Some say, he that hath a promise is a great weapon. Liang Deyun, who came back from studying in Canada ten years ago, resolutely shouldered the entrepreneurial ideal of his parents' generation, thus starting the story of traditional Chinese ceramic enterprises and a warm-blooded teenager. As the son of the boss, Liang Deyun did not come back to China as a young CEO. In those years, he worked at the basic level of the enterprise, not only entering the workshop, working as a salesman, but also running through the market. Now as the CEO of Shuncheng Ceramics Group, Liang Deyun often relates himself with the past ten years' experience with ceramics. Currently, the transformation of traditional ceramic industry has attracted much attention in the new business model. Sina Home specially invited Liang Deyun to conduct an exclusive interview on the development of ceramic industry, and jointly explore the transformation and development direction and trend of China's ceramic industry.
Innovation and cooperation are crucial in the period of integration
Ceramics is a traditional industry whose process threshold is low with a flooding competition and product prominent homogeneity problems. However, the industry does not remain unchanged. Regardless of the industrial pattern, consumer market or products, China's ceramic industry has undergone earth-shaking changes compared with that of 20 years ago. "From the most traditional polishing tiles and glazed tiles, it is difficult to imagine that traditional ceramic tiles could develop to so many categories today." Liang Deyun said the development of products is related to changes in people's consumption ideas and lifestyles where products would be easily eliminated when they don’t meet the trend. Continuous product innovation brings more than monetary profits. In the past 20 years, many ceramic enterprises born at the same time with Shuncheng have disappeared under the market rule of " Not to advance is to go back", while Shuncheng has brought products conforming to The Times for consumers and brought endless vitality to enterprises with the idea of continuous innovation.
In the market environment where homogenization competition is rampant and design copyright is not standardized, the process of innovation is actually a process that is constantly copied. Companies launch new products frequently. Does the market really get to learn about them? Liang refers to the concept of niche versus mass, "before it was production, now it's sales. If an enterprise wants to launch a new product alone, it is niche consumption, and it’s ok; but if a product needs to be accepted by the public, it must be promoted by multiple enterprises."
The emergence of niche brands does not pose a big threat to established ceramic enterprises like Shuncheng. The fierce competition in the industry promotes cooperation among enterprises and puts forward high requirements for the integration of the industry. Liang Deyun thinks it is a good thing. The electrical industry completed the industry integration 20 years ago. Today's ceramic industry, just like the electrical industry back in time, is in a critical integration period from products, brands to enterprises, which is also an inevitable stage of development.
From the perspective of the industry, the arrival of the integration period is undoubtedly an important turning point. Liang Deyun believes that those enterprises that are slow to respond to the market and have little capital flow are relatively dangerous during this period. "The One Last King" is Liang Deyun's sharp point of view in the situation of economic downturn and upstream industry winter, ceramic enterprises are to solve how to "survive", how to "live well" problem in order to laugh last.
Good Wine Needs No Bush-Brand Effect Cannot Be Ignored
Take "being alive" as the meaning of one's existence and the proposition of one's whole life; In the same way, how to keep an enterprise alive is the lifelong pursuit of enterprise people, and Liang Deyun is no exception. From one ceramic tile brand to today's group size of seven sub-brands, Shuncheng is the perfect interpretation of "enterprise vitality". Liang Deyun also gives us the answer to how ceramic enterprises should "survive" and "live well".
Finding the right brand positioning for the enterprise is more like the existence of the pin, but now also need to follow the law of market development for natural elimination. The seven ceramic brands of Shunhui, Wangzhe, Baite, Meitao, Juncheng, Seni and BTP of Shuncheng Ceramics Group have been implementing the strategy of differentiation positioning. Before, they were all industry leaders in terms of channel layout and brand development. Under the influence of the market environment, a clear group strategy is the key for every brand and dealer, and Liang Deyun attaches great importance to the market. "Each of our brands has hundreds of dealers, and we need to be responsible for dealers. The group will concentrate its main resources on the leading brands, but we will not relax our management and support for other brands. The final result also needs to be left to the market to verify and follow the market's natural law of survival of the fittest."
Shunhui Ceramic Tile Spokesperson Li Bingbing appeared in Foshan
In 2018 Autumn Ceramic Fair, Shuncheng's Shunhui signed Li Bingbing as its brand spokesperson who appeared in Foshan exhibition hall, warmed the "cold and cheerless" industry fair. "In the past, brands only paid attention to the quality of products, and twenty years of in-depth cultivation of product quality could not fully meet consumers' demand for brand awareness. However, Good Wine Needs No Bush. Under such circumstances, I began to do celebrity marketing, which gave considence to dealers and the market. Everyone is going through the market bottom and they say this is the time to hold on. But I think this is a good time to attack." Liang Deyun is a manager with a distinct style; with the "standing-out” strategies, it proves his concern about the brand of " Good Wine Needs No Bush ". He thinks that the slow time relying on word of mouth and word of mouth has passed. Celebrity marketing, sports marketing, overwhelming network and subway advertisements are all aimed at higher exposure to consumers on your products and brands, and hence reminding consumers of you and enhancing will of purchase at need. Again it signifies the importance of brand value and effect. "All the design, advertising and promotion are based on products in the final analysis. Without good products, it is just empty talk." Below his operation dish, Shuncheng had more sale to try, besides star sale, still wait for series sex action to also create the new era of brand sale of traditional pottery and porcelain industry with respect to cooperate with report contest thing.
In the Future, Traditional Ceramics Need to Progress with The Times
Standing still is certainly not the way for an enterprise to survive. The arrival of the era of Home 2.0 is causing a collision with the traditional ceramic industry. The advance with The Times of traditional ceramic tile, in Liang Deyun’s view, seems to be an inevitable trend, "the ceramic tile was a semi-finished product before. As our ceramic tile into everyone's custom conditions more and more mature, we have the ability to enter given the right opportunity; if we do a good job in the design channel, ceramic tile customization will have great potential.” Liang Deyun emphasizes the use of ceramic tile is in greater home industry also can be met more and more diversiform; the big slabs can be applied completely on desktop and shelf face that weakened the concept of traditional floor tiles and would replace the ceramic tile of traditional by board application.
"Make up what is missing" is what Liang Deyun said in the discussion of the relationship between design and ceramic tile industry. No matter the realization of customization or the upgrading of products, the key realization factors are pointed to the design. He said that design is becoming more and more important in the industry, but now the design capacity of the ceramic industry is insufficient, and more cooperation and development channels are needed in the future. This year, Shuncheng participated in Guangzhou Design Week, which laid a good foundation for the power design channel.
The development of design channels does not mean abandoning other channels. While opening up new horizons, retail channels should also be vigorously maintained and innovated. "In today's world where channels are essentially important, single channel is not enough for big enterprises," said Liang Deyun. "Only the joint development of multiple channels can realize the concept of channels being king." Partnering with Juran home, Red Star Macalline and other high-end home department malls is the next part of strategies. Meanwhile, the entry of high-end stores undoubtedly points to the competition with imported brands. In this regard, Liang Deyun said that Shuncheng aims to become a world-class constructional ceramics group, where foreign brands only serve as a supplement to the current market. Foreign designs in China will not easily "adapt to the environment". Only we rapidly improve our own design ability could help us take over the foreign brands in the domestic market.
The development of traditional ceramic industry cannot be separated from the changes of market channels and consumer demand. Advertising marketing, custom ceramic tile, design channel development is not empty talk; it is to solve the current market demand on the basis of high-quality products. Ceramic industry integration is the current market environment for the industry to put forward the inevitable requirements. "He who does not advance loses ground." The only way for traditional ceramics to survive is to find out the accurate orientation and make positive innovation. (Interview: Ye Lingju; Writing: Zhou Gabao)
Mr. Liang Deyun interviewed by sina home
Interview
Sina Home: 2018 Autumn Ceramic Fair, Shunhui Brand Spokesperson Li Bingbing appeared in Foshan exhibition hall and warmed"cold and cheerless" industry lively. Why do you choose to sign a large deal at this time spokesperson?
Liang Deyun: Every year we invite all the dealers for an annual meeting -- an internal meeting. Every step we make is voted by all the dealers. Why make such a big move? In the past, the brand only paid attention to the quality of products, and the in-depth cultivation of product quality in the past 20 years could not fully meet the needs of consumers for brand awareness, but the fragrance of wine is also afraid of the deep alley, under this circumstance, the start of star marketing is to give dealers and market confidence
Sina Home: Do you think ceramic industry is a traditional industry?
Liang Deyun: The ceramic industry is really a very traditional industry. Most people get involved in tiling for two or three times in their lives. In order to better understand products and brands, we used to rely purely on word of mouth, but today we have a variety of marketing means and advertising forms. That's why we do so much advertising.
Sina Home in: These two years are Shouting in domestic brand when the market is done hard, import brand is showing the posture of advance triumphantly instead in China, how do you see?
Liang Deyun: According to our data survey, this year, some imported brands grow rapidly and reach 100 million yuan; but these brands have a very narrow consumer group, which is also the purpose of our brand entering high-end stores. We also have docking with foreign designers, foreign design is not suitable for China, if it is completely copied from foreign things is not suitable. So, our own design must be strong.
Sina Home: as the trend that consumes upgrade, consumer group pays attention to the experience of service more and more, in experience and service this respect, how should traditional ceramic tile enterprise undertake promotion?
Liang Deyun: We implement the combination model of core store, main store and service store. In high-end and core stores, the image of the brand is displayed by the core stores. In the traditional building materials market, large areas of large stores are used to display the full range of products. The rest is the experience store.
Sina Home: Shuncheng group subordinate 7 brands of pottery and porcelain, how is your future development to them envisage?
Liang Deyun: I was deeply impressed by Dong Mingzhu's words when I just graduated and came back to China, "you have no worries after using my products." I hope my consumers and dealers share this concept. In terms of the strategy of the whole group, we will focus our main resources on the leading brands, but we will not loosen our management and support for other brands. The final result also needs to be left to the market to verify and follow the natural law of survival of the fittest in the market.
Standing still is certainly not the way for an enterprise to survive. The arrival of the era of Home 2.0 is causing a collision with the traditional ceramic industry. The advance with The Times of traditional ceramic tile, in Liang Deyun’s view, seems to be an inevitable trend, "the ceramic tile was a semi-finished product before. As our ceramic tile into everyone's custom conditions more and more mature, we have the ability to enter given the right opportunity; if we do a good job in the design channel, ceramic tile customization will have great potential.” Liang Deyun emphasizes the use of ceramic tile is in greater home industry also can be met more and more diversiform; the big slabs can be applied completely on desktop and shelf face that weakened the concept of traditional floor tiles and would replace the ceramic tile of traditional by board application.
Standing still is certainly not the way for an enterprise to survive. The arrival of the era of Home 2.0 is causing a collision with the traditional ceramic industry. The advance with The Times of traditional ceramic tile, in Liang Deyun’s view, seems to be an inevitable trend, "the ceramic tile was a semi-finished product before. As our ceramic tile into everyone's custom conditions more and more mature, we have the ability to enter given the right opportunity; if we do a good job in the design channel, ceramic tile customization will have great potential.” Liang Deyun emphasizes the use of ceramic tile is in greater home industry also can be met more and more diversiform; the big slabs can be applied completely on desktop and shelf face that weakened the concept of traditional floor tiles and would replace the ceramic tile of traditional by board application.