It hatched from Acer, the mother of internationalization, and the day it broke its shell was the beginning of internationalization, dancing with the strongest, and then growing rapidly. 200165438+February, BenQ bid farewell to Acer's solo flight and announced the establishment of purple brand BenQ in Suzhou. In May 2004, BenQ became the official IT partner of Euro 2004. In June, 2005, BenQ announced the acquisition of German Siemens mobile phone company, which was one of the largest mergers in Asia and directly led BenQ into the world-class ranks. From $3 billion in 2002 to $5 billion in 2004, BenQ's total income grew rapidly. Among them, private brands increased from 24% to 40%.
International layout
From China, Japan, Southeast Asia and Australia in the east to the Middle East, Europe and America in the west, BenQ BenQ has 45 marketing points all over the world. In 2004, BenQ's total turnover was US$ 5 billion, of which European sales accounted for 365,438+0% of the total revenue, followed by China, Asia, Africa, the Middle East and America. What is the logical path of BenQ's international layout?
● Europe: a key breakthrough ●
The reason to embrace Europe. First, the opponent is not strong enough and the chances of winning are relatively high. In recent years, the IT industry in Europe has gradually declined. Sony, Samsung and other Asian companies have performed well in consumer electronic products, and BenQ can take advantage of the "west wind spreading eastward" to enter Europe. Second, the market is diversified, which can be broken one by one to form camps. Europe, which seems to be the largest single market in the world, is also the "most inconsistent" market in terms of race, culture and living standards. BenQ doesn't need to go all out to buy the whole European market at once. Instead, it can set up companies in nine countries, spread its influence all over Europe, and then scatter them and start a prairie fire. Third, Europe has enough influence. If a breakthrough is made in Europe, it can form a global influence.
-"Localized" management, focusing on local people. BenQ pays attention to attracting local people to take management positions, because local people can better understand the market characteristics and users' tastes, and are good at enhancing the local awareness of enterprises and product brands. BenQ's nine branches in Europe, from the general manager to the employees, 8 of them are local people, completely localized. One of the British companies is an expatriate cadre headquartered in Taiwan Province Province, China, and is also a successor that the headquarters intends to train.
-Dealer management and channel construction. In the European market, BenQ has not only established cooperative relations with international distributors such as ingram micro, but also cooperated with local tyrants and professional distributors. At present, there are 50~60 distribution and agency partners and nearly 10,000 dealer partners in Europe. Maintain interaction with dealers, share and convey information with dealers regularly and irregularly, and conduct business training at the same time. Pay attention to the penetration of channel terminals, especially for some specific consumer groups, such as gamers, for direct marketing. At the same time, BenQ is also effectively balancing the relationship among distribution, agents and retailers. At present, the sales ratio of the two is about 7: 3, and the main force is still self-owned channel sales.
-Product line managers implement "zero distance in the whole process" care. BenQ launched "BLM" to promote the market, that is, business line managers, that is, product line managers. In the past, "PM" (product manager) product managers were used in general high-tech companies to implement marketing strategies and drive front-line salespeople to promote the market. However, in Europe, it is not enough to just hold the position of PM, because the characteristic of Europe is that a product needs to cross different markets, and products need different marketing, logistics and channel support in different countries. These all need someone to run through the mission, and BenQ left them to BLM. The biggest difference between PM and BLM is that the former is based on product sales, while BLM participates in every detail of products from planning to shipment. Another key task of BLM is to combine the advantages of "manufacturing" In the front line, let customers know the design and manufacturing characteristics of BenQ, and also let design and manufacturing units know the market trends.
-The European Cup set off sports marketing in BenQ. BenQ became the only "officially designated IT partner" in the 2004 European Championship, which was the first time that a China enterprise sponsored a large-scale event with important international influence, and also marked a substantial step for BenQ's internationalization. Around the European Cup, BenQ has carried out all-round and integrated sports marketing activities in Europe and Asia-Pacific business areas. From the Portuguese corner kick billboard to the "Fan Park" fan paradise BenQ exhibition area; From fifa online games in nine languages around the world to the exciting European Cup tour of China fans ............................................................................................................................................................... After sponsoring the European Cup, the popularity and turnover of BenQ's own brands in various countries have increased well, and the confidence of dealers in the brand has also been greatly improved. Taking Germany as an example, a survey on the target consumer groups shows that the brand awareness of BenQ was about 65,438+08% before the sponsorship, and increased to 35% after the sponsorship. In the month of European Cup, the turnover of BenQ in that month increased by 246% compared with the same period of last year.
● China District: the rear of globalization ●
BenQ regards China as the local marketing to realize the global brand, and the global manufacturing center is located in Suzhou. At the same time, an R&D center was established in Suning. Dafang Electronics, AUO Optoelectronics, BenQ Road Construction, Marsh Technology and other group enterprises have successively settled in Suzhou, and the China market has become a strategic base for BenQ to realize its world brand. At the same time, BenQ also attaches importance to the rapidly growing middle class in Asia, and the number of middle class in Chinese mainland and India is expected to exceed that of the European Union and the United States combined.
● Asia-Africa Middle East Regional Market: Strategic Promotion ●
At present, BenQ has established channel partners in more than 20 countries in the Middle East, Asia and Africa. Channel partners are only responsible for the sales of products, and BenQ is in charge of logistics and services. In order to facilitate management, BenQ further refines the Middle East Asia-Africa region, divides it into three regional markets according to different levels of development, and holds business meetings of the whole Middle East Asia-Africa region every quarter; At the same time, according to the current situation of industrial development and market demand in various places, we selectively promote products, such as LCD monitors in Japan, projectors, digital cameras and scanners in Korea, optical storage and other products.
Many products sold by BenQ to Asian, African and Middle Eastern countries are still mainly supplied by Suzhou's international manufacturing base. If you start from Shanghai by sea, you can ship it to any country and region in Asia, Africa and the Middle East within two weeks. However, in order to supply the nearby Middle East, BenQ has set up a logistics transfer station in the United Arab Emirates to supply small neighboring countries such as Bahrain.
● USA: Test the water carefully ●
BenQ performed well in Latin American markets such as Mexico, but kept a low profile in the US market.
In the past, people regarded the American market as the standard of a company's internationalization. Only having a place in the American market can be considered a successful internationalization. BenQ is not in a hurry to storm the American market, because the United States is a homogeneous market and there is no so-called regional market. Success is all-round flowering, and it is impossible to say that small areas are successful. The threshold of the whole market is difficult to operate. Acer had the experience of beating the United States in the past. So, in the American market, you can't be fast. BenQ's strategy in the American market is not to take the sales growth as the performance index, but to let American users know about BenQ, let them know what kind of company BenQ is and what kind of products it can bring to users.
China Taiwan Province provincial acquisition
The cloud of TCL and Alcatel's short-lived "marriage" for eight months has not yet dispersed, and the two mobile phone manufacturers have announced a new combination. The protagonist of the story is a China company and a European company-BenQ and Siemens. But people soon discovered that there were too many differences between the two marriages, and BenQ's acquisition showed the unique shrewdness of enterprises in Taiwan Province Province, China.
● Marriages of suitable families ●
The contents of the deal between Siemens and BenQ include: Since June 65438+1 October1,2005, Siemens Mobile Phone Division has transferred all its assets to BenQ, including cash, R&D center, related intellectual property rights, manufacturing plants, production equipment and personnel. In addition, in the next five years, Siemens will provide 250 million euros (about 308 million US dollars) in cash and services to help BenQ carry out marketing and patent development. BenQ will sell no more than 6,543.8 billion shares (equivalent to 2.5% of the shares) to Siemens at a price of 50 million euros by issuing global depositary receipts (GDR) in Europe. After that, Siemens will become one of the major strategic shareholders of BenQ 10, but it will not occupy the board of directors. After the acquisition, BenQ's total share capital will increase by about 5% and its turnover will double.
Mr. Zeng, the general manager of BenQ China District, said that the acquisition was a "marriage": the dialogue between the two sides was equal, and the acquisition was not a choice of interests, but a complement of advantages. Siemens believes that BenQ can take over its mobile phone business and develop it. At the same time, you can be kind to Siemens employees.
BenQ has won the trust of Siemens for its outstanding performance in international operation. Before dealing with Siemens, BenQ had rich experience in M&A and cross-cultural integration. In 200 1 year, BenQ's Daji Technology merged with UMC's Lianyou Optoelectronics, and AUO Optoelectronics (the third largest TFT-LCD panel supplier in the world) was born for the first time, which not only completely changed the historical trend of global LCD industry development, but also provided core technical support for BenQ to become an international brand. BenQ introduced AUO display technology to the whole world through brands and products, while AUO made great efforts to support each other through BenQ's brands, with amazing strength. In terms of cross-cultural integration, the strategic alliance between BenQ and Philips is another classic case. At the beginning of 2003, BenQ, a leading brand in the domestic optical storage market, announced the establishment of a joint venture with Royal Philips Electronics, Philips BenQ Storage Technology.
● Give and get ●
—— Absorbed business losses of 500 million euros and employed 7,000 people.
Even compared with the previous acquisition of IBM PC business by Lenovo, a leading domestic PC company, for US$ 654.38+0.25 billion, the conditions reached between BenQ and Siemens mobile phones are indeed "cost-effective". Therefore, when Li Kunyao faced the media, the most frequently asked question was "What did BenQ pay?"
In this regard, Li Kunyao said that BenQ's past professional management ability and Siemens' trust in BenQ made Siemens happy to entrust this department to us. Responsible for taking over this enterprise and carrying it forward, there is a lot of management ability to pay. We have many competitors. In the end, Siemens decided to cooperate with BenQ for the sake of giving its employees a good development space. At the same time, Siemens is still working on the switch system, and there will be a lot of platform, software and service tests in the future, which need the close cooperation of mobile phone companies, and BenQ is the best role.
According to a high-level letter disclosed by Siemens, in fact, in the process of negotiation with BenQ, there is another stronger European and American buyer negotiating with Siemens, and the terms offered by the other side seem to be more generous. However, Siemens was moved by BenQ's promise that the German mainland would not lay off employees or close factories for two years. At the same time, BenQ's position as an emerging brand manufacturer in Asia has also been favored by Siemens.
In this acquisition negotiation, there is no question of who wins or loses, because for Siemens, selling its business that only accounts for 7% of its turnover and is losing money will help its other 93% business growth. At the same time, BenQ will take over all the more than 7,000 employees in Siemens' mobile phone department, including more than 3,000 German employees, which is also very good for Siemens' social image.
Li Kunyao emphasized that Siemens' mobile phone losses began in the third quarter of last year, and the mobile phone business had been very profitable before. BenQ is confident that the mobile phone business will be profitable within two years. Enterprises that grow up by OEM have good cost control, especially those in Taiwan Province Province, China. Using the huge and complete capacity of mobile phone spare parts in Taiwan Province Province, China, the cost can be greatly reduced 10-20%. At the same time, BenQ has strong market adaptability. Especially in the China market, BenQ has basically adapted. Both the launch speed of new machines and the needs of consumers can basically be met, which is completely different from Siemens' old-school style. What Siemens lacks is the concept of market. Once Siemens' strong R&D capability is combined with BenQ's completely market-oriented style, it is entirely possible to sell a lot. By then, Siemens' huge labor cost will no longer be a problem.
-The impetus for further internationalization
So what can BenQ get?
BenQ has been an OEM for many years, and has also launched its own brand. In Europe, Southeast Asia, South America and other places, the momentum is good, and there are also considerable achievements in technology. So far, it has applied for more than 400 patents for mobile phone products. In the mainland market, BenQ has just got a mobile phone license, and he is ambitious to do something big. What is the purpose of acquiring Siemens mobile phones at a loss?
There is only one answer, and that is further internationalization. Although it seems that BenQ has a certain foundation in brand, market, technology and marketing, and its income in the European market even accounts for more than 30% of the total income, BenQ still lacks an opportunity, a real opportunity to go international. Although BenQ's mobile phone sales in Europe have been growing at a high speed, there is still a big gap compared with Nokia, Motorola and Siemens, and the growth in the US market is also very weak. The deal with Siemens can provide a platform for BenQ to expand the European market and enhance BenQ's brand awareness in the international market. Siemens' strong R&D capability can also improve BenQ's technical level and make up for the deficiency of its core technology. At the same time, the acquisition of Siemens mobile phone business has also brought huge production capacity to BenQ. In addition, the Suzhou factory in BenQ is currently expanding its production capacity, which is not far from the first-tier mobile phone manufacturers in the world.
After the acquisition, BenQ will become the fourth largest mobile phone manufacturer in the world, only behind Nokia, Motorola and Samsung. Before the acquisition, Siemens sold 5,654,380+million units last year, ranking second in the European market and leading in some Latin American markets. BenQ sold15.5 million mobile phones last year. After the acquisition, BenQ will become one of the few mobile phone companies in the world with the core technology of GSM patent. It is said that Siemens has 28 core patents on 2G and 2.5G technologies, all of which are important parts of the standard.
Source: China Business Review.