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[Face-to-face interviews with people in the ceramic industry] Issue 10
Interviewed Guest|Deng Shaoqing, General Manager of Ouwen Lai Boutique Slate Marketing Center
Interviewer | Director of the Editorial Department of China Ceramics Network Zou Sijin
Interview time|The afternoon of August 11, 2021
Interview location|Owen Lai Enterprise Foshan Headquarters
Text arrangement|Hong Xiaochun
When it comes to Owen Lai, the first thing that everyone will think of may be plain ceramic tiles. As a new leading brand that has emerged in the modern trend in the past five years, Owen Lai has always focused on one professional field. But it is such a company that actually held a signing ceremony with the famous equipment company Keda for the slate project in November 2020, shattering the idea that "Owen Lai may become one of the only companies in the ceramic industry not to enter the slate project." One” guess.
In 2021, Owen Lai’s high-quality rock slabs began to appear frequently in everyone’s field of vision. Whether it is outdoor advertising on major traffic roads or large-scale exhibitions such as Xiamen Stone Exhibition, Guangzhou Construction Expo, Foshan Tanzhou Exhibition, etc., Ouwen Lai's slate products have harvested a large amount of traffic with their unique charm. How did this "back wave" in the field of rock slabs carve out a path in the market wave filled with powerful enemies?
On the afternoon of August 11, the China Ceramics Network's "Ceramic Industry Face to Face" column visited Owen Lai and interviewed Deng Shaoqing, general manager of Owen Lai Slate Marketing Center.
01
Clear brand positioning
Walking fast is worse than walking steadily
Reporter: When were the two brands of Ouwen Lai Boutique Slate and Tianwo Boutique Slate were established? What was the opportunity or original intention of its founding?
Deng Shaoqing: Owen Lai officially purchased rock slab production equipment in November 2020, and the first batch of rock slab products was officially released in April this year. In fact, Owen Lai had the idea of entering the field of rock slabs a long time ago. In 2016, he even conducted market research specifically on rock slabs. However, because the slate market was in a chaotic period of wild growth at that time, we did not blindly put it into production. Of course, I don’t think it’s better to enter the field of rock slabs as early as possible. Now Owen Lai can avoid the detours taken by many companies, so it can be said with certainty that Owen Lai will enter the field of rock slabs.The timing is determined based on the characteristics of your own business.
Speaking of brands, in fact, Ouwenlai and Tianwo belong to two independent slate product systems, with different channels and application scenarios. Because Ouwenlai's high-quality slate is mainly used on walls and floors in the field of space decoration, it can also be regarded as an expansion of the ceramic tile category. Its purpose is to enhance the competitiveness of end customers, which is our original intention to enter the field of slate. Tianwo boutique slate is mainly a channel for cabinet and countertop processors. As early as 2008, when Owenite quartz stone was specializing in the cabinet and countertop market, it had already started to use the Tianwo brand. Later, because it focused on overseas markets, it was no longer domestically available. Being known too much.
Reporter: What is the current production capacity layout of Owen Lai in the field of rock slabs? Which direction will you focus on next?
Deng Shaoqing: Owen Lai plans to build two production lines for the slate project. Currently, one production line is already in stable production and the other is under preparation. Wenlai has not taken drastic measures to expand the production capacity of rock slabs and engage in price wars. In the eyes of others, Wenlai may think that Wenlai is moving slowly, but we are confident that we will move more steadily.
Next step, we plan to put into production 3mm ultra-thin rock slabs as cabinet door panels to match the existing product system. At that time, we built the first line of rock slab equipment that could meet the production requirements of large specifications of 1600×3200mm and 3-20mm thickness. Many people in the industry believe that it is more advantageous to import equipment for making ultra-large, ultra-thick or ultra-thin products, but I think equipment is not the key factor in making good slate products. What is more important is the company's talent reserve and technical capabilities.
02
Be differentiated, high-quality and valuable
Build sustainable competitiveness
Reporter: Compared with ordinary rock slabs, how does Owen Lai highlight the word "high-quality"?
Deng Shaoqing: Owen Lai's "high-quality products" are mainly reflected in product research and development, enriching the finishing technology of rock slabs, making the texture more generous, the details more realistic, the touch more delicate, and the light feeling softer. At present, many companies regard the processability of rock slabs as their competitive advantage. In fact, this advantage isLai here can only be regarded as standard equipment. All rock slabs produced in Wenlai have good processability. Because our firing time is longer and we invest more in research and development, our positioning is also mid-to-high-end. Whether it is the previous ceramic tiles, quartz stone, or the current high-quality slate, Owen Lai firmly follows this route.
Reporter: As we all know, Ouwen Lai is a brand with design genes. What are your highlights in the product development and design of stone slabs and space application design?
Deng Shaoqing: In terms of product development and design, Owen Lai's slate slabs continue the outstanding texture and touch of previous ceramic tiles, and the development of textures and colors is also at the forefront of the world. Next, Owen Lai will develop a series of designs and colors suitable for rock slabs, which have never been seen on the market. In terms of product space application, in addition to the traditional home decoration field of wall and floor applications, Tianwo's long-term focus on the application of kitchen countertops, cabinets, and islands is more distinctive and advantageous. In this field, Tianwo will be more professional .
Reporter: After the outbreak this year and last year, there are so many slate manufacturers/brands on the market. How does Owen Lai maintain its competitiveness?
Deng Shaoqing: Owen Lai is a "latecomer" in the field of rock slabs, which means that we can no longer compete with others with exactly the same things, which will easily lead to price competition. therefore. What Owen Lai wants to do is value competition and differentiated competition.
One thing is very crucial. Owen Lai's products have never been differentiated for the sake of differentiation, but are differentiated with practicality and decoration. For example, many manufacturers are currently working on "super white slabs", but in fact the slabs are not visible when the rock slabs are placed on the wall or on the ground. This means that the "super white slabs" do not have any decorative effect. This will lead to excess value. Owen Lai hopes that every bit of investment and every bit of cost increase can truly add points to sales, help customers enhance their competitiveness, and bring value to the use of products.
In addition, this competitiveness must be sustainable. When we used the channel of cabinets and countertops, we clearly felt that B-end customers are actually not very sensitive to price. They will not choose you because the material is tens of yuan cheaper per square meter. For example, for large customization companies such as Oppein, Gold Medal, and Zhibang, the price of slate materials accounts for less than a quarter of their terminal selling prices. Their main costs are processing, construction, installation, and post-service services. For The fundamental requirements for slate products are high quality, few after-sales service problems, and excellent patterns, colors, and textures.
03
Develop the slate market
Owen Lay chose to do this
Reporter: What are the main customer groups that Owen Lai’s rock slabs currently face? What are the different strategies?
Deng Shaoqing: As mentioned earlier, the main customers of the Owen Lai brand quality slate are in the field of space decoration. In 2021, Ouwen Lai plans to upgrade 300 stores to the ceramic tile + slate model. The other is the Tianwo brand of high-quality slate that operates through independent channels. Because it focuses on the field of cabinets and countertops, it mainly faces stone customers with processing capabilities.
As for why Owen Lai's slate sales are divided into two channels, there is a big reason, that is, the application requirements of slates in the field of home decoration and cabinet scenes are different.
Currently, nearly 90% of quartz stone materials are used in centralized procurement of cabinets and countertops for large-scale real estate finely decorated houses. After the birth of the slate category, this market share is gradually increasing, but there is still a lot of room for development. The advantages of slate compared to quartz stone are very obvious, such as high temperature resistance, no leakage, no yellowing, and even lower production cost than quartz stone. However, the disadvantage cannot be ignored, that is, the processing of slate is more difficult, and the cut surface cannot be like quartz. Stone remains decorative after being polished. Looking back at the initial development history of quartz stone, it has also been matured and popularized for a long time. If rock slabs can solve the two problems of toughness and integrity, there is a great opportunity to replace quartz stone in the future.
Reporter: Wen Lai’s slate products have appeared at many large-scale exhibitions this year. How has the harvest been?
Deng Shaoqing: In fact, Owen Lai has participated in the Xiamen Stone Fair in previous years, but this year is the first time that the Xiamen Stone Fair has set up a slate pavilion. The effect of participating in the exhibition is still very significant. During the entire exhibition, we picked up more than 600 interested customers. I visited the Foshan headquarters and more than 40 customers made decisions and signed contracts on the spot. Followed by the Guangzhou Construction Expo and Foshan Tanzhou Exhibition, Owen Lai still reached cooperation intentions with many customers. This is not because of the great sales staff of Ouwen Lai, but because our slate products are unique enough and are very important to our customers.Customers are attractive enough.
Reporter: As a new thing, rock slabs have different requirements for practitioners. Do you have any experience or insights in cultivating and training teams?
Deng Shaoqing: Because Tianwo has more than ten years of experience in the quartz stone industry, the customers we contact are mainly stone customers, and the entire team also has stone-related experience. Although doing business is similar, there are still differences between industries. Salesmen who used to work in the ceramic industry will inevitably be acclimatized when dealing with stone customers. For example, in terms of brand building, ceramic companies are not stingy in investing in the market, and dealers have become very knowledgeable after years of education; stone customers are different. They are more realistic and want to see results for every penny invested. If salesmen still use the model of making ceramics to slate, brainwashing stone customers, building brands, and suppressing inventory, they will not be able to accept it. So to a certain extent, people who sell ceramic tiles well may not be able to sell rock slabs well.
04
Increase the application of rock slabs
Do what needs to be done to solve these pain points
Reporter: What do you think is the biggest pain point in the current development of rock slabs? Is there a solution?
Deng Shaoqing: At present, the biggest pain point of rock slabs is still in the product. On the one hand, rock slabs need to meet the physical properties of high toughness and high flexural strength to make rock slabs easier to process. I believe it is only a matter of time before we can break through this. On the other hand, rock slabs need to meet the overall decorative performance, which may be difficult in a short period of time. We can make up for it through some craftsmanship and modeling during application. If these two problems are solved, then the application volume of rock slabs will definitely achieve explosive growth.
Reporter: Logistics, processing, construction and other supporting links have always been problems that plague rock slabs. What do you think companies should do?
Deng Shaoqing: Service and implementation are indeed a difficult problem. In the transportation process alone, the rock slabs need to be packaged and put on wooden pallets. If the transport package is damaged, additional insurance will be charged. Forklifts are required when unloading, and a crane is required when going upstairs. In addition, processing, construction, installation...all costs The total is much higher than the ex-factory price of the material itself, which is why the price of terminal rock slabs has remained high.
Some companies feelIt is irresponsible to think that we can solve these problems by ourselves by investing in a rock slab processing center. Slate and ceramics are the same. The industry concentration is low and the enterprise size is small. If processing, logistics and other companies only provide services for one enterprise, it is impossible to achieve the lowest cost, optimal service and maximum value.
Some companies think that they can solve these problems by investing in the construction of rock slab processing centers. This idea is actually irresponsible. Slate and ceramics are the same. The industry concentration is low and the enterprise size is small. If processing, logistics and other companies only provide services for one enterprise, it is impossible to achieve the lowest cost, optimal service and maximum value.
Only when companies jointly cultivate this ecosystem and promote the development of the entire slate industry chain can the costs of slate slabs from the factory to the implementation be truly reduced. If the price of rock slabs to consumers is acceptable to ordinary people, the application volume and market share will also increase. In addition to providing good value and quality, Ouwen Lai is also committed to solving the problem of high cost of landing services. This is more meaningful than the "involution" of rock slab manufacturers in terms of price.
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