As early as the end of primitive society, Xuzhou was called "Pengcheng" because Pengzu's fiefdom "Dapeng Kingdom" was located here. At the end of the Qin Dynasty, it became the west city. The capital of Xiang Yu, the overlord of Chu, has been an important military location that military strategists have fought for since ancient times. Since modern times, Xuzhou has been the core city in northern Jiangsu and an important comprehensive transportation hub in the country. It ranks first in northern Jiangsu in terms of economic aggregate, industrial scale, total import and export, and total retail sales of consumer goods. . History books also record that before the Southern Song Dynasty, northern Jiangsu was more prosperous than southern Jiangsu. Even if the latecomers took over, its economic strength was relatively strong among cities across the country.
In the Internet era, the term "Northern Jiangsu people" is as popular as the term "Beijing's Fifth Ring Road and Fourth Ring Road". When the author began to conduct terminal market research in Shanghai, Nanjing and other places, it was not difficult to find that many shopping guides and salespeople engaged in the ceramic industry mentioned when introducing themselves: I am from Northern Jiangsu (since non-peaceful times, people from Northern Jiangsu) He has the habit of running to southern Jiangsu). From this perspective, the Subei Gang that makes ceramics in East China is no less powerful than the Fujian and Wenzhou gangs.
So, what is the phenomenon of Xuzhou ceramics market as the core city in northern Jiangsu? What about the market situation under the leadership of the real people from northern Jiangsu?
Hearing
In order to quickly and effectively understand the market situation of each city and analyze it beyond the feedback, the research team still visited the sales staff at the headquarters of a number of ceramic brands before departure. , a comprehensive overview is as follows——
Xuzhou is a second- and third-tier city that used to have developed heavy industries, such as machinery and chemicals. Generally speaking, the habits of consumers in each place are closely related to the local culture. The more developed the city, the higher the acceptance rate of the product. Therefore, products need to be promoted regionally in Xuzhou. For example, the general acceptance of large-sized products by the public is not very good. High, it needs to find the corresponding group of people.
For northern Jiangsu, Xuzhou is an important core city. Apart from Nantong, it is Xuzhou. Therefore, like Suzhou, Xichang, Xuzhou has 65%~70% of finely decorated houses, and ceramics The brand's original retail channels will definitely be affected, and the remaining retail stores are mostly flat-floor and self-built houses. Brands that are doing well in other channels besides retail channels are okay, such as Douglas, ICC, Xinzhongyuan, Wells, etc. - focusing on designer channels, while Marco Polo is a brand recognized by the public, Nobel It is also a brand from East China, so both of them are good friends.
In Xuzhou, the representative high-end building materials stores include Shenghui International Decoration Cluster Plaza and Red Star Macalline Home Furnishing Fuxing Store. The equally representative market is New Century Decorative city, but not high-end. It is reported that other building materials markets include Oubeisha Home Building Materials City, Jiale Building Materials Supermarket, Yuexing Home Plaza, Xuzhou Materials Market, Dongxing Materials Market, etc.
"Even if we don't have our brand in Xuzhou, we still have to go there often to see the market. In the past, we could go there about three times a year, but recently we went there once every three months. Because starting from last year, the market in each place will undergo "tremendous changes" (brand switching or direct bankruptcy) in two or three months. This is a phenomenon that is so fast that it makes people feel scary, but it is not surprising and is predictable. The market changes, so we have to go to the terminal more frequently to understand the market. I usually go there for three days to talk about the market with dealers of high-end, high-end and low-end brands that I have met before. We also want to find suitable dealers in the local area. They need to be there. You can work as a designer or in engineering channels. If you are an outsider switching to ceramics, of course, you should focus on young people first. "A sales manager of a third-tier brand once said what impressed me the most.
(Photo taken at today’s “stepping point”)
Seeing
June 17th is today. A group of 4 people from the China Ceramics Network Terminal Market Research (Xuzhou Station) team finally "landed" in the Xuzhou market. The first place we "stepped in" was the most representative high-end building materials store - Shenghui International Home Plaza, and interviewed 6 (The ceramic tile brands involved are icc ceramic tiles, Owen Lai ceramics, Mango ceramic tiles, Jinyi ceramic tiles, No. 1 marble ceramic tiles, Champion ceramic tiles, Guanzhu ceramics, and Little Bee) dealers and branch representatives.
（icc ceramic tile Xuzhou dealer Chen Hui）< /span>
"Newly plowed roads can attract passenger flow"
——Icc Ceramics Xuzhou Dealer Chen Hui
Chen Hui has been in the ceramic industry for 21 years. When choosing a brand for cooperation, the first thing he considers is the brand's product color, quality and the manufacturer's R&D capabilities. According to Chen Hui, he began to inspect icc ceramic tiles in 2016. In 2017, he signed a contract to renovate a 300-square-meter exhibition hall and started operating it in 2018. At that time, the main reason for choosing icc ceramic tiles was the long-term development potential of the brand.
He said that from 2013 to 2016, the industry had serious homogenization of products, and people wanted big brands as well as personalized products, so the market needed changes, so it After choosing icc ceramic tiles, there have been great changes, such as switching to high-end customer groups, changing the original sales model, and cultivating new channels. In response to the current market status and growth model, on the one hand, it will focus on mid-to-high-end customers, communities and decoration design companies, on the other hand, it will use other products to enter projects (large packages), on the other hand, it will establish county-level city distribution channels through decoration companies (expected to 2 to 3 companies).
In his view, the Xuzhou market has great potential for future development. There are 8 new urban areas. The best development area is Yunlong District, with house prices exceeding 20,000 per square meter. m. In addition, the better areas are in the Chengnan Development Zone. "The current building materials market is facing severe difficulties, but it will only last for 3 to 5 years in the cold winter period. Customers who have houses will definitely do secondary renovations, so hope is still visible. Mainly It depends on who we go with. Hanberto, the general manager of our headquarters, once said, 'If you go fast, go alone, if you go far, go together' - it seems that the momentum of strength is strong.
(Owen Lai Ceramics Xuzhou dealer Fu Changzheng)
"What consumers or designers value is product color"
——Owen Lai Ceramics Xuzhou Distributor Fu Changzheng
Fu Changzheng has been in the ceramic industry for more than ten years. In order to switch to high-end consumer groups, he was introduced by a friend two years ago and became an agent after one year of inspection. Ceramics have indeed been greatly improved and are currently targeted at customers in high-end villas and mansions.
"Our consumer group is mainly targeted at elite leaders. They will be more disgusted with alliance brands, so we mainly cooperate with designer studios and home decoration companies." Target group The more explicit Fu Changzheng explains this. Although the transformation has only taken more than a year, it currently cooperates with 30 design studios and about 10 home decoration companies (mainly half-package). The order rate for purchasing ceramic tiles in the store after being recommended by designers is between 70 and 80. %about.
"Xuzhou has just been rated as a second-tier city, and housing prices have continued to soar in recent years (from 4,000 yuan per square meter to nearly 20,000 yuan per square meter), thus boosting consumption Our customer's apartments are generally over 200 square meters, with a unit value of about 100,000 yuan, and there are also some with a unit value of 30,000 to 50,000 yuan, but not many. Due to the influence of the apartment type, the product sales in recent years have been in the 600×1200㎜ specification. 750×1500㎜ and 900×1800㎜ will be the trend” - there is room for development in products of different sizes from different manufacturers.
(Mango tile Xuzhou dealer Guo Na)< /span>
"Designer activities should not be carried out for profit"
——Guo Na, Xuzhou dealer of mango tiles
Guo Na is a strong woman who is soft on the outside but strong on the inside. She has been making ceramics for more than ten years, but she worked in other places. After returning to Xuzhou, she took over the Mango ceramic tile brand. And it has used its many years of designer group resources to make the brand "popular" in the local market. During the time when the research team interviewed them, more than three customers were brought into the store by the designers, and 1 place was sold directly. She said that compared with the event day organized by Shenghui International Home Plaza on June 16, the door-to-door customer flow was basically in sync.
With a confident look on her face, she said: The difference in market conditions is actually largely due to the continued growth of customers, and if our sales guides do not have enough professional knowledge, it will definitely Existing customers cannot be retained. The more mass brands emphasize product quality advantages, the less advantage they tend to have, because this is the foundation of the product. What needs to be upgraded now is to give customers a feeling of beautiful space. First, the manufacturer's design level must keep up. Helpful for dealers.
Regarding the Mango brand’s annual Shijianfang Award and Mango Award, he said that it can indeed drive Xuzhou designers to go out and study, and he also seems to regard this event as It is an act of public welfare. “Only by allowing local designers to go out and retain local top-level customers (without having to go to other cities to find designers), material dealers will naturally have room for survival in the market.”
(Pan Jing, General Manager of Jinyitao Xuzhou Branch)
"Channel sinking is the best channel"
——Pan Jing, General Manager of Jinyitao Xuzhou Branch
Pan Jing is an old Jinyitao person. He came to Xuzhou after working from a manufacturer to Jinyitao brand operations and management in various places. He has more comprehensive information on local market analysis, such as Said: Among the ceramic tile circulation channels in Xuzhou, large packages (including hardcover) account for 50%, imported ceramic tiles account for 10%, designers (including full cases) account for 10%, leaving only 30% for the retail sales of various ceramic tile brands. Therefore, brand operators must quickly transform and use "new technology software to retain retail traffic, allow designers to do the entire project, add new real estate projects (2 new finely decorated houses were signed this year, each exceeding 5 million), and open up distribution channels." . In its sales proportion: engineering/big package accounts for 40%, complete assembly accounts for 10%, retail (including designers) accounts for 30%, and distribution agents account for 30%.
As we all know, the pain points of agents are that products are updated quickly, it is difficult to keep up with the pace, and inventory pressure is high, so Pan Jing, who operates as an independent legal person of the Xuzhou Jinyitao brand, will branch out Positioned as a service provider, it breaks through the original franchise model and only charges agents franchise fees, and provides agents with decoration reimbursement ratio subsidies. Therefore, it has signed 7 agents currently, which is only 3 short of the annual target. "What affects consumers' awareness of the brand lies in the size of the store, product display, and shopping guide reception capabilities. Therefore, our agent stores must be 300 square meters. Returning to the essence of sales and improving performance is fundamental, and Channel sinking is the best channel because the Chinese market is huge. ”
Based on the feedback from the ceramic tile practitioners I contacted today, we learned that local consumers are not "cold" about functional ceramic tiles. Pan Jing once again expressed with data: "The gap between Xuzhou consumers' ability to accept products and first-tier cities is only three years." Although the specifications of 750×1500㎜ and 900×1800㎜ have gradually occupied a certain market, the largest sales volume is still the 800×800㎜ ceramic tile. Why does "Daban applaud but not sell"? It said: The reasons also lie in price, damage and processing problems. How to solve it? His answer: It is necessary to build a large-scale banquet store and have an independent team to provide services, straighten out the relevant chains and position the market. If the price can be reduced by 50%, then there will definitely be a market for large-scale pancakes.
(No. 1 marble tile Xuzhou dealer Qin Shancheng)
"It is best for material suppliers to combine profits into an alliance of overall home improvement collectives"
——No. 1 marble tile Xuzhou dealer Qin Shancheng
Qin Shancheng switched from the stone industry to the ceramic tile industry, and what he values more is the resources of old customers. But regarding the current market conditions, he spoke bluntly and gave examples: starting from the second half of last year, less than one-third of the villa areas were under construction; there were still 20 under construction in a community in 2108, and only 6 were under construction this year; and a good designer used to It will undertake 7 to 10 projects a year, but this year it is estimated that there will only be 4 projects available. ”
From the above data analysis, we can see the scarcity of customer resources in the home decoration and building materials market. As the market pie becomes smaller, price competition will inevitably occur in all walks of life. "This year's market is cruel and harsh. After customers pay in full, there will still be sales from first-line brands who find my customers and promise to be better than us." Giving customers a 20% discount on the price is a self-destructive means of competition." In Qin Shancheng's view, the pressure on brands with larger scale in the market is greater than theirs. For such a market situation, it pays more attention to the alliance form of the overall home improvement collective.
(Champion Tiles & Crown Beads Ceramics Xuzhou Dealer Ren Baohua)< /span>
“If there were no hardcover, the market would still be a blue ocean."
——Xuzhou dealer Ren Baohua of Champion Tile & Crown Bead Ceramics
According to local industry sources, all categories of building materials under the "leadership" of Ren Baohua can produce more than 150 million yuan a year. The company's Guanzhu is the agent in 1998 and the champion in 1999 It has been an agent for many years. Three years ago, it started to produce imported ceramic tiles in response to high-end market demand. Both of them accounted for the top three sales in the Xuzhou market. Its advantage comes from its more than 20 years of hard work. In addition, we also represent several domestic and foreign bathroom/shower room brands. In 2019, we joined the Xingfu Direction Public Decoration and Design Company in the complete decoration mode. "We have always marketed with the concept of providing consumers with a home."
At present, the issue of warehousing costs has always been the most troublesome problem for manufacturers. Ren Baohua said that its warehouse area reaches 12,600 square meters, and three ceramic tile brands have stores in Xuzhou. There are 8 of them, located in three representative local stores: Shenghui, Red Star Macalline and New Century. The cost issue is actually a big problem, but in his view, the biggest problem is not the cost, and the scary thing is not the decoration, but the fine decoration of the house. "If there were no hardcover, the market would still be a blue ocean."
"In the past, all ceramic tile dealers in Xuzhou used to be wholesalers in Nanjing, Linyi and other places, but I object to the model of being a secondary agent, so From the beginning, I went to the headquarters to look for the possibility of being a local distributor. Fortunately, the brands I chose have great potential. No matter how strong a dealer is, it cannot do without the platform provided by the manufacturer." Ren Baohua added at the end.
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The above is the approximate gain of the research team on the first day.
As the core city in northern Jiangsu, Xuzhou, the author thinks that there are more market phenomena, and the reasons behind the phenomena or the ways to break through are visible and explorable. It also serves as a reference that cannot be ignored for other places in northern Jiangsu. Please pay attention to the content of the terminal market research (Xuzhou station) that will be launched continuously on the WeChat official account of "China Ceramics Network".
Author: Yi Ya
