"Transformation" and "crossover" under the new situation allow home appliances to better understand people's hearts!

Preface

Affected by the novel coronavirus pneumonia epidemic, the sales of home appliances have dropped significantly. Under the special background of the home appliance industry, the demand for replacement of home appliances has been significantly suppressed. The uncertainty of factors such as the postponement of resumption of work and channel terminals has led to the continuous shift of offline demand to online channels. Through the data survey of Bytedance and GFK, it is not difficult to see that by understanding the consumption patterns of users, relying on offline market sales data and using the consumption habits of online users as the background, the consumption concepts of the main consumer groups are being reshaped, and it is not difficult to see some tricks.

According to data analysis, the overall retail sales of the home appliance industry fell by 2.2% from 2018 to 2019. The sudden outbreak of the new coronavirus in 2020 "divided" the home appliance market, and the home appliance industry was even worse. The main factors causing the decline in the industry are as follows:

The economic growth rate has slowed down, and the financial pressure on residents has increased sharply, affecting consumer confidence

According to the domestic GDP growth trend chart released by the National Bureau of Statistics, GDP in the first quarter of 2020 fell by 6.8% year-on-year. The reduction in outings during the epidemic, the decline in income, and the increase in financial pressure have combined to bring the market's willingness to consume to a freezing point.

The driving effect of real estate is gradually weakening

2020 is a critical year for the economy, and the impact of the epidemic has made this year more severe than in previous years. The 2020 Government Work Report of this year's two sessions pointed out that the residential attribute of houses has been strengthened by adhering to the positioning that "houses are for living, not for speculation", resulting in repeated weakening of fluctuations in the real estate market, and even almost zero growth in the sales area of ​​commercial housing in 2019. The reduction in house purchases and decoration directly stimulated the decline in home appliance consumption.

The birth rate is declining, and the market is shifting to a competition for existing users

Since the post-80s and post-90s generation got married and had children, unlike the previous generation, this generation of parents are exposed to new things, new parenting concepts, and more modern thinking, which has brought huge demand to the home appliance industry. The social and family economic pressures are increasing, the birth rate is declining year by year, and the opening of the "universal two-child policy" has failed to stop the downward trend. In addition, the increasing number of "unmarried people" has directly affected the new demand for home appliances. The home appliance consumer market has suffered a heavy blow, and the two major demands of new purchases and updates have become even colder, and it feels more like "winter".

Under the general environment, the home appliance industry has almost stagnated from production to consumption. With the advent of the "6 era", the income polarization of urban residents has become increasingly serious, with the disposable income of low-income groups gradually decreasing and the disposable income of middle- and high-income groups increasing year by year, giving rise to the polarized distribution of the home appliance consumer market. Under such "difficult" social conditions, how can the home appliance industry, especially the white appliance industry, "break the ice"?

01. Distinct levels:

Deeply analyze user groups and address different demand levels one by one

Social class is the classification of people into several social levels based on various inequalities. People's needs are also divided from low to high. Unused categories or even home appliances of the same category are also classified according to different classes and different needs. With the development of the times and economy, primary category home appliances have moved down the hierarchy, while emerging home appliances occupy high-level and targeted groups.

The "User Profile of Home Appliance Interest by Category" data provided by Toutiao Index and Juliang Suanshu can analyze the current user consumption distribution of white goods products:

(1) The female population index of refrigerators and washing machines and dryers related to family "food and clothing" is significantly higher than that of men, which can better reflect the characteristics of women such as being good at housework. In terms of age groups, the proportion of marriageable people and older users is relatively high. In terms of distribution, the consumption demand for large household appliances is sinking. Users in third- and fourth-tier cities pay more attention to product consumption information and have become the "main force" in the purchase and replacement of new white appliances. Users in first- and second-tier cities with higher economic capabilities are gradually leaning towards convenient, innovative, multi-functional and multi-purpose smart white appliances.

(2) Male users have a strong demand for air-conditioning products, which is almost 2.5 times that of female users. Middle-aged male users are particularly concerned about the replacement of air-conditioning products. Other data show that super first-tier, first-tier, second-tier and third-tier cities are the "big consumers" of air-conditioning products. Although the TGI index of fourth- and fifth-tier cities is not as good as that of the first-tier cities, the overall index strength is not bad. The data fully reflects the improvement of male consumption capacity in the white goods market, which is also related to the rise of the "he" economy in the field of home appliances.

02. Come from behind:

Small home appliance market "explodes", large home appliances are in hot pursuit

Compared with the large home appliance market that has been developing for many years and is now reaching its ceiling, the small home appliance market has begun to show huge market potential and room for growth. In particular, with the continuous improvement of living standards and the change in concepts brought about by consumption upgrades, small home appliances are gradually becoming popular in the market. It is not difficult to see from the growth rate of consumption of Toutiao and Aina Information in the past two years that the reading volume of most small home appliance articles is at the top of the industry, and the small home appliance market is a blue ocean.

As a product of rigid demand, white goods have not shown obvious signs of fatigue, although the growth rate is not large. This is closely related to the transformation of corporate product concepts, product technology updates and upgrades, and accurate grasp of user needs. Take air-conditioning products as an example. Many companies have accelerated the upgrade of air-conditioning, aiming to create new air-conditioning concepts such as "fresh air without wind" and "extraordinary cooling"; as for refrigerators and washing machines, from "cooling" to "fast cooling", from "frost" to "frost-free", from "washing" to "clean clothes", from "spinning" to "drying"..., white goods have filled the previous demand gaps in the white goods market through a deep "reshuffle" of their own products.

03. Rise of a new force:

As industry competition intensifies, new disruptors emerge

From the 2019 home appliance industry brand rankings compiled by Toutiao, cross-border brands occupy an important position on the list, bringing a great impact to the home appliance industry, and the traditional air-conditioning brand Gree ranks third. Cross-border brands, led by Xiaomi, have achieved certain results in their original fields and then switched to the home appliance industry. Relying on the user accumulation and marketing experience in the original fields, they quickly ranked among the top in the home appliance market.

A careful analysis of the rankings of white appliance brands shows that nearly half of them are deep-rooted in one category, and the attention paid to this category under a certain category can reach more than 80% of the total attention of the brand. Traditional home appliance brands are still in a leading position in refrigerators, washing machines and air conditioners. Haier is far ahead in the refrigerator and washing machine categories, Gree still holds the leading position in air conditioners, followed by AUX and Midea.

As for new brands, Xiaomi is also in the top ten. Lei Jun once set a goal of "establishing 100 ecological chain companies within 5 years". Since then, Xiaomi is no longer just a mobile phone company, but a "grocery store" with mobile phones as carriers. It has successively launched "Mijia Internet Air Conditioner", "Mijia Internet Washing and Drying Machine", and "Mijia Air Cooling Refrigerator". Obviously, the launch of Mijia home appliances has once again shaken the entire home appliance industry and broken the already saturated home appliance market pattern.

Looking at the current home appliance industry, whether it is a brand that focuses on specific categories or a cross-category brand, the "main battlefield" mostly comes from large appliances. This shows that large appliances are the "foundation of survival" of each brand.

04.

Take what you need:

Functionality, price and appearance, rational and emotional needs of users coexist

In order to alleviate the current "sluggish" situation in the home appliance market, many brands are constantly developing and innovating their products to promptly adapt to and meet the usage needs of various groups of people. On the other hand, consumers' demands and concerns about home appliances are also constantly changing.

From the perspective of user attention, the basis of users' attention to the three major white goods is still concentrated on price, quality and after-sales service. The demand for product brand, intelligence, appearance design, cleaning and antibacterial aspects is becoming stronger and stronger, and the attention between different categories has continued to rise in the past two years.

From the perspective of year-on-year market growth, the low-end product market has shrunk significantly, especially in first- and second-tier cities, while high-end home appliances priced above RMB 10,000 have shown a growth trend. On the one hand, this shows that the improvement in people's living standards has led to an increase in demand for high-quality products, and on the other hand, it also shows that the demand for upgrading low-end products is becoming increasingly obvious. There is a clear demand for upgrading white goods refrigerators and washing machines. Due to the early upgrading of first- and second-tier cities, the growth of high-end products has slowed down, resulting in a large growth space for low-end products.

Looking at the current home appliance information industry, after experiencing a period of rapid growth, it has gradually entered a period of stable development. Toutiao has seen a substantial increase in both the number of articles and the number of readers, with the maximum growth value reaching 59.6%. Comparing the data from 2018 and 2019, the effective reading ratio and single reading time have also steadily increased, further illustrating the continuous improvement in the quality of industry articles, and also reflecting that the demand side of the home appliance industry in Toutiao has not yet been saturated, and there is a large room for development.

Since its birth, Douyin has become a "battlefield" for most brands. With the help of short videos, the growth of Douyin videos in the home appliance industry has increased exponentially. The development trend of "quantity and quality increase" also shows that home appliance video content can attract users' attention and interaction, which has achieved the "recovery" of sales in the home appliance industry.

With established e-commerce companies such as Alibaba, JD.com, and Suning in the front and Pinduoduo catching up in the back, it is not surprising that Toutiao, which has a huge number of users and resource advantages, entered the e-commerce business in this already divided e-commerce market. Today, the online economy of "Internet" + "social e-commerce" has quietly emerged, which also gives Toutiao an incomparable industry advantage. We will wait and see what the future holds.

Author: Chen Ran

Photo editor: Zixue