text/Wang Xinxi
"The scalper has already smelled the wind. Huawei mate50 is more profitable than Apple . The scalper wants to make money back from Huawei mate50 when he saves iPhone 14." Recently, an insider in the mobile phone field said to the author.
The industry insider told the author a few days ago, "Today, I thought that stocking up Apple phones can make a fortune, and the scalper's thinking is undoubtedly still 5 to 6 years ago." In his opinion, scalpers do not have a mindset to keep pace with the times. In this era, stocking up mobile phones is outdated, and consumers have long stopped using this set. But the scalpers obviously don't think so.
According to recent news, on the morning of September 21, the Huawei Mate 50 series was first launched and sold. All versions were announced to be sold out within ten seconds. There was a long queue outside the physical store, and a large number of consumers did not grab the spot stock. The first batch of Huawei Mate 50 series was stocked in total, and it has been sold out by self-operated stores, online malls, operators, e-commerce platforms and other channels. Behind this, a large number of scalpers participated and rushed to the Mate 50 series. The price of the new phone was even increased by the scalpers by 8,000 yuan, and the top RS Porsche design version was even hyped up to 20,000 yuan. The title of "financial product" has been confirmed again.
In addition, we can see that after the sale was completed, all versions of the phone also experienced price increase on second-hand platforms. The standard version was priced at around 1,000 yuan, and the most expensive Huawei Mate 50 RS Porsche version even had a price increase of more than 8,000 yuan.
It is said that among the Huawei mate 50 series, the ultra-high-end Huawei Mate 50 RS Porsche version is very popular. Secondly, the Kunlun glass version is almost impossible to get, and it is said that there are not many physical stores in some cities.
The stigma of financial management products: the scalper's achievements are indispensable
In the past few years, because of the limited reserves of Kirin chip , the shipment of Huawei mobile was restricted, and its price was once speculated to sky-high prices. Huawei mobile phones were once called financial products in recent years. There are more and more jokes such as "I used to have no money to buy Huawei , but now I don't have no money to buy Huawei" and other jokes. Among them, the scalper may be indispensable.
This has hurt Huawei's fans to some extent and has also caused Huawei to fall into a dilemma of brand and reputation.
Judging from the pricing of Huawei mate50 series this year, the starting price of Mate 50 is 4,999 yuan, the starting price of Mate 50 Pro is 6,799 yuan, the top-end Huawei Mate 50 RS Porsche design is 12,999 yuan, and the starting price of Mate 50 E is 3,999 yuan.
From the perspective of pricing, Huawei's pricing strategy is changing. First of all, although it is still on the high-end positioning, the overall starting price has dropped.
This may be due to the fact that in the past two years, Huawei has realized the harm of high prices to its fans. Compared with two years ago, Huawei's chip problem has not been solved due to the shrinking market share, and its brand influence and sales have both declined. It is currently changing in a pragmatic direction.
The reason why Huawei has begun to become pragmatic is because the current situation Huawei is facing has forced it to make changes. Huawei has continued to shrink in the mainstream mobile phone market due to chip shortage, and its sales have shrunk significantly. The continued decline in market share has forced Huawei to make changes.
The second is that Huawei's supply chain situation has improved, and Huawei is also planning a counterattack, and the signal of the counterattack is the improvement of the supply chain. In the first half of this year, Yu Chengdong said that the supply of Huawei mobile phones has been greatly improved. Last year, the supply of mobile phones was very difficult. This year, our Huawei mobile phones have started to come back, so everyone wants to buy Huawei products, and Huawei mobile phones can be bought.
You can see a clear message from Yu Chengdong's words - Huawei is improving the supply chain through some means, and Huawei's mobile phone production is expected to gradually recover.
Once Huawei's production is restored, Huawei's top priority is to clean up the old rivers and mountains, and to regain market share first, rather than to single-player profit first.
Therefore, Huawei's pricing reserves Huawei's own sufficient profit, but it has converged compared to the high pricing in the past. But now scalpers have joined in the rush to buy, which has undoubtedly damaged Huawei's original pricing strategy.
Huawei originally hoped to gain the favor of fans again through relatively low prices, but now the first product is sold and the large number of scalpers have added, which undoubtedly makes Huawei mate50 a financial product again. This is actually something Huawei doesn't want to see.
On the one hand, the scalper's hype will be considered by uninformed consumers because of Huawei's own hunger marketing. A large number of users who hold tokens to purchase may turn to other brands because of their dislike of this price increase behavior, especially the Apple camp.
On the other hand, this may lead to the loss of Huawei's pricing power and the reputation of reputation being damaged again. The reason why Huawei's pricing power is that once the supply chain shipment volume and shipment speed cannot keep up with user demand, when supply is less than demand, scalpers who smell the wind will inevitably rush to buy it. The current situation of difficult to find a machine, and the scarcity will inevitably lead to a surge in mobile phone prices in a short period of time, which deprives users of urgent needs who originally hope to buy mobile phones at the original price. Huawei often takes the blame for the damage to user interests.
Huawei should learn from Apple and counter scalpers
The author previously pointed out that the reason why scalpers who stock up on iPhone 14 are suffering a lot is because behind Apple, there are now two OEM giants Foxconn + Luxshare Precision . In the past, because Foxconn occupied Apple's core production capacity, it often faced insufficient production capacity. The second batch of orders often delayed a little long. This time difference gave scalpers the opportunity to stock up on the price.
But with the rise of Luxshare Precision, it has already allocated a large part of the production capacity of iPhone . The capacity between the batch and the second batch of production capacity can be connected faster, and the difference in stock outage time basically does not exist. This greatly compresses the time difference and space for scalpers to earn the difference.
However, Huawei's current supply chain is still in a state of recovery, with insufficient production capacity and insufficient output estimates. The time interval between the first batch of goods and the second batch of goods may be relatively long, which leaves scalpers with more time to earn the price difference.
, especially the Huawei brand, is different from Apple. Huawei has been suppressed, and in the minds of some consumers, it has a certain special national sentiment. After all, in addition to not 5G, Huawei Mate 50 series still has highlights from the current variable aperture, low-voltage emergency battery technology, satellite communication, etc. It can even realize 5G networking function through the "5G protective case", although its Internet access speed is not as fast as the "original 5G". Some users are eager to buy and have a strong brand sentiment. Users who purchase Huawei mate50 series with a higher price also objectively exist.
Therefore, due to the maturity of the supply chain, Apple has compressed the time difference for scalpers to make a difference, and essentially protects the interests of users who need it. For some passers-by, this will also increase its favorability for the Apple brand.
If Huawei is unable to stop scalpers from speculating on sky-high prices and letting them disrupt the price system, it will essentially hurt the popularity of passers-by and will also damage the favorability of Huawei brand.
Therefore, from this perspective, in the short term, a large number of scalpers have rushed to buy, creating a peak effect on Huawei's product sales and also creating profits. However, in essence, scalpers have earned a price difference, which is still not conducive to the improvement of Huawei's brand reputation and reputation in the long run.
Therefore, from this perspective, Huawei has joy and sorrow, but worry is greater than joy. For Huawei, in the environment of sanctions, it needs to win the public's favor and sympathy. How to get rid of the label of "financial products" and ensure the stability of the pricing of various channels of the product is actually very critical.
This requires Huawei to counter the scalpers' behavior of disrupting the pricing system. How to counter
? Huawei can learn from Apple, strengthen its supply chain strength, and strictly control the shipment rhythm and pricing of major channels, adopt big data prediction methods and supply chain methods to suppress the living space of scalpers. This may be an important step for Huawei to maintain its brand reputation and achieve sustainable market growth.
Author: Wang Xinxi TMT Senior Commenter This article is not allowed to be reproduced without permission
