Haier

On the last day of 2014, Euromonitor International, a global authoritative market survey organ, released the surveyed data on large household appliances of the world in 2014. It was noteworthy that Haier refrigerator has maintained the bestseller for the 7^th time in seven successive years with 17% of brand retail shares. Haier Refrigerator Co., Ltd has become the world’s largest refrigerator manufacturer with 18.6% of manufacturer retail shares. Against the background of the slowly growing refrigerator market in 2014, the sales volume of Haier refrigerator has sharply increased, which is extraordinary on the market.   

Coincidentally, when Haier was expanding its business to every corner of the world, data from the U.S. Consumer Electronics Show that is held in Las Vegas now suggests that 25% of the exhibitor manufacturers are from China!

At the beginning of the second decade of the 21st century, China has become the world’s second largest economy. Under the time-assigned topic of “the rise of the great power”, in order to activate the vitality of private enterprises and transform China from a powerful manufacture-oriented country to one known for brands, we still have to shoulder heavy responsibilities. On the domestic market, Haier, Lenovo and a lot of other outstanding enterprises have undoubtedly provided references and set examples for entrepreneurs with their achievements made in global competition. In this condition, our perspective should be comprehensive but only the essence should be kept. With the illustration of Haier Refrigerator, Beichen will look deep into the facts here to exclusively uncover the secret of Haier Refrigerator’s being the bestseller in seven successive years.

Secret 1: Adapt to the age

According to the latest data of JuniperResearch, the sales volume of China’s smart home furnishing market will reach RMB 139.6 billion yuan by the year 2018, accounting for 32% of the global market share. However, it would be too late to observe the general trend of smart home furnishing in 2015, and it is foresighted to have observed it in 2015, and only those that had observed it in 2005 and done the deed are real genius. It’s beyond doubts that Haier is the earliest participant in domestic smart home. It has built the ecosphere of smart home from multiple dimensions, including the open platform, software and intelligent terminal. 2014 was also a year of harvest.

Under the trend of intelligentization, Haier Refrigerator has already arranged the layout in advance. It has developed four industrial original technologies, i.e., the technology of transparent smart window, environment-perception auto-regulation energy conservation, multi-ventilation-door decentralized control and SLIM centrifugal fan, and an interactive smart intelligent control system is thus established.

In the smart design of refrigerator, remote control with mobile ends has become an important humanized intelligent function. With the new function of Haier refrigerator, “after buying the smart-window refrigerator, users can check the food storage any time through Wechat with the phone and can turn on suitable storage model. Occasionally, the refrigerator can even place orders on the Yihaodian online mart and buy food by itself. The experience of intelligent life seems to be right at user’s fingertips.”

As Jobs like to say, “Consumers in fact don’t know what they really want, until you present the perfect product in front of them.” Indeed, demand satisfaction can lead to the success of specific industrial leaders, while brand-new life experience creation can lead to global dominating accomplishment. Haier Refrigerator has adapted itself to the time, stuck to the industry of smart home and released brand new modes of user interaction applied to intelligent refrigerator, which is one of the key factors of its successful business expanding.

Secret 2: Open up the top-level ecological chain of the world

Manufacturing of refrigerator covers various links, including raw material purchase, design and production and processing. The requirements of global competition can be hardly met if the manufacture relies just on the organizational strength and the internal resource of the corporate architecture. The solution offered by Haier is to open up the top-level ecological chain of the world.

For instance, the wiring harness of Haier Sealbox refrigerator is imported from the U.S., so that the product stability is guaranteed; the temperature sensor is purchased from Switzerland; the heater strip comes from Italy; the compressor from Brazil is both power-saving and environmentally friendly, with which the noise can be maintained at 36 decibel, just like the unclear gentle whisper to your girlfriend; the draught fan and evaporator imported from Japan, matched with the quick-freezing technology invited by Haier’s five major international R & D centers, can shorten the freezing rate to below 1/3 of the industrial average and thus effectively keep the nutrition of food.

 “All core units are purchased internationally. On the other hand, with top-quality accessories provided by top-level suppliers, Haier refrigerators possess genes from all over the world, and they are intelligent, high-end, faddish and luxurious,” commented Chen Gang. With the process of international design, international purchase and international marketing, Haier Refrigerator fully deserves the title of international brand now, just like Siemens. 

Secret 3: Be product-oriented 

It seems that the age of mobile internet has granted products with different interpretations and standards.

In the past, as long as the quality is trustable and the price is reasonable, appropriate consumers can be targeted.

However, in the age of mobile internet, products have been endowed with more significances and energies. On the one hand, with the evolution of socialized media, everyone and everything can be the media. Home appliances should not only satisfy consumer’s functional requirements, but should also meet their desire of sharing. Good products do not only facilitate consumers in their living rooms and bedrooms, but are also supposed to be the topic in Microblog and be found in the ever-updating flow of messages in Friends’ Circle of WeChat.   

On the other hand, IOT (Internet of Things) is now prevailing. Home appliances are no more lifeless articles mediating with just the 220V voltage, instead, they have been endowed with life and the ability of computing; they can work coordinately with the environment, interact with other intelligent terminals, co-exist in harmony with consumers and complete their own missions.

Since the day when the business began, Haier refrigerator has been innovating to meet the requirements of Chinese consumers. In order to have more reliable product properties, a process of reliability test has been carried out. This process is known to users as “the devil’s test”. It is reported that before the manufacture, every batch of refrigerators has to pass the drop, vibration, impact and other related tests in simulation environments in accordance with the national standards on the transportation test of refrigerator; then the refrigerators have to go through the real “road test”, i.e., the 100km filed experiment in severe road environment. Such test standards followed by Haier refrigerator are in better consistency with the practical condition of domestic road transportation. It means that only the refrigerators passing the “road test” can be delivered to users to serve them. This idea of innovation aimed at good user service is the valuable asset that guarantees Haier Refrigerator the good reputation.

Business and innovation never have a universal model to be applied mechanically. Nevertheless, under the background of globalization, innovative enterprises, represented by Haier, have been adapted to the general trend of globalization. As the saying goes, “Stones from other Hills may Serve to Polish the Jade of This One”. To the larger number of private middle and small-sized private enterprises, the globalization of China has just begun…

Future never simply means challenge, but also refers to a broader world…

(Translator-editor:Haier New Media Zhou Xiaoming)