Sennheisel's attitude was almost impeccable to Li Mu. Muller showed all his thoughts without reservation. To sum it up, as long as you're willing to play with me, I'll do anything you want me to do.
Li Mu liked cooperative partners who knew how to adapt to the circumstances. They could see what was most beneficial to them at a glance, and then they would succeed at all costs. They weren't like those stupid people in charge of businesses who would tell you what they couldn't eat when you wanted to reward them with a bite of food. It was obvious that they didn't want to accept the face that was given to them.
However, Li Mu didn't immediately decide to cooperate with Sennheisel. After all, not only did the team meet with Sennheisel in Germany, but they also met with Bayer Dynamics. According to business etiquette, he had to talk to both parties before making the next decision.
Therefore, Li Mu's reply to Muller was to wait until the team met with Bayer Dynamics, then he would carefully decide which party to cooperate with.
Muller naturally knew that Li Mu wouldn't make a decision after just talking to him, so he said, "Li Zong, I believe that Sennheisel won't let you down. We sincerely look forward to cooperating with you!"
…
Sennheisel's headquarters was in Hanover, and Bayer Dynamics' headquarters was in Heilbronn. The two places were more than 400 kilometers apart. After the team ended the negotiation with Sennheisel, they flew from Hanover to Stuttgart, and then took a bus to the headquarters of Bayer Dynamics.
The higher-ups of Bayer Dynamics also attached great importance to the cooperation with Makino Technology. However, compared to the higher-ups of Sennheisel who wanted to cooperate with Makino Technology at all costs, Bayer Dynamics' attitude was slightly more rational and calm.
In Li Mu's eyes, he felt that Sennheisel was the most suitable. Sennheisel's performance was like Tang Niu in "God of Cookery." For a giant company like Makino Technology, they needed a follower with this kind of attitude. As for whether such a follower would bite back one day, it actually didn't exist. Makino Technology was so big that no follower could shake its foundation, and its strength was enough to destroy any follower that betrayed it.
After the team finished their discussion with Bayer Dynamics, they immediately returned to Hanover, and then started the second round of discussion with Sennheisel. This time, the discussion went straight to the practical stage to confirm the relevant details.
The headset prototype that Sennheisel planned to cooperate with Makino Technology was Sennheisel's flagship product in the headset field, the MX858.
Currently, most of Sennheisel's mid-to-high-end headset models were either earmuffs or in-ear models. Originally, Sennheisel also hoped to cooperate with Li Mu with an earmuff or in-ear model, but Li Mu still insisted on choosing the headset.
The reason why he chose the headset was that it was the most comfortable to wear, and it was also the most widely accepted headset by the public.
The earmuff headset was relatively more feverish, but the cost of wearing it was also very high. After a long time, it was either headaches or ear pain. It was even more uncomfortable to wear in hot weather, and it was inconvenient to carry around. It was really not suitable to be used as an accessory for music players. Moreover, until Li Mu's rebirth, he had never heard of any music players or mobile phones that were manufactured with earmuff headsets. Just the packaging alone was not enough.
As for in-ear headsets, although the sound quality was better and would gradually become the mainstream of portable headsets, it was still not popular enough. Most headset users would feel very uncomfortable when they first used in-ear headsets. The degree of acceptance of this kind of headset was far less than that of the headset. In the eyes of users, the headset was the type of headset that they needed the least adaptation to. It was what headsets had always been like.
Apple's EarPods had been used in their product line for so many years without any changes. It was not without reason. Apple definitely knew that in-ear headsets had better sound quality, but they also knew that if they changed the EarPods to in-ear headsets, it would only please a small number of users. Most users would definitely reject it. Therefore, instead of doing that, it was more appropriate to make a headset that was more acceptable to the public.
Sennheiser's flagship headset was sold for around US $60 in most countries and regions. In Hua Xia, the price was even higher, which was around US $80. The overall quality of this headset was also very good. At this price point, it was considered by consumers to be the most cost-effective product. It was very well recognized in the mid-market.
As for the cost of shipping this headset, Makino Technology and Sennheiser had already reached an agreement. Makino Technology would purchase the headset at US $15, and the taxes and logistics would be borne by Makino Technology. Under normal circumstances, the factory price of Sennheiser's MX858 was around US $20. Although there was a significant loss in profits, there was still a certain amount of profit margin. What Sennheiser cared more about wasn't this bit of profit, but the huge boost to their brand after working with Makino Technology.
Although Li Mu didn't understand the MX858 headset, since it had withstood the test of the market, there was naturally no need to worry about its overall performance. However, as for the appearance of the headset, Li Mu had a few requirements.
First, it couldn't be black. It had to be a high-end white and light gray color scheme.
Second, the wire controller had to be as small as possible. It couldn't be made into a huge cylinder, but should be designed as small and flat as possible.
Third, it had to have a simple and space-saving packaging box. The packaging box had to abandon the plastic style that most of Sennheiser's products used. Li Mu's requirements were to design a flat, rectangular plastic box with a transparent front cover. The left and right earphones and the wire controller had to appear in the transparent plastic cover. The earphone cables had to be hidden and coiled around the box.
To put it bluntly, it was completely following the style of Apple's EarPods in the future.
As for the logo, Li Mu requested that while shrinking the Sennheiser logo, he added a Mango logo. The main display area for the logo would be on the back of the headset and around the plug.
In addition to the logo, Li Mu also requested that the model of the headset be named MX858-MANGO. On one hand, it was to ensure that the consumers knew that the headset was the same as the MX858. On the other hand, it was to let the consumers know at a glance that it was a joint product between Mango and Sennheiser.
When discussing the specific details of the collaboration, Muller made a request to Li Mu through a video conference. He said, "Li Zong, I hope that you can allow Sennheiser to sell this joint headset to the public. If you agree, we will raise its price in the end market compared to the regular MX858. This way, the consumers will be more aware of the actual value of this headset."
Li Mu thought for a moment, then nodded in agreement.
There were many ways to let the consumers know the actual value of this headset. For example, they could say that it was a collaboration with Sennheiser, and that it was derived from the MX858. However, most of the consumers might not understand the MX858, and they might not be able to determine the technical differences between this customized headset and the MX858. Instead of that, it was better to let Sennheiser sell it to the public at the same time. If the normal price of the MX858 was around 60 USD, then the customized MX858-MANGO would be sold for 70 USD. This way, the actual value of the MX858-MANGO would be reflected.
This way, when the MX858-MANGO model was sold together with the Mango-ME2, it would add a lot of selling points to the Mango-ME2 headset. For example, Sennheiser's reputation in the headset industry. For example, the MX858-MANGO used the MX858's acoustic design, and at the same time, it had a brand new design. Moreover, in the Mango-ME2, the price-to-performance ratio of this headset was very high, and thus, the price-to-performance ratio of the entire Mango-ME2 would increase rapidly.
…
When Makino Technology and Sennheiser officially reached an agreement on the MX858-MANGO, the news of Makino Technology customizing the headset for the new version of the Mango-ME began to spread like wildfire in the headset industry.
If this news first spread on the Internet, it was more likely that an employee of Makino Technology leaked it. If this news first spread from the headset industry, there was no doubt that the source of the news must be Sennheiser or Bayer Dynamics.
However, Li Mu was not in the mood to investigate which of these two companies leaked the news. For him, he did not intend to hide this news at all. If this news spread, it would not be bad for Makino Technology. If it could spread more widely, it would also make consumers look forward to the Mango-ME2. What was even better was that after such news spread, it could have a certain impact on potential iPod users. It would influence their judgment, and some of them would become future Mango-ME2 users.
This was like Samsung releasing a new phone that supported MP3 players, and Sony Ericsson announcing to the public that it was going to launch a music phone. This phone not only had stereo speakers, but it was also paired with Sony's audio decoding technology. The sound quality was greatly improved compared to other phones. Once Samsung's potential users received such news, their desire to buy a Samsung phone would definitely be affected.
If they asked themselves in their heart, "Should I buy Samsung now, or wait to buy a Sony Ericsson with better music?" This was Sony Ericsson's success.
If the users who had already bought a Samsung phone could sigh in their heart, "Why didn't I wait to buy a Sony Ericsson?" They really regretted it! This was Sony Ericsson's greater success.
This was the same for Li Mu's hope for Mango-ME2. Li Mu hoped that after combining so many advantages, it could make users who were preparing to buy an iPod temporarily give up the idea of buying one. They would then decide to wait until Mango-ME2 was on the market before making their decision. He also hoped that it could make users who had already bought an iPod regret it.
The cooperation between Makino Technology and Sennheiser first spread in the field of headphones, then it spread to the Internet industry. For the headphone industry, the cooperation between Makino Technology and Sennheiser was bad news. For the Internet industry, this was more like a new lesson. They did not expect that an Internet company like Makino Technology could take the initiative to cooperate with a hardware company that was not in the IT industry. Although this cooperation had just been reached, from the perspective of the Internet people, this move by Makino Technology was absolutely exquisite and extremely targeted.
Who was Makino Technology targeting? Anyone with a bit of brain knew that it had to be Apple's iPod.
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