When we pay attention to an industry, our eyes will always be attracted by the top brands, thus ignoring the "silent majority" in the industry - those small and medium-sized enterprises.
As the saying goes, "safflower always needs green leaves", as the chairman of a kitchen appliance company said, a benign, healthy and sustainable industry ecology is like gardening, which needs trees, flowers, lawns, and sandy soil. Their state of existence should not be ignored.
This year's integrated stove industry is under pressure to decline, into the stock era, has become the overall tone, in such a severe background, the head of the enterprise and the decline in net profit, the majority of small and medium-sized integrated stove enterprises how to respond, how to choose?Many of them may be in the midst of an existential moment based on the present to plan for the future.
The industry is cold
In December, when the "gunsmoke" of a year will eventually be dull, a joint meeting attended by the main leaders of the Hardware Products Association and the five head professional brand bosses and general managers of the integrated stove was gathered, which suddenly exploded in the circle of the integrated stove.
This joint meeting is the first time in the industry, and I believe it will not be the last. At the meeting, the five leading enterprises set the tone for the industry to have healthy competition, called for not fighting the first war, and also announced various measures for self-optimization of enterprises. Obviously, the joint meeting should convey various signals to do a good job in the integrated stove industry cluster and maintain confidence in the vertical market.
In the author's opinion, the joint meeting is not only the ventilation and shouting between integrated stove enterprises, but also shows that the industry has come to an extremely critical pass.
Because behind the joint meeting, there is an industry reality in front of us:With the dissipation of structural dividends, the decline in retail sales of integrated stoves gradually exceeded the decline in retail sales, and some enterprises began to enter the stage of exchanging price for volume, and competedFrequent occurrencesAt the same time, the industry has entered the stock knockout round.
Aowei cloud network data shows that the cumulative retail sales of the integrated stove market were 18.5 billion yuan, down 2 percent year-on-year7%；The cumulative retail sales volume was 2.04 million units, down 25%。From the perspective of sales rhythm, the retail sales of the integrated stove market in the first three quarters were 05%、-1.3%、-7.6%；Retail sales were 01%、-2.1%、-4.7%。These cold figures, projected onto small and medium-sized enterprises, the impact is obviously multiplied.
Especially in the third quarter of this year, the Golden Nine and Silver Ten did not have the pull effect that should have been expected. In the process of visiting the market, several small and medium-sized enterprises integrated the difficulties faced by the marketIt boils down to the following phenomena
There is no one in the general feedback market, and the building materials market activities cannot be carried out;
The number of new house decoration decreased, the number of new real estate decreased, and the progress of real estate decoration in various places slowed down, and the new market development was unfavorable
Many people in the industry have lost their judgment on the market performance forecast of their brands for half a year or even the next quarter, because they feel that the current sales have lost their previous nodes and customary rhythms
For enterprises, it is difficult to attract investment, and for the dealers themselves, many dealers cannot concentrate resources, and they cannot enter the channels of decoration companies, and they are more passive in obtaining customers.
Dealers frequently switch brand categories, or supplement other home appliances and home furnishing categories, becoming "grocery stores", and beginning to lack the specificity of the integrated stove category;
The production operating rate of the enterprise is insufficient, the order volume is insufficient, the salesman is blind, and the holiday time is advanced
Many small and medium-sized enterprises directly reduce or cut their budgets, and put limited budgets on sales, which greatly reduces publicity.
Of course, the object of these phenomena not only includes the head enterprises, but also includes many small and medium-sized enterprises that are still struggling to insist, in our opinion, the head integrated stove enterprises may be able to continue to resist the pressure of cross-border giants, but many small and medium-sized brands have taken the initiative to choose to withdraw from the track.
According to the monitoring data of Aowei cloud network, in the first quarter of 2023, there will be a wave of delisting of more than 60 brands in the online and offline markets of integrated stoves. In addition, according to the combing of the industry's leading home appliance circle, in the development of the domestic home appliance industry in the past 20 years, only the integrated stove has seen more than 60 brands delisting in a single quarter in an industry or category.
Stay alive
Previously, in various meetings and occasions, including the joint meeting not long ago, we could hear the voice of the head brand of the integrated stove through the form of summit forums and speeches, talking about strategies, opportunities and future.
However, for the majority of small and medium-sized integrated stove enterprises, is there still a chance in the future?Our point isThe opportunities are limited, but they are still there.
The reason why I say limited is because first of all, fromIndustry trendsFrom the point of view, the integrated stove bid farewell to the era of rapid growth, the arrival of the stock era, so that the demand side from the new to the new, Aowei cloud network in the next five years integrated stove market into a period of deep consolidation, the development of the industry has negative growth, which is a kind of war, sluggish consumer demand and structural overdraft of the combined effect.
It's just that the overall situation is in front of us, and it's fair to all brands. The cake that everyone can eat will not get bigger, and the main thing is whether the number of people who eat the cake will change.
Secondly, fromCompetitive landscapeLook, that is, the number of people who eat cake, the consensus of the industry is the arrival of the stock knockout, the core logic of the market reshuffle at this time is "good money drives out bad money", "fast fish eat slow fish", not only between big brands, professional brands and cross-track brands will start a head-to-head confrontation, this competition for market size, will also indirectly form a squeeze reshuffle for small and medium-sized brands.
For enterprises that can finally stand in their position and stabilize their scale, they will naturally be able to obtain relatively more survival and resource space after waiting for the long-tail brand to go out, which is inevitable, but it takes time.
Finally, fromChannel levelLook, for small and medium-sized enterprises, the main channel foundation and resource investment is still the best down, today's offline channels, has long ceased to be a single store format, more sinking channel forms of influx, so that the integrated stove channel has entered a period of diversification, fragmentation of the change, which puts forward higher requirements for the operator's capabilities, but also a huge test, of course, this is also the opportunity to break through.
It is not difficult to see that the overall living space of small and medium-sized integrated stove enterprises is being squeezed, and the competitive risks they are facing are intensifying. But as mentioned above, opportunities often come with challenges.
For small and medium-sized integrated stove enterprises, the core of everything is based onStabilize the fundamentals first。The core of this basic disk is still peopleDealers are key。How to ensure the number of investment, ensure the survival rate of dealers, and ensure their competitiveness in the local market can be described as three questions of the soul.
In terms of quantity, almost every integrated stove enterprise in the industry attaches great importance to it, and does not hesitate to relax the threshold to attract franchisees. It can only be said that from the current point of view, the enterprises that occupy a certain advantage in terms of quantity and scale are obviously in a more favorable competitive position in the knockout round, and their ability to resist risks is relatively stronger.
At the level of dealer quality competitiveness, it is a common proposition in front of enterprises in the whole industry.
Zhepai integrated stove related people believe that the future dealers should not be limited to the idea of building a store or still stay in the building materials city to open a store, the future traffic is more suitable for the street store, according to the first to build a store, in order to better concentrate resources, the formation of customer acquisition.
The author came into contact with the excellent dealers of the industry's waist integrated stove enterprises, and also made it clear in the exchange process that it is unrealistic to wait for customers to enter the store, and they are all through the advance layout or frequent running of local decoration companies that are not afraid of refusal, to open new channels and bring about the introduction of transfer orders.
There are integrated stove enterprises to adopt a similar "joint-stock cooperative system" form of cooperation with dealers, the factory to help local dealers build stores, bear part of the costs, and then withdraw after the benign operation. The purpose of this practice is also to reduce the financial pressure and operational risk of the dealer.
At the same time, according to the author's understanding, some integrated stove enterprises have taken the way of giving some profit margins to dealers, giving dealers a certain profit margin. The practice of the same purpose also includes the introduction of smoke stoves, integrated cooking centers, water heaters, water purifiers and other multi-category products in terms of products, so as to ensure that the specialty stores are rich in samples and do not fall into the dilemma of individual combat.
Especially since the beginning of this year, many integrated stove enterprises, especially small and medium-sized enterprises, are inFollow up with the integrated cooking center。The high profit margin of a single product, and the product characteristics that are more suitable for the new market of kitchen replacement, to a certain extent, are not only a passive following of large enterprises, but also a response to the pressure of dealers. The smoke stove, although the profit of a single unit is not as good as that of the integrated stove, but in terms of volume, as well as the old kitchen market is more advantageous, which is also the reason why many small and medium-sized integrated stove enterprises are promoted simultaneously.
In short, all of this is to let dealers survive first and strengthen the ability to intercept users' terminals. Use ** drainage, use experience to transfer, and use service to transfer orders, and finally release the value of offline channels exponentially.
Write at the end:
In fact, in today's integrated stove market, there is no better marketing strategy at all, and there is no so-called fundamental solution. Many of the methods that were used in the past have even failed in the current market context.
At this time, what small and medium-sized enterprises should do is to let themselves through the investment distribution as much as possible, through the scale of stability, first in a safe position, at the same time, the operator should have the perseverance and determination to continue to invest, adhere to the track long slope and thick snow, in order to wait for the end of this round of competition.
It is in this situation that it is also the moment of competition for the "endogenous power" of enterprises, and these cannot be bypassed, products, channels, services and people cannot be bypassed from quality and innovation. This is true for leading enterprises, and it is also applicable to small and medium-sized enterprises. There will be opportunities after all, but they must be reserved for those who can hold on.
Ren Kai).