The article is reproduced with permission from Sina Technology (ID: techsina)
"I will come out again to build my dream machine to welcome the 15th anniversary of Meizu."
When Huang Zhang, the founder of Meizu, appeared on the Meizu forum and wrote this sentence on February 11, 2017, all Meizu fans cheered, "Mr. Huang, I have the money to buy your flagship machine", one fan was excited left a message.
However, after a year of waiting, Huang Zhang reappeared on the forum, saying, "Due to time constraints, 15 is just a small test knife for me to return to Meizu after many years, and the 16 series that was launched later is the product I have built with all my strength. The 16 series follows closely. It will be launched around August.”
The Meizu 15, released on April 22, has a very narrow frame, a small circle that returns, and Luo Yun patterns on the antenna, which have obvious Huang style imprints. However, under the circumstance that new technologies such as full-screen and under-screen fingerprints are popular, paying tribute to the classic Meizu 15 does not bring too much desire to change for discerning users.
Meizu 15 is more like a product that connects the past and the future. It was announced again on the product at least, and Huang Zhang, the chief designer of Meizu mobile phones, is back. However, in the fiercely competitive Chinese smartphone market, after the failure of the Pro 7 and the test of the Meizu 15, how much time is left for Meizu?
"the more you hope, the harder you fall"
After Huang Zhang claimed that Meizu 15 was just a small test, many fans left a message saying "the greater the hope, the greater the disappointment".
In fact, after Huang Zhang announced that he would come out again to build the dream machine Meizu 15, the outside world has always had high expectations for this product. And Meizu is also raising the significance of this product to Huangzhang and Meizu itself.
"Mr. Huang makes products, if it's not aggressive, it's really easy. Think about what he's done before, are M8 and M6 ruthless? So we have plenty of confidence in Mr. Huang's products, and I believe they will be aggressive enough. "Meilan President Li Nan said in an interview with reporters before.
However, judging from the situation after the release of Meizu 15, it is obvious that Meizu fans are not satisfied.
A self-proclaimed "old charmer who has passed the age of no-brain fans" posted on the Meizu forum:
"Lao Huang's little marketing tricks, to be honest, I still admire them at a young age. Now, I don't want to say it. In short, Lao Huang is Meizu's biggest support and biggest obstacle. Don't worry. Let's use Lao Huang as a gimmick, recall the success of j.wong ten years ago, and summarize the successful experience.
For the old Meiyou, let's make a mobile phone that makes the old Meiyou straight up, just like the M8 back then. Leading the trend is not the responsibility of Meizu, but at least keeping up with the trend is the reason for Meizu to continue to buy Meizu mobile phones. "
Huang Zhang's repeated promotion and marketing rhythm of Meizu 15 has indeed brought a lot of negative reputation to this product.
Yang Zhe, senior vice president of Meizu, also admitted in an interview after the press conference that Meizu 15 is really just a product for Huang Zhang to try his best. Whether the context of the company is accurate or not, can the concept be accepted by consumers? There are also many old charmers who have lost a lot and replaced many young ones. Whether these people buy such designs is not a simple matter.”
Urgently clear brand and product positioning
After the separation of the Meizu brand and the Meizu brand in May 2017, Meizu has clarified the positioning of the two brands: the Meizu brand is more focused on the high-end market, targeting business, government and enterprise, high-end, and elite groups; while the Meizu brand is targeting the high-end market. In the youth market, take on the task of sales.
Although the positioning and differentiation of the two brands have been done, in fact, the brand image created by the Meizu brand has obviously not been successful, and the business attributes of the products are not enough.
According to a Flyme user report released by Meizu late last year,
Flyme's cumulative users exceeded 60 million. In terms of overall age distribution, 15-22 years old accounted for 31%, 23-35 years old accounted for 59%, and 36-45 years old and over 46 years old accounted for only 4%;
In terms of geographical distribution, second-tier cities accounted for 35%, third-tier cities accounted for 24%, fourth-tier cities accounted for 26%, and first-tier cities accounted for only 13%.
This means that Flyme users can also be roughly regarded as Meizu mobile phone users, and young users between the ages of 15 and 35 in second-, third-, and fourth-tier cities account for the vast majority. This poses a challenge to the high-end business image that the Meizu brand is eager to build.
On the one hand, only 8% of Meizu's own users meet this age group. Most Meizu users are not interested in the Buddhist marketing and business brand image elements that Meizu added on Pro 7 and Meizu 15. This was shown when Yang Zhe released a promotional poster on Weibo to warm up the Meizu 15. Existing Meizu users did not like and recognize Huang Zhang and Yang Zhe's unique brand concept for Meizu.
On the other hand, Pro 7 and Meizu 15 did not reflect enough business elements in terms of product attributes. Yang Zhe emphasized at the press conference to purchase hundreds of kilograms of pure gold material to color the back shell, costing millions to Samsung Customizing a new size display screen, a global haptic feedback system, etc., cannot constitute a necessary factor to impress the business crowd, not to mention competing for users from Huawei, Samsung and other players.
Confused product line and pricing strategy
"Meizu is the real flagship" is a kind of ridicule of netizens that Meizu's flagship products are not as good as Meizu's products in some configurations. Unfortunately, this ridicule happened to Meizu 15 again.
There are three products in the Meizu 15 series. The M15 uses the Snapdragon 626 processor, with 4GB of memory + 64GB storage, and the price is 1699 yuan; the 15 uses the Snapdragon 660 processor, and the storage is 4GB + 64GB, and the price starts from 2499 yuan; The Plus uses the Samsung Exynos 8895 platform, the storage is 6GB+128GB, and the price starts from 2999 yuan.
On the whole, the three products are well differentiated in terms of configuration and price, but it will be awkward to compare with the Meizu E3 just released a few days ago.
Charm Blue E3 uses Snapdragon 636 processor, with 6GB + 64GB storage, the price is 1799 yuan. Although Meizu M15 and M15 have a gap in camera performance, Meizu M3 has an advantage in basic memory combination. This will undoubtedly cause conflicts and confusion between the product lines of the Meizu brand and the Meilan brand in the choice of users.
The last flagship of the Meizu brand, the Pro 7, also faced this situation.
Although it has a distinctive screen design, it is equipped with MediaTek Helio P25 and Helio X30 processors, and the price is as high as 2880 yuan and 3580 yuan at the same time. As a result, the product was not recognized by the outside world, and the price plunged by a thousand yuan in a short period of time, and it was even exposed that the order had to be cut in the end.
Although the Meizu 15 uses a Qualcomm processor, the 660+4GB+64GB price of 2499 yuan has also attracted controversy. Compared with other brands of models at the same price, the competitiveness is limited.
Internal management crisis
Before the release of Meizu 15, Zhang Jia, the former director of the cultural and creative department of Meizu, bombarded Yang Zhe, the senior vice president of Meizu, has already attracted the attention of netizens and the media.
According to Zhang Jia’s description, since Yang Zhe joined the company in May 2017, he has proposed three plans: Meizu Cultural Assets Appreciation Plan, Meizu Financial Business Development New Concept and Flyme Cultural Assets Appreciation Plan, but they all ended in vain. At present, most of the staff of Bige Technology, a content marketing platform under Meizu that he founded, have also been lost.
In fact, this is just a microcosm of the organizational change of Meizu under the leadership and instigation of Huang Zhang.
Three months after Huang Zhang’s return, Meizu underwent a major organizational restructuring. Huang Zhang served as the chairman and CEO of Meizu and established three new business units—Meizu Business Unit, Meizu Business Unit, and Flyme Business Unit. Huang Zhang personally manages the Meizu business unit, Yang Zhe serves as the senior vice president and general staff, responsible for the marketing of the Meizu brand; and the Meizu brand is in charge of Li Nan.
In September last year, Pan Yikuan, the vice president of the Meizu business unit in charge of sales, left within four months of his employment; a few months later, Chu Chunmin, the vice president of sales of the Meizu business unit, and most of the employees in the sales team he led announced their resignation.
In December 2017, Huang Zhang adjusted the structure of Meizu again, set up new overseas business department, e-commerce business department and accessories business department, promoted CFO Qi Weimin to senior vice president of the company, and was on an equal footing with President Bai Yongxiang, intending to increase revenue and reduce expenditure to ensure profits; at the same time Further expand overseas markets and expand sales volume.
In addition to the structural adjustment, Meizu has eliminated 10% of the last position for three consecutive years, which has contributed to the profitability of Meizu since 2016.
Rather than saying that Meizu is engaged in an internal struggle, it is better to say that it is a rebalancing of power under the will of Huang Zhang. Just as Li Nan, who was going to lead Meilan to independence, was finally asked by Huang Zhang to cooperate with the Meizu Division and the Accessories Division in the channel. At the same time, Huang Zhang also withdrew the product definition and design authority of Meizu; at the Meizu 15 conference , Yang Zhe also replaced the combination of Bai Yongxiang and Li Nan as the main speaker.
In the interview after the Meizu 15 conference, Yang Zhe also talked about the recent Zhang Jia incident. He believes that this kind of situation is the omen that Meizu has been saving for a long time to change. "It has been difficult to reform since ancient times, and it is easy to change without seeing it once." He also said that with the deepening of reform, There will be more adjustments to the organizational structure and personnel later. "This incident further shows that Meizu has reached the point where it must be changed."
After the Zhang Jia incident, Huang Zhang immediately called Yang Zhe, saying, "No matter what, we must firmly move towards the correct brand strategy. A company should not be threatened by brutal cyber attacks or even organized online public opinion. and steadfastly follow your own path.”
Conclusion: Can Meizu 15 and 16 save Meizu?
After experiencing the cold winter of smartphones in 2017, Chinese manufacturers felt the cold winter again in the first quarter of 2018. According to the "Analysis Report on the Operation of the Domestic Mobile Phone Market in March 2018" recently released by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, a subsidiary of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, from January to March 2018, China's smartphone shipments were 81.870 million units, a year-on-year decrease of 27.0%.
Under the internal and external troubles, Meizu did come to the moment when it had to change. Huang Zhang, who has always only focused on products, and even thought that good products are the only way to solve problems, has also made drastic changes to Meizu in terms of brand, marketing, products, and channels after its return.
However, just like the return of Huang Zhang in 2014 and 2017, under such fierce competition and rapid changes in the smartphone industry, can spiritual leaders relying on Fengshen-style come out of the mountain to solve the problem again and again? For Meizu, to fully bet the hope of rebirth on Huang Zhang, who has been isolated from the outside world for a long time, I am afraid that there must be both expectations of success and preparation for failure.
After changing from a dream machine to the Meizu 15, which is a small test machine, Huang Zhang claimed that the 16 series that he has built with all his strength will be released in August this year. If Meizu 16 does not meet the expectations of the outside world, what should Meizu do?
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The above article is reproduced and does not represent the opinion of this newspaper