If the cooperation between ceramic tile brands and dealers is like marriage and love between men and women, then every spring is the peak season for breakups, divorces, and romantic relationships in the ceramic tile industry. This phenomenon should become more serious in the spring of 2021.
If you analyze the current actual situation, you will find that there are many things worth pondering.
The essence of the "marriage" between brands and dealers
Why can the two sides come together?
For dealers, what motivates them to form a cooperative relationship with a brand may be the other party’s reputation and strength, the appearance and quality of the other party’s products, or the design, services and other aspects of the other party’s products. Advantages; for a brand, what prompts it to form a cooperative relationship with its dealers may be because the other party is a good match and has certain financial strength, or it may be because the other party has a strong thinking ability and can keep up with its own progress. , it may also be because the other party has other bright spots.
In fact, these are just the conditions for cooperation between brands and dealers, not the purpose and essence of cooperation between the two parties; what truly brings the two parties together is mutual benefit and win-win results. Yes, to put it bluntly, it is driven by interests: you can help me make money, I can help you make money, and both parties can develop together. Although the two parties may transcend interests and develop true love during the cooperation process, other things are just by-products compared to the main product of interest.
Therefore, it is normal for brands and distributors to develop from "strangers" to "couples", and then to regress from "couples" to "people they know". They can come together for mutual benefit and win-win results. It is also possible to part ways because mutual benefit and win-win results are no longer possible. The marriage and breakup of both parties are normal under the laws of the market. There is only a difference in stance, and there is no right or wrong. There is no need to be too human, subjective, or emotional. The breakup will be escalated into a lawsuit, and the "couple" will become enemies.
The relationship between a brand and a dealer is like a marriage, but it cannot be a real relationship between husband and wife. Both parties have no obligation to be loyal to the other party, nor do they have the right to require the other party to walk hand in hand with them forever.
Changes in “mate selection” standards for brands and dealers
In recent years, especially since the outbreak of the new crown epidemic in 2020, affected by factors such as overcapacity, consumption upgrades, channel fission, and tightened environmental protection, the reshuffle of the building ceramics industry has further intensified, and the degree of concentration has increased day by day, allowing the strong to become The weak become weaker, TaoIt has become the norm for companies to suspend production, limit production, liquidate stocks, go bankrupt, and go bankrupt, and it is not uncommon for dealers to be eliminated.
As the Matthew Effect in the industry gradually becomes more prominent, the standards for brands and dealers to choose partners have quietly changed.
In the past, the industry was in an era of incremental growth. As long as there was goods in hand, there was no need to worry about selling them. When dealers chose brands, they mostly focused on one or a few points, such as brand awareness, product appearance and quality, production and supply. There are no excessive requirements for franchisees in terms of profit model, service level, comprehensive strength, etc.
Now, the industry has entered the stock era, and market competition has become fierce. Whether it is an old dealer who has experienced great storms or a novice who has just entered the industry, they all have more rational and systematic thinking when choosing a brand. .
For example: first, whether the brand is high-end, whether it has brand effect and pulling power; second, whether the product price system is market competitive; third, whether the product line is long enough and whether the inventory is sufficient; fourth, whether the product has differentiated competitive advantages; fifth The first is whether the brand's management can keep up with the changes in the market and whether it shows an upward trend; the sixth is whether the investment policies, especially the support policies for the construction of specialty stores, are effective; the seventh is whether brand support and post-service services are in place; the eighth is whether the brand Whether to set up a central warehouse...
At the same time, the standards for brands to select dealers are getting higher and higher. Brands require dealers to not only have a certain financial strength, store and team foundation, but also have strong channel resources and service capabilities, as well as a positive attitude and the ability to accept new concepts and things, etc. .
New problems faced by brands and dealers "together"
Market reshuffle is not necessarily a bad thing. The breakup of brands and distributors due to "disagreement" may also bring development opportunities. However, the cooperation between the two parties under the new situation is also facing many new problems.
On the one hand, the construction and ceramics industry has serious overcapacity and the Matthew Effect has begun to become prominent, leading to the development of leading brands and their dealers. The waist and tail brands and their dealers are relatively in an increasingly bad situation. More and more Brands and dealers are in a bad state of being in the same bed and having different dreams.
Under this situation, although many brands and dealers are willing to change their partners, they are unable to find better partners and lack the courage to make substantive changes. Both parties are worried that their original intention is to find a better "other half" and they may getIt is the competitors who pick out the remaining ones or even eliminate them; if you do not transform, upgrade and change partners, there will be no future, but blind replacement and transformation may be completed faster.
On the other hand, many brands still stick to old ideas and methods in attracting investment, lacking new thinking and new approaches.
The old idea and method is to attract investment offline, mainly in two forms: strangers and introductions from acquaintances. From a dealer's perspective, the offline method of finding a brand through acquaintances' introductions is naturally more credible; and from a brand's perspective, the success rate of attracting investment through acquaintances is higher, but the efficiency is not necessarily too low, and it can also lead to difficulties. demands, and are easily copied and imitated by competitors.
The new thinking and new approach is Internet investment promotion, which includes three modes: First, the information flow mode, which uses Baidu information flow and huge engine (headline product) information flow to push the landing page of brand investment to users, proactively using information The way of reaching is to arouse users' interest through marketing landing pages, thereby generating inquiries (in the form of deposit form and 400 phone call); the second is Baidu's paid promotion model, also known as SEM, that is, some brands that want to join Potential intended customers actively search for keywords such as "ceramic tile franchise" and "ceramic tile agent" through search engines such as Baidu, reach relevant marketing landing pages, and form inquiries; the third is the portal data model, that is, through the China Ceramics Network such An authoritative industry portal website has established an investment promotion page. After users arrive at the website, if they have the intention to join, they will inquire about how to reserve funds and obtain franchise clues.
Internet investment promotion can only solve the problem of traffic and leads, and later conversion is more important. The early practice was to invite customers through telephone invitations for on-site inspections or to participate in offline investment meetings; with the emergence and development of the live broadcast ecosystem, the original investment invitation model evolved into "live broadcast investment invitations", allowing customers to invite customers through telephone invitations and other methods. Customers who make inquiries and reserve funds through the Internet enter the live broadcast room, and then use the host's field control, on-site preferential policies, and cooperation with deposits, deposit expansion, and discounts to achieve conversions and transactions.
In addition, to build brand awareness, reputation and influence, especially planting content on the Internet based on the preferences of young consumers and young dealers; formulating separate investment policies for powerful intended customers, combined with introductions from acquaintances Establishing a benefit-sharing investment promotion mechanism; establishing and improving an investment promotion system that includes team atmosphere, work habits, process sorting, data collection, investment promotion techniques, investment promotion tools, etc. are all powerful supports for achieving effective results in Internet investment promotion. Combining Internet investment promotion and other indispensable supporting work of investment promotion can be called Internet + investment promotion,Nourish business.
However, there are currently very few ceramic companies that are recruiting investment through Internet channels, let alone Internet + investment promotion and business support.
Human love and marriage has already entered the era of TV show blind dates and online blind dates. Isn’t the construction and ceramics industry quickly embracing the new trend of Internet + investment promotion and business support?
The 36th Foshan Ceramics Expo (April 18-21) is coming soon, and 100 days (more than 1/4) have passed in 2021. If you want to change the brands and dealers you cooperate with, you should act!
