At the "2020 Yangcheng Ceramic Industry Development Summit Forum" held on September 18, Nan Shunzhi, chairman of Dajiulu Ceramics, a star entrepreneur and practical expert, gave a special speech on "New Business Opportunities in the Ceramic Industry" , through an in-depth analysis of the operation methods of successful ceramic tile brands, and then explain the new opportunities for the future development of ceramic enterprises. The following are excerpts from the speech:
As far as the current ceramic tile industry is concerned, both ceramic companies and dealers have encountered development bottlenecks. I believe that the external environment is important to the development of enterprises, but what is more critical is that enterprises grasp trends, discover new opportunities, and strengthen their own advantages. Under any circumstances, enterprises do not need to be afraid, and they will eventually become "towering trees." "Even if a Category 12 typhoon comes, it will not have a big impact on us.
Grasp the laws of development and seize opportunities in new business opportunities
Currently, the ceramic tile market has serious overcapacity, and production capacity is far greater than market demand. I think the development of anything will follow certain laws: from birth to development, to maturity and then to decline. Now, the ceramic tile industry has entered a period of decline, but at the same time it has also ushered in a new turning point in development. As long as we master this essential law of business, we will find that there is an opportunity at any time in the future.
China's ceramic tile production is the largest in the world, but China's ceramic tile brands have little international influence. They mainly export their products. At present, China has not truly formed a global ceramic tile brand, and everyone is in a civil war. In the past, many people said that our ceramic tile bosses did not have the awareness of "brand globalization". Indeed, the founder of a company is very important. The founder determines how far the company can develop and what height the brand can reach.
For now, we mainly have two brands: one is the corporate brand and the other is the product brand. In fact, many people overlook these two brand-building opportunities.
In order to develop better, business owners must understand the essential laws of the development of things, and then seize new business opportunities.
Differentiation is the biggest driving force for business development, allowing business to thrive and grow bigger and bigger. Take the development of ceramic tile categories as an example, from exterior wall tiles to interior wall tiles, polished tiles, antique tiles, microcrystalline stone, fully polished glaze, marble tiles, and then to the super wear-resistant products launched by us. Throughout the history of ceramic tile development, differentiation has given rise to many new categories and new opportunities in the ceramic tile industry!
What are the representative products of Yangcheng ceramic production area? Today I saw through the promotional video that Yangcheng not only has colored glaze, but also ceramic tiles and many more. In fact, the more you talk about it, the vaguer the outside world's understanding of you will be. As long as you can clearly distinguish which is the flagship product.
Since its development, the ceramic tile industryWhat eras has the industry's industrial chain gone through? From the factory era, to the channel era, and now to the brand era that everyone is talking about now. Despite this, I believe that the development opportunities in the factory era are great. I believe that some ceramic companies in Yangcheng are still in the "factory era". They provide more OEM services and have no brands. They can also build corporate brands here, just like Foxconn in the electronics industry.
Of course, it is ideal for the three eras of factories, channels and brands to form a closed loop, but only a few leading domestic companies can do this.
It is worth noting that we can indeed extend in the ceramic tile industry chain, but we must know where we and our companies have an advantage in the industry chain, and try to avoid too big a span. Some companies not only develop in the ceramic industry, but also get involved in many other industries unrelated to their main business. If the span is too large, it is very likely that you will not know which pit you will fall into. Many Chinese companies fail because of this step.
Business owners look for directions and focus on "small now, big in the future"
The primary task of business operations, and also the main goal of marketing, is to find the future direction and discover the specific prospects of the company's business. The most important thing for a business owner is to find the direction, and focusing on business becomes very simple.
So to what extent should focus be achieved? It is necessary to achieve extreme focus: Taking Yangcheng as an example, can we make Yangcheng Porcelain the largest in North China and focus on making money for us and leaving competitors without money? This is what we're talking about, extreme focus.
To put it simply, it is to focus on "small now, big in the future". If you focus on polished tiles now, you will be in big trouble. However, Yangcheng's focus on porcelain tiles still has certain development opportunities, and porcelain tiles also have opportunities to upgrade.
The boss’s responsibility is to seize opportunities, not to solve problems. We all know that although there are many problems, they can be solved as long as we seize an opportunity. Many times, what the boss doesn't do is more important than what he does. The boss's confusion is often caused by direction deviation. Only when the direction is wrong will he be confused.
Enterprises never lack strategies, nor do they lack products; what they lack are effective strategies and good products. Once a company combines marketing with innovation, it will release amazing power, just like our big-horned deer, when our super wear-resistant marble tiles are combined with marketing, it will produce huge power.
It can be seen that marketing needs products to support it. At any time, the product is 1 and the marketing is 0. Good products don’t need marketing because the products speak for themselves. Making good products is the foundation of business, and we must constantly innovate products. Just like Yangcheng's porcelain tiles, it can strengthen its core advantages through micro-innovation, such as focusing on specifications, from the current 300×600mm, 300× from 800mm to 450×900mm or 600×900mm, what will be the mainstream specifications of ceramic tiles in the future? Enterprises need to gain insight into specification trends from the perspective of consumers.
It doesn’t mean that we have to make disruptive big innovations every time. As long as we are doing business, we can also do micro-innovations. It is enough to be one step ahead of others. But you must have technical reserves: second-generation products, third-generation products... We continue to establish our position in the industry in niche areas through technological innovation and research and development.
In the next ten years, enterprises must adhere to "unchanged"
I think the most important thing for an enterprise is to grasp what remains unchanged and not always think about what is changing. Our core products cannot change for a long time. Not only that, we have to find more resources from outside to strengthen our stability. This is the most important thing. Even if we cannot be number one in the world or China, we must be number one in the region.
Moreover, companies must pay attention to long-term trends rather than trends. Many business owners have been catching trends their whole life, but they have never really caught what belongs to them.
It is important to base your strategy on things that will not change in the next ten years. This is the most important core, because once it takes root, the deeper it is, the better, and the more stable the company will be.
For example, except for Guangdong, the largest production area in China, others including me do not know very well where the second and third largest production areas are. This shows that Yangcheng must create a "number one" in the field of porcelain tiles that can be distinguished by others.
Should Yangcheng be built into a city of colored glaze or a city of porcelain tiles? Once this is clear, how to implement it? Just like if I want to be a singer, I must first have a good voice myself, and then match it with the best microphone, composition, lyrics, sound, etc. Only in this way can I become famous. The same is true for the development of Yangcheng's ceramic industry. You must clearly know where your genetic advantages lie.
"Less is more, more is confusion", this is a truth that many people know. Make things smaller and make the market bigger. The national market is still huge! As long as you make good product advantages, you are not afraid of losing sales.
At present, the development of many enterprises has encountered bottlenecks. In fact, as long as some pain points of consumers are found and focused on solving them, enterprises can usher in greater development. What you sow will bear fruit; if you sow melons, you will get melons and if you sow beans, you will get beans. Whether it is the Yangcheng production area or a ceramics enterprise, you must choose a "seed". Once the "seed" is chosen, it will naturally grow into a "big tree" in the future.
(The article is reproduced from Ceramic Information)
