Recently, Xiaoxiong electric appliance released its annual report for 2021. The financial report showed that its revenue and net profit both fell, and the performance growth rate also fell for the first time in five years. However, the secondary market seems to have long expected the decline of Xiaoxiong's performance. Since the share price of Xiaoxiong electric appliance climbed to 163.11 yuan in July 2020, it has fallen sharply. Now it has fallen to about 50 yuan, and the highest share price has withdrawn nearly 70%. Performance and the secondary market are both low. "The first share of creative small household appliances" Xiaoxiong appliance seems to have lost "creativity" in the small household appliance market? 01 little bear electric appliance, lost in the bonus of "home economy"? The sentence "the house leaks when it rains at night, and the boat is late and catches the lead" comes from Feng Menglong, a writer in the Ming Dynasty. It can be said that it is more appropriate to describe the recent situation of Xiaoxiong electric appliance. On April 5, Xiaoxiong electric announced that the company's cooperative warehouse in Xiangtan City, Hunan Province caught fire on April 1, involving damaged goods worth about 55 million yuan. Later, when people were still worried about whether the warehouse fire would affect the delivery of Xiaoxiong electric appliance, Xiaoxiong electric appliance released the "double drop" financial report. From the financial report, the operating revenue of Xiaoxiong electric appliance during the reporting period was 3.606 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 1.46%; The net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies was 283 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 33.81%; The net cash flow from operating activities was 171 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 85.83%. From the data, we can see the "embarrassing situation" of Xiaoxiong electric appliance in 2021. However, if the fire is unexpected for Xiaoxiong electric appliance, the double decline in performance may be expected. First of all, from the perspective of the general environment of home appliance market. It can be divided into two aspects: one is that the heat of the "housing economy" catalyzed by the epidemic has subsided, and the other is the rapid increase in the cost of raw materials required for small household appliances. 1. According to ovicloud, in 2021, the retail sales of small kitchen appliances in 12 categories, including rice cooker, induction cooker, electric pressure cooker, soybean milk machine, wall breaker, blender and juicer, were 51.4 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 14.1%; The retail volume was 237.44 million units, a year-on-year decrease of 13.5%. It can be seen that the total market consumption shows a downward trend in 2021. In addition, the financial reports of leaders in the small household appliance industry can also be seen: in 2021, the revenue of Jiuyang shares decreased by 6.09% year-on-year, and the net profit decreased by 20.69% year-on-year; Ashtar's performance forecast shows that it is estimated that the net profit attributable to the parent company will lose 56.476 million ~ 77.0127 million yuan in 2021, and its net profit attributable to the parent company will be 103 million yuan in 2020, from profit to loss. 2. Since the beginning of last year, the cost of raw materials for household appliances such as aluminum, copper and plastics has increased rapidly, and the rise of raw materials has continued. According to the data of Guojin securities, aluminum, copper, plastics and steel rose by 54%, 17%, 8% and 5% year-on-year in the first quarter of this year. It can also be seen from the data publicly disclosed by Xiaoxiong electric appliance. From January to September 2021, compared with the same period in 2020, the average price of plastic raw materials increased by 29.11%, the average price of ceramics increased by 12.68%, the average price of packaging materials increased by 9.33% and the average price of motor increased by 8.48%. Secondly, we look at the bear appliance itself. After all, the rise of raw materials can only squeeze the profits of enterprises. Although the overall environment is not good, there is still the growth of revenue / profit of small household appliance companies such as SUPOR, Beiding and Xinbao. Then the decline of operating revenue of Xiaoxiong electric appliance is also related to the competitiveness of enterprises in products, channels and other aspects. 1. under the homogenization of products, are we still "focusing on marketing" and "neglecting R & D"? According to its 2021 financial report, the R & D expenses of Xiaoxiong electric appliance during the reporting period were about 130 million, accounting for 3.60% of the current operating revenue; The sales cost was about 553 million, a year-on-year increase of 25.66%, more than four times the R & D cost. In addition, as of December 31, 2021, the R & D personnel of Xiaoxiong electric appliance decreased by 47, a decrease of 14.73% over the previous year; The number of R & D personnel with bachelor degree or above is the highest, up to 40; On the contrary, the number of salespeople increased significantly. As of December 31, 2021, the number of salespeople was 893, an increase of 112 over the previous year, an increase of 14.34%. Such a "heavy sales" and "light research and development" approach can not help but make people question, as the "first share of creative small household appliances", where does the creativity of Xiaoxiong electric appliance come from? From the advertising that consumers see? Moreover, in the face of the cooling of the small household appliance market, the competition under homogeneous products intensifies, and there is no creativity and innovation. Where does the market competitiveness come from? 2. Channel deviation, can't hold online and can't attack offline? Perhaps because the offline channels have been controlled by old traditional small appliances such as Midea, Jiuyang and SUPOR, Xiaoxiong appliance has another way to focus on online. However, with the outbreak of the epidemic, home appliance giants in offline channels have also begun to transfer online. It can be said that it is not bad to open live broadcasting, marketing and activities. Moreover, the influence rate of old brands such as Jiuyang and SUPOR in Chinese cognition is much higher than that of Xiaoxiong electric appliance. Moreover, like Jiuyang and other old brands, like Xiaoxiong electric appliance, they have also embarked on the road of "beauty", which is co branded with many popular images such as Xiaohuang duck and baokemeng. However, the revenue of Xiaoxiong electric appliance in 2021 is almost still relying on online channels. During the reporting period, the online sales revenue reached 3.249 billion yuan, accounting for 90.09% of the total revenue, and the offline sales revenue was only 357 million yuan, accounting for 9.91% of the total revenue. The gap between online and offline is almost 9:1. Facing the encroachment of old brands on online channels, it will undoubtedly face great pressure. In addition, as the number of Internet users gradually tends to the ceiling, the cost of getting customers and the cost of online sales channels will be higher and higher. Small household appliance brands with weak brand premium ability such as Xiaoxiong electric appliance will shrink their already low profit growth space again. In the financial report, Xiaoxiong electric also listed the high proportion of online sales as one of its own risks, and said that if the company cannot maintain a good cooperative relationship with the e-commerce platform in the future, or there are major adverse changes in the sales policy and charging standard of the above e-commerce platform, it will have an adverse impact on its operating performance. At the same time, with the normalization of the epidemic and the gradual recovery of offline business, the offline channels of Jiuyang and SUPOR have gradually warmed up, which will further widen the gap with Xiaoxiong in the future. 3. Frequent quality problems and declining brand image? Of course, the little bear has also been "transforming", setting up intelligent appliances, health appliances, environmental appliances and so on, from the kitchen to health, mother and baby, and the environment. However, no matter which segment of the track to transition, we must first ensure the compliance and safety of our own product quality. However, in recent years, Xiaoxiong electric appliance has fallen into the situation of frequent product quality problems. In May 2021, a pacifier of Xiaoxiong electric appliance was found unqualified by Shanghai Market Supervision Bureau due to product quality problems. In December of the same year, Zhejiang market supervision bureau announced that a cooking machine produced by Xiaoxiong electric appliance also had the problem of unqualified product quality. In January this year, the Shanghai market supervision and Administration Bureau released the results of product quality supervision and random inspection in Shanghai in 2021 (the fourth batch), which showed that the bear breast pump produced by Xiaoxiong electric appliance was detected, indicating that the project was unqualified. Coincidentally, in March this year, the little bear electric kettle (model: zdh-a06g1) was identified as unqualified by Jiangsu Consumer Protection Commission because the boiling water power-off time was seriously overtime and did not meet the requirements of QB / t20089-2008 standard. Jack Welch, President of General Electric Company, once said: "quality is the best guarantee to maintain customer loyalty". Frequent quality problems probably make consumers think that this brand does not pay attention to quality and brand image, which may lead consumers to the road of "starting from appearance and finally quality". Moreover, as a cub who wants to open up a new track, he overturned one after another on the newly opened mother and baby track. In China, children represent the hope of a family, which can not be neglected from conception to growth, which also shows that consumers of this track will be particularly sensitive to quality problems. How many milk powder or mother and baby brands have been eliminated by the times or can no longer return to their peak due to quality problems. As a bear on the mother and baby track, it began to be "lightning protected" before it formed a brand scale, which is undoubtedly a way to destroy its future. The "future value" of small household appliances is moving towards the "three-dimensional brand" from point to area? For Xiaoxiong electric appliance, facing the automatic correction of the market, the rise of material and marketing costs and the weakening of brand influence in the post epidemic era, it has to face the more glued market competition from all-round improvement. Then its own "market resistance" is particularly important. "Market resistance" is simply to expand the brand category network or dig down and build two growth curves of product "technical barriers". The brand radiates from point to surface, "vertical" expansion creates its own "three-dimensional" resistance fortress. First, expand the product SKU matrix to resist the risk of fluctuations in market user preferences. Moreover, from the R & D and innovation side to meet the next outlet. In terms of the market, affected by the epidemic in 2020, the "house economy" broke out, resulting in the explosion of small kitchen appliances. In the post epidemic era this year, we lost the confinement of space, and the demand for small kitchen appliances fell, turning to life, cleaning, health and beauty. As can be seen from the data on June 18 last year, the first day turnover of the floor washer exceeded the sum of the first six months of 2020. The turnover of beauty instruments and cavity cleaning increased by more than 100% year-on-year. The turnover of air circulation fans and leafless purification fans focusing on "health, nature and safety" reached 11 times that of the same period last year. Secondly, technology and innovation have always been the reformers of the times. If marketing determines the growth ceiling of an enterprise, then technology represents the stability of the lower foundation of the enterprise. We must have a solid foundation before we can sprint to the ceiling with "zero risk". Building a product "moat" with technological innovation should be the best "market resistance" of Xiaoxiong electric appliance. Moreover, davido's law tells us that any enterprise must constantly update its products in its own industry. If an enterprise wants to occupy a dominant position in the market, it must develop a new generation of products at the first time. If the second or third enterprise passively pushes the new products into the market, the benefits obtained are far less than those obtained by the first enterprise as an adventurer, because the first generation products in the market can automatically obtain 50% of the market share. In addition, refined marketing is also essential, especially for the low premium manufacturer of Xiaoxiong electric appliance, how to change its brand image from low premium to high premium is an unavoidable problem. Indeed, low premium can increase their competitiveness, but the competition rate of "low price" will not be good. Therefore, we should not focus too much on "short-term interests" and ignore the long-term "user cognition". However, at present, whether it is the Internet brand of Xiaoxiong electric appliance or the traditional brand of Jiuyang, it will still focus on "marketing" to drive the growth of homogeneous products before the emergence of the next high barrier outlet. However, if anyone can achieve quality assurance, advanced technology, prominent audience and culture, the pattern of small household appliance market may change in the future. (Xinhua News Agency)