Special price dishes (eat), special price clothes (wear), special price facial tissue (use)... In today's era, whether in physical stores or online shopping platforms, special price products are everywhere and have long become an indispensable part of people's lives. .
The so-called special products generally refer to the products sold at a discount by manufacturers or stores based on their marketing strategies to cater to consumers' pursuit of high quality and low price.
The building ceramics industry also has special products - special price bricks; however, it is different from special products in the general sense.
Next, Brother Chan will try to explain it from three aspects.
1. Sources of mixed results
There are many sources of discount bricks, including but not limited to the following categories:
The first is the offset bricks used by construction and ceramics companies to offset the payments owed to suppliers. The reason for the emergence of such products is that there are problems in the capital chain of construction and ceramics enterprises and they are unable to repay the raw material payments owed to suppliers, so they use products to offset them. Most of them are high-quality products with no quality problems.
The second is the high-quality products eliminated by the construction and ceramics companies. Such products usually occupy inventory due to factors such as outdated designs and slow sales, and are therefore among the products that are eliminated. However, their quality is the same as that of high-quality products that are normally sold, and there are no quality problems.
The third is first-class products and qualified products handled by building ceramics enterprises. It is reported that first-class products of big brands are generally not sold to dealers. Most of them are contracted to special-price brick merchants. Since the quality is relatively stable and the price is quite low, the profit margin is very large; as for qualified products, insiders As we all know, if the quality cannot be guaranteed, the goods will not be sold on the market, and its final flow cannot be known.
The fourth is the inventory products of bankrupt construction and ceramics companies auctioned by the court. This type of product is a stock product, and urgent processing, the types should be relatively complex, and the quality is difficult to guarantee.
In addition to the above four categories, the sources of special-price bricks include OEM bricks, engineering sample bricks, etc. The situation is complicated and there are many.
Regarding the proportion of various sources of special price bricks, some media articles have mentioned it before. But to be honest, Brother Chan doesn't really believe in those data; even the government statistics may not be reliable, let alone the data obtained from anonymous interviews with the person in charge of the discount brick merchants? The reason why I mention this issue is mainly to express that the responsible persons of the interviewed special-price brick merchants emphasized that the special-price bricks with reliable quality account for a large proportion of the special-price bricks they sell, and their intention to "sell melons" is obvious.
The source of good and bad is not the quality of all special bricks at all.
2. Seemingly reasonable existence
The great German philosopher Hegel said: "Existence is reasonable." In Change's view, special-price bricks also have their own value and significance, and they play at least four functions:
First, mortgage payment. Help ceramic construction companies that are temporarily unable to pay their suppliers to tide over the difficulties.
Second, eliminate inventory. Help the ceramic construction companies whose products have been sold out to withdraw funds.
Third, it supports a group of businesses. It should be noted that the merchants mentioned here are different from those mentioned above. They not only include trading companies that specialize in purchasing special-price bricks from construction and ceramics companies, but also include dealers in various places who operate both regular channel brand bricks and special-price bricks. .
Fourth, some consumers who buy bricks have benefited. Of course, the consumers who benefit must be those who buy discounted bricks that pass the quality standard such as debt offset bricks and phased-out high-quality products.
About the fourthPoint, it is necessary to say a few more words. If consumers who plan to buy bricks on sale are lucky enough to buy products of acceptable quality, they will naturally save money and be happy. What if you buy something of poor quality? Not only will there be no benefit, but the gain will outweigh the loss, because a considerable number of dealers selling special-price bricks do not provide after-sales service or have very poor after-sales service. There are many cases of consumers buying substandard bricks at a low price and later regretting it.
If you want the product quality to pass the standard, the best way is of course to go to a regular store of the ceramic tile brand to buy it. The price must be extremely low, the quality must be excellent, and the brand must be big. How can we get such benefits? There is only one way: dream.
Having said that, although the quality cannot be guaranteed, the price is cheap after all. Due to the greed of human nature, coupled with the four major functions mentioned above, in a sense, the existence of special price bricks has its own reason.
However, I have to say it again.
They are not produced to benefit consumers, and may also cause consumers to suffer losses. It is destined that special price bricks are just a seemingly reasonable existence, but there is no reason for their existence.
3. Huge hidden dangers
Since the quality of special-priced bricks varies greatly, and they are often criticized by consumers, it is inevitable to talk about their harm.
First of all, it causes harm to consumers. This has been stated above and needs to be emphasized again. As the saying goes, "You can only buy wrong, but you can never sell wrong." Due to information asymmetry between buyers and sellers, consumers are always a vulnerable group. How many times can a person renovate his house in his lifetime? If you buy bricks on sale that have quality or other problems, you will have to regret it for a long time?
Secondly, it has caused harm to businesses. The merchants mentioned here refer to dealers who mainly deal in regular brand bricks and also deal in special-price bricks, or who only deal in regular brand bricks and not special-price bricks. For dealers who have been operating special price bricks for a long time, their vision, pattern and level will be greatly reduced by the special price bricks. In the short term,Although there are profits, the losses are not insignificant in the long run; for dealers who have never operated special-price bricks, special-price bricks will seriously affect their target customer groups and have a huge impact on their sales channels.
Furthermore, it has caused harm to the ecosystem of the entire building ceramics industry. This is by no means alarmist. Everyone in the industry knows that "it is easy to reduce prices but difficult to increase prices" is a significant feature of the building ceramics industry. The proliferation of special-priced bricks for many years will inevitably lead to dealers and consumers becoming "dependent" on them: for dealers, it is In addition to selling special tiles at low prices, I have forgotten how to sell regular-priced tiles; for consumers, if they don't buy the special tiles, they will suffer a big loss. The ceramic tile market, which has already been disrupted by special price tiles, will continue to deteriorate; this is not the most terrible thing. The most terrible thing is that consumers who are immersed in a consumer environment full of special-priced bricks, or dealers who are accustomed to selling special-priced bricks, or the ceramic tile market that is impacted by special-priced bricks, are forcing ceramics companies to enter the market. The development track is changing from "high price and high quality" to "medium price and medium quality" and then to "low price and low quality".
A senior ceramic tile salesman told Brother Chan that in order to cater to the trend of pursuing special and low prices in the ceramic tile market, some ceramic construction companies have to reduce production costs again and again, thus objectively causing product quality of decline.
To sum up, in some literary terms: the dangers of special price bricks are more powerful than tigers and more poisonous than snakes.
No wonder that at the "One City, One Activity" sharing and exchange meeting of the China Ceramics Network Terminal Research (Fuzhou Station) that Brother Chan participated in, many participating dealers raised strong doubts about the quality of special-priced bricks, and used selling special-priced bricks as a shame.
How long can the special bricks survive? How long will the good days of discount brick merchants last?
Even if the disappearance of special-price bricks and discount brick merchants is an inevitable rule for the development of the building ceramics industry, they will continue to exist in the next few years or even longer, and may even develop further.
Thinking of this, and then thinking that in the next few years, there will be more construction and ceramics companies taking the lead in the industry.Dongxia has been eliminated from the stage of history, causing more bargain-priced bricks to flow into the market, impacting the market, and corroding the market. I believe many knowledgeable people will be worried.
