Media Tycoon since 1999

Chapter 70 This plan is so big...

Monday, October 3.

After clocking in at work, Zhao Xiaolong began to flirt with his colleagues shamelessly, as if the drunk live broadcast on Saturday was as if it had never happened.

It's just that almost no one paid attention to him, and even a good person like Zhang Tao just dealt with him.

Nothing happened in the morning, Gao Yang waited until Zhongtian Real Estate broke through the 30 yuan mark, reduced his position by 600 shares, and sold 1.8 in cash. In addition, there were more than 1000 yuan in cash in his account, and he made up 1.9.

During this period of time, I saved more than 4000 yuan in my wallet. I will withdraw the money tomorrow and return it with [-] shares of gold, which is still enough.

Then, Gao Yang approached Wan Hong and Feng Maonan successively, asking them to spare time in the afternoon to discuss a very important topic selection plan.

Then, He Jin, the manager of the advertising department, Zhang Tao from the editorial department, three senior reporters Sun Chengyi, Zhou Wenbin and Zheng Hai, and Fang Jian who was still in probation were notified.

It takes an afternoon to have a closed meeting.

It took Gao Yang half a month to prepare the planning plan for this group of topics, and he took time every day to revise and perfect it.

There are two plans prepared.

One is a PPT, introducing the topic selection plan.

A document is a detailed implementation plan.

At 02:30 in the afternoon, in the small conference room of the newspaper office, Gao Yang's laptop was connected to the projector, and opened the carefully crafted PPT.

"Hi everyone, this group of topics is tentatively named "Towards the Third and Fourth Tier Markets", and it took me half a month to draft, revise and perfect it.

Today, Mr. Nan, Wan Hong and all colleagues are invited to discuss this topic together, and then decide whether to do it or not, and how to implement it.

Let me first talk about the general background of thinking and planning this group of topics.

In late November last year, CPI held the third channel forum. Before that, until now, in the past four or five months, in my interviews, I heard IT companies and distributors often talk about two words:

The channels are flat, and there are third and fourth tier markets.

Let's take PC as an example:

I heard an interesting joke from an IT manager. He said that a few years ago, in the early 90s, a computer sold for 4 to [-] yuan, and the profit was tens of thousands of yuan.

In the coastal area, an agent sold a computer for 10 yuan to a township enterprise. The owner of the township enterprise lamented that he did not expect high-tech products to be so cheap.

A few years ago, the computer business was so profitable. We all know that Lenovo also started as an agent of computers. After Lenovo started its own brand, the agency business was separated out and Shenma Company was established. It is still the largest IT distributor in China. one.

But now, the profiteering model of selling computers has disappeared, and the price of branded computers has already fallen below 6000 yuan, or even [-] yuan, and it is not bad to sell a computer for a few hundred yuan.

At the same time, in the field of PCs, in addition to a dozen or so international brands, plus domestic brands, there are also [-] or [-] large and small brands.

Then, there are computer cities that have sprung up all over the country, and tens of thousands of DIY businesses.

The PC market, from a blue ocean market with huge profits, is rapidly evolving into a red ocean market with fierce competition and meager profits.

I heard that in order to reduce costs, a domestic PC brand held a meeting for three days and three nights to discuss, and the production cost of a PC was only reduced by tens of dollars.

This is the big market background.

Next, let's talk about product channels, which is also the focus of the CPI National Edition.

Now, why are IT manufacturers and big distributors at the general generation level keen to talk about channel flattening, because this is a general trend and something that is happening.

In the past, for a PC brand, the most common channel structure was the four agency levels of 'general generation-generation-provincial distribution-dealer', because the profit of selling computers is high, and the gross profit of a computer is thousands or even tens of thousands. , everyone has food to eat.

Now, the profit margin of a computer may only be a few hundred dollars, which cannot support such a multi-level channel structure, and can only compress the middle layer, such as a first-generation or provincial distributor, that is, an agent who simply moves boxes. business.

In the future, the more ideal channel structure may be a simple level of 'general agent-distributor'.

The general agent will not disappear, because the commercial aspects such as PC entry of brand manufacturers are all done by the general agent.

Dealers will not disappear either, because dealers directly face industry users and individual home users.

Then, the general agent will not be as easy as it is now. The brand manufacturer is not a fool. He will not set up one or two national general agents like now, and he will set up more general agents.

It is impossible for the general agent to carry boxes as easily as they do now. They also have to expand channels, go to various provinces, cities and even prefecture-level cities, and hold thousands of distributors in their hands.

As for domestic brands, such as Lenovo's regional agency model, which has set up two to three thousand regional agents across the country, can you sit back and relax?

No, Lenovo also needs to sell to the channel. Lenovo's regional agents have performance appraisals, and the pressure is very high.

The general trend of channel flattening has arrived. On the one hand, Lenovo has to face competitors, and on the other hand, it also faces the supervision of the channel system. For example, cross-selling of goods between regional markets will destroy the price system.

This is the background of channel flattening.

There is also a big market background, which is to develop the third and fourth tier markets.

In the past, the PC market was mainly concentrated in the primary and secondary markets, that is, the four major first-tier cities, and provincial capitals in economically developed regions.

Now the primary and secondary markets have become saturated, while the third and fourth tier markets, that is, the provincial capitals in underdeveloped regions, and these markets dominated by prefecture-level cities across the country, are ushering in a period of market explosion.

For example, Jinyang City in Shuchuan, where my hometown is located, is a third-tier city, which is relatively low among the third-tier cities in the country.

In 98, Internet cafes appeared in Jinyang. At the same time, various enterprises, institutions, and government agencies began to purchase computers for office work, and even some families with good economic conditions began to buy computers.

PC is being popularized to industry and home users all over the country, and the trend is getting faster and faster, and PC is also becoming a mass-selling technology product.

Therefore, the third-tier and fourth-tier markets have become an incremental market for PCs. Branded PC manufacturers and first-line distributors are eager to develop the third-tier and fourth-tier markets.

However, the larger the PC sales scale, the thinner the profit per unit, which is also an inevitable trend.

Therefore, channel flattening and third- and fourth-tier market development are closely linked.

If brand manufacturers and first-tier distributors want to do a good job in the third-tier and fourth-tier markets, they can only compress the channel structure and seize distributors in the third-tier and fourth-tier markets.

It's just that brand manufacturers and first-line distributors don't know where the IT merchants in the third- and fourth-tier markets are, what are the strengths, scales, and capabilities of these merchants...

Little of this information is known.

In this regard, it is our CPI's advantage. There are hundreds of IT media in the country, and there are only a few media that pay attention to IT channels. Only our CPI has the qualifications and strength to investigate and interview the third and fourth tier markets.

The above situations are the general background of my planning for the topic selection of "Towards the third and fourth tier markets"..."

Gao Yang spent a lot of time explaining the planning background of this group of topics, because even Wan Hong, Zhang Tao and others do not have such a clear understanding of the general trend of IT channels.

At this time, Gao Yang's PPT had only spoken for three pages, and it hadn't officially started yet.

The eyes of everyone sitting in the conference room were already bright.

Such a set of topic planning is really...

So grand...

(End of this chapter)