Yantai is like a pearl embedded in the Shandong Peninsula. Although the administrative level is only a prefecture-level city, it is one of the first 14 coastal open cities in China, one of the central cities in Shandong and a key city in the blue economic zone, an important port city in the Bohai Rim region and an important city in the Bohai Rim Economic Circle. It is a node city and a key port city in the “Belt and Road” national strategy. The city’s land area is 13,745.95 square kilometers, ranking third in the province; the city’s permanent population in 2018 was 7.1218 million, ranking seventh in the province; its GDP ranked second in the province for many consecutive years until 2018 (the GDP in 2018 was 783.258 billion Yuan) was surpassed by Jinan which merged with Laiwu.
A corner of Yantai city
On the evening of November 27, the China Ceramics Network terminal market research team (hereinafter referred to as the "research team") rushed from Qingdao to Yantai and interviewed 9 local ceramic tile dealers on the 28th and 29th.
Everywhere they go, the research team will ask the interviewees what is the current status of the local ceramic tile market, and the interviewees will also ask the research team how the current ceramic tile market is in other parts of the country. When asked and asked, the answers are often the same, that is, the passenger flow has dropped significantly, and the sales volume, especially the retail share, has shrunk significantly; the main reasons are nothing more than the downturn in real estate, overcapacity in building ceramics, consumption upgrades, and channel fission (hardcover, complete decoration channels Whales cannibalize the market share of retail channels), etc.
Yantai Red Star Macalline Global Home Lifestyle Plaza< /span>
Yantai IFC Home Expo Center
Yantai Jiahe Lotte International Home Furnishing< /p>
The situation of Yantai ceramic tile market is basically the same as that of other places, but it also has its own distinctive characteristics. Combining the information collected during the two days of interviews in Yantai and the information learned through other channels, some salient features of the Yantai ceramic tile market have been obtained.
1
Retail channels are still optimistic
Compared with other places, a considerable number of ceramic tile dealers in Yantai are still very optimistic about the shrinking retail channels. They seem to be far less enthusiastic about engineering channels than ceramic tile dealers in Qingdao, and they rarely follow the trend in engineering projects. Their view is that engineering projects are low-profit and risky. Instead of focusing on engineering projects, it is better to delve deeper and innovate in retail.
Mona Lisa Tile Yantai Distributor (Huanai Home Yantai Meng Na Lisa Ceramics Retail Manager) Wang Dong was interviewed by China Ceramics Network
Xie Meiling, Yantai dealer of Wangzhe Ceramics, was interviewed by China Ceramics Network
Melco Marble Ceramics Yantai and Weihai dealers Jinshui innovate channels to build a large home ecological chain platform, integrating ceramic tiles, doors and windows, ceilings, lighting, furniture, whole-house customization, kitchen appliances and other building materials and home products to create corporate operations Management of cross-industry alliances. After a year of running-in and implementation, their big home ecological chain platform has achieved initial results and is developing in a better direction.
Golden Water was interviewed by China Ceramics Network
Sun Lu, Yantai dealer of Bode Seiko Tiles, believes that the future market will move toward a trend where consumers are increasingly willing to pay for preferences and quality. Only by differentiation can tile sales survive. After years of accumulation, Yantai Bode Precision Tile has successfully created a one-stop service system, which not only sells high-quality products to customers, but also provides them with comprehensive and thoughtful pre-sales, sales, and after-sales services, such as providing services to relatives of old customers. Friends provide conventional products with relatively outdated colors for free, grow green vegetables and fruits as gifts to old customers, etc., continue to improve customer adhesion, build brand reputation through old customers, and generate new customers through fission.
Sun Lu was interviewed by China Ceramics Network
2
Design marketing plays a big role
Yantai's GDP ranks third in Shandong, and its comprehensive strength and population are even less than Qingdao. However, judging from feedback from some ceramic tile dealers, its designer channel, that is, design marketing, is more slippery than Qingdao's in ceramic tile sales. . In other words, consumers in Yantai have higher requirements for decoration. When purchasing ceramic tiles and other building materials, they pay great attention to design effects and listen to the opinions of designers. Design marketing plays a big role in ceramic tile sales, making consumers more willing to pay for the brand. And paying for quality makes the sales value of ceramic tiles greater. What causes this? Some dealers explained that it is because housing prices in Yantai are far lower than those in Qingdao, and consumers still have a certain amount of money left over after buying a house that can be used to buy better ceramic tiles; the situation in Qingdao is the opposite.
Gong Mingchen, a Yantai dealer of Li Home Ceramics, said that his team has a total of 27 people, including 9 designers. Its emphasis on design marketing is evident. He also said that customers often abandon the design plan of the design company and choose the plan designed by his designer. This shows that its design and marketing results are remarkable.
Gong Mingchen was interviewed by China Ceramics Network
3
There are many imported brick brands
As mentioned above, Yantai’s GDP, comprehensive strength and population are not as good as Qingdao’s. However, whether based on feedback from salespersons of building ceramics manufacturers, introductions from interviewees or personal perceptions of the research team, the number of imported brick brands in the former is lower than Qingdao’s. Significantly more than the latter. Of course, some interviewees believe that although there are many imported brick brands in Yantai, they may not be doing well, and only two or three can be called successful. But in any case, the phenomenon of numerous imported brick brands makes the Yantai ceramic tile market look more advanced and dynamic than Qingdao.
What is very convincing is that two of the nine dealers interviewed by the research team are related to imported brick brands. Gong Mingchen, a Yantai distributor of Li Home Ceramics, while focusing on Li Home Ceramics, also represents three imported brick brands: Roberto Cavalli, I.T Ceramics and Cappuccino Ceramics; Datang Hesheng Ceramics Yantai Distribution Shanglu Yifei also operates Italian NOBLE ceramic tiles.
Lu Yifei was interviewed by China Ceramics Network
4
The new generation is rising
In many places, such as Qingdao, most of the more successful ceramic tile dealers are those born in the 1970s and 1960s who have been in the industry for a long time and have been operating a certain brand for many years. In Yantai, a number ofVery successful young ceramic tile dealers, those born in the 1980s and 1985s. Most of them have independent thoughts and unique insights into ceramic tile management, and their views are so similar. For example, whether you can operate ceramic tiles well, the market environment is not important, and even the brand is not important. The most important thing is the operator himself. Gong Mingchen, a Yantai dealer of Li Home Tiles, Zhao Hui, a Yantai dealer of Elizabeth Tiles, and Qu Yanfei, a Yantai dealer of Nobel Tiles, are representatives of these new generations who are rising strongly.
Zhao Hui was interviewed by China Ceramics Network
Zhao Hui believes that the current building ceramics industry has entered an unprecedented downturn, but it is not as difficult as everyone imagines. The difficulty in doing business is not because the market is really not good, but because the operators themselves are not good enough. He said that in order to successfully operate ceramic tiles, we should focus on six aspects: First, brand (choose a good brand, with innovative designs and high-quality products and effective marketing); second, platform (choose a good brand) store); the third is location (choose a store with a good location); the fourth is store decoration (create a high-quality shopping experience); the fifth is cost-effectiveness (providing customers with value-for-money products and services); the sixth is team building (creating a A strong team provides personnel support to achieve business goals). It is through the choices or efforts in these six aspects that he led the team to build an efficient and ultimate customer service system, and relied on the product and brand competitiveness of Elizabeth Ceramics to stand out in the competition and gain a leading position in the entire building ceramics industry and In the context of declining retail sales in the Yantai ceramic tile market, retail performance is expected to increase by 40% this year.
Gong Mingchen, a Yantai dealer of Li Home Ceramics, believes that understanding the business of ceramic tiles is important, but what is more important is dedication and diligence. Whether you can manage ceramic tiles well depends on the operator's thinking.
Qu Yanfei was interviewed by China Ceramics Network
Qu Yanfei, a designer by training, only became a distributor of Nobel Tiles last year. He used to be an employee of the Nobel branch and already had a relatively full understanding of the ceramic tile market, knowing that the market had taken a turn for the worse in recent years. But even so, he still has great confidence in the future; because he always believes that behind crises are opportunities.
Since 2018, there has been a lot of lamentation and complaints in the upper reaches of the building ceramics industry, which made the research team who visited the terminal many times feel that the personnel of the building ceramics manufacturers are not as optimistic as the ceramic tile dealers who directly face the front line of the market.
This time they walked into Yantai. Although the interview time has only lasted two days, the research team has been deeply moved by the dealers in this city who are full of confidence and dare to think and do!
