Fan Zhigang: Air-conditioning relies on "Heaven", Hisense depends on "Drilling"

"Reliance on the heavens" is the common recognition of all air-conditioners. Fan Zhigang, Vice Minister of Product Planning at Hisense Kelon Air Conditioning Co., Ltd., told Global Grid Reporter: “The weather that affects air-conditioner sales is the weather and the second is the policy.” Due to the abnormal weather this year, the three major home appliances stimulation policies gradually exited. And weakening, especially the tightening of the real estate market, has seriously affected the sales and production of air conditioners and even home appliances.

For Fan Zhigang, who specializes in product planning, no matter how this day changes, he must design a better product. So how do you design air-conditioning products that are satisfying to consumers in a relatively quiet summer? Fan Zhigang said: "If the air-conditioning industry depends on heaven to eat, then Hisense air-conditioning is to rely on 'drilling' - delving into technological innovation, product development, study user experience."

“Hisense is a pragmatic company. When designing air conditioners, the most important thing is to accurately and deeply explore consumer needs, and then turn these requirements into product designs. We must target different regions and different users. The addition of sexual features allows consumers to use air conditioners more comfortably and comfortably."

Air conditioning on the sky: Stocks plummet, May sales are still lower than expected

Since the beginning of summer this year, continuous high-temperature weather has not yet emerged. Even heavy rains in the south and even large-area thunderstorms frequently occur. The north is still cool in the morning and late and has not yet entered high temperatures, affecting the air-conditioning industry considerably.

Ovid Consulting's data shows that the home air conditioner market still continues the trend of correction since the 2012 cold year opening. The number of terminal retail sales during the May 1 promotion period is 3.54 million units, a year-on-year decrease of 14.61%, and retail sales of 12.3 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 7.37%. According to Han Wei, director of Ovid Consulting White Electric Research Center, sales of home air conditioners are still difficult to get rid of the “relying on the heavens” status. Heavy rains in the southern region during the May 1 holiday have inhibited the release of market demand to some extent.

According to industry sources, many companies have psychological expectations for the lower than expected sales of five electric sales, especially air-conditioning products. Really enter the sales season of air conditioners 10-20 days later than in previous years.

According to media reports, air-conditioning inventory was once as high as 20 million units in 2012. Fan Zhigang believes that there are three reasons for the high inventory of air conditioners: First, the dealers have stocks of the previous year left over from the 2011 cold year; second, sales are dismal in the third quarter of 2011, and the market is pessimistic. Therefore, distributors stop purchasing and cause the company to accumulate stocks. The third is the arrival of the peak season, but the market demand has not improved. Merchants can not get old goods, new goods can not come. At the same time, in order to promote the new market price, the company conducts differentiated marketing on products and does not allow dealers to sell at a low price. Inventory has once become a serious problem.

“The huge inventories have been cleaned up, and the overall inventory of the air-conditioning industry (at the end of April) should be around 5 million units.” Fan Zhigang said, “These inventories are actually problems after the rigid demand of consumers is curbed. After the slowdown in growth rate, it is foreseeable that air-conditioning companies will launch a large-scale support policy and at the same time increase the intensity of leaning toward the tertiary and tertiary markets."

Fan Zhigang believes that relative to the policy vacuum period of the primary and secondary markets, the policy of home appliances to the countryside will continue to maintain the promotion of the tertiary and tertiary markets for a certain period of time. At the same time, thanks to the acceleration of the process of urbanization in rural areas in China, air-conditioner growth in the third and fourth-tier markets in 2012 will be very significant, and the growth rate will even reach 40%.

Policies Affecting Corporate Behavior: Level 1 Energy Efficiency Decreases

Han Hao believes that the weak performance of home air conditioners in the May Day market is mainly due to the impact of the energy saving benefit policy that was retired on the same period last year (June 1, 2011 ended). The manufacturers' surprise impulses caused an abnormally high year-on-year basis this year.

Due to the policy vacuum in the primary and secondary markets and the gradual escalation of consumer demand, this not only affects the company's market strategy, but also affects the design of air-conditioning products.

First of all, from the perspective of energy efficiency, when the state pushes subsidies for energy-saving benefits, all air-conditioning manufacturers are committed to the development of fixed-rate air-conditioning products at the first-level energy efficiency, with slightly less at the second level and almost no at the third level. When the policy was withdrawn, the air-conditioning companies gradually shifted to the second and third levels of energy efficiency due to the excessively high price of fixed-rate air-conditioning at the first-class energy efficiency and the huge cost pressures for developing first-class energy-efficient fixed-speed air-conditioners.

Second, due to the existence of home appliances to the countryside, fixed-speed air-conditioning will also show some growth in rural areas. Fan Zhigang introduced: "At present, the air-conditioning industry has promoted the use of air-conditioners when it comes to promoting the countryside; and after the subsidy is cancelled, the market will return to a price-oriented law, and the three-level output of fixed-speed will increase significantly. Secondary production dropped sharply."

Third, in the primary and secondary markets and economically developed regions, due to the energy saving and comfort of inverter air conditioners, the market space for fixed speed air conditioners will be gradually squeezed, and volume growth will occur in the second or third quarters of the year. Fan Zhigang said: "China's inverter air conditioner shipments have accounted for 40% of the industry as a whole, of which leading companies will reach a higher level." It is understood that Hisense inverter air conditioner shipments have reached 80%.

Design by "drilling": delving into different needs, targeted improvement

In 2011, the three major policy stimuli of household appliances to the countryside, old-for-new trades, and energy-saving benefits were very obvious. The sales of home appliances grew rapidly. After the policy was withdrawn, the home appliance industry also produced a wave of deep corrections. In the absence of new policies and major markets that have been overstimulated, all air-conditioning companies have targeted the market growth point of the rural market.

Fan Zhigang said: “Hisense’s domestic sales of air conditioners reached 2.4 million units in 2011, and it is expected to sell 3 million units in 2012, of which at least 1 million units will be sold to the rural market.” Facing the vast rural market, various air conditioner manufacturers Accelerate the speed of sinking channels, and strengthen the construction of outlets in the 3rd and 4th markets. Hisense air-conditioner sales network will increase to more than 4,000 in 2012.

With the increase in the importance of air-conditioning companies in the rural market, product design has a lot of targeted adjustments. Fan Zhigang introduced: “In the past few years, due to the insufficient attention paid to the tertiary and tertiary markets in the entire air-conditioning industry, in the aspect of product design, the 3rd and 4th markets have been moving closer to the primary and secondary markets, and their product designs have been similar. Hisense found that the user needs and product characteristics of the 3rd and 4th markets are quite different from those of the primary and secondary markets, so he has made many different improvements and designs."

Voltage is the most typical problem in the rural market. In the 3rd and 4th markets, the voltage is generally unstable and low, and the minimum is even 130-140 volts. “Although the country is making great efforts to improve the voltage problems in rural areas and townships, it will take time. For household electrical appliance companies, voltage is a very important differentiating factor. Therefore, there must be targeted improvements in product design and outstanding features.” Fan Zhigang Said, "Hisense currently developing air-conditioning products can fully meet the needs of such extreme conditions of use, stable operation at low voltage."

In rural areas, the rodent problem is also very prominent. In the washing machine industry, there are products specifically designed for rat protection, and the air-conditioning industry has also experienced air-conditioner lines being bitten by rats. In response to this situation, Hisense has also added a rat-proof (biting) function to the air-conditioning design.

Since the structure of rural houses is completely different from that of cities, the insulation performance of houses with the same area has obvious differences. Therefore, the cooling effect of the same air conditioner will be very different in rural and urban areas. This requires companies to develop air conditioners suitable for rural consumers.

Fan Zhigang said: "From the monitoring data of Hisense, we see that high-power products in the rural market sell better than small-power products. This is due to the fact that rural housing structures are too large, they are more southward, and their thermal insulation performance is poor. From a practical point of view, In fact, high-power products are more suitable for rural consumers."

In addition, consumers in different regions also have distinctly different needs for appearance. “Eg in East China, consumers in the third and fourth-tier markets are relatively close to the primary and secondary markets, but in the Midwest, products with simple designs and powerful functions are more likely to be favored by consumers, and fashion-forward designs are not included in the law. ”

Fan Zhigang introduced that every year, Hisense Air Conditioning will find out the specific needs of different consumers through in-depth and meticulous market research and work out a 1-3 year technical route and product plan. At the same time, according to market demand and competition, dynamic adjustments are made to finally determine which of the products are in high demand every year, so as to estimate the production ratio of various products and define the product line for the next year.

Hisense air-conditioning came all the way in 16 years. It is precisely because of every bit of refinement that it has established the image of the most technological strength in the field of inverter air conditioning, and will therefore support Hisense for the next 16 years.