With the growth of the chinese economy and the acceleration of the urbanization process, the construction materials sector has seen an unprecedented boom. In the past few years, the international build-up chain has entered the chinese market, and there has been a surge of construction-related supermarkets. At one point, the big building stock supermarkets, home to the east, hany, carfort, red star and kaylon, and so on, expanded wildly, and the chains quickly spread to the north and south of the river, all earning a fortune。
However, the multiplication model in the integrated retail trade became effective in the construction materials trade very soon, and in just one or two years between 2008 and 2009, with the onset of the financial crisis, the once-unpredictable large building materials supermarket chain continued to close and even disappear. Why is the life cycle so short? An in-depth analysis of the underlying causes of the phenomenon reveals that this is a corollary of the chinese-style situation。
First, china’s consumption habits for building materials are different from those of the west, and european and american countries are usually either state-of-the-art apartment buildings, or self-improvements of independent villas. So the westerners are either staying directly or acting as their own decorators, buying their own renovation tools and materials. In china, where most of the buildings are furry, the chinese are rarely self-improving, and usually rely on domestic companies or retrofitters to complete them, large quantities of construction materials are purchased at the suggestion of designers or masons to the traditional building materials market, which varies considerably from european to american consumer behaviour。
Second, china's current chain of building materials supermarkets is concentrated in large cities, with high brand grades and prices, while most consumer groups in china consume only medium- and low-grade products. The overall market share of construction materials supermarkets is now low in large cities, with most producers selling through the traditional construction materials market, which makes it difficult for construction materials markets to produce product price advantages; construction materials supermarkets have to be taxed in accordance with the rules, and operators in the traditional markets can leave tax invoices uninvoiced, allowing for price advantages to be derived by diverting part of the tax money to consumers. In small and medium-sized cities, however, there are no large chains of building materials, which are largely controlled by traditional markets. When the economy is depressed, the impact is often greatest in large cities, first and foremost in these costly chains of building materials。
Thirdly, chains of building materials are usually poignant and over-ambitious and often reluctant to be subjected to “submarine rules”. The construction materials industry is concerned with “third-party marketing”, whether by designers, masons, old customers or other intermediate channels, which must be treated in accordance with the industry's “substantial rules” in order to have a constant flow of customers. Large supermarket chains, however, emphasize brand names and images, many of which are outside the “divideline rules” and assume that a large brand, high quality, good image is a winning asset, ignoring the role of third-party marketing, and that the result will inevitably be boycotted by invisible salesmen such as designers, masons, and older customers, which will significantly reduce the marketing function of the building materials supermarket. After all, many chinese have grown up in a context of more than justice, and many europeans and americans are incomprehensible. It is naturally difficult to grasp the mainstream market without grasping the characteristics of the consumption of building materials。
Fourth, the main marketing model in the construction materials industry is channel marketing, while the key to the success of construction materials enterprises is terminal construction and control. For construction firms, large chains of building materials are powerful, and it is difficult for producers to talk equally, and even for many producers to cut their heads into chains of building materials; and for producers in every corner of the country, they are relatively vulnerable, easy to control, and can operate in line with their marketing ideas. By contrast, construction-material enterprises are more willing to invest in their traditional construction-material markets, in their stores, in their flagship stores, and to talk to distributors about the great business at their annual meetings. Few builders are willing to paste their cold ass with hot faces, and they have to bow down to the leaders of the building materials supermarket. “better chicken than phoenix” is also a common feature of many chinese businessmen。
In the fifth and sixth part, let us say that the above issues are enough to be a stumbling block in the smooth development of the chain of building materials supermarkets, and believe that some of them have already been explored and that they can solve these problems。
In order to be truly viable in china, the supermarket chain of building materials must be integrated into the chinese context and adapted to market patterns and industry characteristics. The designer and the constructioner cannot be ignored either in the suit or in the home, and the case for the project and the owner of the pole have a significant image. Only when a well-developed marketing system is in place to accommodate every key person in the system can sales finally be successful. While building brands and upgrading services, emphasis must be placed on integrating traditional distribution channels for building materials and fully utilizing third-party marketing to increase traffic and turnover. While the sub-rules are abhorrent, they are sometimes followed, after all, we cannot survive in the ideal society. When the supermarket chain of building materials also has the flexibility to operate channels such as retail outlets, household clothes, group purchases, engineering, internet purchases, and sub-districts, it can go hand in hand with traditional markets。
Society is always progressing, and there is always a shadow of europe and america in china’s development, and one day, when the chinese are dressed like a ghost, the spring comes with a chain of building materials supermarkets。
