(Foreword) In recent years, with the intervention of well-known domestic leading enterprises such as Midea, Supor and Shuaikang, as well as multinational companies such as GE, Amway and AO Smith, the domestic household water purifier market has attracted much attention for a time. The water purifier market, which has been unknown in China for more than 20 years, has attracted the attention of investment companies, media, enterprises, distributors and many other groups.
Unfortunately, information about the water purifier market is scarce. The author (Zhang Xudong) was lucky enough 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 recorded in the form of words for the reference of interested readers. If there are any mistakes, please let me know.
I. Types, development history and stages of household water purifiers in China.
We usually like to call the household water purifier market "water decoration", "water appliances" and "household water purifier", but there are still some differences in this industry:
Core technical functions of serial number and name
1 water purifier (direct drinking machine)
RO reverse osmosis membrane is less than 0.000 1 micron, and the desalination rate is as high as 90%.
2 Water softener resin regulates magnesium ions in water and removes scale.
3 Ultrafiltration machine
UF ultrafiltration membrane 0.02-0.00 1 micron removes particles, bacteria, viruses and humus.
4 activated carbon /PP cotton filter activated carbon /PP cotton absorbs residual chlorine and organic matter in water.
5 microfilter
MF microfiltration membrane is 0.5-0.02 micron to remove particles, bacteria and viruses.
6. Functional drinking machine (cup) electrolysis, ore, etc. Production of various functional water.
7 pipeline direct drinking water combined with membrane direct drinking water
Among them, (3), (4), (5), ultrafilter (microfilter) and activated carbon filter are generally used in combination. The author calls these packages "water purifiers" (including clean buckets); For the sake of conceptual unity, let's call this industry "household water purifier".
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". So far, they can be roughly divided into four stages:
1,1990—1995. During this period, most products were imported from abroad, which were used by some high-end people, and most ordinary people didn't know much about it. The price is as high as 10 thousand yuan. At this time, Hainan Li Sheng has begun to intervene.
Keywords: high price, few people know, mainly imported.
2, 1996-2000. During this period, the domestic domestic water treatment market is surging. At that time, it was developed in combination with drinking fountains (cleaning buckets, a purification device placed on drinking fountains), such as Angel, Qinyuan and Midea, which were developed at that time. As rising stars, Jianite, China-Netherlands, Shuiguanjia, Quanlai and Jinliyuan have also begun to emerge, and Guangdong and Zhejiang have become two major production bases.
Key words: vigorous market, technical confusion, price war; Domestic manufacturers have developed; Bad competition leads to distrust in the industry as a whole.
3, 200 1-2005. 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 is a "Phoenix water robbery", Phoenix has trained a group of people and influenced a group of people.
During this period, Jiangsu Aihuipu Company introduced Aihuipu into China, which pushed up the price of water purifiers again, giving the industry a breathing space, which is also worth writing a book to tell.
During this period, piped drinking water, as an advanced water supply method, also flourished all over China, especially in Guangzhou, Shanghai, Jiangsu and other places, and a number of outstanding enterprises such as Shenzhen Water, Shanghai Water and Nanjing Water Cup emerged.
Barreled water, household water purifier and piped drinking water (mostly in engineering) are the troika of domestic water treatment, which exert their efforts at the same time during this period and will exist for a long time.
Yitai also entered Nanjing, China at this time. The technical description of Taiwan Province Province shows that only by learning the technical section can the quality be controlled!
During this period, functional pumps also developed rapidly, and many well-known enterprises emerged, such as Nanjing Zhongmai, Tiannian, Shenzhen Mei Hao and Bai Wen.
Key words: technological development has a great impact on the industry, with domestic manufacturers and imported brands in Qi Fei, two wings of Qi Fei; Retail, engineering, marketing and export.
4.2006-present (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 established manufacturers, such as Yikou, Yitai, Aihuipu and Quanlai, have achieved unprecedented development, and a number of new talents have begun to emerge, such as Nanjing Shibaokang and Nanjing Hongbi. Excellent manufacturers have three similarities: technology, marketing and service are all remarkable. At this time, the price war once again.
There are also 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 also begun to land on the China stage. Just like the home appliance industry, the three major technical schools in Europe, America, China, Japan and Korea are constantly repeating the Romance of the Three Kingdoms in the household water purifier industry.
From the marketing point of view, large chain stores such as Suning and Gome; Large building materials supermarkets such as Jialejia, Jialejia 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 exchanges, etc. In turn, educate consumers. At this stage, consumers' awareness of household water purifiers is many times stronger than before 2005!
From the perspective of service, many manufacturers began to advocate service as the front desk of marketing, and joined hands with marketing to become a combination boxing. Many dealers have also begun to pay attention to service and maintain the "viscosity" of users in the competition.
Key words: market expansion, standardization, shuffling, Japanese and Korean technology, price war, Jiangsu production base.
In view of the field that the author (Zhang Xudong) is engaged in, the following will focus on water purifiers and discuss household water purifiers.
Second, the technical categories of household water purifiers at this stage
Serial number type features represent brands.
1 hybrid All filter materials are packed in 1 shell, such as Aihewlett-Packard, Quanlai and Jinliyuan. (including clean buckets).
Integrated single function filter material, claiming to be one, the system integrates Midea, Shibaokang and Ruby.
There is only one kind of filtration and one kind of function improvement for a single product.
1, mixed type. It belongs to the European and American schools, and 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 a technical point of view, this kind of products should be used on the premise of good raw water quality (qualified urban water supply), with large aperture and large flow. Otherwise, if the primary tap water quality exceeds the standard, the service life of a certain filter material will be shortened or the water purifier itself has no solving ability, and the filtration efficiency of the whole machine cannot be guaranteed.
2. comprehensive type. Originated in Britain, it rose on a large scale in Japan and South Korea. 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 a technical point of view, such products are more suitable for China's "water situation". It is more scientific to customize the treatment process and select the filter element according to different "water conditions".
However, from the cost point of view, due to the variety of filter elements of this kind of products, the production cost is higher (compared with the other two analogies).
3, single type. Belongs to domestic local schools. Its advantages are simple structure, single function, easy scale production and easy popularization.
From a technical point of view, due to the great differences in water quality in China, 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 in the future, 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 brand comments.
1 imported 3M, etc. are mostly localized.
2. Localization of foreign capital, Shibaokang, etc.
3 domestic beauties, Qinyuan, Quanlai, etc.
There is a famous saying in "Big shot" that "not the best, but the most expensive" can best represent the current consumer culture in China, and everyone has no confidence in cheap things; The moon in foreign countries is rounder than that in China.
In this market environment, many manufacturers have begun to take the road of "saving the country by curve", some companies and some brands are trying to bring some "foreign flavor".
Analysis of membrane technology and activated carbon technology of household water purifier
1, "substance" and "structure" analysis of activated carbon and ultrafiltration membrane (microfiltration membrane).
Ultrafiltration membrane can remove about 60% organic pollution, but it can't remove residual chlorine. Without pretreatment, the service life of the membrane will be shortened. Activated carbon can remove about 80% of organic pollution, but because of its nature, it will become a "hotbed" for 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, Hyde Energy, Andel Membrane, Toray Membrane, Han Shi and GE Membrane, and the better ones in China are Hainan Airlines Li Sheng, Tianjin Membrane Day, Wuhan Ou Ke and Kunshan Fangshi.
In terms of performance (strength and toughness), foreign brands are temporarily better, but domestic brands have shown a trend of catching up with each other in technology.
In terms of materials, there will be no big breakthrough in ultrafiltration membrane technology in a short time. As for commercial promotion, we don't have to worry about technology for the time being, as long as we find a suitable aperture, the membrane wire is firm and the membrane wall is easy to clean.
Structurally speaking, most manufacturers buy and assemble, and the difference will not be too big.
Let's talk about activated carbon.
Because foreign countries restrict the development of activated carbon, some domestic activated carbon has been technically equivalent to international brand activated carbon after so many years of development.
There are many kinds of activated carbon. Domestic water treatment technologies generally adopt compressed activated carbon, granular activated carbon and powdered activated carbon (the latter two are also called loose carbon).
From the material point of view: the material is divided into coal quality, coconut shell, fruit shell and so on.
From the adsorption effect, powdered activated carbon is larger than granular activated carbon and larger than compressed activated carbon (which can also play the role of PP cotton)
From the structural point of view, the difference is big!
The function of activated carbon depends on three factors: adsorption area, filtration time and PH value. Only by considering the structure of these three impact indicators is it more reasonable.
2. Negative effects of activated carbon and ultrafiltration membrane technology.
Microbial reproduction. 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 increase greatly after about 7 days. No matter the ultrafiltration membrane is washed directly or backwashed, the effect is not ideal. Besides, consumers don't bother to wash once every seven 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 the increase of microbial indicators, which will lead to the increase of nitrite concentration. The most direct performance 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.
Although the development of water purifier industry is slow and there are many problems with water purifier products, the sun will eventually rise in the east and be in full swing. Will the water purifier be the next 654.38+00 billion industry? Let's wait and see!