Sanitary companies should differentiate and break through

In April, it was almost a promotional festival in the sanitary ware industry, and people did not seem to be rushing in the same way as before. After several years of rapid development in the sanitary ware industry, there has been a serious homogenization of products, frequent price wars and sales promotion warfare; coupled with rising costs, profit margins have continued to shrink. According to industry analysts, if you have been fighting the price war, it will be consumers who will ultimately lose out. Sanitary companies should differentiate themselves for breakthroughs and seek new selling points.

Development: The End of Profit-making Era, Entering the Era of Promotional Economy China's sanitary ware industry has experienced more than 20 years of development and has become the world's largest producer and seller of sanitary products.

According to Ge Liwei, General Manager of Henan Long Whale Sanitary Ware, before 2000, international brands such as Kohler and TOTO entered China and experienced the golden period with the highest return on profits. After 2005, the domestic sanitary ware brand developed rapidly and a group of national sanitary ware brand represented by Wrigley, Hengjie, Langyu and Shenluda appeared.

“Before, in many people's eyes, the building materials industry is regarded as a profitable industry, but from 2008 onwards, the end of the huge profits era of the sanitary ware industry, into the era of promotional economy, gradually become sales promotion through sales.” Geely Wei introduced.

Change: All kinds of costs rise, consumers are more rational. On the one hand, competition is intensifying and consumers are becoming more rational. On the other hand, various costs are rising, and the sanitary ware industry is becoming more and more difficult to do. These are the common feelings of many bathroom business owners.

“Especially in recent years, the competition has become more intense and the consumers are more rational. The market is not invested as much as hundreds of thousands of dollars, and the revenue can be clearly seen. The raw material costs increase, the ex-factory price increases, but the sales price does not Rising, but the rise is the largest labor costs, floating up more than 20%. Stores rents are rising every year, bathroom companies profit space is getting smaller and smaller.” Shen Luda bathroom general manager of Henan Branch Wang Wenxin introduced.

Status Quo: Products are homogenous, promotions are frequent, and profits are getting lower However, despite rising costs, the industry price war has intensified. Today, consumers are no longer catching a cold for signings, discounts, cash prizes, and other promotions. Consumers eventually become numb in high-frequency, low-confidence promotions.

According to industry insiders, the current homogenization of the major brands of bathroom products, promotion is gradually homogenized, making the profit lower pressure. Some of the sanitary ware companies' gross profit has dropped from the previous 40% to about 20%. Even some of the company's special products have been sold without profit, and the profit margin has been repeatedly compressed.

"A toilet ex factory price plus shipping costs cost at least 500 yuan. We introduced the 399 yuan special toilet, subsidized by manufacturers, in order to expand market share. From last year's statistical results, our individual month's profit is negative Geely said frankly.

And he also has his own secrets. Each node and store must be unified to do large-scale promotions. Each brand must come up with a low price, and not participating in it means giving up the market and participating in not making money. Like last year, there are stores to do activities, the whale profits 15 percentage points, sales are very good, the price discount, but the service and after-sales does not discount, and finally busy for a long time, with little money. However, in the past two years, the wave whale did gain a large market share and good reputation.

Way out: Innovation seeks differentiation, develops new growth points with highly homogenized products, excessively frequent price wars and promotional campaigns, resulting in ultra-low profits, and individual companies to OEM in the province to reduce costs. In the short term, the sales volume is very good, and consumers also get benefits, but it is not conducive to the long-term development of the company, and ultimately the consumers are disadvantaged.

Zhao Dong, deputy general manager of Henan Hengjie bathroom, said that the price war is not conducive to the healthy development of enterprises, the brand has no time to take into account new product development and core technology upgrades, and even follow-up services will be greatly reduced.

She predicted that ceramic sanitary ware companies will enter the intersection of prosperity and decline in 2013, see the market situation, and take the road to success. The original mode of extensive growth has not been suitable for the current market. Enterprises have begun to actively seek change, gradually find a way to break through the adversity in the predicament, continue to innovate, find new selling points, differentiate the competition, and explore new economic growth points.

One way out: Product integration into environmental protection With the concept of environmental protection and energy conservation deeply rooted in people's minds, if sanitary products want to quickly occupy the market, they must also work harder and harder on environmental protection, and fully reflect the concept of health and environmental protection from the aspects of raw materials, accessories and design.

Such as Heng Jie bathroom launched in the first half of last year, Super Hover series H0129D water-saving toilet, the maximum flushing water is only 3.5L, far lower than the national standard of 6L water consumption.

Zhao Dong calculated an account for the reporter. Zhengzhou residents spent 2.4 yuan a ton of water, and the light toilet washed away 40% of household water. This is equivalent to paying 100 yuan for water, and 40 yuan is thrown into the toilet.

Outlet 2: smart high-tech leads the market in the future, sanitary products will continue to develop in the direction of intelligent, future toilet energy weight, test urine.

Leroy Guoji, deputy general manager of the Kingdom, said: After entering the bathroom at night, the lights will be turned on automatically. The toilet lid will open automatically. The seat cushion will be automatically heated, and then it will be heated, rinsed and massaged according to the previously set male and female modes. Sterilization. In the process, you can listen to music and relax. These have been realized. The future products, as long as they sit down, can display the weight of the person. They can also detect urine at the same time, analyze the indicators and health status of the body, and remind the owner.

Way out 3: There are industry insiders in the third and fourth tier cities who believe that the release of demand for urbanization may bring a period of recovery to the ceramic industry, which has continued to slump.

For example, Henan Shenluda sanitary ware has begun to penetrate into third and fourth-tier cities, and more than 70 distributors have been located in 18 cities in Henan. The strategic focus this year is still the stability of the prefecture-level and county-level markets. Wang Wenxin laughed and said: "This kind of "encircling the city from the countryside" has obvious effects in the present."

He said that in March this year, six events were held in the local market, and the input and output ratio was at least 1:8, with a maximum of 1:23. This is simply impossible to achieve in the Zhengzhou market. Shen Luda now has to do is to firmly establish the roots of the third and fourth-tier cities, change the previous distribution model of the husband and wife shop, use the operating system of the branch, the team to exercise well and accumulate.

Outlet 4: Humanity services are further upgraded in addition to price and strategy, and service quality and consumer interest are closely linked. Future competition is also the competition of services.

Bathroom, although the special product is only 399 yuan, but the service is not discounted. In the past, the delivery and installation of bathroom products was not carried out at the same time. Office workers needed to take a two-day vacation. The shipping whale completely implemented delivery and installation at the same time.

Geely Wei introduced, after-sales service, companies have to constantly upgrade, in the return visit and quality assurance should also be more humane.