China's yacht market brand response

Abstracts® As the central government incorporates the tourism and leisure industry into its national strategy, the growth of yacht consumer demand in our country is beginning to heat up, opportunities and challenges coexist, and the development of the yacht industry is presenting an unprecedented new pattern.

The development of the economy, the accumulation of wealth, the escalation of consumer attitudes and demand that have led to the adjustment of the industrial structure and the new lifestyle and consumer forces are burgeoning.

In the foreseeable future, China will be the world's largest yacht market. With the intensification of market competition, who can build a strategic high on the brand, whoever will be able to obtain opportunities and win lasting development.

® To construct a "Chinese paradigm" of the yacht brand culture and explore the possible paths for the promotion of Chinese yacht brands.

I. Current status of domestic yacht industry The new pattern of domestic yacht industry The yacht industry has become a key industry supported by the country and many localities. In the “China Declaration on the Development of the Yacht Industry” promulgated by the Boao International Boat Forum, it is pointed out that China is an emerging market for the yacht industry, and the growth of the yacht industry is the need for China to adjust its industrial structure, stimulate domestic demand, and achieve sustainable development.

There are more than 17 provinces and cities and more than 80 central cities in the country that have carried out landscape water resource development planning and project construction. Several municipal governments have expressed their desire to strongly support the development of the yacht industry. At the same time, the development of the yacht industry chain in China has become increasingly balanced, and the lack of supporting facilities and services for yachts is gradually improving. Yachts are being recognized by more and more middle class people, and some "people-friendly" products and "activities" are constantly emerging.

In addition, the key to judging whether the yacht market starts is whether the domestic yacht sales start. Entering 2010, the sales situation in the yacht market was very gratifying. A company in Hunan Province had a manufacturing base in Zhuhai, and only eight domestic 58-foot yacht orders were received in January. This can be understood in this way: 2010 will be the first year for Chinese yachts to take off.

According to the degree of industrialization of enterprises, China's yacht manufacturing industry can be roughly divided into the following four types:

The first category is that industrialization has been implemented to a relatively good level. It has been possible to mass-produce and custom-manufacture various sizes of Chinese-owned yacht manufacturing enterprises, including Sunbird, Yihong, Double Happiness and Xiamen Haosheng.

The second category is yacht manufacturing enterprises that have been equipped with customized production capabilities, including Starfish, Baoda, Jianghua, Zhuhai, and Qingdao Haite.

The third category: The company mainly produces "Asian yachts" manufacturing companies, which are mainly engaged in various kinds of glass and steel commercial boats and sightseeing boats, such as Changbo, Zhuhai Jianglong, and Wuxi Oriental.

The fourth category: Well-established design and manufacturing technologies, Hong Kong, Taiwan or wholly foreign-owned enterprises that have been invested and built in China, including Zhanli, Jieteng, Baodao, and Oupulan.

By 2009, there were more than 370 companies engaged in yacht construction in China, with annual sales exceeding RMB 3 billion. The Chinese yacht industry has a strong manufacturing base.

Intensified competition in the industry, with many companies involved in the yacht manufacturing industry, China's yacht manufacturing industry will enter the Warring States era in 2009, attracted by market demand, has been in a steady development of the yacht market has ushered in more businesses to participate. It is not hard to imagine that many companies outside the industry already have larger scales in other industries and have accumulated certain funds. In order to seek new economic growth points, they will inevitably turn their eyes on yacht development to the yacht manufacturing industry. For a long time, those who are eyeing the capacity of the future yacht market will join the ranks of yacht makers. Based on this, two trends can be found.

Trend 1: A number of traditional real estate developers and other industry giants have entered the yacht manufacturing market without acquiring overall yacht manufacturing experience through mergers and acquisitions, equity participation, or the introduction of foreign yacht technology.

Trend 2: VCs and related financial institutions are preparing to enter the yacht field. A Hunan company has successfully won the favor of venture capital and become the first single in the yacht industry venture.

It is estimated that three years later, the Chinese yacht industry will experience a competitive pattern of “shrinking the market” as the yacht market is about to reshuffle. Each manufacturer is stepping up its development investment or expanding production capacity. The concentrated release of production capacity in the next few years will lead to increased market competition. There may even be an unordered competition in price wars, but this situation will not be maintained for a long time. It will inevitably be concentrated through fierce competition and the market rules for the survival of the fittest will play a decisive role. The previous market share of each yacht manufacturer can no longer be the basis for future market changes.

It is expected that in the next few years, domestic leading yacht companies will adopt market development strategies such as vertical integration, horizontal M&A and overseas expansion to gain market leadership through capital intervention. High-quality resources will be further concentrated in a small number of large enterprises and high-quality brands, and a large number of small and medium-sized enterprises will be eliminated. The Chinese yacht industry is going through the pain of reshuffling.

New trends in consumption: High-end consumption has a broad market base The Chinese economy has continued to grow for more than 20 years, and the first rich and middle classes have grown rapidly. According to a survey conducted by the Boston Consulting Group, by the end of 2008, China had about 417,000 high-net-worth households, and each household had more than one million US dollars of management assets. The number of such families is growing rapidly and is expected to reach 609,000 by the end of 2011; not only will the number of households increase, but the wealth of each household will also increase. “We expect that the total assets under management of high-net-worth households in China will increase from 1.56 trillion US dollars in 2008 to 2.49 trillion US dollars in 2011.” China’s high-net-worth population exceeds many rich countries such as France and the United Kingdom.

The expansion of China’s wealthy class has led to continued high-end consumption. According to the statistics of the World Luxury Goods Association, as of December 2009, China’s total consumption of luxury goods reached US$9.4 billion, with a global share of 27.5%, making it the world’s second-largest consumer of luxury goods after Japan. In the context of the decline in global luxury goods consumption, the Chinese market has “risked against the trend”. The strong purchasing power of China's affluent sectors has drawn attention.

This part of consumers' pursuit of brand, quality, and trend is gradually in line with international standards. Their quality of life, consumption habits, consumer behavior, and concepts are all in sync with the international community. Affluent consumption is not equivalent to a well-off consumption. This is a qualitative change.

New Consumer Forces: China's Economic Growth The new consumption of Blue Ocean's high-end consumption is also the performance of China's consumption upgrade and consumption structure transformation. In developed cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Chengdu and Chongqing, there have been three successive consumption levels of subsistence, well-to-do, and affluent consumption. The upgrading of consumption structure has entered a stage of rapid advancement.

In the recent “Dialogue” column, CCTV called the consumption of yachts, RVs and private jets as a new consumer blue ocean that has driven China’s economic growth. This kind of seemingly only belonging to a few people enjoying life has a huge consumer market behind it. It is not a simple one-time consumption, it will be driven by a broader market for infrastructure construction, surrounding hotels, tourism, and real estate.

China has become a strategic new place in the world's yacht market. Such business opportunities have naturally attracted global yacht giants and have shifted their strategic focus to China. According to incomplete statistics, since 2008, Britain's St. Petersburg, princess, Australia's Rivera, Beneteau of France, Italy's Ferretti, Azim, Germany's Bavaria and other global yacht top brands have been established in the country. At the office, the world's yachting giants are sieming China.

II. Yacht Culture Yacht is a kind of advanced durable consumer goods for water and entertainment. It integrates navigation, sports, entertainment, leisure and other functions to meet the needs of individuals and families to enjoy life. In developed countries, yachts are mostly privately owned like cars, ranging from a few thousand dollars to tens of millions.

Yacht as an essential feature of leisure and entertainment tools, it has a rich cultural color and cultural semantics, behind it is a deep and rich cultural heritage and spiritual world.

Leisure is a sign of the level of productivity of a country. It is a measure of social civilization. It is the crystallization of human spiritual civilization and material civilization. In the new century, leisure will continue to evolve into a central content of human life. Humanity is “progressive”. The definition will also change radically. The criteria for progress will be oriented to the quality of life, quality of life, and overall human development.

Daniel Carnman, the Princeton University Nobel laureate, said that in the 21st century, humans will have two "50%": 50% of the time for leisure and 50% of spending will be for leisure. Around 2015, developed countries will enter the "leisure times", and leisure will become an important part of human life. According to the predictions of authoritative figures in the United States, leisure, recreational activities, and tourism will become the next big economic tide and they will sweep across the world.

China has defined the tourism and leisure industry as a national development strategy. Broadly speaking, the so-called leisure tourism industry essentially refers to the cultural industry field that is closely related to people's leisure life, leisure activities, and leisure needs. The rapid development of the leisure and cultural industry is an inevitable requirement for meeting the needs of the times, stimulating consumption upgrades and building a harmonious society.

Cultural innovation: The value of advocating new life styles and life concepts The value of yachts lies not only in practicality but in culture. Yacht culture is a new cultural form integrating leisure culture, sports culture and marine culture. It represents an advanced culture that conforms to the spirit of the times. It has deeper meaning than the original leisure and entertainment methods. It enables you to experience an aesthetic, moral, creative, and transcendence lifestyle in spiritual freedom.

To build a “Chinese paradigm” yacht culture, we must have the concept of life and lifestyle we advocate independently, and this concept of life is very different from “luxury life”.

The lifestyle advocated by Chinese yachts should be attributed to five aspects:

® Leisure Culture: An active, healthy lifestyle and longing for a better life.

® Humanistic culture: Pursue individual spiritual enjoyment and quality of life.

® Sports Culture: The essence of a strong physical and civilized spirit.

® Marine Culture: Get close to nature with a blue life philosophy.

® Shangmei Culture: There is no end to the perception and love of beauty.

Third, yachts and brands China's yacht manufacturing companies in Europe and the United States compared to competitors in the technology there is a certain gap, in the industrial chain, product structure is also in a disadvantaged position, but not out of reach. As a domestic emerging industry, the booming market demand has given a huge opportunity for the rapid growth of emerging brands. Whether a company can create a well-known brand, the key is not the size, but more depends on the company's system of thinking and the concept of a high degree of confidence.

Brand is the core asset of a company and the source of the company's development. The brand has become the most valuable part of the industrial value chain. It is not only an engine for rapid development, but also allows companies to obtain more business cooperation opportunities. , More market share, access to higher, longer product premiums, its strong influence can become an effective communication tool across national borders and different cultural markets, allowing companies to recruit better talent and attract more investors , To enable companies to maintain long-term competitiveness and predictable long-term returns.

In the foreseeable future, China will be the world's largest yacht market. As market competition intensifies, challenges and opportunities coexist, and who can build strategic heights on the brand, whoever can gain the opportunity to win lasting development.

The absence of high-quality brands has become the affair of the Chinese yacht industry. The history of Chinese yacht manufacturing has been more than 20 years. The toughness of the yacht industry was first developed for foreign markets or for well-known brand OEMs and OEMs. Precipitation and accumulation, China's yacht manufacturing technology and product quality have been synchronized with the international level, lagging behind only the design of the promotion and brand building.

Most of the domestic yacht manufacturing enterprises have transformed from small glass steel plants. Low industrial concentration, lack of core technologies, and workshop-style management and management concepts are common features. Under such circumstances, it is difficult to cultivate modern brand awareness and quality. Brand. In addition to individual companies, at present, most yacht manufacturing companies in China are at the bottom of the brand.

At the same time, some yacht manufacturers with a certain strength in China have long been eye-oriented and have paid little attention to the domestic market. Among the above-scale enterprises, more than 50% have exported goods and OEMs. Due to the financial crisis, the demand for foreign yachts has fallen sharply, forcing these companies to go back and test the domestic market. However, due to the lack of effective basic research, marketing strategies, suitable technologies and ship types for the domestic market, it is necessary to generate certain sales. Scale, building its own brand image in China, there is still a long way to go.

The key element of creating a high-quality yacht brand is an advanced corporate philosophy: it is the agglomeration of higher-level spiritual forces than the company's business goals, and it will gain a higher value of corporate behavior and create longer-lasting brand appeal.

Differentiated brand positioning: Focusing and focusing on a certain market area, differentiation is a sharp weapon that differentiates other brands from their own competitive advantage.

Unique design concept: homogenized products have no commercial power, and product creativity and product design capabilities that fully satisfy customer needs are the most important performances of a superior yachting company.

The untiring pursuit of detail: The essence of yacht manufacturing is a game of details. Care for exquisiteness is a concern for people.

High-tech advocating: The essence of science and technology is people-oriented, and the development of high technology is to create harmony between technology and people, products and consumers.

Innovative services: build high-quality service systems and service teams, maintain and build a good social image of enterprises, cultivate consumer loyalty to companies and products, and strive to be independent from sales to become the protagonist, while shaping the brand value itself Also create value.

Brand promotion: From "Made in China" to leading brands In the "Pyramid of Brands" model, most yacht brands in China are "primary brands" at the bottom of the pyramid and a few "middle brands" in the midstream, in the pyramid. All of the top floors are occupied by foreign brands. Chinese yacht brands urgently need to constantly upgrade their own brand value through “upgrade” and continue to move up the brand pyramid.

"Upgrade" is a brand new strategy that continues to surpass itself. Based on a systematic analysis of brand equity, the brand's overall rise must begin with "brand refinement." “Brand refinement” is the symbol of the transition from crude to intensive in China's yacht industry and the first priority for brand image promotion.

In fact, behind the exquisite gorgeous brand promotion of the yacht, it is supported by rigorous product philosophy and business logic. This tough law has created its favorable competitive position and also shaped its insurmountable brand genes.

Possible Approaches to the Promotion of Chinese Yacht Brands: Cultural Symbols Every well-known brand has its own roots. In a real sense, the yacht brands are focusing on their own far-reaching historical culture. Like heritage, a long history and unique culture endow the brands with meanings that cannot be replaced. The more ethnic they are, the more they are in the world. This is also true of yacht brands with a background of cultural beauty.

There are two ways in the culture of a yacht brand: one is to use the historical culture that is associated with the product, and the second is to trace the origin of the product history, give the brand unique cultural connotation and value, make the product have personality, Characteristics, thus forming brand differences, building a "Chinese paradigm" of the yacht brand culture.

Therefore, the emergence and expansion of Chinese yacht brands in the global market must have the background of Chinese culture supported by strong economic strength. The appearance of brand fate is money, and the deep background is still the psychological identity of culture.

The possible path for China's rising yacht brand: public symbol We need to get rid of the misconception that yachts are luxury goods for the rich. In fact, the consumption of yachts is diversified. There are exclusive super yachts owned by nobles, but more are white-collar workers, middle-class sailboats, fishing boats, speed boats, and leisure boats.

Internationally, yachts have long been the tools of civilian consumption as leisure and sports products. North America accounts for 55.9% of the world's yacht market share. Most yachts sell between 1.5 and 50 thousand US dollars. Luxury yachts only account for 2.5% of the sales. The average unit price of US yachts sold in the US market was US$27,639 in the previous years. In the European market with a market share of 38.4%, the yachts sold are relatively large and luxurious, but the average unit price is only RMB 800,000.

The yacht brand that is affordable to the general public, the rapidly expanding middle class, and the Chinese people's ability to build affordable yachts is an indispensable historical mission of Chinese yachtsmen.

Possible path for the promotion of Chinese yacht brands: The success of marketing symbol marketing promotes brand success. The launch of local yacht sales in the domestic market is of special significance for the construction and development of Chinese yacht brands. This requires Chinese yacht companies to upgrade their marketing.

Must cultivate and build top marketing team. Highly qualified professionals can provide unique advantages, and this advantage can be difficult to duplicate.

In terms of marketing strategy, we must achieve three transformations, from a business relationship dominated by customer relationships to a business model in which brand value is dominant; from simply offering products to providing comprehensive integrated solution value-added services; and from traditional sales models to innovative marketing In this mode, Chinese yacht companies urgently need to create high-end product creative capabilities and product design capabilities.

In the marketing layout, we should use a diversified sales channel to quickly penetrate the market and increase market share, including regional networks, direct sales, distribution, exhibitions, yachts and other 4S stores.

The possible path for the rise of Chinese yacht brands: capital symbol The important feature of capital is a keen sense of smell. When it favors an industry, most of them indicate that the industry is growing or is about to grow at a high rate.

The yacht industry is a capital-intensive, technology-intensive and labor-intensive industry. It is a promising new industry in China. It needs to grow and develop. Capital operation is the only way to go, and brand is the core of capital operation. A good brand project is always one of the best ways out of capital.

Brand capital is a corporate capital that represents a particular brand symbol and is a value that goes beyond production, the commodity itself, and all tangible assets. Although brand capital is intangible, it can often bring about and create a value-added effect that is faster than tangible capital.

The possible path for the promotion of Chinese yacht brands: international symbol The global yacht industry has a total sales volume of US$65 billion. This is an extremely large and profound market. The growth space of Chinese yacht brands is in China, but the real place is the vast international market. .

Based on the establishment of an internationally renowned brand, not just a well-known Chinese brand, it is necessary to have the minds of the diverse ideas that accommodate the development of the global yacht industry, a broad international perspective and a modern international management team.

In addition to strengthening boutique awareness is the cornerstone of all yacht brands to the world, but also to attract customers around the world with creativity and the cultural connotation of China and the West.

Creating a Chinese yacht's own top brand is growth. From the product to the brand, from the brand to the strong brand, from the strong brand to the wide area brand, from the wide area brand to the global brand, the growth of Chinese yacht brand is a long way to go.

In the growth of Chinese yacht brands, we must first find China's own unique concepts and beliefs in this product area, and then present this value to the world's consumers. At the same time, the advanced brand concept also promotes the rapid development and expansion of the company. This is the root of the growth of the Chinese local yacht brand.

Conclusion: The Chinese yacht market has a promising future. The "Safety Management Regulations for Yachts" of January 1, 2009 and the "Opinions on Accelerating the Development of Tourism" issued by the State Council on December 1, 2009 and the Hainan International Tourism Island National Strategy will be given. China's yachting industry in its initial stage has brought great opportunities for development. The trend of the development of the Chinese people's lifestyle towards high quality continues to accelerate, and the yacht will become a thriving and popular water leisure sport. The demand for the domestic yacht market will increase significantly, infrastructure and upstream and downstream industrial structures will be further improved, and other industry giants and financial institutions will become more involved in the yacht industry. According to expert judgment, the average annual growth rate of China's yacht industry will reach more than 30% in the next 10 years, which will usher in a sustained industry boom.

The expansion of the yacht's consumption base, the increase of production companies, the reduction of costs and the popularization of prices will bring all-round opportunities for the development of the yacht industry in China. China's yacht industry will enter an unprecedented new era.

(Yu Mingfei: Senior Manager and Management Consultant, currently Deputy General Manager and Marketing General Manager of Sunbird Yacht Co., Ltd.)