Reborn in Hong Kong: The Tycoon Grows Up

Matsushita Konosuke left behind a few words, but when Bao Zixuan heard the Panasonic representative announce the price of the Walkman, he understood what Matsushita Konosuke meant.

In order to seize the Walkman market this time, Panasonic launched a total of 4 Walkman models. It is very good in terms of design, fashion and functionality. The most important thing is that the price is very affordable. The market sales price is set at 88 US dollars, 118 yuan.

Even the most expensive model is $31 cheaper than the Black Cloud Walkman, and Panasonic is also a well-known brand. Bao Zixuan knew that the era of huge profits for the Walkman was about to pass. Panasonic had suddenly lowered the price so much that Sony would have to follow suit, and Philips would definitely follow suit.

If the prices of the Walkmans from these three companies are very cheap, then the Heiyun Walkman will definitely not be able to be purchased at a high price. The old boy Konosuke Matsushita was too cruel this time. He knew that the profits from the Walkman accounted for a large proportion of the Heiyun Group's revenue. If Heiyun's Walkman could not be sold this time, it would be equivalent to cutting off one of Heiyun's arms.

The Walkman is a dispensable product in Panasonic's segment, just an ordinary product exchanged for outdated patents. In order to prevent Heiyun from making a lot of money, Panasonic can be said to have killed a thousand enemies and suffered a loss of twelve hundred.

However, as a wealthy Panasonic, it is a very cost-effective thing, so that it can effectively control the development of Heiyun. It was completely correct strategically, but the reason why Matsushita Konosuke left was because Heiyun could have been caught off guard. Unexpectedly, Junpei Yokoi, a traitor, developed such an excellent game console for Heiyun. Judging from this situation, the sales volume will definitely not be small, and now only Heiyun is producing this kind of small game console on the market. It will be an exclusive business for a long time in the future. Panasonic's plan failed from the start.

Not far from Bao Zixuan, Akio Morita was extremely depressed. He saw that Heiyun could boost production capacity with the help of game consoles. Panasonic still sets the price of its Walkman so cheaply, which is a disgrace to Japanese companies.

Heiyun Walkman is still in short supply on the market and you still set this price. Aren’t you telling consumers that the quality of a Japanese company is no longer as good as that of a Hong Kong company?

This is destroying the brands of all Japanese companies. What exactly does Matsushita Konosuke, an old fox, want to do? A smart person like him should not make such a mistake! The more Akio Morita thought about it, the more he couldn't figure it out.

However, Panasonic's decision to buy Walkmans so cheaply will definitely have an impact on Sony. This time Sony has launched 5 models of Walkmans. And it is divided into 5 price levels, with the highest price being US$199 per unit.

Akio Morita believes that Sony is the most attractive brand in music in this era. The Sony Music brand is worth an extra US$50 for customers to buy. But now that Panasonic has set the price so cheaply, what should Sony do to promote it? After all, all the commercials have been shot.

Panasonic's price reduction this time was secret, and only a few senior executives knew about it internally. Moreover, the advertisement was also shot secretly. For this reason, they also organized a fake photography team to confuse their opponents. The original intention was to mislead the Heiyun Home Appliances Department, but now it seems that the Heiyun Home Appliances Department has no influence at all. The entire group now has a new product that can change the situation.

Originally, Heiyun Group could not investigate any information in Japan, but with the installation of small CNC machine tools in major Japanese companies. Many Heiyun engineers also came to Japan. Panasonic, which purchases a lot of machine tools, has more than 20 Heiyun engineers.

Panasonic thought that Heiyun engineers could pass the fake price of the Walkman to the headquarters, so Panasonic's sudden announcement of the real price this time would catch Heiyun off guard, and it would be very difficult to adjust.

Heiyun engineer did pass the price to Bao Zixuan, but in his opinion, the Walkman can just produce two cheaper models. The Heiyun Walkman style is definitely a classic among classics. Moreover, the focus of this promotion was not on the Walkman, so I didn’t take it to heart.

As its mortal enemy, Sony is very concerned about Panasonic's every move. After seeing that Panasonic's prices are almost the same as its own. Akio Morita didn't take it to heart. He believed that the two companies had similar brands and the same price was acceptable. Moreover, Sony is even better than Panasonic in music, and it is acceptable to have a higher price than Panasonic.

Unexpectedly, Panasonic directly played such a trick at the critical moment. If the product is launched as planned, the Sony Walkman, which is twice as expensive as Panasonic, can still be bought.

In fact, this time Panasonic did not want to make much money from the Walkman product. The purpose was clearly to suppress the Heiyun home appliance department. Konosuke Matsushita wanted to nip in the cradle this young company that could threaten Japanese companies and Panasonic in the future.

Knowing that Heiyun is expanding its factory in Xiangjiang, if the production capacity is not filled, the losses will be very serious. Game profits alone cannot support such a large project. Without production, those factories would be nothing more than decorations. In this way, problems will arise in Heiyun's entire manufacturing department, which will block all Heiyun's expansion paths. Let Heiyun return to the state where it can only develop and produce game arcades.

Panasonic's plan can be said to be very vicious and particularly aggressive. If Bao Zixuan had not vigorously developed gameboys and laptops, Panasonic's plan might have succeeded.

Panasonic's overall plan is not to let Heiyun go bankrupt, that would be very unrealistic. It just makes Heiyun Group lose its ability to enter the field of home appliances, and at the same time, Heiyun Factory has no products to produce.

Fortunately, Heiyun Group has recently developed two excellent products, especially the gameboy handheld game console, which will definitely sell well. Otherwise, Bao Zixuan can only cry while guarding the huge factory in Xiangjiang.

However, it has little impact on Heiyun, but it has a great impact on Sony, which has always regarded music products as the number one in the world. If the price is lowered along with Panasonic, it will lower its own brand positioning. If the price is not lowered, the sales volume of the Walkman can be imagined with just one's toes.

The release of Sony's new products was the last one in the afternoon. At this time, several Sony giants held an emergency meeting in the exhibition negotiation room.

Akio Morita said: "Panasonic has broken the business rules and started dumping the Walkman. It was originally aimed at Heiyun, but I didn't expect Heiyun to develop such an excellent new product this time, so the internal status of the Walkman for Heiyun is definitely It will go down. No matter what we do, Panasonic's tricks can be easily resolved, but for us, we are very passive. Now we must find a solution first, rather than holding the marketing department accountable."

After Sony's marketing department learned about the price of the Panasonic Walkman, it formulated a list of the Sony Walkman's selling price and expected sales. As a result, Sony's production capacity has been tilted towards the Walkman in recent times.

Just now, Akio Morita heard that some executives wanted to use the topic to deal with the marketing department, and they were still fighting among themselves. In fact, this is a normal thing in large companies. There are conflicts between factions, but now is the time to solve Sony's predicament, not to suppress different factions.

He could only go so far. Many senior executives represented different directors; sometimes Akio Morita had to compromise.

Akio Morita knew that it was useless to rely on this group of people, so he still had to make the final decision himself. If something goes wrong, you have to take responsibility for it yourself, and there will be no results through discussion.

After thinking about it, he said: "Since you don't have any good ideas, just do what I say. Mr. Hengshan, you will make a new product recommendation statement on behalf of the company later. This time we will have 5 Walkmans. The highest The price remains unchanged, it’s still a 1-volume version, but buying it at 3 prices has never been the first choice for high-end customers.”

"As for the remaining models, each model will be only $1 more expensive than Panasonic according to the original proportion, which is 81."

Sony's R\u0026D manager Toshio Yokoyama returned: "Okay, President, but many of our commercials will be postponed."

Akio Morita: "It's okay. Now contact the advertising shooting team to re-dubbing and editing. No company in the world can match Sony in this area."

Akio Morita is indeed a business leader who responds very quickly, otherwise he would really be obsessed with Konosuke Matsushita. However, as Panasonic disregarded business rules to suppress its opponents and made Sony also passive, Akio Morita wanted to find an opportunity to do the same for Panasonic.