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The 67-year-old "China Time-honored Brand" Seagull Watch has regained its youth in Pinduoduo.
Whale merchant (ID: bizwhale) Original author | Sanlun

Having a mechanical watch with ticking movement and clear strap texture is quite a "face" thing in the eyes of the previous generation.

Back in the last century, in the impression of elders, wearing a domestic seagull watch is unique. Even seagull watches are often used as souvenirs and sealed in wooden boxes.

Seagull watch, which was born in 1950s, is now becoming a model of "new national tide" in young people's minds. It carries the "Chinese core" in the movie The Battle of Changjin Lake and conveys the memory of the martyrs to the world.

Behind the transformation of time-honored brands, there are naturally pains of reform, twists and turns in integrating into new channels, and the help of Internet platforms. How to win the love of the current target users for a long time, avoid aesthetic fatigue and realize the personalized expression of the brand is a difficult problem that both brands and channels need to think about.

As early as 1950s, the watch industry in western countries was already mature and even sold well in China. But there are only some clock-related parts processing plants in China. Until the end of 1954, Tianjin Watch Factory finally decided to develop its own watches in response to the slogan of "filling the industrial gap".

With the advent of a 15 diamond mechanical watch, China ended the history of "watches can only be repaired but not made". Only the structure of this watch is copied from abroad, and the technology needs to be improved.

Ten years later, China's first self-designed "Dongfeng Watch" was successfully developed. Technicians dropped the finished watch from the fourth floor, and the watch still runs normally after free fall. 1973, Li Xiannian, deputy prime minister of the State Council, approved "Dongfeng" brand watches to enter the international market under the trademark "Seagull". "Seagull" brand was born, and China began to export watches.

At that time, young Zhang Kexin had just come to work in Seagull. He watched Seagull Watch complete its first upgrade: from parts and movement to all-inclusive watch factory, becoming a national brand with a complete watch industry chain.

Unfortunately, the good times did not last long. In the 1990s, electronic watches became popular all over the world. Seagulls also joined this wave, but with the gradual saturation of the market, the watch industry in China began to shrink.

At that time, Zhang Kexin was selling in the northeast. He recalled: "1995, state-owned department stores stopped buying watches. 1997 After the financial crisis, a triangular debt was formed. The dealer owes us money, and we owe money to the upstream factory. " He worked in the debt settlement department for several years, responsible for debt collection.

The domestic high-end market has been seized by Switzerland and Germany; There are also countries such as Japan that are eyeing the mid-end market. However, the cost and pricing of these imported products are still high. In the middle is the living space of seagulls. After careful consideration, a group of executives of Seagull Watch immediately decided to stop producing electronic watches and return to the old master to produce mechanical watches.

In 2007, seagulls finally conquered tourbillon technology, which is the most accurate timing device in the world today. After all, a tourbillon is less than 0.4g, but it contains 70 parts. Seagull produces "three classic watches in the world": tourbillon watch, question watch and perpetual calendar watch. They are all hand-carved watches, Pearl Lang's artistic watches. ..

These products not only connect domestic products with international brands, but also skillfully integrate traditional art with high-end watches. Appearance, precious metals such as rose gold and platinum are used more and more in watches, and the application of China cultural elements is countless.

After the second crisis, seagull finished watches finally began to make profits, and the sales volume doubled year by year. Parts production is not backward: a quarter of the movements in the world come from seagulls, and many high-end watch brands use parts produced by seagulls.

Let's look at the present, seagull watch has entered the third revolution, from an old domestic product to a new national brand.

Now, seagull watch and its emphasis on the combination of products and modern technology, in the example of retro integration into modern trends, a joint signing in the battle of Changjin Lake revealed a very strong military style from the inside out. The dial of the watch is 43mm in diameter and 13mm in thickness. It has an exquisite steel shell with a fresh outline and a style that matches military subjectivity.

The strap is made of military green fabric with white sewing thread. The whole watch is packed in a black suitcase filled with contour maps. There is a small card in the watch box, and the kraft paper is covered with the seal of "China Seagull". The unity of overall tonality shows the innovative significance of its brand.

In a word, Seagull Watch has incorporated hard-core manufacturing, high-end positioning, cultural style and other elements into its products. However, the access channels and sales methods in the new era also need to be changed.

While the product, design and performance keep pace with the times, Seagull Watch has also tried traditional e-commerce platforms many times to gain the attention of young people. Zhao, head of Seagull's e-commerce, said, "At that time, a dealer wanted to open an online shop, and the sales staff signed the authorization at hand, thinking that maybe they could clear the goods."

With the mentality of giving it a try, many dealers feel that the commission and pit fee of the e-commerce platform are unbearable. Wang Zelong, a seagull dealer, explained: "In fact, compared with previous years, the pit fee of traditional e-commerce has dropped, but it can't move the sales volume, and the merchants have also drawn a lot of commissions. Our industry is often about 5% compensation, plus the service fee of 7788, and now it is nearly ten points. " Therefore, dealers gradually give up the whole store marketing and look for the channel of "single product breakthrough".

At the suggestion of others, Wang Zelong conveniently opened a shop in Pinduoduo. However, he didn't expect that this move had a windfall of "unintentional willow trees".

Wang Zelong first tried to launch some watches with a price of 400 yuan or 500 yuan. The number of orders in the first two months was only over 50. But Wang Zelong took a fancy to Pinduoduo's low commission and tens of billions of strong subsidies. As a result, he applied for 40 tens of billions of subsidy pits before and after the brand entered, and soon opened the store.

"Traffic broke out in June, the order volume was close to 650 orders, and the customer unit price also rose to 880 yuan." Wang Zelong revealed that a men's watch with a price of 795 yuan became the second best seller list of mechanical watches. The offline discount price of this watch is 1200 yuan, the price of other e-commerce platforms is 6 18 yuan, and the ex-factory price is 700 yuan.

Wang Zelong admitted that there had never been such pricing. In order to try out the money and support the new store, the result exceeded expectations. "I thought that 300 yuan watches sold best in Pinduoduo, and it would be good to sell five or six pieces a day for 800 yuan. I didn't expect to sell twenty or thirty pieces a day." He has been in contact with e-commerce for more than ten years and has never seen a new store start so fast.

After two months of operation, the Pinduoduo store has a small number of fans, but its monthly sales are almost the same as those of traditional e-commerce companies that have been operating for many years. On the contrary, for Pinduoduo, bringing luxury electronic products into "ordinary people's homes", even if the price is reduced, will help to upgrade the platform category brand and increase the customer unit price.

Later, Wang Zelong came up with the idea of live broadcast.

Beginning in mid-July, he asked the customer service to broadcast Pinduoduo live for 6 hours every day. The anchor will explain in detail what kind of scenes and people each film is suitable for. The average audience in the store is 2000, but it can drive thousands of GMV, accounting for at least 30% of the total sales.

"A live broadcast every day, the sales in Pinduoduo in July were close to 700,000." Wang Zelong is very proud of this.

However, after-sales service is the key to electronic products with higher customer price. Seagull Watch flagship store not only has genuine guarantee, but also takes care of consumers' feelings in terms of worry-free return, extended warranty for one year and delivery insurance. In this way, the user's stickiness will be enhanced, and the old will bring new proportions.

Later, the official flagship store of 20211Seagull officially settled in Pinduoduo. In two or three months, the monthly sales have been close to one million. The person in charge of seagull watch e-commerce said that the social nature of the platform enables seagull fans to split better, which also greatly promotes sales. In particular, the new national fashion products such as the battle of Changjin Lake, the heart design series and the ocean series are deeply loved by consumers and become explosions in the store.

Relying on natural traffic and high-frequency live broadcast, the business of Seagull's official flagship store and several distribution stores is booming.

Not long ago, Seagull also invited Wang Wenxuan, the general manager of Tianjin Seagull Watch Technology Co., Ltd., to be a guest in the live broadcast room, and shared the development history of Seagull for 2.03 million netizens, and explained the design concept of the military watch series in the battle of Changjin Lake in turn, and gave them extra benefits. Netizens in the live broadcast room also said that "we must support the light of domestic products."

In fact, Seagull Watch has found a new channel by using Pinduoduo's transformed Internet. Pinduo brings the "familiar and unfamiliar" memories in the eyes of parents to the eyes of young people, which enhances the attraction of the platform.

In fact, in addition to seagull watches, many old-fashioned domestic products have embarked on the road of "rejuvenation" through Pinduoduo.

Participants in this "new national tide" include 100 brands related to home appliances, clothing and beauty.

Among them, Midea Group, as a traditional brand, entered Pinduoduo as early as 20 16. Wei Zhiqiang, vice president of China, once said, "Since we entered the company, the compound annual growth rate of Midea's product sales has reached 300%. In the past year, the Little Swan brand has achieved explosive growth from 0 to 2 billion on the platform. "

Now, Pinduoduo and Midea Group have reached a strategic cooperation with an annual scale of 654.38+0 billion. According to the agreement, the two sides will also carry out full-link cooperation in product customization, channel expansion, brand building, digital technology, intelligent manufacturing and other fields to promote the integration of digital and reality.

In addition to high-order, low-frequency products such as Seagull Watch and Midea Electric Appliances, clothing, daily necessities and other commodities that consumers need are also using e-commerce platforms to reduce costs and increase efficiency and promote transformation.

For example, Ailaiyi, born in 1997, was originally a foundry in Lishui, Zhejiang. Over the past 25 years, Aileyi has gradually completed the transformation from OEM to independent brand, and is a witness to the rise of China manufacturing industry.

In 2020, after Ai Lei officially settled in Pinduoduo, the sales of its official flagship store on the Pinduoduo platform increased by more than 260% for three consecutive months. In addition, after Pinduoduo officially launched the "2022 New Country Tide" activity this year, Pinduoduo helped Ailaiyi become a new country tide brand in the fields of design and development, manufacturing and brand building. The "Dunhuang joint name" in the live broadcast room has also become the explosion of the platform down jacket category, especially favored by young female users.

Libai, a well-known time-honored brand, also turned its president, Chen Zebin, into a live anchor in this activity, and sent a welfare gift package to netizens in the live broadcast room. Many products of Libai were swept away because of secondary subsidies, explosions and other activities, and some products even had a preferential margin of more than 40%.

During the live broadcast, Chen Zebin also selected Huawei mobile phones for lucky netizens, which directly ignited the atmosphere in the live broadcast room. Netizens swiped the screen to "support domestic products" and "domestic products are really fragrant".

Pinduoduo directly connects with a number of industrial belts behind food, clothing, housing, transportation and use, giving incentives, which also helps the brand to show its cultural style and carry out product innovation. These measures are reproducible, referential and innovative for the old domestic products that are undergoing transformation. In the future, there may be more time-honored brands in clothing, home appliances, beauty cosmetics and other manufacturing industries, which will glow with different vitality in new e-commerce platforms such as Pinduoduo.

As a new e-commerce platform, Pinduoduo also has the responsibility to help these old brands achieve breakthroughs and dare to compete with overseas brands. Finally, let them find the development direction of "Made in China" in the homogenization competition.