Huang Zhang has been back for nearly a year. Can the only one and the dream machine save Meizu？

　　Zhang Jun, Sina Technology

　　"When I left Meizu for a while, I saw some products, especially when I saw other people holding these products, and I was deeply hesitant. I vowed to change," Huang Zhang, who returned to Meizu, told Yang Zhe, Meizu’s senior vice president. "If a product does not have Buddha nature, I will never allow it to appear."

　　"Change" is the key word for Huang Zhang’s return in 2014 and 2017. The difference is that Meizu in 2014 faced a change from small and beautiful to popular, while Meizu now encounters a change from too popular to return to its original intention.

　　After Meizu announced the strategy of introducing capital and expanding its product line in 2014, it quickly increased the sales volume from 4.40 million units to 20 million units in 2015, but the crazy expansion also brought the side effect of huge losses of over 1 billion yuan. In 2016, Meizu launched 14 consecutive products, but the annual sales increased by only 2 million units year-on-year.

　　In February 2017, Huang Zhang, who was regarded as the soul of Meizu, came out again, and his prescription was to create a dream machine: Meizu 15/15 Plus.

　　The "only one" brand concept put forward by Meizu recently is similar to the original beauty of wabi-****, and it is still the usual Buddha-like yellow seal style. However, the yellow chapter who came out of the mountain for the second time is no longer the pure paranoid product maniac. The dual-brand strategy of Meizu and Meizu not only gives itself the opportunity to try high-end and return to its original intention, but also leaves a basic sales trump card as a way back.

　　Meizu ushered in the 15th anniversary of its establishment this year, and Huang Zhang’s dream machine will also be officially unveiled in the spring. Can Meizu usher in a new life under the leadership of Huang Zhang in 2018?

　　Crisis resurfaces

　　Similar to 2014, when Huang Zhang announced his return in 2017, Meizu was facing an existential crisis.

　　In 2014, Xiaomi, which was established only 4 years ago, topped the Chinese smartphone market with 61.12 million sales in the Internet mobile phone model. Also in this year, Xiaomi completed a new round of financing of 1.10 billion US dollars, with a valuation of 45 billion US dollars.

　　At that time, Meizu, which had been established for more than 10 years, was still a family-owned enterprise, and the sales of smartphones remained at the level of millions for many years. At the same time, under the fierce external competition, Meizu also experienced crises such as the exodus of executives and the turnover of employees.

　　In February 2014, after Bai Yongxiang, Li Nan, Yang Yan and other executives showdown the crisis facing Meizu, Huang Zhang, who had always believed that he could solve everything by doing a good job in products, finally "realized it". In his internal speech on the day of return, he declared that he would lead Meizu to create an era of more rapid development. "We will make appropriate financing, the main purpose is to implement the employee stock option system, followed by allowing the marketing department to have more resources to increase marketing activities, and to introduce more talents."

　　However, shortly after his return, Huang Zhang once again faded out of day-to-day management, and the change plan he set out empowered executives to implement it.

　　In the following July 2014, February 2015 and October 2016, Meizu conducted multiple rounds of financing, including Alibaba, Tianyin Holdings, etc. In terms of product rhythm, Meizu also changed the style of a mobile phone in the previous year. In 2014, it released 7 products and established a new Meizu sub-brand. The overall sales volume reached 4.40 million units that year; in 2015, it released 6 products and launched a PRO series targeting high-end people. Sales jumped to more than 20 million units that year, an increase of 350% year-on-year.

　　However, in 2014 and 2015 consecutive aggressive expansion strategy also brought the sequelae, 2015 Meizu net loss of more than 1 billion yuan, the company’s total debt of nearly 8.90 billion yuan, total net assets – 1.60 billion yuan; 2016 Meizu released 14 consecutive products, but the annual sales only increased 2 million to 22 million units, did not complete the target of 25 million units, while the first half of the net loss of 300 million yuan, the company’s total debt nearly 2.70 billion.

　　In early 2016, Huang Zhang made a rare appearance at Meizu’s annual meeting and put forward the goal of "stabilizing growth, generating profits, and advancing to the IPO". Meizu then launched a 5% layoff plan. These measures also began to bear fruit, and Meizu achieved a turnaround in 2016.

　　In February 2017, in the context of the Meizu crisis still not fully reversed and the 15th anniversary of its establishment in 2018, Huang Zhang announced on Weibo that he would re-emerge from the mountain to create the dream machine in his heart – Meizu 15/15 Plus.

　　Reinventing Meizu

　　Unlike the return in 2014, Huang Zhang no longer became a hands-off shopkeeper after setting a grand strategy, but personally reformed Meizu in terms of organizational structure, products, and channels.

　　One month after the handover, Meizu increased the number of layoffs from 5% to 10%.

　　Three months after the return, Meizu underwent a major organizational restructuring. Huang Zhang served as the chairperson and CEO of Meizu and established three new business divisions – Meizu Business Division, Meizu Business Division, and Flyme Business Division. The intention of this adjustment is obvious. Huang Zhang personally manages the Meizu business division, and soon poached Yang Zhe, who has successfully built Huawei’s high-end brand perception, as senior vice president and general staff, responsible for the marketing of the Meizu brand, intending to make the Meizu brand in the high-end product line. The Meizu brand is in charge of Li Nan. Li Nan quoted Huang Zhang in an interview with the media as saying that Meizu is his own dream, but Meizu also has to bear a quantity requirement.

　　In December 2017, Huang Zhang adjusted Meizu’s structure again, establishing a new overseas business department, an e-commerce business department, and an accessories business department. He promoted CFO Qi Weimin to senior vice president of the company, on an equal footing with President Bai Yongxiang, with the intention of increasing revenue and reducing expenditure to ensure profits. At the same time, he further expanded overseas markets and expanded sales.

　　In terms of channels, Bai Yongxiang previously revealed in an interview with Sina Technology that one of Huang Zhang’s big decisions after returning to the company’s daily work in 2017 was that Meizu would gradually establish a national provincial model. "For the Meizu brand, in order to better display our products, better serve users, and better provide various environments, we will create a relatively closed offline sales system under the framework of provincial generation."

　　Li Nan also told Sina Technology that although the two brands Meizu and Meizu need to be cut in the long run, they still need to cooperate with each other in products and channels in the short term. He revealed that in terms of products, Huang Zhang will personally control the product definition and design of Meizu and Meizu, and the products of the two brands will have a certain distinction. In terms of channels, Meizu will upgrade the existing channels of more than 2,000 specialty stores together with Meizu and accessories departments.

　　At the same time, not only is the Meizu brand going high-end, but the Meizu brand will also increase its price.

　　At the Meizu brand communication meeting on January 15, Huang Zhang’s personal belief rose to corporate belief. Yang Zhe officially announced the Meizu brand concept after Huang Zhang’s decision: the only one is to return to the original intention and let Meizu return to Meizu. Yang Zhe said that the Meizu brand is more focused on the high-end market, facing business, government and enterprise, high-end and elite people, to create a different brand perception. He also revealed that Huang Zhang’s dream machine will be officially released this spring.

　　As for the Meilan brand, Li Nan told Sina Technology that under Huang Zhang’s personal control, Meilan’s products will be more aggressive next year. Meilan’s highest matching hopes to hit 2,499 yuan in the future, "but how high it should be has not yet been determined, and it is currently being discussed with Huang Zhang."

　　Can it be reborn?

　　Nearly a year after Huang Zhang’s return, the adjustment to Meizu has begun to bear fruit. However, Meizu’s 2017 under Huang Zhang’s leadership was not entirely smooth, such as the annual flagship Pro7 suffered a sales storm and the trend that Meizu Meizu missed the full screen.

　　The Meizu PRO7 was released five months after Huang Zhang’s return. Its main feature was the use of a dual-screen design. In terms of processors, although Meizu had reached a settlement with Qualcomm as early as the end of 2016, the product was equipped with MediaTek’s Xili P25 and Xili X30 processors, priced at 2880 yuan and 3580 yuan at the same time.

　　In the craze of full-screen popularity in 2017, Meizu was one of the few mainstream manufacturers that did not follow up. Although the design of the picture screen is also very innovative, the market space of PRO7 is extremely limited in the context of Apple, Samsung, Xiaomi, OPPO, vivo, Huawei and other mainstream manufacturers launching full-screen flagships. At the same time, MediaTek processors have also attracted doubts, and Li Nan has to admit that in flagship products or high-priced products, MediaTek’s reputation has indeed encountered huge challenges. As of now, the official price of the Meizu PRO7 standard version has dropped to 1999 yuan, a decrease of nearly 1,000 yuan.

　　For Huang Zhang’s dream machine Meizu 15/15 Plus this year, Yang Zhe revealed at the recent Meizu brand communication meeting that every detail of this product is controlled by Huang Zhang from start to finish, and 90% of the parts are customized. For example, in order to look comfortable, the screen size is customized. "In today’s situation where the screen is in short supply, customization is required, and there is no semicolon. In the age of industrialization, customizing a product, if it sells well, it will sell well. If it doesn’t sell well, it will be smashed in the hand."

　　Although Yang Zhe and Li Nan both expressed confidence in Huang Zhang’s personal products, in the current environment of such rapid changes and intense competition in the smartphone industry, it is undoubtedly risky to place all your hopes on a certain person or product.

　　In addition, Meizu in 2018 will also usher in a key node for its IPO.

　　In August 2014, Bai Yongxiang revealed in an interview with Sina Technology that Meizu has developed a plan to list within 5 years. In August 2017, Meizu entered the list of listed reserve enterprises in Zhuhai High-tech Zone, and planned to be listed on the growth enterprises market.

　　The growth enterprises market sets two quantitative performance indicators for the issuer to choose: the first indicator requires the issuer to make continuous profits in the last two years, and the net profit accumulated in the last two years is not less than 10 million yuan, and continues to grow; the second indicator requires the last year of profit, and the net profit is not less than 5 million yuan, the last year of operating income is not less than 50 million yuan, and the growth rate of operating income in the last two years is not less than 30%.

　　Meizu achieved a turnaround in 2016, but did not announce the specific profit scale; in 2017, sales exceeded 20 billion, an increase from last year, and the official said it maintained a stable profit, but did not announce specific profits.

　　Meizu also said that it will achieve double-digit growth rate in 2018, which is still under certain pressure in the context of the overall decline of China’s smartphone market and more intense competition. The effect of the two structural adjustments led by Huang Zhang in 2017 in terms of increasing revenue and cutting costs, entering the high-end and expanding overseas markets remains to be seen.

　　Sina Technology official account

　　"Palm" grip technology fresh news (WeChat search techsina or scan the QR code on the left to follow)

　　Loading