Aopu, manufacturing products, more manufacturing concepts

Having a bath at home, especially in winter, used to be a distant dream for many Chinese (especially in the south without heating). However, all of this has undergone qualitative changes with the emergence of Yuba, a small home appliance that integrates heating, lighting and ventilation functions. The toilet (toilet) in Chinese homes began to be gorgeously transformed into a bathroom (bathroom). Bathing at home has become the norm these days. Fang Jie, chairman of the board of directors of Aopu Group, is quite proud of the change he has made himself: "When I am old, I will feel that I have done a meaningful thing, which is to change the way Chinese people bathe. , ordinary people can take a bath at home. This change was initiated by Aopu, because this product was invented by our company."

In addition to inventing the Yuba product, Fang Jie and Aopu have a lot to be proud of: Aopu The Pu brand has become synonymous with the product of Yuba; since the National Bureau of Statistics began to count Yuba as a separate commodity in 2002, Aopu has always ranked first in sales and market share of similar products; in 2010, Aopu Yuba won the The honor of "Green Star" has become the only product in the industry that has won this honor...

The product is not moved, the concept is first

Manufacturing the product, and making the concept, this is the philosophy that Aopu has always adhered to. In Fang Jie's view, "In order to promote the development of an industry, technological improvement is important, but more important is the innovation of consumption concepts. Enterprises must be able to guide consumers and be able to awaken the needs of consumers, It's the most important thing to discover."

In 1993, Fang Jie returned from Australia with US$40,000 to start a business. In China at this time, taking a bath at home is just a distant dream for most people. Opp was just right to find this "distant dream". Because it is "distant", it means that no product in the market can successfully solve this problem. A popular saying is that Aopu in the early stage of its business has found a blue ocean that belongs to it. Because of the "dream", it also shows that the common people really desire to be able to take a bath at home all year round. Consumers' desire in this regard is objective.

Aopu has grasped this demand and created the concept of "enjoying a comfortable bathing environment at home" in accordance with the people's will. When the first Aopu Yuba with model 18001 was produced in July 1993, this new market was opened up naturally.

Focusing on the concept of consumption ensures that Aopu continues to grow on the road of development. In order to be able to accurately grasp the market trend, Aopu has long hired foreign teams to develop the concept of consumption. Fang Jie said: "We are now hiring a French team who specialize in consumer concepts. After they have completed the concept, they will pass it on to our Spanish team to analyze materials and colors. Finally, these research and development The results will be handed over to some Hong Kong designers who are very familiar with the craftsmanship. They will then judge whether these concepts can be commercialized on Chinese machines and equipment."

Will the consumption concepts made by foreign teams be incompatible with China's national conditions? Fang Jie made it clear that he would not. He admitted that the most important thing in the development of consumer concepts is imagination and creativity. The current education system in China has determined that it is difficult for Chinese companies to produce master-level figures in their own R&D teams. The role of foreign teams in concept R&D is irreplaceable by domestic teams.

The actual effect also proves the success of Aopu's move. Relying on the deep understanding and continuous practice of concept research and development, Aopu has been able to maintain the image of a high-end leading brand in the industry and lead the direction of product development in the industry.

Building a high-level professional brand in the industry

Aopu's success largely stems from its achievements in brand building. Fang Jie told reporters: "In China's home appliance industry, only two companies have made their brands synonymous with their categories, one is Galanz microwave oven, and the other is Aopu Yuba." Aopu brand has reached today's height, benefiting Focus on brand building from beginning to end. Fang Jie believes that to build a brand, it is more important to have enough intellectual property rights and patented technologies than to have assets. Since its establishment, Aopu has always adhered to the asset-light model of focusing on research and development, focusing on brand, and gradually weakening production. Until today, Aopu has only one production base in Hangzhou Xiasha National Economic Development Zone. Low-end products are all outsourced OEM production. The product parts are also produced by the supporting designated production enterprises after design and development. In order to ensure the quality of outsourced products, Aopu is equipped with 2-3 production companies for each component. If there is any quality problem in the production of one of the parts, Aopu will cancel their cooperation opportunities and turn to the other two production companies. enterprise.

By outsourcing a large number of production links, Aopu can devote more energy to product development and brand building. In specific operations, Aopu's research and development is always two to three years ahead of schedule, which ensures that when the market is After the products of Shangaopu are imitated by competitors, Aopu can quickly cover the old products with new products, once again leading a new trend. For example, the "Double Circulation Heating Technology" launched in 2009 was developed and designed by Aopu in order to meet the needs of consumers for energy-saving, green and environmentally friendly products. It adopts a fully enclosed internal circulation structure and is equipped with dual heat sources to form a heat + heat mode, which makes the indoor air circulate and heat, and the heating effect increases geometrically. So far, OP has 162 patents in the field of Yuba that are still valid.

A large number of patented technologies enable Aopu to establish a high-level brand image in the bathroom industry, and gradually become a setter of industry standards. In 2005, Aopu, as the main drafting unit, participated in the formulation of the national industry standard "Infrared Light Bulb", which is the core component of Yuba's infrared light bulb; In 2007, Aopu started the formulation of "National Standard for Yuba General Technology" as the team leader. In 2008, Aopu became the team leader for the drafting of the integrated ceiling industry standard.

In the home appliance industry, no price wars

In the home appliance industry, price wars are the most common means of competition. But Opp remained unmoved. Product prices have always maintained a high level in the industry. Correspondingly, from 2002 to the present, Aopu has maintained the sales volume and market share of similar products for 8 consecutive years, occupying more than 40% of the market share, far ahead of other competitors.

The reason why it can achieve such success is that in the face of price wars, Aopu's response strategy is to strengthen product research and development, improve product safety and functionality, and rely on reliable and stable product quality rather than low prices. to attract consumers. Taking the infrared heating bubble, the core component of Yuba as an example, the industry standard is 1,500 hours of service life, but AOP can achieve 5,000 hours. Taking into account the quality of such products, Aopu's seemingly high product prices are actually the embodiment of Aopu's high cost performance.

In Oppo's view, price wars will seriously weaken the sustainable development capability and market competitiveness of enterprises. With ultra-low prices comes ultra-thin profits, which will inevitably lead to companies falling into a vicious circle of "lower prices - meager profits - inability to carry out product research and development - continue to lower prices", which will directly lead to a decline in brand value. . The relatively high price of Aopu products, on the one hand, enables the company to have enough funds to invest in product research and development, which not only ensures the sustainable development of the company, but also drives the continuous growth of the entire industry, and the growth of the industry, in turn, will give Enterprises in it have a greater living space. On the other hand, Aopu's high price provides agents with reasonable profit margins, which also enables agents to effectively provide after-sales service to consumers. The enterprise thus enters a virtuous circle, and the brand value also continues to rise.

Stable and multi-channel sales strategy

Fang Jie told reporters: "Aopu has a remarkable feature, 75% of sales are mainly agents, and their settlement method is payment on delivery, and the remaining 25 % is mainly because home appliance chain stores such as Gome and Suning can have an account period ranging from 28 days to 42 days, which is very rare in the home appliance industry.” The reason why Aopu can realize the payment on delivery of the agent is that its The reason lies in the three important measures of Aopu: First, through scientific analysis, a reasonable profit is reserved for each channel to ensure that the agents can make money. Second, the profit that OP gives to merchants and the scope of franchising are quite regular, which ensures that the amount of money earned by merchants can be maintained at a relatively stable level without too much fluctuation. Third, Aopu promises that once a crisis occurs, the agent can basically return it as long as there is no possibility of a second sale. The above-mentioned system ensures that Aopu, which currently has 400 agents and more than 4,000 sales terminals, has almost no bad debts, which ensures the sufficient cash flow of the enterprise and greatly improves the ability of the enterprise to resist risks.

At the same time, in order to prevent agents from smuggling goods and ensure the stability of the entire product price system, Aopu established a price tracking mechanism in the 1990s. In Aopu, each product has a barcode when it leaves the factory. Through this barcode, the company can know at any time at the same time, where each machine is located in all parts of the country, and roughly how much stock there is. Once the phenomenon of smuggling occurs, the source can be quickly found out according to the product barcode.

Aopu has also made various attempts in the expansion and maintenance of sales channels in recent years. Since 2002, Aopu has successively cooperated in some engineering projects. Since 2007, Aopu has established strategic cooperative relations with some large real estate developers, which bring about hundreds of thousands of bookings at every turn. At present, successful cooperation cases include Beijing Wangjing Court, Shanghai Renheng Riverside Garden, Nanjing Zhonghai Seine Lisé, Hangzhou Greentown Emerald City, Shanghai Cuihu Tiandi, Chengdu Linjiang Fengge, etc. It is foreseeable that with the increase in the proportion of domestic commercial housing refined decoration, the contribution of this channel to Aopu's sales will become larger and larger.

As a manufacturer of bathroom facilities, cooperation with home appliance distributors has become very logical for Aopu. In order to meet consumers' demand for one-stop shopping, Aopu has always maintained strategic partnership with Gome, Suning, B&Q and other home appliance and decoration chain companies.

Aopu has also actively explored the current fast-growing online sales model. In 2009, Aopu established an e-commerce department, which took Taobao Mall Aopu flagship store as the main platform for online sales, and opened up new channels for online sales. During the operation, in addition to providing the same after-sales service as the physical store, a group of online sales machines were specially designed for the aesthetics and price tolerance of online consumers, which not only met the needs of specific consumers, but also Avoid conflicts with offline channels.