Dong Mingzhu showed off the Gree mobile phone, stunned Xiaomi

At the beginning of January, Dong Mingzhu once said, "Gree makes a mobile phone and destroys Xiaomi in minutes"; two months later, at a meeting in Shenzhen, Dong Mingzhu took the initiative to expose a mobile phone with Gree's LOGO printed on it. Mobile phones, and boasted that it would sell 50 million this year--units! That's right, 50 million units!

What is the concept of annual sales of 50 million units? Let's have a look.

Lei Jun set Xiaomi's sales target for this year at 80 million units - but Xiaomi has been making mobile phones since 2010; Apple has just announced its third-quarter 2015 financial report, which shows that iPhones sold 47.5 million units -- even though it's only a quarter of sales, but that's Apple.

From this, you can feel Miss Dong's ambition.

However, it is a common occurrence that ambitions are not worthy of reality. In June this year, Dong Mingzhu said depressedly in an interview with a certain media: "At present, tens of thousands of units have been sold, and 50 million units will not be sold this year. It's too realistic." I wonder how Lei Jun felt when he heard it.

Three years is not bad, should it be the goal?

Dong Mingzhu told the media during this year's Boao Forum, "Our mobile phones are guaranteed to last for three years without breaking." This is of course a responsible attitude towards consumers, however, should "not bad for three years" be the goal of a mobile phone?

For air conditioners, few people pay attention to its style after installation, and as long as it does not slow down, few people will want to start anew. However, as a mobile phone of fast-moving consumer goods, it may be replaced at any time. Otherwise, why is the second-hand mobile phone market in Huaqiangbei, Shenzhen so hot?

The Queen of Air Conditioning used the idea of making air conditioners to make mobile phones, which may have already laid a foreshadowing of failure.

Before the mobile phone known for its durability, Nokia was the first mobile phone in many people's lives. However, in the era of mobile Internet opened by Apple and Google, the former global mobile phone sales champion was unable to. Adapting to the trend of smartphones and declining, finally had to give up the mobile phone business and sold it to Microsoft in 2013.

Myth and fall are only one step apart.

In addition, in today's days when mobile phone enthusiasts are "reluctant to accept a score" at every turn, the configuration of Gree mobile phones is really unmanageable - a 5-inch 720P-level screen, 1GB of memory, 8GB of body storage, 200 10,000 + 8 million cameras, 1.2GHz quad-core processor... The price is as high as 1,600 yuan.

Also for comparison, Huawei Honor 6 and Xiaomi Mi 4, which are both thousand-yuan mobile phones, both use 5 million + 13 million cameras, 3G memory and 16G body storage... To be honest, Gree mobile phones are placed in At present, it is instantly killed by the 100 yuan machine in minutes.

And the "look" of this phone is really average, exuding a strong cottage flavor. Some netizens joked: No wonder this mobile phone can be used for three years, because it was originally a product three years ago.

Therefore, Gree really needs to study the psychology of consumers carefully before making a mobile phone. If you can't do this, even if you have a strong offline sales channel, it will be in vain.

Smart home, the right idea!

Dong Mingzhu once revealed during the two sessions: Gree mobile phones are "much more advanced than ordinary mobile phones". Looking at the recently exposed pictures of the mobile phone, people suddenly realized that this advanced function is remote control - this mobile phone can realize infrared remote control of home appliances through APP.

It is a wise move for Gree to try to catch up with smart homes through mobile phones. In the upcoming smart home era of the Internet of Everything, smartphones will become a platform for connecting various household appliances. In the future, mobile phones will replace the remote control and display screen of various appliances, allowing people to keep an eye on the running status of each appliance and realize visual remote control.

Some experts said: Gree is actually competing for the entrance of smart home, rather than competing for the market share of smart phones. Through mobile phones, Gree can control all its own smart home products and enter the service field through big data analysis.

Although Gree hopes to play a big game with a mobile phone, in fact, the remote control is not so advanced. As early as a few years ago in the era of feature phones, many mobile phones were equipped with infrared transmitters. In the era of smart phones, the remote control function has been broken by major mobile phone brands. Xiaomi, TCL, ZTE, and Huawei have all launched mobile phones with remote control functions.

The first unique feature of the Gree mobile phone (and of course the second, which will be discussed later) is its smart remote control button, which allows users to directly operate the Gree air conditioner even if the phone is on a black screen. , which feels very high-tech. It is a pity that it only supports Gree air conditioners, and it cannot customize the settings. Some people tested and found that it can only switch on and off, but cannot adjust the temperature.

Look at the remote control functions of other brands of mobile phones. They are versatile. It is possible to remotely control various electrical appliances by downloading the model list and intelligent learning through the Internet.

A phone without a universal remote is really not a good remote, and it's so expensive.

Miss Dong's narcissism

The second unique feature of Gree mobile phone is its startup screen.

"In order to show respect for users" (Dong Mingzhu's original words), Gree's boot screen has Dong Mingzhu's avatar and greetings to users: "Dear friend: Thank you for choosing Gree. Mobile phone. This is one of the first mobile phones launched by Gree after it entered the world's top 500. It can not only have interpersonal communication, but also open the door to Gree's 'smart and environmentally friendly home'." In addition to the words "happy and healthy for the whole family", Also attached below is Dong Mingzhu's "autographed".

In March last year, Dong Mingzhu replaced Jackie Chan in person and joined hands with Wang Jianlin, who was the "richest man" at the time, to act as the endorsement of Gree's new central air-conditioning photovoltaic direct-drive inverter centrifuge. This Gree Electric Appliances As soon as the advertisement appeared on CCTV, it caused widespread heated discussion in the media. Since then, Gree's billboards have been filled with photos of Dong Mingzhu.

It is understandable for a business leader to appear on the camera to promote their products, but embedding photos into the mobile phones that consumers use every day is suspected of infringing on their personal space. What consumers see here is just Miss Dong's full of narcissism. Fortunately, the truth is not as rumored. Some people found that Dong Mingzhu's photo and his classic quotations will only appear when you enter the boot interface when you turn it on for the first time.

Dong Mingzhu once mentioned such a detail at a conference without hesitation: many companies secretly poached Gree. After learning about it, he sent someone to beat the other party hard. It's hard to imagine Dong Mingzhu's expression and mood when he mentioned this, and the leader of a large enterprise is proud of it, which is really a bit inconsistent.

Manfred FR Kets de Vries, INSEAD Chair in Leadership Development Studies, has published Leaders on the Couch: Transforming Individuals. A Clinical Approach to Organizations and Organizations, in which de Vries describes the “dark side of leadership,” including narcissistic leaders, who argue that narcissistic people may avoid rules and regulations , in their view, rules and regulations only apply to others.

This sentence also applies to Miss Dong, Chairman of Gree Electric Appliances.