Stone slabs are a hot topic that people in the ceramics circle cannot avoid, and have long dominated the headlines and hot spots in the media. The second online forum of the 2021 China Slate Summit was hosted by Bai Shenrong, the founder of "Stone Show". Zou Degen, General Manager of the Marketing Center of Zhongsheng Group, Deng Shaoqing, General Manager of Ouwen Lai Stone Slab Division, Huang Jianhua, General Manager of Hongtao Slate, Zhang Xiang, director of the Gold Medal Enterprise Slate Material Center, was a guest at the forum, and everyone had a heated discussion on the theme of "Stone Slab Marketing Road - Exploration, Positioning, and Gaining Momentum". This article summarizes the wonderful discussions and opinions of the guests:
"The Road to Slate Marketing - Exploration, Positioning, and Gaining Momentum" from left to right are: Bai Shenrong, Deng Shaoqing, Zou Degen, Huang Jianhua, Zhang Xiang
/ Is 2021 the first year of Chinese rock slabs? /
Bai Shenrong: 2020 is the first year of rock slabs! How is 2021 going?
Zhang Xiang: There is no doubt that the future trend of rock slabs will be an outlet and a turning point for the entire ceramic industry.
I think it can be divided into three stages: First, rock slabs are a new thing. In the first stage, "Look at the mountains, they are mountains." There are people making rock slabs, and there is an outlet, and everyone is rushing to get started; in fact, the industry has entered the second stage. At this stage, "Looking at the mountain is not the mountain." So far, many companies do not necessarily make money by making rock slabs. It requires a process and encounters many difficulties. They will pay a lot of tuition. At this stage, everyone is actually very confused. , a dilemma;
In the future, I think it will return to the "mountain or mountain" stage. Now it is a chaotic situation. I think it will be sorted out soon and popularized soon. In the future, the proportion of slate in the ceramic industry will gradually expand.
Huang Jianhua: Is 2020 the first year of slate? What is the difference between it and 2021? What will be the trend in 2021? I think this can be discussed from three directions: the brand side, the manufacturing side, and the circulation side.
First, the manufacturing side. The rise of slate is due to the recognition on the manufacturing side that slate is a flexible material. As a "universal" material, it can be applied to many fields across borders. In 2021, the previous passive development type will be changed. After 2021, there should be more active development and active manufacturing on the manufacturing side.
The second one is the circulation side. The business model will become clearer in 2021. In fact, the channels for rock slabs are not clear now. The sales models of various manufacturers for rock slabs, orThe business model is also unclear. We only have manufacturing rights, but no control over distribution and application channels, and our control over channels is relatively weak. I think the rock slab industry will become increasingly clear about how to sell and use it in 2021. The third is on the brand side. I think that in 2021, brands will be given more things other than materialization, such as design dominance, such as application processing capabilities, such as floor installation capabilities. From the product logic, there will be industry-specific solutions. plan. Generally speaking, I think 2021 is the first year of rock slabs.
Zou Degen, General Manager of Zhongsheng Group Marketing Center
Bai Shenrong: Slate is trying various cross-border, wholesale, OEM, and distributor channels. We are exploring various channels. What changes will these channels undergo in 2021? How to focus, or differentiate?
Zou Degen: I agree with the views of the previous two bosses. I think 2021 is the first year of rock slabs. This year will definitely be divided, and of course it will be focused. The industry is still being explored, and may be divided into two poles this year. One pole is the branding industry that previously chose customers in the market, mainly engaged in engineering and home decoration retail. Now several companies have been established, and the other part is the comparison of production capacity. If it is large, it may be completely used as a kind of material and adopt the OEM and wholesale model. In other words, the current Foshan platform has a trend of gradually de-platforming. The industry as a whole is: both differentiated and focused.
Deng Shaoqing: Ceramic companies are divided into two categories: one specializes in OEM, and the other specializes in branding. What a company does depends on its genes, and it does what it is good at. Genes also determine what channels you choose, and channels are closely related to your customers. In the current environment, some brand companies may do OEM in order to survive. Even if they do OEM, the quality must be consistent with the brand.
/Ceramic thinking making rock slabs is a pain point, but also an opportunity/
Bai Shenrong: Slate is still a new thing, and there is a shortage of professional talents in the industry. Using "ceramic thinking to make slate" may actually be a harm to the industry, or it may be a pain point that restricts the industry.
Zou Degen: Actually, I think using ceramic thinking to make rock slabs is a pain point, but it is also an opportunity. Because most of the stone customers have no brand concept, no specialty stores, no systematic thinking about ceramic brands, and no team. It is precisely our ceramic industry that has such a gene, that is, terminal brand building. Our team is available in engineering, retail, home decoration and other channels, and the development of stone is mainly in the engineering field and processing. I think talents in the ceramic industry have the ability to make rock slabs, and even drive the interest in the stone industry.Transformation and upgrading of industry and customers. It has both ceramics and slate and stone capabilities. I don’t think it’s a pain point, I think it’s an opportunity.
Huang Jianhua: First, the industry lacks talents, but what is it lacking even more? We don’t lack marketing thinking, nor do we lack marketing talents. In fact, what we lack more is design and research and development. Rock slabs can be divided into: decorative slabs, furniture slabs, and stone slabs.
Decorative boards can be understood as larger-sized ceramic tiles. They are actually an intermediate product between stone customers and ceramic customers. In other words, this decorative board is what we often call large rock slabs. Furniture boards are usually referred to as specification boards, mainly under 2 meters in size. Stone slabs, such as 2.6-meter thick slabs, 15-meter thick slabs, or 20-meter thick slabs, such as 1.6 meters, 2.7 meters, and 3.2 meters. As the birthplace of rock slabs, ceramic companies lack research and development. Until now, many companies don't understand why they need to produce 1.6 meters and 3.2 meters. Where are they used? Because we lack penetration into the market. To a certain extent, what we lack more is the application trend of the overall market and the ability to penetrate channels.
What our industry lacks most is not thinking, but the ability to link across industries to implement it into product systems. We lack R&D and design, and we tend to develop and accept passively. This is not to say that "making rock slabs with ceramic thinking" is not possible. I think it is necessary to strengthen research on related industries. Each industry should give full play to its own advantages and do its best in each segment.
Deng Shaoqing, general manager of Owen Lai Slate Business Department
Bai Shenrong: Some companies have established several business divisions for panelization and home furnishing. The materials division includes the home furnishing division, and there may be more divisions with different names. The first question is, how do you view this phenomenon? Second, if we choose the agency system, will the agency system conflict with existing channels? How to resolve the conflict?
Deng Shaoqing: There are roughly two pieces of rock slab, one is just one. It is a decorative surface material, and what it pursues more is the decorative effect. The other piece is decorative materials for home furnishings. For example, the application space of ceramics, walls, floors, and many background walls now are the application space of rock slabs. The other one is on cabinet countertops, dining table countertops, office desk countertops, and TV countertops. The application of this kind of countertop is also a very large space for slate. To make rock slabs, we need to understand the needs of customers in each channel, what their pain points are, and what they need. Often our manufacturing companies have a way of doing this: you sell what I do. Many ceramic companies are like this. He said: I use various technologies to make great products. You can sell them. In fact, what stone customers want more is what do I need?Well, what can you provide me with? For example, in terms of stone performance, I want to make a washed surface or a carved surface. Then I need these things. Can you provide them? I think this is a reverse. No matter which channel you choose, consumers have to do research, so we say it is very necessary to establish a sheet metal department and a home furnishing division. The sheet metal department can even be subdivided. Those who make ceramic pathways, stone pathways, and cabinets and countertops all have different needs. You may need to set up three departments to do this. There are specialties in the industry, and professional people can do professional things to achieve the best results. Speaking of the agency system, ceramic customers and stone customers are operated separately. Among the original ceramic customers, rock slabs are only a category of ceramics, probably mainly for background walls. They are not floor-to-ceiling. Compared with stone customers, they do not have water jets. What they sell is design and decorative effects, and processing is possible. It is 5%; if you are making furniture or stone, 100% of it must be processed, and you need stone customers to do it.
Deng Shaoqing: We used to make ceramics but continue to make rock slabs. This rock slab is just a category, a category of ceramic tiles. I think this is actually the case. Like we used to sell 900, 1.8 meters, 700, 1.5 meters, then now we sell 1.2 meters, 2.4 meters, it just got bigger. Now after selling for 5 or 6 years, the bricks just got bigger. I used to be very mature. If I market something that I am very good at, then the chance of success is very high. It’s just that the size is large, that’s all. If he wants to make things like countertops or coffee tables, the cost for him to do it is at least several times higher than the cost for local stone customers to make slates. There is no way to compete, so there is no need to do it. Try another industry, there is no need to make this money, you do what you are best at.
Ceramics and stone are now in the explosive period of rock slabs. Several bosses have just said that this is the first year, and there may be conflicts. They will try each other. Those who make ceramics want to come to the field of stone. Can I get a share? I want to get a piece of the pie, and I want to get into ceramics by making stone, and see if I can get a share of the market.
All issues must be decided by the market and consumers.
Zhang Xiang: As the first enterprise to enter the slate industry, Gold Medal Enterprise has a relatively deep research and understanding of slate. Especially me, the entire Gold Medal Asia, from the ceramic tile department to the slate home furnishing department, I basically set up the slate material department from scratch, especially the slate home furnishing department and the material department. In fact, I still have a certain understanding of these channels and customers, so I am also a simple person here. Express it.
The birth of the material slate is actually a very subtle thing. It concentrates the properties of many materials, such as ceramic tiles, stone, quartz stone, artificial stone, etc., so its material is not limited to a certain one at all. The field and channels are very wide. Why can’t traditional ceramic tile dealers now maximize the functionality of this slate?Dahua actually determines the various properties of this rock slab material. Different specifications and thicknesses are completely different in different application spaces. For example, where is 3 mm used? Do you mean it is attached to the ground? It’s unrealistic. It must be used on doors or walls. Where are 6 mm, 9 mm, 12 mm, 15 mm, or even 20 mm used? The properties of the material determine the scope of its application, so it also determines its channel. different.
For example, Gold Medal was derived from the ceramic tile department and the original independent brand to Gold Medal Asian Slate Home Furnishings. It was because traditional dealers didn’t know what to do with the boards after taking them. We made specific specifications for them. With a thickness of 9 mm, it can be placed on the wall or on the floor. It satisfies traditional ceramic tile dealers to use it as a sales channel for large bricks. It will be easy to use, but if it is allowed to be used for the whole house, or for home, then he would be dizzy. Slate has this property, so what should we do? So we provide another channel, such as making quartz stone, or stone processing. For example, 12 mm thick can be used for various home furnishings, 15 mm thick can be used for counter tops, and 3 mm can be used for door panels. These customers only get this thing from you. Only then do you know how to play. When you go to a terminal store or a ceramic tile store, these things you see are basically sold as bricks. So now many dealers are doing one thing, trying to re-make it through slate. The business segment has been extended and is also engaged in the processing segment.
But there are a group of dealers who are testing the waters, but what is the result? From the current point of view, I think it is not very ideal. Professional people do professional things. The money earned from the ceramic tile sector itself is marketing money, which is to make profits by doubling a piece of rock slab through marketing means. Processing companies do not rely on this thing. There is not much cost. Just take one slab and You may add 200 yuan to sell it, and then earn processing fees. It has the ability to deliver. The biggest problem why rock slabs can be made well is delivery, so when we make materials from the source, we will also differentiate. Therefore, many different images are presented at the terminal. For example, our ceramic tile dealer sells Gold Medal Asian Ceramics. Is there any slate inside? Yes, but the thickness we designed for it must be suitable for home decoration, mainly home decoration, but we are in the same market outside, maybe in a certain store, and we have another dealer next door who represents Gold Medal Asia Rock For slab furniture, there will be no ceramic tiles inside, not even sizes below 1.2 meters. They will all be rock slabs. The interior will contain more materials plus some finished furniture, forming a concept called "visible and ready for sale in the store." When you go to my store, you can buy either my bricks or my furniture, which is another way to face a new market.
We also have another form called processing. We may be a customer of a processing factory in a certain corner of the same city. What does he use these boards for? He sells furniture through his specific channels and can do processing. In this sector, it may really be like what we said, what is the branding and materialization of rock slabs? Branding is meWhen talking about slate home furnishings and ceramic tiles, the brand is presented in the store. The processing is de-branding, or semi-de-branding. It is only presented as a material on a certain finished product, or as a part. It can only be done in this way. Planting plates. So why must slate be subdivided into channels in the future? To what extent? It can be subdivided into home furnishings, kitchens and bathrooms, and bathrooms. The applications of each sector are different. This market will be very extensible in the future. I think rock slab has really just started. It still has a long, long way to go. It’s just that some companies have started first.
Huang Jianhua, General Manager of Hongtao Slate
Bai Shenrong: What conditions must a dealer of slate slabs meet? What is the difference between a ceramic dealer and a slate dealer?
Deng Shaoqing: The theme of the last summit we contacted was called "How does a rock slab fly to the sky and land on the ground"? I think the most important thing for rock slab dealers who want to make rock slabs is to have the ability to implement them. There are two aspects to the implementation capability: hardware, including factory buildings and processing equipment. In the past, bridge cutting was a single knife, but now it is a double knife, called bridge cutting, and there is also a water jet, etc. Another very important thing in hardware is capability resources, that is, you must have functions. In terms of software, dealers must have the same values and outlook as us. Only with consistent values can we jointly expand the market.
How is it different from traditional ceramic dealers? Traditional ceramic dealers do not have the ability to implement or deliver. After taking on this kind of business, they will eventually have to use stone customers with processing capabilities to help them do the implementation work. So for ceramic dealers, if you want to make stone slabs For home furnishing, if you want to go into this market, you must upgrade your equipment. At present, you can just sell rock slabs as large-sized ceramic tiles.
Huang Jianhua: From a product logic point of view, dealers of slate slabs should treat them differently. Taking Hongtao as an example, there are several types of dealers for slate slabs. The first type involves the original dealers of ceramic tiles with sizes below 2 meters. All products are left to the original ceramic tile dealers. There are also channels for cabinets and home furnishings. Product agents and product channel building are completed by different groups of people.
Taking furniture panels as an example, our current requirements for customers and dealers to select furniture panels are often not only circulation capabilities, but also processing capabilities. Of course, the most important thing is the ability to produce panels to core furniture factories. To enter the supply chain of leading furniture factories, you must have self-processing capabilities and warehousing capabilities.
For some larger size rock slabs, we often require screening among the original stone customers. The first one is the manufacturer of artificial stone. The second type is customization. Customization is different from OEM. Traditional dealers can become agents for one category of rock slabs, while others choose different customers based on the nature of the product and have different requirements.
Zhang Xiang, Director of the Gold Medal Enterprise Slate Material Center
/The volume of rock slabs is small, it is normal to reach 100 billion/
Bai Shenrong: In fact, the existing ceramic dealers are just one of our sectors. Mr. Deng has also always mentioned the implementation capabilities. When you mentioned solutions, the two concepts are actually similar. The sixth topic is that slate has received certain market education at the terminal, but in fact, the current total volume is still a relatively small proportion compared to the hundreds of billions in the entire ceramic industry. What kind of breakthrough development do you think will happen next?
Zhang Xiang: Actually, I think the size of the rock slabs is not very important at present. What I want to say more is that slate is growing very fast in China. The current market share is completely beyond expectations three years ago. It is inevitable that the share will become larger and larger in the future. How to make it bigger?
First of all, it must open up the upstream and downstream. How to open up the entire slate at the terminal, that is, channels and delivery.
Second, I think there is more need for some upstream home furnishing companies to transform their materials. For example, in the past, quartz stone and stone were used more for countertops, but now the proportion of slate is gradually increasing, and inside the home Products such as dining tables, TV cabinets, and coffee tables have an increasing market share. When these large upstream home furnishing companies make a change in material selection, I think the improvement of slate will be very large. The third aspect, I think, is more about the actual engineering application of rock slabs, because engineering applications may be in many places, especially in Southwest China and Chengdu, where they have more and more opportunities to use rock slabs for engineering projects. .
Zou Degen: The volume of rock slabs will definitely continue to rise, because everyone knows that rock slabs can replace, or there are too many cross-border fields, whether in the engineering field, it can replace ceramic tiles, quartz stone, etc. The quantity is a market process of consumer education and cultivation. I think this time should not be very long. I think it will be basically popular in the next 3-5 years. The volume is huge. For example, the volume difference between natural stone and ceramic tiles is about 400 billion a year. If it is 400 billion, I think we account for at least 1/3 of the natural stone field. Can achieve a market worth hundreds of billions. The second is the engineering field, the commercial field, such as real estate. I used to make artificial stone. I know that artificial stone for real estate. For a single Evergrande, it costs more than 100 million a year to use washbasins and bay windows. . In the home furnishing field, this volume is very large. When replacing glass and wood veneer panels, this volume is also very large., whether it is a dining table, coffee table, TV cabinet, etc. I think this volume will be very large in the next 3-5 years. In the future, slate will be the best material for decoration. It can be used for integrated bathroom spaces and floors. Now ceramic tiles can be completely made of slate. Upper walls, floors, kitchens and bathrooms, and all spaces can be made of slate. It is the most ideal material for decoration in the future. Materials, that's my opinion.
Bai Shenrong, founder of rock panel show
/Consolidation and customization of rock slabs to escape the quagmire of price war/
Bai Shenrong: I mentioned branding and plate-based products earlier. How can rock slabs increase their added value? How to avoid price wars?
Huang Jianhua: I think branding and plate-making are not the same concept and do not conflict. The so-called sheet metalization corresponds to integration. Selling slabs is not a bad phenomenon, it will become a norm in the rock slab industry.
Other industries can also learn from it. For example, Lesso is also engaged in engineering. Can this prevent Lesso from becoming a leader in the pipeline industry? However, it is necessary to increase the added value. The current chaos in many rock slabs is caused by two reasons. The first is the overwhelming production capacity. The manufacturing rights are in the hands of ceramic factories, but the application and circulation rights are not in our manufacturers. Hands, so this will become a kind of anxiety.
Second, the industry is in chaos because many slate manufacturers have no self-discipline and require ultra-low prices for some very large orders. This is to avoid absolute plate-forming, that is, to have a clearer control over the product sales form, such as whether you are doing inventory or customization.
Deng Shaoqing: I think selling panels is very good, and there is nothing wrong with it. As a manufacturing company, what we have to do is to sell panels. Don’t do cross-border business, don’t do things like furniture. You can’t compete with others. You Don't try to disrupt another industry.
I think we are now trapped in such a state, a vicious cycle, which in the end will drive down the prices of the entire industry. So I think in this area, whether it is an enterprise, whether it is a platform customer, or an OEM customer, even if we are OEM, we must also display the brand standard, that is, we must maintain the price, system, and ecology well, and The life cycle of rock slabs is extended. We don’t need so many things. We just said it will only start this year. If you don’t do it, it will be over next year. For slate, I think its life cycle will exist normally in the future, based on a stable market.
Zou Degen: I think in order to avoid low prices for rock slabs, I have a suggestion or what I think will be the future trend, which is what I just mentioned, the integration of rock slabs. Now when selling at terminals, go into specialty stores or use sales plans. To sell, you may go to the material properties. Maybe you give me a space, and the terminal is design + marketing, or it is an application + marketing model to sell, and I may sell it in the form of materials.You, maybe you can give me the floor plan, and I can give you the overall solution design and packaging, from design, construction to installation. In the future, I think cooperation between rock slabs and decoration may be a better route. I think this may be a better way to avoid getting into a price war.
Zhang Xiang: I think in any industry or field, price wars are unavoidable, especially for things like slate. Consumers themselves don’t know enough about slate, so he also It is impossible to distinguish between what is good and what is bad, and this concept is also very vague even within our industry.
I think it’s better to be yourself, because if you try to influence others, it’s useless. People say I’m starving to death. If you talk to me about this thing, you can only say that the Chinese market is huge, but the current share of rock slabs is not very high. Large, the production at the source is explosive, so problems suddenly arise in the supply chain, and problems arise in the relationship between supply and demand. In the future, as the share of rock slabs increases, it will become stable. Slate must first do a good job on itself, gradually establish a brand, and pull itself out of those chaos, so that it can do its own set of solid branding and price systems. I think there is basically no need to do so. Too big a problem.
Bai Shenrong: He will go through some periods of survival, confusion, and then development. He needs to go through various periods.
Zhang Xiang: Slate is now only 1.0, and there is still a long way to go. Many aspects of technology and thickness can be upgraded, so there is still a long way to go. We must have enough profits to drive us to innovate. Rather than just drowning in the price war.
