Where is the path for the rise of new domestic products? "Do a great job in traffic aggregation and conversion"

A few days ago, the Financial and Economic Working Committee of the Municipal Party Committee held a meeting to analyze and judge the economic development situation of Shanghai, deploy and schedule key tasks for the next stage of economic operation, emphasizing social consumption, service consumption, cultural tourism consumption, and online consumption, and "do a good job in traffic aggregation and transformation" ".

With the increase in quality and expansion of the domestic consumer market and product innovation brought about by scientific and technological progress, "Made in China" is gradually getting rid of the prejudice of low price and poor quality, and is becoming synonymous with high quality at a good price. New domestic products, a kind of domestic physical consumer goods created based on the connotation of traditional Chinese culture and spread using new marketing resources, are especially sought after by Generation Z consumers and are becoming a new trend in social consumption, service consumption, cultural tourism consumption, and online consumption. Traffic, new increments.

Regarding the online retail sales data in 2022, the Consumer Big Data Laboratory selected categories such as household appliances, beauty and personal care, food and alcohol, and conducted comparative analysis between domestic brands and foreign brands, and found the following trends and characteristics:

Household appliances: Domestic brands dominate——

Domestic brands sold 1.772 billion pieces, accounting for 90% of sales. Among them, domestic brand household appliances have a complete range of products and reasonable price combinations. They include small appliances priced between 200 and 300 yuan, cost-effective options priced between 600 and 700 yuan, and relatively high-end products priced above 1,000 yuan. Looking at foreign brands, the unit price of household appliances is generally higher, with the average unit price being 2.35 times that of domestic brands.

Beauty and personal care: Domestic brands have a clear market share lead——

In terms of sales volume, domestic brands are higher than foreign brands, accounting for 75.2% of sales; in terms of sales volume, domestic brands lead by 13 percentage points. But in terms of best-selling categories, domestic brands still have a lot of room for improvement. Among the top ten beauty and personal care brands by sales, 7 are foreign-owned and only 3 are domestic brands.

Food and drinks: Domestic brands occupy an absolute dominant position——

The sales volume of foreign brands was 1.639 billion pieces, accounting for only 9.4%. Among the top ten food and beverage brands by sales, only two foreign brands, Aptamil and Nestlé, are shortlisted. The domestic brands are Moutai, Wuliangye, Three Squirrels, Yili, Hema Daily, Bestore, Baicaowei, etc.

In recent years, domestic brands have made great progress, but we still have to face up to the hidden worries and gaps.

Among the top 100 internationally renowned consumer brands in 2022 selected by IntuPro, only Xiaomi and Huawei were selected in China. Except for Thailand’s Red Bull and Mexico’s Corona beer, the other 96 brands are all from developed countries. Among them, the United States exclusively owns 50. We can't judge the rankings alone, but it reflects the lack of influence of domestic brands on one side.

In recent years, national trends and styles have quietly emerged. However, many brands understand the "national trend" design as a simple reproduction of the classical elements of the palace, and lack the in-depth exploration of the traditional cultural connotation and value, resulting in a large number of imitations with similar names and identical bindings, resulting in visual and spiritual differences. Aesthetic fatigue. Excessive consumption of IP may dispel or even misinterpret the original rich meaning of traditional culture.

Previously, the growth of many domestic brands was based on investing in marketing at all costs, even sacrificing profits to achieve short-term expansion. At present, the capital boom in the new consumption track is gradually fading, and some new domestic brands cannot continue to raise financing. Sales growth has naturally slowed down and even quietly faded out of the public eye. A tracking survey shows that of the 46 local new power brands included in the tracking in 2018, only 17 brands maintained a good growth rate between 2018 and 2020.

International brands put down their posture and join the ranks of promotions, squeezing out the sales space of new brands——

In recent years, international first-tier brands that have always been "aloof" or even engaged in starvation marketing have gradually lowered their status. They have not only actively entered mainstream e-commerce platforms such as Tmall and JD.com, but also joined price promotion wars to compete head-on with domestic brands on the traffic battlefield. Taking beauty products as an example, international brands’ discounts during the “Double Eleven” period were concentrated at 30% to 50% off, and the unit prices of some star products were further reduced. Blindly pursuing the competitive strategy of "low-price substitution" will make it difficult for domestic brands to truly rise.

Looking further, well-known high-quality brands in developed countries have the following characteristics:

Since developed countries industrialized relatively early, some now-familiar big brands were established in the early 20th century, such as IBM, Coca-Cola, Siemens, Citibank, etc. Among the top 100 internationally renowned consumer brands in 2022, 43 brands are over 100 years old, and 78 brands are over 50 years old. Since the 1980s, in the new wave of economic globalization, these old brands have not been closed and conservative, but have relied on long-term technological accumulation and keen market awareness to further expand the global market.

Among the top 100 internationally renowned consumer brands in 2022, a total of 10 technology companies have entered the list. Among them, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Google, and Samsung Electronics ranked in the top five; the top four brand values ​​all exceeded US$250 billion, and Samsung Electronics’ brand value was US$87.689 billion; Intel ranked 19th, and Airbnb ranked 19th. , Philips ranked 54th and 59th, Xiaomi and Huawei ranked 84th and 86th respectively.

Except for some catering brands that have a wide audience and are difficult to distinguish between high-end and low-end markets, such as Coca-Cola, McDonald's, Budweiser, and Red Bull, other companies on the list are basically positioned in the mid-to-high-end market. On the one hand, mid-to-high-end products imply high quality and high standards, which can easily establish a reputation in the minds of consumers; on the other hand, products in mature markets often carry higher brand premiums and can retain higher profits when targeting target markets. No need to lower yourself.

For example, Germany has 5 of the 15 car companies on the list, France has 5 of the 9 luxury brands on the list, and the United States has 8 of the 12 financial services companies on the list and 10 of them. 6 out of 7 technology companies, 6 out of 7 commercial service companies, 6 out of 7 media companies, and all 3 logistics companies.

"Made in China is transformed into created in China, China's speed is transformed into China's quality, and Chinese products are transformed into Chinese brands", which points out the way out for the development and innovation of domestic brands. Under the new situation, the rise of domestic products cannot simply rely on feelings, nor should they rely solely on low-price promotions. Instead, they must focus on quality, innovation, connotation, and alliances, and support the height of the corporate brand with in-depth star products and continue to maintain it. Freshness and vitality can stand the test of the market and time.

Quality is the key foundation for brand formation. Without good quality, it is impossible to achieve an advantageous brand. Only by becoming a brand that is widely loved and trusted by consumers can we enhance consumer stickiness and gradually become a century-old brand.

From a production perspective, domestic brands mature later than foreign brands. Grasping new technological trends is the best way for late-comer brands to surpass first-mover brands. The emergence of high-tech brands requires strong comprehensive national strength as the basis. To seize the high-tech wave, domestic brands need to transform the domestic market into a source of technological innovation, rely on the country's relatively complete industrial chain foundation and highly competitive supply chain foundation, and strive to use technological innovation as the core of product quality competition. Iterative development in the scientific and technological revolution, breaking out of the encirclement of foreign brands.

From the perspective of sales, in the era of digital economy, domestic brands must be good at using diversified digital marketing methods in the public and private domains to gain insight into consumers' preferences, habits and motivations, carry out product iterations in a timely manner, and use algorithms to disseminate fissionally Accurately capture potential audiences. In addition, you can also enhance your brand influence by constantly appearing in exhibitions and sales events that lead the industry's technological frontiers.

Brand marketing requires global awareness and an in-depth understanding of the market characteristics, cultural background and consumer behavior of different countries and regions. Among them, the key is to pay attention to cross-cultural communication to ensure that brand information can be accurately conveyed in different cultural backgrounds. At the same time, develop appropriate communication strategies and use localized languages, symbols and communication methods to better establish emotional and material dual connections with overseas consumers. On this basis, through the telling of brand stories, we can show overseas consumers the unique charm and values ​​of Chinese brands and even China, demonstrate the country’s soft power, and build “Made in China” into “Intelligent Made in China.”

To build brand clusters, we will first focus on building a modern industrial system with coordinated development of the real economy, technological innovation, modern finance, and human resources on the production side, and accelerate the formation of strategic emerging industry leadership and mutual promotion of the digital transformation of traditional industries, advanced manufacturing and modern service industries. Deeply integrated high-end industrial clusters.

In terms of brand communication, we should be good at learning from the practices of mature brands in developed countries: on the one hand, we should be good at grasping the impact of localized historical and cultural changes on consumer awareness. While Germany exports high-quality automobile manufacturing, it also spreads its rigorous thinking characteristics; while France exports fashionable luxury goods, it also spreads its romantic national temperament. On the other hand, it is good at leveraging each other's strength with domestic brands and adopts effective group strategies to form a joint marketing force. Well-known German car brands Mercedes-Benz and BMW often adopt mutually complementary marketing strategies, which has become a classic business case.