Sannuo: Design wins

In 2008, China's audio industry suffered from the double blow of the international financial turmoil and rising raw material prices. Large manufacturers encountered operational difficulties and small manufacturers went bankrupt. However, Sannuo Digital Group grew against the market. The order volume has nearly tripled, and the sales revenue has increased by 100%. In 2009, the company will continue to grow, and its sales revenue is expected to increase by more than 50%, reaching 2 billion yuan.

At present, almost all major computer manufacturers in China, except Lenovo, have become customers of Sannuo. The world's leading manufacturers, such as Philips in the Netherlands, Trust in the Netherlands, Logitech in Switzerland, Creative in Singapore, Samsung in South Korea, and Wal-Mart in the United States, are all Sino-US companies. ODM customers.

The most important thing that wins these customers is the product design of Sannuo, not only the product design scheme, but also the design service. "After customers put forward their demands, Maixi Design Company, a subsidiary of Sannuo, can quickly propose several product design drafts for customers to choose. Once the exterior design is determined after communicating with the customer, the electronic design and structural design will follow up immediately." Li Fei, Vice President of Sannuo Group, said, "The overall audio product solutions provided by Sannuo not only focus on providing the products that customers need, but also fully consider the customer's marketing strategy, brand image and product line planning. In terms of design and service, We are changing from 'meeting customer needs' to 'creating exceeding customer expectations'."

The improvement of Sannuo's design capabilities has benefited from the transformation of its business model from OEM to ODM and promotion to OPM, an effective organization of product design , and optimization of the design process.

From OEM to ODM and promoted to OPM

Sannuo started from mold processing and officially established the Sannuo brand in 1997, focusing on multimedia audio. At that time, the company's main income came from making OEM products for foreign audio manufacturers and taking the OEM road. However, in the face of numerous OEM companies in the Pearl River Delta and price wars, Liu Zhixiong, the helmsman of Sannuo, hopes to get rid of this disorderly competition.

In 2001, he started to establish a differentiated competition method, the core of which is to design and provide personalized overall system solutions for customers after analyzing customer needs or potential needs to create value for customers. At the same time, through large-scale production and the combination of localized resource advantages, the overall cost of the product is reduced, and higher returns are obtained from it.

In other words, it has changed from the OEM method of simply organizing production activities for these manufacturers according to the design plans of brand manufacturers in the past, to the ODM method that conducts personalized plan design according to the needs of brand manufacturers, and organizes large-scale production. Way.

Sannuo was the first to use this business model to serve domestic computer manufacturers, providing them with supporting audio for computers. Domestic consumers are particularly sensitive to price. Sannuo's service focus is to help customers plan costs and expenses, and design differentiated products for them. At that time, Sannuo was doing active multimedia, and in terms of appearance and functional design, it was matched with the keyboard, mouse and chassis of computer manufacturers, providing each company with a unique and competitive product design.

"For example, some appeal for appearance, some for price, and some for function." Li Fei said, "When we serve Haier, Founder, and TCL, we have close communication with the manager in charge of audio procurement, and have done a lot of preliminary work. Work to understand their market strategy, pricing system and marketing direction. We provide them not just a few products, but products and services that match their brand image.”

The speakers for 11 computers launched by Haier in 2007 even The overall appearance design is completed by Sannuo. TCL even canceled the audio design department and entrusted Sannuo to carry out the design and production of computer supporting audio. Except for Lenovo, almost all major computer manufacturers in the country have become customers of Sannuo. "Sannuo and customers are no longer a supplier relationship, but a strategic partnership based on high-quality product design," said Li Fei.

With the improvement of Sinopro's comprehensive strength including design capabilities, large international companies have also become Sinopro's customers and increased their orders to Sinopro. "Philips, Logitech, Wal-Mart, Trust and other international manufacturers have significantly increased their orders in 2008. The main reason is that after the company was listed in South Korea on August 17, 2007, it has abundant cash flow, and it has a strong presence in technology and technology. With a lot of investment in design talents, and continuous improvement of scientific research and development and production quality management, Sannuo has gradually met the conditions to accept the test of large international orders." Yu Xiangli said. He is the business director of the International Trade Department of Sannuo Company responsible for major overseas customers.

One of the advantages of Sannuo's ODM method is to design personalized and systematic solutions for customers. No matter how many needs are put forward by customers, Sannuo designers will develop design ideas according to the two dimensions of "individualization" and "systematic". This design idea can often bring unexpected surprises to customers.

Once, Logitech proposed to Sannuo to design some audio products. The designer of Maixi Industrial Product Planning Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Sannuo Group and responsible for the design work, carefully studied the design after completing the design. Logitech's product line, how the high-end, mid-range and low-end products are distributed, has made some additional audio product designs to fill in the gaps, or replace some products that may be eliminated soon. As a result, Logitech was very surprised, and the professional attitude of Sannuo designers left a deep impression on customers. Sannuo's overall customer solutions with industrial design as the core have won the hearts of customers.

Sinoor's transformation from OEM to ODM plays a vital role in the company's long-term development. On the one hand, this transformation is in line with the development trend of the electronic industry in the world today. On April 16, 2009, on April 16, 2009, Terry Gou, chairman of Taiwan's electronics foundry flagship company Hon Hai, pointed out that a trend in the development of the world's electronics industry is the combination of manufacturing and design. He said: "The electronics industry around the world is changing very fast now, both in terms of marketing and product launch. If design and development cannot be combined with manufacturing, the speed will be slow."

On the other hand, the ODM business model accelerates Sannuo The company's product life cycle, enhance product competitiveness, thereby greatly improving the company's performance. "The lifespan of a digital product is now about eight months. Ten years ago, an electronic product could have a two-year replacement cycle." Li Fei said, "The rapid growth of Sannuo's performance in 2008 has The ODM business model that provides customers with overall solutions is inseparable."

In 2009, Sinosure's business model has a new interpretation, a business innovation model created by Sinosure - OPM model, namely Original Planning Manufacturer, the original product planning and design provider. This business model aims to efficiently provide customers with one-stop service of differentiated product overall solutions, follow a sustainable differentiated innovation strategy, and create more value for customers; By means, combined with digital technologies such as electronics and software accumulated over the years, to create the integration of technology and culture, and to realize the rapid development of Sannuo with the direction of international operation.

Win customers with design

What is good industrial design? Gordon Bruce, a contemporary industrial design master, believes that good industrial design should stand from the perspective of users and fully consider their actual experience. He used an umbrella to interpret the beauty of industrial design: on rainy nights, he carried an umbrella to go shopping in the supermarket. This seemingly ordinary umbrella, when the wind blows, can naturally separate two layers of umbrella cloth from the top to avoid the umbrella It was blown over; at night, the flashlight device designed on the umbrella handle can make the rain road at night clearly discernible.

“It takes more time to study the market, products, and consumer experience in order to find out what is valuable for industrial design,” said Zheng Yu, general manager of Maixi Industrial Product Planning Company, a subsidiary of Sannuo.

In 2007, Maixi launched ispeak-800, a spherical speaker matched with iPod. The structure of its left and right channel separation and the design of the woofer on the back make it a hot-selling product as soon as it goes on the market; in 2008 , Mai Xixin has launched a stationery speaker for iPhone. Its light and flexible design fully considers the concept that iPhone users want to listen to music in the office without occupying the table. Once launched, it has won good feedback from American customers.

Sino's industrial design complex originates from Chairman Liu Zhixiong, who has promoted the holding of six Sino-nuo Cup industrial design competitions since 2002, and has gradually become the most famous industrial competition brand in the country. The leading new product innovation system also led the establishment of Shenzhen Industrial Design Industry Association in 2008 and served as the founding president of the association. The Maixi Industrial Product Planning Company established in 2005 is the main body of Sannuo to realize this innovation system.

Feng Changhong, Secretary-General of Shenzhen Industrial Design Association, said that well-known design companies in Shenzhen, such as Maixi, Jialantu, Langjian, Fiyta, etc., have established a professional team with a meticulous division of labor, from product From the beginning of the research, to the structure, function, system design, and sample prototype production to the final marketing strategy and product brand planning and promotion, a complete industrial chain of industrial design has been formed.

Shenzhen became the international "Design Capital" in 2008. As a leader in promoting the development of industrial design, Sannuo has appeared on the CCTV News Network Prime Time for three times in just one year. "Industrial Manufacturing" to "Industrial Creation" deeds.

As a professional design company, Maixi connects with Sannuo, and the mature project cooperation mechanism between the two plays an important role. Maixi has developed a five-stage development process of communication, positioning, design, engineering, and merchandise. Usually, every time an order is received, Maixi will communicate and discuss with the customer, electro-acoustic technology department, structural engineer, mold department, material supplier and external experts, etc. The design plan usually takes the opinions of these links into consideration. . At the same time, the project manager of Sannuo communicated frequently with the designers of Maixi, bringing many opinions from R&D personnel and marketing personnel.

Mixie's designers usually have three rounds of communication with clients. In the first round, the designers will give the client sketches, which are discussed with the client, stick the sketches all over the wall, and analyze the design, including the competitors' products. The client will pick out a few sketches from the alternative sketches to determine which styles they like, and the designers will further refine the styles; the second round will focus on the refined manuscripts, and we will discuss what content What is wanted and what is not. During this process, engineers and technicians are invited to come in to see which functions are achievable and which cannot be achieved; the third round is the discussion and approval of the design draft, and at this stage, more than 90% of the final design drafts will be passed.

“Through the mature operation of this mechanism, Sannuo’s project development time has been greatly shortened. In familiar business fields, Maixi generally takes only one week to complete an order.” Zheng Yu said.

In 2006, Mai Xi took the lead in proposing the concept of active design, which played an important role in winning big customers for Sinosure. "For example, when a customer proposes that a product needs several functions, Maixi's designers, through in-depth research on the industry, propose more functions of the product to the customer for the customer to choose, which makes the customer feel that the design is really valuable. This is the embodiment of the refined division of labor." Logitech, Wal-Mart and other major customers increased the number of orders for Sannuo after experiencing the active design of Maixi.

“In the three years since the establishment of Maixi, our performance has been increasing at a rate of 50% every year, and our growth rate will be even faster in the future.” Zheng Yu said, “We have established a mechanism to ensure that the development of new products can keep up with the three The development speed of Nuo Group. First, the team of designers is guaranteed; second, we have accumulated rich experience in the audio industry for many years, and the design will not be repeated, basically one draft can be finalized, which saves a lot of time.

In response to the shortage of domestic industrial design talents, Maixi cooperated with some colleges and universities with industrial design advantages to launch the "seedling program", and select 30 outstanding industrial design students every year, and invite them to participate in the junior year. It's time to get an internship at Maixi.

Internships run through specific design cases, and they work like real designers. First, the design director will guide them one-on-one, such as how to design products, what to pay attention to, which to avoid, how to analyze products, and how to analyze the market; Start with a model and learn about every link in the chain. After a year of training, when they graduate, they are already qualified designers.

In addition, Mai Xi has set up a professional promotion sequence for designers, from top to bottom, it is divided into design director, senior designer, designer, assistant designer. In addition, an evaluation committee composed of four members including the general manager and design director was established to evaluate and feedback the work of the designers every four months.

Considering the creativity of the design work, the evaluation committee deleted the utilitarian evaluation indicators, such as the popularity of the product, and replaced them with perceptual indicators, such as the designer's basic skills, structural design ability, hand-painting ability, etc. It also depends on how he feels, such as how he makes a product, how he studies the market, and how he studies the product. It is possible that the product design is very good, and the customer has no choice. Maixi also considers upgrading the designer.

"With Maixi for professional design and docking, Sannuo has obvious competitive advantages, that is, the launch of new products is very fast, and more than 30 new products are designed every year, appealing to appearance, function or structure. When Sanuo products do not have Replicability and comparability, Sano can control the pricing power. Relatively speaking, Sano has the initiative in the premium of audio products. This is another key factor to ensure 100% growth.” Li Fei said.

Customer development diversification

In China's audio market, after more than ten years of market baptism, Sannuo has firmly occupied the top three positions. Now it has nearly 1,500 channels and outlets, promoting the development of Sannuo's own brands. Following the successful listing of Sinopro in Korea, Sinopro has established five international trade departments and its products are sold in more than 60 countries. At the same time, Sannuo serves major international and domestic customers in the form of ODM, and establishes strategic cooperative relations with them.

Li Fei said: "Sannuo's ability to withstand the impact of the financial turmoil in 2008 is inseparable from the company's establishment of a diversified development direction for customers."

Sinonuo's international trade department has achieved a diversified combination of customer structures. There are three types of customers, large, medium and small. Large customers account for more than half of Sannuo's shipments, medium-sized customers have orders between $1 million and $2 million, and small customers are under $1 million. In 2008, Sannuo added more than 30 small and medium-sized customers, which avoided the situation that some enterprises had one or two major customers and brought business danger to the enterprise. "For us, if there are fewer orders in the United States, there are still European ones, and fewer European ones, and there are customers in emerging markets." Yu Xiangli said.

Now, with its strong design strength, Sannuo's development has gradually surpassed the audio industry. It entered into the field of IT peripheral products in cooperation with the Technology Exhibition Company, entered the field of high-end IT products through cooperation with Korean technology companies, and also launched the computer notebook industry. "In 2009, Sannuo will carry out brand remodeling, and the original logo of Sinonuo similar to speakers will change, and we will interpret the future of Sinopro with a brand-new image." Li Fei said.