China must continue to move forward in the practice of positioning theory, and move toward a living division structure that is becoming more sophisticated with income, concepts, and environmental changes, and finally achieve the goal of raising national income and raising wealth. .
The entire supply business community, industry, economic activities, and factor restructuring must be directed toward the consumer’s mental structure.
Content Source:
On September 24, 2019, at the “Global 50th Anniversary of Positioning Theory” sponsored by Trout Partners, Zhou Qiren, a professor at the National Development Research Institute of Peking University, gave a wonderful comment on the contents of the guests in the ceremony. Thinking about positioning theory.
The text is as follows:
Although I am a layman for positioning theory, I have not done business, let alone commercial practice. But today I listened to the sharing of the day, and I was touched a lot. Then I will share with you what I have heard after the collision of the content in my mind.
Targeting drives social division
About the positioning theory, I have learned a little bit, but today I listened to everyone’s sharing and felt that I knew nothing about it. I think that positioning theory still has a very deep side.
For me, the first touch was that it caused me to think about economic growth, economic development, and the underlying logic.
Economic research has been driving the development of this discipline since the “Adam Smith issue.” Before Adam Smith, there was no economics discipline. At that time, he taught moral philosophy at the University of Glasgow, was invited to be a tutor by a British traditional aristocrat, and later became the tutor of the British Finance Minister.
This is the tutor training that gives him the opportunity to move from the Scottish Highlands to Europe.On the continent of mainland China, I saw many different people and different phenomena.
So, he asked a question: Why do some local people live a better life, and some local people have a bad life? People in wealthy places have high wealth and living standards, and many people in poor places are very hard.
Economics is beginning to be driven by this issue. In so many countries and regions around the world, every ordinary person and every family wants to live a better life. But why do some places have fulfilled their wishes, and some places have not done so? This is the fundamental problem of economics.
In 1776, Adam Smith published his own famous work, The Wealth of Nations, which gave an answer, an economic theory – “division of labor.”
The people who live a better place are not because they have a lot of strength, not because they have three heads and six arms, but because of the high productivity of wealthy places. Because of their meticulous division of labor, leading to specialization, each person, every organization, every institution, every region is focused on one thing, and the efficiency is improved beyond imagination.
The book “The Wealth of Nations” tells the story of the British factory. At that time, the clothing needed to be stitched. This needle is a simple but important item. If this product is not divided, one person can only do one or two a day, but after the division of labor, the efficiency is directly increased by more than 2,400 times.
This was observed by Adam Smith in the past, so the key to widening the gap between the rich and the poor is the division of labor. Once the division of labor develops, the economic level will increase.
After the division of labor, people are more focused, and practice makes perfect, and there is very little waste in the middle; more importantly, knowledge can be accumulated professionally and in large quantities, and then armed to human production. This is the theory of division of labor.
Today, we see that the contemporary economy is no longer a simple division of labor in the factory that Adam Smith saw. It has become an industry, urban and rural, regional, and even refined into products.
What is a global supply chain? No product can be completely completed in a factory, and it is supplied by a global organization. An idea, a patent, an accessory, a part, a color, are assembled globally, this is our life today.
For example:
The Peninsula Hotel at this venue today has a doorman at the door. The duty is to stand there and be responsible for the door. Through the “station”, it stood out above the income of Chinese farmers. But when you go back to the country to stand like this, there will be no income. What is the reason? Because people in the city have money, they can afford to get the door. Why do people in the city have money? Because of the meticulous division of labor in the city, productivity is highly developed.
This is the theory that economics has been talking about for many years. Now that we have realized the secret of the accumulation of national wealth, the next question to be discussed is what conditions promote the division of labor? What factors hinder the division of labor? This is a set of economics.
It can be said that the division of labor has already appeared. It is a human activity, but itNo one answered where this phenomenon came from. There is no answer in economics.
For example, how can someone specialize in doing a simple, repetitive thing? Who is the order? There are countless people and countless industries in the world. Who will let them do different jobs separately?
Today’s positioning theory allows me to see the dynamics of the division of labor. It can be used by some people to refine and summarize the experience of past history into a report, and then choose a direction and give up other directions. Specialization is like this.
The innumerable people who explore in countless directions will form an increasingly interesting structure of division of labor, which will make the source of productivity increase more enthusiastic. This is my first great harvest today.
Economics excels at giving a question after the phenomenon appears, and then giving an answer. But for the enterprise, its task is not to explain what has happened, but to choose how to act and how to operate.
No matter what kind of action or what kind of operation, it is human behavior. This gives us a lot of inspiration: if you actively follow a certain concept and a routine to engage in activities, you can greatly increase productivity.
For example, the rapid development of our Chinese economy has been carried out from the point of reform and opening up.
How come up? That is, division of labor becomes an increasingly conscious and active behavior. The word “concentration” in the industry is to give up a lot of things and focus on one thing. Today, the specialized division of labor has become a more conscious corporate behavior, corporate strategy.
Businesses need to actively target
Which face should we look at? Where do you get the information signal to determine where you should go? This is the second more educational achievement I got today.
Entrepreneurs can’t think that I am so powerful. I can’t think that I have the skills to study engineering. I have experience in the market. I have brought people to the team. I have been able to find money because I can’t tell you the next. Where are you going?
But I listened to everyone today.Sharing, can tell you where to go, where is the power to go – in the consumer, in the mind structure of the consumer.
Customers have never told us anything clearly, but our job is to guess the psychology of consumers and guess what they think. This is very powerful.
Like the name of the fellow chicken (formerly known as Feixi old hen), is the consumer telling you to change the name? no. In the past we said “customer is God”, what is God? God is that he has nothing to say, but there is a power that drives us to guess what he likes. This is the most mysterious force that drives the division of labor. This game never has a head.
Everyone can recall that the things we pursued from small to large, the ones we pursued in those years, never clearly told us how to catch up, it needs us to guess, we need to ponder and understand. This is worth chasing.
In fact, the original theory of positioning theory about mind (Mind) is not the word “heart”. But our Chinese translation is amazing. You want to catch up with something. It’s not enough to have a brain, you have to be careful. For this, we Chinese are very particular about it.
Customer-centric, we have started to go to the market, and this concept has gradually established and become popular in the Chinese industry.
For example, customer-centric Huawei. Why is customer-centric? Ren Zhengfei said the most plain: “A company that spends money is open to paying employees, paying taxes to the government, paying suppliers, and only customers are giving you money. All resources come from customers and meet Customers, this is a business process, and customer-centricity is a matter of course.”
The positioning theory has taken a step forward based on this. What is customer-centric? Customer’s needs, did the customer say it? Not only did not say, it is still changing. So you have to constantly chase and constantly use resources to meet the needs that customers have never said clearly. This is the enterprise game.
Entrepreneur is a group of people with strong personality and personality, but the positioning theory is very good. It can turn a strong personality entrepreneur from “centered on me” to “user-centered”. To meet customers.
If a country is like this, it will send the right signals for you to carry out the correct division of labor, and the national wealth will be greatly improved.
So, in the mind structure of consumers, this knowledge is not allowed.
For example, the melon used car has no middleman to make a difference. Don’t underestimate the last sentence. My first reaction is to say that this is not a middleman, but the important thing is that Do not make a difference.
In our work, positioning can’t just use it as a sentence. The most important thing is to publish it. Otherwise, when you discuss it, you said that he said West, and if you say that he is wrong with him, it will delay the work efficiency. .
The real learning is in this place, this tooIs a company’s core competitiveness.
So, this is the second point that has had a big impact on me. It is the entire supply enterprise, industry, economic activities, and factor reorganization. It is necessary to exert force in one place, that is, to force the consumer’s mental structure.
Targeting, positioning, is to set this bit. It is not a one-off process, but a process, and must be an evolutionary process of positioning and repositioning.
Because the environment has changed, the opponent has changed, the market has changed, the technology has changed, the popular concept has changed, the mind of the consumer has changed constantly, and the mind of God in our minds has also changed.
No wonder corporate positioning is a long-term, multi-year history, the reason is here. This has actually become a long-term habit of a company. All our efforts and all resources are directed at the changing minds of consumers, not just the immediate interests.
We sometimes guessed a little closer, sometimes guessing a little further, but regardless of distance, it has become a remarkable force on the road to growth of Chinese companies.
Targeting has many levels
Today, the previous guests have said that it is not only the positioning of what products to produce, but also the products that are produced in the minds of consumers.
In my opinion, this statement is correct, but not complete.
For example, Langjiu is positioned as “one of the two major sauces”, and consumers are slowly accepting and recognizing, can you sit back and relax? no. Next, you have to concentrate all resources, enterprise management, technology research and development, reserves, etc., so that Langjiu is as good as Maotai, even better than Maotai.
I was moved by Wang. why? Because the big problem encountered by China’s national economy is the quality problem. In general, we have passed the number of people. Although there are some repeated cases, the overall situation is still surplus in the short term.
However, quality is a big issue. Interestingly, we have been studying the quality revolution with Foshan entrepreneurs for the past two years, and we have found that the study is not shallow, because the quality is not defined.
What is quality? More expensive is the quality? If you understand this, the national economy will be paralyzed.
Later, we found a practitioner of the American economy, because of the Great Depression, the fate of the fall, ran to be a quality inspector. This experience led him to discover that industrial companies always produce a large number of defective products, and the quality inspection methods are very backward. Each time you can only find the defective product by continuous inspection, and then correct the defective product.
So, he asked the question “Why don’t you do things right at first”, and then put forward “what is to do things right.” On this basis, he defined the quality: quality is the requirement.
This sentence is not allowed. Of course, you can disagree with this statement, but you must have a definition of this product.
For the hotel, it is divided into different star ratings to meet the different needs of consumers; then, consider the mental structure behind different needs, that is, guess their pockets in order to provide a service that is more suitable for him. After these are completed, we must also consider the requirements of different star-rated hotels, we must clearly define them, and then let my products and my services meet the requirements infinitely close.
From this perspective, defining quality is also a position. Don’t use “high quality” as a slogan, but do it.
Quality is to set an indicator for a customer, for a demand, for a purchasing power. The setting of the indicator should consider how it affects the environment, what effect it has on the human body and the human mind, to reach the lower limit that human civilization can tolerate, and then increase its upper limit as the economy grows.
At present, China’s economy is the second largest in the world, manufacturing is the world’s largest, and trade products are the largest in the world, but what about quality?
Don’t think that people with high incomes will encounter quality problems. My years of experience in observing the economy tells me that the poorest people who suffer the worst products are the poor. Because the income of the poor is originally small, they can’t afford anything good, so the things they buy quickly break down, and then buy a bad one.
If you observe the third world and observe China’s low-income population, you find that they are all suffering from poor quality products: they are poor, they don’t buy, they don’t, they buy badly, so they buy, and finally buy. Spending money together is much more expensive than the rich people paying for a cost-effective product.
The “trap into poverty” that we usually say is the truth. Back and forth in poverty can not toss out, one of them is because you have low income, so you can only provide low-priced products, low prices mean low quality; then kill each other, you are cheaper, I am cheaper than you. This way, there is no effect on the improvement of the national economy, and even to a certain extent hinder the development of the national economy.
So, back to the definition of quality, you first need to define a set of requirements, and then let the product meet the requirements, which is also a positioning problem. Positioning, not what products are produced by optical positioning, but also positioningWhat kind of quality products are produced, if they cannot be done after the positioning is completed, this is a system problem and a joke.
Chinese entrepreneurs want to put global consumers in their hearts
Entrepreneurs want to put consumers in the center of the mental structure. At any time, entrepreneurs, cattle, capital, and unicorns must also serve the consumers in the heart. This position should be clear.
Ask everyone a question: How big is the heart of Chinese entrepreneurs? How wide?
I have been observing the Chinese economy for several years. I think the question I asked is really a problem. Why do you say that? I have gone to many small countries in the past two years and found a phenomenon. It is not necessarily accurate to come out and discuss with you.
I have found that many small countries also have large global companies, such as Maersk Line from Denmark, which has only 42,000 square kilometers and 5.7 million people in Denmark.
In addition, several hearing aid companies in Denmark are also at the forefront of the world, the largest one is called Oticon. Nowadays people’s life expectancy is generally long, but from the age of 60, hearing will decline, so the hearing market is not allowed.
After more than 100 years ago, a husband found his wife’s ears to be unhealthy. Then he saw a hearing aid from the United States when he saw the British Queen’s coronation ceremony, so he tried every means to find the hearing aid. Later, he found that people who could not hear other ears also had this request. Seeing this demand, he gave up other things, specialized in the import trade of hearing aids, and finally became his own production, research and development, and became the world’s largest hearing aid production company.
You will find that the world of entrepreneurs in small countries is very big, Denmark, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, Israel, and their companies do the same products for all human beings, doing global business.
And now many Chinese entrepreneurs seem to look at it. It is very glorious to do something for the Chinese. I am not saying that it is not glorious to make a big market in China, but the arithmetic is here, you are bigger. It is about 1.4 billion people.
The world’s 7 billion people, the active population is 3 billion. Fortunately, at least one Chinese company’s products are serving 3 billion people. It is Huawei. Today, it has departments, branches and agencies in 170 countries, fighting globally. This was learned at the end of May this year when Huawei saw its annual report.
Why is this? We have a self-limitation of mental structure. There is a magic barrier in our hearts: we feel good things, maybe others will not appreciate them.
How much has our liquor sold overseas? Chinese people drink white wine so happy, do you think foreigners are not happy? This is a question of belief. There are many places in human beings that are common.
Good things for Chinese people may be good for all human beings. You must have the desire to self-realize, set the point around the world, and go to the market with the world.
This time we also visited the Royal Dutch Blue Porcelain Company in the Netherlands, which is the porcelain that was passed down from China through the “Silk Road”. Then it was introduced, researched and developed, and it was invented by a blue color. After the visit, it was discovered that the company with a business of 6 million euros suddenly opened up a map of the world and pointed out where we sell things in the world.
Last night, our entire team discussed this matter. Some of the Chinese entrepreneurs do 6 million euros of business, but how many of us speak the world map?
Of course, when the conditions are not mature, it is wrong to play outside, but from the perspective of mental structure, I think that a great force for Chinese companies is the global view. If Chinese companies are globally deployed, we can bring more reasonable information from the world to the Chinese, bring it to the Chinese government, and bring it to the Chinese people and the public to promote China’s progress.
As a call, “going out” has been called for many years, but we have a lot of magic barriers. We feel that language is not good and culture is not good. In fact, this is a psychological obstacle for Chinese nationals.
I finally found the root of this problem on the map of China, on our map:
The west is the Himalayas, the Kunlun Mountains, and the Tianshan Mountains. According to today’s technology, there are few people who can pass. In the south, there are the South China Sea and the East China Sea. In the past, Zheng He went to the west and went west along the mainland. He never thought that he could go east. We also don’t know what kind of big world there is outside the East China Sea. Because no one has tried it, no one has ever seen it. To the north is the prairie. We said that the world is like this, and can’t get out. We always think that the world is China, China is the world, the other is insignificant, and the interest is not big.
The people who have a good and powerful life now have a lot of mental deficiencies. According to a report released by McKinsey at the end of last year, there are 110 multinational corporations in China, about one more than the United States, but the international revenue of Chinese multinational corporations only accounts for 20%.
This is actually a question of mental structure. Chinese entrepreneurs should open their minds and become more interested in the outside world. Our diligence, hard work, and positioning strategy can be used in the world, and there is no reason to go.
In retrospect, there are many multinational companies in small countries with a population of millions: Nestlé is Switzerland and the world’s largest food company; IKEA started in the village and then made it all over the world.
There is a dialectic here: the country is small and the market is small. Since I know that this small market can’t raise big fish, soBe sure to go out and be interested in the outside world.
We are a big market. That’s right, but we say that China is a big market all day, and everyone is very satisfied. So, this time I take this opportunity to raise this issue:
In terms of mental structure, our entrepreneurs must not only put Chinese consumers in their hearts, but also put consumers around the world in their hearts.
Several people in the room don’t know Shakespeare? But when you go abroad to go to the same venue, you ask a few people to know Li Bai. The answer to “know” is probably as much as answering “don’t know” now.
Why? Because foreigners can’t appreciate Li Bai, the Chinese appreciate Shakespeare. This is why? Because some people are trying to translate Shakespeare’s work and spread this culture. On the contrary, we are not enough to spread the power of our own culture.
As long as we Chinese like it, you have to believe that most people like it too. You don’t want to say that this is Asian. This is insurmountable. There is no such thing. Entrepreneurs in our great powers have reason to expand our minds a bit.
So, we have to turn “enterprise-centric” into “customer-centric” and focus on the customer’s mental structure. We not only decide what products to produce, but also what quality products to produce, because quality problems have problems with the recognition of mental structure. Your things are good, not enough. How do people feel that your things are good?
Know: You feel good with consumers, there is still a long way to go, there are still many studies to learn from, to study. Therefore, this is a difficult battle.
About how to make everyone feel that your things are good, we have a word in Chinese called “quality”, what is “quality”? The product is three mouths, it is people saying hello. It is the customer who recognizes you, and this requires a good positioning.
Therefore, China must continue to move forward in the practice of positioning theory, and move toward a living division structure that is becoming more sophisticated with changes in income, concepts, and environment, and ultimately achieves an increase in national income. Raise the big goal of wealth.
We should work together for this, thank you!