The government is working hard to set up the stage
In fact, the efforts to promote the "Cixi Home Appliances" brand began a few years ago. In December 2002, as a support project of the West Lake Expo, the China Household Electrical Appliances Association cooperated with the Cixi Municipal People's Government to hold the Cixi Home Appliances Expo for the first time. Since then, the "Cixi Home Appliances" exhibition area participated by the Cixi Economic Development Bureau has often appeared at home appliance exhibitions in various places. "After traveling around various places, the Cixi Home Appliances Expo finally returned home." Cixi Municipal Party Committee Secretary Hong Jiaxiang said with emotion. Data shows that the exhibition scale of the first Cixi Home Appliances Expo after "Going Home" reached more than 20,000 square meters and more than 800 standard booths, which shows the scale and influence of "Cixi Home Appliances" today.
On the first day of the exhibition, the entire convention and exhibition center was packed with people, and many booths were crowded with people. According to reports, there are nearly 270 exhibitors at this Cixi Home Appliances Expo, including 219 companies in Cixi City and more than 50 companies outside Cixi City. There are five major exhibition areas: household appliances, information technology products, household appliance spare parts, household appliance equipment, and household appliance procurement and services, covering more than 100 household appliances and thousands of varieties. Xiang Ming, spokesperson of the Propaganda Department of the Cixi Municipal Party Committee, said: "In addition to the exhibition of complete machine products, a special exhibition area has been opened: there are 100 standard booths in the exhibition area for molds, machine tools, injection molding machines and other home appliances; the history of the development of Chinese home appliances and outstanding industrial design There are 150 booths in the work exhibition and international and domestic procurement negotiation areas, bringing a refreshing feeling to buyers and professional visitors. ”
Fontai, Qidi, Qinyuan, Zhuoli, Wellcome, Chunlei, and Pioneer. , Langmu, Huayu and other well-known local brands that make Cixi people proud, all participated in the exhibition with large-scale specially designed booths. FOTILE's booth area is not too large, but its modern and simple design style with international color, as well as exquisitely designed innovative new kitchen appliances and the marketing concept of "total kitchen" are still quite eye-catching.
"Cixi's major home appliance and supporting companies are participating in the exhibition." Xiang Ming said. But this is obviously only part of Cixi's home appliance industry. According to Xiang Ming, Cixi currently has more than 2,000 complete home appliance companies and nearly 10,000 supporting companies, with products ranging from air conditioners, washing machines, and range hoods to water dispensers, electric irons, and sockets. In 2006, the output value of Cixi's home appliance industry reached 50 billion yuan, the export delivery value was 12.8 billion yuan, and the output of various home appliances exceeded 150 million units. The annual sales of more than 60 home appliance companies exceeded 100 million yuan.
Since this is the first home appliance expo held in Cixi, in order to attract companies to participate, Cixi City will also provide certain subsidies to exhibitors. "The cost of our bare space for the exhibition is paid by the government." A staff member of an exhibiting company told a reporter from "Electrical Appliances".
Although there is a strong government overtone, Cixi City is obviously unwilling to limit the role of the expo to "expanding the influence of 'Cixi Home Appliances'". "We hope that the Cixi Home Appliances Expo will become an influential professional exhibition in the industry." Xiang Ming emphasized.
The reporter learned that the organizing committee has made special efforts in organizing professional visitors and cooperated with Hong Kong E-trade to hold a "Global Buyer Procurement Matching Meeting" during the exhibition, inviting visitors from the United States, Germany, Singapore, There are nearly 40 internationally renowned home appliance purchasing companies in Italy, Australia, Argentina, New Zealand, Spain and Hong Kong; cooperate with Huicong.com to invite the heads of purchasing centers of international home appliance companies in China; cooperate with Yiwu Small Home Appliance City to invite foreign companies to purchase in Yiwu The relevant personnel...
The mentality of the exhibitors is also very different. "The government asked us to come, and we didn't expect many actual transactions." said the person in charge of a refrigerator company. However, there are still many satisfied people. Xu Fangrong, sales general manager of Ningbo Yiyou Electric Co., Ltd., has been busy receiving visitors. He said: "I think it's pretty good. We have a new refrigerator production line. We only participated in the exhibition to let people know about us. This goal has been achieved." "Come and see." There are a lot of people interested in our products.” A person in charge of Ningbo Super Time Electrical Co., Ltd. was also very satisfied.
Gradual upgrading of the industry
Exhibitors from outside Cixi, especially well-known home appliance companies, obviously received preferential treatment. The "Electrical Appliances" reporter noticed that although well-known brands such as Hisense, Tsinghua Tongfang, Midea, Changhong, TCL, and Samsung are participating in the exhibition through agents, their booths are well-located and large, and they display flat-screen TVs that are rare in Cixi. The product is quite eye-catching.
The home appliance equipment exhibition area, which focuses on machine tools and injection molding machines, is quite distinctive. Dozens of well-known equipment manufacturers such as Dalian Machine Tool Group, Shanghai No. 1 Machine Tool Factory, and Hechuan Machine Tool Group Co., Ltd. participated in the exhibition, showing the unique appeal of Cixi's home appliance manufacturing base.
In addition to the TV products displayed by Hisense, Tsinghua Tongfang, Changhong, TCL, Samsung and a few local LCD TV companies such as Ningbo Boyige Digital Technology Co., Ltd. and Ningbo Bijali Digital Technology Co., Ltd., Cixi Home Appliances Expo is almost dominated by “white home appliances”. "This reflects the current product pattern of Cixi's home appliance industry. Cixi has advantages in washing machines, refrigerators, irons, water dispensers, electric heaters, electric fans, food processors, coffee machines and other products," Ding Xianglin said. .
In the past, the advantages of Cixi washing machines were obviously in the mid-to-low-end double-tub washing machines. However, this is starting to change. "Electrical Appliances" reporters noticed at the expo that there are already many companies in Cixi that can produce fully automatic washing machines. Some companies, such as Cixi Shunda Industrial Co., Ltd., even exhibited their newly developed drum washing machines.
Since 2003, the Cixi Municipal Government has also guided companies to shift from cost competition to technology competition. Many new products at the expo are eye-catching.
The Cixi Municipal Government’s good intentions can be seen in the supporting activities of the expo. In addition to content that serves enterprises such as economic and trade fairs and talent recruitment fairs, the other two are the home appliance industrial design competition award ceremony and the Cixi home appliance development forum with the theme of brand, patent and standardization. The purpose is obviously to guide enterprises to gradually change the traditional cost competition method.
"In the past, Cixi home appliance companies had to OEM for well-known domestic and foreign brands due to lack of core technology. Now they have a certain 'voice' in the industry." Xiang Ming said.
Brand awareness awakening
"Now, Zhongxiang Electric is just the production base of Shanghai Shuanglu Electric Co., Ltd. The new refrigerator production base in Shanghai will be put into operation in December 2007." Cixi Zhongxiang Chen Quanmiao, chairman of Xiang Electric Co., Ltd., now prefers to be called "Shanghai Shuanglu Electric". "Producing in Shanghai with Shanghai brands will make it easier for consumers to accept it." Two years ago, after the company's production reached a certain scale, the smart Chen Quanmiao realized the importance of the brand and bought out Shanghai Shuanglu at one time. This well-known refrigerator brand also leases the right to use the "Shangling" brand.
In the Cixi home appliance industry, there are more and more home appliance business owners like Chen Quanmiao who realize the importance of brand. Fotile is the flag and symbol of Cixi home appliance brand. In addition, there are also many companies in Cixi, such as Qidi, Qinyuan, Pioneer, and Langmu, which have become "Chinese famous brands" or well-known trademarks through their own efforts. However, for the vast majority of small and medium-sized enterprises, it is not easy to create their own brand. Many people prefer to choose the "borrowing brand" development path like Chen Quanmiao.
However, most of the latecomers are not as lucky as Chen Quanmiao, who can control two well-known old refrigerator brands. "Electrical Appliances" reporters saw many familiar and unfamiliar products at the Cixi Home Expo: Jinuoer washing machine, Chigo washing machine, Watson refrigerator, red light refrigerator, red heart freezer, Xianke refrigerator, Sakura washing machine, Great Wall washing machine, Combine washing machine...
In a small booth, the reporter found that there were fully automatic washing machines from three brands: Great Wall, Sakura, and Combine. "Some brands such as Sakura are leased, and some are brand cooperation." Luo Gaoxiang, general manager of Cixi Timeout Electric Co., Ltd., the operator of these brands, told the "Electrical Appliances" reporter. Luo Gaoxiang obviously hopes to use different brands to target different markets. The three brands of washing machine product designs and promotional leaflet design styles are completely different.