Global exhibitions build overseas competitive advantage

 

　　Internationalization has always been one of the core strategies of Shandong Lingong's development. In 2013, Shandong Lingong took participation in international exhibitions as an opportunity to continuously build its brand image and expand brand awareness in mature markets. At the Russian CTT exhibition, the Munich Bauma exhibition, the German Bauma exhibition, the South African Bauma exhibition, and the Indonesian exhibition, with BRICS countries and Middle Eastern countries and other potential markets as the axis, and with channel supremacy, service excellence, and brand building as the main lines, Shandong Lingong has been active on the international stage and has created one miracle after another. "Lingong loaders have ranked first among peers in exports for two consecutive years, and we achieved this result in only three years," said Yu Mengsheng. Lingong began to focus on laying out the overseas market in 2009 and established a clear overseas development plan. In Yu Mengsheng's view, the first step in expanding overseas markets is channel construction, especially aftermarket construction. For this reason, Lingong has invested a large amount of manpower, financial resources, and material resources to strengthen channel and service construction.

 

　　Yu Mengsheng said that demand for construction machinery in Russia has been strong in recent years. In 2012, we sold 1,700 loaders in the Russian market, with a market share of 29%. "By launching new excavator and backhoe loader product series, plus improved wheel loader products, we will be able to maintain our leading position in the Russian market." Due to differences among overseas regional markets, how to ensure service quality is a difficult hurdle for enterprises to overcome. "Lingong regards service as its top priority. In overseas markets, how many products are sold in the early stage is not important, because even with high-quality products, some enterprises often lose customers due to inadequate overseas service, so the top priority is that service must keep up and meet local customers' service requirements." To address after-sales repair service issues for overseas products, Lingong has established strong parts warehouses in several core global markets and implements globally unified standard service training to promptly and effectively relieve users of worries; in addition, in response to differences in user engineering construction in various regions, Lingong has specially developed products suitable for local markets to meet their differentiated needs. Different countries have different service requirements, but no matter how great the pressure and challenges, Lingong's concept of "service first" has never changed, and it is always using service to fully improve customer satisfaction. Today, Shandong Lingong's products have been sold to more than 60 countries and regions around the world, becoming the preferred Chinese construction machinery brand for overseas users.

 

　　"The overseas market has great potential. Lingong has formulated a new three-year overseas strategy. By 2016, the overseas market must ensure 5 billion yuan," said Yu Mengsheng, Executive President of Shandong Lingong. "This year, Lingong loader exports account for about 25% of the company's overall sales."

 

　　Localized production boosts international development

 

　　In August 2013, when many enterprises were reducing production capacity to resist weak market demand, Shandong Lingong's excavator plant in Brazil was officially completed and put into operation, taking an important step in its overseas strategy. Because Brazil has a huge infrastructure market, it has always been a battleground for domestic construction machinery enterprises expanding overseas. Since entering the Brazilian market, Shandong Lingong has always maintained a leading position. With the arrival of the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games, as well as the implementation of the country's economic stimulus plan, Brazil's construction machinery industry will usher in huge development in the future. The completion and operation of Shandong Lingong's Brazilian plant has well seized this historic opportunity. While serving the Brazilian market, it also radiates to the entire Latin American region, becoming an important fulcrum of Lingong's overseas market and laying a solid foundation for Lingong's expansion in the global market. "Next, Lingong will further accelerate the pace of internationalization. On the one hand, it will continue to consolidate emerging markets; on the other hand, it will begin to enter the developed markets of Europe and the United States and launch more construction machinery products that comply with EU standards," said Wang Zhizhong, Chairman of Shandong Lingong.