In the first half of 2018, the market was full of 'abuse of the heart'. In the context of strict regulation of real estate and superimposed Sino-US trade warfare, the consumption kinetic energy tends to be reasonably conservative. As a real estate post-cyclical industry, the domestic water heater market should also be timed. The movement showed that the first- and second-tier cities were weak in sales, and the third- and fourth-tier markets, the engineering market and the new channel market gradually set new trends in the new growth banner.
The market growth rate has narrowed, and the second-line bar handles '扛' does not move.
Zuo Yanzhen, general manager of Zhongyikang Brand Center, observed: 'In 2018, the domestic water heater market has undergone a fundamental change. As an industry with a high correlation with real estate, it is in the downtrend of real estate, which led to an increase in the water heater market in the first half of this year. The sales volume was sharply narrowed, and the retail sales reached 33.1 billion yuan, up 4.8% year-on-year; the retail volume was 19.03 million units, a year-on-year increase of -0.4%. At the stratified level, the first and second line markets experienced a more serious decline, while the third and fourth grades The market contains new business opportunities. '
Zhao Wei, marketing manager of Wuhu Midea's kitchen and bathroom appliance manufacturing company, corroborated this view. 'In Beijing, for example, because of its large impact on real estate policies, the sales volume of US water heater products has dropped by 5 in the same period last year. Around %, sales fell by about 15%; similar situations have occurred in Shanghai and other regions. In the first- and second-tier markets, especially in areas where property regulation is tightening, the pressure of sales decline has actually existed.
'In fact, in 2018, the volume of new homes in Beijing has been falling. ' Kong Fanlei, general manager of Beijing Branch of Wanhe New Electric Co., Ltd., said, 'From the beginning of 2005 with real estate transaction records, it does not include two limits. In terms of the transaction record of the new house, the transaction record in the first half of this year broke through the historical low. At present, the whole region is mainly based on stock market transactions, while the policy control on second-hand housing transactions in the stock market, as well as the capital population resolution Waiting for the trend, the rigid demand for water heaters closely related to home decoration continues to decline. In other hot and big city markets, the situation is basically similar. In the future, the focus of everyone's efforts will shift to the reloading market. It is expected that in 2019, stable can be achieved. A slight rebound. '
Tan Yi, director of sales management of Vantage Water Heater, analyzed the impact of real estate on the water heater industry from another angle. 'We believe that this round of regulation is strict, but it is conducive to the sound development of the property market in the long run. On the one hand, the water heater is home decoration. The rigid demand will be released sooner or later. Although it is a 'small year' this year, it may usher in the 'big year'. At the same time, this round of policy is conducive to the development of hardcover housing, which is an opportunity for the kitchen and water heater industry.
He believes that 'the hardcover room reflects the consumer's pursuit of high quality of life at a certain level. The development of hardcover rooms has promoted the higher level cooperation between water heaters, kitchen appliances and real estate companies, and to some extent compensated for the fatigue of the retail market. State, the future engineering market can not be underestimated. 'At the same time, 'in the third and fourth-tier markets that do not require high-quality hardcover rooms, there is still room for incremental water heaters.'
Tan Wei said that from the end of 2017, Vantage's water heater business has been included in the Group's future strategic development. 'The sales volume of Vantage's hot water business in the first half of the year increased by about 40%, which is a counter-offensive against the environment. The aspects come from the continuous update iteration of our products and marketing innovation. On the one hand, we are constantly developing new channels, such as the third-fourth-line market, engineering market, online market, etc.
Kong Fanlei said, 'In the reality of shrinking rigid space, any company that wants to share more cakes can only 'shuffle' others through continuous update iterations and gain market comparative advantage.'
Zhao Wei said, 'Although the sales of the US water heaters in the first and second lines have declined, the proportion of the overall market share continues to rise, and the era of ''big eat small' shuffling is coming again.'
Transforming high-end, burning, intelligent, integrated into keywords
In response to the narrowing of the growth rate of the first- and second-line water heater market and the reshuffle of the industry, it is now more than 'who's fist hard', and the size of the 'fist' is intuitively reflected in the strength of technological innovation.
Zhao Wei pointed out, 'At present, Midea has changed the way of doing products. Once, what kind of customers do we buy? Now we must first consider what the customer wants, and then we reproduce, the humanization and convenience of the product is greatly improved. Mentioned that in order to maintain the product's youthfulness and sense of technology, Midea has launched a large number of 'small Zhuangpai' innovation teams. 'The future trend is to make products younger, innovation iterations will be faster and faster, and at the same time consider integration with home. For example Now, if you buy a water heater, you may also want to consider whether it can be connected to the Internet, interact with mobile phones, home space, etc., learn the user's bathing habits, and ultimately make this product inseparable from life.
'Beauty believes that first- and second-tier consumers have passed the era of 'buy cheap' and have entered the era of subjective experience factors such as individuality, convenience, humanity, and aesthetics. Products must embody the humanistic spirit to maintain profitability. The market is weak, and the various business divisions of the United States are using new ways such as new retail big data to promote the implementation of each step from R&D to service. At present, a closed-loop system has been formed.
Kong Fanlei believes that, in a nutshell, the innovative strength of water heaters is reflected in the 'high-end' of products, 'we get feedback from various channel terminals, consumers need more beautiful, safe, intelligent, energy-saving, healthy, subdivided products In summary, it is 'high-end. Since the introduction of water heaters into China in the 1980s, the industry has been developing for more than 40 years. The industry has entered a mature stage, and product homogeneity is serious. Even if the new zero-cold water is introduced, there is no temperature control, including intelligence. Innovative points, the difference between the families is not too big. In this state of competition of new technologies, adapting to the scene function, the product of the home integration concept has become a breakthrough direction.
'Wan Wan and the new L8 gas water heater as an example, the collection of zero cold water, no sense of temperature control, carbon and nitrogen double defense and other functions, but also access to the Tmall Wizard, to achieve voice control. We define this product as a set The intelligence and home attributes are in Dacheng. On the one hand, it introduces a unique intelligent algorithm, which can record the bathing habits of each individual in a multi-person family. At the same time, in terms of design, acrylic glass is used to present a starry sky shape, which is very warm. Can be used as an embellishment of bathroom decoration. '
Kong Fanlei thinks, 'In the future, the direction of consumers to choose products must be the less troublesome for life. For example, to solve the problem of constant temperature and hot water technology; to solve the problem of taking up too much thermal technology; Non-inductive temperature difference technology that suddenly cools down and burns; Water purification technology and silver ion liner technology that solve water quality and health problems will make multi-disciplinary, multi-technical crossover.
In addition, multi-energy integrated products that solve energy consumption problems will also be one of the breakthrough directions. In Europe and the United States, pure electric water heaters do not exist. They mainly use central hot water, using solar energy, air energy, and gas complementary. When choosing air energy, air can choose to access gas when low temperature efficiency is low. It is very environmentally friendly. It is very suitable for China's energy saving and emission reduction. However, multi-energy complementary is more suitable in rural and suburban areas, because it requires larger installation controls. In addition, the state is also conducting such experiments, such as the installation of solar roofs in some schools to supply bathing hot water. With the breakthrough of technology, multi-energy integrated products may explode in the future.
At present, the water heater market is mainly divided by heat and electric heat, and the big trend of 'burning into heat' is nested.
According to Zhongyikang data, in the first half of 2018, the retail share of gas water heaters in the offline market was 53%, and the offline retail share of electric water heaters was about 42%. In the online market, the proportion of heat and heat was about 45%, and the proportion of electric heating products. About 48%, burning heat, electric heating products are equally divided.
'However, from the general trend of national environmental protection, gas water heaters have more room for growth. Because electric energy is secondary energy, its working principle determines that it does not meet the trend of low carbon environmental protection. The popularity of electric water heaters is mainly because it is suitable for China. National conditions, installation is limited. However, from the perspective of the cost of use, electric heating is twice the heat consumption of heat. With the improvement of the domestic pipe network, the more comfortable and energy-saving heat will definitely gain more living space.
At present, Wanhe's sales of heat and electric heat account for about 7:3, while the proportion of Vantage is close to 9:1; and the United States, which used to be mainly electric, is also actively expanding the internal proportion of heat-generating products. .
Exploring emerging channel markets
In addition to solving the fundamental driving force of the development of product technology upgrades, actively exploring new channels has become an important issue facing enterprises.
As the first- and second-tier cities are dying, the development of consumer-driven real estate in the third and fourth-tier markets is accelerating. Wang Hao, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, pointed out that the current urbanization rate in China is only 58%, and this number will not slow down until it reaches 70%. In other words, the third- and fourth-tier markets are becoming an important pole in the growth of the home appliance industry after becoming an urban market.
Zuo Yanxi mentioned, 'The current number of water heaters in the first and second line markets is about 86, while the third and fourth line residents are only 53. In the first half of 2018, the water heater products are in the third and fourth grades of Henan, Qinghai and other 10 provinces and cities. The market has grown by more than 10%, both in terms of growth rate and price-raising ability.
Relying on its brand advantage in the third and fourth line and the opportunity of sinking channels such as Jingdong and Suning, Midea has accelerated the penetration of water heaters and other products in the third and fourth grade markets. 'In fact, the third and fourth towns with weak brand recognition In the market, Midea has a historical accumulation of living appliances, white electricity, etc., and its brand recognition is much higher among ordinary people than other companies. 'And Vantage, which originated in the second, third and fourth-line markets and tried to move to the first-line market, in recent years. Also determined the two-line combat path - Vantage up, Decker down, can achieve both offensive and defensive, 'this is also the secret of Vantage to maintain rapid growth.'
In addition to the third- and fourth-tier markets, companies are also actively exploring new sales channels. Zhao Wei said, 'In the retail market, customers are looking for us. Now, we have to take the initiative to find customers and make breakthroughs in the front-loading market.' In addition to traditional KA stores and specialty stores, 'the engineering market accounts for nearly 30% of the US water heater industry. For example, the recent rise of long-term rental apartments, we have established with chain homes, I love my family, eggshell apartments, etc. A stable relationship. With the evolution of the national tenancy policy, we believe that long-term rental apartments will become a relatively stable incremental point for the home appliance industry. In addition, with the top 100 real estate developers, we have established extensive contacts, the future. The hardcover market cooperation at the group level will continue to increase. '
In addition to the offline market, Midea is actively promoting the high-end of the online market. 'In the past few years, the online market has been experiencing a surge, and the annual growth rate can reach 70%-80%. In the first half of this year, despite the slowdown in growth, The overall traffic is relatively fixed, the United States is promoting the high-end process of the online, for example, outside the United States, we also promoted the Beverly brand, hoping to form an offline and online linkage. In addition, we also tested the commercial, rented Waiting for a brand new business model. '