According to the survey data of the national lighting market in the first quarter of this year, although the market has rebounded, the passenger flow and sales order volume of dealer stores are still not optimistic, and the market prosperity index is still not high. At the same time, it was found that in this situation, most dealers believed that the Internet grabbed the order, the designer intercepted the customer, and the high-end customers went to the ancient town of Dengdu to purchase directly.

Although the lighting market has picked up, who has robbed the dealer's market?

It sounds reasonable at first, but in fact it is not. The data shows that the pure Internet sales of lamps and lanterns only accounted for 9% of the total market share, and the invisible channel also only diverted a very small number of customers at the top of the pyramid, and the direct customers purchasing from the ancient town of Dengdu only accounted for 15% of the total sales. Most of the sales of lamps are still relying on traditional dealer channels. So who is it that grabbed the dealer's market?

Customer's inner needs

In recent years, the slowdown in economic growth, overcapacity in the industry, and oversupply of products have led to a continuous increase in the proportion of consumption in the "troika" of the economy. Post-80s and 90s have rapidly risen as the main consumer. They have lived in a moderately prosperous society since they were young, and they have neither the post-60s' hardship mentality of being reluctant to consume, and they are also different from those born in the 70s who became rich overnight with the help of the spring breeze of reform. They do not have a strong desire to show off their wealth, nor do they need to buy a lot of useless "luxuries" to prove that they are out of poverty. Instead, it pays more attention to the value of goods, consumer experience and service enjoyment. The concept of consumption has also shifted from "purchasing products" to "enjoying services", from "meeting daily needs" to "improving the quality of life". If dealers fail to capture the psychological needs of customers conveyed by this consumption upgrade, they will inevitably miss the customers that they should serve.

The importance of branding

It is reported that under the situation that the overall business environment of the industry is not optimistic, the sales volume of NVC lighting in the first quarter increased by 53%, which in a sense shows that consumers are paying more and more attention to product quality and brand effect. The so-called quality means: excellent performance, good details but no need for luxury; so-called brand, in addition to endorsing product quality, product culture and craftsmanship enable consumers to obtain a feeling and trust when buying products of the brand. At the same time, it roughly reflects the cruel fact that "the market is still there, but it doesn't belong to you anymore."

Reasons for not satisfying customers

Concluding remarks

As we all know, the users of lighting are basically local customers with certain economic strength. They are all middle-class and above, and they like high-quality products. However, the current status of the lighting market cannot meet their needs for three reasons:

Local dealers, especially third- and fourth-tier dealers, mostly operate low-quality and low-priced products, and some are even fake and inferior at all;

In order to prevent the loss of customers, more than 70% of dealers use their own brands. "Debranding" isolates the communication link between consumers and lighting brands, and seriously hinders consumers' branded consumption needs;

Manufacturers have too few outlets in specialty stores, and most products are isolated from consumers. According to research, less than 30% of lighting manufacturers have first-tier brands in their channels, and less than 10% have specialty stores in second and third tiers.

These conditions have made it impossible for high-end consumers to buy their favorite products locally.

Concluding remarks

It can be seen that this consumption upgrade originally brought new opportunities to traditional distributor channels, but the distributors themselves did not capture the psychological needs conveyed by customers, leading to their product positioning, brand selection and marketing model. It runs counter to it, and eventually loses its own customers and loses its own market.