Philips, the brand, has a history of more than 100 years since it entered the Chinese market in 1920, and since 2011, China has become Philips' second largest market in the world.
In the past 100 years, Philips mainly penetrates the market in the field of personal care small household appliances, its launch of razors, electric toothbrushes, hair dryers and other products, have been recognized by the market, in the field of home appliances, Philips has also laid out humidifiers, air purifiers and other product lines related to the indoor environment.
Today, Philips has decided to go further into the field of white goods, and on March 4, its Philips air-conditioning production and research base in Chuzhou, Anhui Province, announced the official start of construction, which also means that Philips will take air-conditioning products as the next important point of strength.
The production and research base is located in Nancheng New District, Chuzhou City, with a total investment of 10 billion yuan, implemented in three phases, mainly used for the research and development and production of Philips household air conditioners, large-scale commercial air conditioners and compressors, motors and other supporting equipment. The first phase of the household air conditioning project has a total investment of 3.5 billion yuan, with a land area of 659 mu and a total construction area of 450,000 square meters, and the annual production capacity is expected to be 5 million sets of air conditioners after being put into operation.
What is the concept of the scale of 5 million air conditioners? In 2021, the retail sales volume of residential air conditioners in the Chinese market will be 46.89 million units, which means that relying on the production capacity of the Chuzhou factory, Philips has the ability to cover about 10% of the market share.
At present, the leading brands in the field of air conditioning are still Gree, Midea and Haier, as the absolute main manufacturers, they already have perfect energy reserves in channels, technology and brand power, which is an incomparable advantage for many waist manufacturers.
In the past two years, there have also been many fast-growing brands in the field of air conditioning, such as Millet, Hisense and other manufacturers are increasing investment in this field, on the one hand, compared with traditional air conditioning manufacturers, these catch-ups pay more attention to experience, marketing differentiation, and at the same time in the product research and development level, for the new needs of young user groups, do more accurate deployment.
In terms of technology trends, air conditioners are also constantly deriving subdivisions, such as combining the dual needs of indoor temperature and air quality control, bringing fresh air air conditioners, and successfully expanding the functional dimensions of air conditioning coverage from cold and heat to particulate matter filtration and air replacement. Philips chose to enter the game at this time, but also saw that air conditioning outside the traditional track, has more possibilities including intelligent interaction, air purification, home appliance linkage.
Air health, is also one of the directions of the previous Philips air conditioning products, philips has launched a household hanging air conditioner, cabinet air conditioning and central air conditioning, the product matrix has been formed, of which the household air conditioner includes three series, equipped with Air Deep Clean three-dimensional air ultra-clean system, S-shaped comfort wind and other health, soft wind technology, central air conditioning covers both home and commercial two major scenarios, including multi-line, duct machine, ceiling machine and two-way supply and other types.
George Williams, Head of Global Market Development Asia at Philips, also introduced the future product and technology strategy of Philips Air Conditioning at the event: "The establishment of the Chuzhou factory is not only a further extension of Philips Health Technology's territory in the field of air health, but also an important strategic decision for Philips to enter the field of great white electricity. ”
It can be seen that Philips' future focus on application areas is not only temperature control, but also through the accumulation of technology in "air health", driving the experience upgrade of air conditioning products.
From the perspective of the overall production and research base planning, Philips not only has to lay out the whole machine assembly, but also focuses on the development and manufacture of upstream parts of air conditioners such as motors and compressors, which also reserves the possibility for the diversity of future factory business. According to reports, the R&D center of Chuzhou Production and Research Base covers an area of 15,000 square meters, equipped with 3HP-20HP enthalpy laboratory, noise laboratory, long-term operation laboratory, environmental laboratory, electrical performance laboratory and other home appliance laboratories.
Philips air conditioning in the completion of the production and research layout, want to enter the current competition in the Chinese market has been very fierce, but also need to work hard in marketing, market, channels, for the entire brand, although it has a certain degree of visibility in the country, but more concentrated in other markets, Philips needs to radiate brand influence to air conditioning and even the entire field of white appliances, need to find their own brand and product positioning different from the players in the field.
In the stock competition of the air conditioning market, the wide popularity of the Philips brand will be the biggest source of competitiveness at this stage, but only relying on brand power, it is difficult to push it into the ranks of mainstream competitors, Chuzhou production and research base brought by research and development, manufacturing capabilities, will enhance the brand technology and cost control capabilities, and this will be the key to whether Philips air conditioning can maintain competitiveness in the market. (This article was first published on Titanium Media App, author/Deng Jianyun, editor/Zhong Yi)