Have you seen the Korean zombie movie "Alive"? It tells the story of a group of people fighting for their lives against zombies besieging a city.
Compared with the current terminal market of the ceramic industry, especially the market in first- and second-tier cities, the competition is as fierce as the desperate fight between humans and zombies in this movie.
Data from the Salary Network on July 31, 2020 showed that the average salary (before tax) in Xi'an, Shaanxi in 2020 was 6,085.38 yuan; while data from other web pages collected 32,785 samples showed that the average salary in Xi'an (five insurances and one housing fund) and tax) is 4203 yuan. In this regard, a friend told the author: Xi'an's consumption is no lower than Foshan's, and its income is estimated to be one-third of Foshan's. However, housing prices are higher than Foshan's, tripling in three years, and the bubble is serious.
The stores in the Daming Palace Central Plaza where the brand directly-operated store is located on a Saturday Live
This friend is from Xi'an and has been engaged in the ceramic industry in Foshan for more than ten years. This year he was transferred to Xi'an from the headquarters of a ceramic company in Foshan. He is responsible for the branch's distribution channels in the three northwest provinces and is not responsible for retail sales. According to him, "Xi'an is so miserable. There is a high proportion of fine decoration in the area. The retail market cannot sell anything. There are almost no walk-in customers in each store. There are very few Customers are also being snatched up by brands with teams in peripheral channels, such as residential areas and home decoration channels. Therefore, our branch can only continue to expand other distribution channels It’s been more than half a year since I returned to Xi’an, and I haven’t had any time to rest. The workload here is at least twice that of the headquarters.”
He originally thought that returning to Xi'an for development was just to return to his hometown, which was more suitable than anyone else. Unexpectedly, after returning, he discovered that many habits in work and life have been difficult to adapt to, and there is no way to go back. Foshan is his current hometown.
02 Zhanjiang
“The sinking channel is the direction in the second half of the year”
Some time ago, a friend said, "Bosses will have a mentality of atonement, so they will use some methods to make up for their mistakes." However, some bosses will borrow "techniques" to "make up for their mistakes", while other bosses will find the true meaning of "making things up". The key point——“Our boss’s principle is to make dealers make money first”. This is the concept of corporate protection conveyed by Guo Caihong, marketing manager of Romantic Ceramics, during a chat with the author. As long as the brand headquarters has this concept, dealers will not feel empty and lonely at the terminal.
Romantic Tiles Zhanjiang Xuwen Factory Direct Sales Store Opens
(Romantic Enterprise Chairman Liu Shenghong and Deputy General Manager Luo Haihong were present to congratulate)
At the beginning of the year, major leading ceramic brands have expressed their intention to sink channels; last week, Easyhome increased its investment in Wuhan and Huanggang, and went to counties and cities to develop chain operations; Romantic tiles have also begun Efforts have been made to sink the channel. The first Romantic Ceramic Tile Factory Direct Sales Store to sink the channel opened on July 29 in a town in Xuwen, Zhanjiang (an hour's drive from Xuwen). This is an "unprecedented" attempt by the brand, which is completely different from the previous approach of focusing on entering high-end stores in first- and second-tier cities. Guo Caihong revealed that in the past two years, Romantic Ceramics and its brother brand Elizabeth Ceramics have rapidly grown from hundreds of specialty stores to thousands. With the continuous changes in the consumption concepts and behaviors of rural residents, Romantic Ceramics factory direct sales The store is located in the Xuwen Township Market in Zhanjiang, which will well meet the needs of local consumers for high-quality ceramic tiles.
In the author’s impression, the content pushed by the two ceramic tile brands Romantic and Elizabeth on their WeChat public accounts every day is both Chinese and English. This is one of the few brands in the industry that is so sophisticated in content push. reflect. From this point of view, the rapid development of Romantic tiles in recent years is not only the result of seizing the minimalist trend, but also the result of the brand's careful management for many years.
03 Baoshan
"It is a good thing that dealers like to toss"
Wen Yihui, marketing manager of Xinruncheng Enterprise, told the author: “The strength of a brand in the local market is not only related to the brand image, but more importantly, depends on the dealer's own efforts. ”This is consistent with what the author saw during the terminal market research of China Ceramics Network. In first- and second-tier cities, the top ones in terms of operating performance are often the top brands with very high reputations. ; But in the third- and fourth-tier towns and even lower, the brands that rank among the top three in the local market are generally not the leading brands.
Baoshan is a prefecture-level city in Yunnan, belonging to the southwest region, and its consumption level is not high. Relevant data from Anjuke shows that the average price of new homes in August 2020 was 8,567 yuan/㎡. Yucheng Ceramics is a brand of Xinruncheng Enterprise and is one of the top five ceramic tile brands in the Baoshan market.
Yucheng Ceramics Baoshan opening picture (120 orders were successfully signed that day, and the performance was shining )
It is reported that Lu Juzhuang, the Baoshan dealer of Yucheng Ceramics (chairman of Yunnan Lanzhi Trading Co., Ltd.), used to be a wholesaler of ceramic tiles. He started acting as an agent for Yucheng Ceramics five or six years ago and switched from wholesale to retail channels. Successfully transformed dealer representative.
“Dealers love to play around with new models that are beneficial to sales (new channels, internet celebrity endorsements, etc.). Since joining Yucheng Ceramics, he has started to do activities, participating in various building materials alliance activities, and also inviting third parties The company organizes activities and invests in many outdoor advertising brands in the local market. Now it has become the best dealer in Baoshan market activities, and it also took the lead in establishing a building materials alliance; when the designer channel became popular, it took over Marco Polo An old ceramic tile store in the local market was an agent for another brand of Xin Runcheng Enterprises - Brownie Ceramics (mainly focused on designer channels), and then visited all the local home improvement companies, first with the salesperson, and then by myself. "During the epidemic this year, he personally went to expand distribution channels." This is Wen Yihui's simple description of Lu Juzhuang's "love of tossing." Not long ago, on July 17, Yucheng Tile Baoshan flagship store openedThe new store has three floors, with an area of up to 1,000 square meters. This is a major upgrade of Lujuzhuang’s hardware facilities. On the day of the opening, many home improvement companies could be seen on site.
“Lu Juzhuang asked local home decoration companies to proactively come to cooperate with them, and made them feel that they would be embarrassed if they did not cooperate with this brand.Of course, this dealer will also spend tens of thousands of yuan to study in Hangzhou, Xi'an and other places to continuously enrich himself. In fact, in the terminal market, the strength of the brand is not only related to the brand image, but more importantly to the dealer itself. Because of him, a new customer in the local market took the initiative to find us to build the Xinruncheng ceramic tile brand. ”
There are two lyrics in the song "Alive" composed and sung by Pu Shu: "We are all very soft animals, living in the shell and swearing to resist." The diligence of the local team, the sinking of the brand's channels, and the efforts of the dealers … Are the positive behaviors of ceramic brands and dealers cited in this article the spirit of resistance of soft animals in hard shells?
Author: Maoran
