文/智尊
Since the second half of 2019, slate has suddenly become popular and has quickly entered the growth stage from its infancy. What followed was a discussion about rock slabs both inside and outside the industry. Suddenly, there was a lot of discussion, and there were many different opinions. However, looking at the discussions about slate in the entire industry, some talk about the physical properties of slate, some talk about the home applications of slate, and some talk about the material properties of slate. Most of them focus on a certain field that they are good at or concerned about. The discussion is somewhat subjective and one-sided. Today, the author would like to talk to you about how to build a healthy rock slab industry ecosystem from the perspective of the development trend of rock slabs.
一
The concept of ecosystem has been proposed for several years. Jack Ma has mentioned many times in the Internet industry that he wants to build an Alibaba ecosystem. Later, people discovered that each industry and field has its own ecosystem system. The various components of the ecosystem complement each other, operate in an orderly manner, develop healthy competition, and promote the progress of the entire industry.
So whether we find it or not, the ecosphere is there. The so-called ecosystem is an ecosystem established by industry initiators through mergers and acquisitions, alliances, collaboration, openness, integration and other forms to promote healthy development of enterprises, guard against competitors and cultivate new profit points, and expand horizontally and deepen vertically. Circular industrial competition system. The builders of the ecosystem may be leading companies, industry associations, alliances, etc., and the participants are every company in the ecosystem.
Generally speaking, ecospheres exist regularly, running in an orderly manner like stars and celestial bodies, and it is impossible to create a new ecosphere out of thin air. But the new category of slate has broken the boundaries between the ceramics, stone industry and home furnishing industry, giving birth to a new ecosystem.
▲General Slate
The formation of a new ecosystem generally requires three characteristics: New species, cross-border, closed loop. The rock slab ecosystem has these three characteristics at the same time.
On the basis of the inherent trajectory of the conventional ecosystem, only new species will break the original ecology. Slate is such a new species. It not only has the characteristics of ceramic tiles for wall and floor paving, but also functions as a board. Entering the field of home applications, it can be used as decorative panels for various furniture, and can also be applied to the field of large home customization and decoration.
Therefore, slate was born in the ceramic industry, but crossed over into the home furnishing industry. The ceramics, stone and home furnishing industries merged with each other. At the same time, some new business formats such as slate processing plants were born, which promoted upstream equipment manufacturing companies and The technological transformation of chemical raw material companies has also opened up some new channel systems on the sales side. From the aspects of production and manufacturing, processing, application and sales channels, it has rebuilt a new ecosystem centered on rock slabs, forming a Closed loop of the industrial chain.
二
Why study the rock slab ecosystem?
Because we found that although rock slabs are very popular, there are too many hidden dangers and disadvantages that need to be solved urgently while erupting at high speed.
First, rock slabs theoretically meet the needs of home applications, butthe technology is immature in processing, cutting, transportation, installation and other aspects, and still needs Continuous improvement and improvement.
Secondly, the standards for rock slabs are still unclear, and there are major differences in physical properties, product specifications, molding differences and space applications. Under such circumstances, If the word "slate" is used uniformly to cover it, it may affect the entire industry.
Third, slatehas not yet entered the mature stage, but the price war is already in full swing. When an industry has not yet taken shape, low-price competition will do great harm to the entire industry. It will leave companies with insufficient profits to support product research and development, technological changes, product quality and after-sales service. Improvement will eventually lead to rapid shrinkage and premature death of the industry.
▲Asia Slate
Fourthly, although slate was born in the ceramic industry, the original marketing channels of the ceramic industry are not suitable for slate sales. In terms of slate sales channels, the industry is still in a period of confusion and testing.
Therefore, studying the slate industry ecosystem will help the industry clarify its thinking, find a way out from various ports such as production, processing, and sales, and promote the rapid development of the industry.
三
The upstream of the stone slab industry chain is equipment manufacturing companies and raw material companies. The new category of slate has given mechanical equipment and raw material manufacturers more possibilities for development, mainly press modification, slate processing equipment research and development and manufacturing, slate chemical raw materials research and development, etc.
In terms of slate production, many ceramic manufacturers faced the problem of overcapacity in the entire industry in 2019. The supply of ceramic tiles exceeded demand, and the trend of industry polarization was obvious. However, the emergence of a new variety of slate has given the industry an opportunity to reshuffle its cards.
The rock slabs are manufactured, who will they sell them to? How to sell? This is a headache for many ceramic companies. Let’s focus on this.
▲Nobel Slate
Judging from the companies visited by the author, current slate sales are mainly concentrated in the following channels:
First, home customization channels, such as cooperation with home customization companies such as Oppein and Sofia;
The second is the furniture channel, which provides boards to furniture factories;
The third is to use wall panels, home decoration panels and background walls as its main products through decoration company channels;
The fourth is to go through the original ceramic tile dealer channels, mainly selling rock slabs for walls and floors;
The fifth is to use engineering channels;
Sixth, cooperate with high-end villa decoration companies;
The seventh is the designer channel, which gives more possibilities for the application of rock slabs in the design space.
But no matter which channel is used, between the slate manufacturers and the channel dealers, there is an additional slate processingThe ecological chain of the factory did not exist before. It can be said that the rock slab processing factory is an essential bridge connecting the rock slab manufacturers and channels. As a material, rock slabs must go through processing plants from the factory to custom processing and shaping. Many ceramic companies have established their own slate processing plants in order to better connect cooperation channels.
In addition, There are some forward-thinking slate processing factories that are no longer content to just process. Instead, they want to integrate upstream and downstream slate and furniture resources to establish themselves. The slate home furnishing brand will be a new growth point in the slate ecosystem. In the future, more and more slate home furnishing brands will be born, and this field is still a blue ocean.
四
12-point predictions about the rock slab industry:
1. Rock slabs will get rid of the limitations of size and specifications and completely embark on the route of customization.
2. The slate processing factory will not be content with processing, and will give birth to a slate home brand.
3. Slate home image stores, flagship stores, specialty stores, franchise stores, and after-sales service stores will be born, and due to the overlap of channel systems, they will replace some ceramic tile stores, or promote ceramic tile stores to become multi-category and diversified. , focus on service model transformation.
4. The slate market will be segmented according to its application fields, such as the wall panel market, the home decoration board market, the public slate market, and the home slate market.
5. Designers will become an important channel for slate sales, and their role far exceeds that of the ceramic tile era.
6. Due to the bridge role of slate, new retail will affect the slate home furnishing industry to the ceramic industry, and some new promotion methods and marketing methods will be applied.
7. In the early stage of the development of rock slabs, rock slab home furnishings were the main sales channel for slabs; after entering the mature stage, large customization and assembly companies will be the new blue ocean of slabs.
8. Slate cannot be completely de-branded, and at the front end of the ecosystem, it is re-branded.
9. In the early stage, rock slabs will be polarized, that is, on the one hand, some rock slab furniture manufacturers will engage in price wars; on the other hand, the sales of rock slabs will take a high-end route in terms of ceramic tile performance. However, when slate technology becomes relatively mature, slate will follow the route of "low-price materials, high-price customization".
10. Large slate furniture 4S stores or comprehensive stores will appear.
11. A large national slate processing center warehouse will appear.
12. An online sales service platform will emerge focusing on the processing, sales, transportation, and installation of rock slabs.
The above describes the composition and operation of the slate ecosystem. The healthy development of an ecosystem depends on whether its builders have lofty goals and clear positioning. Ecosystem builders must play a leading role in the industry, and participants must work together to support the healthy development of the ecosystem. I believe that the slate industry will become a new growth point for the ceramic industry. The cross-border and integration of the home furnishing industry will also accelerate the transformation of the ceramic industry itself. The channels will be more diversified and closer to consumers, such as new retail, AI artificial intelligence, The integration of Internet elements such as smart homes and big data into the ecosystem has truly brought new opportunities, new developments and new changes to the ceramic industry.
Author: Zhizun
