Drop the altar? Bosch, Siemens fall in the high-end territory of China
Liu Yuanyuan, Zhu Jingdong quartz Jing
Bosch and Siemens, representatives of these high-end home appliances in the minds of the people of the past, are gradually losing their luster in China along with the loss of their positioning, the absence of quality control and the gradual decline of their advantages.
In the Yikang data show that the first two weeks in January 2018 in the price of 15,000 yuan and 10,000 yuan refrigerator market, Casa Di accounted for 36.8% and 34.7% respectively, both in the first place, Leading brands in Germany, Japan, South Korea. Not only the refrigerator, in the field of kitchen appliances, the boss, Fang Tai and other Chinese brands also performed well in the high-end market in recent years.Undoubtedly, local brands 'overtaking' has become an impact Bosch, Siemens major threat to market position in China.
In the meantime, Bosch and Siemens seem to have slipped in their brand image as Siemens announced its divestiture of home appliances business to BSH in 2014. In 2017, Siemens home appliances even boarded the blacklist 'The once-sought-after' celebrity 'gradually became a follower of' high, low '.
In response, "China Business" correspondents respectively sent a letter to Westinghouse Electronics Investment (China) Co., Ltd. and Siemens (China) Co., Ltd., Boshi appliances senior vice president and chief operating officer Zhou Xiaotian said they are abroad, not yet Easy to reply; Siemens responded that all Siemens home appliance business has been solely responsible for the Bosch operation, the two companies operate independently, there is virtually no contact.
The status in China is deteriorating
Recently, Bossi home appliances released data to the public, according to Orvital cloud monitoring, as of November 2017, the refrigerator offline market size of 65.55 billion yuan, down 4.1%. However, in the overall sluggish market environment for the refrigerator, However, sales of refrigerators rose 20% to 4 times the growth rate of the industry, and both Bosch Appliances and Siemens Appliances have become the fastest growing brands in offline market in 2017. Meanwhile, the overall sales of Bosch Appliances Online The amount increased by 80% and 50% respectively in '6 · 18 'and '1111', ranking among the best in the field of refrigerator category in the industry.
However, the market data from Zhong Yikang show that the top five brands in the refrigerator market in 2018 are Haier, Rongsheng, Siemens, Midea and Meiling, respectively, of which Haier refrigerator's market share reached 34.6% , Siemens and the United States were 11.7%, 11.4% and 11%, no Bosch figure in the list.
Only high-end market, Bossi home appliances have been self-proclaimed 'leading the high-end market, adhere to the ultimate German Seiko play' position, but the actual performance is not eye-catching.YeKang 2018 in the fourth week refrigerator industry sales data show , In the product market of more than 20,000 yuan, the first one has also been occupied by Casa Di, the market accounted for 50.71%, more than 10,000 yuan market, Casa Di accounted for 46.56%.
According to Liang Zhenpeng, an industrial economic observer, the decline of Bosch and Siemens in these years has much to do with the sluggish movement in the smart transformation trend. 'At present, the smart upgrade of home appliances is irresistible and product innovation has become a common trend .From Fang Tai, Gree, To the United States, Haier and other brands, are in the layout of smart home, through the big data, cloud data, Internet of Things and other background technologies to build a unified intelligent operating system, hoping to take the lead in the industry's high-end competition.While Siemens has been doing Is a very traditional home appliances, lackluster in terms of intelligence.
Liang Zhenpeng also pointed out that Bosch and Siemens, as foreign-owned brands, also performed poorly in the localization operation of their talents, leaving a large number of management personnel and technical executives losing control over the preferences of Chinese consumers, too arrogant and conservative.
'Itself Bosch, Siemens in the country did not do too much to expand production capacity preparation, the share of the decline is a high probability of things, which also reflects the pace of expansion of Siemens in China, inadequate investment.' Zhuo information analyst Guo Lin believes , With the change of people's consumption concept, Haier, Midea and other domestic brands have added a variety of technological innovations, to a certain extent, Bosch, Siemens sales impact.
Two brands each fight each other
Public information shows that Siemens home appliances brand entered China in 1994, is an important brand of BSH appliances.Bossi Home Appliances Group was established in 1967 by the Siemens AG and Robert Bosch Co., Ltd. jointly formed, Siemens and Bosch Group Each hold 50% stake in Siemens home appliances manufactured by BSH appliances, sales, and provide after-sales service, Siemens as an investor does not participate in the operation.
In September 2014, Bosch announced that it will acquire a 50% stake in Bosch Appliance owned by Siemens at a total transaction value of 3 billion euros. After the transaction was completed, Siemens completely withdrawn from the home appliance industry and focused on industrial, energy and medical Other fields.
May be due to brand licensing problems, resulting in lack of quality control, the reporter combed that Bosch, Siemens appliance products have been repeatedly questioned because of quality problems in September 2017, Shanghai Quality and Technical Supervision notified 2017 Shanghai Household Gas cooker product quality supervision and spot check results, the nominal 'BOSCH' JZT-PMD72K61MQ household gas cooker samples produced by Bossahwa Electric (Jiangsu) Co., Ltd. were found to have failed the energy efficiency labeling project; in May 2017, Qinghai Industry and Commerce Bureau informed in 2016 the circulation of range hood product quality sampling results, nominal 'Boss Wah Electric (Jiangsu) Co., Ltd.' production of Siemens CXW-220-C35S956 range hood pressure efficiency problems due to the total inclusion of unqualified List; in May of that year, Siemens embedded induction cooker was exposed cooker and the pot is always not on the number issue, the company said at the time, will be based on user complaints product upgrades and innovations.
Appliance industry veteran analyst Liu Buchen told reporters that the Department of German home appliances brand has always been in the eyes of consumers is rigorous, focusing on quality and safety of the image, revealing the quality of the problem at least shows that the issue of the brand on the issue of Siemens or Germans for certain products The index, functional understanding and China is different.
Liang Zhenpeng pointed out that Bosch actually intends to downplay the Siemens appliance business. 'From the development point of view, Bosch is unlikely to Siemens this foreign brand as the core flagship brand, up to maintain, so in recent years, Siemens technology iteration is slow, Product innovation is weak state, the market position has been retrogression.B Bosch brand due to enter the Chinese market is very late, very strange for consumers, it is difficult to raise awareness.
Reporter learned from the official website of Bosch appliances and Siemens appliances, the two major brands in the product category basically coincide, in addition to refrigerators, washing machines, but also range hoods, stoves, ovens, disinfection cabinets, dishwashers and other kitchen and electrical products.
'Bosch, Siemens market positioning is very embarrassing, because their product lines are in the high-end positioning, almost exactly the same, resulting in duplication of internal products, internal resources consumption, compete with each other. "Liang Zhenpeng said.
'Foreign aristocracy' scenery is no longer?
Foreign brands have not only been Bosch and Siemens in domestic sales in recent years, but also have been squeezed by many Japanese and South Korean home appliance manufacturers, including Samsung, LG, Toshiba and Hitachi, along with the rise of local brands such as the United States and Haier Out of the mainstream.
The reason, Liu Buchen believe that the pursuit of European home appliances simple and elegant industrial design, appearance and style changes is very small, most of the classic milky white pattern, fashion sense is not strong, while the local home appliance brand in recent years in the design is very novel, In recent years, compared with domestic counterparts such as Haier, Midea and Fangtai, some foreign-funded brands have indeed reduced their adaptability in China, especially in industrial design and product aesthetic In terms of orientation and Chinese consumers vary greatly.
'Foreign brands are not technology in recent years will not work, more is to cater to Chinese consumers is not high, the lack of research on the Chinese market.' 'Border State said that from the global market, foreign brands still occupy a considerable Of the share.With the traditional sphere of influence around the world, but because of the psychological grasp of Chinese consumers less accurate marketing market, lack of marketing, resulting in 'acclimatization'.
It is noteworthy that in 2017, AQSIQ organized the entry-exit inspection and quarantine department of the whole country to supervise and inspect the import and export commodities outside the statutory inspection catalog. AQSIQ spokesman Li Jing said that household appliances, apparel, home textiles 5291 batches were randomly selected for import of consumer goods, with an unqualified rate of 28.3%, among which the unqualified rate of rice cookers was 13.5% and that of air purifiers was 38.4%.
According to Liang Zhenpeng, foreign brands are currently in a sluggish situation in the high-end market, the low cost of low-end products and the declining trustworthiness of their brands. As China's home appliance enterprises become more powerful, it is hard for foreign brands to regain their say in the high-end market.
'At present, the Chinese consumers are more mature, no longer blindly worship foreign brands, foreign brands are not so popular before.' 'State Guolin said that with the United States, Haier and other local brands market share by leaps and bounds, the previous foreign brands premium Aura has gradually been stripped.