on April 3, 1999; In Camden, a small town with a population of 8, in central South Carolina, the foundation stone laying ceremony was held for Haier's 3 million-dollar production center. More than a year later, the first Haier refrigerator with the label "Made in America" came down from the beautiful production line, and Haier began the history of making refrigerators in the United States. Haier became the first company in China to manufacture and sell products in the United States.
In just a few years since Haier first exported refrigerators to the United States; Haier refrigerator has successfully established its own brand in the American market. Last year, the American retail giant Wal-Mart chain store sold Haier brand air conditioners. At the beginning of this year, Vuormaa chain stores began to sell Haier's two kinds of small refrigerators and two kinds of small freezers, and signed an agreement with Haier to buy another 1, refrigerators. Haier's most popular products in the United States are small refrigerators used in student dormitories and offices. Haier has also achieved success in horizontal freezers. This product accounts for one-third of the market share of similar models in the United States. Haier's window air conditioners also have a broad market; This product has accounted for 3% of the American market, and its sales volume is expected to double this year.
American market is a very mature market and the most difficult market to enter in the world. Many companies in Asia have fallen head-on in this market. ACer of Taiwan Province spent more than $1 billion in the past 1 years to promote its brand in the United States, but finally withdrew from the American market due to serious losses. Due to the difficulty of entering the American market, domestic companies in China are currently entering the American market mainly through order-to-order production or OEM. For example, Kelon, whose sales in Hong Kong and Southeast Asia are under its own brand; But sales in the United States and Europe are OEM; That is, its products exported to the United States are sold under the brand name of American companies. For example, the Nagic Chef brand refrigerator currently sold in Wal-Mart chain stores is designed and manufactured by Kelon. At present, Haier is the first company to produce China products with China brand in the American market.
Haier refrigerator was rated as the best-selling product in the United States. TWICE, a famous American magazine, made statistics on the best-selling household appliances in the United States. Haier (669) refrigerator became the best-selling product in the United States together with world famous brands such as GE and Whirlpool, among which the sales of various small refrigerators represented by Haier grew the fastest, with an average speed of 23.9%. O According to relevant statistics, Haier's two models of refrigerators, BClll and BC5, were the most popular small refrigerators in the United States, ranking second in September 2. The American home appliance market is full of famous brands and fierce competition, which is almost the arena of all world famous brands. Haier can occupy a place in the American market with its own brand, which shows that Haier products have fully possessed the ability to participate in international high-level competition.
Haier's entry strategy
Haier claims that its internationalization strategy adopts the strategy of "difficult before easy", that is, it first enters the most exquisite and critical foreign market, occupies the commanding heights, and then condescends to enter other countries' markets. However, from the development route of Haier's entry into the American market, Haier's strategy is actually "easy first, then difficult".
generally speaking, there are two modes in the internationalization process of enterprises, one is the gradual mode, that is, the "easy first, then difficult" mode. The other is the "global start" mode, which can be said to be the "difficult first, then easy" mode.
"easy before difficult" includes the choice of target market and the operation mode. The target market is easy before it is difficult. It means that in the process of internationalization, enterprises first choose their familiar overseas markets with similar geographical location or customs as the target markets for internationalization, and then choose relatively unfamiliar overseas markets with more distant geographical locations or greater cultural differences as the target markets. Its basic order is:
local market-regional market-national market-overseas neighboring market-global market
For example, many enterprises in mainland China start their overseas investment from Hong Kong, because its geographical location is close to that of the mainland, and its culture is basically the same as that of the mainland. Another example is that China started its overseas project contracting activities in the late 197s, starting from Nepal, Tanzania and other countries, because China has provided a large number of economic aid projects to these countries since the early 2th century, which enabled China's engineering companies to have a better understanding of the culture and business environment of these countries.
In terms of operation mode, it means that enterprises first participate in the international market through export (including passive export and active export), which is simple and easy to operate, and then gradually engage in transnational business activities with higher capital requirements and greater risks, including setting up overseas sales offices and overseas direct investment.
The advantage of the internationalization mode of "easy before difficult" is that enterprises can have time to accumulate experience and resources (including human resources and material resources), increase their overseas operation ability, and reduce the risk of decision-making and the ability to bear failure. This is the internationalization method adopted by most enterprises in the world.
the "global start" mode means that an enterprise implements internationalization strategy from the beginning of its establishment, and once it is established, it becomes a multinational company, thus surpassing many stages of the internationalization development of general enterprises. For example, LASA Co., Ltd. in the United States, which is a company that sells microprocessor standard technology. Its founders are Americans, French and Swiss, with funds from Europe, operating headquarters and R&D headquarters in the United States, product sales department in France, financial management in Switzerland, and production in Scotland (to take advantage of Scotland's preferential investment policies).
Another example is IXI Company in Britain, which provides desktop and window computer software for UNIX operating systems. Its development does not start at home and then go abroad, but the opposite. The founder and chairman of the company know the American and Japanese markets very well, so after the company was established, it first produced for the American market, followed by the Japanese market, and finally sold in the UK. The company's funds come from Britain, Germany, Austria and Japan. Established subsidiaries in the United States and Japan. Four years after the product was launched, 6% of the company's revenue came from the United States, 2% from the United Kingdom and 1% from Japan.
The global development model has emerged because since the 198s, with the rapid development of communication and transportation, it is easier for entrepreneurs to obtain information from overseas markets and resources from a global scale. The advantages of global start-up enable enterprises to effectively use the capital resources, R&D resources, preferential policies and customer resources announced in different parts of the world to preempt the most important market in the world. Most of the enterprises started in the world are high-tech enterprises. The way Haier's products enter the American market is basically the first mode-the gradual mode of easy first and then difficult. In terms of entry mode, it adopts export first and then direct investment:
export-joint design-establishment of trading company and local production.
Haier began to export refrigerators to the United States in 1995. At first, it was OEM, and then it began to play its own brand. It was nearly five years after the establishment of "Haier American Trade Co., Ltd." and the establishment of "Haier American Production Center" in the United States. At this time, Haier has accumulated more knowledge about the American market.
the development of Haier's geographical position is also the first near and then far. In July 1995, Haier established a trading company in Hong Kong. In June 1996, Haier established Shapiro Limited in Indonesia; In June 1997, Haier established Haier-LKG Electric Appliance Co., Ltd. in the Philippines. In August of the same year, Haier Industry (Asean) Co., Ltd. was established in Malaysia. According to Zhang Ruimin, president of Haier, all the above investments are for Haier to train for entering the American market. Especially the Philippines, which is also an English-speaking country, is deeply influenced by American culture, and much of the experience accumulated in the Philippines can be used in the United States.
in addition to the entry mode, Haier's product strategy and investment mode are also easy before difficult. From the perspective of product types, Haier's strategy is to first enter the American market with one or two products, and then develop more after gaining a foothold. At present, Haier has basically stood firm in small refrigerators, and the next step is to expand the results: selling and producing Haier's other electrical and electronic products. Haier's nearly 4,-square-foot exhibition hall on the fourth floor of the headquarters building in Manhattan; Has begun to display and promote Haier washing machines, freezers, large-capacity refrigerators, flat-screen TVs and other Haier products. Haier still has enough land around Camden's refrigerator factory for further building factories to produce Haier air conditioners, Haier washing machines and Haier televisions in the future.
Haier's localization strategy
Enterprises should consider two basic issues when implementing the internationalization strategy; Is it globalization or localization? The so-called globalization means that enterprises produce products for the global market without considering or less considering the differences between different places. Companies that implement the globalization strategy adopt standardized products, promotion strategies and distribution channels in every country as far as possible. Integrate global resources as much as possible, with production at the lowest labor cost, procurement at the cheapest place for raw materials, and sales at the highest price. For example, Nike, whose design and marketing are arranged in the United States; Because the United States has the world-leading designers who know the American market best, the American market is the market with the highest consumption level. Its production is carried out in Donglai and other places in China, because the labor force in these places is cheap. The advantage of this strategy is that it can get the scale advantage of production, avoid the waste in resource utilization such as repeated design and repeated research and development, and thus minimize the cost.
what is different from the globalization strategy is the localization strategy. The localization strategy pays the most attention to the local special consumption demand, so it emphasizes the design and marketing of products according to the special needs of the local market. The biggest advantage of this strategy is that the products provided take special account of the demand differences in different places. For example, refrigerators, each country has different climatic zones, voltage conditions and consumption habits, so the design requirements for refrigerators are also different. Products that cannot meet the local market may face difficulties. Whirlpool, an American home appliance giant, withdrew from the China market in 1997 because its products lacked pertinence to the China market. In 1994, Whirlpool established a Taiwan-funded enterprise with Snowflake Refrigerator Factory, hoping to take advantage of the alliance with China enterprises to occupy the refrigerator market in China. However, Whirlpool withdrew from the alliance with Snowflake only three years later. At the same time, it also withdrew from the alliance with Ranbo. The reasons leading to Whirlpool's failure include Whirlpool's use of foreign theories to deduce the demand of China market; As a result, the designed new products did not sell well in China market.
at present, Haier's competition in the American market is basically a localization strategy. It has established the Haier Design Center in Los Angeles, the Haier American Trading Company in new york and the Haier Production Center in South Carolina, forming a trinity management pattern of design, production and sales in the United States. The main purpose of this is to better understand the American market and respond to market changes more quickly. Many products sold by Haier in the United States are not Haier's original products, but are specially designed and produced for the American market. For example, the BCD-275 Haier refrigerator exported to the United States was specially designed, developed and manufactured according to the information fed back by Haier Overseas Information Station, aiming at the regionalized characteristics of American refrigerators such as appearance, refrigeration capacity and usage habits.
an example of successful implementation of Haier's localization strategy is Haier wine cabinet. This is a product with gorgeous appearance, frosted glass door, curved shape, soft interior lighting and sliding aluminum-plated food rack. The first model of this product was put on the market in July last year, and the price was around 4 dollars, which was deeply loved by consumers. It was exhibited at the entrance and exit of P.C. Richard & Son Department Store in new york and Best Buy Mall, the most famous retail store in Los Angeles Research Institute, with good responses. Haier hopes to sell tens of thousands of such products this year, and 12 varieties will be put on the market in the second half of this year. It is planned that the sales will reach 1 billion dollars by 25. It is less than a year since the team in the United States conceived and designed the product and put it on the market.
The human resource management of Haier American Trading Company and production center is also a localization strategy. Many successful Japanese companies in the United States adopt the way of wholly-owned subsidiaries and managers appointed by headquarters to manage them. Haier's way is different. Haier American Trading Company is a joint venture between Haier and American Household Appliances Company (ACA), with Haier holding a majority stake and ACA holding a minority stake. The management of the joint venture is entirely managed by American managers with industrial experience and pioneering ability hired locally. American managers get a lot of autonomy. They will promote the brand; And strive for new customers. All Haier has to do is to formulate its business strategy. Although Haier's production center in the United States is a wholly-owned enterprise of Haier, its main management personnel are all American. At present, except for a few people sent by China, the employees are basically all Americans.
Haier's brand strategy
Haier should be an international brand operator with international competitiveness, and creating an international brand is an important goal of Haier. Therefore, promoting Haier brand is an important task for Haier in the United States. In the past, Haier's publicity in the American market was relatively low-key, except for putting the trademark "Haier" on trolleys at several major airports, there was basically no advertising. But recently Haier has strengthened its brand strategy. Haier will adopt some new advertising media in the United States, including billboards, bus stops and televisions. A TV advertisement linking Haier's latest DVD with Michael Jordan's film promotion has been broadcast on TV. Walking in the streets of Los Angeles, new york and Washington, you can also see the huge advertisement 1-888-76 Haier, which is a free service phone launched by Haier in the United States. The free hotline service opened by the after-sales service center of Haier American Trading Company has covered the whole country.
Haier's strengths and weaknesses in the United States
When the world's home appliance giants have set up factories in China, taking advantage of China's low labor costs and occupying the vast market in China, what is the significance of Haier's setting up factories in the United States? On the surface, Haier's move seems to violate the law of comparative advantage, because in terms of production, the production cost in the United States is much higher than that in China. But after careful analysis, we can see that Haier's production in the United States has many intangible benefits: < P > 1. The United States is the country that imports the most household appliances in the world, and all the famous brands of household appliances in the world compete in this market. American home appliance enterprises headed by General Electric and Whirlpool are very famous in the world. Being able to occupy a place in the American market, which is known for its difficulties, is equivalent to sending a strong signal to other markets in the world that Haier is already one of the most competitive home appliance manufacturers in the world. In this way, Haier can make it easier to enter by virtue of its brand in the United States.