Wen/Sitao
01
The rise of "original" design in the industry
I don’t know if you have noticed that there has been a trend of “original design” in the architectural ceramics industry recently. Especially during the 2020 Foshan Tanzhou Ceramics Exhibition, major architectural ceramics brands have successively launched distinctive original ceramic tile products.
The Eagle Brand 2086 image product "Ink Brick", which was born in 2016, has gone from commemorative edition Ink Brick to collection-grade Ink Brick to art-grade Ink Brick. After nearly 4 years of upgrading and research and development, Currently, there are 14 products in 4 major specifications, which combine the culmination of oriental skills and aesthetics, presenting the inheritance, innovation and cross-border integration of Chinese culture.
▲Eagle Brand 2086 "Art Grade·Ink Beijing Brick"
In 2019, Grace Ceramics crossed the boundary of the intangible cultural heritage "Xiangyunsha" and successfully developed ceramic tile products with the texture of Xiangyunsha. At the 2020 Foshan Tanzhou Ceramics Exhibition, Grace Ceramics' newly upgraded second-generation "Xiangyunsha Ceramics" debuted for the first time. The second generation of "Xiangyunsha Ceramic Tiles" continues to innovate on the basis of the first generation. It has designed 8 unique textures that are rich in meaning and follow the trend, and launched new concept products in 6 major colors and 8 major innovative textures. .
▲The second generation of Grace Tile "Xiangyunsha Tile"
Xin Zhongyuan Ceramics and designer Cui Shu jointly launched the "Moshi" series of new products. The design inspiration of "Mo Shi" comes from the black and gray artistic conception expression of the oriental element "bamboo" combined with "ink", which silently awakens the deep roots in the heart.of oriental sentiment. "Mo Shi", with its soft tones and low-key and elegant texture, gives more possibilities to modern and new Chinese styles.
▲Xin Zhongyuan Ceramics "Mo Shi"
Hongtao Ceramics took the initiative to integrate "new, trendy and playful" elements across borders at the Tanzhou Ceramics Exhibition, injecting trend symbols into each ceramic tile, carefully interpreting the brand spirit of the ingenious trendy brand, and Biyan·Tongti, Many high-quality products such as the Vientiane series were praised by many exhibitors.
▲Hongtao Ceramics "Hebiyan·Full Body"
The "Dance of Nature" series of products newly launched by Shunhui Ceramics this year is based on "healing" and starts from the aesthetic "shape, color, quality, and rhyme" to integrate various elements of nature into modern times. in home life. Whether in terms of visual aesthetics or practical functions, the "Natural Dance" series of products demonstrate the great innovation and breakthrough of Shunhui ceramic tiles.
▲Shunhui Tile "Natural Dance·Lushan Love"
Filona Cement Brick launched the self-developed "Yuanchuang" product "Concrete Series" in 2020, selecting 12 globally trendy colors (Morandi colors), and adopting a low-brightness matte texture, which is the first domestically produced 800×1800㎜ super large cement tiles, equipped with 600×1200㎜ mainstream size, suitable for more space.
▲Filona Cement Brick "Concrete Series"
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Tracing back to its roots, the "original" style in the ceramics industry mainly stems from the "national trend" style that has been popular in China in the past two years.
In 2018, the fashionable sports brand Li Ning launched the "Enlightenment""Tao"-themed clothing products participated in New York Fashion Week, successfully showing the original attitude of China's Lining to the world. Immediately afterwards, domestic brands including Anta, Laoganma, White Rabbit Toffee, Chenguang Stationery and other brands launched their own national trends. products, and the Palace Museum Cultural and Creative Industries has directly become the most dazzling presence among national fashion brands. The 2020 Foshan Tanzhou Ceramics Exhibition, which just concluded not long ago, invited Shan Jixiang, the former director of the Palace Museum, to give a keynote speech, which can accommodate thousands of people. The venue for Yu Ren's lecture was packed with people, which shows the charm of the Forbidden City's cultural creation or national trend culture.
Picture source network
Since 2017, Jiantuo brand has gradually begun to launch original products co-branded by designers. For example, in 2017, Xinzhongyuan Ceramics joined hands with the famous designer Liang Zhitian to jointly launch the "Brilliant" series of products; in the same year, Mati Ceramics launched the "Lin Xueming Series" products... In 2018, Eagle Brand 2086 is a brand image product that integrates oriental charm. The "Ink Beijing Brick" series shined at the Bologna Ceramics Exhibition; at the end of 2019, Grace Ceramics' cross-border intangible cultural heritage "Xiangyunsha" launched a series of products with the same name...Chinese elements began to be paid attention to by architectural ceramics brands and applied to ceramic tile design . Until this year, original designs in the architectural ceramics industry have become commonplace, and more and more brands have joined the original IP camp, forming a new product trend.
02
Why do you want to be "original"?
The emergence of the national trend culture phenomenon is a manifestation of the clothing industry's eagerness to get rid of imitation, plagiarism and other bad trends and flaunt original designs. In the ceramic industry, where homogeneity has been criticized for a long time, there is also a need for an "original IP" "Baptism.
Homogenization is a common problem in the building ceramics industry and has been around for a long time. Not only is the product homogeneity serious, but so are the marketing promotions, channel models, and store styles. Many industry leaders have long called for the transformation and upgrading of ceramics brands to strengthen product innovation and increase investment in R&D. But who is willing to do "thankless" things if they can make quick money? Therefore, we can find that before 2018, there were few brands in the building ceramics industry that were serious about making original products.Very few.
Perhaps it has been the most difficult year for the building ceramics industry - in 2019, homogeneity and price wars have further intensified, ceramic tile sales profits have continued to decrease, and it has become increasingly difficult to make money in the building ceramics industry, forcing building ceramics brands Determined to find a way out, coupled with the rise of national trends, it is not surprising that the trend of original products emerged as the times require.
▲Jinyitao product "Jinfeng Yulu"
In addition to being driven by homogeneity, branding also requires architectural ceramics brands to be original. Liang Xueqing, general manager of Ouwen Lai Brand Management Center, once said: "If we are not original, then many brands and products may be the same. If every brand is the same, it is not called a brand." In layman's terms, branding It is to find or even create a core that is different from other brands, and to amplify and form the label of your own brand, that is, to be original.
To talk about a common topic, ceramic tiles are a product with low attention, so they are destined to not be as active in front of consumers as high-attention products. Being original can better tell the product story and brand story. This is the entry point for the brand to arouse the emotional resonance of consumers, and it is also an important reason for the original ceramics brand. Take a look at the national trendy original design products launched by architectural ceramics brands this year, such as the "ink Beijing brick" of Eagle Brand 2086. The original "Forbidden City Brick" is a treasure-level cultural relic with a history of hundreds of years and was deeply "favored" by Emperor Qianlong. It itself has the nature of a story that attracts the attention of consumers. The "Ink Beijing Brick" developed by Eagle Brand 2086 combined with modern technology can arouse the emotional resonance of consumers with the story of "Forbidden City Brick", thus fully demonstrating the brand tone and gaining consumers' attention and recognition.
03
Three major difficulties in being "original"
In the past two years, the building and ceramics industry did not pay attention to "originality", leading to chaos such as following trends and imitations. But then again, doesn’t the building ceramics brand know how to be original? I know, but it’s more difficult. The author summarized that building ceramic brands face at least three major difficulties in creating original works:
First, the investment cost is high. Good original products require a long period of in-depth study and repeated design, which is extremely important during the product development stage.It is cumbersome; in terms of production, in order to realize the innovative design of original products, brands may also need to develop new processes; in terms of product promotion, brands also need to put their best efforts into maximizing the value of original products.
The second is product niche. No matter which industry you are in, usually, originality means differentiation and personalization, which is linked to "niche". The disadvantage of niche products is that the consumer circle is small and channels are difficult to develop.
Third, it is impossible to create profits in a short period of time. The relevant person in charge of Daoxun Design once said that the current ceramic tile market is seriously divided, and it is impossible for everyone to like the same brick as before. Daoxun Ceramics hopes that some people will like the Xiangyun series launched by Daoxun Ceramics, and the production capacity is not expected to be too large. It can be seen that most original products are unconventional, coupled with high prices (mainly determined by high costs), resulting in limited sales channels, it is likely that they will not be able to mass-produce and quickly create profits for a long time.
All in all, the road to originality is long, and it is both necessary and difficult for building ceramics brands to be original. Do you think the current trend of original products is a flash in the pan, or is it a driving force for ceramic brands to get rid of homogeneity?
