November 7th, two o'clock in the morning, Hilton Hotel.
Fang Zhuo, who was suffering from jet lag, slowly opened his eyes, feeling as energetic as when he was lying in bed three hours ago.
Because he had an appointment with Smith, the global senior vice president of IDG, tomorrow afternoon, he forced himself to go to bed early even if he was not sleepy. However, various things were spinning in his mind, and he became more energetic and energetic as he thought about it.
I simply got up and continued to use my computer to look at the Internet in the United States at this time.
Compared with China, which is vigorously developing Internet infrastructure, although the United States is also richer, it has not yet had the birth of social media that seems to make the Internet suddenly come alive. Fang Zhuo found a few things when looking at consumers' reviews of Apple's Ipod on Amazon.
It feels like a bunch of demons are dancing around on the Internet.
Amazon's model is similar to JD.com's, but it is now quite complete and mature, with warehousing, logistics, multiple categories, and user reviews.
Because consumers who buy Ipods mostly use English slang, Fang Zhuo found it a little difficult to read.
——“This music player is great! I can finally put all my favorite songs into one player! Except it’s a bit expensive, it’s really great!”
——"I bought it two days ago, but the sound quality is not as good as the Walkman, and the power is not as good as the Walkman. Now I'm wondering why I spent $399 to buy it! In addition, it doesn't support Windows. Every time I use it, I have to go
My brother uses his Mac in his room, do I have to buy another Apple computer just for this gadget???"
——"I think it's trendy."
——"A product that surprised me, it would be better if some shortcomings could be changed."
——"Protest, why are there only white people? This is racial discrimination!"
Fang Zhuo learned in detail about the feedback of real users on the market about the Ipod. When he saw the remarks about "racial discrimination", he almost fell off his chair with joy. He quickly continued to scroll down, trying to find more fun on the web page.
It's a pity that the Free Beacon at this time was not as fragmented as it would be later, and its happiness was limited.
Generally speaking, consumers on Amazon’s evaluation of the Ipod is average to above average. Many comparisons are made with the classic Walkman. Everyone can clearly tell the quality of the sound quality.
Fang Zhuo had a physical Ipod in his hand, and after reading the iTunes research information sent by Pan Ben, he felt that the development context of this industry in the US market was quite clear.
Well, there is another current situation. Websites that aim to share mp3 music formats for free are being besieged by copyright representatives.
Therefore, subsequent versions of Ipod support Microsoft + iTunes copyright negotiation + the difficulty of obtaining free online MP3 music has increased. These factors finally allowed Ipod to replace Walkman and become the best-selling music player in the 21st century.
It also successfully enabled Apple to turn the corner and have the ability and spare energy to develop epoch-making mobile phone products, leading to its market value becoming more than 300 times what it was at this time.
Fang Zhuo wrote down his scattered thoughts on the computer until four o'clock in the morning when he finally felt sleepy, turned over to bed, and fell asleep.
At nine o'clock the next day, Fang Zhuo woke up slightly tired. He used the intercom phone to check on the employees, then had a simple breakfast and called Yang Wan and Guan Jin to the room.
As the vice president of the marketing department, Yang Wan is the only one at this level who followed Fang Zhuo to the United States. Because he is still quietly learning English after work, which is really admirable.
When Fang Zhuo was selecting people, he was surprised to see the name of this retired athlete. After asking, he got an answer that said, "Study more to feel at ease." This is in line with his impression of always being low-key and hard-working.
As for Guan Jin, she is Xu Huaizhe's school girl in "Win in China". She graduated from Beijing Finance and Trade. She practiced her spoken English well in school, plus she has quite solid financial skills. This time she has really joined the job.
Fang Zhuo's eyes.
Fang Zhuo briefly cared about the jet lag of the next two people, and then assigned tasks to them.
"Yang Wan, everyone is relatively unfamiliar with the market here. While the procedures for M1 have not been completed in the past few days, you can train the other five people on the use of professional vocabulary."
"Also, this trip, the six of you plus you will be divided into two groups at most to talk to the channel."
"The United States is too big, and many conditions are different in different states. Our time is precious now and we cannot distribute goods in detail. Our main target is national chain stores and supermarkets."
"As for the higher-ups, I'm here to talk to you. When we need you to connect, don't ask questions."
After hearing these words, Yang Wan felt that the situation he was about to face was quite blank, but he still gritted his teeth and accepted it. The division of labor between different functions was like this. The boss took care of his part, and the employees had to take care of their own part.
If the boss can even understand the situation of supermarkets from top to bottom, then what are they going to do?
"Mr. Fang, I will take people to visit the field in the past two days and inquire." Yang Wan said, "I heard that there is a Chinatown in New York. If it is difficult to find out the situation at the front line of supermarkets, then I will ask here.
people."
Fang Zhuo's eyes lit up, it made sense, but he didn't know much about the situation in Chinatown, and presumably Vice President Smith of IDG didn't know either. If he wanted to find someone in this regard, he didn't know if there was any domestic connection.
He pondered for a while, unable to be sure at the moment, so he first told Yang Wan what he knew about the situation of domestic supermarkets as a reference. However, this kind of thing was not accurate, and it mainly relied on his understanding after contact.
"Guan Jin, just follow me. You will be responsible for the accounting between channels. We will set up a profit line based on the actual situation. We can discuss this line." Fang Zhuo did not give specific figures, he was sincere in his heart.
The feeling is that as long as we make money, we can negotiate. "I will check for any gaps and remind me not to forget any arrangements."
The pricing of M1 is US$319, and the cost price exported from China to the United States is US$240, with a gap of almost US$80 in the middle. Because the versatility of different channels needs to be considered, contact with the first channel is more important.
Otherwise, if the prices of different channels are different, there will be no synergy in the distribution of products, and it may still have negative effects.
"Mr. Fang, are you going to see Mr. Smith this afternoon?" Guan Jin asked, very suitable for the role.
"Well, Smith is Xiong Xiaoge's friend in IDG in the United States. We will rely on his connections during this trip." Fang Zhuo nodded. This was something he and Pan Ben confirmed yesterday.
Guan Jin asked: "Then should we prepare some gifts for the meeting?"
Fang Zhuo had a feeling that this person was more of an assistant than an administrative assistant. He shook his head and said, "Well, no need. I've already brought some good tea and cultural artifacts."
Guan Jin had no questions and continued to listen to the boss's instructions quietly.
When noon was approaching, Fang Zhuo took the two of them and five others to have dinner together. While chatting and laughing, he did not put any pressure on everyone, but encouraged everyone to regard this as a good opportunity to contact overseas markets.
Now that M1 has chosen to enter the US market, these people have seized the first opportunity by showing up in New York through the language barrier.
If M1 works well here, there is no reason to abandon other mature markets, such as European countries, which may be a second test for the people in front of you.
Sometimes, people need some luck, like Guan Jin, she is not the latest to join this line of work, there is also Qi He from the marketing department, he was only recruited last month, and at the end of the month he was selected because of his speaking ability Go abroad together.
It is said that this person likes to watch foreign movies, so he helped translate subtitles when he was in school. Sometimes he also went to the English corner to look for his classmates. Over time, he developed his spoken English very well.
As the old saying goes, if you have too many skills, you won't have enough time to study when you need to perform.
At two o'clock in the afternoon, Pan Ben came to pick up Fang Zhuo, and Guan Jin also got on the bus as his assistant.
"Mr. Pan, how are you? Did you see Smith today?" Fang Zhuo asked.
"Yes, I did." Pan Ben said awkwardly, "But the time was very short, he was very busy, and he didn't give me a chance to express my feelings."
Fang Zhuo smacked his lips and continued to ask: "How did Mr. Xiong arrange it? Is this relationship in place? Can the M1 procedures be completed?"
"There is no problem with the procedure. M1 is not a contraband, and there are similar products on the market here." Pan Ben shook his head, "Mr. Xiong said that this was a good friend of his in the United States. The specific arrangements... I'm afraid are also very complicated. It’s difficult to arrange it, as their positions in the group are not subordinate to each other.”
Fang Zhuo frowned, this is different from what he said when he came here. Are we talking about subordinates?
He looked at the foreigners outside the car and said, "Let's talk about it after we meet. The boat will go straight to the bridge."
At 2:45 pm, in the New York office of IDG Capital, Fang Zhuo, Pan Ben, and Guan Jin met IDG Global Senior Vice President Smith, who was five minutes late. He was a tall white man with a strong visual appearance.
The senior vice president made a phone call while entering the office. He nodded to the three Chinese people who had been waiting for a long time, and then pointed to his mobile phone.
Fang Zhuo stretched out his hand and motioned for this person to get busy with work first.
However, they didn't expect that the other party's phone conversation lasted half an hour, and the three of them had been waiting for forty or fifty minutes since they entered the office.
Fang Zhuo looked calm, trying to figure out what this situation meant. At the very least, Lao Xiong's favor was not as important as he thought.
"Hello." Smith hung up the phone, shook hands with the three of them one by one, and apologized first, "I have a rather urgent investment. I'm really sorry for wasting your time."
"It's okay, Mr. Smith, work is the most important thing." Fang Zhuo replied in English, and then added, "Mr. Smith can use English, and I have no problem communicating."
Smith laughed and changed his poor Chinese into his native language: "Chinese is too difficult. I have studied it for more than a year and still can't pronounce it correctly. You must sound weird."
"Language needs to be used frequently to learn quickly." Fang Zhuo said with a smile.
Smith first praised: "Mr. Fang's speaking is very fluent."
Then, he added: "China is an important emerging market in the world, and it is very good to master such a foreign language."
The two chatted like this, and Smith's conversation was not as negligent as his late arrival and phone call showed.
Soon, Fang Zhuo brought the topic down to business.
The smile on Smith's face faded, and he made no secret of his opinion and said directly: "I don't think this kind of gadget spliced on hardware has any future. What I know is that Apple's Ipods don't have very good sales."
"Fang, if you want to expand the market for this product in the United States, I advise you not to waste your energy and time. Why not take this trip to see the beautiful New York and the hot girls."
Fang Zhuo was stunned. He had already thought about the level here while waiting for the call to end, but he didn't expect that the main reason was that the other party didn't like MP3 music players at all.
"Even the products made by high-tech companies like Apple in the United States are not popular. Fang, please forgive my bluntness, why are you still wasting your time?" Smith asked in confusion.
Fang Zhuo has always believed in his own vision, in every sense.
Therefore, he could clearly see that the expression on the white man in front of him was either pretense, not ridicule, or real incomprehension and confusion - behind it was a complete disbelief that China had made something that could be popular in the United States and that no local company had.
Products that do it.
"Because Ipod does not support Microsoft, our M1 supports Microsoft." Fang Zhuo explained the direction of the product.
"Then where do you put the walkman?" Smith spoke quickly, "Do you think you can overturn a product that has been popular in the world for twenty years? Why? Do you understand how popular the walkman is?
?”
Fang Zhuo was dumbfounded. It seemed that no one from Sony's own company was as confident as Smith.
He said in a deep voice: "Mr. Smith, because M1 came into being with the development of the Internet. If Walkman is a classic of the last century, then M1 is a product of this century."
Smith smiled and said stubbornly: "Fang, I appreciate your confidence. However, it is difficult to impress a venture capitalist with this alone, because I see such confidence every day."
"Mr. Smith, M1 needs a try. Such an attempt will bring surprises to you. It doesn't require much. It just needs to be connected to chain channels and placed on the counter or booth." Fang Zhuo tried to persuade.
Smith stared at Fang Zhuo, then glanced at the two people next to him who were obviously nervous, and shrugged: "Pan told me, you want to contact Wal-Mart executives, right? I can give you the contact information, but I don't
Will give recommendations for products that I don’t like.”
In other words, if a well-established middleman disappears, this will cause double the trouble for subsequent communication.
But at the very least, it counts as getting a high-level contact number.
Fang Zhuo resisted the urge to frown and expressed his gratitude.
"Hey, Fang, wish you good luck." Smith said as the three of them left. "I hope there is a product that belongs to the 21st century."
Facing the opinion that the senior vice president still insisted on expressing, Fang Zhuo smiled and said: "This shouldn't be hope, because it has already appeared. Mr. Smith, since you are learning Chinese, I recommend you to read the story of Bole and Maxima.
, from "The Story of Horses" by Han Yu, a famous poet in our country."
"I'll take a look when I have time. Thank you for your recommendation." Smith nodded, and the busy phone rang again on the table.
Fang Zhuo waved his hand: "Thank you for your help too."
Yike's 2+1 people left the IDG New York office.
Smith looked at the closed door, smiled nonchalantly, grabbed the phone, and continued busy with his work. IDG had already studied the player released by Apple.
The conclusion is that existing hardware splicing gadgets have limited future.
