In recent years, the entry of imported brands has become the norm in the ceramic industry. Brands from Spain, Italy, Europe and other countries have begun to enter the Chinese market.
It has been more than 20 years since the earliest agent of imported ceramic tiles. The impression that imported ceramic tiles give to consumers in China is that they are high-end, temperamental, and artistic. Among many imported brands, there is such a The platform has attracted great attention from both inside and outside the industry.
HBI global imported ceramic tile selection platform, what is strict selection? ? What is a platform?
What makes HBI the focus of imported ceramic tiles? What is the story behind HBI?
China Ceramics Headquarters teamed up with Tencent Home Furnishing to come to HBI with the above questions, gain an in-depth understanding of the development history and story of HBI's carefully selected platform, and explore the team and leader behind HBI.
Mr. Wei Jiguo, founder of HBI platform and global chief selection officer
(The following is the transcript of the interview. For more exciting content, please pay attention to the public account "HBI Tiles")
01 Use one word to describe the industry trend in 2021?
"Challenge"
2021 will have a great impact on the entire ceramic industry. It is a very difficult year. From last year’s trade war and epidemic to this year’s situation, if I use one word to describe this year, I think it should be "challenge". For industries and enterprises, the recent power and production restrictions are also a big challenge. In particular, power and production restrictions have a direct impact on enterprises.
Ceramic tile production actually pays great attention to continuity. When continuity is broken for energy or other reasons, the price paid can be severe, with increased product costs for the entire industry. This impact is more obvious not only in China, but also in rising costs across Europe.
China plays an important role in today's world structure. When China faces such a huge challenge, it will eventually develop into a globalchallenges.
02 More and more imported ceramic tile brands are entering the market. What do you think of this phenomenon?
Survive by change
In the domestic ceramics industry in recent years, with the continuous concentration of leading brands, the homogeneous competition among middle and lower-end enterprises has become fierce. For many upstream and terminal sales, they hope to use imported brands to create differentiated competition, which is also complicated. It is a way to survive in the market through changes.
03 How do you think domestic imported brands will develop in the future?
Four Dimensions
I think that whether it is an imported brand or a domestic brand, if you want to take the mid-to-high-end field well, you need to do things in several dimensions in the future: the first is to create truly differentiated value products; the second is to do a good job in branding. Construction and promotion; the third is to focus on the empowerment of design; the fourth is to build delivery capabilities and service capabilities. Built from these four dimensions.
04What is the biggest difference between domestic and foreign consumers’ perceptions of imported brands?
Quality and Service
For consumers, ceramic tiles are of low concern. But after three years of our operation, we found that China's middle class and mid-to-high-end consumer groups have a comprehensive demand for imported ceramic tiles. The reason for this comprehensive demand is that they believe that imported brands are, to some extent, Both innovation and color have better performance, reflecting the needs of home furnishing taste.
We cannot say that imported ceramic tiles are the best, but imported ceramic tiles are indeed loved by many consumers in the market, regardless of quality and service.
05 Slate is currently popular at home and abroad. What do you think of the future development of slate?
Service system
As a revolutionary new material, HBI has been exploring the value of rock slabs. Since the birth of slate, the reason why many people have been skeptical about slate is that I think it may be that we have over-interpreted slate in terms of ceramic tiles. In fact, slate is not just an upgrade of ceramic tiles. As a new material, it requires a series of brand promotion, marketing, and implementation, all of which require the brand to create a comprehensive closed-loop system to support it.
The ability to deliver systems and operations requires time, and there is no shortcut to time. Slate has grown from one production line to hundreds of lines in China. We are making great progress on the manufacturing side, but we are lagging behind on the sales and implementation side. Slate is still a new material that deserves to be embraced and explored deeply. I think we need to be more patient and dig deeper into building service systems, delivery guarantees, brand capabilities, etc., to create a truly high-end, reliableDelivered service system.
06 Some people say that there is no such material as "rock board", and "rock board" is just a marketing term. What do you think?
Time will give the answer
"Stone slab" is actually just a Chinese word, or it can be said to be a name for a finished product of craftsmanship. So when we discuss this issue, we should actually discuss it from the production side. We should define whether it is a slate based on the material's formula composition and production mode. Nowadays, many people think that as long as it is produced by System or Sacmi and is larger than 2.4M, it is called slate.
There is currently no third-party organization in China to formulate standards. This is also the reason why slate slabs have different opinions and cognitive ambiguities, and it also brings some confusion to consumers. But I think that as time goes by, slate is still slate, and the market will eventually make its own choice. Of course, it is not ruled out that some immature slates have disrupted enterprises and the market in the past two years. After all, the advantages of slates lie in their plasticity and processability. If the quality is not up to standard, problems will arise. Therefore, rock slabs will still take time, and truly professional rock slabs will give the answer in the future.
07What process has HBI experienced in its three years of development?
It has been three years since HBI was established. We have done a lot, but the most important thing is that we have created a young, professional, and international headquarters operations team. From just a few people at the beginning, we now have a professional team. We are also constantly exporting systematic business models, internal system construction, and external promotion systems, and have achieved good results.
08 How do market consumers and dealers evaluate HBI?
Today, both the industry and clients believe that HBI is a brand new model, and the team is young and professional. Our founding genes have an international background. We adhere to the brand beliefs of health, boundlessness, and innovation, and build a young and international headquarters empowerment team in the industry.
09 What are the future plans for "Wei Lai·Yanxuan"?
"Wei Lai·Strict Selection" will continue. This column more represents the entire HBI team's hope to convey the team's observations and research on the industry to the outside world. What we have summarized is what we are currently doing and have done. things to do. It is also to let more people know that HBI is people-centered and end-user-oriented.Builder of new customer-centered business models.
Last year, this column mainly focused on the theme of careful selection. We not only carefully select products, we also carefully select people, partners, manufacturing, design and all-round resources. This is our internal future standard and the established system.
10What do you predict the future development of the industry will be?
This industry has been changing, and when companies face this change, they need more of a complete system. We cannot develop with products alone. We must develop channels, brands, and design empowerment. , delivery guarantee, etc. to create a youthful, professional and logical system from multiple dimensions. This is the core competitiveness that will serve terminals and agents well in the future.
11 With the new iteration of consumers, how will we attract young consumers in the future?
The iteration of the consumer era has never stopped. We at HBI are lucky. Since our establishment, we have targeted the post-80s and 90s consumer groups. I think it is difficult for a brand to serve all groups of people, and it must locate a precise customer group. We are currently targeting mid-to-high-end channels, and the biggest change among them is that their requirements for appearance are getting higher and higher.
Why do we propose strict selection? Only strict selection can ensure appearance. Today's industry does not lack products, brands, or manufacturing. What is really missing is a platform that can understand the needs of Chinese consumers. Only a complete system platform can do this, and this is what we have been doing our best to do.
