In today's fragmentation of home appliance channels and the diversification of consumer group demand, how can many home appliance companies and merchants better gain insight into users and activate demand, and improve the quality of operation with scenarios and experiences? A few days ago, home appliance giant Midea joined hands with young merchants of home appliance operators to start a joint exploration.

Under the new cycle of home appliances with channel fragmentation, marketing digitalization, and diversified demand, all home appliance operators, whether online stores or offline physical stores, have come to a crossroads where "huge transformation challenges and unprecedented business opportunities" coexist. How to transform, break the situation, and open a new cycle and road?

On October 15, more than 80 second-generation successors of home appliance operators gathered at the headquarters of Midea Group to participate in a project called "M Houlang· The "AI Forward" Leader Study Program systematically understands the development history of Midea Group, leading the culture, technology and capabilities of technology and intelligent manufacturing, and also focuses on the ongoing retail changes, digital marketing and user scenario-based experience and other marketing changes in the home appliance industry, and finally cultivates the leadership, teamwork, social relations and resource integration ability of these young managers, so as to better participate in and lead the home appliance market and consumption trends. This time, Berlin, vice president of Midea Group and president of China region, also interacted with the students and deeply interpreted the strategic direction and front-line issues of Midea's DTC reform.

At a time when the home appliance industry has entered the stock competition channel, and home appliance manufacturers are looking for "digitalization, scenario-based, and experience-based" means to accelerate the transformation of the retail model that reaches users directly, Midea has further "front-loaded" the marketing reform by directly targeting the younger generation of operators: "cultural resonance, emotional resonance, experience sharing and knowledge integration" with home appliance operators, which are the closest to users and the core force of operating users. It is a key step to promote the efficient operation of the whole value chain by accelerating the implementation of various business innovations that will help accelerate the implementation of the new DTC marketing model and direct-to-consumer (DTC).

Focus on the "M back wave" and empower

 home appliance operators in an all-round way

The transformation of the home appliance industry and the competition in the home appliance market are, in the final analysis, the competition of people and the competition of team ability.

The launch of the "M Wave · The "AI Forward" project was implemented in October and November respectively, mainly for the second-generation successors of Midea's outstanding operators across the country, which is not only a cultural resonance and emotional exchange between home appliance operators and Midea Group in addition to business cooperation, but also realizes the intergenerational inheritance of business. It is also a time for Midea Group to explore the layout of digital capabilities and innovative marketing experience accumulated over the years for "direct access to users", for the comprehensive empowerment and sharing of business partners, and for the future.

The home appliance circle learned that the above-mentioned projects of Midea show two characteristics: 

• First, the participants are generally young and knowledgeable. Mainly post-90s, including post-00s and post-85s, with an average age of only 29 years old. The main characteristics of this group of people are that they are full of a high degree of awareness and recognition of new technologies and new models, and maintain a high degree of sensitivity to the changes in the mainstream needs and preferences of the current young generation, which is easy to resonate.

• Second, the training content covers a wide range of areas, focusing on collaboration and co-creation. In addition to a more comprehensive understanding of Midea's development process and scientific and technological innovation capabilities, it also fully excavates the youthful advantages of the generation of these "Midea young merchants" through forward-looking vision and pre-emptive means such as special training, study and practice, actively embraces changes and dares to try and accept the value of new technologies, new models and new ideas to home appliance marketing and retail transformation, and finally leverages the implementation process of Midea's new DTC marketing model in the home appliance industry.

The competition in the home appliance stock market and the activation of the demand of old users are leading the development of the home appliance industry this year. In particular, the national subsidy of "trade-in" for household appliances has been launched, and the new commercial campaign of renewing household appliances and renewing quality lifestyles for old users has been launched in an all-round way. How to solve the complex replacement process and operational problems of urban and rural users across the country, especially those in remote areas? How to let the scattered fourth- and fifth-level township dealers participate in the national subsidy policy and serve more users? Based on the DTC new marketing reform system, Midea further optimizes the O2O model, and with the help of Midea's smart home platform, it will connect "online coupons, orders, offline experience, and delivery services", and accelerate the national subsidy policy to benefit more families and users by empowering home appliance operators in the county and town markets.

With the advent of the new retail era, the new future retail transformation driven by DTC has accelerated the landing, bringing about the decentralization and fragmentation of channel and user contact.

When more "M Houlang" participates and enriches the team of Midea operators, it will build a "direct bridge" between Midea's new green energy-saving smart technology products and families with new lifestyles, and realize the resonance of technological innovation and a better life through online and offline channels. At the same time, it will also accelerate new marketing models and methods such as digital marketing and scenario-based experience, gain insight into user needs, and creatively activate more users' pursuit and yearning for a better life.

Speed up the "direct access to users" and 

return to the essence of enterprise management

For all enterprises, no matter how the times change, how technology changes, and how consumption is upgraded, the essence of business has never changed.

Based on the essence of "satisfying the user's experience and improving the efficiency of the enterprise", the home appliance circle has seen that in recent years, home appliance enterprises have explored three directions around the reform of marketing models and channel systems: 

• first, to take efficiency as the leading, open the channel new retail reform, cancel the layer by layer agent wholesale model, and realize the direct access between enterprises and retailers;

  
  

• The second is to take users as the goal, promote the integration of dual-line channels with digital means as the core, and replace low prices with scenario-based and experiential methods to create more value for users;

  
  

• The third is to be operation-oriented, promote the transformation of agents to operation service providers, and accelerate the continuous transformation of retailers from "sitting and traveling to running business".

This time, "M after the wave · In the view of the home appliance circle, the implementation of the "AI forward" project is based on the transformation of "direct to users" and "full-link quality and efficiency improvement" in the past few years, as well as the phased results of the DTC new marketing model reform, and once again opens a new round of exploration and breakthroughs in new business models. The difference is that this time, Midea is facing the exploration of marketing and retail reform, and puts the focus of operation and breakthrough on the protagonist of first-line market operation - young merchants of home appliance operation.

This is not only a future-oriented "forward-looking" layout, but also a round of "front-loaded" expansion that returns to the essence of enterprise management. On the one hand, in the face of consumption upgrading and retail transformation, the concept upgrade and model expansion of the home appliance operator team need to be integrated with synergy and execution. On the other hand, it is a protracted battle from operating commodities to operating users, which requires home appliance companies and operators to fight side by side.

As a key step in the transformation of the home appliance industry, Midea's "user direct" strategy established many years ago ushered in a new inflection point, that is, through the precise empowerment of the second generation of high-quality home appliance operators, through them to leverage the stock and seize the increment to open up a new pattern of home appliance market operation, and ultimately this will also inject new strength and ideas into the "chess to the middle game" of home appliance retail business reform.