In recent years, the "national tide" has risen strongly, from the renewal and upgrading of classic domestic products, to the rapid popularity of new consumer brands, and then to the vigorous development of culture and science and technology led by "China's intelligent manufacturing", what the "national tide" has set off is the all-round emergence of China's self-confidence and the comprehensive innovation of national culture.
According to the "2022 National Chao Brand Development Blue Book" by the Prospective Industry Research Institute, from 2011 to 2021, the search popularity of "Guochao" as the theme word increased by 528%, 78.5% of consumers preferred to choose Chinese brands, and the market attention of domestic brands in 2021 was 3 times that of "foreign goods".
A very important aspect of the strong rise of Guochao is the result of the significant improvement of the quality of domestic brands, the continuous strengthening of technical strength and the continuous improvement of after-sales service guarantee. In the home appliance industry, there is such a domestic brand, which not only promotes the improvement of the overall level of domestic appliances with its own long-term technical focus, but also gradually grows into the "light of domestic products" in line with this national tide and moves towards a broader overseas market. It is the big country brand TCL that we know.
Founded in 1981, TCL, which was initially successful in the domestic market due to the color TV business, is still a leading enterprise in the TV field, and in 2020, its TV shipments have ranked among the top two in the world, and more than 60% of its revenue comes from overseas business, which also shows how popular TCL's TV products are by consumers at home and abroad. Under the dazzling aura of TV's remarkable achievements, what is less known is that it established a refrigerator washing machine brand as early as 1997, and began to make efforts in the field of white goods to establish its own "white goods kingdom".
At that time, China's white goods industry was still in its infancy and far less mature than it is today. TCL white goods, which take refrigerators and washing machines as its core business, have also continued to precipitate and explore together with home appliance companies in the same period. After continuous efforts and exploration, TCL refrigerator washing machines also have profound technology and market reputation accumulation, so that TCL white electricity gradually began to "take off" after completing the leap from quantity change to quality change.
In 2013, the foundation stone of the new Hefei Industrial Park was laid, which means that its white goods industry ushered in a new round of upgrades; In 2016, China's first corrugated washing machine was launched, officially opening China's "dirt-free laundry era", which means that it has come to the forefront of industrial innovation and development; In 2022, the molecular preservation technology jointly developed with the School of Food Science of Jiangnan University reached the international leading level in the application of refrigerators and obtained the authoritative certification of the China Light Industry Federation; In the first half of 2023, the latest ultra-thin zero-embedded refrigerators, twin cabin series washing machines and "global pollution-free system solutions" were unveiled at various exhibitions at home and abroad, which won high recognition.
Along the way, perhaps what we have seen is the surprise brought to us by TCL white electricity in products, but what we have not seen is their persistence in technology research and development. Today, it has 15 international patent applications, 336 national invention patents, 821 utility model patents, 341 design patents, and the number of new patents in 2021 alone has increased by 4 times compared with 2020. For TCL White Goods, technology is the cornerstone and the core driving force for product innovation.
With the technical foundation, the hot sales of products is a matter of course, and now TCL refrigerators and washing machine products also have very good market performance. According to the data of the whole network in the first 25 weeks of the new ultra-thin embedded refrigerator in 2023, TCL ultra-thin zero-embedded refrigerator T9 ranked first with sales of 30,800 units, beating a number of well-known brands; and a previous data in the first 23 weeks also showed that the market share of TCL thinly embedded refrigerator was 46.1%, which is also much higher than the same type of product in the same category. Duplex partition washing machines, in terms of market share, are also far ahead of other brands with a high proportion of 58.3%.
Coincidentally, TCL refrigerator washing machine products are also booming in overseas markets and have eye-catching performance. Originally, it has the help of global layout at the group level, with 48 R&D centers, 32 manufacturing bases, and sales organizations in more than 80 countries and regions around the world, so that TCL's refrigerator and washing machine products can quickly cover the global market. After entering Omar Electric in 2021, TCL White Power became China's refrigerator export champion, ranking seventh in the world in terms of production and sales scale in 2022. And its footsteps have not stopped, and it is constantly improving the global supply chain, actively building an industrial layout, and showing greater ambitions to conquer the world.
The rising "national tide fever" has brought rare development opportunities to domestic brands, especially for home appliances, which are closely related to people's livelihood, and whether they can be seized and made prosperous for a long time, it is also necessary for brands to make full efforts in technology research and development, product innovation and after-sales service, in order to truly bring more surprises to global consumers and have lasting market competitiveness. In this regard, as the industry flag bearer, TCL white power may have set an example for many domestic brands, and it is polishing the golden signboard of "the light of domestic products" with practical actions!