[Face-to-face interviews with people in the ceramic industry] Issue 5
Interviewed Guests｜Tan Xiaowen, Vice President and General Manager of Group Marketing of Jiangjun Enterprise
Interviewer｜Zou Sijin, Director of the Editorial Department of China Ceramics Network
Interview time｜Afternoon of April 13, 2021
Interview location｜Foshan Nanzhuang·Jiangjun Enterprise Headquarters
Text writing｜Hong Xiaochun
Video filming｜Hong Xiaochun
[Ceramic Industry Face to Face] The guests in the fifth issue are very special.
He has been a professional manager for more than 20 years. He has written two books, "Ceramic Marketing Profit Guide" and "Terminal Corporate Operation Management" based on his own experience, which have become a magic weapon for many sales staff in the building ceramics industry. He is known as "the top ten gold medal marketers in China's ceramics industry" and "the leading think tank in the construction and ceramics industry"; in addition, he has the same surname as Hong Kong singer Alan Tam and has a good singing voice, so people in the industry affectionately call him Tan. headmaster. He is Tan Xiaowen, vice president of group marketing and general manager of Jiangjun Enterprise.
Tan Xiaowen has been working at Jiangjun Enterprises for seven years. In the past seven years, he has attached great importance to in-depth analysis of industry development through data, keenly and accurately grasped market trends and trends, committed to breaking through the inherent model of traditional construction and ceramics companies, and assisted Liu Chaoyang, the helmsman of Jiangjun Enterprises, to promote the company's transformation and upgrading. . During the interview with China Ceramics Network, he analyzed and explained step by step, sharing the "secrets" on how companies can seek sustained and steady development in a highly competitive industry environment.
01
Industry changes and new ecology of enterprise development
In 1943, China’s first glazed brick was born. Wenzhou's Xishan Kiln Factory developed "Xishan" brand glazed tiles and floor tiles, and since then, workshop-style building ceramics manufacturers have gradually emerged. Bathed in the spring breeze of China's reform and opening up, the construction and ceramics industry has experienced a period of rapid growth for 40 years; and as China's economy enters the new normal, the construction and ceramics industryThe industry has entered an adjustment period of transformation and upgrading.
▲Tan Xiaowen, Vice President of General Enterprise Group Marketing and General Manager (middle)
Tan Xiaowen said that during the period from 2012 to 2017, the situation of the entire industry was still very good; but in just a few years from 2017 to 2020, the market eliminated many traditional companies. It can be said that the entire environment has undergone great changes. The product structure is constantly changing, and marketing methods, marketing techniques, etc. are also changing accordingly. As the saying goes, everything changes when the market changes.
Since its establishment in 2003, Jiangjun Enterprise has maintained steady development and laid a solid foundation under the leadership of Chairman Liu Chaoyang. Amidst the great waves, traditional ceramic construction companies still need to get rid of the rough model of the past and form a refined management system. Tan Xiaowen believes that when the market is doing well, companies are very comfortable, but when the market is not doing well, their skills are really tested. During his years at General Enterprises, one thing Tan Xiaowen has been doing is to make the operations of the enterprise more systematic. There is both Tao and skill in this.
For Jiangjun Enterprises, it is the "Tao" to keep production processes and products up to date with market trends, and to form a closed loop of management, sales, publicity, promotion, and guidance and assistance from dealers to comprehensively adjust, optimize and upgrade; Introducing advanced equipment, creating high-end slate products, setting up corporate business schools, participating in large-scale exhibitions, reaching strategic cooperation with B-end companies, holding craftsman competitions to empower terminal channels, inviting celebrities to conduct live broadcasts to bring goods, etc. This is "skill". It can be seen that establishing a new systematic and refined development ecology is crucial for enterprises.
02
Three major dimensions determine the future competitive landscape
As mentioned above, the building and ceramics industry is facing the pain of transformation, and companies need to establish a new development ecosystem to transform and rebirth. In recent years, with the entry of external capital, the concentration of the industry has gradually increased. At the 2021 General Enterprise Strategic Marketing Summit, Chairman Liu Chaoyang clarified the development of General Enterprise in the next three years.The goal is to be at the forefront of the industry. Relying on his many years of experience and assessment of the market, Tan Xiaowen believes that the competitive landscape of the industry will change in three dimensions.
The first dimension is brand. In the long run, brand is the core competitiveness of an enterprise and the engine of sustainable development. However, not all brands can be called brands. If you want to build a good brand, you must work hard from many aspects, including improving the brand's height, popularity, reputation, recognition, word-of-mouth, etc.
Tan Xiaowen introduced that Jiangjun Enterprise’s brands include Dajiang Ceramics, Chang’an Ceramics, Green Apple Ceramics, Shen Yun Tiles, Jiangjun Slate and the newly established slate brand Mulan Home Furnishing. The company has positioned each brand carefully. In order to sort out and differentiate, it has been refreshed and upgraded from many aspects such as brand image, reputation building, and marketing promotion.
▲Jiangjun Enterprise Brand Style
The second dimension is quality. For enterprises, quality not only refers to products, but also derives a series of things. These include product quality, raw material equipment, R&D team, production management, publicity and promotion, design and application, marketing innovation, terminal agents, etc. These are all key factors that test the quality of an enterprise.
It is worth mentioning that in terms of the quality of terminal dealers, Jiangjun Enterprise has accumulated a large number of stable high-quality dealers after years of maintenance and selection. Tan Xiaowen believes that the most important thing between partners is the safety and profitability of cooperation. Enterprises must have the ambition to grow with dealers, so that both parties can go further together.
The third dimension is service. Tan Xiaowen believes that in the past, the traditional building ceramics industry was relatively rough in terms of service. Whether it was manufacturers to dealers or dealers to consumers, they only focused on brand output and product output. Now and in the future, there is a need for more systematic and sophisticated services, especially the management of rock slabs, which requires a complete service system to implement it. In this dimension, companies not only need time to accumulate, but also need to invest a lot of manpower, material resources, and financial resources.
In terms of services provided by manufacturers to dealers, Jiangjun Enterprises not only does a good job in product exportIt also provides marketing planning for dealers, provides operations, sales, training and other aspects of empowerment, and may even provide them with talent output support in the future. Tan Xiaowen believes that truly outstanding companies in the future will achieve all of these outputs.
03
The new track needs to break out of the cage of traditional building pottery
In 2020, after a spurt of growth, rock slabs have almost become the standard for ceramic construction companies. On this new track, Jiangjun Enterprise has accurately grasped the trend of the industry, and has taken the lead in introducing slate production equipment, building a slate R&D and intelligent manufacturing base, launching high-end slate brands, and establishing a slate deep processing center...
The day before this interview, the Shenzhen Furniture Association Foshan Slate Enterprise Research Team composed of leaders from the Shenzhen Furniture Association visited Jiangjun Enterprise. As the first batch of special committee members of the Stone Slab Building Materials Assembly Committee, Jiangjun Enterprise will rely on its strength in the R&D and intelligent manufacturing of slate slabs to integrate resources with furniture companies, design institutes, etc. to achieve close cooperation.
▲The research team of Foshan Slate Enterprise of Shenzhen Family Association has just visited Jiangjun Enterprise
In addition to cross-border cooperation to create products that best meet consumer needs, collaborative services during the implementation of slate slabs are also very important. Tan Xiaowen said that most manufacturing companies only have advantages in the production field, but to implement the slate into a project, warehousing, logistics, processing, construction, design, application and other links are required Open up and form collaborative services in the industrial value chain, otherwise slate will eventually return to the field of traditional building ceramics and fall into the swamp of "price competition". It is understood that in order to improve supporting services, Jiangjun Enterprise has built a slate deep processing service center in Zhaoqing and plans to establish 12 slate deep processing centers across the country to form a "slate deep processing service system network."
Tan Xiaowen believes that in terms of the material itself, rock slabs have the rigidity of ceramics and the toughness that can be deeply processed. They also have excellent wear resistance, high temperature resistance, anti-skid and other properties, and the market demand will further grow in the future. . In addition to walls and floors, slate also has multiple sections such as high-end customized cabinet doors, kitchens and bathrooms, and countertops. Frequent changes in the production line will only cause the company to lose its cost competitiveness. Therefore, in the future, leading slate companies will need to take advantage of scale to achieve flexible production. It is reported that Jiangjun Enterprise’s slate R&D and intelligent manufacturing base has now formed a “3 large and 2 small” production camp to provide customers with a complete range of varieties and specifications of products, and to upgrade flexible customization applications.
▲Jiangjun Enterprise Slate R&D Intelligent Manufacturing Base
While opening up new tracks, we must adhere to the road of brand, quality and innovation, provide flexible production and on-site services, and lead the slate industry out of the cage of traditional building ceramics. This is the mission of powerful enterprises like General , and it is an opportunity for them to complete their transformation and upgrading.
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Before the interview ended, the reporter asked Tan Xiaowen a question: Which one is more difficult to achieve, a "10 billion enterprise" or a "100-year enterprise"?
Tan Xiaowen believes that these two concepts overlap with each other in the development process of enterprises. Architectural ceramics is an industry with great vitality. Gradually, companies will break through the revenue threshold of tens of billions, and in the future, century-old companies and brands will definitely be born. Looking at the present, Jiangjun Enterprises is moving steadily in this direction.
