Infants and young children's home appliance market is still in the "naive period"

The sudden emergence of a small home appliance market for infants and young children is a new segment of traditional home appliances. Some industry experts pointed out that sales of infant and small appliance industry are expected to exceed 8 billion yuan in 2014, which is a big cake for traditional home appliance companies. At the same time, the development of small home appliances for infants and young children is not only an inevitable outcome of the traditional home appliance white-hot competition, but also conforms to the current consumer demand and values ​​of the post-80s, and is at the “naive stage” of the industry life cycle, with huge growth potential and a broad market space. However, because it is in its infancy, there are many problems in infant and small household appliance markets such as high prices, weak products, weak brand strength, etc. In order to change the status of the industry and solve industry problems, it is necessary to have a full understanding of the industry issues.

There are roughly the following problems in the subdivided industries of infants and young children:

First, there is a lack of consumer research. Many manufacturing companies lack research on consumers, mostly focusing on product design and product appearance. However, besides being attracted to the appearance of the product at first glance, parents can really drive it to purchase more practical details such as whether the product has radiation or whether the operation is simple. And these issues that are deeply considered by real parents are often easily overlooked by manufacturers.

Second, the product features a single, weak applicability, lack of operability, and high prices. The homogeneity of small household appliances in infants and young children is relatively serious and the function is relatively simple. The survey shows that young parents like high-tech, multi-functional appliances. Most of the current small household electrical appliances for infants and young children are only suitable for infants and toddlers in appearance, and their real applicability is not strong. The products generally have a phased application period. When the children are slightly older, they are no longer applicable. A woman in the survey said that “as parents, I’m more than happy to buy some of my own household appliances for children. But the children’s appliances in the stores are all things like electric toothbrushes and rocking chairs. Not used, almost none of the large appliances are designed specifically for children." In addition, many infants and young children lack the operability of small home appliances, the operation process is complex and cumbersome, is not conducive to the elderly or nanny use. Some consumers report that the temperature of the breast milk heater is not well understood. In addition, the price of small household appliances for infants and young children is mostly over 100 yuan. There are nearly 1,000 "luxury goods" in the industry, which is higher than other small household appliances. Two bottle sterilizers were found on the Internet. One was priced at RMB 299. The other was steam-sterilized with an additional drying function at a price of RMB 480. Its main component was a stainless steel plate for holding water.

Again, the construction of the channels is backward. Infant and young children's household appliances are selling hot online, but offline stores are hard to find and products are cold. This phenomenon is mainly due to too few well-known companies involved in related products, and small brands do not have the strength to enter the chain stores. Because the consumer groups of small household appliances for infants and young children are rather special and the scale of the manufacturers is too small, it is difficult to establish a foothold in the physical channels.

Finally, the intensity of communication is small. Many companies lack brand awareness and pay insufficient attention to communication, and they rarely place advertisements. The small household appliances for infants and young children are a special industry. Consumers pay much attention to product quality and safety. Consumers to a large extent, through the establishment of advertising awareness of the product, studies have shown that more than 60% of consumers in the selection of small home appliances for infants and young children are more biased towards the well-known brand advertising.