China Household Water Purifier Market-Entrepreneurial Reference

(Foreword) In recent years, with the intervention of domestic famous electrical appliances or kitchen appliances leading enterprises such as Midea, Supor and Shuaikang, and multinational companies such as GE, Amway and AO Smith, the domestic household water purifier market attracted attention for a time, and the water purifier market, an unknown industry that has been developed in China for more than 21 years, caused investment companies.

Unfortunately, the relevant information about the water purifier market is scarce. The author (Zhang Xudong) has been fortunate to stay in the water purifier market for five years, contacted some experts or predecessors in the water purifier market, and listened to their teachings. Now, these "old legends" of the water purifier market are put on record in the form of words for interested readers, and if there are any mistakes, please give them advice.

1. Categories, development process and stages of household water purifiers in China

We usually refer to the household water purifier market as "water decoration", "water appliances" and "household water purifiers", etc. In fact, there are some differences in this industry:

serial number, name, core technical function

1 water purifier (direct drinking machine)

RO reverse osmosis membrane is less than 1.11111. The desalting rate is over 91%

2. The resin of water softener regulates the magnesium ion in the water, and relieves the scale

3. Ultrafiltration machine

UF ultrafiltration membrane is 1.12-1.111 micron, and particles, bacteria, viruses and humic substances are removed

4. Activated carbon /PP cotton filter

5 microfilters < Removal of particles, bacteria and viruses

6 functional water machine (cup) electrolysis, ore, etc. to make various functional water

7 pipeline direct drinking water combined with membrane direct drinking water

Among them, (3), (4) and (5), ultrafiltration machine (microfilter) and activated carbon filter are generally used in combination, and the author calls these kinds of packages "water purifiers". Let's call this industry "household water purifier" for the sake of conceptual unity.

as for (7), it needs to be listed separately, because it only belongs to the project.

household water purifier products should belong to "imported products". Up to now, it can be roughly divided into four stages:

1, 1991-1995. During this period, products that were basically imported from abroad were used by some high-end people, and most ordinary people didn't know much about it. The price was as high as 11,111 yuan. At that time, Hainan Lisheng had begun to intervene.

Keywords: high price, few people know, mainly imports.

2, 1996-2111. During this period, the domestic domestic water treatment market can be described as surging. At that time, it was combined with the development of drinking fountains (clean buckets, a purification device placed on drinking fountains), such as Angel, Qinyuan and Midea, which developed at that time. As rising stars, Jianite, China-Netherlands, Water Butler, Quanlai and Jinliyuan also began to emerge, and Guangdong and Zhejiang became two major production bases.

Keywords: vigorous market, technical confusion, price war; Domestic manufacturers have developed; Bad competition leads to the overall distrust of the industry.

3. 2111-2115. During this period, a very shocking event happened in the household water purifier industry, "Phoenix is coming"! Phoenix water system in Taizhou, Jiangsu Province has ignited this industry through strong market operation! Although there was a "Phoenix water robbery", Phoenix trained a group of people and influenced a group of people.

During this period, Jiangsu Aihuipu Company introduced Aihuipu to China, which pushed the price of water purifiers to a high level again, giving the industry a breathing space, which is also worthy of a great book.

During this period, as an advanced water supply method, piped direct drinking water also flourished in all parts of China, especially in Guangzhou, Shanghai and Jiangsu, and a number of outstanding enterprises such as Shenzhen Water Affairs, Shanghai Water Management and Nanjing Water Cup emerged.

As the troika of domestic water treatment, barreled water, household water purifier and piped drinking water (mostly in engineering) will exert their efforts at the same time during this period and will exist for a long time to come.

Yitai also entered Nanjing, China at this time. The technology in Taiwan Province shows that only by studying the technical section can the quality be controlled!

during this period, functional water machines also developed rapidly, and many well-known enterprises appeared, such as Nanjing Zhongmai, Tiannian, Shenzhen Haomei and Baiwen.

Keywords: technological development, great influence on the industry, domestic manufacturers and imported brands have two wings in Qi Fei; Retail, engineering, marketing and export.

4. 2116-present (the next 3-5 years). During this period, people in the industry are most familiar with it, so let's briefly introduce that a number of veteran manufacturers such as Yikou, Yitai, Aihuipu and Quanlai have achieved unprecedented development, and a number of rookies have also begun to emerge, such as Nanjing Shibaokang and Nanjing Hongbi. Excellent manufacturers have three similarities, and the technology, marketing and service are all remarkable. At this time, the price war is once again.

There are some noteworthy phenomena in this period:

From a technical point of view, Europe and the United States are no longer monologues, and Japanese and Korean factions have begun to land on the China stage. Just like the home appliance industry, the three major technical schools of Europe and the United States, China, Japan and South Korea continue to repeat the Romance of the Three Kingdoms in the household water purifier industry.

from the marketing point of view, Suning, Gome and other large chain stores; Large building materials supermarkets such as Jialejia, Home Music and Jinsheng have begun to display household water purifiers, and various specialty stores can be seen everywhere, and supporting projects abound. Television advertisements, newspaper advertisements, conference communication, etc. educate consumers in turn. At this stage, consumers' awareness rate of household water purifiers is many times stronger than before 2115!

From the service point of view, many manufacturers began to advocate service as the front station of marketing, and joined forces with marketing to become a combination boxing. Many dealers also began to pay attention to service and maintain the "viscosity" of users in the competition.

Keywords: market expansion, standardization, reshuffle, Japanese and Korean technology, price war, Jiangsu production base.

in view of the field that the author (Zhang Xudong) is engaged in, we will focus on water purifiers and discuss household water purifiers.

II. Technical category of household water purifier at present

Serial number type features represent brand

1 mixed type. All filter materials are packed in 1 shells. Aihuipu, Quanlai, Jinliyuan, et al (including clean water bucket)

2 integrated single-function filter materials claim to be integrated, and there is only one filter for single products with beautiful system integration, Shibaokang and Hongbi

3. Belonging to European and American schools, it has the advantages of being between (2) and (3), being relatively simple and easy for large-scale production; The sales caliber is simple and easy to popularize.

from the technical point of view, this kind of products should be used on the premise that the raw water quality is good (qualified urban water supply), with large aperture and large flow. Otherwise, if the water quality of a tap water exceeds the standard, the service life of a certain filter material will be shortened or the water purifier itself has no solving ability, so the filtering efficiency of the whole machine cannot be guaranteed.

2. Integrated type. Originated in Britain, it rose in Japan and South Korea on a large scale. Its advantage is that it can make water according to local conditions, and has low requirements for raw water quality, so it belongs to customized products.

from the technical point of view, this kind of products is more suitable for China's "water regime". It is more scientific to customize the treatment process and select filter elements according to different "water regimes".

however, from the cost point of view, the production cost of this kind of products is higher because of the variety of filter elements (compared with the other two).

3, single type. Belongs to the local school in China. Its advantages are simple structure, powerful single function, easy large-scale production, easy dissemination and popularization.

From a technical point of view, because the water quality in China is very different, the "single champion" may not be more suitable for the water quality in China than the "Almighty King".

in a word, these three technical schools will exist for a long time to come, and the integrated technology may have a better development prospect.

Third, the brand category of household water purifiers at this stage

The serial number brand attribute represents the brand remarks

1 The original imported 3M and others are mostly localized

2 Foreign-funded localized Shibaokang and others

3 Domestic Midea, Qinyuan, Quanlai and others

There is a famous saying in "Big shot" that "not seeking the best, but seeking the most expensive" can best represent the current consumption culture in China. The moon in foreign countries is rounder than that in China.

In this market environment, many manufacturers have started to take the road of "saving the country by curves", some are companies and some are brands, all of which try to bring some "foreign flavor".

IV. Brief analysis of membrane technology and activated carbon technology of household water purifier

1. Analysis of "material" and "structure" of activated carbon and ultrafiltration membrane (microfiltration membrane).

Ultrafiltration membrane can remove about 61% of organic pollution, but it can't remove residual chlorine, and the service life of the membrane will be shortened without pretreatment. Activated carbon can remove about 81% of organic pollution, but because of its nature, it will become a "hotbed" of bacteria. Therefore, activated carbon and ultrafiltration membrane (microfiltration membrane) are generally used in domestic water treatment technology.

let's talk about the membrane first. The better ultrafiltration membranes abroad are DOW, Haideneng, Ande Membrane, Dongli Membrane, Shihan and GE Membrane, and the better ones made in China are Hainan Lisheng, Tianjin Membrane Day, Wuhan Ou Ke and Kunshan Fangshi.

in terms of performance (strength and toughness), foreign brands are better for the time being, but domestic brands have shown a trend of catching up and surpassing in technology.

in terms of materials, there will be no major breakthrough in the technology of ultrafiltration membrane in a short time. As for commercial promotion, there is no need to entangle in technology for the time being, as long as the appropriate pore size is found, the membrane filaments are strong and the membrane walls are easy to clean.

structurally, most manufacturers buy them and assemble them, and the difference is not too big.

talk about activated carbon again.

Because the development of activated carbon is restricted in foreign countries, some domestic activated carbon has been technically equivalent to the international brand activated carbon after so many years of development.

There are many kinds of activated carbon. Generally, domestic water treatment technologies are compressed activated carbon, granular activated carbon and powdered activated carbon (the latter two are also called loose carbon).

in terms of materials, it can be divided into coal quality, coconut shell, fruit shell and so on.

In terms of adsorption effect, powdered activated carbon is larger than granular activated carbon and larger than compressed activated carbon (it can also play the role of PP cotton)

In terms of structure, the difference is great!

The function of activated carbon depends on three factors: adsorption area, filtration time and PH value. Only by taking into account the structure of these three impact indicators is it more reasonable.

2. Negative effects of activated carbon and ultrafiltration membrane technology.

microbial growth. Activated carbon technology and ultrafiltration membrane technology are essentially physical filtration, so they will become hotbeds of microorganisms, and health system experts will spend money. When using the water purifier without bacteriostatic (sterilization) device, the microbial index will be greatly increased after about 7 days. No matter whether the ultrafiltration membrane is washed directly or backwashed, the effect is not ideal. Besides, it is not annoying for consumers to wash it once every 7 days.

the concentration of nitrite is high. Activated carbon and ultrafiltration membrane technology are the best solutions to deal with organic pollution and residual chlorine, but everything has two sides. In areas with serious organic pollution and obvious turbidity, this technology will lead to an increase in microbial indicators, which will lead to an increase in nitrite concentration. The most direct manifestation is that the water quality will become salty after the water purifier is used for a period of time! It not only affects the taste, but also seriously threatens human health.

despite the slow development of water purifier industry and many problems with water purifier products, the sun will eventually rise in the east, and it will be in full swing. Will the water purifier be the next 111 billion industry? Let's wait and see!