How deep is the water in the deep-sea cabinet industry?

After experiencing the baptism in the second half of 2008, some cabinet companies that had been hurriedly launched went into disrepair, and a large number of real estate brands disappeared overnight. The growth momentum of the brand enterprises slowed down. Transformation. Then the people in the circle began to sigh: The water in the cabinet industry is too deep.

Indeed, cabinet companies are not as good as many people think. Not to mention that international brands have been dissatisfied after years of continuation. In fact, their share in the overall market share is very small. Look at the cabinet companies in China, whether you are a real estate brand with a former shop or a factory, or a regional brand with a dominant position, whether it is a cross-border cabinet for a home appliance company or a professional national brand, “every family has a hard time "Some do not make money, and others do little. What is the reason for this? The answer is definitely benevolent and wise.

Personally think: cabinet marketing has three obvious characteristics, one is system marketing, the second is integrated marketing, the third is cross-border marketing. It is these three characteristics of the cabinet marketing that have caused most of our companies to do badly and do not do much. Looking at the big market cake is nothing to eat:

Cupboard marketing is a typical system marketing. Cabinets are customized products, each set of products are different. The cabinet is an engineering project, and the user actually wants the merchant to complete a part of his kitchen renovation project. Therefore, there are relatively complicated requirements for design, installation, and delivery. Cabinets or multi-category product integration, tabletops, hardware, cabinets, kitchen electricity belong to different industries, involving parts procurement, manufacturing, logistics, many links. Behind this is the need for systems to support each other. The more complex the system the company needs, the more efficient the system determines the ultimate competitiveness of the company.

We know that traditional product marketing generally has sales management systems (sales management, channel management, order management), marketing systems (market research, promotional activities, new listings, branding), service support systems, and product development systems. These system cabinet companies need, but the content is very different.

The order management of cabinet companies is very complicated. Introduce product, designer room, compound ruler, and order confirmation from the dealer's direct seller; receive orders, review orders, dismantle orders from the headquarters, purchase, produce, assembly, and logistics of parts; receive and install information from the dealer Feedback has a long process. Every link is prone to errors or delays, so order accuracy is a very important management indicator for the cabinet industry. Some large companies in the cabinet industry have even stripped out order management from sales management and become a separate system, showing how important order management is. Order management needs to rely on information systems or a lot of manual support, which is an insurmountable obstacle for many companies. However, the products of traditional industries are very simple. Order management is "quite simple."

As the characteristics of integrated products, customized products, and engineering projects, cabinets have determined that cabinet service support systems are much more complex than traditional industries. For traditional industries, all the sales process after the user signs the money is called after-sale. You buy a piece of clothing and go home. It is very simple to buy a TV set with at most one additional handling step. Cabinets are just the opposite. After signing a contract, there is a complete production, logistics, and installation process. This process is both error-prone and human and material. It is actually a key part of the entire order execution process. Dealers need to have installation teams, logistics and storage conditions. Manufacturers must have the ability to control product quality, supply time, user information, and complaints management. This leads to the importance of the entire service support system compared with traditional industries. . However, the status quo is that most cabinet manufacturers, including many brands of cabinets, have a “consideration” on the management of terminal consumers, so that the user satisfaction rate of cabinet products is far lower than that of traditional industries. Of course, the reasons for this are many.

Product development systems are not the same. The development of traditional products emphasizes the functions, costs, and prices of products. The development of cabinet products focuses on the appearance, style, style, and culture of the products. In addition, the concept of integration highlights the functional aspects. These seemingly mysterious and mysterious East Asians, sometimes categorized as “does not understand” for teams that are accustomed to traditional industry development processes or modular division of labor. There is an interesting example. One of our range hoods has five colors of red, yellow, blue, black and black Olympic rings, and the price and function are the same. However, some colors are very good for sale, but others are not. In fact, the color of cabinets is not the same, but it is different in style and culture. This very vividly illustrates the difference between cabinet product development and traditional product development. The quality requirements of cabinet companies for developers are naturally very different.

The biggest difference between the cabinet industry and the traditional industries is that there are two important marketing systems: display design support systems and training support systems. The cabinet storefront is an integrated experience store. Its location, size, and decoration image are the keys to business success. This is very different from traditional industries. The display design is not just part of the store. Cabinetry products and corporate culture occupies very important contents, and the pattern of cabinet shopping malls is varied. Therefore, you cannot completely outsource cabinets to the decoration and design companies in the society, nor can they be like home appliances. The garment industry has done a set of image standards for stores, allowing dealers to do things. The decoration design of cabinet shopping malls is indeed not that simple. The brand cabinet companies need to have the display design support ability of “giant” multi-storefronts. Cabinets are a new industry, and employees are mostly hands-on, but the industry’s core direct sales, design, and installation are also highly professional jobs. The people in these positions can't get it directly from the community. They can only train on their own. This requires cabinet brands to have strong training support capabilities.

The ability to demonstrate design support and training support directly determines whether the cabinet brands can really become bigger and stronger, and can be considered as the core competitiveness of cabinet brands. But so far there are few cabinet brands that can build these two systems. Many home appliances (including floors, furniture, sanitary ware, and sinks) cross the border to make cupboards. Since there is almost no accumulation in this area, they all intentionally or unintentionally want to bypass. Facts have proved that this is just not working. Home appliance companies want to do good cabinets, the transformation is a must, and the opportunity is still here.

If we evaluate the marketing system of the Big Three cabinet brands, the characteristics of Europa are that all systems are relatively sound, and the training support system and display support system are relatively strong; Haier is better in sales management systems and service support systems; Product development capabilities are far ahead. As for the marketing system, each of the three brands has its own merits. Europe is stronger than brand promotion and public relations activities. Haier is stronger than terminal promotions and execution, and Kebao is stronger than brand packaging. As for other brands, most of them are “not on the table”, and the marketing system is simply “the lack of arms and legs”, and the competitiveness is greatly reduced.

To do marketing is to do communication, and the media is a public resource. How to integrate and redistribute resources, maximize resources and do more with less is to integrate marketing communications. Although the target consumer groups of the cabinet industry are very clear, there are many channels that can influence their consumer behavior. There are almost no traditional industries like TV cabinets, newspapers, radio stations, outdoor networks, communities, terminals, public relations, and so on. It seems to be able to use. This has enabled cabinet marketing to have integrated marketing features from the very beginning.

Integrated marketing is actually a concept proposed by the home appliance industry in the early years. The size of the cabinet industry is not big now, and there are not many big companies. However, several well-established brands did not work hard to integrate communication. European School’s CCTV advertisements, newspaper advertisements, and outdoor advertisements are not mentioned. Public relations marketing alone has continued to be a big deal in recent years. The first was the overall kitchen culture seminar and then the “European Cup” kitchen design competition. A "Happy China trip" this year launched the "Champion League," which is more than once hand-written, and the difficulty and complexity of integration can be imagined.

Kebao firmly grasps the market power of designers, a group that can influence high-end users, delivers long-term advertisements in high-end home media, opens large stores to create experiential and conceptual terminals, and continuously launches "Design for China." The new concepts such as “Seven Houses, Eight Head Offices” and “Non-Romantic Not Cabinets”, organizers' salons, home improvement lectures and other series of events create brand awareness and brand influence in the high-end market. With strong brand appeal and terminal execution power, Haier also made numerous gains in festival promotions, community promotions, and unit housing public relations. The path to cabinet marketing is really different.

Ludo means more opportunities. But which way is not easy to get up. In fact, companies across the country are studying Haier, but none of them really learns. From the cabinet industry to the home improvement industry, Cobb’s marketing is being studied every day, but as the insiders joked: "The Cobb model cannot be copied." The European School is the benchmark for the southern school cabinets to compete and learn. However, the momentum of its leading position, the height of unmanned enterprises, has also made many grassroots-born brand cabinets sigh, admitting that “we are not the boss, willing to be the second child”! To play well with integrated marketing, the wisdom and courage of business owners and the demand for internal and external resources of enterprises are naturally conditional. However, most of our cabinet companies have just emerged from the crisis of survival. There is no large investment of funds, not many high-quality talents, and it is easier said than done in integrated marketing. But then again, integrated marketing is also the opportunity for future development of cabinet marketing.

From the perspective of traditional industry classification, the overall cabinet as an integrated product, the cabinet belongs to the furniture industry, countertops belong to the chemical industry, water basins, baskets, faucets, drawers belong to the hardware industry, hoods, stoves, disinfection cabinets belong to the appliance industry. From the perspective of market properties, cabinets can only be considered home improvement industry. In fact, the industry’s largest industry association organization, the China Industry and Commerce Association Cabinet Expert Committee, is affiliated with the Decoration Industry Chamber of Commerce, not the Furniture Industry Chamber of Commerce or the Home Appliance Industry Chamber of Commerce. This kind of product characteristics, decided that the cabinet is essentially doing cross-border marketing.

Cross-border cabinet marketing is also reflected in the channel. It is not uncommon for cabinet shops to sell hardware and electrical appliances. It is not surprising that the flagship store in Beijing like Kebao also manages jewelry, furniture, wooden doors and many other categories. Decorative stores selling cabinets, home appliance stores selling cabinets, cabinet wardrobe one shop, cabinet bathroom one shop, cabinet floor one shop, cabinet furniture one shop, and so on, there is a wide variety of examples. The case of cross-border cabinet industry is almost everywhere.

The most used one is the cross-border in marketing communication. The aforementioned "Champion League" is a classic case. The alliance's six companies, Red Apple belong to the furniture industry, the United States belong to the appliance industry, nature belongs to the floor industry, Dongpeng belongs to the ceramic industry, NVC belongs to the lighting industry, the crossover of cabinets has even exceeded the scope of the home building materials industry (US is Home appliances are no longer part of the home building materials industry. In fact, in marketing communications, cabinet industry and decoration companies, real estate companies, and internet companies (what is sold in the fence network now), and property management companies have a lot of cross-border alliances, and their means are also tricks. The refurbishment was dazzling, such as the temple fairs in the Chaoshan region and the “points” in the southern Anhui region. All of them had successful cross-border interactions with dealers and interpreted some very classic or even funny examples.

Cross-border cabinet marketing is almost everywhere. Cross-border marketing naturally imposes higher demands on traders. No matter whether it is the headquarters-level multi-industry alliance or the upstream and downstream alliances at the dealer level, cross-industry and cross-brand marketing is a “hard work” that is difficult to plan and has many problems to implement. It's easy, it's both mental and physical, and the risk of marketing can be imagined. In the early preparations for the Champions League's predecessor, the "China Famous Household Brand Alliance," the author's charter, the establishment of the framework, the planning and implementation of joint promotional activities, and the organization of the alliance conference (the participants are all big bosses or careers). The manager), I do not know how much effort is spent, the taste is really not enough for outsiders.

The three characteristics of system marketing, integrated marketing, and cross-border marketing determine the difficulty and complexity of cabinet marketing. It requires companies with sufficient capital, talented people, bosses or decision makers to have a thorough understanding and insight into the industry, and it is very difficult to do so. Grassroots cabinet brands have always been hard-pressed in terms of capital and talent; household appliances cross the border as cabinets, and few decision-makers have a good understanding of the cabinet industry, and their heads are home appliances marketing. This is the basic reason why cabinet companies do poorly and do little.

But at the same time, cabinet marketing is full of opportunities. On the one hand, the market scale is increasing objectively. On the other hand, the industry’s capital and talents continue to gather. Kebao and Shangpin Delivery have successfully raised the capital needed for development in the capital market. Europa and Piano have also introduced industry heavyweight professional managers. Some of the companies that have entered the cabinet industry have the financial strength and professional managers. The quality is not bad either. Cupboard marketing in the next few years should be “a good show”. The characteristics of integrated marketing and cross-border marketing, on the contrary, will lead to a variety of means and methods. Perhaps, the cabinet industry in the future will be like today's home appliance industry. At the same time it has achieved many corporate aircraft carriers, it also provides a large number of talents and new theories for the entire Chinese marketing community.