The growth rate of the home appliance industry fell sharply for the National Day manufacturers to fight price war

"During this year's National Day, sales pressure is very high." In a chain of stores in Guangzhou, the manager appears to have "resolutely in a battle" resolutely, "the market is sluggish, but the single-store sales task is basically unchanged compared to last year, we In this store, during the National Day, 80 million sales will be completed. If it does not, it is estimated that the annual results will be difficult to see."

According to the usual practice, sales of home appliances during the “October” Gold Weekly usually account for more than 10% of the annual sales, and can even reach around 15%. For the weak sales of home appliance companies and stores in the first half of the year, “Eleventh” is undoubtedly to save all The annual performance of life-saving straw.

Compared with September 30 last year, when the National Day promotional campaign was started, this year, Suning and Gome have advanced the promotion time by at least one week. This is called the “longest national promotion season in history,” and it has invested more in allowances.

Pressure is not only chain supermarkets, manufacturers also frankly stated that "the Golden Week is full of uncertainty", in order to stimulate demand, before the Golden Week, manufacturers will launch "inside purchase", "group purchase" and other strategies, fierce price cuts attract consumers.

However, all kinds of measures such as price cuts are merely an advance demand, and the consumption downturn is likely to continue into next year.

Home appliance industry encountered sales pressure across the board

The trade-in policy for home appliances to the countryside has led to a continuous increase in sales of household electrical appliances. However, the current policy pull has been declining gradually: Taking home appliances to the countryside as an example, the sales of home appliances to the countryside in June dropped by 4.40% and 1.25% year-on-month, respectively. %;Sales increased by 11% year-on-year but fell 1.63% month-on-month.

According to the latest statistics from China Yikang, in the first half of this year, the national appliance market sales volume reached 612.3 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 12.8%, and the growth rate was down 11.1 percentage points year-on-year, a drop of up to 50%. The growth rate of all categories of the household appliance industry has been slowing down: white electricity has dropped from 27.8% to 14.8%; small home appliances growth rate has dropped from 19% to 6.1%, and the growth rate of black-box electricity has dropped from 24.9% to 1.6%.

An executive from a chain company told reporters in the South, “We haven’t completed sales expectations for six consecutive months of 7, 7, 8 and 9.”

Home appliance industry people admitted that in Beijing, Shanghai and other first-tier cities, many home appliance chain sales from January to August decreased by 10% -20%, can only rely on open stores to expand the scale of maintaining performance.

Hong Shibin, deputy director of the China Home Appliances Association’s Marketing Committee, said that due to the impact of the global economy, the overall market demand is declining, which is bound to lead to more intense market competition. It is expected that this year's National Day market, the decline in the price of color TV products will greatly increase, while the various companies will increasingly diversify their competition.

The drop in demand has caused manufacturers to feel the pressure of competition. The related person in charge of Samsung told the Southern Capital Reporter that this year's National Day Golden Week is full of uncertainties. Prior to this, the manufacturers pre-paid market demand through various means such as group purchase, and how much space is difficult to judge. “This year, negative growth has occurred in many places in first-tier cities. Demand is insufficient and companies have to stimulate them in various ways. The price war is too fierce and this year has great pressure.”

Unsatisfactory sales, followed by the enterprise's inventory pressure and overcapacity problems. For example, data from the 2011-2012 air-conditioning industry summit forum reported that due to multiple reasons, the growth rate of terminal sales in the cold year of 2011 was lower than the increase in corporate shipments, and the total inventory of the air-conditioning industry was as high as 16.2 million units.

Policy dividend exits fierce price cuts

With the end of the appliance replacement policy at the end of the year and the end of home appliances to rural areas in some regions, the “policy dividend” is gradually disappearing. This year’s National Day was also seen by home appliance companies as “the last wave of policy sales.”

"The promotion of the "Eleventh" Golden Week more and more early outbreak, the "Eleventh" promotion of the domestic appliance market from the previous September 30 to advance on September 20. "Suning Appliance Guangzhou Management Center executive vice president Manager Fan Chunyan said that in the first half of the year due to restrictions on purchase restrictions, CPI rising and other macro factors, consumer market potential to be suppressed, Suning hopes to use the "11" promotion strategy to stimulate the market, and the real estate market or opportunity. “The Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development requires that the annual plan for affordable housing projects be completed by the end of November this year, and that 4 million sets of completion projects be ensured during the year. Large-scale protection of the housing labor unions will bring market opportunities to the home appliance market.”

Reporters visited found that during the 11th period, Suning appliances of all kinds generally fell to 5% to 20% off. Feng Yaping, manager of Suning Appliance's Guangzhou Tianhe Store, said that customers who choose to spend during the National Day are more conscious of the price. This year's promotion efforts are bigger than before: Suning’s list of gifts this year is new to iPad2 and iphone4. The relevant person in charge of the five-star electrical appliances predicted that the Golden Week Daping TV will be further popular, domestic brands through the share of 32,42,46 LED shares clash joint venture, and the joint venture brand will continue to expand product share of more than 55 inches.

The violent price offensive has doubled the pressure on companies. "Sony 32BX320 + Sharp 60E77A = 8999 yuan, such a price, do not know what to say." A foreign brand person pointed to the reporter lamented advertising. It said that the price war was unexpectedly fierce this year. "This year, LED prices have dropped sharply. The LCD price advantage has not shown up yet."

Can great promotions motivate consumers to pay? Some white-water business executives worry that the sluggish consumer spending will continue into next year or even later years. Household appliance companies may still fail to achieve their expected goals even if they increase their sales.

Differentiation of brand strategy and tactics

How is the National Day promotional campaign so uncertain? The Golden Week has not yet arrived and the marketing war of the company has begun. Konka, Skyworth, and Hisense collectively moved to smart TVs, and Changhong integrated 3D+Smart+plasma. At the point of time, manufacturers also stimulate consumer spending through various methods such as group purchase and in-house purchase. As early as the end of August, a variety of amazing prices have already hit the market, such as Skyworth and Gome launched an "internal purchase meeting", 32-inch LED prices for only 1999 yuan, 37 inches 3D for only 2999 yuan.

"This year's National Day will focus on promoting intelligence." According to Samsung's relevant person in charge, 3D's propaganda is more adequate, but Samsung believes that intelligence will become the next important direction. Starting in the second half of this year, Samsung's "smartTV" slogan has flooded supermarkets, replacing the original "samsung3D" and is trying to build a more competitive TV APP application platform.

Sony's focus is different. Relevant person in charge of Sony said, “The National Day promotion is still based on 3D. We don’t think the time for smart TVs has arrived.” For Internet TV, smart TV and cloud TV, Sony has been cautious and has not followed suit. Sony insists that "image quality determines 3D."

In fact, Sony and Samsung basically represent two kinds of judgments of enterprises. Relatively speaking, Sharp and Sony have adopted a more conservative attitude toward smart TVs and insist on 3D picture quality first. Samsung and domestic companies have further improved the layout of smart TVs. Last year, LG also signed a contract with Huada to become the first foreign-funded company to join the smart army.

Displaysearch predicts that even if the growth rate of TV in emerging markets is only about 6% in the next five years, the global TV industry will enter a period of adjustment for low-speed growth. Obviously, whether 3D or smart, manufacturers are seeking new driving forces to increase the gross margin of products under the impact of price wars.