Why do more and more Europeans buy Chinese TVs?

Before the Chinese loved to buy imported TV, many Europeans now love to buy China's TV.

It has been 11 years since TCL acquired Thomson Color TV in 2004 in France. After the loss of pain, the running of the Chinese and Western teams, TCL and Thomson have become the third largest color TV suppliers in Europe.

At the upcoming 2015 IFA in Berlin, Germany, the TCL exhibition area will be the largest Chinese enterprise booth ever since the IFA exhibition, with a total area of ​​1,757 square meters, and the voice of the “Chinese brand” in Europe. Will be louder.

Before the opening of the IFA, the reporter entered the European headquarters of TCL Multimedia in Paris, France on September 1st to explore the footprint of this Chinese company in the "expedition" of Europe.

TCL Multimedia vice president and general manager of Overseas Business Center Wang Yulin said that in the next three to five years, TCL’s strategic focus in Europe will not only be to expand market share, but also to continue to enhance its reputation. In the next step, TCL will focus on expanding the German market in Europe. The TCL German team will officially begin operations on that day.

Into the top three in France

On September 1, in the Boulogne-Billan ancient town in the Grand-Paris region of France, the reporter arrived in front of a five-story office building in a high-end business district. The European headquarters of TCL Multimedia is on the third floor of this building. More than a decade ago, this was the headquarters of the Thomson Color TV business. After TCL acquired this French color TV company in 2004, it became TCL’s “bridgehead” to enter the European market.

Antoine Salome, who worked at Thomson, was a blue-eyed Frenchman. He joined TCL in 2007 and is now the marketing director of the TCL Multimedia Europe Business Center.

Antowan told the reporter: “Our business started in 2007 and the TCL brand entered the European market in 2009. This year's latest data shows that TCL has ranked third in the European color TV market. Now Thomson, TCL two brands plus As a result, the color TV market share in Europe has reached 10.6%."

“We are implementing a dual-brand strategy in Europe. France is dominated by Thomson. In other countries, the market is still dominated by the TCL brand. The positioning of the brand is also different. Thomson mainly targets the mainstream family market, and TCL focuses more on young people. Since 2009, TCL has become the fastest growing TV brand in the European market and has entered more than 20 European countries,” said Antoine.

At present, France is TCL's core market in Europe. TCL's market share in the local color TV market reaches 8% to 9%, which is TOP3 of the French color TV brand. Antoine said: "We hope to become a leader in 4K and curved surface television and continue to maintain the status of European market TOP3. Outside of France, Germany and Italy are also our core target markets. We will try our best to increase investment in these markets."

The next stop is Germany

"The next step we will focus on developing the German market, the Germans attach importance to product quality, and the German color TV market is ranked in the top ten in the world." Antoine said, "It is important to find our differentiation, the most critical is to tell consumers, Channel distributor, TCL's product value and brand value.”

He revealed that TCL Multimedia's product strategy in Germany is on the one hand surface, 4K TV, and on the other hand, smart TV. "In order to better implement this strategy, TCL established its own management team in Germany and they only started to work today."

Antoine told the "First Financial Daily" reporter that to build a brand new brand in the European market is the most interesting challenge in his career. Therefore, TCL does not form a direct competition with Thomson. “TCL is biased toward young people, mainly for users of 24-35 years old. TCL is doing entertainment marketing globally. We cooperate with the headquarters strategy and use Iron Man and Dish. "Spice" and other TCL-sponsored blockbusters promote advertising, new media, and offline channels, and promote our television through movies."

As a result, TCL also invested heavily in this year's IFA to build momentum into the German market, bringing more screen-intensive and smarter UHD (Ultra High Definition) TVs to local consumers. Antoine revealed in advance that TCL will focus on displaying high color gamut, quantum dots, and curved TVs on the 2015 IFA. New high-definition contrast HDR color TVs will also appear. "The global television broadcast value-added services will also be displayed in Europe for the first time."

In fact, in addition to TCL, Skyworth, Hisense and other Chinese color TV companies, this year has also accelerated their deployment in Germany. Skyworth has just acquired Metz, the old color TV brand in Germany, and Hisense is partnering with Loewe, another old color TV brand in Germany. According to media reports, Levee will be absent from IFA for the first time this year, while Chinese companies are getting bigger and bigger.

International "curve passing"

TCL is once again among the top three color TV sets in the world this year. European and Japanese brands are no longer able to invest more in the color TV field, but Samsung and LG, two major South Korean brands, still occupy the high-end market and have taken over 50% of the world's color TV market share. .

Wang Qilin, who entered TCL Multimedia in 1997, worked at a domestic branch and was selected to study in the United States in 2004. He worked in the United States and India in 2005 and 2006 respectively. In 2009, he returned to the headquarters to become the general manager of the product center, and in 2015 became the TCL. General Manager of Multimedia Overseas Business Center.

Wang Yulin told reporters that at present, TCL Multimedia has four sections overseas: First, European operations, there are four offices in France, Poland, Germany, and Italy; Europe has already accounted for one quarter of overseas revenue; Second, North American business, this year has 100 Million sales accounted for a quarter of overseas revenue. Third, Vietnam, Philippines, Thailand, Hong Kong and other emerging market countries and regions, TCL self-built branch, also accounted for a quarter; Fourth, South America, China and the United States, Emerging markets in Africa, the Middle East and other places are handled by agents. "This year we will add a new section to the BRICS in Brazil, India, and Russia, which will be linked to the three industries of mobile phones, communications and home appliances."

Looking back over the past ten years, Wang Yulin said that TCL’s acquisition of Thomson is a huge challenge and there have been large losses. In 2004, he was the first employee to be sent to Europe by TCL. “I have also witnessed the pain experience. To this day, I still think that the cross-border M&A decision was right at the time. Because internationalization is not as easy as I imagined, in the process of internationalization, TCL took advantage of Thomson and quickly moved to Europe. Get cognition."

From January to July of this year, TCL and Thomson combined took up 10.6% of European TV market share and entered the global and European color TV industry. Without Thomson's support, it is difficult for TCL to achieve such achievements and breakthroughs in North America and Europe. Wang Yulin said that, including himself, through the acquisition of Thomson, TCL has also trained a group of international talents.

“From 2005 to 2006, it was a period of painful (foreign cross-border mergers and acquisitions). From 2007 to 2012 and 2013, the rapid development of TCL's color TV business increased the revenue of the TCL Group to 100 billion yuan in 2014 and injected growth energy. The integration has made a great determination.” Wang Yulin believes that without the economies of scale brought about by international mergers and acquisitions, TCL will not invest in the upstream of Huaxing Optoelectronics' LCD panels, and there will be no existing scale of 100 billion yuan.

Respect for cultural differences

M&A in Europe is painful because of cultural differences. Deng Huan, who is responsible for public relations work at TCL Multimedia Europe Center, said that at the beginning of the merger, Li Dongsheng, chairman of TCL Group, had gone to Europe to guide his work, but on the weekend, European employees did not come to work, even if the “owner arrived”. Nowadays, both Chinese and Western employees have learned to respect each other's culture. Corporate leaders usually come to the office during work hours. At present, there are more than 70 people in the European center of TCL Multimedia, among which only 4 to 5 people are dispatched by the Chinese side.

Antoine said: "We have an international background. Although we have cultural differences with Italy and Germany, we have the experience of transnational integration. Second, TCL's overseas business conducts regular team building to discuss more efficient ways. Third, Foreign employees regularly come to China for training."

In addition to the localization of personnel, it is more critical to establish a localized supply chain. Wang Yulin said that selling flat-panel TVs is like selling seafood, and it will be faster, otherwise it will be difficult to have a competitive advantage. In Europe, TCL TV's main supply chain is in Poland. “Our basic business model is that China is a stronghold, exporting color TV parts to Europe, assembling in Polish factories, and shipping to European customers, shortening the distance with customers, accelerating order response, and keeping inventory in less than three days. The operating efficiency will be improved, and product design and R&D will share the platform in China. The R&D team in China will be divided into two teams, the Chinese market and the overseas market. The product framework will be shared globally and the exterior will be designed to meet local needs.”

For example, TCL's 32-inch TVs have colored borders in Europe. This differentiated design has become a local explosion.

“We also face challenges, mainly the reputation of the brand. With reputation, reputation is the focus of the next step. In addition to seizing the share of European and Japanese color TV brands, we have to seize their brand position, Philips, Japanese companies did not More resources to invest in technology research and development, we need to mention the brand, raise the average price, the main big screen, ultra high-definition, intelligent television products, hoping to gain something, this is the key strategy for the next three to five years.” Wang Yulin is full of expectations for the future .