[Face-to-face interviews with people in the ceramic industry] Issue 4
Interviewed Guest｜Guanxingwang Ceramics Brand General Manager Wang Jintang
Interviewer | Director of the Editorial Department of China Ceramics Network Zou Sijin
Interview time｜The afternoon of April 9, 2021
Interview location｜China Ceramic Expo CityGuanxingwang CeramicsHeadquarters
Written by Liu Sitao
Video shooting｜Li Feng, Liu Sitao
In 2020, affected by the new crown epidemic, Guanxingwang Ceramics's first quarter performance declined slightly. , but starting from the second quarter, the performance began to increase significantly. By the second half of the year, the performance basically returned to the growth level before the epidemic.
Throughout 2020, Guanxingwang Ceramics's performance increased by about 21% year-on-year, which is comparable to that of some listed ceramics. Compared with the company's growth level in 2020, it is not much better. Investigating the reason, Guanxingwang Ceramics brand general manager Wang Jintang believes that "the foundation for 2019 has been laid." .
01
Brand upgrade, channels, investment promotion, and central warehouses are in full bloom
On October 18, 2019, the opening day of the 34th Foshan Ceramics Expo, the new headquarters of Guanxingwang - "Future Home" Yashe Lifestyle Hall was officially unveiled. It cost 20 million yuan and has a total area of 6,000 square meters. With the ultimate spatial visual effect and a product system with excellent color, texture and light perception, Guanxingwang’s “Future Home” attracted as many as 30,000+ visitors during the Ceramics Expo. , becoming a well-deserved check-in point for Internet celebrities.
What is equally attractive as this "new landmark in China" is the series of brand upgrade strategic plans released by Guanxingwang, including brand VI upgrade, the launch of the Terminal 3.0 Elegant Lifestyle Center, increased investment efforts, and channel construction. wait.
Wang Jintang said that since the end of 2019, marked by the putting into use of the new headquarters and brand upgrade, Guanxingwang has entered a new stage of development.
In terms of brand display: The 6,000-square-meter headquarters exhibition hall that leads the industry trend has become one of the must-check-in places for countless customers who come to Foshan to look for ceramic tile brand franchises. The corporate strength and brand charm it displays are what Guanxingwang dealers do. The confidence of pride.
In terms of store display: Based on the headquarters exhibition hall, Guanxingwang has created a new 3.0 elegant luxury life hall for dealers, and has successively implemented it in terminals. Guanxingwang 3.0 Yashe Lifestyle Store uses an image store model with a very elegant luxury style to continuously strengthen Guanxingwang's brand recognition to end customers and create Guanxingwang's exclusive brand competitive advantage.
In terms of brand investment promotion: In 2020, Guanxingwang strongly launched the "Top Three in 100 Cities - Guanxingwang Subsidy 100 Million Investment Promotion Action", integrating the group's superior resources, combined with 100 million yuan of special subsidy funds, through front-end Comprehensive and in-depth assistance policies such as decoration subsidies, back-end support for opening activities, 6+1 store professional assistance, channel development support, and regular online and offline training courses ensure that franchise customers can quickly and sustainably make profits.
With such a strong support policy, Guanxingwang has achieved investment results of more than 160 new customers in 2020, more than 125 elegant luxury lifestyle stores were renovated and upgraded, and the newly added store area exceeded 47,890 square meters. .
In terms of channel construction: With the brand's good reputation in the terminal and the strong support of the group, Guanxingwang has made great progress in the construction of engineering channels, assembly channels and regional central warehouses in 2020. At present, there are more than 6 projects worth tens of millions of dollars, and the strategic cooperation with the whole assembly company is steadily advancing. At the same time, major breakthroughs have been made in the layout of regional central warehouses in Guiyang, Tianjin, Changsha, Nanjing and other places.
▲April 12, CrownStar King North China Center Warehouse was grandly unveiled.
Guanxingwang center warehouse
02
Adhere to originality, products are the core competitiveness of a brand
At present, the homogeneity phenomenon in the ceramic industry is still very obvious, and there are only a handful of brands that insist on originality. Guanxingwang is one of the few brands in the ceramic industry that always insists on originality. Adhering to originality is a concept that has been practiced from top to bottom by the group where he works and the brand.
"Our product research and development is spearheaded by He Youhe, the group's managing director, who is hard-working and hard-working, which is well-known in the industry. We always believe that products are the core competitiveness of a brand." Wang Jintang said.
He further explained Guanxingwang’s core philosophy of insisting on originality and creating a high-value product system.
Good-looking, high-quality original designs are what Guanxingwang has always pursued. In order to ensure the originality of product colors and textures and to be closer to international market trends, Guanxingwang has established long-term strategic cooperation with many top Italian design companies such as Tecnografica, Newton, Digital & Design, etc., using 26 years of ceramic tile production technology to accurately Control product quality to ensure natural and realistic tile texture.
Guanxingwang advocates "full categories, full specifications, and full texture" in terms of products. At present, Guanxingwang has all product categories on the market such as rock slabs, large slabs, marble tiles, modern matte tiles, granite, wood grain tiles, terrazzo, interior wall tiles, etc., with specifications ranging from small products of 300×300mm to 2400 The large slate series with a size of
Shangpin Snow Mountain Orchid
ShangpinbaoStone blue
Andean snow scene
Ink Cloud Sky
Guanxingwang product renderings
In addition, Guanxingwang launches a series of original products every year based on changes in market trends, such as the slate series, Lan series, velvet series, etc. that will be launched this year.
Among them, the "Color" series was released on the opening day of the 36th Foshan Ceramics Expo on April 18. China Ceramics Network learned at the press conference that Guanxing Wang is a pioneer in the industry and has taken the lead in launching the fifth type of finish - Yaguang surface, and the "Lan" series is the representative work of Yaguang ceramic tiles.
The "Lan" series is inspired by the changing light and shadow colors of the "Aurora", using 3D fine carving + star diamond ink double superposition technology, with the famous Chinese embroidery Su embroidery as the brick surface texture, as well as rays of light, lake light, firefly Light, fog, morning light, starlight, streamer and other advanced colors derived from nature create an elegant and mysterious shimmering experience. As soon as this series of products was announced, they were enthusiastically received by many industry insiders, who took photos and checked in one after another.
03
Signed contract with Zhao Ruirui, the brand will develop again in 2021
During the 36th Foshan Ceramics Expo, in addition to launching the "Lan" series, Guanxingwang also announced a major move, which was the signing of Guanxingwang's first brand spokesperson.
In an interview, Wang Jintang had already revealed his plan to sign a spokesperson to China Ceramics Network in advance. He said, “This year we invited the world women’s volleyball champion Zhao Ruirui to serve as the brand spokesperson of Crown Star King, using the star effect to further promote the brand.Step by step to promote the Guanxingwang brand to terminals and enhance consumers’ recognition of the Guanxingwang brand. ”
In addition, he also introduced other actions of Crown Star King in 2021.
In terms of products, "Products are the core of brand development and the core advantage of Guanxingwang. As mentioned earlier, Guanxingwang is about to launch original new products such as the slate series, Lan series, and velvet series. In fact, We have completed the modification and sampling of these products in the terminal, and have achieved good market response. These have significantly enhanced the core competitiveness of our products and can avoid homogeneous competition in terminal products.”
In terms of terminal assistance, "We will continue to strengthen assistance to terminal dealers this year." According to Wang Jintang, in the near future, the "Future Home Smart Store" developed and built by Guanxingwang will be launched soon, which can help Dealer management teams and products enhance the interaction between terminal stores, shopping guides and consumers, and achieve effective drainage of terminal stores. "We want to maximize the benefits of marketing and design, thereby achieving strong and effective traffic diversion for dealers, and solving problems such as difficulty in acquiring customers and completing orders in terminal stores."
Guanxingwang Smart Store Experience
In terms of brand output, "continuously improving brand awareness is what we have always insisted on." This year, Guanxingwang will increase the output of self-media such as Douyin, Video Account, Xiaohongshu, and Yidoutang. , to achieve the rejuvenation of the brand.
In terms of investment promotion, “In 2021, we proposed the marketing model of “smart stores + regional central warehouses” to achieve systematic investment promotion and seize market outlets.”
It is understood that in 2017, Guanxingwang proposed the layout of regional central warehouses in key provinces and cities across the country. At present, regional central warehouses in Guizhou, North China, Changsha, Nanjing and other places have been successfully completed. With the help of the powerful role of regional central warehouses in "reducing logistics costs, ensuring sufficient supply of goods, and high distribution efficiency", combined with efficient and profitable smart stores, Guanxingwang The investment advantage has been further enhanced.
04
Focus on brand management and become consumers’ favorite brand
In recent years, the ceramic industry has undergone tremendous changes, including consumption upgrades, channel fission, retail shrinkage, environmental protectionOverweighting and reshuffling intensified... The Matthew effect began to emerge. The strong became stronger, the weak became weaker, and the advantages of leading brands became more and more obvious. Regarding the current situation of the ceramic industry, Wang Jintang shared his views.
He believes that with the 2020 epidemic as a watershed, the entire ceramic industry has undergone obvious changes, which can be felt from the successive news reports of the closure, reorganization, and auction of ceramic companies. Consumption upgrades, channel fission, retail shrinkage..."These are superficial phenomena we have seen. In fact, through comparison, we can find that those companies or brands that fell have no foundation, weak strength, and lack of core competitiveness. Enterprises. Enterprises with strong strength and strong core competitiveness can continue to grow and develop by cannibalizing and squeezing the market share of small and medium-sized brands. Therefore, market competition in the cold winter is ultimately a competition between enterprises' core competitiveness." As our managing director Mr. He said, only a ceramic tile brand recognized by the public can have the opportunity to achieve small profits but quick turnover. ”
“Therefore, the century-old enterprise positioned by our brand is actually to become the ‘consumer’s favorite brand’. This is a long-term goal.”
We have always believed that only by focusing on brand management can we win the market. Brand management is a long-term process, just like a long marathon. To win the final victory, you need the determination to persevere and the strategy of steady development. ”
"Therefore, Guanxingwang has always adhered to the long-term value-oriented development concept and always made progress with our customers based on the concept of 'communication, interaction, progress, and win-win'. Whether it is product research and development, channel construction, or marketing model, help We need to think about issues from the customer’s perspective. Only when the brand and customers grow and make progress together is the best embodiment of long-term value and the foundation for the long-term prosperity of the company. ”
