/ Daily News/December 13, 2022 Guangzhou -- In recent years, facing the rapid rise of more and more emerging brands, "brand youth" has gradually become the main theme of the development strategy of many brands. It is undeniable that the rejuvenation of the brand can eliminate the tired state and capture the young market. However, it is not easy to be young. Many brands only have a superficial understanding of the brand.

Gree Electric Appliances stands out as a representative of traditional household appliance brands among the young population. From launching diversified products that better meet the needs of young people to creating a popular combination "Mingzhu Yu Tong", Gree Electric Appliances has captured consumer needs with accurate insight and constantly explored new marketing methods. It breaks the single concept of "serving the young" of most brands, truly understands consumers, understands consumers and satisfies consumers, and thus interprets a way for traditional household appliance brands to break out of the circle of youth.

For long-term enterprises, how to carry out brand rejuvenation is a common problem. The reason why this issue has been hot discussed in recent years is closely related to the continuous upgrading of the Internet, the update and iteration of consumer groups, the fierce market competition and other factors.

The "Contemporary Youth Consumption Report" released by the consumer Finance Association of the Bank of China in 2021 shows that young consumers under the age of 35 have created nearly 65% of the consumption growth in 2021. The post-90s and even post-00s have gradually become the main force in the consumer market. These young consumers, growing up in the era of the fastest development of the Internet, have cultivated diversified values and ways of behavior in the changing environment, and also formed a unique consumption pattern. They like online shopping, but also need to go to physical stores to experience quality; They are willing to pay for quality, but do not blindly pursue big brands; They often reminisce about the classics, but they don't like to fall into the cliched traditions....... It is this complex and changeable group full of personality pursuit that forces the brand's rejuvenation action, and various new ways emerge in an endless stream, which also makes Gree Electric Appliances jump to a new level of rejuvenation.

Gree Electric Appliances has been developed for 31 years since its establishment in 1991. From a small air conditioning factory with an annual output of less than 20,000 window machines and a net asset of less than 10 million yuan, Gree Electric Appliances has developed into a diversified and technology-based global industrial manufacturing group. Gree Electric Appliances has always taken "consumer demand as the highest standard" as its brand goal. Therefore, in the face of the new test of youth, the company still firmly chooses to focus on consumers. After combining with the current consumption trend, the company has grasped the consumer psychology that is willing to match the brand concept with the lifestyle, and created a new lifestyle of "Gree Products" for young consumers, so as to realize the in-depth dialogue with young people and finally achieve the goal of youth.

Survival, expansion and upgrading in the new consumption environment

Crowd iteration, as the reason and key to brand rejuvenation, is a very important influencing factor in the process of brand rejuvenation, and also the basic vane for brands to develop transformation strategies. What kind of lifestyle do young people prefer? How to create the lifestyle that young people like? Gree Electric Appliances has come up with its own answer to consumer demand.

New context -- consumer dominance is becoming the mainstream

Changes in consumer demand have led to changes in marketing context. In the past, the brand led the customer's purchase demand, but today, the consumer demand-led model has gradually become the mainstream. For example, in the past, when shopping, people considered more about which brand is more durable and cost-effective, but now, faced with more and more different product choices, the question becomes more about "Which brand advocates a lifestyle that matches me?"

Gree Electric Appliances has a keen insight into this change, starting from kitchen electricity in household appliances, to expand to young consumer groups. According to the survey, consumers will pay 84% attention to healthy diet in 2021, and "how to eat well" has gradually become the focus of more and more people. In this regard, Gree put forward the concept of "New Light kitchen", and officially launched the new light kitchen set with kitchen electricity on May 10, 2022.

Gree New light kitchen Set kitchen electric is equipped with five major innovative products, such as all-range fresh raising refrigerator, 10-year no-cleaning smoke machine, extreme high-firepower gas stove, three dishes and one meal simultaneously steaming and baking dual-energy machine, large washing power sterilization dishwasher, etc. With the integrated powerful product matrix, Gree New light kitchen set provides a holistic kitchen life solution for various consumer groups. Office workers like to try different kinds of food, but they have no time to cook, coupled with the lack of cooking experience, it is often not delicious, after dinner in the maintenance of kitchen products and tableware cleaning is more difficult. For them, a kitchen system that combines health and convenience is like a clear sky after rain.

Gree Electric Appliances has created a simple, relaxed and healthy cooking experience through its new light kitchen products, and has realized the re-layout of the whole process from food preservation, food cooking to post-meal cleaning. On the one hand, under the new consumer context, it leads the new trend of healthy and convenient kitchen electricity consumption; On the other hand, satisfying diversified consumer demands also makes Gree Electric Appliances follow the trend and continue to extend the product margin and move towards more diversified industries, providing more possibilities for the brand rejuvenation.

New revolution -- marketing in the way that young people like

Marketing mode and communication form, is a powerful weapon for young brand to expand its territory. Gree Electric Appliances' continuous efforts in marketing are also the main reason for its widespread attention in the past two years. Dong Mingzhu personally into the bureau live with goods, to create the "pearl feather child" combination, the two movements out of the circle can be said to be a household name. Wave after wave of heat and volume behind, it is not difficult to see the brand trying to break the traditional home appliance marketing mode of change and determination.

Creating KOL and live streaming goods as once hot tuyere, itself is not a new means, and Gree's difference is that the chairman Dong Mingzhu, a strong woman who is well-known in the business community, has become the biggest card on tuyere.

On June 1, 2020, Gree Electric Appliances headquarters staged a live broadcast that lasted more than 10 hours. From opening her office for the first time to visiting key national laboratories and other scientific research centers, Dong Mingzhu led 30,000 offline stores across the country to open in full force. Two minutes sales exceeded 100 million yuan, the first half sales exceeded 1 billion yuan, the whole day sales exceeded 6.54 billion yuan...... The remarkable achievements also make this live broadcast a new starting point for Gree Electric Appliances to explore a new marketing model combining online and offline.

In July 2021, Meng Yudong, who was selected by Dong Mingzhu through the variety show We Just Entering the Workplace, joined Gree and became Dong Mingzhu's secretary. Dong Mingzhu publicly said that she hoped to "cultivate Meng into a second Dong Mingzhu", which made Meng Yutong, who is only 22 years old, come into public view overnight. Soon after, Gree registered its trademark for "Mingzhu Yu Tong", the boss and secretary combination of Internet celebrities began to appear frequently in public view.

"Pearl" is undoubtedly synonymous with personality charm, while "Yu Tong" represents the vitality and vigor of the post-95 generation. The combination of "Pearl Yu Tong" can give people a lot of imagination space and freshness. In such an era where everyone is competing to be a "net celebrity", a strong and good personal brand image undoubtedly has a strong ability to attract powder and cash. At the same time, turning a young girl like Meng Yudong into a symbol of Gree Electric Appliances is another milestone change for the brand rejuvenation of Gree Electric Appliances. Meng Yutong external to create "women in the workplace", "together to do a big woman in life" Shuang literati set, are quite in line with the current young people's appetite. Once it is recognized by young people, it will be very easy to pass Gree's values and bring corresponding commercial value through Meng Yutong.

With the gradual disappearance of demographic dividend, the popular market is gradually replaced by the upgraded market, and the ceiling of the traditional home appliance industry is becoming more and more obvious. More and more non-traditional home appliance brands, such as Xiaomi and Huawei, are stepping onto the market stage and constantly creating new corporate perspectives and concepts. Gree Electric Appliances has responded with practical actions. From the upgrading of context on the product side to the upgrading of mode on the marketing side, Gree's brand rejuvenation is actually a transformation to adapt to the iterative lifestyle of the crowd.

In addition, Gree Electric Appliances has also changed its operation strategy from service, management and other aspects to create a new corporate pattern, providing consumers with a complete and secure life experience. For example, "Household air conditioners are repaired for 10 years" and "air conditioners are washed for free in March". Gree launched this "combination of services" last year, which has a far-reaching influence on the home appliance industry and is of extraordinary value. On the one hand, in addition to showing Gree's full confidence in its own technology and product power, Gree's strong industrial chain control ability is released. On the other hand, these service commitments to break the universal cycle also force enterprises to be sure to invest 100% high standards and strict requirements in every link from product research and development, raw material inspection, product manufacturing to factory inspection, even logistics distribution, service installation and so on, to ensure the reliability of the whole life cycle of products.

It is worth mentioning that while creating a new lifestyle for consumers, Gree Electric Appliances has never stopped its deep cultivation of technical strength. Not long ago, the 74th International Exhibition of Inventions in Nuremberg, Germany was announced. Gree Electric Appliances won three gold and two silver awards at one fell fell. The five winning technologies covered many fields, such as air conditioning, intelligent equipment, freezing and refrigeration. Behind the heavy awards, carrying the continuous improvement of its independent innovation strength and scientific research ability. Up to now, Gree Electric Appliances has applied for 105,979 patents in total, including 55,066 invention patent applications and 16,442 invention patent grants in total. Gree Electric Appliances is the only household appliance enterprise that has been ranked among the top 10 invention patent grants in China for six consecutive years. At the same time, Gree Electric Appliances also owns 35 international leading technologies, which has broken the technological monopoly of refrigeration giants in the United States and Japan, and won wide popularity and influence in the international refrigeration industry.

It is not difficult to see that Gree Electric Appliances' youth strategy is not just a superficial effort, but more like a comprehensive renewal and upgrading of the enterprise. If marketing innovation is a sharp weapon for a brand to establish itself in the market and move in the world, then in the process of youth, scientific and technological innovation is the source of power for brand development.

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Brand, like everything in the world, has its own life cycle. The market has witnessed the rapid rise of emerging brands and the transformation and upgrading of traditional brands. Only by constantly following the pace of the consumer market, the brand can maintain its vitality and not be buried by the new generation of consumers in the intergenerational change. At present, the society is rapidly updating, and marketing tuyere such as metaverse, artificial intelligence, scene grass and so on keep appearing, which keeps becoming the battleground for all household appliance brands. New brand youth track keeps opening. All these are both challenges and opportunities for Gree, which keeps up with the development trend of The Times and upgrades products, marketing and channels. More possibilities to innovate household appliance brands and extend the vitality of Gree brand. It is believed that Gree will walk out of a unique youth road under the continuous exploration.