In 1980, the average age of first marriage was 23.59 years. The overall orientation of young people's lives is to "start a family first and then start a business".
Today, the situation has changed dramatically. In 2020, the average age of first marriage of Chinese rose to 28.67 years, of which the average age of first marriage for men was 29.38 years old and 27.95 years old for women.
The front-loading of the career has made "young" another way of expressing hard work, busyness and high pressure. For this generation in the torrent of the times, struggle has become the core thread of life, work takes up most of the time of life, and individual needs and emotions blindly give way to reality, resulting in even a good sleep and a good meal have become an important source of "satisfaction".
This change also sends a new signal for brands in this era: the needs of young people are becoming more and more lightweight and personalized. But at the same time, these small needs and small blessings in fast-paced life are greatly related to their quality of life, and have become the key to piecing together the happiness of life although they are scattered.
As a result, the era of small household appliances that are naturally in line with "lightweight" and "quality" is roaring.
The quality of life and emotional value are the proper meaning of small household appliances
In the era of large industry, enterprises are pursuing scale and popularity. For example, Ford introduced the assembly line and hit the price of a car from $4,700 to $260, which is regarded as the benchmark of manufacturing enterprises - because in the context of the era of "starting from scratch", the essence of large electrical appliances is "just need tools", and its meaning is to replace labor, free hands, and subvert efficiency.
A large oven in a bakery, a large fermentation equipment in a yogurt factory, a large commercial soymilk machine, an industrial washing machine...... This is also the case with the air conditioner that replaces the pampering fan at home, and the washing machine that says goodbye to hand rubbing. With a focus on efficiency and productivity, these big appliances try to take over people's lives in all aspects.
However, the birth logic of small household appliances is a product created to meet the specific experience of users, with customized attributes. It is no longer the first priority to improve efficiency, but "from existence to excellence", which exists to improve the quality of life.
Small household appliances have taken root in China, generally following the development path from scratch, from creativity to quality, from batch to customization. In 1963, China's first rice cooker was introduced. In 1976, the emergence of the "red card" simple rice cooker marked the official entry of Chinese life into the era of small household appliances.
In recent years, the overall jump in people's living standards and the explosion of demand for quality life have further promoted the prosperity of the small household appliance market.
Behind the prosperity is the portrait of the times when people are desperately rushing to soothe their emotions and "recharge" their quality life with small luck - although the pastries in the bakery are exquisite and delicious, they are not as loving and interesting as homemade; The soy milk in the soybean milk shop is convenient and fast, but it is not as healthy and versatile as homemade; Although the beauty equipment in the beauty shop is professional, it is not as flexible and economical as the one you buy you want to use......
In a word, in addition to the practical value that small household appliances bring to consumers, it is also emotional value, which is more like the experience improvement and functional supplement on top of the user's regular needs. This also means that, compared with the wide range of application scenarios of major appliances, small household appliance companies in subdivided fields must see more specific, more refined, and even more niche user needs and application scenarios, and can only gain a foothold.
Little Bear Appliances is a good example.
With the same frequency as each generation, the growth and brand evolution of Xiaoxiong Electric
Previously, the small household appliance market was dominated by the three giants of "Sumei Jiu" for a long time. The three giants of "Sumei Jiu" were all founded before the 21st century, Midea entered the home appliance industry in 1980, and Supor and Joyoung were founded in 1994. The sudden rise of Xiaoxiong Electric has injected young vitality into the small household appliance market.
The industry generally believes that in the small household appliance market, the threshold of "brand player" is 2 billion revenue scale and 100 million net profit. Through 18 years of solid development, Xiaoxiong Electric has successfully become one of the brand players and has the qualification to compete with the three giants of "Sumei Jiu".
The growth process of Xiaoxiong Electric is a "memoir" that resonates with the life trend of young people in China.
In 2006, Li Yifeng, chairman and general manager of Xiaoxiong Electric, came to Shunde, the "place where the dream began", with 200,000 entrepreneurial funds. In the case of limited space, manpower and funds, Xiaoxiong Electric resolutely devoted itself to the research and development and production of yogurt machine products.
The reason why the yogurt machine was chosen is that in recent years, consumers' demand for yogurt has increased from "drinking to" to "drinking well", and major dairy companies have launched high-end positioning products. At the same time, however, the quality of dairy products has been reported repeatedly, which has aroused widespread public concern about food safety issues.
In order to polish the product, Li Yifeng led the team to "drink yogurt every day and make yogurt every day", and repeatedly adjusted it to strive for uniform temperature in all dimensions of the product. At the same time, through careful design, it has greatly improved the convenience of cleaning the yogurt machine, and achieved the ultimate in product details, which became an instant hit, with cumulative sales of more than 10 million units.
Image source: Xiaoxiong Electric's 18th anniversary
By 2011, Xiaoxiong Electric used 6 years to "achieve a breakthrough of 0 to 100 million", and the brand officially entered a period of rapid growth. In the same year, Xiaoxiong upgraded its brand positioning - "Inspired Life", which also laid the groundwork for the next stage of category expansion and rapid growth.
In the following 6 years, with the help of the e-commerce platform, Xiaoxiong Electric was able to deeply perceive the changes in the needs of the main consumer groups, and its product line expanded rapidly: the "bean sprouts machine" that allows young people to realize the freedom of bean sprouts, the "electric lunch box" that can eat hot bento without a microwave oven, the "egg cooker" that can easily make homemade soft-boiled eggs and hot spring eggs, in addition to many familiar phenomenal explosive products such as electric stew cups and egg beaters...... As a result, the sales of Xiaoxiong Electric have also reached a new level, achieving a breakthrough from 100 million to 1 billion, and the sales volume has reached 1.6 billion in 2017.
The 6 years since 2018 have been a period of change for Xiaoxiong Electric, and it is also a concentrated stage for the upgrading of the quality demand and the explosion of individual needs of the younger generation. During this period, Xiaoxiong Electric still maintained its imagination and creativity, but time has also precipitated a calm charm of "planning and then acting" on its body - striving to change from "Internet celebrity" to "long-term red", and further clarified the product strategy of "strengthening rigid demand categories and expanding emerging categories".
Among them, "strengthening the rigid demand category" is the core of Xiaoxiong Electric's stable growth. In this regard, Xiaoxiong Electric not only pays attention to the upgrade of user experience, but also focuses on people with different needs and provides accurate innovation support and emotional value: for example, for the needs of those who do not have enough time and do not want to make do with eating, the transformer rice cooker can cook Q bomb rice in 16 minutes through innovative vacuum transformer technology; In order to allow users to drink the most suitable temperature water at any time, the glacier spring water dispenser can instantly produce hot water in 1 second, and can also provide 10-15 °C "non-ice tooth" cold water at any time; If you want to be healthy and trouble-free, clean without leaving dead ends, the upgraded version of the detachable and washable wall breaker brings a new cleaning experience that the cup body can be soaked and washed, and the knife head can be disassembled and washed......
Image source: Xiaoxiong Electric transformer rice cooker
And "expanding emerging categories" has determined that Xiaoxiong Electric has never stopped innovating and exploring. At the 18th anniversary celebration, Xiaoxiong Electric brought a series of new products such as coffee machines and tea brewers, and once again achieved breakthroughs in product and category innovation. At present, Xiaoxiong Electric has more than 80 categories and more than 900 product models, and has also won many industry awards such as the Red Dot Award and the Red Star Award.
According to the 2023 financial report data, the year-on-year growth of small kitchen appliances such as electric appliances and pots and pots of Xiaoxiong Electric Appliances was 18.24% and 19.84% respectively. The revenue of small household appliances and other small household appliances including foot bathtubs and high-speed hair dryers increased by 22.80% and 67.54% year-on-year respectively.
In fact, whether it is to strengthen the rigid demand category or expand the emerging category, it is essentially to meet the quality life needs of users efficiently and with high quality. It can be said that in the past 18 years, Xiaoxiong Electric has always adhered to innovation, walked side by side with each generation, walked out of the evolution of China's small household appliance brand, and witnessed and participated in the needs and trend changes of young people at different nodes and stages.
There is more room for imagination with growth resilience, and the future of Xiaoxiong Electric can be expected
According to data from the Prospective Industry Research Institute, 2017-2021 is a period of rapid development of China's small household appliance market, with a compound growth rate of 8.72% in five years. In recent years, affected by the macroeconomy, the growth rate of the small household appliances market has declined.
Joyoung's revenue has declined for three consecutive years since 2021, and Supor's revenue is also in the recovery stage. Xiaoxiong Electric, after a slight decline in revenue in 2021, has grown against the trend for two consecutive years, achieving revenue of 4.712 billion in 2023, a year-on-year increase of 14.43%; The net profit attributable to the parent company was 445 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 15.24%, both hitting a record high.
A few years ago, there was no shortage of voices in the outside world that the success of Xiaoxiong Electric was due to stepping on the dividends and taking advantage of the outlet. However, after the industry experienced an overall decline, people found that Xiaoxiong Electric had such "resilience".
On the one hand, this resilience is reflected in Xiaoxiong Electric's ability to "mass produce explosive products" that is almost not affected by the rising tide or decline of the industry. Behind this, it has a lot to do with its leading position in creative design and innovative research and development. In order to do a good job in R&D and design, Xiaoxiong Electric has been continuously improving the R&D and design layout, building a 3-level R&D system, with more than 10 R&D teams, nearly 400 R&D personnel, and a total of more than 2,100 patents. Xiaoxiong Electric has also been awarded the National Industrial Design Center and the National Intellectual Property Demonstration Enterprise.
On the other hand, this resilience depends on the quality and efficiency of its digital transformation, as well as the deep accumulation of intelligent manufacturing under the persistence of the "manufacturing-oriented" industry.
Digitalization is a must to create new quality productivity. In recent years, while promoting the "321" digital system upgrade project, Xiaoxiong Electric has built a digital operation system of "trinity" of process, system and data, and achieved a leap in business operation efficiency and organizational management efficiency through the systematic construction and integration of the whole chain. In terms of manufacturing, Xiaoxiong Electric has established 5 intelligent manufacturing bases with a total area of about 580,000 square meters, including 4 professional machine factories and a number of core component manufacturing plants, and continues to build high-tech, high-efficiency, high-quality, innovative and high-quality new quality productivity. In the future, enterprises will continue to use digital means to establish deeper user connections, connect more users, and empower the entire chain of services, manufacturing and operations with new technologies.
Image source: Xiaoxiong Electric Manufacturing System
If leading scientific and technological innovation, digital transformation, and intelligent manufacturing are the core of supporting the "stable growth" of Xiaoxiong Electric, then the overseas layout extended on this basis is the key to opening the "imagination space" of Xiaoxiong Electric in the future - the brand goal of "becoming a leading enterprise in the world's small household appliances", which can be described as a loud voice.
Overseas markets with more growth potential are the only way for Xiaoxiong Electric to explore a new growth curve. As one of the first batch of domestic small household appliances to go overseas, Xiaoxiong Electric has continued to improve its planning, quality control and supply chain capabilities for explosive products, and its overseas sales have risen from more than 25 million in 2016 to more than 86 million in 2019. At the same time, it also has omni-channel and multi-brand localized operation capabilities in the North American and Southeast Asian markets. At present, Xiaoxiong Electric has entered more than 100 countries such as the United States, Japan, South Korea, and Thailand, and its foreign revenue will increase by 105.66% year-on-year in 2023.
epilogue
The fragmented time and personalized attitude have created a large market supported by small needs of this generation, and interpreted the happiness drawn by this generation with small luck. With precise innovation, leading products, efficient manufacturing and a series of forward-looking layouts, Xiaoxiong Electric connects with every attitude to life and injects vitality into every lifestyle.
It is true that each generation has its own growth environment and the "character" of each generation, but this does not affect the company to become a companion of each generation with respect, understanding and support.
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