Can you subvert the air purifier market?

For quite some time, consumers' choices on air purifier products have been limited to traditional household appliances brands such as Philips and Sharp. Although haze has stimulated a group of potential consumers, prices have become a barrier to their purchase. The important reason.

However, with millet, leopard rice, eggs, and three fathers having such an Internet background, the introduction of cost-effective products has, to a certain extent, changed the market landscape.

The biggest difference from traditional home appliance manufacturers is that these Internet companies also appear to be more active and active in marketing.

However, what surprised the market was Xiaomi's approach. In addition to the various parameter comparisons and the best hardware configuration, this consistent millet "tough" product logic, the price setting of 899 yuan also makes the market resensitized to price.

Although traditional home appliance manufacturers such as Philips and Sharp have also launched low-priced products, it is clear that Internet companies and entrepreneurs are holding high and making the industry more concerned by ordinary users, and low prices are just an eye-catching means.

Although the proposition of Internet companies relying on air purifiers to enter the digital living room is unrealistic because of the limited market size, more and more profitable consumer electronics products may be overturned by the Internet gameplay, but this may actually help entrepreneurs. Finding new directions.

Injecting Internet genes

From a professional perspective, consumer-grade air purifiers (hereinafter referred to as “air purifiers”) are a segmented market for traditional household appliances. After many rounds of market competition, air purifier products have been greatly improved in terms of exterior design, structural principles, and function settings.

The function provided by air purifiers is increasing. The introduction of functions such as Wi-Fi networking, App remote control, and auto-starting system is regarded as a sign of intelligence. What's more, links between Philips and the China Meteorological Administration website provide users with indoor and outdoor air quality predictions. Its competitor, Panasonic, is a leading brand and integrates five major sensors and six heavy purification structures to provide air purification and humidification experience.

But these are far less than the changes in the industry of Internet companies and some smart hardware entrepreneurs, because in their view, Wi-Fi networking, etc. is just the basis of intelligence, not the core. Zhang Tianyi, head of Cheetah Mobile Leopard Air Products Co., Ltd., told Tencent Technology that “some of the so-called smart air purifiers on the market just added a Wi-Fi module, which abandons the essence of the product, and the user’s intelligence lies in the function. ."

Zhang Tianyi said that Leopard Rice air purifiers can set the mode of product operation according to the user's environment after networking. More importantly, because it is equipped with a more sophisticated detection device, it can truly reflect the real-time air quality to consumers, allowing consumers to truly perceive the quality of the surrounding air.

Dai Saiying, a self-confessed "grassroots" entrepreneur, said that his "three dads" children's air purifiers are aimed at protecting children.

Not only that, Internet companies and entrepreneurs often tell stories about the birth of a brand with emotions, and they hope to impress consumers.

When promoting Leopard Rice's air purification master, Cheetah Mobile CEO Fu Sheng expressed the pain of dust allergic rhinitis. Zhou Zhipin, CEO of Fun Network CEO who has long paid attention to creative products, found Diao Xiaohua, a doctor of neurobiology, to decide on smart hardware. To make a difference, they set up a smart hardware company egg; Dai Saiying told the story of three fathers worry about their children's health and decided to make an air purifier.

These entrepreneurial backgrounds also make their products have their own unique attributes and hope to break some of the rules set by traditional vendors.

Cheetah Mobile highlighted its accuracy in detecting PM2.5 values. Zhang Tianyi told Tencent Technology that some air purifier products using infrared detection devices can only detect large particles, and then get the PM2.5 value through an algorithm, but this is not accurate. Leopard Meter Air Purifier uses a laser monitoring device that will increase the accuracy of this test.

In Zhou Pin's view, the humidifier should not be the function of the purifier itself, because with the humidification function, it will make the air moist, and "filter mesh will mold." However, this is often the function provided by other home appliance manufacturers to increase selling points. Daisai Eagle said that its product design considers the safety of use in the home environment.

Challenge the old forces

Just as the overall average price drop caused by the impact of Internet companies on the mobile phone industry, new entrants are exposing the interest linkages between traditional home appliance manufacturers and channels.

Fu Sheng once described why Leopard Rice's air purification masters were below a thousand dollars, because he saved a lot of money from the middle of the traditional air purifier brand. Zhou Pin also told Tencent Technology that the current market price of 6000 yuan for air purifier brand products, its ex-factory price is only 2,500 yuan.

Industry analysts pointed out that although the supply chain system of traditional household appliance manufacturers has been very mature, in order to provide sufficient benefits for sales channels, the final sales price is generally high.

Therefore, from the price of 1984 yuan egg, to 998 yuan leopard meters, to 899 yuan millet, Internet manufacturers are constantly lower the price of air purifiers, apparently more attractive to price-sensitive Chinese consumers.

What is certain is that the contribution of Internet companies and entrepreneurs to the market is not only to break the monopoly of the pricing mechanism, but to tell consumers how dark the industry actually is.

In the early factory research into the market of air purifiers, Zhou Pin discovered: "When you see so many professionals doing air purifiers and the shipment is so big, look at the entire manufacturing process and process. You will think this thing is too unreasonable."

In this market with many brands, due to lower entry barriers and higher profits, OEM production has become an unspoken industry's unspoken rules. Su Liang, Ovid Consulting Brand Director, said that in the thousands of air purifier products, the appearance of similar, many companies have the mentality of earning a sum of money to go, and their mode of operation is: procurement of core components, For assembly, OEM sales. According to the industry, the prototype of this type of product is the "public version."

Some high-end brands also have OEM production. In the market research results of many new entrants in this market, Philips has the largest market share. Some industry sources told Tencent Technology that "All Philips (air purifier) ​​products are branded."

The ultimate price and Internet mode of stressing experiences are making Internet companies challenge traditional home appliance manufacturers.

The storm did not arrive

Undoubtedly, Internet companies represented by Xiaomi began to enter this market, which will greatly affect the industrial interest distribution mechanism, especially those white goods manufacturers that have traditionally dominated the market pricing. Although not enough to affect smart homes, smart furniture has started.

However, traditional home appliance makers, although concerned so far, have remained calm.

GfK China analyst told Tencent Technology that the reason is that in the “old forces”, Internet companies’ products, such as millet, have suffered from power and noise, but whether they can simply exchange for the cost of these flaws. The impact on the purchase of consumers is not yet clear.

On the other hand, the reason is that the air purifier industry itself does not have a high threshold, and its profit margin is not low, and the haze effect has allowed manufacturers to do business.

Tencent Technology has discovered that in the sales promotion of most traditional home appliance manufacturers, “resisting the haze” has become a highlight for manufacturers to attract business. According to data from the China Meteorological Administration, there were two strong pollutions in Beijing during the National Day in 2013. Compared with Ovid Consulting's e-commerce monitoring data, online sales of air purifiers during this period increased by 34.1% from the previous month. There is a high degree of correlation.

More manufacturers have increased prices due to haze. According to industry sources, the online purchase price of air purifiers from foreign brands increased by 69% year-on-year in 2013. Among them, Samsung's air purifier online prices rose 113%, Morair's price rose 83%, Sharp's price rose 52%.

There are another group of consumers who purchase air purifier products. They just need to remove formaldehyde from the house because they just renovated the house. Although some experts and industry sources have stated that window ventilation is still the most effective method of removing formaldehyde, consumers still hope that organic machines can accelerate this natural process. Therefore, air purifiers that support this function also occupy a certain share in the market.

In addition, although the products of Internet companies are highly favored by consumers, their production capacity still needs to be upgraded and it is difficult to meet the market demand in the short term.

Starting from the moment Internet companies do mobile phones, there are discussions about how much impact they have on the industry chain and whether they can replicate.

However, the air purifier is just a simple household product because it is smart because it has a low threshold. This trend is not difficult to see, Internet companies will gradually penetrate into various traditional industries through various modes such as learning, investment, and acquisition. As far as morning and evening, it is only a matter of time.