular brands, there are thousands of “apple fans”, they love Apple mobile phones, are the pursuit of Apple mobile phones, because of popularity, system and other aspects to buy apple mobile phones.

On the other hand, there are many domestic mobile phone brands, and the market is booming. In addition to Apple, Huawei, OPPO, Xiaomi, VIVO and other domestic brands occupy the majority of the market share. These brands entered the market earlier and are ahead of 360 in terms of popularity, marketing and word of mouth. Consumers are more inclined to buy their phones. Various reasons lead to 360 mobile phone can not occupy a larger market.

Third, the marketing strength is small

360 mobile phone propaganda efforts are small, resulting in poor visibility. Now is the era of Internet marketing, if a brand wants to develop well, then the necessary marketing means are indispensable. Smartphone brands such as Huawei and OPPO, 360’s rivals, pay attention to marketing. Huawei mobile phone spokesmen include hu Ge, Sun Yang, Yi Yangqianxi and other stars, different phone models will have different spokesmen; OPPO mobile phone audience is young people, its spokesmen are Li Yifeng, Yang Mi, Di Li Reba and other small flow, flow floret. Star power and fan power will further expand the popularity of mobile brands.

360 mobile phone has many deficiencies in marketing. In 2016, it was the biggest marketing promotion to invite Wang Kai to be the spokesperson and name Zhejiang SATELLITE TV’s Come on champion. Compared with other phones, the marketing effort was “tiny” and far from enough for a new brand.

Fourth, inaccurate positioning

Mobile phones are not the company’s main products, and 360’s purpose in entering the mobile phone industry is not “pure”. Zhou Hongyi, chairman of Qihoo 360, once said in an internal letter: to achieve the ultimate security on the mobile Internet, we must make our own mobile phones, so that we can deeply intervene in the bottom layer of the operating system, and build the real security of mobile phones on this basis, to achieve the security of user needs. In other words, Qihoo 360’s heart is not in the field of smart phones, but to expand its market share in the mobile Internet through smart phones.

The 360 phone doesn’t have a strong mobile feature. Now well-known mobile phone brands will have their own flagship brand features, such as Apple’s brand features are high-tech, safety performance, etc. For example, the main feature of Domestic OPPO is the function of charging for 5 minutes, talking for 2 hours and taking photos. : Xiaomi’s main brand feature is cost performance… On the other hand, 360 mobile phone has no strong mobile phone features and no selling points to attract customers, which is very unfavorable for the development of 360 mobile phone.

In addition to the above problems, there are also major problems in quality control of 360 mobile phones. According to many customers of 360 mobile phones, there are certain quality problems of their 360 mobile phones, such as excessive heat, automatic shutdown, frequent lag of mobile phones, slow update of mobile phones, etc. The quality control problem affected some users to buy 360 mobile phones.

Nowadays, there are many mobile phone brands and constant competition in the mobile phone market. The problems of 360 mobile phone itself make it difficult to develop and operate in this market.

Under the situation of internal troubles and external invasion, how should 360 mobile phone stand out

In such a fierce competition in the industry, 360 mobile phone in order to occupy more market share, but also from three aspects of the right medicine.

One is to focus on online sales while actively developing offline sales. Many mobile phone brands focus on online and ignore offline sales. However, as the bonus of online traffic has been exhausted, xiaomi and other brands have begun to explore offline retail.

In January 2018, the number of Mi Home in China exceeded 300, which is a milestone step for Xiaomi mobile phones. As of May 2017, huawei’s consumer business had 42,300 retail locations worldwide, up 19% year-on-year, with rapid growth in China. Setting up offline retail has increased the visibility of these brands and increased their market share.

360 mobile phone should learn from the advantages of offline sales of mobile phones, make repeated investigations in terms of location, population and so on, and choose to set up the optimal offline physical store. Offline sales not only allow customers to buy in the first time, but also go to after-sales service to solve problems in the first time. Offline experience will give customers a better experience, save time and cost, and promote the development of 360 mobile phones.

The second is to build a better quality 360 mobile phone. Any brand can not be built without the quality of the product, product quality is the absolute factor that determines whether the brand can succeed. Samsung used to dominate the domestic market, but its sales have declined since the explosion scandal. Gree’s mobile phone is also neglected because of quality problems. So a product quality can make or break a brand.

Therefore, 360 mobile phone should solve the problem based on customers’ feedback on its products, and develop a better and more attractive 360 mobile phone. As the saying goes, “Good wine needs no bush.” In the long river of history, a really good brand will come to the end. 360 mobile phones should focus on the quality of mobile phones, not to develop substandard products because of short-term benefits. Companies and brands that can really go far must be recognized and supported by customers.

Three is in advertising must be careful, must be a big deal. “Young people are often represented, but never tailored,” said the copywriting of 360 mobile Phone N series. 360 mobile phone is mainly targeted at young people, so advertisements should be placed in variety shows and TV shows that young people are interested in. Variety shows such as The Voice of China, Extreme Challenge and A Yearning Life are popular among young people. 360 mobile phone can implant advertisements in variety shows. Young people are more receptive to novelty and use mobile phones.

In addition, 360 mobile phone brand must select spokespersons that conform to the image of mobile phones and can bring popularity and promote mobile phone sales. Celebrity spokesmen can bring certain benefits to brands. Many fans will choose to buy certain products because their favorite stars speak for them. Mobile phone spokesmen can let customers know about 360 mobile phones and promote their mobile phones more.

Article/Liu Kuang public account, ID: Liukuang110