How is the relationship between manufacturers and dealers positioned?
Some people say it is a fish-water relationship, with manufacturers being the fish and dealers being the water; some people say it is a partnership, a coexistence of win-win cooperation; others say it is a love relationship, with each other being ambiguous but sometimes having friction. . In short, there are different opinions and no conclusion.
But for the relationship between the ceramic tile manufacturers and dealers discussed in this article, it may be more appropriate to use "idols" and "fans" to describe it. Manufacturers are like idols. When they first debuted, their brilliance was very small, but their potential is endless. Dealers are fans, who fall in love with the manufacturer at first sight, silently support it, and accompany and protect it for more than 20 years. The manufacturer exudes a unique light at every stage, surprising dealers, and eventually transforms from an unknown "little idol" into a "superstar" admired by thousands of people.
This pair of manufacturers and distributors is Samit Ceramics and its Zhengzhou distributor Su Wenbo.
Su Wenbo, Zhengzhou dealer of Samit Tile
Working together in 21 years
Dealers become "loyal fans" of the brand
Samit was founded in 2000, and Su Wenbo was one of the first dealers to join Samit. The two have been working together for 21 years. For Su Wenbo, the scene of his "accidental" visit to the showroom of Samit's headquarters is still vivid in his mind. "When I went to Foshan to look for brands, there were many ceramic brand showrooms along Nanzhuang Avenue. I walked down one by one. I couldn’t tell the difference between east, west, north and south, so I finally walked to the headquarters of New Pearl Group and visited the Samit showroom. “In an era when polished tiles were prevalent in the entire industry, Su Wenbo believed that Samit was outstanding in terms of product color and quality. The brand name is also very foreign. Unintentionally, he finally successfully signed Samit's agency rights in Zhengzhou and has been cooperating with Samit to this day.
Due to changes in end market demand and upgrading of corporate development models, it is very common for dealers and manufacturers to split and merge. In such an industry background, it is particularly rare that Su Wenbo and Samit have been working together for 21 years. He said: "From cooperating with Samit in 2001 to now, I can see Samit's changes and growth every year, whether it is product research and development, brand services, or support for dealers, Samit It has been developing and growing, and it continues to burst out with strong vitality, which makes us dealers feel very hopeful. Therefore, I am very willing to remain a loyal fan of Samit.”
In the interview, Su Wenbo expressed that he highly recognized Samit’s brand marketing upgrades. We are no longer in the era of "the smell of wine is not afraid of the depth of the alley". If customers have not heard of or understand your brand, it will be difficult for you to be recognized no matter how good you are. He believes that Samit's brand marketing upgrade has greatly promoted consumers' understanding of Samit and is beneficial to terminal store sales.
As Su Wenbo said, Samit has continuously deepened its brand value and expanded its brand awareness and influence since its establishment. In recent years, in order to cater to the understanding and demands of the main consumers of Generation Z for living space, Samit has made drastic efforts to rejuvenate the brand, co-branded Doraemon across borders, proposed the brand communication proposition of "Special Love", and cooperated with Shu Ping Aoyama. Big names in design collaborate to curate exhibitions, and join hands with Guangzhou Design Week to launch the Red Cotton Design Award·The Most Beautiful Trendy Space Design Award... comprehensive changes and iterations from brand image, product research and development to marketing actions and service experience to create a brand development engine.
Renovation of 3 stores after the epidemic
The new image caters to consumers’ needs for deep experience< /p>
As the pace of urban life accelerates and the pressure of work and life continues to increase, people are increasingly yearning for a relaxing and decompressing home environment. Driven by this kind of consumer demand, home decoration design and product structure gradually tend to be simple but warm, healing and safe.
As a person deeply involved in ZhengzhouSu Wenbo, who has been in the ceramics market for 25 years, is deeply touched by the changes in consumer lifestyles and ceramic tile trends, which also made him more determined to renovate the store. "As the saying goes, a good horse deserves a good saddle. Samit launches many new products every year to keep up with market demand. It is difficult to sell such good products in old stores. When consumers buy ceramic tiles, they not only look at the product design, color and quality , but also care about the immersive spatial experience.”
Since 2020, Su Wenbo quickly responded to the call of Samit headquarters and began to upgrade Samit’s Zhengzhou store. As of the first half of this year, Zhengzhou Summit's three direct-operated stores with a total area of 3,100 square meters have all been renovated and upgraded.
According to Su Wenbo, the upgrade design plans for the Zhengzhou Summit store were all designed by headquarters designers. In the past month, designers from the headquarters have visited local stores and markets many times to adjust the plan based on actual conditions. During the store decoration process, the headquarters marketing department personnel followed up and provided on-site guidance throughout the entire process, communicating, coordinating, and improving on matters such as product sampling, soft furnishing matching, and promotional copywriting. It is worth mentioning that after the store upgrade was completed, the marketing department staff at the headquarters also designed product rhetoric for new products and conducted route guidance training for store shopping guides, so that the shopping guides could respond to customer needs better and faster and improve the store. Sales service experience.
The headquarters' full assistance and support for the upgrade of the Zhengzhou Samit store made Su Wenbo feel very reassured and worry-free, and the continued rise in performance after the store was upgraded and opened finally made him relieved.
Performance increased by more than 70%
Store upgrade broadens terminal sales ideas
Mentioning the changes in the store before and after the renovation, Su Wenbo said excitedly: "In the past, the retail sector of the Zhengzhou Summit store was relatively weak. Since the store was upgraded and renovated, the entire showroom has become very young and fashionable, with novel products and colors. It is attractive and the working appearance of the shopping guide also looks more energetic. At the same time, it has a strong brand tone.The exhibition hall also makes sales easier. Basically, customers can fully feel the advantages of Samit's products as soon as they enter the door. The most important thing is that the sales unit value and customer flow of the store have obviously been greatly improved. "He revealed that after the Zhengzhou Summit store was renovated, its performance increased by at least 70%.
Zhengzhou Samit’s renovated stores are divided into general stores and rock slab stores. The product structure of the rock slab store is mainly large-sized rock slabs such as 750×1500mm, 900×1800mm, 800×2600mm, 1200×2400mm, 1200×2700mm, etc., while the comprehensive store mainly focuses on full-category products, focusing on 600×1200mm, 750× There are three mainstream specifications: 1500mm and 900×1800mm. The store has a fashionable style, with a diversified product selection and a life-scenario space, giving consumers an immersive brick-buying experience.
As you approach the Zhengzhou Summit Phoenix Store, the dazzling Summit Blue flag in the facade area clearly expresses the young and trendy brand tone. The highly technological LED electronic screen provides more possibilities for store display. . The interior display of the exhibition hall is full of exquisite style. The calm and atmospheric Samit blue and the playful and lively Hermès orange collide to create a unique sense of space atmosphere.
Samit's mainstream specialty products are neatly displayed inside the exhibition hall. You can feel the surprises brought by the fashionable and novel ceramic tile colors and the real and natural product texture everywhere. The products in the entire exhibition hall are reasonably arranged, with clear circulation lines, and are combined with real home space scenes such as living rooms, kitchens, bathrooms, and background walls to form a natural and harmonious communication between space and people, allowing consumers to deeply experience the advantages of Samit products.
Win with reputation for service
Manufacturers collaborate to expand market layout
The new image of the store has led to a substantial improvement in retail performance. Such good resultsThe results strengthened Su Wenbo's confidence in further expanding sales channels and continuing to expand market share. He said that Zhengzhou has a unique geographical location and an extensive transportation network. It is an important transportation hub in China and a national logistics center. In addition, Zhengzhou has a vast economic hinterland, strong radiation ability, large population base, concentrated resources, and great development potential. Moreover, cooperating with a brand like Samit, whose team is young, responsible, forward-looking, and full of stamina makes him even more motivated.
Su Wenbo said that Samit headquarters, as a solid backing for Zhengzhou market development, provided him with great help, especially in the two aspects of team training and event planning. He introduced that Zhengzhou Summit’s team building is basically arranged by the headquarters, and professional training instructors are dispatched from time to time to the local area to give face-to-face lessons every year to ensure the implementation effect. In addition, the headquarters will regularly provide shopping guide training, product sales techniques, employee incentives, event planning guidance and other programs to help dealers better improve their performance.
Zhengzhou Samit Team
“The Samit headquarters team is very serious and responsible. They will not continue to ask dealers to deliver goods and reduce inventory like some companies. They will also consider for dealers how to sell the bricks after delivery. This This is something that many ceramic tile brands cannot do. ”
Zhengzhou Samit's market positioning is mid-to-high-end, its brand tone is young and fashionable, its products are diverse and of high quality, and it has an advantage over other ceramic tile brands among young consumer groups. Su Wenbo specifically mentioned that Zhengzhou Samit has many regular customers and they frequently make second or even third purchases. He believes that Zhengzhou Samit's good market reputation comes from its comprehensive and perfect after-sales service.
It is understood that Zhengzhou Samit has established a series of sales service processes from purchase communication, design adjustment, home measurement to delivery and handling, paving guidance, tracking and acceptance, etc. During the customer decoration process, the shopping guide We will follow up and communicate throughout the entire process, striving to make customers feel at ease after buying and satisfied after the installation. “A customer once placed an order at another brand store, but after learning about our after-sales service, he immediately canceled the order and bought our bricks instead. He told me that you are different from other brands. He was very relieved that there would be no 'postscript'."
Su Wenbo said that for consumers, the design, color and quality of ceramic tile products are important, but what they need more is your service. Only when the service is in place will he truly feel that "it is worth buying this brand."
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At the end of the interview, Su Wenbo also mentioned Samit’s central warehouse empowerment model. In 2021, Samit struck hard, using the new operating model of central warehouses to upgrade the national marketing channel network, and successfully created an efficient profit model of "pick up at any time, sell immediately", maximize the platform functions, and provide operational service providers with Empowerment. Currently, Samit has established smart center warehouses in 13 cities across the country, and Zhengzhou is one of them.
He said that in the future, Zhengzhou Samit will rely on the advantages of central warehouses to deepen its sales channels such as engineering, retail, and wholesale. It will also continue to expand home decoration channels and expand its market layout.
