The so-called product strategy means that when an enterprise formulates its business strategy, it must first make clear what products and services it can provide in order to meet the requirements of the target consumer groups, that is, it must put the market positioning of the products and its corresponding strategies in the first place. With product strategy, there will be marketing strategy, the former is the basis of the latter. To some extent, product strategy directly affects whether an enterprise can succeed in the international market from two aspects, one is whether the product positioning meets and to what extent it meets the needs of end consumers, and the other is whether the strategy formulated around the product is right or wrong. There are two forms of products, one is a material product with a certain purpose and form, and the other is an intangible service product with an intangible form.
Enterprises have the following problems in the international marketing product strategy of LED lighting lamps:
1, product quality problems affect exports.
At present, the domestic LED lighting industry is rather chaotic, with tens of thousands of large and small enterprises. The quality of these enterprises is mixed. Many small family workshops and small enterprises produce three-no products, and these inferior products compete with large enterprises at low prices. As a result, many small workshops and inferior products compete with large enterprises and high-quality products on the same stage in the market, leading to Gresham phenomenon in the whole market (bad money drives out good money). The price of some good quality light bulbs ranges from 50 to 60 yuan. The best price is 100-200 yuan, and the worst price is less than 10 yuan. If foreign businessmen can't fully understand the quality of lamps, they will choose low-priced and inferior LED lighting products and give up high-quality products. Guangdong Quality Supervision Bureau once conducted a sampling survey on the LED lighting market. The survey results show that in 20 10, the qualified rate of LED lighting products in Guangdong Province was only about 47%, which was 26 percentage points higher than that in 2006, but it was still only 73.2%. There are many LED enterprises, lacking perfect evaluation standards. Therefore, many enterprises are cutting corners and lowering prices to win the favor of foreign customers. However, this practice of exporting a large number of lamps at low prices makes China lamps vulnerable to anti-dumping in the international market, and inferior products will be completely banned by a series of technologies. The low-quality products exported by LED will lead to the loss of a large number of customers and even lead to economic disputes.
2. Too much product differentiation affects brand creation.
Most domestic enterprises related to LED lighting lamps have not achieved standardized production. These enterprises pay attention to the novelty of lamp style and the speed of new product introduction, so the trial-production workshop of R&D department is extremely busy. Due to excessive attention to the differentiation of LED lighting lamps, each lamp can not be mass-produced, and the production line of the workshop is not fully put into use because of the small output, so it is difficult to truly build an internationally renowned brand. In addition, many LED lighting enterprises are just a concept of shops or businesses, and customers in the international market pay more attention to the brand image of enterprises. However, among the well-known LED lighting brands in the international market, there are few enterprises in China, lacking brand influence. In terms of product quality, the product quality of China's LED lighting enterprises is far less than that of top international lighting brand enterprises such as KICHLER in the United States, VIBLA in Spain and FORNZASI-ER in Italy, and the product life of these enterprises is relatively long.
3, the product technology wall completely affects entering the international market.
For a long time, LED lighting related enterprises in China are mostly responsible for the packaging of lamps, which belong to the downstream of the industrial chain. Compared with chip manufacturing in the upper and middle reaches, packaging has lower technical requirements. For a long time, China LED lighting packaging enterprises have occupied a place in the export market with the advantage of low price brought by low cost, making China a big exporter of LED lighting packaging. The upstream and midstream chip manufacturing has only gradually developed in recent years, and the supply capacity and quality still cannot meet the needs of production. There are only a few prominent enterprises in R&D and production of chips, and most of them are government-supported enterprises, such as Xiamen Sanan Group and Dalian Lu Mei Group. In Zhongshan Ancient Town, LED lighting enterprises gather to attract foreign investors to place orders. Only a few large enterprises such as Yuyin are well-known chip manufacturing enterprises. Many downstream LED manufacturers still choose to use imported chips with high cost, which greatly affects the profit of exporting LED lighting products and greatly restricts the development of China's LED export market.
At present, most of the high-end LED lighting products sold in the international market are produced in Taiwan Province Province, China, Japan, Europe and America. In China, taking the Pearl River Delta as an example, the lamps produced by many enterprises can not meet the technical standards formulated by developed countries such as Europe and America. Most small and medium-sized LED lighting enterprises produce products with low technical requirements such as rainbow tubes, and only LEDs can be exported to relatively poor and backward third world countries and developing regions.
With the increasing demand for LED lighting lamps in the international market, major LED exporting countries hope to occupy a place in the international market, and international trade friction is inevitable. Frequent technical barriers abroad have seriously hindered the export of LED lighting lamps. Japan has patents on Japanese-Asian and Toyo motors, and the LED lighting produced in China is difficult to export to Japan, while Corey, Philips and Osram in the United States also have many patents, covering almost all aspects of the industrial chain, including packaging, equipment, applications, raw materials and so on. Judging from the development trend of LED export, there will be more and more technical walls abroad.
(B) Problems in the price strategy
In the marketing integration strategy of enterprise system, we must first determine the product strategy, and then solve the product pricing problem. Enterprise's product pricing is directly oriented to consumers. Reasonable pricing is conducive to attracting consumers' demand, actively expanding their own market, increasing and maintaining their own profits, and also helping to maintain their good image in the competition. The pricing strategy of enterprises has a premise, that is, enterprises should have reasonable product price targets and product positioning. Only by determining the product positioning and the target price of a wide range of products can enterprises make good product prices and bring good profit levels. Competition, market, sales volume, survival and profit are five factors that enterprises should consider when setting price targets. When pricing, enterprises should not only see the immediate profits, but also consider the long-term profits. The key point is to increase market share, expand product sales, and make a long-term plan for maximizing corporate profits.
Enterprises in the international marketing price strategy of LED lighting lamps have the following problems:
1. Enterprises launched a "price war" to grab foreign orders.
At present, the concentration of enterprises in LED lighting industry in China is relatively high, and enterprises in the upper, middle and lower reaches gather in the form of industrial parks, and product information is relatively circulated. With the increasingly mature technical conditions and relatively reasonable competition of LED lighting accessories manufacturers, the cost composition of products has become more transparent. When experienced foreign customers who are familiar with the domestic market come to China to purchase LED lighting lamps, they often go to some big lamps and accessories markets to find out the bottom price of LED lighting export enterprises to purchase accessories. When purchasing, they repeatedly bargain with export enterprises, which makes the profit space of enterprises very limited. With such a transparent and open price, it is difficult for LED lighting enterprises to earn high profits and form their own competitive advantage. Many well-known brand LED lighting enterprises in the world pay great attention to the capital investment in new technology research and development and upgrading of new products, so that they can not only produce new styles of products that meet the needs of consumers, but also constantly study the raw material composition of products and seek materials with low cost but good results, thus making their products more advantageous and competitive.
2. The rising cost of labor and raw materials makes the product lose its price advantage gradually.
In the past few years, the international community has been facing the crisis of inflation, and the prices of domestic commodities are also rising rapidly. People's living costs are getting higher and their living pressures are increasing. Wage increase is an inevitable requirement of rising cost of living, which will eventually lead to an increase in production costs of enterprises. In recent years, the rise of LED lighting industry in China has been particularly affected.
Since 2006, urban prices and house prices have been rising, and the cost of living in cities has increased, resulting in the phenomenon of migrant workers returning home. Enterprises are faced with "labor shortage" and must rely on salary increase to prevent the loss of workers, which directly leads to the increase of LED lighting production cost and price.
(C) Problems in the channel strategy
The international sales channel in international marketing strategy refers to the units or individuals who help products to complete the process from production to final consumers abroad, regardless of whether the ownership of products has been transferred. As far as LED export is concerned, international marketing channels generally include three links: the first link is the domestic sales channel of LED exporting countries; The second link is the sales channel between the traders of the two countries, that is, the LED import and export middlemen in the international market; The third link is the domestic sales channel of the importing country.
Enterprises in the international marketing channel strategy of LED lighting lamps have the following problems:
1, "sitting on the ground" is still the most important sales method for most enterprises.
The so-called "sit-and-sell" means that enterprises do not establish the consciousness of actively exploring the international market and actively establish sales channels, but take a very passive way to wait for foreign customers to place orders at home.
At present, most domestic LED lighting enterprises sell their products by "sitting and selling". The reason why LED lighting enterprises choose the way of "sitting and selling" is because they think that foreign customers can still get a certain income every year when they place orders in China. The question is why not sell lamps by "sitting and selling". The establishment of domestic and international sales network requires not only recruiting professionals to increase sales costs, but also investing management funds. This process is very complicated and difficult.
Take Zhongshan Ancient Town, a well-known lighting sales gathering place, as an example. There are tens of thousands of lighting enterprises in Zhongshan Ancient Town, including lighting enterprises registered in the industrial and commercial administration department and underground workshops of all sizes, most of which produce and sell LED lighting lamps. Among these LED lighting enterprises, only a few have their own independent domestic and foreign marketing networks, and most other lighting enterprises do not have professional sales teams, let alone establish overseas sales networks. At present, these enterprises without marketing team mainly sell their products by opening exhibition halls for LED lamps, hanging LED lamps in the lobby for display, and waiting for foreign customers to come to see the house, select and place orders, so as to realize LED export of LED lamps.
Although "sit-and-sell" is low in cost and simple in operation, its disadvantages are also obvious: with the increasingly difficult form of international trade in recent years, the competition among export manufacturers of lamps and LEDs adopting the "sit-and-sell" method is becoming increasingly fierce, and foreign customers often entertain them with food and drinks in order to obtain orders, which may easily lead to low-price competition or other unfair competition; Whenever H7N9 and similar special periods come, there are many "sit-and-sell" manufacturers in front of the door, and the sales under the "sit-and-sell" mode are very unstable; If there are problems in the execution of the sales contract, the manufacturer of "waiting for sales" cannot organize a team to solve these problems in time and effectively.
2. The shortcomings of this model are outstanding.
China's manufacturing technology and innovation ability are relatively weak, so OEM mode is widespread in China's manufacturing industry, that is, enterprises produce products according to the processing and production requirements of customers (customers), and mark their brands on the products, and customers are responsible for sales.
The OEM mode has the following advantages: firstly, OEM for multinational companies can help enterprises use idle resources, make their production lines run at full capacity and fully digest their excess productivity; Secondly, enterprises can export their own goods by adopting methods instead of exploring the international market by themselves, which can reduce business risks and save manpower and funds. For newly established production enterprises, due to limited funds, it is impossible to cover everything. Enterprises can temporarily solve the limitations of funds through OEM, so that funds can be invested in the most needed and most efficient places, so that limited funds can exert maximum efficiency in a limited time; Finally, the adoption of OEM is also an encouragement for enterprises, because enterprises need to be familiar with internationally accepted quality system certification and technical standards, so as to ensure that their products meet LED export certification, thus prompting enterprises to continuously improve and perfect their production processes, thereby improving their production technology level, and cooperating with multinational companies to facilitate enterprises to learn and introduce foreign advanced technologies, thereby saving the expenses required for independent innovation.
However, although enterprises can obtain the above benefits through channels, with the development of international trade, its disadvantages are becoming increasingly prominent:
(1) The profit of processing and manufacturing is meager.
Multinational companies place orders with LED lighting manufacturers in China by OEM, while China enterprises manufacture products according to the requirements of multinational companies, and only get meager processing costs. After the products are labeled by multinational companies, they are sold at high prices in the international market, and multinational companies can make huge profits without participating in production.
(2) Malicious competition in the same industry
China LED lighting manufacturers have similar production capacity and strength. In order to grab OEM orders from multinational companies, they compete at low prices, which leads to lower profits and ultimately threatens the interests of the whole industry.
(3) Unable to grasp the separation of sales channels and markets.
China's LED lighting manufacturers use OEM mode to export lighting lamps, aiming at reducing business risks and saving the cost of market development, technology research and development, advertising and so on. However, this model also has great disadvantages, that is, enterprises rely too much on OEM and do not independently explore foreign markets. When foreign customers stop OEM orders, enterprises will lose their sales channels, leading to paralysis or even bankruptcy of the whole enterprise.
(4) it is not conducive to the development of core technologies and the establishment of independent brands.
If China LED lighting manufacturers only pin their hopes on OEM mode, pay attention to immediate interests, do not pay attention to technological upgrading, do not try new product development and innovation, and do not establish brand awareness, then the company can only be a processed product of multinational brand enterprises, or a sweatshop.
3. Problems in the implementation of 3.EMC channels.
EMC stands for contract energy management. This model came into being in the 1970s. At that time, with the rapid development of industry, energy prices rose sharply, and the development of industry also caused pollution and destruction to the environment. In order to reverse this situation, on the basis of market-oriented operation, this new mode of energy-saving technological transformation has appeared in developed countries. Refers to customers who are willing to carry out energy-saving technological transformation in the market, and sign energy-saving service contracts with specialized energy-saving service companies (this paper refers to LED lighting related enterprises), and the energy-saving service companies will implement energy-saving technological transformation projects for customers according to the energy-saving technologies and service standards agreed in the contract.
At present, EMC projects are based on energy-saving benefit sharing, which is characterized in that (1) energy-saving service companies sign contracts with energy-using customers to clarify the proportion of economic benefits brought by energy-saving between the two parties, and the energy-saving companies are responsible for financing and repaying the funds needed for the projects. After the completion of the project, the customer will share the actual economic benefits brought by energy saving with the customer in accordance with the proportion stipulated in the contract when enjoying the benefits brought by energy saving. After the expiration of the contract, energy-using customers will get all the benefits brought by energy saving. (2) The ownership of energy-saving equipment is generally owned by the energy-saving service company during the execution of the EMC contract, and will generally be handed over to the energy-using unit when the EMC contract is terminated; (3) The energy-saving service company shall be responsible for the effect of the project and bear the possible default risk of energy users.
When the EMC model is applied to export, the China LED lighting export enterprise will investigate and count the energy consumption of foreign customers, design the corresponding energy-saving project implementation plan according to the statistical results, raise the funds needed for preparation according to the plan budget, purchase (or produce) the required LED lighting and carry out construction and installation, the foreign energy-consuming customers will conduct debugging and acceptance, and the China LED lighting export enterprise will be responsible for the maintenance of the project products during the subsequent contract period. Before the implementation of the EMC project, China LED lighting export enterprises and foreign energy-consuming customers clearly marked the project contents and objectives in the contract. When the EMC project is accepted by energy-consuming customers and begins to gain energy-saving benefits, both parties will distribute the benefits according to the agreement.
Energy needs to be used, but capital investment is not needed. At the same time, the energy-saving goal and the win-win situation of both parties are achieved, and economic development and environmental protection are coordinated and synchronized. This is the main feature of contract energy management.
In 1990s, in order to respond to the call of the World Bank and Global Environment Facility, strengthen the integration with the international community and promote the implementation of energy-saving projects in China, China introduced EMC mechanism and promoted it continuously, actively guiding and supporting the development of energy-saving service industry. 20 10 In April, the General Office of the State Council forwarded the Opinions of the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Finance, the People's Bank of China and State Taxation Administration of The People's Republic of China on Accelerating the Implementation of Contract Energy Management to Promote the Development of Energy Conservation Service Industry (No.201025). It is clearly pointed out in the Opinions that the EMC model characterized by energy-saving benefit sharing can not only help enterprises realize energy saving, but also be beneficial to environmental protection, which is a two-way benefit for energy users and project contractors, and should be valued and developed, setting a new milestone for the development of EMC model in China.
In the long run, EMC is a good model to realize the healthy and sustainable development of enterprises. LED lighting products last longer than white light and energy-saving lamps. Taking the road LED lighting system as an example, the average life of traditional road lighting lamps is about 3 years, but the average life of LED road lighting products is more than 3 times that of traditional lamps, and will reach 10 years. Its price is only about twice that of traditional street lamps, and the installation cost can be saved when replacing traditional street lamps. In the traditional way of LED export, if an enterprise signs a street lamp export contract, according to the fact that the life of street lamps is 10 years, there will be no new demand for road lighting in the buyer's area, and the enterprise will not get more profits from it. This is very similar to what we call a final decision. But its value is not only reflected in the long service life, but also has a strong positive significance for energy conservation and environmental protection. It costs money to replace urban road LED lighting, but this is only a superficial phenomenon. The energy-saving benefits brought by replacing lamps far exceed the purchase cost. Therefore, the low profit of products sold by enterprises adopting this mode is only temporary, and the subsequent profits will continue to enter the enterprise account, because enterprises adopting EMC mode can enjoy the future energy-saving benefits brought by customers or user units replacing products, which is far greater than the profits brought by traditional product sales methods, and will survive with EMC contracts, which is long-term and can promote the healthy and lasting development of enterprises.
The LED lighting enterprises that have started the project calculate the cost reduced by energy-saving customers, and then distribute the energy-saving benefits according to the proportion agreed in advance. However, the LED lighting products on the market are mixed, and energy users may refuse to pay or delay the payment of energy-saving benefits after taking effect. How to make the benefits of enterprises visible, make new LED lighting products favored by energy users and ensure the benefits of energy-saving service companies needs further efforts from all sides. In the later part of the article, the author gives a detailed explanation.
From 65438 to 0992, the U.S. government instructed its Environmental Protection Department (EPA) to launch the "Energy Star" program to solve the energy contract problem. By implementing the "Energy Star" plan, energy consumption can be reduced, thus reducing the greenhouse gases generated during power generation. The "Energy Star" program is based on the principle of voluntary participation of enterprises. As long as the product quality meets the relevant standards, enterprises willing to participate in the program can label their products as "Energy Star". The earliest participants in the "Energy Star" program were mainly enterprises that produced information products such as computers, and later gradually attracted a number of motor enterprises and office supplies enterprises. Until recent years, enterprises in the field of LED lighting have also actively participated. "Energy Star" is just a label, but it has greatly promoted the development of EMC model in the United States.
The above experience shows that EMC needs a lot of money from energy-saving service companies in the early stage, and then it can slowly recover the cost and make profits when it produces energy-saving benefits in the later stage. Therefore, it is very important for the government to formulate relevant policies to support and guide the development of EMC model. Only when the government gives full play to its guiding role, formulates a series of policies and standards, and establishes a perfect inspection, evaluation and supervision system can LED lighting enterprises dispel their investment concerns and accept EMC orders with confidence.
In the international marketing process of LED lighting in China, although a few large enterprises have won some foreign orders for LED lighting models, on the whole, this model has won the favor of export enterprises and played its own advantages. The reason for this is the following：
(1) The quality of lamps is poor.
The product quality of most enterprises can't meet the international standards, and the light attenuation is serious, and the maintenance and replacement cost is high during the contract period, resulting in low profits or even unprofitable or loss.
(2) Credit obstacle
Affected by the asymmetric information in the business environment and transnational projects, China LED lighting enterprises often can't fully understand foreign contract customers, and the market also lacks necessary evaluation institutions to evaluate the integrity of contract customers. Some contract customers refused to perform the terms of the contract after the energy-saving benefits, evaded or delayed sharing the energy-saving benefits agreed in the contract with LED lighting enterprises, which hurt the enthusiasm of LED lighting enterprises in China for investment and operation.
(3) financing and guarantee obstacles
If enterprises related to LED lighting choose mode to operate the project, in the initial stage of project operation, enterprises need to advance all the funds of the project, purchase equipment in advance and complete installation and debugging. After the project is completed, they also need to be responsible for maintenance and other follow-up services, which will take a long time to get benefits. Therefore, it is very important for enterprises to obtain the funds needed to start the project. However, due to the fact that its business nature has not been recognized by all enterprises, and the financing channels are narrow, it is difficult for enterprises to obtain the required funds from the capital market at the initial contact, resulting in frequent projects but no enterprises have the capital to undertake. Moreover, many LED lighting enterprises are in their infancy, just emerging and still being tested by domestic and foreign markets, with low recognition and new technologies, future charging rights and cash flow. There are not enough fixed assets as collateral, but commercial banks value fixed assets, such as land and factories, so commercial banks often refuse to lend to LED lighting energy-saving enterprises as working capital. Mode is relatively expensive for enterprises, the price of lamps is higher, and the payment period of mode is longer. The quality problems of LED lighting lamps and their solutions are enough for small-scale LED lighting enterprises to overcome. In addition, if the head office of the bank does not give relevant instructions on how to provide loans to the project, branches and sub-branches cannot provide loans to enterprises without authorization, because such loans are unfounded. In a few developed countries, the loan and insurance conditions of the project are relatively superior, and it is difficult for enterprises to borrow from banks.
(D) Problems in the promotion strategy
Promotion is to promote sales, that is, enterprises will hold some activities to convey the information of products to customers and take some incentive measures to urge them to buy products in order to achieve the purpose of expanding sales. In the fierce international market, enterprises hope to get more target customers and occupy a broader target market. It is not enough to rely solely on high-quality products. LED export enterprises must attach importance to the information communication with foreign customers, timely transmit product information to them and encourage them to buy, so as to expand LED export sales.
Enterprises in the international marketing and promotion strategy of LED lighting lamps have the following problems:
1, lack of professional overseas promotion team.
Professional overseas promotion teams require team members to have outstanding personal abilities, such as language ability to communicate with foreign customers, understanding business rules and etiquette, and being familiar with LED export trade knowledge and international culture. Establishing a professional overseas promotion team requires LED lighting enterprises to invest a lot of energy and expenses. Therefore, most enterprises do not have a professional overseas promotion team, and it is difficult to expand their sales business only by ordinary salespeople contacting foreign customers.
2. The international promotion channel is single.
For most LED lighting enterprises, the international promotion channel is to participate in some lighting exhibitions, promote their own LED lighting products, find customers and collect the contact information of potential customers. Although this is one of the most direct international promotion methods, it is far from enough. Enterprises lack diversified promotion channels, pay insufficient attention to online promotion, microblog promotion, e-mail promotion, advertising promotion and other promotion methods, ignore many methods to promote enterprises and products, and lose some opportunities to expand product sales.
The maintenance of the relationship between the public and the public needs to be improved.
Enterprises have not followed up and maintained the customer contact information obtained by participating in the LED lighting exhibition. Many foreign trade salesmen ignore the follow-up contact with customers after a single business transaction, fail to summarize the latest news, product information and sales of enterprises and deliver them to target customers by email, and lack a platform for regular communication with customers. Often, the LED lighting products of enterprises with good public relations will become customers' choice and win customers' favor in the competition with similar products. Therefore, enterprises that do not pay attention to public relations maintenance will miss sales opportunities.