Text/Ouyang Gangjin
"When flowers wither, they have no power
The falling leaves look like your face
I don’t want to see you withered
I just want to see the stubbornness in your eyes
Look up and see the wild geese flying by
They are so busy that they want to fly to the south"
1
Tao Expo, we may just be the audience
At this time, a group of wild geese were flying south.
They are ceramic agents all over the country. The Foshan Autumn Ceramics Expo is coming soon, and they come to the Ceramics Expo with hope to find hope.
The first fallen leaves in Foshan fall earlier than in previous years; those that turn yellow together with the fallen leaves may still have hope.
This year's Ceramics Expo will most likely be dominated by slates, slates, slates...
Unfortunately, the popularity of slate has little to do with traditional agents, and has even eroded the territory they once owned.
Stone slabs have successfully reconstructed the ecology of the ceramic industry with the help of their two magic weapons-one is plasticity and the other is plate-forming. The main channels for slate are no longer the original traditional ceramic agents, but stone agents, finished furniture and customized home furnishing companies. Among them, stone agents are the biggest rivals of traditional ceramic agents. They both target the same type of customers, and the former successfully occupied the C position by using rock slabs!
It’s no wonder that stone agents have natural tooling advantages, stone agents have natural processing and installation advantages, and stone agents’ tycoon-like purchasing style makes slate manufacturers love them deeply.
The world is so ironic!
In the past, the ceramic people held the banner of marble tiles and wanted to share the real marble market. The marble people resisted and lawsuits came and went.
Now, before the smoke has dissipated, Marble Man is holding the banner of slate and turning to seize the market of traditional ceramic agents.
In the end, the slate manufacturers in the ceramic industry were the winners, but the traditional ceramic agents lost.
Stone slabs are ceramics after all, especially in the field of construction and decoration, rock slabs and large slabs can be replaced by vests.Come and change! It's not that the ceramic agent doesn't have a slate in his hand, it's that the marble man holds the same thing as you and meets you in the market. In the end, he will fight without blood. Because his ability to deliver finished products is stronger, the cost is much lower than that of traditional ceramic agents.
Many ceramic agents are not unable to sell rock slabs, but they dare not sell rock slabs. The price of rock slabs is confusing, and the cost of processing, distribution and installation is higher than the slab itself. Coupled with the uncertainty of damage, ceramics The agents were terrified.
The most disappointing thing in life is to change from the protagonist to the supporting role, and from the supporting role to the audience.
Belonging to the Slate Ceramics Expo, traditional ceramic agents eventually became the audience.
“Most people are willing to do anything to avoid real thinking!
——Meituan Wang Xing"
2
Is finished or customized home furnishing the path to transformation for us?
Is finished or customized home furnishings the path to transformation for traditional ceramic agents?
If slate is an excellent material for finished furniture and it is necessary to enter the finished furniture industry, then several finished furniture giants should emerge early in the glass industry, because finished furniture uses a large amount of glass. In the fabric industry, many well-known clothing brands should have emerged, and in the leather industry, many Nikes and Adidas should have emerged. The solid wood particle board industry also needs to get rid of a few custom bullies, because the customization industry uses solid wood particle boards in large quantities.
Because slate can become the main surface material for finished or customized homes, slate companies can become furniture or customization companies! This logic does not hold true.
But because slate can become the main surface material for finished or customized homes, furniture or customization companies can become the main customers of slate companies! This logic holds true.
The former needs to reshape its circle of competence and value network, while the latter is the second curve!
For things that don’t even make sense logically, you should think carefully about whether your abilities match them? !
Unfortunately, Boss Wang said, Most people are willing to do anything to avoid real thinking.
Some people say, I am just an agent. What is an agent but not an agent?
You should be lucky to live in an industry that even Jack Ma has not yet disrupted. The ceramic industry is essentially a semi-finished product market. What you see is not what you get. It has long-tail services and relies on referrals from front-end media. Because of these characteristics, you once made a lot of money. Because it is not transparent, you can make money because of the information gap. If you serve well and make progress every day, you can still earn some hard money.
Looking at finished furniture, what you see is what you get. The product itself is full of mouths. There is no need for front-end media or after-sales installation. This is an industry that can be completely de-intermediated. Jack Ma’s father can do it easily, but I don’t know what use you have. ? !
Can ceramic agents enter the custom home furnishing industry?
Yes! But the customized home furnishing industry is an extremely digital field. Frankly speaking, the ceramic industry is still just a student. A teacher can teach for three years if he works a night shift.
We need to upgrade not only our cognition, but also our company’s operating system. I think it is immodest to try to make money as a teacher in that field as a student. Stone board is just one of the new materials in the large-scale customization industry. Not all of them cannot be the protagonist. The systematic connection of many materials in customized homes is the secret to large-scale customization. location. What’s more, in the field of large-scale customization, people may have a much deeper understanding of slate than you do.
If you think you are not a student but a teacher, congratulations on your digital capabilities, the online and offline integrated marketing methods you have, and the operating system your company is equipped with. If dimensionality reduction is applied to the ceramic industry , you are already invincible, why bother to squeeze into a customized home furnishing where there are many talented people? !
In the past, we said that survival is Huawei's minimum program; now it has changed, and survival is Huawei's highest program.
——Huawei Ren Zhengfei
3
In the face of crisis, where should we go?
Huawei’s operating revenue in 2019 was as high as 858.8 billion!
To survive, it has nothing to do with the size; to survive, it has to do with everyone.
Some people say that rock slabs have brought a borderless era to the ceramic industry. Because of slate, the ceramic industry can cross the border into the entire home furnishing field, and the imagination is endless.
But, suppose you have no boundaries and extend to the entire universe. In the face of infinity, wouldn’t you look even smaller?
Big and small are always relative, they are not a bunch ofNumbers, but a bunch of philosophy.
Stone slabs are a market that is rapidly entering full competition. Even if the boundaries are as large as the universe, it is still not easy, or even harder, to survive.
For traditional ceramic agents, rock slabs have never been an outlet, but a crisis. This crisis may give many traditional ceramic agents an opportunity to iterate, evolve, and reorganize their organizations.
Although there are no standards for slate slabs, traditional ceramic dealers have never been unfamiliar with them. In terms of building decoration, slate slabs have the same function as ceramic slabs. Faced with the current stone dealers holding slate slabs, Ban banners are being robbed across borders. How should traditional ceramic agents hold on to their own fields and survive?
No matter what, the first thing to do is to make up for the shortcomings. Whether it is rock slabs or large slabs, they are challenging traditional construction techniques. Mastering the ability to process and install rock slabs or large slabs is an urgent task for ceramic agents. Slabs come with Only through deep processing can unique plate characteristics be given their value. According to the current competition trend in the rock plate market, the rock plate itself may soon become unprofitable, but after the rock plate is processed and installed to deliver the finished product, you can still earn some profit. Hard work earned.
The second is to strengthen the design and experience space. Design and experience are the abilities that ceramic agents have accumulated over the years. When stone agents operate stone, most of them do not pay attention to the construction of experience space. For ceramic agents, especially brand agents, the construction of experience space is the foundation and the heaviest investment. Enhance the experience space and create differences through design, so that you will not be dragged into the quagmire of price wars.
Finally, and most importantly, ceramic agents, as the right end of the ecological chain, must work with and move forward with excellent brands. The plate-like characteristics of rock slabs have led to serious de-branding. For a coffee table, no one pays attention to the brand of the slate on the countertop. For a wardrobe, everyone only knows it is Oppein or Shangpin Home Delivery. The essence of slate slabbing is that it does not require a brand, it is just attached to the brand of the finished product. The brand is indispensable in the field of finished products or customized home furnishings! Without a brand, how can there be a premium? !
For the construction and decoration market, rock slabs or large slabs can be directly exported as brands. Stone bosses who are used to buying and selling mines will dig out the mines and leave without washing their hands. The properties of stone are manufactured They have not had the habit of operating a brand for many years, and the slate they represent is mixed with marble, so there is a high probability that there is no need to operate a brand. oppositeLooking at our traditional ceramic agents, they have always insisted on exporting ceramic brands at the terminal. Regarding the de-branding characteristics of rock slabs, we must instead compete with each other and strengthen brand output!
This is a world where everyone is anxious. We are too sensitive to the external environment, which may cause us to lose the ability to self-reflect and evolve. The variation and selection of organisms themselves are the basic principles for the continuous evolution of organisms.
As a ceramic agent, it is time to reflect and examine whether the brand you represent is good enough. Excellent brands, like the old security guard at the door, are becoming increasingly rare!
Everything is composed of energy, the form of energy is frequency, and brand is a kind of energy. Brand is not simply about popularity and reputation. Popularity and reputation are relative. The ceramic brands that we are familiar with may not be well-known in India. And brand energy is the ability to gather a group of people with the same values to resonate with them, the ability to be original, and the ability to build your own ecological moat over many years. , and can continue to travel through time!
The world is full of uncertainty and the virus is raging. Nowadays, you need a healthy body and a truly powerful brand. Only by combining the two energies into one can you survive the crisis and live proudly.
"When flowers wither, they have no power
The falling leaves look like your face
I don’t want to see you withered
I just want to see the stubbornness in your eyes
Look up and see the wild geese flying by
They are so busy that they want to fly to the south
——Buyi Band "Autumn""
By the way, the autumn in Foshan has begun to get cold. The wild geese are flying in, please bring more clothes.
Ouyang Gangjin (special writer of China Ceramics Network)
Optimistic Misanthrope
Those without academic qualifications
Pretend to be a disciple without overestimating one's abilities
The originator of some disgusting ads
Co-founder and Managing Deputy General Manager of Mati Ceramics
Author: Ouyang Gangjin
