On the afternoon of July 19, the 2021 First Ceramic Industry Product Manager Conference with the theme of “Focus on High-end Manufacturing, Pay Attention to Product Managers” was successfully held at the China Ceramics Headquarters Base Theater. Nearly 300 representatives of outstanding product managers in the industry and product R&D and design personnel attended the meeting.
This conference is co-sponsored by Foshan Ceramics Industry Association and Huaxia Ceramics Network, and co-sponsored by COSON and Guangzhou Design Week. It also receives strong support from China Ceramics Headquarters and other enterprises.
Event site
The guest lineup of the conference is also very strong. It is hosted by Liu Xiaoming, a senior media person and editor-in-chief of China Ceramics Network. Four big names will give speeches: Tong Huiming, chief observer of BDDWATCH and professor of Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, and Chief Product Officer of Airmont Official CPO Wei Bezan, General Manager of COSON Brand Marketing Center Guo Hao, General Manager of Carobia (China) High-tech Materials Co., Ltd. Di Mauro.
Not only that, the conference also specially invited five "industry experts": Zhang Gang, executive president of Baoda Group, Ou Tiancheng, co-founder and managing deputy general manager of Mati Ceramics, Gao Yongjun, president of Jucheng Enterprise, Luo Weiqiang, general manager of Tiangu Ceramics, and Zhou Xingfu, design director of Cortona Ceramics, had a collision of ideas around the theme of "Product Manager: Definition and Function", and Yao Ruohan, a well-known expert in the ceramic industry, served as the moderator of the dialogue session.
Event site
01
Lao Niu:
Product Manager Conference
Promote the industry to establish an independent R&D innovation system
Why hold a product manager conference?
Lao Niu of China Ceramics Network mentioned in his speech that since the global COVID-19 epidemic has not subsided so far, the Bologna Exhibition, which has always been a benchmark in the ceramic industry, has also been greatly affected. Although the exhibition is scheduled to be held as scheduled this year, it is believed that very few domestic visitors will be able to attend the exhibition.
Huaxia Ceramics Network Lao Niu
In the past, people in the industry went to Bologna mainly to see products, learn from and imitate Italian and Spanish products. As for the product development and innovation system behind it, they have little or no idea about it.
The main purpose of the first Product Managers Conference is to take advantage of the absence of the Bologna Exhibition to remind and guide domestic ceramic enterprises to accelerate the establishment of an independent product R&D input-output system.
The concept of "product manager" first flourished in the IT industry and extended to home appliance companies, and the "Ceramic Industry Product Manager Conference" can be said to be the first of its kind.
Event site
02
Wei Beizan:
Accurately positioned product structure system
Is the key to extending the product life cyclekey
What kind of thinking should a product manager have?
Wei Beizan, founder and chief product officer of Airmont, shared answers on the theme of "sustainable development product structure system based on precise positioning".
Wei Beizan, Founder and Chief Product Officer of Airmont
Wei Bezan, who has been engaged in the ceramic industry for 25 years, has gone through the process of selling products - researching products - designing and developing products. He believes that the colors, specifications, textures, and textures of a good product series actually need to conform to the company's own product positioning, business model, and sales channels.
Accurate product architecture positioning can not only prolong the sustainable development of products, but also reduce risks when the market changes, and will not even subvert one's own product architecture to cater to market trends.
In addition, through the dual drive of design and technology, we can better bring sustainable business value and space to customers.
Because of this, a good product can gradually become a complete product system through point-to-point integration, and ultimately feed back the brand. A complete product system is supported by four dimensions: original thinking, innovative thinking, product-centered thinking, and user-centered thinking.
Among them, originality can drive eternal value and extend the life cycle of products. Innovation involves planning product positioning and making leading innovations through market research, combined with production technology, production costs, promotion costs and other aspects. Finally, it is implemented into products based on consumer needs.
03
Di Mauro:
Product Manager Responsibilities
Balance the three major sectors of sales, promotion and technology at the same time
As a representative of upstream enterprises, Di Mauro, general manager of Carobia (China) High-tech Materials Co., Ltd., believes that good products often belong to the future and are products that we follow and are ahead of the present.
Di Mauro, General Manager of Carobia (China) High-tech Materials Co., Ltd.
So, to achieve such product standards, product managers need to balance the three major sectors of sales, promotion and technology at the same time.
This not only tests the depth and breadth of the product manager’s understanding of the product, but also tests the industry experience that the product manager has accumulated in the process. After all, different levels of industry experience will produce different differences in product perception.
As an upstream enterprise in the ceramic industry, Carobia has never stopped research and development work, because only in this way can it provide the industry with higher-level glaze technology and put it into use in products of different categories and sizes. Ultimately, Assist enterprises to achieve more perfect products.
At the same time, Di Mauro also introduced the color changes brought about by the epidemic to the guests. One very important factor is that as people are forced to work from home, home has become the main place for work and self-realization and optimization. As people spend more time at home, they have a higher pursuit of natural and comfortable colors and items.
Therefore, the autumn and winter theme color references for 2021 and 2022 present a "colorful" look and feel.
Di Mauro also focused on the black elements that are popular during the epidemic - moonless night, extreme gray, extreme gray + green, olive green, light squid and other elements.
04
Guo Hao:
Consumption upgrade and iterative environment
Forced to redefine high-end ceramic tile manufacturing in China
As a representative of a production-oriented enterprise, Guo Hao, general manager of brand marketing of Jucheng Enterprise, gave a speech on the theme of "Redefining High-end Ceramic Manufacturing".
Guo Hao, General Manager of Brand Marketing of Jucheng Enterprise
He asked, in the context of China's manufacturing upgrade, how should we think about the high-end manufacturing of Chinese ceramic tiles?
First of all, China's consumer market has undergone tremendous changes. Due to the continuous development of the Internet, consumers can easily shop around with just a mobile phone. At the same time, digitization not only promotes marketing growth, but also provides enterprises with feedback on real market conditions, thereby guiding the enterprise's manufacturing direction more scientifically.
So in this new era, we must build a path for the brand to move forward. Through segmentation, specialization, and high-end manufacturing logic, we can make products closer to the innovative era of new consumption, new manufacturing, and new brands. And this is also the core competitiveness of Jucheng Enterprise, which has a 4.0 industrial digital green smart factory.
According to reports, Jucheng Enterprise is a ceramic enterprise with world-class production equipment in Heyuan, Guangdong. It has joined forces with Italy's top ceramic equipment suppliers Sacmi, LB, System, AirPower and Italy's Carobia and other internationally renowned glaze companies to integrate the world's most advanced production technology and management. The production base will be built into one of the few Italian standard Industry 4.0 smart factories in China.
At present, it has attracted a number of outstanding antique brick companies in the industry to develop and manufacture products here. Jucheng Enterprise hopes that more product developers will join in the future and build the base into a high-end ceramic tile R&D, manufacturing sharing and symbiosis platform open to the entire industry.
05
Six big names debated
What is a product manager and what does it do
In the dialogue session, Yao Ruohan, a well-known expert in corporate strategy and product strategy in the industry, hosted the dialogue, and invited Zhang Gang, executive president of Baoda Group, Ou Tiancheng, co-founder and managing deputy general manager of Mati Ceramics, Gao Yongjun, President of Jucheng Enterprise, Luo Weiqiang, General Manager of Tiangu Ceramics, and Zhou Xingfu, Design Director of Cortona Ceramics, five industry "brick experts" came to the stage and talked about what a product manager is in the ceramic industry and why the ceramic industry isThe need for product managers and what product managers in the ceramic industry should do were a collision of ideas on three major themes.
Dialogue session
Yao Ruohan
Luo Weiqiang believes that a product manager is more like a parent, because he not only has to witness a product from conception to growth, but also needs to spend time cultivating it, in order to extend the life cycle of the product.
Tiangu Ceramics General Manager Luo Weiqiang
Zhang Gang proposed four major capabilities of product managers: R&D capabilities, marketing capabilities, marketing capabilities, and flexible and exquisite manufacturing capabilities. You can’t just look at the market or just the product, but look at the entire closed loop of product circulation.
Baoda Group Executive President Zhang Gang
Ou Tiancheng believes that a product manager gives users confidence because he can always bring them what they like. On the other hand, I think everyone can be a product manager, because a good product is created by people from different functions, such as R&D, packaging, promotion, sales, etc., and ultimately what we deliver to users is a A product with a sense of experience and in line with consumer needs.
Ou Tiancheng, co-founder and deputy general manager of Matti Ceramics
Gao Yongjun mentioned that value creation is undoubtedly a trend, and the core of value creation comes from products. Are your products more competitive and differentiated? In addition, the product manager must be the innovation leader of the enterprise. He is not necessarily a disruptive innovation, but can be micro-innovation or additive innovation.
Gao Yongjun, President of Jucheng Enterprise
Zhou Xingfu emphasized that product managers are a necessity for enterprises. Because he is a person who can control the product side of the entire enterprise. He can not only build the entire product architecture, but also plan the entire life cycle of the product.
Cortona Ceramics Design Director Zhou Xingfu
When the dialogue session was at its most intense, Lao Niu of China Ceramics Network asked a question - if you look at the slate from the perspective of a product manager, what is your thinking?
Ou Tiancheng analyzed from two dimensions. The first is dimensionality reduction. The emergence of slate has overcome the pain points of ceramic tiles for the entire industry. So when slate enters the market, slate companies actually have to face market dimensionality reduction. So how to achieve higher profits through new materials, it is necessary to create a higher level product architecture to leverage a higher level of product value.
06
Tong Huiming:
Design is a kind of leadership
Transformation from tangible design to intangible design
As the final guest, Professor Tong Huiming from Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts gave a keynote speech on "Design-Driven Branding & Architectural Ceramics Industry Innovation".
Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts·Professor Tong Huiming
Regarding the definition of a product manager, Tong Huiming believes that he is an operator who achieves the execution of brand goals and initiates full-chain innovation from product positioning and user thinking. He is also the creator of popular products and ecosystems.
In the construction and ceramics industry, Tong Huiming believes that product managers in the ceramics industry need to make breakthrough thinking based on the three dimensions of users, services, and scenarios.
Among them, people are the center, and this "people" includes users, designers, craftsmen, etc. As for why consumers buy ceramic tiles, the ultimate goal is not to buy bricks, but to pay for a comfortable and enjoyable home space.
In service thinking, high-quality bricks account for 50%, high-quality construction accounts for 30%, and after-sales accounts for 20%. This is the complete service chain for users and the entire chain of the enterprise.
Scenario thinking is a new ecology of ceramic tiles that breaks through the convention and thinks from the perspective of a complete system of space. Can we consider a smart IoT bedroom wall system? For example, ceramic tiles are used as the main material to make a bedroom system, which is connected with the intelligent Internet of Things, or the surface of ultra-thin thermal conductive ceramic tiles + distributed cold/warm air vents + speaker units are used to build a complete system, etc.
Tong Huiming believes that product managers bring a certain degree of full-chain innovation to an enterprise.
Take a group photo at the end of the event
