Making Money With Your Phone: The Mobile Internet Marketing Revolution

Chapter 4 New Thinking in Mobile Internet Marketing (4)
The social dependence
Among the users, middle-level managers with high incomes live in first-tier cities, namely Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and other economically developed cities.They are a typical busy family in the metropolis, facing tremendous pressure from life, work and other aspects. They have a strong desire to compete and pursue high-quality life and the satisfaction brought by big brands.After busy work and life, they are keen to carry out various interactive activities with friends on social networking sites and circles, such as playing puzzle games, reading friends' Weibo, etc., to relax their bodies and minds.

[-]. Transaction-dependent
The 25-34-year-old group is the main body.In terms of occupation, the proportion of middle-level managers and professionals is significantly higher, and their income levels are relatively high.The busyness of daily work makes them pursue a simple, convenient, and efficient life that can achieve everything without leaving home. Their attitude towards life is pragmatic and down-to-earth;These people are typical online shopping crowd.Due to their highly pragmatic spirit, they attach great importance to the convenience of online shopping, and the word-of-mouth of netizens is an important reference for them to make shopping decisions.

[-]. Information-dependent
Users in first-tier cities account for a relatively high proportion of this group. Most of them are middle-aged people with good career development. Most of them are middle-level managers, professionals and freelancers.They very much hope to improve their working ability through the Internet, and they most often use the Internet to send and receive emails, use search engines, and read news and information content.This kind of people hope to broaden their horizons through the window of the Internet, and are willing to solve various problems encountered in real life through the Internet.

[-]. Recreation-dependent
The proportion of users from fourth-tier cities is relatively high, and the crowd is relatively young.With an "entertainment first" attitude towards life and spend most of their time online, they are the legendary "net bugs".Unwilling to be mediocre, they like to find excitement and a sense of accomplishment in funny videos and online games.

An in-depth understanding of the needs of Internet users can help companies make correct marketing decisions. The above five types are just a rough classification. We are about to enter the era of quickly embracing every user, and everyone has their own individual needs. , everyone wants to enjoy the best online experience, and everyone wants to be a VIP.Therefore, Amazon and Taobao have begun to set up different personalized homepages and recommended pages for each user, and with the continuous development of the mobile Internet, there will be more and more such personalized services.

Start your own mobile Internet personalized service layout one step earlier, and you will be able to reap rich fruits one day earlier.As Professor Chen Chunhua, a famous Chinese corporate culture and strategy expert, said: "The change of customers is a fundamental fact. Most companies have confirmed this, but this understanding is not enough. We also need to be clear about what we do around customer changes. How to develop efforts requires companies to choose their own corporate strategies by thinking around customers."

1.6 Free is the most expensive
1.6.1 The product is not for sale
"Free is the most expensive" is one of the most easily overlooked traditional marketing rules, but it has been valued by more and more companies in the era of mobile Internet.Of course, the free strategy is not naive and always free, nor is it simply "free first, then charge", but in the era of mobile Internet, enterprises need to rethink the positioning and function of products, and should no longer simply regard it as a commodity. Sales, change the way of thinking, use it as a marketing tool, it can bring you greater benefits.

Gamers who are familiar with Giant Group know that the games of Giant Network always put free in the most prominent position.The games of the Giant Group are not only free, but also "pay wages" to the players. This approach makes traditional gamers feel incredible, but in the end the Giant Group's income is amazing.This model later became the marketing criterion of China's online game industry.

In the era of mobile Internet, free is the best marketing method, and some people even pointed out that the Internet economy should be a free economy.This is because the cost of delivering products to users via the Internet is close to zero. Therefore, the larger the mobile Internet user base of a product, the lower its cost per user.You use 100 million to develop a product, and let 1000 million mobile Internet users use it for free, that is, the average marketing cost per person is only 1 cents, which is very cost-effective, and it can also form word-of-mouth and enhance the promotion effect.Therefore, the use of products is free, and some users are charged by designing value-added services, or introducing users to offline physical stores through free experience of online products, etc. These are the reasonable profit models of mobile Internet marketing.

There are countless examples of free products, accumulating popularity, and profiting through other means: after 360 provided free antivirus services, its revenue has exceeded N times the sum of the previous antivirus industry; Pay to open a store plus portal exclusive advertising model.These cases all prove the value of free marketing.

1.6.2 Free Mobile Internet Rules

Of course, free isn't just in the literal sense.Some products, such as mobile phones, cannot be given away for free, but it is still necessary to conduct strategic thinking with free marketing.Xiaomi's Lei Jun knows this well.Lei Jun has always believed that in the Internet age, the only business that cannot be defeated is the courage to do business that does not make money.Therefore, he did not expect Xiaomi to make a profit within three to five years from the very beginning.

In January 2010, Lei Jun approached Tong Shihao of Qiming Venture Capital and explained his financing needs.Lei Jun said: "One thing I need to explain in advance is that Xiaomi Technology is not going to make a profit within 1-3 years. If Qiming wants to receive short-term benefits, it is best to invest carefully, or you can choose not to invest." Said to all investors.This idea is closely related to his idea of ​​using the Internet to make mobile phones.Lei Jun has been studying the laws of this field for nearly 5 years since he came into contact with the Internet.Gradually, he found that almost all successful businesses on the Internet did not make money at the beginning, and most of their services were free.

In fact, Lei Jun has been proficient in using the free rules of the Internet as early as when he founded Joyo.Joyo's competitor at the time was Dangdang.com, and Lei Jun used discounts to compete with Dangdang.com to win users.He gradually discovered that the core of e-commerce is to have more consumers than anyone else. As long as users exist, they will always continue to consume in the future.

As the first Internet mobile phone brand developed and sold under the Internet model, Xiaomi mobile phone will also have an Internet-based business model.For example, traditional mobile phone manufacturers rely on selling hardware to make money. It is almost an unshakable law. Even the Apple mobile phone that achieves the ultimate in Internet experience can make considerable profits from hardware.

Lei Jun is well aware that in the field of the Internet, free economics has long been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.Its core idea is to allow users to use the product for free, thereby forming the power of word of mouth and continuously expanding the user base. More user experience feedback can in turn help the product to be better improved, and a virtuous circle is formed.Tencent's QQ and WeChat, as well as 360 Security Guard, have become winners in the Internet industry through this model.

1.6.3 Create more profit points for free
Some people questioned Xiaomi's profit model: "Xiaomi's mobile phones don't rely on hardware to make money, so how do they make money?"

"How Tencent made money 10 years ago is how we make money today!" Lei Jun said.

The software client of Tencent QQ is free to use on Windows, but Tencent has become the most profitable Internet company in China.Because QQ is a software that everyone must use, and it is the entrance that everyone must pass through every day. If QQ can remain the entrance for users, as long as they find opportunities to make money, Tencent can join.

The same is true for 360, which provides security and antivirus for free, browsers, and management software for free, but when it becomes the desktop of most people, all software can only reach users through it, so it can make money from games and collect game unions. For the operating money, the group purchase fire collects the share fee of the group purchase, and finally it goes public.

Similarly, Lei Jun believes that the mobile phone is the only electronic device that is indispensable for people to carry with them. In the future, all information services and e-commerce services will be delivered to users through this device. Whoever can become the ruler of this entrance will be A new generation of kings. If he does not plan to make a profit in 3 to 5 years, Lei Jun actually wants to occupy an entrance. Like Tencent and 360, as long as there are enough users, he can make a profit through terminal sales of content and services in the future.

After a series of discussions, Lei Jun finally determined the strategy of Xiaomi mobile phone: develop the mobile phone brand on a non-profitable model, integrate software and hardware, and position the mid-range phone market - 1999 yuan, the price is not high or low, and the basic configuration is towards high-end phones On par, even ahead.The strong price/performance ratio forms a high entry barrier, which can easily become the competitive advantage of Xiaomi mobile phones.

Therefore, Xiaomi mobile phones were not prepared to use hardware to make money from the very beginning. The initial price was 1999 yuan, which was basically close to the cost, and the built-in MIUI system was also free.This subversive marketing model quickly achieved results - just one week after the Xiaomi mobile phone was sold, it was the ninth mobile phone brand in the Chinese market, ranking first among all domestic mobile phones, and its Baidu index was 36 4, reaching 2/3 of the popularity of iPhone [-]S.

The high cost performance enabled Xiaomi to sell 180 million units within half a year, but realized a small profit.Later, Xiaomi cooperated with China Unicom and China Telecom. Users can get Xiaomi mobile phones for free after prepaying a certain amount of phone bills, and developed another free model.

Not long after the Xiaomi mobile phone was released, many repair companies came to Lei Jun through their relationship and applied for Xiaomi repair.Only then did Lei Jun know that after-sales service is also a very profitable business, but he politely rejected these companies. "For Internet entrepreneurship, free is the kingly way. If maintenance makes a penny, it is our mistake. We must have such determination. This year our biggest action is to mobilize after-sales service, and we must solve after-sales."

This series of free strategies has made the popularity of Xiaomi mobile phones soaring. Lei Jun proudly explained how Xiaomi sold 30 units within 30 hours when it was first launched: "It only took half an hour for the first 10 units. Afterwards, we reminded Customer, it will be delivered in two months, do you still need it? Another 10 orders will be placed in the next 10 hours, and then we say, it will be delivered to you in December, do you still need it? Another 12 orders will be placed in the next 10 hours I believe that if these restrictions are all removed, there will be no problem with 10 million units in 30 hours. Therefore, the winner lies in who has the ability to say: I only want 300% profit. I want to be a kinder person .Things are good and cheap, this is the law of human development."

(End of this chapter)