(To be clear, these chapters have repeatedly said that black Huawei is black millet.) I hope that everyone will increase the level of posture more, and you will know that various business models and competitive positioning have been repeated repeatedly in history. I'm just making an analogy for the sake of your understanding. It's not that some kind of business strategy is bad.

Just like there is nothing wrong with playing the patriotic card, what is wrong is to only play patriotic but not pay attention to quality, and there is nothing wrong with cost performance, and the wrong thing is to ignore the user experience after asking for cost performance. These are not contradictory, because improving the user experience does not increase the cost of production, and sometimes it is just a matter of the leadership to pay attention to the design, and not to be bound by pure science and engineering thinking. In the book, when Nintendo Sega was looking for its competitive advantage longboard, it compared Huawei and Xiaomi, but the cause of their death was the shortcomings on the other side)

On June 28, three days after the official release of the Sega SG-1000 game console.

San Francisco Bay Area, located in Redwood, Silicon Valley.

The headquarters of Sega (USA) is now located in this small town.

This is also characteristic of Silicon Valley, and countless small towns in the Bay Area may be entrenched in all kinds of IT/electronics giants, and not all of them will gather in the San Francisco metropolitan area.

David Rosen, at the helm of Sega USA, nervously confronts the company's daily affairs and awaits the first round of trials with mixed feelings.

David Rosen must be unfamiliar to future generations of Chinese gamers, because according to the original historical trajectory, he only had a glimpse of the arcade era before 83 years, and then ended up with the collapse of Atari. In later generations, it was Sega (said) Company that really made the Sega brand famous, and it was Hayabusa Nakayama.

Now, because of the fine-tuning of history, David Rosen, an old man who is over 55 years old, obviously has a chance to re-establish the last shift of his historical mission, and if he wins, he can really continue to play his residual heat.

The research and development of the SG-1000 game console was mainly completed by the engineer team of Sega (said to be the company), and the American company was only responsible for the cassette porting of the first batch of arcade games, which was more focused on software development.

This was also the norm in the early 80s, when the division of labor between the United States and Japan was normal. At that time, I said that I had surpassed the United States in the research and development capabilities of electronic hardware, and American companies were only more dominant in software.

However, despite the fact that the console was developed by Sega Japan, Hayao Nakayama and David Lawson were surprisingly unanimous in their go-to-market strategy:

The first batch of goods will be given priority to the United States, first hit the American market, and if it can occupy the gap after the collapse of Atari, then kill back to the original.

This may be difficult for outsiders to understand, but as long as you have a deep understanding of the atmosphere of today's game console market, you can figure it out - the Atari crash at the beginning of the year was limited to "the Atari crash in the American market".

Plus one Europe at most.

In the current market, the sales of the Atari 2600 game console last year were only one-twentieth of the American market, and less than 300,000 units were sold throughout the year.

This year, however, it has been reversed.

Atari sales in the United States fell by as much as 40 times, and the market barely fell. In the United States, only more than 2,000 Atari consoles can be sold every week, but the market can sell nearly 5,000 weekly sales.

Both Hayayao Nakayama and David Rosen know that this is because their superstitions about "American Dad" have not yet been dispelled.

Historically, until the Plaza Accord in '85 caused the yen to skyrocket, and they said that they were buying and buying around the world to boost their national pride, they had always had a sense of reverence for American goods.

Therefore, even if Sega hits the market first, it will not end well, because in this book, Atari is not yet cold.

In this case, it is better to hit the US market first.

David Rosen's thinking is very clear: Gu Ao's Tiankun Entertainment has occupied the righteous position of the leader of the martial arts alliance, and the "first righteousness" of Atari, plus the design of Tiankun's game console is indeed fine, and it is impossible for Sega to win against Tiankun.

However, as long as Sega's machine is not too bad, and shares the bonus period behind Tian Kun, everyone will compete for a three-seven opening, Sega three, Tian Kun seven, and David will be satisfied.

The most important thing is that even if Sega only accounts for the "three", it means that Sega's sales in the United States will significantly surpass Atari.

When the time comes, it will not be a "humble domestic product", but "an export that has been sold domestically by the American father", and the brand is completely different.

When the time comes, we can talk about "two game console companies that have beaten Atari in the U.S. market." One of them is a company, and the other is a Chinese company, so I will ask you which one the consumers support".

Even American dads themselves are not superstitious about their fellow American dads, and you consumers are still superstitious about wool!

Plan to pass!

……

"DID YOU GET THE FIRST SALES COUNTS? HOW IS THE SITUATION? IS THERE A THIRD OF THE SALES OF THE TIANKUN PLAY-COMPUTER ON THE FIRST DAY? AS LONG AS IT IS A THIRD, IT IS A GOOD START. ”

David Rosen looked at his watch for the fourth time today when he finally waited for the company's sales director, Ruben Peterson, to step into his office.

David immediately stood up, walked around the desk himself, and took a few steps to catch the report.

Rubin Peterson had a difficult face: "Boss, not very optimistic, the latest data from dealers, 40% of dealers, within two days before the launch, did not sell a single SG-1000. At present, in the United States, we have counted the dealers, the total sales in the first two days, only 1,000 units......"

David Rosen's expression immediately froze.

"This is impossible! Our machines are sold cheaper than those of Tiankun, and the hardware parameters are not bad, how can consumers not buy it?"

Rubin Peterson presented two magazines, half shirking responsibility, half explaining to the point: "Boss, do you think it could be the cause of this - the two magazines "Home Computer" and "Game Man" actually published a comparative review of the three major home game consoles currently on the market in the weekly magazine the day after our first launch.

Then it was revealed that our SG-1000 was 'just a pile of performance parameters, but the ergonomics and operability were extremely disastrous'! I don't know how many sales these two magazines have and how much impact they are doing so far. But this kind of bad review is obviously a major blow to the goodwill of the product. I suspect Schulhoff paid off the magazine review article with black money!"

David Rosen's face sank like water, but he didn't have an immediate seizure.

It seems that this is a very powerful person, who has seen strong winds and waves, and knows the power of smearing hype.

However, after only a few seconds, one or two bruises on his forehead could be seen, indicating that the owner of this face was already angry in his heart:

"Despicable! What about our PR department? Isn't the media doing a good job of PR? Also, is the problem mentioned in the review article really true?"

Rubin Peterson hurriedly took the opportunity to throw the pot to the R&D company: "So, our public relations department has done its best, so we can only buy the magazine not to hack us, but we can't make the magazine give up the news point." The game console designed by the company is indeed a bit inhumane in operation.

As mentioned in these articles, it was hastily ported from the arcade machine, with the only difference being that the arcade machine's joystick was moved to a 'plastic brick'. The player has to carry the brick in one hand and rub the joystick in the other, which is very laborious......"

David Rosen wanted to insult the dull engineers under Hayakuo Nakayama, but he knew that he could only swallow the bitter fruit at this moment.

The time of the R&D company is too hasty, from project approval to shipment, four or five months, except for rough transplantation, there is no other choice.

He closed his eyes tightly and sighed: "In terms of R&D, there is really no way, I have held seven or eight meetings with them to urge the progress of the project, and I know how difficult it is." In order to catch up with the current progress, some engineers in Japan have died of overwork in the laboratory, and if it were in the United States, the compensation for the labor environment alone would be enough.

However, I don't believe that this reason can lead to such a heavy setback in our initial shipments! How can consumers realize the seriousness of the SG-1000's operational disaster so quickly? Whether they buy it or not, it is not the inducement of the dealers? Now we are facing the problem that the first batch of half-deceived and half-sold guinea pig users cannot be deceived, and this is not because the marketing department is not doing its best, what else can it be!

When he said the last two sentences, David Rosen's voice suddenly rose a few degrees, and he looked at his marketing director with fierce eyes.

Rubin was a little furious when he saw it, and because of the boss's keen insight, he couldn't even say an excuse to shirk responsibility.

"I ...... I don't know why, but it's true. He was very weak and confessed.

David Rosen, like an anxious lion, paced back and forth a few times, then scratched his mane and ordered:

"Find our long-term cooperative market research company! Let them immediately conduct in-depth unannounced visits to dig out the deep reasons why major dealers can't sell SG-1000. In addition, you and I will lead a team to personally visit the first-line markets around San Francisco! I must know the most sincere feedback from the frontline!"

"Yes boss, I'll arrange it. Rubin hurriedly agreed.

……

After some hasty preparations, David Rosen and Rubin Peterson went on an unannounced visit with their assistants and secretaries in the afternoon.

Each of them divided into sections, and decided to let the boss David personally touch a few high-end dealers near Silicon Valley first. And because Rubin is the marketing director, many dealers around San Francisco know him, so he was assigned to Los Angeles for research, anyway, it is not far away.

Around 3 p.m., David Rosen led people to Macy's in downtown San Francisco.

Nowadays, shopping places such as computer city/digital city in the United States are not very popular, and more than half of the sales of electronic products are still realized in various department stores, and in comparison, electronic cities do not have much price advantage.

Macy's is a long-established department store chain with a history of more than 100 years, and Americans love to go there to buy things. The electronic product dealers in Macy's are also relatively powerful dealers in various places.

As soon as he walked through the door of Macy's, David Rosen was very dissatisfied to see something he didn't want to see.

One of the walls of Macy's Department Store was replaced with a huge advertisement for the Tiankun Entertainment game console, and David couldn't hide from it if he wanted to see it.

"Those guys from Tiankun Entertainment actually put advertisements in such places to disgust people! Can this kind of wall advertising promote the sales of game consoles! Ridiculous!"

The accompanying female secretary was eager to pat herself on the back and respectfully proposed, "Then, do you want Mr. Days to also talk to the advertising department of Macy's and add a piece of our Sega wall advertisement?"

"Where did we get so much money to burn!" David first subconsciously reprimanded the female secretary, but then after thinking about it, he was still unhappy in his heart, and turned to make up with a true fragrance,

However, right under the nose of Silicon Valley, it is not unpleasant to watch Tiankun make such a big fanfare. Go, at least take down the wall advertisements in a few major stores in San Francisco! It's the same size as the Tiankun! Out of sight for the time being!"