Recently, a term has become popular in the ceramic industry: New first-line ceramic brand.
The term came from a dinner party at the end of last year. Tao Yuanshuai's founder Zeng Junhong first proposed the concept of "new first-line ceramic brand" and declared that Tao Yuanshuai would be a new first-line ceramic brand.
That’s what Zeng always said, and that’s what he did. This morning, Marshal Tao held a "Creating the Era and Seeing the Future" seminar on new first-line brands in the ceramic industry at the Foshan Ceramics Headquarters, officially putting how to create a "new first-line ceramic brand" on the agenda.
In today's "Half-Moon Talk on the Pottery Industry", we will talk about this topic.
As we all know, in the home furnishing field, the ceramic industry is an industry with extremely fragmented brands. In recent years, brand concentration has become higher and higher. Although no oligarch has been born, the top ten brands in the ceramic industry account for an increasing proportion of the total market share.
For large-scale brands in the traditional sense, the first-tier ceramic brands or the top ten ceramic brands are well-deserved. For some waist brands, if they don’t advance, they will retreat. Rapid iteration and rapid surpass may be their only choice.
From this perspective, I very much agree with the concept of "new first-line ceramic brand" proposed by Mr. Zeng. Because the raising of this topic means that the ceramic industry has entered an iterative process. Whether it is the rise of small and beautiful brands in subdivisions or the adjustment strategy of waist brands to rejuvenate their youthful vitality, it means that the ceramic industry has entered a new eraThe era of innovation and gaming.
In recent years, we have seen the rise of some brands, such as Dajiulu, QD, Tao Yuanshuai, Melco, Huiya, etc. This is a very gratifying phenomenon.
But what kind of ceramic brand is the "new first-line ceramic brand"? Is it just a slogan for the brand to express itself, or is it really meaningful and effective, and is it being implemented in a down-to-earth manner on the road to becoming a "new first-line ceramic brand"?
I believe that new first-tier ceramic brands should have the following characteristics.
01 Rejuvenation
Any product faces four levels of groups - Audiences, buyers, users, and disseminators , ceramic tiles are no exception. We need to study what kind of end consumers ceramic tiles face.
Some data show that when consumers choose ceramic tiles, the general users and experiencers are born in the 90s and 00s, and the majority of buyers are born in the 60s and 70s. In other words, the real users of ceramic tiles are getting younger and younger, and this trend is becoming more and more obvious.
What do young consumer groups like? What they like is not that the bigger the brand, the better. They don’t even care about the brand in the traditional sense. They are more willing to pursue more comfortable products that match their own personality.
This provides opportunities for "new first-line ceramic brands". These brands can take advantage of the trend of younger consumer groups, establish a younger brand image, and maintain the same output as consumers.
The same frequency output has four levels. First of all, we must use new media, self-media, and use content planting and other advertising models to accurately disseminate information to the audience and reduce discovery costs and memory costs; secondly, we must use effective marketing methods to reduce buyers’ decision-making costs ; Third, for young consumer groups, we must carefully investigate their consumption needs, create the ultimate user experience, and reduce usage costs; Fourth, we must make good use of communicators, so that consumers will not only recognize the brand and products, but also help us spread the word, to achieve Word of mouth is output twice, three times and multiple times.
Therefore, it is particularly important to establish a younger brand image and cater to the needs of younger consumer groups. In the ceramic industry, Melco, Samit, and Tao Yuanshuai are all taking the route of younger brands.
02 Customization
Customization means that the product design of ceramic brands should fully consider user needs.
The term "user needs" comes from product managers. When we design products, we need to establish user portraits, research user needs, collect basic user information, analyze user needs and analyze user behavior.
ThisThis is particularly evident in the product design of the Internet.
In the field of ceramic tiles, we are actually relatively out of touch with user needs and lagging behind. We usually put a product on the market based on popular trends, let the market go around, take a look at the terminal reactions, and then feed it back to the manufacturer. The difference in information is in terms of time and completeness of the information. As expected.
Therefore, it can be said unceremoniously that for a long time, the ceramic industry has been divorced from user needs, and what we often do is fashion Decide the design, and the design determines the product.
In the era of big data, we can completely survey user needs, establish user data, and feedback consumers’ real needs to manufacturers and brands. I think, This is the basic skill necessary for “new first-tier ceramic brands” and the only way for them to overtake in corners.
Only by designing products based on consumer needs, rather than self-indulgence and disconnection, can we truly meet consumer needs and quickly establish a reputation and image as a "new first-line ceramic brand".
Speaking of this, I have to mention Wrigley’s composite light texture bricks. It is a good product designed backwards based on the real needs of consumers after market research and user surveys.
03 Categoryization
Al Ries said in "The Origin of Brands": Category is the key force hidden behind the brand. Consumers“Think in terms of categories and express in terms of brands. ”.
Trout's positioning theory also shows that we have entered an era of "surplus", with serious product homogeneity. How to stand out from the many brands and products depends on the user's mind.
We have moved from the market era to the mental era. The key to occupying the mind isEstablish differentiated categories.
This is a universal law, and there are successful precedents in our ceramic industry. For example, Jianyi created the marble tile category, and Bighorn Deer created the super wear-resistant category.
I think that new first-tier ceramic brands may not be as good as traditional brands in terms of production scale, but if they find their own differentiated categories and tracks, they have a high possibility of surpassing them.
Of course, if you really can’t find the category positioning, you can also settle for the next best thing and find the functional attributes and emotional attributes of the product. It can also achieve the purpose of occupying the user's mind.
Looking for differentiated category positioning, or positioning of product functional attributes and emotional attributes, may be a "shortcut" for "new first-line ceramic brands" to achieve overtaking in corners.
04 Innovation
No matter how well the brand is communicated and how great the marketing is, the essence remains the same, and the product is the most critical "1".
Therefore, for the "new first-line ceramic brands", the top priority is to do a good job in product innovation and research and development, and focus on making good products.
The ceramic industry is an industry with extremely homogeneous products. If "new first-line ceramic brands" want to surpass the latter, they must innovate in products.
Schumpeter's Innovative Profit Principle shows that it is normal for an enterprise to have no profit, and the "profit" obtained to maintain the enterprise's continued production and operation " is not profit, but the "manager salary" paid by society to enterprises for their social division of labor. Entrepreneurs can only make profits by innovating. The profits gained from innovation are short-lived, because opponents will learn to catch up and even eliminate the profits from innovation. So if you want to gain profits, you need to continue to innovate.
Innovation is an eternal topic,It is the driving force for enterprises to move forward. Only by maintaining innovation can "new first-line ceramic brands" develop and produce products that are loved by users.
Here, I think that if the founder of the company is the first product owner of the company, he will get twice the result with half the effort.
05 Gamification
Since there is a saying of "new first-tier ceramic brands", there must be a game between the back wave and the front wave. I think this is a healthy competitive relationship that is conducive to the development of the industry, and the game between the two will exist for a long time.
Michael Porter, the father of competitive strategy, proposed a five-force model: first, the influence of existing competitors; second, the bargaining power of downstream; third, the bargaining power of upstream; fourth, the influence of new entrants; The fifth is the influence of substitutes.
If "new first-tier ceramic brands" want to surpass or replace traditional first-tier ceramic brands through iteration, they will also follow this five-force model and form a long-term competitive relationship with traditional first-tier ceramic brands. This is a five forces game process.
So, if there is such a thing as a "new first-line ceramic brand", then games will occur and exist for a long time, with comprehensive games in terms of products, brands, channels, etc. Ultimately, this kind of competition will promote healthy development of the industry. This is what we are willing and hoping to see.
06 Social Responsibility
The reason why we talk about social responsibility is related to the original intention of our business owners in the ceramic industry.
In the beginning, we were engaged in the ceramic industry just to make money. And in the early days of the industry, we did it, and everyone made a lot of money.
But if a company needs to be built to last, it must think about issues from the perspective of social responsibility.
If the "new first-line ceramic brand" wants to surpass Houlang, it must seriously consider a question: Why do we do this business and why do we do this brand? Only by understanding the original intention and motivation can we understand the true purpose and value of the enterprise and establish a new first-line brand that gives way to traditional enterprises.
So,We must clarify our social responsibilities and understand that enterprises exist for social purposes, assume certain responsibilities for society, and solve certain problems. Jian Yi, for example, puts forward life ideas that meet the people's needs for a better life.
And what is a brand? A brand is a company's complete commitment to solving the problem. The more complete the commitment, the lower the cost of society's transactions with the company, the higher the company's value will be, and the more sustainable it will be.
So, if a ceramic brand wants to put forward the slogan of being a "new first-line ceramic brand", it must start with social responsibility. Only in this way can it have consistent corporate development momentum and brand strength.
