On the afternoon of October 28, the 2022 (Second) Ceramic Industry Product Manager Conference with the theme of "Making Space High-Definition Materials" was held at the Foshan Ceramics Headquarters Base Theater Officially held.
Tang Chongxi, Vice President of China Industrial Design Association, Dr. Yin Hong, Secretary General of Foshan Ceramics Industry Association, China representative of the Italian National Institute of Organic Architecture, well-known designer Aioluo Tomassoni, high-end brands of Oppein Home Furnishing Miform Product R&D Director Li Chuanhu, Guangzhou Kepler Design Institute founder Xiao Xiong, HBI founder Wei Jiguo, 8:30 Design founder Han Yanwei, Huaxia Ceramics Network Chief Editor Lao Niu and other guests attended, and attracted a number of industry leaders, product Nearly 200 industry professional elites, including R&D managers, design and R&D personnel, attended the meeting.
This event is hosted by Huaxia Ceramics Network, Foshan Ceramics Industry Association, and co-sponsored by HBI. It is also supported by China Ceramics Headquarters and China Slate New Material Exhibition and Procurement Base. In addition, the event was also supported by the full live broadcast of Huaxia Ceramics Network, Gengjia, and Gengyou, attracting thousands of people to watch online.
It is worth mentioning that if the first product manager conference only unveiled the veil of product managers, then this version 2.0 product manager conference further tells everyone how to reconstruct from all aspects, including ours talents, our R&D system, our cognition and thinking.
Therefore, in the organization of the content of this conference, there are valuable R&D logic experience from customized home furnishing giants, as well as the unique insights of professional third-party design service representatives on the market and fashion trends, as well as the rising industry trends in recent years. Star representatives’ sincere questioning and suggestions on industry development, as well as in-depth research brought by senior media people and observers who have been based in the industry for thirty years...
Obviously, with every selection of guests and content, the conference strives to bring a more professional and in-depth content feast to the audience from different dimensions.
In particular, the wonderful speeches of Li Chuanhu and Xiao Xiong, two heavyweight guests from the cross-border home furnishing industry, made some audience members "complain": There is too much dry information and they have to go back and digest it slowly.
Theme film of the 2nd Ceramic Industry Product Manager Conference 2022
01/
Dr. Yin Hong: The hottest products are often short-lived Those that you don’tProducts that are too promising will last longer
·Dr. Yin Hong, Secretary General of Foshan Ceramics Industry Association
It is now 2022, but the crisis we are facing is not yet over. In an era of ups and downs of crises, I think it is unrealistic for everyone to still expect "improvement."
But no matter what, everyone needs to survive. How to survive? At the end of this year, I will launch "Insights 2023", which contains the views and opinions of many industry leaders. I believe everyone will gain insights after reading it.
Today is the second product manager conference. From last year to this year, in the most difficult era of the ceramic industry, I think that through such an opportunity, let everyone collide with each other and create more sparks, it will undoubtedly be a blessing to us. Promote the development and changes of the industry accordingly.
At the same time, this also reminds us that what we need to do is to return to the essence of business, and the other is to return to product quality. Product is a very abstract and broad concept, and at any time, perhaps the most popular and profitable products are short-lived, while perhaps those products that you are not very optimistic about can continue to develop.
02/
Tang Chongxi:
Industrial design should not just follow but should guide business and consumption
·Tang Chongxi, Vice President of China Industrial Design Association
I am very happy to participate in our conference today. Today I was invited by the conference organizing committee to talk about design issues.
What is industrial design? We often start a lot of work without clearly defining the definition, which is counterproductive.
Industrial design is to create a new, more scientific, more reasonable, and healthier way of life. Our high-end space materials are aimed at creating a new way of life. This is reflected in the definition of industrial design. The core comes outThe value of the heart. Of course, people like it, and ease of use, ease of use, and practicality are the most basic things in our design.
Industrial design should study people, but not everything should be centered on them. It should also study the environment and design for the future of mankind. I think we are now entrepreneurs who need to understand and understand the essence of industrial design more. Secondly, an industry must have a sense of teamwork.
For example, from the late 1970s to the early 1980s, the Toyota Motor Factory in Japan sent 100 people to the Mercedes-Benz Motor Factory for practical training, but they did not send elites, including designers, engineers, technicians, etc., once every three years. Change, 100 people every year, and then Toyota will develop greatly. Why? Because he brought back the entire series, and we often send out an elite who cannot be connected with the group to form a system. Therefore, we should not focus on one thing, but should develop it comprehensively and systematically.
Without basic research, innovation is water without a source. Basic research is very important. For example, when we design the toilet panel, we must consider the shape of Chinese people's buttocks. You have to collect the shape of Chinese people's buttocks. We collected more than a thousand samples to form a number, then made it into plaster, hung it all over the wall, and finally synthesized it on the computer to make a panel. This would meet the needs of the Chinese people, not the American Kohler. Big is better, and it is flat, not based on our hip muscles. This is what basic research needs to do.
Finally, what I want to say is that when most people are still immersed in traditional theories and traditional lifestyles, as designers and entrepreneurs, we should have the ability to awaken this group of people instead of turning ourselves into Cheng waited for someone to wake him up.
03/
Li Chuanhu:
IPD system: demand-oriented development process Every link is supervised and verified by the market
·Miform Product R&D Director Li Chuanhu gave a keynote speech on "Customized Product R&D Management Logic"
Today I will share with you some insights into the product development logic of customized home furnishings.
First of all, when we make products, we ask ourselves four questions:The first is who we develop for, what we develop, how we develop, and how our R&D design is truly completed. We carry out the final closed loop of product development with these four questions.
First of all, we must clearly know who we are developing for, because only if our customers can pay for it can our products be truly successfully developed. Otherwise, no one wants our products and they are worthless. And this also requires us to first understand consumers, study consumers, and even lead consumers.
Oppein’s entire brand positioning includes full coverage from high-end, mid-to-high-end and mid-end, so we will know very well which brand we serve, which kind of customer we serve, and our products We can conduct in-depth research and development to better meet the real needs of customers.
So, after we find the target group, the next step is how to impress or even lead consumers?
What do consumers really need? Let us summarize in two sentences: integrated design and one-stop solution. But this has not yet reached a state where it can be done by one company. It is more about the integration of supporting equipment, but one-stop design and integrated design are definitely a trend in the future, and we will develop in this direction.
Oppein has many divisions of labor and many institutions in R&D, and we also have a mature IPD system to support our R&D logic.
The IPD system is a demand-oriented customized product development process, from the initial R&D and demand management to R&D planning, design, and solution design, all the way to the entire product iteration and product management.
We all follow this process, and each link will be supervised by the upper and lower levels, and each link will be verified by the market. Only after this is implemented, our products can truly reach the market and reach the market. If these things are not completed at the terminal, there will definitely be a large number of unqualified products and recalls at the terminal. This thing no longer exists in our customization industry.
We also adopted the product manager model relatively early, so everything in the product organization structure is conducted by product managers from market research to product promotion. There is a product manager in the entire process to control the life of each product. Cycle management.
Of course, this entire system is also quite complex. It is basically impossible to complete this thing by one person and one organization. Therefore, informatization is definitely the most critical link in supporting our entire R&D system.
Finally, I will answer the last question just now, which isWhat is the sign that R&D and design is completed? What we advocate is that what you see is what you get, what you feel is what you want, design is manufacturing, and manufacturing is service.service.
04/
Xiao Xiong:
Thinking about design from the future: “Four Keywords” and “Seven Hot Words in 2023”
·Xiao Xiong, founder of Guangzhou Kepler Design Agency, gave a keynote speech on "Insights on Home Space Design Trends in 2022-2023"
Our entire section today is divided into three contents, interpreting Chinese design trends, reviewing the 60th Milan Furniture Fair, and predicting future design trends in 2023.
Before talking about the China Design Trend Report, we first ask three questions: What kind of product design is in line with future market trends? What are the factors that influence trends? What trends are suitable for consumers in the Chinese market?
In a report released by an authoritative organization, some changes in China's design trends were summarized from four dimensions: driven by cultural identity, driven by simplicity and comfort, driven by scientific and technological exploration, and driven by young personality. And this also corresponds to thefour major keywords, including ethnic orientation, sense of imbalance, digital posthumanity, and appearance anxiety.
What does it mean? Take "sense of imbalance" as an example. The epidemic has been bothering everyone since 2020. What it is talking about is that in such a general environment, they are in a state of anxiety and discomfort. These are actually the things that everyone may be experiencing at the moment. It is a kind of psychological change that we have experienced. These changes really make us think about what kind of lifestyle is a healthy lifestyle, and what kind of lifestyle is in line with our relationship with nature, health, and the balanced development of the world.
From this point, as a designer, we are also thinking about this issue, because what we are designing is the space and products of our home furnishing company. These products will be applied to thousands of households in the future, so how to understand this kind of life Way.
We have also heard someone put forward a new concept called "new residential integration". This integration includes the integration of nature and human settlements, the integration of East and West, the integration of history and modernity, as well as the integration of products and The integration of space, the integration of function and aesthetics, etc. are all issues from multiple perspectives that we must consider in the design process without exception.
In summary, these four keywords represent China’s consumer market and the gradual awakening of China’s consumer aesthetics. This is worthy of study by all our product managers.
Based on the trends in China and the world, Kepler also extracted seven hot spots for the design and development trends in 2023. The first is natural and organic, the second is low-key earth tones, the third is curved beauty, the fourth is new national trend, the fifth is ultimate matching, the sixth is blurred boundaries, and the seventh is new spatialism.
Among them, "blurred boundary" has two concepts in my understanding. The first is that the boundaries in space have become increasingly blurred.
In the past, the kitchen was a kitchen, the living room was a living room, and the bedroom was a bedroom. However, nowadays, consumers’ life preferences and lifestyles have become more and more diversified. The living room can no longer be a three-piece combination of coffee table, sofa, and TV cabinet. Young people can turn it into a place for collecting trendy toys, or a space for tea tasting. Because when everyone stays in their own space and has no way to go out, it is very important to have such a space at home to communicate and interact with family members. Therefore, this blurred boundary is also an increasingly important issue in the design. challenge, because our products may no longer be the same, and our space may no longer be the same.
The second meaning of blurred boundaries is that the relationship between products and space is changing. In the past, customized home furnishings ranged from single products to whole-house customization, to large-scale home furnishings and complete decoration. In the past, products were a combination of single products. The product was a product and the wall was a wall. There was no connection. Now Haute Couture has proposed a space system composed of various products such as door and wall cabinet tops, bathrooms, home appliances, and home accessories.
Therefore, the new space in the future also emphasizes that space is product and product is space. But the core point must be returned to the people behind it, because all products and spaces actually serve people. In the end, we still have to think about how we make good spaces from the perspective of the relationship between people and space and people’s lifestyles. Integration with products.
05/
Wei Jiguo:
Product managers need "five key capabilities"
Construct R&D logic based on user consumption scenarios
·HBI founder Wei Jiguo gave a keynote speech on "The second half of change starts with product managers"
As a representative of today's industry, especially in the past four years, as an entrepreneur, we would like to talk with you about my own and our team's understanding of product managers.
What is a product manager?
First of all, from official and online information, we see how to define the position of product manager. Product manager is not a position. I think it is a person who plans and manages a certain type or product. At the same time, he is mainly responsible for The person who is responsible for product research, R&D, manufacturing, marketing, channels, etc., and is responsible for sales targets and the entire life cycle of the product. From this point of view, the product manager is a large system management and the management of the entire process.
Obviously, the definition of product manager is a position that coordinates management of multiple positions and is responsible for the product life cycle. On this basis, I think he must possess at least five very critical abilities: demand analysis ability, product design ability, product operation ability, project management ability, and commercialization ability.
Looking back at the past and current situation of the ceramic industry, I think there are two major characteristics of product managers or the current situation of product development in the ceramic industry. The first is that they have no way to coordinate from the market to R&D. In end-to-sales end cooperation, they present a relatively fragmented cooperation that cannot form a synergy. The second is the lack of accuracy and capabilities for market demand and user pain points, so today’s research is more about ivory tower-style R&D on a technical level, divorced from the needs of the entire market.
The product manager we are talking about today, an excellent product manager in the ceramic industry, should have six major functions. The first is market insight and user research capabilities, the second is product planning and development capabilities, and the third is market insight and user research capabilities. The third is product launch planning, the fourth is product sales support, the fifth is product operation iteration, and the sixth is product life cycle management.
The most important thing is to coordinate the work of various departments, and I think it has the ability to operate commercially. The operational iteration of a product is a process of self-dissatisfaction and continuous iteration in the process of continuous business evolution. If continuous iteration cannot be carried out, the life cycle will be very limited, so it is included here. From our marketing department to the R&D department, to the sales department, to all sectors of the entire market operation, this is a very comprehensive collaboration and management.
Back to today’s topic: “How to make space high-definition materials”? We can see that more and more high-quality users, personal studios, and decoration companies areThe direction we pursue has gradually shifted from materials to space. This also forces us to build our entire R&D thinking based on the user's consumption scenario today. Therefore, we must connect R&D, production, marketing plans and the real product life chain around the user's scenario.
And among them, we need to have six major thinking methods: user thinking, pain point thinking, scenario thinking, data thinking, iterative thinking, and business thinking.
Finally, I am also looking forward to the fact that in the second half of the industry, as an HBI agent, I can always adhere to the needs of users as the starting point and lead our entire team to create our generation in the second half of the industry. People should create user value.
06/
Lao Niu:
Massive changes in dealer behavior Forcing headquarters channel management to take the lead
·Lao Niu, Chief Editor of Huaxia Ceramics Network, gave a keynote speech on "2022 Ceramic Ceramic Products and Channel Research Report"
Taking the opportunity of this event, I would like to share with you some of my experiences in the market and terminals this year, and also communicate with our industry through our platform.
In the three months of June, July and August this year, I visited about 12 or 3 cities, especially dealers of OEM companies and brands. In general, today I want to talk about the changes in channels and our strategies to deal with them.
During this visit, I felt strongly that our sales scene is undergoing tremendous changes.
Take the retail scene as an example. Stores mainly in the form of fully-furnished new retail stores, independent stores, ceramic tile studios, material aesthetics halls, etc. are gradually becoming the next new sales scene.
So, what kind of real form will our store take next? I think it will develop roughly according to this logic, including changes in dealer behavior, changes in transaction methods, fashion and products changes in consumer behavior.
For example, the behavior of dealers will undergo huge changes due to the pressure of high rents, inventory, and even the pressure of talent succession.
For another example, in terms of transaction methods, Dongpeng signed three strategic cooperation agreements in August, including Foshan Lighting, Sophia, and Bauing, which means "F2F";The transaction method is opening.
Our past transaction method was F to B to C, now it is F to big B to small B to C. F can also go directly to C or small b. If we regard Little B as our distributor, this is exactly what our big factories and brands are doing today, which is to flatten the channels. Therefore, I think such a change in transaction methods may continue in the future. The evolution gives people a dazzling feeling.
So, for dealers, channels, assembly, etc., including changes in consumers, changes in channels, next on our channel side, as a manufacturer or brand, how to manage channels and dealers, I think in the future Maybe these four points are very important.
The first is the branch model. One approach I approve of is that the branch does not compete with local dealers for the market, that is, it does not participate in sales, but only participates in the development of distributors, develops distributors in a flat manner, and manages the market, including pricing power. , I think this is an evolution.
The second is to reduce distributors’ inventory pressure through central warehouses. The third is regional production capacity, which means nearby production. For details, you can read the article I wrote "Gao'an is "replacing" Nanzhuang. Why? ", "Who will replace Gao An? 》These two articles.
Fourth is shared brand flagship store. Take Owen Lai’s 3,000 square meters store in Suzhou as an example. This store is not only enjoyed by Suzhou, but also by the surrounding areas of Suzhou. The dealers in the surrounding areas of Suzhou have negotiated a big project with the designer and can get From the perspective of this flagship store, this is the central operation of the region, and it also needs to anchor a flagship store and anchor a point to do this.
Generally speaking, the so-called front-end and management of our sales channels are also constantly evolving.
Finally, I will talk about a few points of "reconstruction", including the reconstruction of manufacturer relationships, the reconstruction of business models, redefining industry boundaries, redefining categories, rebuilding brand awareness, etc.
07/
GD Design Alliance Launching Ceremony: Design without boundaries, integration and symbiosis
·Launching ceremony
At the end of the conference, Tang Chongxi, Vice President of China Industrial Design Association, Italian National Organic ConstructionRepresentative of Architectural Design Institute in China and well-known designer Iolo Tomassoni, Miform Product R&D Director Li Chuanhu, founder of Guangzhou Kepler Design Agency Xiao Xiong, the founder of 8:30 Design/the founder of pan-home symbol marketing Han Yanwei, and the editor-in-chief of China Ceramics Network Lao Niu came on stage to witness the launch of the GD Design Alliance .
GD Design Alliance launched
GD Design Alliance The Guangdong Designers Alliance was first established in 2015 by the Guangdong Decoration Industry Association and China Times Media.
The purpose of the GD Design Alliance is, "Design Without Boundaries, Fusion and Symbiosis" (Design Without Boundaries).
Today is an era where design is everywhere, and the "boundaries" of design are constantly being crossed and extended.
In the future, the higher the high-end demand, the greater the need for the entire project to be implemented and output as a whole.
Space/product/soft furnishing/brand designers are more closely connected than ever before and share weal and woe.
This is an era that pursues the ultimate experience. Only by being focused, professional, sophisticated, holistic and consistent can we continue to meet the ever-escalating needs.
This is an era of pan-mediaization. IP shaping is a rigid need for market competition entities, and only content dissemination can achieve high-end brands.
GD Design Alliance carefully selects and integrates top design resources in the fields of space, products, soft decoration, branding and graphics, focusing on one-stop meeting high-end design needs.
The alliance will create a relaxed, worry-free and perfect consumption experience for customers in the form of high professionalism + efficient collaboration + finished product delivery.
On the other hand, the GD Design Alliance also plans to build itself into a purely public welfare learning and communication platform.
08/ Highlights:
Author of this article | One day Duty Editor | Liu Rui Chief Editor | Lao Niu
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