Industry news

Traveling to Shantou during the Chinese New Year, I saw a small milk tea shop less than five square meters, and many people stopped to take photos. Despite their small size, the flat efficiency may be higher than that of Haidilao, because they are located in the prime area of tourist attractions, with a huge flow of people. In addition, they are also an online celebrity store, which is simply a money printing machine. This is the benefit of popular models, not worrying about customers, not worrying about sales, and not worrying about development.

I used to think that in order to become a popular model, one had to create their own brand by spending money on finding people to grow grass, posting soft articles, advertising on print media, and so on, in order to stir up the popularity of their products and form a popular model.

Later on, I became an e-commerce company and encountered a trend every day, every quarter, and every year. I began to think that instead of creating a trend by myself, it would be better to pursue it. This operation is simpler and the rewards are also considerable.

01

Advantages of manufacturing and chasing air vents

First of all, we need to understand that when we use air vents, there are only two situations: either we create our own air vents or we pursue them. Both methods have their own advantages.

Manufacturing a wind outlet is a winner's take all. For example, if you create a sugar free concept wind outlet and your product is the leader in the sugar free field, any sugar free user will buy your product. Of course, there are also followers, but their market share is not even a fraction of yours.

I remember a long time ago, there was a sugar free tea drink that was neither warm nor hot, and it was about to be cut off. As a result, the sugar free air outlet came, and the salted fish suddenly flipped over and lay back to earn money.

The advantage of chasing after the wind is that it's easy to turn around when the ship is small. Taking e-commerce as an example, the wind can be said to be available every day. Recently, there were disinfection guns, test papers, fairy sticks, summer water guns, sunscreen, winter hand cream, and so on. The wind is one after another, not to mention catching every one. You can catch one and eat it for a year.

Like that mugwort, it costs a few cents. No one bought it for a few yuan before the air vent. The air vent is here, and a few tens of yuan is not enough to grab it. The air vent really caught up, and you can't even ship it.

The wind is just like starting a company. To create a wind is to be the boss, and to pursue a wind is to mix with the boss. If the company becomes successful, the boss will eat big meat and mix with the boss to eat small meat.

If the company doesn't get started and the boss loses everything, those who work with the boss can still find a new boss to continue working with. This is the advantage of each of the two, one is high risk but high return, and the other is low risk but also low return.

02

Disadvantages of manufacturing and chasing air vents

As mentioned above, the investment in manufacturing air vents is indeed significant and not suitable for small companies to play with. Another point is that if a small company is lucky enough to make a splash, it is likely to be making wedding dresses for a large company.

There is a story about a small vendor selling fish balls who had been setting up a stall for several years but didn't make much money. Later, the intersection where he set up the stall was repaired, making it more spacious and clean. There were also more vehicles passing by, and more people stopped to eat the vendor's fish balls.

Gradually, everyone realized that there was a demand for fish balls here, so they suddenly opened four or five fish ball shops. The small vendors were outdoor small tents, while others were hardcover houses. As a result, the business was taken away by latecomers. Although the demand came, the small vendors made less money than before.

The investment in manufacturing air vents is large, and the success rate is also low. Not to mention how much money it takes to create a tuyere, it is still a question mark whether humans, such a magical animal, have the ability to create tuyeres.

Creating a competitive atmosphere requires players to have a strong understanding of the workings of society. This is not only about experience, but also about talent. Without keen insight, no matter what training, they cannot grasp this game. Talent and capital are essential conditions for creating a competitive advantage. Many companies do not have these two conditions, but they are thinking about creating a competitive advantage, and the outcome has already been predetermined from the beginning.

And the disadvantage of chasing the wind is that it also requires experience, but this experience is much lower than the threshold for manufacturing wind. If you stay in an industry for a year, you will know when there is a wind. What if this industry has never had a competitive edge? Then there's no way, maybe this life has just passed.

Chasing the wind is following the wind. I used to like chasing after strong winds, but later found out that when we thought we were chasing the wind, it was actually someone else's wind preparing to cut leeks. That's not the wind at all, but the sickle.

When encountering a real small wind, its biggest disadvantage is that it is unpredictable. Without good foresight, one can only rely on luck.

Is firecrackers very popular this year? I have seen a similar case. A firecracker factory has been in operation for several years, and for the first three years, it has been losing money. I feel that this is not the best way for business to continue like this. I closed the factory a few months ago, and my business license and other qualifications were cancelled. As a result, everyone saw the market situation, and this person's intestines were regretful.

This kind of small talk can't even be guessed by people in the industry, let alone outsiders? My understanding of chasing the wind is that luck and vision each account for half.

03

Manufacturing or chasing air vents?

It's time to do Multiple choice again. Unlike math questions, Multiple choice in life have a standard answer. The choices in life are made based on one's own conditions. For example, will you go to Shanghai or Beijing after graduating from university? It's not your own decision, but your relatives or classmates in Shanghai or Beijing.

I usually go wherever I have acquaintances. The conditions you choose are based on your own background, and whether you choose to create or pursue a trend also depends on personal resources and conditions.

If you are in a small company and choose to manufacture air vents, it is not appropriate. The advertising budget for manufacturing air vents is in billions, and you can't make it, so don't have this dream. And chasing the wind? Doing e-commerce is more about testing the ability of the supply chain, and although there are many small opportunities, it may not be so easy to grasp.

Taking the firecrackers mentioned in the above article as an example, just talking about that qualification has stumped many people. There are also people around me who want to sell them on their social media during the Chinese New Year, but when I saw the punishment regulations, I gave up. The threshold is too high, visible, and unable to catch is the norm.

Creating and chasing air vents seems difficult, so how do we choose? In fact, it's a good thing not to do well. If the threshold is very low, wouldn't everyone earn a lot less.

What we need to do when there is a threshold is to find ways to improve our ability to cross the threshold. When you have the ability to create or chase the wind, you can choose based on your personal abilities.

04

last

The wind blows every day, it depends on whether you catch it or not. I can probably foresee the regular small air vents this year, and the next step is to improve my ability to catch the air vents. I hope to catch one or two small air vents this year. But even if I can't catch it this year, there will still be next year. It's not urgent, as long as I catch it once, it's enough.