Regarding whether consumer brands will be born in the home furnishing industry, this is a common topic. I want to talk about it from my perspective.
Before we talk about this topic, let me tell a short story. My parents came to Guangzhou some time ago. They bought a bunch of products in the supermarket that I had never heard of, including shampoo, tissues, yogurt, etc., and I was too scared to use them.
Later, I made a special trip to accompany them to the supermarket, telling them which category and brand are better, and I talked for more than an hour. My parents were amazed, how can I remember so many brands. I also suddenly discovered that these hundreds of brands have taken root in my mind.
Modern urbanites have basically developed the shopping habit of choosing brands first and then looking at products, because remembering brands can greatly improve our decision-making efficiency and reduce trial and error costs. So, why can't we remember the home furnishing brand?
Some people refuted, “This is because of the low frequency and low attention of household consumption. Although the auto industry is also low frequency, but the attention is high, so everyone can remember the car brand.”
So, how do you explain the air conditioner and refrigerator? Air conditioners also belong to low frequency and low concern, but everyone remembers Midea and Gree. The range hood is also considered low frequency and low attention, but everyone remembers Fang Tai and the boss. Explaining with low frequency and low attention is obviously unexplainable.
In essence, consumer brands are "mass brands" and have high national recognition. In the home furnishing industry, IKEA is closer to the concept of a consumer brand, but strictly speaking, IKEA is not a "home brand". Therefore, the home furnishing industry has not yet seen a large number of consumer brands in the true sense, but it can be seen that Mousse, Shangpin Home Delivery, and Chivas are in the process of rushing to consumer brands. So, why haven't consumer brands been born in large quantities? The answer is-business is too good.Brands of the office furniture manufacturers are penetrating into various fields.
Three transitions of the home main battlefield.
Looking back on the development of China’s home furnishing industry in the past two decades, we found that the "main battlefield" has undergone three transitions: 2000-2010 is the "manufacturing era", the main battlefield is manufacturing; 2010-2020 is the "channel era", the main battlefield Shifting from manufacturing to channels; after the watershed in 2020, the industry has fully entered the era of consumer brands, and it will be the main battlefield to seize users' minds with brands.
1, manufacturing era
From 2000 to 2010, the home furnishing manufacturing industry under the real estate and demographic dividends developed vigorously. The first priority of the enterprise is production and manufacturing. Ten years are good. The real estate dividend directly drives the rise of the home furnishing industry chain in the Pearl River Delta and the Yangtze River Delta. When it comes out, there is no worries about selling. A large number of home manufacturing brands have sprung up, the industry's production capacity continues to expand, and the overall growth rate is entering the fast lane.
2, channel era
After the first wave of real estate dividends, in 2010, the main battlefield of home furnishing brands has shifted from "manufacturing" to "channels." Brands are fighting for speed on the track of terminal expansion and channel sinking. In the past ten years, the channel wars fought by the home furnishing industry have become increasingly fierce. If you shop 10 stores, I will shop 100 stores. You are still looking at first- and second-tier cities. I have sunk into third- and fourth-tier markets.
At the point of sinking the market, Jiu Mu ran faster than others. A few days ago, I communicated with Mr. Lin of Jiumu. I said that the very important reason for Jiumu’s success was that it broke 5,000 stores in a preemptive way, which made it hard for peers to match.
Similarly, the solid channel foundation has allowed Oupai's advantages to continue to this day. Oupai, Sophia and other brands have been working hard to the county seat on the sinking of stores. Although characteristic small and medium-sized brands have continued to rise over the past few years, they are still not as popular as home furnishing brands that have accumulated over a decade.
In short, during this period, channels are still the king, paying attention to "multiple" and "fast".
3, consumer brand era
After the channel battle, the home furnishing industry has ushered in the third stage-the era of consumer branding. In this era, the channel offensive is no longer unfavorable, and the flow of channels such as traditional stores is declining. In first-tier cities like Guangzhou, some home furnishing stores have less than 200 people a day, which simply cannot meet the needs of hundreds of merchants.
So, where does the office furniture manufacturers offline traffic go?
Some people say that it is the real estate that robbed the traffic of the bag check-in, so the bag-checking wind of the home furnishing brand is getting stronger and stronger. But the reality is that there are not many people who watch the model rooms, and in many cases they have to rely on intermediaries to attract traffic, and the efficiency of on-site transactions is not high, because the selection of products in the model rooms is limited.
Some people say that it is the closure of the home improvement company. But the reality is that most of the group of decoration companies is composed of workers, and workers can recommend some products on their own. But how much traffic can this part take away? Minimal. Because it is fully personalized, tasteful and matching home furnishing companies cannot be recommended.
Some people say that it is the designer's interception. But the reality is that only high-end users in China specifically hire designers, and they are more concentrated in developed cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen. The rest of the users are still choosing homes based on their feelings. Designers bringing goods can certainly bring a certain amount of traffic, but it is not yet mainstream.
After doing a lot of user research, we found that the consumer decision-making path of post-85s has changed. After buying a house, this group of consumers is no longer the first time to go to the store, but to turn on their mobile phones, look at styles, check knowledge, and watch online. Word of mouth and other content, "online decision-making, offline transaction" has become the decision-making path of this young man.
As content has become the main battlefield of brand fighting, the home furnishing industry has entered the media era based on the importance of content.