In the first half of 2019, affected by the economic and trade environment, the overall growth of the household building materials market generally slowed down or even declined. Among them, high-end imported home building materials are quite different, and even show signs of rising against the market. The reporter from Nandu visited the market and learned that some high-end imported products performed well in the market, and some brands even grew faster than 20%. New models and new ways of playing emerged in endlessly, so as to deeply tap the consumption needs of young groups.
High end import market recovered
In the first half of 2019, although the general environment of the entire home building materials market was generally cold, the sales of imported ceramic tiles, floors, coatings, hardware, furniture and other fields were rising and the momentum was promising, and the growth rate of some categories even exceeded 20%.
According to Yuan Jie, the general manager of EHhome Europe, several Spanish ceramic brands, including TAU, MYKONOS and ASCALE, have seen growth in varying degrees this year, with the best growth rate exceeding 20%. Wang Weidong, general manager of Guangzhou Management Center of Nature Flooring, also said that in the first half of this year, the sales of Nature Flooring in Guangzhou increased rather than decreased, with an average growth rate of more than 10%. In the current economic environment, it is a good result compared with its peers. Among them, the growth of imported products was more than that of domestic products, with the growth rate reaching about 15%.
According to Li Bin, president of Canada MF Coatings China, MF Coatings was introduced into China at the end of last year, and more than 100 stores had opened by the middle of this year. Precise brand positioning, high quality, superior environmental protection and stronger performance have received good market feedback. GRB, the Spanish hardware leading showerhead brand, has performed quite well in China. According to Pablo, the head of the brand in China, GRB officially entered the Chinese market in May this year, but it has signed several dealers in succession, and even some dealers representing big brands such as Hansgroa and Gaoyi have taken the initiative to seek cooperation, which surprised them. Novartis China started to adopt the furniture high definition mode of "Italian top imported fabrics+Italian factory processing" this year to serve domestic designers, furniture brands and High end soft decoration The feedback from the market is very strong. According to Wang Xueke, the general manager, there are more than 1000 designers and dozens of brands cooperating in depth.
The traditional general agency model is declining, and the sales model and channel innovation are the king's way
Why can high-end imported home building materials rise rather than fall in the adverse market, showing a promising momentum of development?
Yuan Jie, the general manager of EHhome Europe, believes that this first benefited from the reform of the sales model. "We can clearly see that almost all the import brands that are doing well at present use new sales models. The traditional import general agent model has shrunk again and again, and the market feedback is quite different." She analyzed that the traditional imported building materials were introduced into the market by the general agent, and then distributed through dealers at different levels, which is one of the reasons for the high price of imported building materials. The current market environment has changed, with more and more transparent information and more and more smart consumers. The traditional model is difficult to sustain.
The reporter visited the market and found that this situation does exist. Taking the imported flooring industry as an example, two months ago, Switzerland's Lucerne flooring quietly withdrew from Kisheng Weibang. According to insiders, a well-known imported flooring brand, which has always led the sales in Guangzhou, will also close its store in Jisheng Weibang in October this year.
Operators of foreign brands are losing confidence in the general agency model. Many general agents do not operate the Chinese market with the idea of growing together with the brand. Once the brand has a bad development momentum in China, they will quickly change the agent. For brands, the loss is not only the market, but also the brand's image and reputation in China. The consumption power of the Chinese market in the world is obvious to all. Foreign brands are paying more and more attention to the domestic market. They hope that the brand can develop continuously and healthily in the domestic market for a long time, so they are more willing to seek joint operators to cultivate the market.
"In the past, when the market was good, the development of dealer agents and extensive business could also live well, but now this way is not feasible." Li Bin, president of Canada MF Paint China, also said that with the rise of young consumption, the channels and business methods of imported brands in China must also be changed. This year, Canada MF Paint is one of the reasons for maintaining the steady growth of the brand by means of deeply cultivating designer channels and expanding the tooling market. Wang Weidong, general manager of Guangzhou Management Center of Nature Flooring, also said that the core customers of imported products are high-end people, so it is necessary to focus on precise channels such as designers and home decoration companies.
Four innovation models boost performance
The imported household building materials brands with good performance in the first half of the year have almost all made unique innovations in sales mode and play method. What are the play methods that deserve the attention of the industry?
EHhome Europe: foreign direct purchase, container consolidation and sales
One of EHhome Europe's biggest "killer weapons" this year is the introduction of the foreign direct purchase model. As a domestic service provider of an imported brand, it directly faces foreign factories, and directly sells goods to consumers through the container pooling purchase model, so as to minimize the intermediate links and ensure that the products have the highest cost performance ratio.
Yuan Jie introduced that, taking imported ceramic tiles as an example, it is easy to put together a container for 4-6 household decoration needs. Through the direct purchase mode, 300 to 400 yuan/㎡ can buy foreign high-quality and high-grade tiles. Compared with traditional channels, the price is reduced by more than half. From the current consumer feedback, she is very optimistic about the future development of this model.
Canada MF Paint: aim at designer channels, and deeply cultivate the middle and high-end market
Canada MF Paint adopts the strategy of deep cultivation in the middle and high-end market. In terms of market operation, it emphasizes the brand image of "the more fashionable, the better", and is close to the needs of young consumers. Expand the brand's influence in the terminal by creating a landmark for online celebrity card printing and cooperation cases with well-known designers.
In terms of channel development, this year focuses on the management of designer channels. By cooperating with Guangzhou Design Week and NetEase Home, the ICS International Color Conference will further enhance the brand's industry influence. Invite a number of well-known designers in the industry to open designer forums in many cities across the country, and quickly open the brand's popularity among designers. And by organizing a study tour in Canada, the designer group will have a deep understanding of the brand.
At the same time, the brand also has a dedicated team to develop the tooling market. Li Bin believes that with the popularization rate of fine decoration getting higher and higher, it is more and more obvious that the building materials market is blocked, and the brand needs to take the initiative to move up in order to last.
GRB of Spain: young design and community marketing
GRB was originally a technological innovation enterprise in Spain, famous for its technology and design. The brand has 12 technologies and 60 appearances. GRB of Spain first works hard on the appearance when entering the domestic market. Different from the traditional hardware shower, GRB's products follow the minimalist design route, and focus on black, white, gold, rose gold and other fashionable colors, more in line with the aesthetic of young people.
At present, the domestic imported building materials are still dominated by Italian and German brands, and the Spanish brand, which has always been operating conservatively, is a value depression. Spanish brands are not inferior to the first two in terms of quality and design, especially in terms of design, which is more in line with the tastes of young people, and has a higher cost performance ratio. These attributes meet the current market demand.
At the same time, in terms of channels, GRB has innovatively adopted the current popular community marketing model in addition to the direct marketing model, and quickly opened its popularity in China. At present, GRB has reached an intention of cooperation with high-quality channels such as Yanji Mingxuan to open up new ways for brand operation through content marketing, brand fan management and other ways.
Novartis · China: top fabrics+Italian high-end furniture customization
Different from the traditional finished furniture, the imported furniture of Novartis China adopts the high-end customization mode of "domestic customized design+Italian imported fabric technology".
Furniture fabrics come from Italian top fabric suppliers NOVABUK and LUILOR of the same style as Fendi and Chanel, and are 100% produced in Italy. In addition, we have deep cooperation with Italian factories. All high-end customized furniture adopts Italian top technology, so that domestic consumers can enjoy the furniture design synchronized with the latest international trends. The brand direct purchase mode greatly reduces the cost and provides users with higher cost performance.
In addition to being favored by high-end people, this model has a high reputation among designers and furniture brands. Through this mode, designers can use the world's top fabrics and factories to complete their own creation idea, which is in line with the international first-class design and provides customers with more valuable furniture customization services.
Aiming at the consumption upgrading of young groups, imported household building materials still have advantages
Looking at the imported household building materials brands that handed over beautiful report cards in the first half of the year, it is not difficult to find that under the adverse market environment, "danger" and "opportunity" coexist, and young consumers still have great potential to tap in depth.
The consumption power of domestic young groups is not weak, and they are willing to pay for quality life and design preferences. Their sales demand and attributes have been quite obvious, which is a breakthrough in the home building materials industry. The inherent good impression of the young group on the imported brands will enable the imported home building materials to maintain their advantages in the next period of time.
In addition, with the transparency of information and the rationalization of consumers, the traditional operation mode of household building materials must be changed. The brand should have its own unique mode innovation, from the original extensive management to intensive cultivation. It has to be said that it is a very wise market strategy for imported brands to choose not to be superior but to be closer to young people in terms of appearance, quality and price.
(Source: Southern Metropolis Daily)
