In recent years, the majority of Japanese home appliance companies have been operating under a bad economy. Not only have their earnings data been 'ugly', but their various home appliance businesses have continued to be acquired by Chinese home appliance companies. The Japanese home appliance brands seem to usher in a situation of great retreat.
In fact, as early as ten years ago, Japan’s home appliance companies began to be marginalized and the global situation quietly changed. According to Nail Tech’s understanding, in fiscal year 2008, Toshiba, Sharp, Panasonic, Hitachi, and Sony suffered a collective loss, and in fiscal year 2007, Everyone is still in the limelight, and Toshiba’s performance is at its peak. In 2007, it was the year when the first generation of the iPhone was introduced. Afterwards, the mobile hardware rapidly iterated, and the era of the mobile Internet arrived.
At that time, changes in the old and new industries also signaled a downward trend in the Japanese home appliance brand. The decline of Japanese companies is different, but the way in which the sale business is 'self-help' is quite similar. Then, the acquisition model was launched to go-ahead. In 2016, Hon Hai Group acquired Sharp with 700 billion yen; in the same year, Toshiba's white business was sold to Midea Group; in 2017, Toshiba TV business was transferred to Hisense Group; earlier, Sanyo Home appliance business was sold to Haier by Panasonic.
As a mainstream company in Japan that still adheres to the field of home appliances, Sony and Panasonic are facing two different situations. From the performance of the two companies in the recent period, Sony is rising and the 'post-rejuvenation' phase has arrived; Panasonic’s Trapped in the quagmire of home appliances, various types of home appliances business lost ground.
Sony's performance soars, TV and other businesses revived
Public data shows that Sony’s net profit for the first three quarters of 2017 fiscal year (April 1st to December 31st 2017) is 507.62 billion yen, which is more than 11 times of 45.639 billion yen for the same period of last year; sales, Sony 2017 In the first three quarters of fiscal year, sales increased by 15.7% year-on-year, approximately 6.6 trillion yen.
The soaring performance seems to make us see the peak period of Sony, and the Chinese market, has contributed enormous power to the revival of Sony. Recently, Mr. Gao Qiaoyang, chairman and president of Sony (China) Co., Ltd. stated externally that Sony's fiscal year 2017 In the whole year, it is expected to create the best historical performance of 720 billion yen operating profit. In the first half of 2017, Sony's performance in the Chinese market increased by more than 30% year-on-year.
Takahashi Yang also stated that Sony has consolidated its leading position in the industry through its unremitting high-end product strategy in consumer electronics businesses such as television, digital imaging, and audio.
Take TV as an example. Among the top 5 TV companies in the world today, Sony has become a Japanese company, 'Single Miao', and the remaining four are Korean Samsung, LG, and domestic Hisense, TCL.
In 2017, although the overall scale of the Chinese TV market has shrunk, Sony seized the 4K, large-size and other user needs and market opportunities for consumer upgrades. Through continuous innovation and research and development of products, it eventually achieved high-end, large-screen TV market. Good results.
Nail Technology noticed that this spring, A8F OLED TVs and X9000F LCD TVs were the first to be launched in the Chinese market. Both of them were equipped with Sony's exclusive 4K HDR image processing chip X1. Among them, the A8F inherited the A1's screen that directly output sound through vibration. The sound field technology brings the effect of immersive sound and picture, and it will further promote the development of China's OLED TV market.
The BRAVIA X9000F series 4K LCD TV adopts the latest Octavia dynamic technology developed by Sony, which can ensure the smooth and clear motion picture without reducing the brightness of the screen, and better meet the viewing needs of sports-loving users. The current trend of sports development.
Panasonic frequent product quality problems, household appliances recession quagmire
In sharp contrast with Sony's recovery opportunity, Panasonic is in a decline in the home appliance market. According to data from Yikang, a market research organization, Panasonic’s performance in the Chinese market is not optimistic. , The air-conditioner market ranking was squeezed out of the top ten, and small appliances have also been unable to form a scale.
In addition to the rapid decline in market share, Panasonic has recently encountered a crisis of credibility in the recent period. According to Nail Technology, Panasonic has announced four recall plans in recent four months. The recall involves three categories. Achieve a million level. Panasonic's continuous recall, involving a wide range, recalling a large number of products, is one of the larger scale recall events in the history of home appliances.
In December last year, Matsushita had a hidden danger for the laptop's battery and announced that it would recall about 142,000 related batteries and replace it for free. In recent days, it was reported that Matsushita had recalled more than a recall due to a battery problem. 1.16 million laptops.
In addition to laptops, Panasonic recalled over a million products in two categories, including cooking machines and televisions, in the past two months, and caused a certain impact on consumer safety.
In February of this year, Panasonic announced that it had recalled more than 970,000 food machines sold in Japan. The cause of the accident was a quality problem with the components of the food machine. Two Japanese consumers caused the misappropriation of food by mixing food with metal plates. Injury; On March 27, Panasonic once again announced that it recalled about 15,000 TV sets within China. However, this TV has a security risk, because the base is made of highly deformable resin material.
In fact, the Panasonic recall incident is nothing new. As early as 8 years ago, Panasonic had recalled the more than 360,000 Panasonic refrigerators that had been sold. In combination with a series of recent recalls, Panasonic’s product quality issues became even more prominent. , The coverage is also rapidly expanding, and to a certain extent, it also reflects the effect of Panasonic's improvement in product quality in recent years.
Matsushita used to be a globally competitive household appliance giant. However, in recent years, Matsushita’s product quality problems have frequently caused it not only to quickly fall behind in front-line brands in the Chinese market, but also to lose its brand value.
In Nail Technology's view, Panasonic should adjust its strategy in a timely manner, strengthen control of product quality, restore consumer trust, and increase product development efforts to stimulate consumers' desire to purchase again. On the contrary, Panasonic will likely be in the Chinese market. Gradually marginalized.
Sony, Panasonic, why is it?
In recent years, foreign brands such as Japan have taken a turn for the worse in the global home appliance market due to the repeated blows from companies such as Haier, Midea, and Hisense. Domestic brands have taken a leading position in the refrigerator, TV, air conditioning and other industries. , And a large number of Chinese household electrical appliance companies have failed to meet the leading position of the local market. They are competing with the cusp of the global mid-to-high end market. China's manufacturing industry is growing globally.
Under such circumstances, the traditional Japanese companies represented by Sony and Matsushita will bear the brunt of the impact, and the attitudes and adjustments made by the two companies when facing the 'dangerous situation' determine their subsequent development. Towards.
It can be said that the Chinese market is a very important market for all consumer electronics companies in the world. Benefiting from the development and application of technology centered on mobile Internet, Chinese traditional industries and emerging industries are making breakthrough progress. , More and more consumers are turning their attention from conventional products to high-end products, and the boom in quality consumption has risen. This is in line with Sony's unique value proposition, which also provides tremendous growth opportunities for Sony.
In recent years, Sony has always insisted on technology orientation, and has been making continuous efforts in research and development of product innovations. Various “black technologies” have emerged frequently. For example, the screen sound field technology mentioned above, Octavia dynamic technology and X1 picture quality chips have enabled Sony to lead successfully. OLED TV high-end market.
In the face of the challenges of peers and changes in the market, although Panasonic did not abandon the appliance business, it seemed to be 'three minds' and did not pay enough attention. When Panasonic was caught in the quagmire of household appliances recession, it chose to make changes and conduct subversive B2B. Transformation, began to expand to residential, automotive and other fields.
In this process of transformation, the largest scale was the shrinkage and reorganization of its business system. Massively “downsizing” the business line, layoffs, and the retained appliance business made Panasonic suffer. In the Chinese market, In addition to the product quality issues mentioned above, due to tactical mistakes, poor mechanisms, and other factors, Panasonic’s market share has gradually been eroded by competitors and even overtaken by many Chinese manufacturers, which further plunged into a quagmire.
Today, new technologies such as artificial intelligence and the consumer electronics industry are rapidly merging. Panasonic is still slow in this area, and it is difficult for products to meet user needs. Panasonic loses its competitiveness in this market environment.
By contrast, Korean home appliance brands seem to have a more accurate grasp of Chinese consumers, and from product R&D to market penetration, they all convey strong Chinese characteristics. In addition, the strong R&D of Korean home appliances is a powerful endorsement of market competition itself.
At present, Panasonic Home Appliances seems to be relying solely on brands to eat old books. It has been overtaken by Chinese and Korean brands. Nail Technology believes that to enhance its core competitiveness, it is necessary not only to increase the research and development of core technologies, but also to adapt to the trend of the times and to seize market opportunities. To maintain its own brand reputation and strengthen its brand building to further enhance its brand value, this is the key to Sony and Panasonic being in two different situations. Of course, for domestic home appliance companies, in accelerating their global expansion, It is still necessary to make efforts in these areas to establish an international brand image.