Before reading this article, you can click "Follow", which is convenient for you to discuss and share, and can bring you a different sense of participation, thank you for your support.
Text: Big Mouth Social Sciences
Editor: Big Mouth Social Sciences
In this suffocating summer, will you also retreat indoors and enjoy the cool breath brought by the air conditioner while meditating in your heart: "Thank you for our great domestic air conditioner?" ”
Are you also glad that you chose a domestic air conditioning brand, thinking that while saving electricity bills, you are still supporting domestic manufacturing?
Have you ever staunchly resisted Japanese brands of air conditioners, despite their high-tech, sophisticated craftsmanship, and even attractive designs?
If you answer yes to these questions, then I'm afraid I will bring some news that may disappoint you: in fact, many domestic air conditioners are "fake domestic products".
For us, the concept of "fake domestic products" may not be familiar, but its existence is directly related to the interests of users and trust in domestic goods. So, what is a "fake domestic product"?
It can be vividly described as a "commercial wolf wearing sheep's clothing": some foreign brands, mainly large multinational companies, deliberately obscure the origin of their brands in order to exploit the loopholes in which Chinese consumers trust and love domestic products.
They will use a series of strategies, such as decorating products with Chinese elements, using flashy Chinese names, hiring Chinese celebrities as endorsements, and even setting up production lines in China to make it difficult for consumers to perceive the nature of their "foreign goods", so as to increase sales and achieve greater commercial profits.
In all industries, the existence of "fake domestic products" in the field of air conditioning is particularly significant. According to statistics, the scale of China's air conditioning market in 2019 was as high as 191.2 billion yuan, and nearly 35% of the market share was occupied by "fake domestic products", equivalent to 67 billion yuan, which is about equal to the GDP of an African country.
These "fake domestic products" not only damage the rights and interests of Chinese consumers, but also hinder the healthy development of China's air conditioning industry.
Now let's take a closer look at the specific cases of "fake domestic products" air conditioners to reveal their true identities. Today, we're going to focus on Daikin Air Conditioning, a brand that made a name for itself in the Chinese market, but actually has Japanese roots.
Daikin Air Conditioning, formerly known as Osaka Metal Industry Co., Ltd., began its research and development, production, sales and service in the field of air conditioners, refrigerants and compressors since 1924.
It is not only one of the world's largest manufacturers of air conditioners, but also the inventor of a refrigerant called R32, which is a type of freon. This background undoubtedly proves its strength, but it also reveals its true nationality: Japan.
However, when Daikin Air Conditioners set foot in the Chinese market in 1997, it embarked on a clever cross-dressing journey. Daikin Air Conditioner adopted two strategies to carry out its "domestic" camouflage.
First, it uses the Chinese name "Daikin", which cleverly fools consumers into thinking that it is a domestic brand. It then set up factories in China to produce some of its products and labeled them "Made in China" to fool consumers into thinking they were domestic.
However, this is only part of the scenes. Daikin Air Conditioning has only two factories in China: one in Kunshan, Jiangsu Province, which mainly produces residential and commercial air conditioners; The other is located in Foshan, Guangdong, which mainly produces refrigerants and compressors. Although both plants are among the many Daikin Air Conditioners set up around the world, it does not mean that Daikin Air Conditioners is a Chinese brand.
What is more noteworthy is that not all of the products sold by Daikin Air Conditioners in China are produced by domestic factories. According to its official website, a large number of Daikin air conditioners sold in China are imported from Japan, Thailand, Malaysia and other places.
These imported products are much higher in price than domestic products, but they are still sought after by consumers because of their higher technical level and quality assurance.
For the great success of Daikin Air Conditioner in the Chinese market, in addition to its ingenious "fake domestic product" strategy, its significant technical advantages cannot be ignored. As a well-known air conditioning brand in Japan, Daikin Air Conditioning has consolidated its position in the market with its many innovations and patents and unique corporate culture.
Daikin Air Conditioner has continuously carried out technological innovation and research and development in the competition with domestic air conditioners, and has accumulated many innovations and patents. For example, it has developed for the first time air conditioning refrigerant R322, commercial cabinets, multi-connection air conditioners, inverter air conditioners and air conditioners using new environmentally friendly refrigerants, etc., these innovative technologies are more energy-saving and intelligent, easy for users to operate and help users save electricity bills, making it maintain a leading position in the air conditioning industry.
Among all the production lines of Daikin air conditioners, VRV series air conditioners are the most popular products, and in China it has a more resounding name: multi-connection central air conditioners.
In many high-end commercial places, public buildings, and apartment buildings, we may see this special central air conditioning system - multi-line central air conditioning system.
The magic of this system is that it can flexibly adjust the temperature needs of different rooms by connecting one external unit to multiple indoor units, thereby greatly improving the flexibility and energy saving of air conditioning. In fact, it is already a leader in modern central air conditioning systems.
The benefit of central air conditioning is that it can provide consistent temperature and humidity control for large buildings. This is much better than using individual air-conditioned units for each room, as this ensures comfort throughout the building.
Compared to various scattered external units and terminals with inconsistent models, the operation and maintenance of the central air conditioning system is more convenient, because all the components are concentrated in one place.
In addition, such systems are generally more efficient and energy-efficient than individual air conditioners. Central air conditioning systems are usually less noisy because their main components are generally placed on the roof or machine room of the building, away from the occupants.
In short, the multi-connection central air conditioning system ensures that the air conditioning system provides the best comfort and excellent energy savings through a series of precise self-adjustment and adaptation.
Whether it is in high-end commercial premises, public buildings, or luxury villas, it can demonstrate its outstanding performance.
Many people may not know that the modern concept of central air conditioning technology is actually invented by Daikin Air Conditioning, this brand in 1969, with an innovative spirit to develop the world's first multi-connection central air conditioning system, it is this invention that opened the history of multi-connection central air conditioning system.
Since that moment, Daikin Air Conditioning has been following this path of innovation, introducing a series of representative product lines to the market.
Thanks to these excellent characteristics, Daikin air conditioners disguised as domestic products and carved out their own space in the Chinese market.
In the "2020 China Central Air Conditioning Market Report", a striking data emerged: Daikin Air Conditioning managed to capture 23.4% of the Chinese central air conditioning market, ranking first among Japanese brands and only behind the domestic strong brand Gree.
In this share, occupying nearly 80% of the market is naturally Daikin's VRV series, which is the core product line of Daikin air conditioners in the Chinese market, and it is also a unique existence in the field of multi-connection.
However, although Daikin air conditioners have advantages in the field of air conditioning, there is still a gap in market share compared with China's local Gree air conditioners.
In the household air conditioning market, Gree occupies 32.3%, while Daikin air conditioners only account for 0.5%, in commercial air conditioners, although Daikin air conditioners accounted for 9.7% of shipments, Gree left Daikin behind with 24.6%, why? This involves the buying habits of Chinese users.
As a foreign-funded brand, Daikin Air Conditioner has relatively low brand awareness and reputation in the Chinese market, but it attracts customers with its high-end product quality and service, and the number of users in China naturally cannot rise.
On the contrary, as a local brand, Gree air conditioner has a strong brand influence and loyal consumer group, through extensive marketing and publicity activities, like warm sunshine, everywhere, so that its brand image and value are deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.
In the 2022 China Home Appliance Industry Brand Value Evaluation Report, Gree Air Conditioner ranked first in the brand value ranking of household air conditioners, with a brand value of an astonishing 101.98 billion yuan, while Daikin Air Conditioner failed to enter the top ten.
In the brand value ranking of commercial central air conditioners, Gree air conditioners also ranked first, with a brand value of 10.46 billion yuan, while Daikin air conditioners ranked sixth with a brand value of 1.69 billion yuan.
This gap is mainly due to the different investment and strategies of the two in marketing and publicity. Daikin Air Conditioner relies more on word-of-mouth communication and customer relationship management, while Gree Air Conditioner is more inclined to advertising and public relations activities.
On the other hand, Daikin air conditioning and Gree air conditioning also have different layouts in market channels. Daikin air conditioning is mainly aimed at the commercial central air conditioning market, so its market channels are mainly based on engineering channels, and the market is developed through cooperation with design institutes, construction units, property management, etc.
Since Gree air conditioners cover both residential and commercial markets, its market channels are more diversified, in addition to engineering channels, there are dealer channels, e-commerce channels, direct store channels, etc.
According to data from Oviyun.com, in 2022, the omni-channel sales volume of China's household air conditioning market will be 57.14 million units, of which offline channels account for 68.7% and online channels account for 31.3%. Gree air conditioners occupy a higher share in both channels. In 2022, the sales volume of Gree air conditioners in offline channels accounted for 32.8%, ranking first; Online channels accounted for the second largest share of sales at 19.9%.
Although foreign products can enter the Chinese market by camouflage means to earn profits, they have never been comparable to local enterprises like Gree who are truly close to the people, after all, only local companies know what their users need most.
What do you think about this? Feel free to explore below.
The article was originally published by the headline number "Big Mouth Social Science", and has opened the whole network to protect rights, without permission, no one shall reprint or carry it in any way, and infringement will be investigated!