China's air-conditioning industry, led by marketing and channel competition, entered the era of product competition. Especially under the trend of upgrading and becoming the mainstream of demand, the core role of product competitiveness in the development of the corporate market has become more pronounced. The consciousness awakening, users’ increasing awareness of product awareness, the appearance of individualized demand characteristics, and the integrated appeal of the healthy and comfortable home environment are all driving the further transformation of the pattern of air-conditioning products.
This is not so much about the air-conditioning competition as it is upgrading. It is better to say that air-conditioning companies are bringing technological innovations, user-driven market competition to product returns, and that in the mobile Internet, Internet of things, cloud computing, AI technology continues to penetrate into the enterprise and even at the user level. Under the general environment, the innovation of products and services has also brought about the evolution of the model. In this process, the performance of brands represented by Haier is particularly outstanding.
Health, Comfort Needs Create New Category of Air Conditioning Products
When Haier launched a self-cleaning air conditioner almost three years ago, I'm afraid Haier never thought that the current self-cleaning product could become a new category in the air-conditioning field. The company's technology and product innovation will only improve the users' pain points. The solution is always able to drive the centralized release of the corresponding demand in the market, which in turn leads to the pursuit of the entire industry and emulation. It is as if the self-cleaning and comfort functions become the main selling points of the corresponding products of a large number of air-conditioning companies.
However, the competitive barriers that start-up companies build in this area cannot be surpassed. As Haier continues to iteratively upgrade self-cleaning products, it has become a synonym for Haier air-conditioners. Consumer users only associate themselves with self-cleaning brands. Will pay attention to Haier.
In addition to the user-level health claims that provide companies with the elements or ideas for product innovation, the company’s own input and capabilities in functional R&D have played a key role. Not every air-conditioning company has a complete R&D system. It is not surprising that cleanliness was born in Haier. When many new products are concentrated on the appearance process and the opening of new molds, the R&D system of leading brands represented by Haier concentrates its resources on the innovation of product functions and realizes its essence. Sexual breakthrough.
Judging from the general laws of industry and market development, only functional innovation can build a true product differentiation advantage. Differentiated advantage is that any company or brand can broaden the future development channel and build excellent value chain operation capabilities. The key is that this not only reflects the company's R&D and technological innovation capabilities, but also reflects the company's resource extraction and pain point-solving capabilities for user needs.
User orientation drives new models to demonstrate product innovation capabilities
Changes in the air-conditioning industry's product segmentation trend still lie in the user demand itself. In addition to product replacement and replacement, the consumer demand pattern and the younger generation of user groups are becoming mainstream, and users are also driving the changes in air-conditioning product awareness and consumer awareness. Air-conditioning companies further deepen the research on user-level needs. More importantly, some companies have also developed unique models in the face of user needs.
Haier’s model is more widely known, and its people-one-in-one model has been implemented for many years and iteratively upgraded. The integration of people and unity not only provides Haier air-conditioning product innovation and research and development with effective guidelines, but also Haier air-conditioning in marketing promotion, brand improvement. , organizational innovation, channel circulation and many other sources of innovation power.
Judging from the development trend of the domestic and international air-conditioning market in recent years, Haier’s single-in-one model has successfully brought large-scale market revenue to their respective companies. Haier air-conditioning has been able to operate in Russia, India, Italy, and North America. Australia, and many other international or regional markets have formed a dominant competitive position. One of the key factors is that the Haier air-conditioning product meets the needs of local users.
Service and Marketing Innovation Create New Value for Users
Compared to other home appliances, the air conditioning service carries more value-creating elements, after-sales installation, use and maintenance, refrigerant filling, evaporators and filter cleaning, and so on, making air conditioning more than just a purely manufactured product. , The service innovation surrounding the above aspects and the functions of the product itself is also creating more abundant value for the users, and at the same time it also stimulates the outbreak of market demand.
In the past year or two, Haier Air-conditioner has driven the user's demand for self-cleaning products through the cleaning of existing products. According to the author's understanding, it has been used in more than 200 cities and air-conditioning users in more than 6100 districts for free cleaning. 30,000 dirty air conditioners, almost every household can clean out a bucket of black water. In fact, this is not only providing users with a service, but also education and popularization of the awareness of healthy living environment at the user level. Haier original research and development of patented self-cleaning technology, the maximum extent of the use of water-cooling cream's cold expansion force to peel off the air conditioning evaporator dirt, a good technical solution to the problem of air conditioning dirty and cleaning labor.
Therefore, after cleaning air conditioners in 383 households in Chongqing, 118 new self-cleaning air conditioners were replaced, and the replacement ratio reached 30.8%. After cleansing air conditioners in a hotel in Xiamen, 55 self-cleaning air conditioners were renewed; New 8 self-cleaning air conditioners ... From the user's home and public places, Haier has formed a new trend of self-cleaning air conditioners through free home cleaning.
Multi-dimensional innovation changes the product attributes of air conditioners
In the traditional concept, the core of the definition of the function of air conditioners lies in the regulation of room temperature around cooling and heating. As many people may know, the complete scientific name of air conditioning products is called the room air conditioner, that is to say, in a complete sense, Air conditioners should not be just temperature regulators. All air-related elements in the consumer's home environment are the direction of functional innovation in air-conditioning products.
The function of Haier’s self-cleaning air-conditioning is even more focused. Changing the air-conditioning source of this home space and providing healthy air is reflected in the ability of Haier’s self-cleaning products. The traditional properties of air-conditioning products have thus changed from the old ones. The cooling and heating tools have become the new connotations of air-conditioning products for the creators of healthy air and comfortable environments. Furthermore, the extension of air-conditioning products has been further expanded under the influence of Internet of Things, cloud technology, and mobile Internet technologies.
On June 13 of this year, the “Smart Air Smart Sharing” Haixianghui Smart Air Ecological Platform Interactive Experience Conference will be held in Hangzhou. This platform led by Haier Air Conditioning will realize a single product from air conditioners to mobile air conditioners, dehumidifiers, purifiers, etc. The transformation of customizable shared air solutions, from campuses to apartments, and the transformation of multiple family scenarios not only provide users with a comfortable and healthy smart rental experience, but also achieve a win-win situation for all stakeholders in the ecosystem. In fact, as early as March of this year, Haier exported intelligent campus air solutions in the area of shared air conditioning, and based on interactive student pain points, released NB-IoT IOT self-cleaning air conditioners to achieve NB-IoT technology in the air-conditioning industry. The large-scale application promoted the healthy development of the entire smart campus air solution.
If the Internet of Things, mobile Internet, etc., are the traditional attributes of transforming air-conditioning products through external technologies, then Haier self-cleaning redefines air-conditioning through the functional innovation of the product itself. With the penetration of the sharing economy in the air-conditioning sector, The roles of network devices, user information terminals, demand information sources, etc. will also become the evolution direction of air-conditioning products. From a more macroscopic point of view, the development of post-air-conditioning companies will not only be a traditional manufacturer, but also a socialized Internet service. The platform may be more obvious.
