—— Huang Wei, Marketing Director of Oracle Bone Inscriptions (China) Co., Ltd.
The unchangeable law of the market is eternal change.
Foreign companies have always been the envy of the public, but Huang Wei thinks that he has no way to go to foreign companies. 199 1 year, due to institutional reform, Huang Wei left the School of Software Development and joined Oracle Bone Inscriptions. At that time, Oracle China Company was still relatively small, with less than 50 employees in total, mainly focusing on the technical department without the marketing department, and its basic business functions were pre-sales and after-sales service. With the development of business, departmental functions began to be refined. Three years later, Huang Wei moved to the market.
The market stands out from sales.
When Oracle Bone Inscriptions grew up in China, its marketing has changed from simple advertising and marketing activities to setting the development direction for the company's products. Market positioning needs to be further subdivided, and the market should not be fully focused. At the same time, if the technical characteristics of the product are not clear, it is difficult to grasp the positioning direction. At this time, people with technical background are urgently needed to analyze and judge whether the products conform to the domestic market environment, which is also the original intention of Huang Wei to turn from technology to market.
At first, from the perspective of products, ORACLE took the molded products from the head office and transformed the technology into a more acceptable way for users in China, which was relatively simple. It is not difficult to imagine that when multinational companies first entered China, their integration with the market was not very good, and there must be a process of gradual exploration and transformation. Therefore, this way of thinking from the perspective of products should be changed.
Before 1997, the organizational structure of Oracle Bone Inscriptions was the cost integration of marketing department and sales department. The expenses required by the marketing department completely affect the sales profit of the whole company, and the marketing department is completely subject to the sales department.
Why are you involved? Because of the assessment of the personal performance of the presidents of each branch, if we look at three data, namely, sales, profit, per capita productivity and expenditure, the profit will definitely be reflected. At that time, Huang Wei's greatest feeling was that the marketing department was only understood as an auxiliary tool, and was regarded as a service functional department of the sales department, belonging to an auxiliary functional department.
Huang Wei pointed out the key points of this function. "The market operation at that time was short-sighted, completely obeying the will of sales and lacking initiative. Although we know the direction of the market, we often can't decide the space left, which affects the promotion of the market. Large areas of land need to be selectively replanted. The market is too big, the human and financial resources are huge, and the effect is not obvious. The correct way is to concentrate on sowing and then cut the wheat. You can't let the sower ask the wheat reaper for money. "
The reason why salespeople are short-sighted is that if they invite customers to dinner or simply take them to the United States, it will be easier to sign the bill, and they will definitely sign it, but advertisements may not be able to sign the bill. So at that time, sales and marketing were cooked in one pot, but in fact, their functions were absolutely separated.
Market transformation needs internal organic integration.
There are basically no rules for multinational companies to enter the China market, which requires the marketing director to think for himself. Because the headquarters is not familiar with the China market, it will not point out a very clear and specific operation direction, and even the Asia-Pacific Director can't guide it. Therefore, the localized market must be done by localized talents, so as to form effective feedback and communication and put forward specific operation methods that are more in line with the local market.
Huang Wei bluntly said, "At the beginning, the work of the marketing department was done for sales, which means that the seeder followed the lawn mower, and the seeder had no initiative, logically putting the cart before the horse. Oracle Bone Inscriptions has also gone through such a detour and gradually realized that he needs to change. "
1998, Oracle Bone Inscriptions quickly turned around and pulled out the marketing department as a separate department, and the headquarters managed it in a straight line. The expenses of the marketing department will not affect the profits of the companies in this area, and will be finally solved by the head office alone.
The next challenge is how to understand the functions of the company's internal marketing department. After the change, the sales department was not used to it at first. In the past, the sales department and the marketing department were independent markets and ignored each other. This is a normal phenomenon that a company's organizational structure changes and causes cultural changes. At first, the controlled departments did not take the initiative, did not give full play to their own functional characteristics, and simply dispersed, which easily led to further and further separation between departments within the enterprise. This transformation requires internal digestion.
"It is also the company's money, but the direction of the flowers is inconsistent. The marketing department has been sowing seeds for a long time, and the grass grows quickly, but no one cuts it. The sales department said there was going to be a harvest here, but the marketing department didn't broadcast it, so it paid for itself and went it alone in the old way. As a whole, the expenditure is obviously unreasonable and the efficiency is particularly low. At this time, it is necessary to establish effective communication between the market and sales. " Huang Wei thinks this is the most embarrassing place.
At this time, the president of the branch organized all departments together and communicated in series, which played the role of lubricating oil, and the cooperation between the sales department and the marketing department naturally increased. The biggest change is that the marketing department has become an internal partner, not a waiter. Otherwise, it would be very rigid to tie them all together.
Huang Wei went on to explain, "Actually, I report to two lines, one is the marketing director of the Asia-Pacific region, and the other is the president of China region. So everyone will have two or more bosses. Although the marketing department is not directly related to the president, the proportion of the marketing department supporting the company's business development in the year-end assessment accounts for more than 40% of the total assessment, which is directly linked to the company's business. With this important indicator, the marketing department will not herd sheep. "
Establish a scientific market evaluation system
After the transformation, the vision of the marketing department has been broadened. Because the assessment of the sales department is a year or even a quarter, there is almost no long-term vision. Therefore, the task of the marketing department is to refine the market and find out the long, medium and short term of the market. Short-term is not only the result of marketing department, but also the result of cooperation among many departments. It takes a long time to measure long-term projects. The simplest evaluation is how many long-term projects have become orders. Oracle Bone Inscriptions has established a scientific index system.
First, evaluate the brand awareness of the company. Please evaluate the company's investigation and evaluation, and follow up every year.
Second, create potential customer base. By holding activities and online registration, we can explore and track potential customer groups. Through the online system, we can objectively test and measure the effectiveness of the marketing department. Although the vast majority of netizens are not decision makers, they will influence and influence future decision makers and markets. Quite simply, the more customers know and understand the product, the greater the market space of the product. According to the tracking results, China only attracts technicians, and more market potential has not been developed.
Third, it is tested by the performance growth of branches. The ultimate goal of the marketing department is to cooperate with the growth of sales, and the assessment of the marketing department takes three years. The group strategy of the head office is analyzed from the perspective of the whole world. Generally, the annual target is set half a year in advance, but there is no specific figure, and it takes two or three weeks to communicate with each other to correct it.
It is not difficult to see that the market is not supported by the marketing director alone, nor how beautiful a plan is, but by many people. Grasping and understanding the market depends entirely on personal understanding and judgment, and making plans is very dangerous. In practice, the marketing department of foreign enterprises is supported by consulting companies or public relations companies. The process of advertising is monitored by an independent company, and after the conclusion is reached, it is decided by the marketing department according to the budget. The delivery of media can't depend on personal preference. Generally speaking, the media brand awareness, circulation and industry positioning are the basic indicators.
The overall goal of the market is unchanged, but the process and method of implementation are always changing, and there is no fixed practice, so the unchangeable law of the market is eternal change.