Swan' cultural accumulation, core technology and innovative spirit have created such an equation: Swan = high cost performance + quality service

 Swan has always been a famous star in my country's Hi-Fi audio stage. It is not only the early developer of Hi-end speakers in my country, but also the first to become an international brand in my country's audio industry. In the international audio fever frenzy in the early and mid-1990s, the "HiVi" speakers were well-known and well-known. In the minds of many audiophiles, they even believed that using "HiVi" speakers was equivalent to "fever", which was equivalent to "Hi-Fi". ". With the changes in the audio consumer market, the once prosperous Hi-Fi market has also begun to fade. "Is the glory of the past still present"? Is Swans still as majestic and domineering as ever? To this end, the reporter of "Electronic News" specially visited Mr. Yao Hongbo, President of Swan Group.

Swan Canada

Reporter (hereinafter referred to as "Remember"): In recent years, it is an indisputable fact that the Hi-Fi or fever audio market has become increasingly sluggish. What is Mr. Yao's opinion on the future development of China's Hi-Fi market?

Yao Hongbo (hereinafter referred to as "Yao"): First of all, we need to clarify a concept - "Hi-Fi is the abbreviation of Hi-Fidelity" is not completely equivalent to "Hi-end fever", Hi-Fi is a science in the field of audio technology Noun, and the fever Hi-end adds some more personalized fanatical music pursuit concepts. In fact, the company name "HiVi" includes Hi-Fidelity (high-fidelity music) and Visual (visual art), and the combination becomes HiVi. Shortly after the establishment of Hivi, it launched the "Hi-end S8" speaker unit that caused a sensation in the electro-acoustic industry at that time. Therefore, it can be said that Swans is the early communicator of the domestic Hi-end fever concept.

I agree with the concept of "generalized sound" proposed by "Electronic News". Hi-Fi speakers are an integral part of the general audio market. As far as the Hi-end fever market is concerned, I disagree with general statements like "depressed business, declining sales". The real depression and decline are mainly those low-tech audios that do not have the connotation of Hi-end fever technology. The audio companies that have closed down in recent years are also mainly these companies that produce some low-quality audio products under the banner of Hi-end fever. I am optimistic about the development of the audio market in the future, especially the audio market in the broad sense, which will develop rapidly.

Reporter: It is reported that HiVi is the first company in the Chinese audio industry to participate in the CES International Audio Exhibition in Las Vegas, USA, and has won the most awards. At this year's CES exhibition, it won two awards in one fell swoop. Please introduce the situation and significance of this aspect.

Yao: HiVi participated in the CES International Audio Exhibition in Las Vegas for the first time in 1996. This is not only the first but also the only Chinese Hi-Fi audio company participating in the exhibition. It marks that China's audio products have dared to compete side by side with international first-class brands and compete on the same stage. In 2000, at the Las Vegas Audio Show, Swans Diva speakers won the "Exceptional Value Award" for the first time. In 2002, Swans participated in the Las Vegas CES 2002 and the top audio equipment The Home Entertainment Expo 2002 Show at the same time, and Swans won two awards for the first time in one fell swoop - Swans House No. 1 Super Home Theater System won the Presented by HETV-Home Entertainment TV: "Award of Excellence" For Demonstrating excellence in design, engineering, and quality for Hi-end audio products - Hereby commends the perfect engineering and quality of Hi-end audio products; Hi-end The M4000HT home theater won the "BEST VALUE AWARD" award from the Expo 2002 Show. This further demonstrates Swans' world-class electro-acoustic design and R&D strength and international electro-acoustic quality standards. In my opinion, winning these awards is not only the honor and pride of Swans but also the Chinese audio industry.

Note: At present, the audio market is divided into "domestic brands", "imported brands" and "foreign brands" for audio brands. Which brand does Hivi belong to?

Yao: I dislike such a division. Due to time constraints, I will not comment here. What I just want to say here is: "Hivi" is neither a "domestic brand", nor an "imported" or "foreign brand", but an authentic "international brand"!

Swans America

Reporter: Can you comment or add explanations on "Swans is an international brand"?

Yao: "Foreign research and development, local production; multinational company, global sales" - this is the technology, manufacturing, management and marketing characteristics of Swans products. Can you say that the brand of such a product is not an "international brand"?

Note: Yuan heard the details again.

Yao: Hivi was founded in Zhuhai in 1991. In 1994, it set up a manufacturing center in Toronto, Canada, and began to enter the international electro-acoustic field, creating a precedent for Chinese audio companies to go abroad. Invested in the famous B&G Group high-tech ribbon speaker company in the United States; invested heavily in the establishment of the Canadian HiVi Electro-acoustic Research Center, and introduced the world's first-class production equipment and management system. Since then, Hi-Vi has become a multinational electro-acoustic group. In 1995, Swans officially became a member of the American Loudspeaker Manufacturers Association (ALMA). In 1997, Swans fully acquired Swans, a famous American high-end audio manufacturer. In 2000, the headquarters of Swans in Canada was relocated to Los Angeles in the United States and the new headquarters of Swans Multinational Group was established. It is the center of quality management, electro-acoustic technology research and precision parts production of Swans. The Danish B&K electro-acoustic measurement system; first-class material analysis, magnetic circuit analysis, laser interference spectrum analysis, digital DSP analysis instruments; modern audition rooms of various sizes and other world-leading advanced software and hardware resources. With these top software and hardware research and development resources, HiVi engineers can continuously develop world-class quality electro-acoustic products.

I remember that at the 1998 China-made Audio Exhibition, I brought four Swans American engineers, and their professional technical level won the admiration of their Chinese counterparts.

Hivi has two production bases in China: Panyu large-scale automated speaker production base, equipped with the most modern full set of speaker production equipment and computer-controlled quality management system in the world; Zhongshan high-tech speaker production base, with world-class automated speaker assembly lines and The most standard Danish B&K electro-acoustic test system recognized by the world's electro-acoustic industry.

In terms of sales, Swans products have been selling well overseas since 1997. Among them, the most representative example is: In 1999, the top speaker Forest of Totem Company of the United States (the price in Germany was as high as 8,000 Deutsche Marks) adopted the Swans D6 loudspeaker. In 2000, Swans Diva speakers entered the world's most famous high-end audio store Lyric Hi-Fi, New York. In the same year, Swans and other magnetic ribbon tweeters, known as the German Hi-end industrial giant Burmester Berlin Sound, were selected as the core unit of the company's reference speaker system B99. Other companies such as Canada's Clifford Company, American SLS Company, Germany's BVU and other companies have also successively adopted Swans speakers. I think, just based on the above cases, it is enough to show that Swans is fully deserved as an "international brand" in the audio industry!

Swans China

Note: There are three common elements for consumers to buy goods, mainly "price, quality and service". Do Swans products have strong competitive advantages in these three elements?

Yao: HiVi's self-evaluation -- in fact, is also the evaluation from consumers: "First-class quality, excellent service, and expensive price."

Note: Since you also think that "price is more expensive", why don't you work towards "cheap and good quality"?

Yao: What is "cheap and good quality"? The real "cheap" is based on the premise of "good quality". "If the skin does not exist, the hair will be attached". There is no "cheap" for "good quality", it is to spend money to buy junk. The so-called "cheap and high-quality", I think, is actually "high cost performance" - that is, the ratio of the quality performance of the product to the price is high; the so-called "higher price" of Hivi products is relative to the price of other low-quality and low-priced products. In terms of "high cost performance", the price of Swans products is not only not expensive, but also can be called a real "cheap and good quality". And I think with the maturity of consumption and market growth, "high cost performance" will definitely become the primary appeal point of consumers. Therefore, Swans has always adhered to the "high cost performance" concept, which will surely win more and more consumers and markets.

Note: Can you give an example of the "high cost performance" of Swans products?

Yao: The price-performance ratio of HiVi products is generally about 10 times higher than that of similar foreign products. For example, the Forest speaker of the American Totem company with Swans D6 unit is priced at 3,300 US dollars in the United States, while the Swans Duchy D3.1 speaker with the same D6 unit is priced at less than 3,000 yuan in China, that is to say Buying Swans products is equivalent to buying US$1 quality products with 1 RMB.

Note: Why are Swans products "more expensive"?

Yao: Others think HiVi products are expensive, mainly because we didn’t cut corners. In order to ensure the sound quality and service life of HiVi products, all of our materials are relatively best, and the production, processing and quality control are also the strictest. The cost will inevitably be relatively high.

Note: Can you give an example of the difference in the materials used?

Yao: Take the Swans D10 woofer magnetic circuit as an example. The voice coil is made of 100mm large-diameter copper-clad aluminum wire, and the high-temperature Kapton skeleton and NdFeB magnetic circuit system cost more than one hundred and two hundred yuan. . If you use cheap and inferior materials such as thin iron sheet stamping basin frame, inferior injection diaphragm, and paper skeleton voice coil with small diameter to make a unit larger than D10, the cost is less than 20 yuan. Of course, the sound quality and service life of this product are completely different from Swans or both.

Note: Cutting corners and low-price competition have indeed become one of the stubborn diseases that restrict and hinder the healthy development of China's audio industry. But people of insight also believe that the more dangerous weakness of China's audio industry is that the core technology is controlled by others - especially after the DVD patent fee incident, this has become a general consensus. Do you have any comments or thoughts on this?

Yao: Currently, one of the hottest topics in the business world is how to build the core competitiveness of Chinese enterprises. Core competitiveness is multifaceted, but for high-tech product manufacturers, I believe that core technology should be the most critical and most important magic weapon for all core competitiveness.

Note: Please give an example to illustrate.

Yao: The failure of "Biao Wang Aiduo" is a typical example. For a period of time before and after Aiduo became the "standard king", it can be considered that it has some core competitiveness, especially in terms of marketing strength. However, since it has no technological competitiveness, it can only be short-lived.

Note: As far as we have heard, among the many articles analyzing the main reasons for Aido's failure, it seems that few people hold the view of "technological failure".

Yao: This point of view is not my "invention", it is the opinion of the former CEO of Aido, Hu Zhibiao. When summing up the lessons of Aiduo's failure, Hu has publicly said many times: "Aiduo's failure mainly started when the department that was originally a technical staff was replaced by a sales promotion planner as the leader."

Reporter: When did Hivi regard core technology as the foundation of its business?

Yao: It can be said that this kind of awareness has been established since the establishment of Hivi.

Note: In 1991, 10 years ago, this seemed to be very advanced.

Yao: Thought determines action, and it is precisely because of this awareness that Hivi took the risk to move to Canada to build a factory in 1993, and then acquired a company and established a research center in the United States.

Note: But we also heard private discussions from some people in the industry, saying that it was not a wise move for Hiway to move overseas at that time, and even that Yao Hongbo was a bit stupid and wasted the best opportunity to make money. Do you have any regrets about this now?

Yao: It's not just this thing that says I'm "stupid". In recent years, some dealers have also said that HiVi is a bit stupid, too focused on technology and doesn't know how to produce cheap and low-quality audio products to expand its market share. I also often recall, if Swans did not move overseas in 1993 and invested all its capital and energy into the domestic market, would it have made more money? The answer is yes, because the Chinese audiophile audio market was too hot at that time; coupled with the high profits and the popularity of the HiVi brand at that time, it is entirely possible to love more first and become the first "standard king" in China. But at the same time, it may also be like Aido, who has long since disappeared. In the brutal and fierce Hi-Fi market in recent years, the reason why Swans has always been in an invincible position and continued to develop steadily should be attributed to Swans' advanced "core technology strategy". Therefore, Swans moved overseas in 1993, which should be a very far-sighted strategic move.

Note: Recently, we saw a comprehensive research report on "Science and Technology Innovation and Made in China" by the Great Wall Institute of Corporate Strategy. The report believes that: at present, the most significant disadvantage of "Made in China" is that "technology research and development" and "product development" still mainly rely on foreign companies; in the future, the only way to improve the competitiveness and value creation system of "Made in China" lies in independence. Technological innovation and attracting global R&D design and other resources serve "Made in China". After reading this report and linking to Swans' entrepreneurial journey, we have to be surprised that you could have seen the "current" disadvantages summarized in the report 10 years ago, and embarked on the "future" highlighted in the report. "The only way"! why is that?

Yao: I think this is probably mainly due to my technical philosophical thinking! Under the circumstances at that time, it was almost impossible for HiVi to develop its own technology in a closed-door manner. The only shortcut was to go abroad, and the highest level of audio technology was in North America, so I did not hesitate to spend huge sums of money to control and acquire audio in the United States. Enterprises, and hired foreign audio experts to work for Swans with an annual salary of more than 100,000 US dollars, directly turning excellent foreign R&D and design into Swans' resources.

Note: We noticed with interest that Mr. Yao has repeatedly mentioned the issue of "philosophy" in his talk today and in his past conversations with many media reporters. as an enterprise.