The Era of LED Storm: Surviving in the Cracks
China LED Online News The lighting industry has never been short of stories. Since the gorgeous entry of new LED light sources into the lighting industry, along with the global response to new energy green lighting, national energy-saving policy support, and the capital market's enthusiasm for the new energy sector, the open and hidden struggles in the lighting industry have been pushed to the forefront. 2014 is both the most dangerous outbreak period of the lighting industry's transformation and the most prosperous development period of LED lighting. Currently, there is no doubt that the focus of the entire industry is on the questions of "how to survive? and what kind of posture to survive in?" Because the industry has entered the craziest critical point, survival is more important than ever.
From the perspective of "super" distributors, three different feelings prevail: unwillingness, unease, and lack of enthusiasm. Let's match them accordingly: They want to have "high-end, upscale, and large-scale" traditional brands, while also wanting to get rid of the negative effects brought by overly strong policy interventions and the short-term transition adaptation period; for the "tall, rich, and handsome" newly emerging enterprises, they feel that these "handsome guys" lack sincerity and are somewhat deficient in deeper "connotations"; for the "diaosi" - level small, medium, and micro enterprises in the industry, having the opportunity for equal communication is considered a "favor". Conversely, distributors are also classified into the above three categories by manufacturers. Therefore, this is a normal state of human psychology, a game that is inherently equal.
The impact of LEDs has brought the "worst mess" to the lighting industry, but it is also the "best time" for opportunities. Undoubtedly, the high transparency and openness of the industrial chain are reflected in the maturity and supporting forms of light source technology, optical technology, heat dissipation technology, driving technology, intelligent response, product structure, craftsmanship, and industrial chain resources. One of the biggest "highlights" of LEDs at present, apart from their contribution to energy conservation, is that they have further reduced the profits of the entire industry. Users are laughing, industry media are laughing, hardware die-casting factories are laughing, optical component enterprises are laughing, while the majority of LED lighting light source, driver, lamp finished product factories, and distributors are crying...
Talking about factories in detail, the three types of enterprises defined above are actually having a hard time in their tough situations.
First of all, traditional old brands will definitely experience the pain of transformation. They basically wait until the market conditions are mature to make efforts, which more or less affects morale. Although they have effectively avoided investment risks, they have missed the high-profit opportunities that dealers were enthusiastic about, allowing new brands in the industry to have the opportunity to nibble away at the market and develop. At the same time, each province has enterprises supported by the government, and municipal projects in regional markets and energy-saving renovations of state-owned enterprises have also been divided up. Therefore, the focus is still on functional models with already reduced profits. To break the deadlock, enterprises naturally have to sacrifice profits and also restrict dealers to reduce profits to cope with the impact of price thresholds.
Secondly, quite a number of newly emerging LED brands have strong financial and technical backgrounds, with strong capabilities in chips and light sources. However, channel penetration is still a competition of comprehensive products and services. It seems wishful thinking to seek cooperation with "high-end, upscale, and large-scale" traditional dealers. At the same time, these best dealers are in the hands of traditional lighting brands. They have high expectations for the LEDs of the traditional brands they operate. Unless their original employers are inactive, it is difficult to make them act as agents for other brands' products.
For small, medium, and micro enterprises, their own foundations and resources are quite weak. If they can give full play to their due advantages in technology or price, they can still live a good life. If they have no bright spots at all, then I think "abandoning" is a more sensible choice.
Nowadays, it is really not easy to stay and survive, and a consolidated manufacturer-dealer relationship is even more hard-won. In-depth bundling of interests is the general trend. We cannot fully understand it with the good wish that "if love lasts for a long time, why need it be in the presence of each other every day". If survival is a problem, where can there be a long time? The lighting circle is not big. Even if we part ways, we only hope that both parties can magnanimously say: If you are well, it will be a sunny day.
