In recent years, the architectural ceramics industry is facing a difficult round of channel and terminal transformation.
A very typical change is that competition has escalated significantly around the competition for channel resources, new traffic, and new consumer groups. Without strong skills and system competitiveness, it is easy to lose.
Furthermore, the main battlefield has become differentiated, and the emergence of hundreds of millions of consumer groups born in the 1990s has driven market preferences onto a new track.
This round of transformation and upgrading has started a few years ago. Among the brands that have taken advantage of the trend, there are not only enterprising leading brands, such as Dongpeng, Nobel, etc., but also hard-core influencers who have crossed over. player.
For example, White Rabbit Ceramics, based on the category leader of exterior wall tiles and mosaics, has entered the field of wall and floor tiles, striving to create a trendy brand that is loved by new consumer groups.
Recently, the company's first digital green smart floor tile production line at its Hunan production base was officially launched, further enhancing its production capacity advantage.
The hundreds of billions of ceramics market is already in a new era of surging waves.
The big chess game of channel terminal confrontation
The stage with channels and terminals as the core is opening up an exciting and spectacular picture.
Let’s look at it in two lines. The first is the reconstruction of channel structure and the development of new traffic channels; the second is the adjustment of terminal business formats, store renovation and service upgrades.
In recent years, channels have been undergoing adjustments. In the early days, store retail + engineering channels were basically enough to guide the country. Later changes were that retail and engineering were further subdivided, and traffic became more centralized.
Take retail as an example. Stores, different industries, communities, e-commerce, live broadcasts, designers, etc. have formed a bigger chess game, which is of course more difficult to play. In the engineering channel, the proportion of furnished houses with supporting facilities continues to rise, becoming a strategic customer source.
It is worth noting that the traffic interception capabilities of decoration companies have increased, especially since a number of leading decoration companies have grown up in various places and have successfully opened up the decoration business, intercepting the flow of building materials such as ceramic tiles on a large scale.
What to do? There are only three ways out for dealers, either to enhance their ability to actively attract traffic and go to the decoration company to capture customers; or the brand is sticky enough that customers specify specific brands; or they can establish a good cooperative relationship with high-quality decoration companies. .
Furthermore, driven by the rise of the finely decorated housing market, engineering dealers have become an independent channel force.
Many architectural ceramics companies are recruiting and cultivating engineering dealers. There are retail dealers who cross-border engineering fields and do both retail and engineering; there are also independent engineering dealers.
Taking White Rabbit Ceramics as an example, its dealers are divided into regional general dealers and regional engineering special dealers, and provide protection for engineering projects in some markets.
The survey shows that the revenue sources of some ceramic dealers are diversified, with stores accounting for 30%, decoration companies accounting for 15%, active marketing in different industries and communities accounting for 15%, engineering accounting for 20%, and designers accounting for 10%. %, online accounts for 10%.
Some dealers and designers dealing in imported or high-end ceramic brands even contribute more than 30% of the traffic.
Some relatively strong head dealers have already laid out an omni-channel strategy and even established an omni-channel structure.
This has created another situation, with large merchants occupying the majority of the market share; merchants at the waist still have room for survival, while merchants at the tail end do not have big killing skills and it is difficult to counterattack.
In the ongoing channel changes, we have discovered two strategic options:
The first is a multi-category integrated channel strategy, which not only operates ceramics, but also operates other categories, striving to form space or package plans, deeply explore customer needs, realize joint order sales, and increase customer order value, such as customized home furnishings + Ceramics, Ceramics + Wooden Doors + Flooring, etc., channel operators operating two or more categories at the same time and acting as agents for two or more brands are gradually growing.
The second is a service-oriented approach, focusing on details such as delivery, after-sales maintenance, and touching services, and using the power of word-of-mouth to expand the scale of old customers, thereby obtaining referrals, repurchases, etc., and building a strong competitive castle.
It is even possible to establish a team of highly capable masters and then export home services with ceramic tile paving as the core to the industry to find new growth channels.
Terminal upgrade is also in a critical exploratory period, with at least three lines:
The first is to synchronize with the changes and new trends in home aesthetic preferences to shape the style and atmosphere of the store; starting from props, colors, installations, copywriting, styling, etc., we strive to create an online celebrity store to attract customers' attention and interest in checking in. .
Especially the emergence of Internet celebrity stores has provided new ideas for ceramic enterprise terminals.
Take White Rabbit Ceramics, which is active on the front line this year, as an example. It focuses on the creation of terminal stores. According to the aesthetic trend of young people, it reshapes the store experience atmosphere and standardization construction, and upgrades the physical space of the store to leverage the market. hand.
Second, smart stores have emerged. Typical practices include:
Equipped with 3D cloud design software, it can design pavement renderings based on the customer's home layout, decoration style, etc., output the design plan, and improve customer conversion rate with the help of a WYSIWYG experience;
Equipped with large electronic screens, cloud shelves, scene roaming, etc., it once again enhances customers' shopping experience.
We have seen many well-known ceramic brands take action. For example, White Rabbit Ceramics has made the leap from product delivery to effect delivery.
The third is to introduce digital tools, such as customer management, community management, user fission, cloud stores, etc., to achieve refined store management, in-depth customer operations, and expand online traffic.
New opportunities are born again
No matter how things change, architectural ceramics is a 100-billion-dollar market. As long as we follow the right rhythm, we can certainly make great achievements.
According to the observation of Dacai Research, under the ongoing transformation of channel terminals, new opportunities are being nurtured, especially in the three tracks, which may become a new choice for dealers to tap wealth.
Track 1: Strong cross-border brands break the traditional pattern and bring new opportunities
As far as the market situation is concerned, the first and second echelons of ceramic brands have basically taken shape. Correspondingly, on the channel map, the dealer echelon composed of big merchants, waist merchants, tail merchants and new merchants is also relatively well formed.
I still want to make ceramic products, how should I choose?
First, entrepreneurs themselves should be cautious. It is best to accumulate certain experience and resources before considering acting as an agent for ceramic brands.
The second is to join differentiated specialty brands, such as some powerful cross-border brands or specialty category brands, which are on the rise and have strong investment support, so there is a certain opportunity space.
According to public information, White Rabbit Ceramics, the leading company of "exterior wall tiles + mosaics", entered the indoor wall and floor tile track this year, built a full category matrix, and implemented a youthful strategy, whether it is the way of shaping trendy brands or closely following the products Fashionable home aesthetics, or the introduction of cartoon images of super IP energy rabbits in marketing, all bring cool new experiences to the market.
This type of brand's approach of breaking through the traditional model has the potential to attract the recognition of 400 million young customers at the terminal.
Some of the dealers that Dacai Research has contacted have done well even in the face of brutal market competition precisely because they represent specialty brands or brands with strong foundations, and they have the confidence to continue moving forward.
Track 2: Supported by engineering channel advantages, empowering dealers
Judging from the situation in 2020, the growth rate of engineering channels of many ceramic companies, including listed companies, has remained at around 30%, and there have even been companies with engineering channels accounting for as much as 50%, and among the top 100 real estate companies Able to cooperate 7More than 0%.
Objectively speaking, engineering channels such as real estate decoration are very difficult to crack, and it extremely tests the operational capabilities of manufacturers.
If the manufacturer has the ability and experience to provide systematic empowerment to the channel, then the success rate of the engineering dealer will be much greater. Such ceramic brands will be the winners in the future and deserve to be inspected by dealers.
We have noticed that some brands have fully promoted the omni-channel layout of "retail + engineering" as the main line, supplemented by decoration, designers, and e-commerce O2O.
Take White Rabbit Ceramics as an example. With 22 years of operating experience and resources in the engineering channel, on the one hand, it has established a mature system for bidding, products, production scheduling, delivery, tracking, etc., and delivered this capability to dealers; On the other hand, it has jointly developed projects with regional engineering dealers, working on both sides to empower the rise of a number of new big businessmen.
It is understood that the list of White Rabbit Tile's cooperative customers includes Poly, Agile, Evergrande, China Overseas, Country Garden, CITIC Real Estate, Yanlord Land, Fangyuan, R&F, Xiangjiang, Sino-Ocean, Lange, Aoyuan and other top 100 houses. Enterprise, this kind of resources and long-term accumulated operational capabilities are expected to provide quite effective support to dealers.
Track 3: Brand and product solutions for new consumer groups
The maturity of 400 million young consumer groups is becoming the main force in the architectural ceramics consumer market.
This group has distinctive characteristics, such as enjoying the compound dividends of globalization, the Internet, and generally better family conditions, putting forward higher requirements for the living environment, and showing personalized characteristics.
Specific manifestations include pursuing good looks, liking national fashion, paying more attention to health, etc.; being willing to pay for interests to meet a personalized and creative lifestyle; craving convenience; being deeply influenced by short videos, opinion leaders, social media, etc.; Will pay attention to brand values, etc.
New mainstream consumer groups and new consumption trends are reflected in categories such as wall and floor tiles. White Rabbit Ceramics gives a complete answer:
1. Brand rejuvenation: cool personality, international fashion, and incorporating sunny and friendly design elements to impress the new generation. It also launched the trendy IP Energy Rabbit that meets the aesthetics of young people, creating memory points and establishing close connections with consumers.
2. Product trendiness: The all-round product system of "wall and floor tiles + mosaics + exterior wall tiles" meets the convenient needs of one-stop shopping. Trendy products such as rock slabs and marble tiles are created to meet the needs of individualization and trendiness.
Specifically, the application of trendy colors such as Pantone's 2021 popular color of the year, Extreme Gray, creates a textured home atmosphere; the use of gold large sizes such as 900x1800mm is used to create an open space on the wall and on the floor.The layout is in line with the current home aesthetics.
3. The space is high-looking: the interior decoration with a combination of wall and floor tiles + mosaic has a more diverse appearance and more appealing visual effects, meeting the expectations of the new generation of customers for the home environment.
From the perspective of home consumption preferences, appearance has become a key factor affecting decision-making. White Rabbit Ceramics combines the current popular design aesthetics with the appearance route, thereby enhancing product competitiveness and becoming a home consumption hotspot for younger users. .
Dacai Research believes that this type of brand and product solutions for new consumer groups have the ability to seize new business opportunities in the architectural ceramics industry and open up future growth space.
(Source: Dacai Research)
