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Many consumers who are preparing to decorate may face the "soul torture" of "should they pursue the brand when buying ceramic tiles?"
This problem was not a problem before. At that time, people generally believed that any ceramics enterprise that could truly be called a brand must have better equipment, technology and stronger comprehensive strength. The quality of both products and services was more guaranteed, and therefore more worthy of consumers' trust.
However, with the overcapacity, channel fission, and consumption upgrades in the building ceramics industry, more and more consumers, especially young consumers, are gradually becoming rational. When buying ceramic tiles, they no longer blindly pursue the brand, but pay more attention to the quality of the ceramic tiles. Quality, color and paving effect. In this context, a voice questioning the brand sounded in the industry: There is no need to pursue the brand when buying ceramic tiles. Big brands often mean high added value, high profits, and high prices, but the gap between small brands and big brands is actually not the same. It’s not that big, and consumers don’t have to pay the brand premium at all. What's more, many people have begun to advocate the theory that brands are useless, and then introduce the concept of de-branding from the field of Internet e-commerce, and shout that de-branding has become a future development trend.
01
Has de-branding become a trend?
As a concept that originated in the field of Internet e-commerce, de-branding mainly refers to the "call of the times" issued by channels for product brands, but at the same time it seems to be addressed to consumers. "Brand is the most flashy thing. It makes everyone spend so much money in vain. Now we are de-branding, and we no longer need brands. From now on, there will be no middlemen making profit differences." How wonderful it sounds!
When talking about successful examples of de-branding, the ones that people blurt out are MUJI from Japan and Doduo, which is native to China. Muji's products are rich, high-quality and cost-effective. Duoduo's products are rich and the same, but the price is so low that it makes people scream and doubt. Consumers do get a lot of benefits from their consumption. Debranding looks so right!
However, we need to figure out who is promoting de-branding. As the saying goes, "The butt determines the head." The location of the butt is different, and the purpose behind the behavior is very different. Use an easy-to-understand story to illustrate:
Before graduating from college, a student A who was going to the library to look up information to write a thesis and another student who was going to an Internet cafeI met the scumbag B. Student B said to student A, "Don't go to the library. Come with me to the Internet cafe. Just relax for a long time. It'll be fine!" Student A couldn't resist the temptation, so he followed student B and played in the Internet cafe all night. Early the next morning, the bad student B told the bad student A, "My thesis is finally completed." It turned out that the bad student B had already completed the manuscript of the thesis before, and his main purpose of going to the Internet cafe to play all night was to turn the paper into a Standard electronic version. But where is the paper for the academic scumbag A who is just playing along?
Those who implement de-branding are often the bad students B, while the majority of those who don’t know how to pretend to understand and follow the trend are often the bad students A.
You must know that companies advocating de-branding generally come from the fields of clothing, fast moving consumer goods, home furnishings, consumer electronics and other fields. They rely on the supply chain advantages and traffic advantages of zero information gap to provide cost-effective and tonal unified brand products. Products are directly oriented to consumers in the form of OEM or ODM. In the frantic sales, such companies shout "reject huge profits and squeeze out the brand premium water" to cater to consumers, and at the same time actively "educate" the products they supply to be branded, while sparing no effort to create and Promote your brand.
In the end, MUJI became a big brand without a brand, and "no brand" was its biggest brand. Platform companies such as Duoduo in the construction and ceramics industry obviously also want to become a big brand without a brand in the field of ceramic tiles; some ceramic tile brands that had no brand influence at all have lost themselves in the de-branding trend. It is also euphemistically called "returning to the product itself."
In a nutshell, de-branding is a complete fallacy.
02
Is the brand really useless?
"Brands are useless. High brand awareness, reputation, and influence do not mean that the product is good and cannot bring real benefits to consumers. Spending money on promoting and building a brand is better than investing in upgrading production equipment and process technology , to improve product quality; as long as the product is good, there will naturally be a market, and the fragrance of wine is not afraid of the depth of the alley. ”
Many owners and managers of ceramic construction companies have this idea lurking deep in their consciousness, or simply say that they have been deliberately leading their teams to convey this point of view to consumers.
It’s just that they really can’t see it or pretend not to see it. Their dealers are complaining about brand awareness, influenceHow helpless consumers look when they are not powerful enough to attract consumers to pay. How confused consumers are when faced with an introduction that contains countless "high-level" professional terms!
First of all, most consumers agree that brand means strength (the bigger the brand, the stronger the strength, the better the equipment and technology, although the fact may be that the equipment and technology of small brands are not weaker than those of big brands), and brand means credibility and guarantee. To pursue a brand is to choose peace of mind. They don’t know anything about production equipment and process technology, let alone how to tell whose tiles are better from the almost identical tiles in various brand stores based on the “high-level” professional introduction of the shopping guide. They can’t even tell based on word of mouth. Decide whose service is better.
Secondly, many consumers pursue brands not only for material pursuits, but also for spiritual and social recognition. The consumption of products includes many social components. The recognition of the brand is the recognition of certain social ideals and personality ideals, and the experience of consumption is the experience of implementing these ideals in life. Therefore, consumption, the most secular, practical, and economical individual behavior, can be compared with the most subtle and meticulous aesthetic activities in human spiritual life and the purest abstract value ideals.
In addition, under the severe situation of increasingly serious homogeneity in the building ceramics industry and intensifying low-price and disorderly competition, brands should be paid more attention to. Many dealers have realized in sales practice that brands can help merchants stand out from homogeneous competition and reduce the dimensionality of other merchants.
03
How to build a good brand?
Since branding is a fallacy, and brands are still very useful, then people building ceramics will eventually have to face the practical problem of "how to build a good brand".
First, we must be down-to-earth and make good products. Products are the lifeline of enterprise development, the carrier and basis of survival of the brand. This point goes without saying. Many ceramic construction companies that value production have done well enough. All they have to do is persist.
The second is to provide good services in a down-to-earth manner. Ceramic tiles are a low-frequency consumption and semi-finished product. Most people only buy ceramic tiles once or twice because they only renovate their houses once or twice in their lifetime. Therefore, they will inevitably put the purchase, application design, transportation, paving, return, maintenance, etc. Service is valued; at the same time, ceramic tiles are also a product that is particularly easy to be homogenized. Only by being given services can they have differentiated competitiveness. In the era of demographic dividendIn an environment that is about to pass and the era of popular dividends is coming, ceramic manufacturers and dealers should win the hearts and the market with their services.
The third is to be down-to-earth and produce good content. This is an era of information explosion. People are inundated with various marketing information every day. Ceramic tiles with low attention are even more difficult to be noticed. For ceramic tile brands, it is particularly important to continue to create engaging content.
The fourth is to do a good job of publicity in a down-to-earth manner. Although the communication effect of advertising is gradually declining under the impact of information fragmentation, brand promotion is still a very important task. Traditional or offline brand promotion cannot be discarded, such as television, radio, airports, buses (stations), high-speed rail (stations), billboards, etc. Online brand promotion must be strengthened, such as building a good brand on the search engine side. Layout, establish an advertising system with ROI indicators, and do a good job in brand content planting, etc.
Here is a special mention of the brand layout on the search engine side. Some ceramic construction companies have fallen into a misunderstanding here, that is, they blindly pursue rankings for keywords such as "top ten ceramic brands" and "top ten ceramic tile brands". To be honest, it is meaningless for companies to use such keywords on their own websites. Consumers are not fools and have certain judgment capabilities. "Top 10 ceramic brands" and "Top 10 ceramic tile brands" must be published by a credible third-party platform. (For example, China Ceramics Network, which has successfully held the 10th "Top Ten Brands List of Building and Sanitary Ceramics", etc.) For example, if a company says on its website that it is a top ten brand, the effect is almost zero.
(Author: Chan Can)