Author: Zhai Caihua.
In the era of real estate dividends, Robam Appliances has been prosperous in China's home appliance market.
As a veteran home appliance giant that made China's first range hood products, Robam Appliances has made a lot of money with its focus on kitchen appliances and massive engineering channel orders.
However, after the dividends dissipated and the home appliance market entered a long-term saturated growth trend, Robam Appliances was criticized for its lag in grasping new market opportunities. In the context of emerging explosive products such as integrated stoves and dishwashers, the poor performance and the widening gap with the head competitors have made him fall into the "curse" of slow and slow steps.
Perhaps, Robam Appliances has always been the Robam Appliances, and he still has good strength in the kitchen appliance industry. It's just that the times have changed, driven by young consumers and products, and driven by the high demands of competitors, so that Robam Appliances has taken on its original form.
First, the performance growth is worrying, and the market position is unstable
Not long ago, at the end of October, Robam Appliances released its latest financial report for the third quarter of 2023. According to the financial report data, the company's total revenue in the third quarter of this year was 3 billion yuan, a slight increase of 7 compared with the same period last year37%；Attributable net profit was 5400 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 653%。
At the same time, the total revenue of Robam Appliances in the first three quarters of this year was 7.9 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 962%；Attributable net profit was 13700 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 1131%。It can be seen that although it is still growing, the revenue growth rate of Robam Appliances is hovering below double digits, and the low-speed growth trend is obvious.
In fact, looking back at the financial report data of Robam Appliances in recent years, its core revenue data has maintained a low growth since 2018. Compared with the old rival Fang Tai in the past, the gap has been widened more and more.
Taking the data of the entire fiscal year as an example, in the past 2022, the revenue of Robam Appliances was 1027.2 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of only 122%；Net profit was 157.2 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 1807%。From 2018 to 2022, the revenue scale of Robam Appliances continued to lag behind Fangtai, and the revenue gap between the two has approached 6 billion yuan in 2022.
For this reason, in recent years, the market believes that the boss appliances are "falling behind" arguments. If the revenue growth that is still "positive" can be said to be reasonable, then the boss appliances that were once as famous as Fotile have been unveiled in the cruel market competition.
The performance that did not meet expectations was also directly reflected in the company's stock price performance. As of December 4**, the share price of Robam Appliances was 2263 yuan, with a market value of 2147.6 billion yuan, which is at a low level in recent years, is far from the stock price at its peak in the past.
Second, the rejuvenation and diversification measures are not effective
Today's boss appliances can't compare to Midea, Haier, or Fangtai. On the road of the sea of stars in the global development of China's home appliance giants, Robam Appliances has a foundation, but lacks novelty. In-depth research on why Robam Appliances is lagging behind several other leading home appliance brands step by step on the premise that the starting point is not lagging behind, and the problem of insufficient effectiveness of its rejuvenation and diversification measures has to be mentioned.
Although it has also made frequent efforts, in China's home appliance industry, it seems that it has always been difficult for Robam Appliances to win the hearts of young consumers. Coupled with the conservatism and lag in entering the emerging kitchen appliance category, he cannot have more growth weight like other home appliance giants.
The new generation of young people pays attention to "far ahead", even if you are an old brand, as long as you have strong strength and great product advantages, you will be sought after. However, over the years, Robam Appliances has adhered to the so-called high-end image, but it has not been able to convince consumers in terms of core technical capabilities and product strength, and the high-end image has been questioned.
Young people have changed the channel sales pattern of the home appliance market for many years, and the importance of online channels has become prominent. However, the channel advantage of Robam Appliances is still in the traditional offline, and online is already a disadvantage that he cannot ignore in the process of competing with competitors.
Young people control the future consumer code of home appliances, and under the logic of creating a new generation of explosive products, it is the long-term way to launch new products that young people love and meet the needs of young people.
However, behind a large number of younger actions to please young consumers, the youthfulness and diversification of Robam Appliances seem to stay more in the dimension of brand marketing, and the product acceptance is not high. Even if he began to embrace short-term marketing and sign "traffic" Wang Yibo as the spokesperson in the first two years, it could not reverse the market decline of a series of emerging kitchen appliances customized for young people, such as its dishwashers.
According to the 2022 financial report data of Robam Appliances, the dishwasher products for young consumers in recent years belong to the company's third category, with a revenue of less than 600 million yuan, accounting for less than 6% of the company's overall revenue, and cannot become a new engine for the company's revenue growth.
In contrast, the rejuvenation and diversification of competing brands such as Haier, Midea, and Fotile can be described as unparalleled. How to achieve the desired results in transformation has become a problem that today's Robam Appliances must face.
Third, the brand image needs to be reversed
It is worth noting that as an "old brand", Robam Appliances can continue to "eat the old book" by virtue of its reputation in the minds of old users, and life will not be too bad. It's a pity that he has frequently suffered negative word-of-mouth crises and has no way to lie on the credit books of the past.
Boss range hood "** consumer injury, resulting in damage to the user's property, consumer complaints...In recent years, consumer complaints similar to the "** door" of boss appliances have continued to consume the image of the brand.
In 2020, the incident of Robam Appliances being sued in court due to the failure of the gas stove caused by the user's injury and property damage highlights the attitude of the home appliance giant towards consumers: according to relevant reports, Robam Appliances expressed dissatisfaction in the first instance on the grounds that it "does not bear the user's gas use and daily safety maintenance obligations other than products", and was finally judged to be obviously at fault by the court of second instance.
The rights and interests of consumers are protected by law, and before that, they should also be carefully guarded by manufacturers.
In addition to "door", there are also many complaints on the Internet about false propaganda of Robam Appliances, product quality problems, after-sales service problems, refund problems, etc. It shows that Robam Appliances needs to be continuously improved in the basic product and service dimensions.
Under the premise that this kind of products and services do not satisfy consumers, further technology research and development, vertical audience mining, consumer insight, and emerging product development may be a false proposition for Robam Appliances.