On the afternoon of April 20, the "Cross-regional Slate Determines the Future" 2021 China Slate Summit, co-organized by China Ceramics Headquarters, China Slate New Material Exhibition and Procurement Base, and Ceramic Industry News Digest, was shared offline in China The multi-energy conference hall on the third floor of the Ceramics Headquarters came to a successful conclusion. Sharing from multiple angles and dimensions, I believe it will bring a lot of thinking and help to friends in the industry. The following is the dry information shared by Yin Hong, Secretary General of the Foshan Ceramics Industry Association!
Here on October 20, 2017, I said "no big names, no big names", but everyone was still hesitant. By the 2020 China Rock Slab Summit last year, I said that "sand rock is surging", and no one had any objections. At the end of last year, the Foshan Ceramics Industry Association held its annual meeting. The vice president used a Tang poem to describe the slate. He said, "Every good night in the year, you can see the moon from thousands of miles away." This means: the ceramic tile industry has pulled a life-saving straw. Slate takes us back to the heyday of 100 production lines. When I heard it, I thought it seemed a bit derogatory, so I wrote a sentence myself: "Seeing the bright moon tonight, it will shine on me for thousands of miles without sleep." Why does it mean that I can't sleep when I see the moon? Although we have rock slabs, everyone is still very uneasy and worried about whether the slabs are a false proposition, whether they can be implemented, whether there is overcapacity, whether there will be a price war, whether there is a need for a brand, etc. The theme I share today is "Analysis of Dynamic Development of Rock Slabs in 2020-2021". Around this theme, I have prepared 4 short stories, hoping to make everyone "sleep well".
What is the first story? It's called "Is the Slate a False Proposition?" 》This happened at noon when the Ceramics Expo opened a few days ago. Mr. Tang and I were sitting at a table. Just in front of us were several people from the Door and Window Association who said, "Stone slabs are a false proposition." I found it very interesting and discussed it with the other party. Is rock slab a false proposition? What is a "false proposition"? Baidu calls it "a view that seems correct but lacks practical significance." The slate is correct, or at least "appears to be correct", and no one should have any objection. Otherwise, what can we say about those rock slab brands that invest in making money? Is the rock slab "impractical"? I don't agree. Over the more than a thousand years since ceramic tiles have been around, they have been most commonly used for paving floors, and the most innovative ones have been for walls. No one has ever dared to think that ceramic tiles can be used as countertops, or even as hanging decorations, as teacher Xie Yingkai said. It wasn't until the advent of slate that people saw more possibilities for ceramic tiles, including thickness, uses, and evenPossibility of spreading the home. Going back to what Teacher Xie Yingkai just said, rock slabs can even replace some traditional materials, with more realistic designs and better performance. So is the slate a false proposition? I believe that anyone who has carefully observed and understood it will have the answer.
The second story is called "Can the Rock Slab Fall to the Ground?" 》This is also the theme of the summit forum hosted by me. Last year, there were almost 100 slate production lines. This year, the total number has reached almost 150. Even within 10 days from April 1 to April 10, 7 slate lines were put into operation. Then a week ago, a reporter used the casting line as a guide and said, "The rock slab is red, it's completely heavenly." I asked him: "Then do you think the rock slab can fall to the ground?" He said: "Probably not. Even if the rock slab falls to the ground, a series of services on the back end of the rock slab will definitely be more expensive than the rock slab itself, such as transportation. , processing, etc. This situation is likely to make the customer give up choosing slate. It is like buying a thousand-mile horse for only 100,000, and then buying a saddle costs 100,000. Then he may not buy the horse. "This reporter believes that the related after-sales service of rock slabs will affect the implementation of the slabs and their application. I wonder if you, as consumers, would feel this way?
In my opinion, the pain point of landing has two meanings. One is that the rock slab itself is a big pain point; the other is that every link of the rock slab from production to sales to after-sales, including Cutting and cracking, transportation, packaging, and damage are all pain points. If you can completely solve any problem in all aspects, there will be a blowout later. I think no matter what the situation is, it is actually a combination of both at present, because there are some pain points that cannot be completely solved at once.
How to solve the landing problem? The consensus reached by the guests at the summit forum and I is that we must first solve the problem of understanding the landing of rock slabs. If consumers don't know enough, they will think that it is unreasonable to spend 400 yuan to install and pave the slate for 100 yuan. I hope everyone can understand that the same dish, with the same ingredients, is priced differently in different restaurants. Food stalls cost a few dozen yuan, and five-star hotels may cost over a hundred yuan. In many cases, it is not what is added to the dish in a five-star hotel, but the environment and service of the five-star hotel that invisibly add value to the dish. In the same way, if you want to enjoy a high-quality life and get high-quality services and good space, you must be mentally prepared for the price of slate flooring.
The second is to try to provide a unified solution for all aspects of rock slab production, sales, and after-sales. Letting customers have psychological expectations does not mean that they have to tolerate the high cost of rock slabs and everything related to them. Therefore, I think we still need to achieve some unification in some aspects of rock slab production, sales, and after-sales to reduce the risk of rock slabs.The cost of the board and its after-sales service. The guests at the summit forum I hosted are working hard to do just this. One of them is working hard to achieve timeliness, safety and cost-effectiveness in rock slab transportation; the other is working hard to achieve standardization and high quality of rock slab paving. I think this is an effective way to reduce costs. You can watch the replay for details, we have more detailed discussions.
Considering the overall implementation, a holistic solution is needed. Because the fault tolerance rate after the sale of slate slabs is really too low, and the after-sales service links are too scattered, it is now easy to have one group of people for transportation, another group of people for processing, another group of people for paving, and another group of people for maintenance. A chaotic situation for a group of people. Therefore, we need an overall solution to reduce the error rate of stone slab after-sales service. Every link is really important, and details determine success or failure.
The third story is called "Is there overcapacity in rock slabs?" 》After the Slate Summit last year, everyone said: "Doctor, please stop blowing the slate trend. This is a big pit. There is overproduction, and now the warehouses are full." Last year, I discussed with them the future of slate as a whole. How big will the layout be? I think last year 2020 was the year of the explosion of rock slabs. According to the general concept, the explosion will decay over time. In other words, if 100 production lines were added last year, it stands to reason that the number may not be increased by as many as 100 this year. If there are 100 more cases this year, either last year was not a peak or an outbreak, and the real outbreak period has not yet arrived. It is only now April 2021, and it is estimated that another 100 lines will be added this year, which is quite possible.
Some people are very worried about overcapacity, because they are worried that after overcapacity, there will be a price war and vicious competition. Adam Smith wrote in "The Wealth of Nations" that "the decline in profits is not the retreat and decline of business, but the only way to the prosperity of business." I don't know if this sentence can reassure those who really want to make good slates. Worrying about price wars caused by overcapacity is actually not scary. On the contrary, this is a natural leakage of business, constantly filtering out some not-so-good products and companies. At the same time, let’s think about it from another angle. If the rock slabs are always high-end, costing thousands of dollars per square meter, and coupled with 5 to 10 times the construction plan, they will never be able to reach the homes of ordinary people. Isn’t this also annoying?
In addition to Adam Smith, I have also heard another saying: "Without full competition, there cannot be full development." The development of the same thing will always be peaceful and healthy. Without competition and fighting, how can we talk about development? I believe everyone here knows better than me. If the price war can be supported by professional implementation solutions instead of lowering prices without a bottom line, we should learn to face it. Selling at a loss, sacrificing quality, and passing off inferior products as good products is called vicious competition.
The fourth story is called "Do Slates Need a Brand?" 》Many people say that rock slabs have no brand. Why do they say that rock slabs have no brand? Rock slabs have led the ceramic tile industry on the road to plate-based products. Almost most of the plates can be replaced by rock slabs. There seems to be a trend from ceramic tiles to plate-based products, to material-based products, and to de-branding. Many people say what does it mean to be a brand of slate? There are also many people who say that slate has no brand, but I actually disagree. Slate needs a brand, and both the B-end and the C-end need to pay attention to the brand.
Stone slab branding is no longer the same as traditional ceramic tiles. We need to design a new rock slab marketing system, use the best processing equipment, and do a good job in rock slab design + rock slab application design. We have always emphasized that details determine success or failure. I have visited many showrooms, and sometimes just because of a few seams, I feel that the product is not of high quality because the cutting, paving, and edge sealing are not in place. Therefore, brands must use the best processing equipment and cooperate with the best processing centers. Currently, rock slabs can only achieve high-quality and refined processing results by cooperating with the best processing centers. Details determine success or failure. Some brands may do a great job, but problems can easily arise as soon as consumers see the finished product in the store.
Stone slab branding also needs to penetrate into the direction of customization, create an all-slate slab home brand, and drive the development of slate slab production brands. I have communicated with friends in the industry that slate brands can consider finding a growing customization company to cooperate with them to improve the customization brand and level through slates, and finally build an important base for slate slabs based on the improvement of the customization brand level.
I shared four short stories. Actually, I just want to tell you: I like rock slabs very much, and I am also very optimistic about rock slabs. I think the prospects of rock slabs are very broad. Finally, I wrote a short paragraph called "Punctuation Marks and Tiles", hoping to encourage everyone.
Society and nature show people a striking colon (:), indicating that the industry is developing. The ceramic tile industry has ranked first in the world on its development path, accounting for 60% of the world's share. This is only the way forward for the ceramic tile industry. A comma (,). Now we enter a new era of rock slabs, symbolized by a comma (,) in a smaller phase. There is a larger space waiting for us ahead, which is the semicolon (;) of a larger stage. But the development process of ceramic tiles never ends (.). We should not be discouraged in the face of exclamation marks (!) such as cutting cracks, do not wander on the banks of the long river of ellipses (...) where price wars continue, and do not wander in the labyrinth of question marks (?) such as whether the ceramic tile industry will be oversupplied in the future, we We must persist in our own efforts. The road to development and advancement never ends. Thanks!
