Since arriving in Qingdao at dusk on November 20, in the blink of an eye, the China Ceramics Network terminal market research team has visited 5 building materials markets and interviewed 16 ceramic tile dealers and 2 branches of building ceramics companies The person in charge and 1 person in charge of the design company. In the process, just like the construction and ceramics industry has fallen into a "cold winter" in the past two years, Qingdao has encountered rain and cold air. In bad weather, the local ceramic tile market seems to be increasingly confusing.
Putting aside the fog, the research team will show you the true face of Qingdao's ceramic tile market - it is in a triple dilemma.
一
Triple dilemma, important life
The first dilemma: residential transaction volume continues to decline.
On April 18, 2018, Qingdao issued a housing purchase restriction policy: within the purchase restriction areas (Shinan District, Shibei District, Licang District, Laoshan District, Huangdao District, Chengyang District, and High-tech Zone), three categories of people ( Households registered in this city have 2 or more houses under their names in the purchase restriction area; families not registered in this city have 1 or more houses in the purchase restriction area; families not registered in this city cannot provide housing within 2 years This city has paid personal tax or social security for 12 consecutive months or more, and the back payment will not be recognized.) You cannot buy a house.
On November 15, 2019, the official website of the National Bureau of Statistics released statistical data on residential sales prices in 70 large and medium-sized cities in October 2019. It showed that the prices of new commercial residential buildings and second-hand residential buildings in Qingdao in October were falling month-on-month. Among them, the price of newly built commercial housing fell for the first time this year, down 0.2% from last month; the price of second-hand housing fell by 0.6% from September, down 4% from October last year, and the decline further accelerated compared with September. big.
Led by the purchase restriction policy and people’s consumer psychology of buying up and not down, Qingdao’s new and old residential transaction volume is still declining so far in 2019 after declining in 2018. This was a very obvious fact to every interviewee.
The second dilemma: the proportion of finely decorated rooms is increasing day by day.
Relevant data from the Internet show that the current delivery ratio of Qingdao's finely decorated houses is only about 30%; many interviewees believe that the actual ratio must be much higher than this, some said it reached about 80%, and some said it reached about 70% , some said it reached about 60%, others said it was only about 50%.
Although it is impossible to obtain completely true data in China, it is an indisputable fact that the proportion of finely decorated houses in Qingdao is increasing day by day. This is a fact that every interviewee agrees with.
The third dilemma: multiple difficulties.
The threats are second only to hardcover Full decoration, e-commerce with fake and shoddy products, vicious competition price war, and homogeneous products and marketing following the trend. Transform...while pressing forward step by step.
Under the influence of triple difficulties, traditional ceramic tile retail is retreating steadily, and dealers who rely on retail as their main sales channel are facing a test of life and death; they have only one way to go.
二
A way to survive begins with a single step
Ideologically speaking, it is to maintain a good attitude.
Attitude determines everything. Attitude comes from mentality. The influence of mentality on a person is incredible. Whether it is pessimism that blames others, motionless timidity, or self-righteous stubbornness, they are all bad mentality.
Since the ceramic tile market is already like this, since it is impossible to change the status quo, and since it is not willing to be eliminated, why not abandon pessimism, timidity, and stubbornness, be full of hope, act bravely, and meet the challenges with a good attitude?
Every sentence may seem like empty words, but every word is the truth. May I ask why you always tell your employees to maintain a good attitude when educating and enlightening them, but why can't you do it when it's your turn?
In terms of action, it means learning to walk on multiple legs.
What is walking on multiple legs? Mainly means that dealers must implement multi-channel operations: In addition to sticking to traditional retail, they must also develop other channels based on their own and local actual conditions, and selectively get involved in home decoration, decoration, designers, and industrial industries. We must pay special attention to engineering channels including fine decoration channels. If conditions permit, we must do it ourselves. If conditions do not exist, we must create conditions and work with manufacturers. Even if we only stick to traditional retail, we must innovate and change, and actively serve as old customers. , community, circle marketing and accelerating channel sinking. In short, only by implementing multi-channel operations and integrating resources in an all-round way can we maintain a certain market share and win survival and development.
Why should special emphasis be placed on the hardcover channel? Because finely decorated houses have a huge impact on ceramic construction companies and their dealers, consumers and decoration companies.
Hard-decorated houses are generally only favored by large-scale ceramic construction companies and their dealers. Together with the decoration companies, they are encroaching on the traditional retail market of ceramic tiles, threatening the ceramic construction companies and their dealers who are unable to get involved. On the one hand, hard-decorated houses are regarded as the same. The unique decoration style deprives consumers of their right to pursue individuality. On the one hand, it harms the interests of consumers because of low cost, inflated prices and worrying quality. Finely decorated houses also impact decoration companies...only real estate companies benefit from it.
The direct purpose of the state's policy on finely decorated houses is to save energy, reduce consumption, be low-carbon and environmentally friendly, reduce repeated decoration and secondary decoration, and meet consumers' needs to save manpower, material and financial resources. However, due to the problems of real estate companies shoddy, cutting corners, shortening the construction period, and falsely reporting prices during the construction process, coupled with the lack of supervision by relevant government departments (no unified standards for the delivery of finely decorated houses have been formulated, and no standards have been introduced as consumer standards) (laws and regulations to protect the rights of consumers). Not only has it not been welcomed by consumers, but it has harmed the interests of all parties.
The potential purpose of the state’s policy on finely decorated housing, or its objective role at this stage, is to activate idle housing resources and stabilize the real estate industry. Activating idle housing resources is easy to understand. The price of rough houses is relatively cheap, and investors are more willing to buy them, leave them idle after buying, and then sell them to earn the difference when the house prices rise to a certain level. This can easily result in a large amount of blanksThe house is vacant, not decorated, unoccupied, and not rented; while the furnished house can be rented. Stabilizing the real estate industry is not difficult to understand, but the results are a bit sad. To prevent the real estate bubble from bursting, housing prices must neither fall nor rise very much, but real estate companies must also survive. Finely decorated houses that can balance housing prices have become a magic weapon to stabilize the real estate industry. The government's intention to use finely decorated houses to balance housing prices and stabilize the real estate industry is good, but unscrupulous real estate companies have taken advantage of the loopholes (rather like the government's implementation of a plastic bag charging system in retail establishments, which was intended to protect the environment and save energy by reducing the use of plastics) , As a result, it has become a means for supermarkets to easily earn unreasonable profits, while the use of plastic bags has not decreased or even increased instead of decreasing). In order to sell high prices at low costs, some real estate companies unconscionably turn fine decorations into shocking decorations. In the end, the wool comes from the sheep, and consumers pay high prices to buy inferior decorations. It is often difficult to protect their rights.
Many interviewees mentioned that Qingdao's decoration standard (price) for finely decorated houses is several thousand yuan per square meter, but real estate companies only need a few hundred yuan per square meter. A search on the Internet revealed that the situation is similar in many cities across the country. It's so elaborate, it's outrageous.
Having used so many words to go to great lengths to talk about hard-decorated houses is just to illustrate that although hard-decorated houses have many problems, the state’s mandatory implementation has its own logic and reason. Compared with the vital real estate industry, which is related to the lifeline of China's economy, the interests of the large building materials industry including building ceramics and its employees are basically negligible. Moreover, as relevant standards, laws and regulations are gradually established and improved, and the problem of uniformity in hard decoration is solved by soft decoration, sooner or later hard-decorated rooms will be accepted by the public. Therefore, the development of finely decorated houses, and perhaps also prefabricated buildings, must be an inevitable and irreversible trend, and dealers must not take it lightly.
While selectively carrying out multi-channel operations, one misunderstanding must be avoided: blindly carrying out multi-category operations or simply establishing a full-service company. These two major models are not only expensive and involve a wide range of areas, but also require higher levels of teamwork. If you don’t have a mature service team and sales routine, don’t act rashly.
During the interview, the research team recorded the relevant remarks of several interviewees or the cases of their brand management, which became vivid footnotes of a way to survive.
Yi Mingyuan, Assistant General Manager and Head of Retail of Marco Polo Porcelain Brand of Qingdao Huanai Home Furnishing:
Although the retail market is shrinking, the number of high-end customers has not decreased, and retail still has great potential. In the face of a downturn in the market, we must maintain a good attitude and be less objective and more subjective. IOur counter-trend expansion and asymmetric investment in Qingdao stems from our confidence in the brand height of Marco Polo Ceramics and the brand power, product power, service power, team power and channel power of Huanai Home Furnishing.
Yi Mingyuan was interviewed by the terminal research team of China Ceramics Network
Li Qiang, Qingdao dealer of Lion Ceramics:
We cannot change the policy on finely decorated housing, but we can change our thinking and business model; we are not optimistic about the current market conditions, but we are still confident about the future. Survival is victory.
Li Qiang was interviewed by the terminal research team of China Ceramics Network
Guanzhu Ceramics Qingdao dealer Zhao Jianwei:
The building ceramics industry has changed from the previous seller's market to the current buyer's market. With the transparency of consumption, ceramic tile profits will become more and more normalized. In the industry reshuffle, companies with advantages in brands and products are more likely to survive. The strong will get stronger and the weak will get weaker. Faced with an increasing proportion of finely decorated houses, the best way out for dealers may be to become service providers.
Zhao Jianwei was interviewed by the terminal research team of China Ceramics Network
Oshenno Ceramics Qingdao Distributor (Qingdao Xinshiyou Building Materials Co., Ltd.) Fan Chaoyang:
If you have the ability and opportunity to get involved in engineering channels, the sooner the better. Because it has a certain cycle, a project participated in two years ago may not generate sales of ceramic tiles until two years later.
Oceano Ceramics provides great support to our dealers in both engineering and retail. For example, there is product support, financial support, and team support in engineering.
Fan Chaoyang was interviewed by the terminal research team of China Ceramics Network
Dongpeng Ceramics Qingdao dealer Liu Ziliang:
If dealers want to transform from a single ceramic tile business to a multi-category business, they need certain conditions and foundations, as well as a process of paying tuition; the same is true for manufacturers.
Although the sluggish market environment has an impact on dealers, it is not as influential as the dealers' own ideas. The dealer's ideas determine the quality of the market, and the brand's positioning in the terminal determines the dealer's sales. It is not only necessary to establish the manufacturer's brand at the terminal, but also to establish the dealer's own brand and build his own team.
Liu Ziliang was interviewed by the terminal research team of China Ceramics Network
Fu Guozhen, deputy general manager of Qingdao Liju Ceramics:
The biggest feature of the current ceramic tile market is that channels tend to become invisible. Differentiated products and marketing are the key to leveraging invisible channels. Manufacturers need to put more effort into these two aspects, especially product development, and guide dealers to take a differentiated route.
Fu Guozhen was interviewed by the terminal research team of China Ceramics Network
Gold Medal Asian Tiles Qingdao Distributor (Qingdao Big Thumb Building Materials Co., Ltd.) Wu Guoyong:
It is said that poor market conditions cause performance to decline, but if performance is not good, you must first find out the reasons from yourself. I believe that with the advancement of the "Three Bays and Three Cities" strategy, Qingdao's ceramic tile market will still have a lot of room for development in the future.
Dealers must not only dare to try multiple channels, but also learn to focus and deepen their efforts to achieve development with a professional team and ultimate service.
Wu Guoyong was interviewed by the terminal research team of China Ceramics Network
The research team will be very pleased if their views can inspire other dealers in Qingdao and across the country.
Fine decoration, complete decoration, limited purchase... Despite the difficulties, dealers in Qingdao are moving forward firmly!
