Home appliance manufacturers will have to fight four tough battles in the future

Life goes on, time goes on, and the battle of home appliance enterprises cannot stop. The fierce market war of home appliances in the second half of the year has already been triggered, and four tough battles are waiting for all manufacturers.

The home appliance market is still the same, neither good nor bad, but increasingly discerning users have a strong desire for good products; facing the short, flat and fast pace brought by the Internet wave, home appliance manufacturers with tens of thousands of employees and merchants with hundreds of employees are all bloated and need to reduce their burdens; the wave of transformation and upgrading has become an internal task for home appliance manufacturers, and it has become a must for them to quickly promote and cover the first-tier markets...

The home appliance market war in the second half of 2017 has already exploded. Whether it is the color TV manufacturers whose prices have been falling, the air-conditioning manufacturers whose prices have been rising steadily, the hesitant refrigerator and washing machine manufacturers, the kitchen appliance manufacturers that have been undergoing a deep reshuffle, or the small appliance manufacturers that have been experiencing counter-growth, they must successfully fight four tough battles if they want to better adapt to this complex and ever-changing business competition landscape and deal with sudden attacks from peers and rivals.

Large-scale war

At any time, Chinese home appliance manufacturers should not doubt the value and significance of scale.

Whether in the past, present, or future, scale is the biggest bargaining chip for Chinese home appliance companies to compete with foreign brands and participate in the global home appliance market. Therefore, no matter what the gains and losses are in the first half of the year, home appliance manufacturers cannot easily give up the pursuit of scale in the second half of the year.

Of course, the large-scale war among home appliance manufacturers in the second half of the year is not to simply sacrifice profits to impact scale, nor to cut prices for promotions to grab scale. Instead, it should be "flexible and agile" in pursuing quality scale, and must not continue with the past "low-cost, low-quality" scale with quantity but no quality.

The entry threshold for color TV and air-conditioning giants has been pushed up to 10 million units; similarly, the entry threshold for the competition among refrigerator giants is also 10 million units; washing machine giants are also striving towards the goal of 10 million units; a series of products such as range hoods, rice cookers, dishwashers, etc. are all striving towards the scale threshold of one million units or even several million units.

From the actions of some home appliance manufacturers in the first half of this year, we can see that they are trying to pursue quality, large-scale and high-volume growth by adjusting product structure and optimizing brand positioning, especially the "volume growth" of mid-to-high-end products and the "certain scale" of low-end products.

New product war

There is no shortcut to product upgrades and iterations. What is needed is perseverance and real investment.

In the past two years, Chinese home appliance companies have made significant progress in creating differentiated new products, which is more outstanding than the achievements in the past 10 years. However, there is still a big gap compared with foreign giants, especially in manufacturing technology, quality stability, and differentiated functional innovation, which need breakthroughs.

The reason behind the polarization of business performance of many manufacturers in the first half of the year is the differentiation of their ability to create "good products". Currently, the retail prices of new refrigerators and washing machines made by Casarte are between 20,000 and 30,000 yuan; the price of under-sink dishwashers made by Fotile is over 10,000 yuan, while the price of independent dishwashers made by many local companies is only 2,000 to 3,000 yuan; the price of laser TVs made by Hisense is around 60,000 to 70,000 yuan. These seemingly expensive home appliances are in short supply in the market.

Creating differentiated and good products is a medium- and long-term strategic task for all home appliance companies. There is no room for "speculation" or "evil ways". It means investing in research and development, truly improving intelligent manufacturing, and finding breakthroughs from users' pain points, complaints and complaints.

At present, new product innovation cannot just pursue "novel" functions and concept innovation. It is necessary to return to the essence of the product and promote the stability and reliability design of product functional performance, industrial design and other qualities. It is necessary to truly match good products with user needs and satisfy the experience to bring surprises and unexpected things.

High efficiency war

Time is money. Faced with the asset-light and fast-paced Internet companies, home appliance manufacturers have obvious disadvantages due to their asset-heavy and slow pace.

With the impact of a large number of Internet companies, especially in the past three years, whether it is Xiaomi, LeTV, Alibaba, or JD.com, a large number of home appliance manufacturers feel that they can't keep up with the pace and can't figure out their routines. This just reflects that home appliance manufacturers who are accustomed to the operating mode and operation rhythm of the past 20 years are no longer adapted to the future rhythm.

In the second half of the year, home appliance manufacturers must take the initiative to launch and ignite a high-efficiency war. The core is not to simply "reduce staff and increase efficiency" through intelligent manufacturing and Internet tools, reduce costs and investment, and increase profits and revenue. Instead, it is to comprehensively improve the efficiency and speed of teams and organizations, improve the market's response speed, and form a new operating rhythm of "fast over slow", rather than simply "big over small".

In the current commercial competition environment, the competition among home appliance manufacturers is “speed is the only way to win”. No matter how large the scale and platform are, they will encounter “big enterprise disease” and “organizational bloat”. Only by adopting a more efficient, fast and short-term organizational structure can we win our own place in the complex and ever-changing market competition.

Fast promotion war

Move, move, home appliance manufacturers must move if they want to survive. This is the only way to survive and they must never stop.

Although a large number of home appliance manufacturers are currently in a state of confusion and dilemma regarding promotional activities, it is only an inevitable dilemma encountered in the implementation and transformation of promotional activities. Traditional extensive and barbaric low-price promotions and detonations can no longer meet the needs of the market and users, and naturally the effect of promotional activities will only get worse and worse. Promotional measures and means must be taken.

On the one hand, the market, merchants and users all need good products, good directions and services. In this case, the right way for the entire home appliance manufacturers is to promote the precision and refinement of promotional activities and truly make promotional activities focus on details, execution and results.

On the other hand, promotions have become the only means and path for all home appliance manufacturers to ship goods. Promotions cannot be stopped. If they are stopped, they will not be able to ship goods and promote sales. However, the operation mode and rhythm of the promotion itself need to be constantly changed, that is, to promote the quick promotion and precise marketing.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.