80 Days After Galanz Acquired Whirlpool China: How To Divide The Four Brands?

"Now step forward from the beginning." On July 28, Galanz Group and whirlpool China (600983. SH) held a press conference on brand upgrading strategy in Hefei, Anhui Province, which was the first joint activity jointly held by both parties after Galanz completed part of its tender offer to acquire whirlpool China.

At the meeting, whirlpool China and Galanz Group respectively displayed their latest brand matrix. As the president of whirlpool (China), Liang Huiqiang, the "third generation" of post-95 generation, also shared his work since taking office more than 80 days for the first time.

21st century economic reporter learned at the scene that whirlpool China will focus on the white power industry with "whirlpool" and "Dido" as the two main brands, while Galanz Group will focus on household appliances with "Galanz" and the newly launched "easy kitchen" brand.

"The release of multi brand strategy matrix aims to guide the product differentiation through the differentiation of brand positioning, so as to meet the consumption demand of more dimensions." Liang Huiqiang, President of whirlpool (China) Co., Ltd., said that with the upgrading of Whirlpool's double brands in China, the company will start again.

Under the new normal, whirlpool China will fully open up cooperation and do a good job in brand ecological integration“ On the one hand, we should fully integrate the whole industry chain advantages of Galanz and mobilize the complementary advantages of both sides in category; On the other hand, whirlpool China will also focus on users, and respond to the development needs of Omni channel partners through brand differentiation, product differentiation and marketing differentiation based on the balanced marketing strategy of multi format and multi structure. " Liang Huiqiang said.

Drastic reform

However, whirlpool distributors and suppliers from all over the country still rushed to the scene in the rain to witness this historical moment.

On May 7, whirlpool China announced in the form of announcement that 51.1% of the controlling rights of Galanz's tender offer company had been completed. The acquisition case started in August last year was finally settled. Whirlpool group will continue to be the shareholder of whirlpool China and hold about 20% of the current shares.

Galanz's acquisition of whirlpool China is regarded as a classic case of the acquisition of foreign brands by domestic appliance enterprises in the past year“ This is a historic and landmark day. " Liang Zhaoxian, chairman of Galanz Group and chairman of whirlpool (China) Co., Ltd., said at this year's 328 annual meeting that Galanz has changed from quantitative change to qualitative change, which is a milestone leap, so as to affirm the great strategic significance of the acquisition for Galanz.

With the successful completion of the acquisition, the attention of the outside world began to shift to the integration of whirlpool China by Galanz. We should know that the development of Hefei Sanyo before and whirlpool behind has not been as expected in China.

According to the financial report, the total operating revenue of whirlpool China last year was 4.944 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 6.39%, and the net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies was - 150 million yuan. In the first quarter of this year, whirlpool China achieved revenue of 1.4 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 59.98%; The net profit loss attributable to the shareholders of the listed company was nearly 25 million yuan. However, the company said in its first quarter financial report that it expected to turn losses into profits from the current report period to the end of the next report period.

Liang Huiqiang admitted in an interview that there are very few successful cases of national brand operation or international brand acquisition, but he believes that Galanz's confidence comes from the deep trust with whirlpool group's management for more than ten years and several generations. "The two enterprises have a lot in common in values, so this cooperation is both familiar and common language."

In his opinion, whirlpool still has broad potential in the Chinese market. "Before, because of some strategic swings, many measures were not implemented to the first line, which led to a lot of detours in business results and brand publicity. I think as long as we can adhere to the strategic direction and really polish the products, whirlpool is an international high-end brand, There will be great potential in the Chinese market. "

Since assuming the post of president, Liang Huiqiang has carried out radical reform on Whirlpool China, including refocusing on the brand itself, adjusting the organizational structure, developing nested products, and dealing with the backlog of quality problems in the past. According to its disclosure, whirlpool China has previously put a large part of its resources and energy on marketing channels, and many regions have contracted or relied on some national Ka to do deep binding operations. These are one of the wrong decisions that led to Whirlpool's brand "changing from high to low", which needs to be rectified.

"Whirlpool China has experienced state-owned, Japanese and American investments. It is very complicated in culture and history. To change the trajectory of this giant ship, we need some courage." Liang Huiqiang hoped that through radical reform, the elements of Galanz could be injected into the organizational structure, daily management regulations, business operation mode, and even the rhythm and thought of the enterprise.

Four brands on the same stage for the first time

According to the news from the press conference, Galanz and whirlpool China will respectively implement the "double brand" strategy, and whirlpool China will operate whirlpool and Dido. Among them, whirlpool focuses on the middle and high-end market, positioning itself as an international high-end brand, covering ice washing, kitchen electricity, etc., to meet the consumption needs of high-end users; Another brand, Dido, aims at the youth group of "generation Z" who pursue a comfortable life and pay attention to the details of facial control, focusing on ice washing products and positioning the national brand.

At the same time, in order to comply with the trend of stock upgrading in the market, Whirlpool's product strategy will focus on the three aspects of globalization, nesting and productization, and use Whirlpool's global R & D, design and manufacturing platform to provide nested solutions and upgrade the scene based home space. Liang Huiqiang pointed out, "in the future, we hope to guide product differentiation through brand differentiation, and bring different product experience to users of different circles and different needs in our brand camp."

According to Xin Jianing, vice president of sales of whirlpool (China) Co., Ltd., whirlpool has rich accumulation in products. According to its introduction, in Whirlpool's product matrix, refrigerators cover the price range of 3000 to 30000 yuan for the whole platform; Washing machines have product layout in the price range of 4000 yuan to 20000 yuan; Dishwasher has online and offline multi category combination; In addition, for other embedded kitchen appliances, whirlpool will also introduce global products simultaneously, and actively promote localization research.

In terms of channel strategy, he told reporters that whirlpool China will implement an all channel and all-round strategy in the future. According to different subdivision channels, match different product combinations, focus on single product, create popular products, stabilize product system, price system and policy system, and pay attention to channel front.

According to Xin Jianing, whirlpool China's Omni channel target strategy includes building top 100 business circle and top 100 flat stores in Ka channel; Traditional agent channels create 1000 image stores and 10000 active outlets; In depth cooperation in engineering channels, more than 50 strategic customers and more than 100 real estate customers have been signed; In terms of new channels, the online mall has more than 500000 members; At the same time, 500 exclusive stores have been established. Therefore, whirlpool will carry out 3000 promotional activities and 60 high-end product experience meetings in the second half of the year to meet the promotion needs.

At the same time, Galanz Group will also implement the dual brand strategy. Its Galanz brand is positioned as a leading and high-quality national brand, while the "easy kitchen", which debuts on the same day, is positioned as a national trend brand, mainly to meet the needs of "Z generation" fashion and fashion.

At this point, Galanz Group and whirlpool China's four brand matrix prototype has been formed, the next is how to seize the stock market, expand the incremental market.

Regarding the specific product positioning of the two brands of Galanz Group, Wu Yi, the marketing director of Galanz in China, said that taking the microwave oven as an example, 400 yuan is taken as the partition line on the line, and the above is Galanz brand, and the following is easy kitchen; Below the line, 600 yuan is used as the partition. The electric oven was separated by 300 yuan and 500 yuan on and off the line respectively; Domestic appliances are separated by 300 yuan on and off the line; The steam oven is mainly made of Galanz, and the main product of easy kitchen is differentiation and individuation; Galanz kitchen power takes the middle and high-end line, and easy kitchen focuses on the middle and low-end market; In addition, Galanz will also set foot in air ice washing and commercial products, while easy kitchen will not.

Liang Huiqiang believes that after this brand and product line carding, we can initially solve the problem of overlapping some products of Galanz and whirlpool in China. He revealed that in the future, Glanz will gradually desalinate ice washing, and kitchen electric appliances will be differentiated from whirlpool due to their multiple categories.

As for the Rongshida brand, Liang Huiqiang said that "in principle, it will not be operated in the future". As for the specific disposal, he disclosed that at present, preliminary agreement has been reached with Hefei municipal government and other relevant parties, but it is inconvenient to disclose too much details, which is expected to be announced soon“ I can only say that whether it is Rongshida or other brands, multi management is not feasible. We must centralize management. The brands we want to build must have the basis of centralized management, so that we can invest in them. " Liang Huiqiang said.

21st century economic reporter noted that since May 12 this year, Galanz has increased its stake in whirlpool (China) for five times. As of June 29, Galanz's shareholding proportion in whirlpool China has increased to 53.77%. As of July 28, the stock price of whirlpool China was 8.42 yuan, with a total market value of 6.453 billion yuan.

Liang Huiqiang disclosed that at present, all his energy has been put into whirlpool China. At the same time, he also said frankly that many people and interests have been touched by the series of reform measures since taking office, but "as long as they are correct and good for the long-term development of listed companies, they will insist on doing it".

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