Why Functional Textile Promotion Is Hard

The sleep days just past have once again exposed the sleep problems of the Chinese people and reminded people of the importance of healthy sleep. With the acceleration of the pace of life and the increase in work pressure, the quality of sleep among the Chinese has generally declined, and various problems have emerged: about 200 million people suffer from snoring, nearly 300 million suffer from insomnia, and 50 million suffer from apnea during sleep. . Therefore, bedding which carries various functions such as auxiliary sleep, improvement of functions, etc., is increasingly attracting the attention and favor of consumers. So, how much space does the functional home textiles industry have?

Consumer groups involved three generations of young people

According to information from the Chinese gift industry, the total value of the gift market in China in 2006 was 180 billion yuan. By 2008, this figure had exceeded 230 billion yuan. As a functional home textile for technological protection and ecological health care, it is entirely possible to share its own space in such a market space. At present, functional home textile products have formed a good market response.

If only some data of the gift industry can not explain the problem, then a specific analysis of target consumer groups of functional home textile products can provide a more in-depth understanding of the functional home textile market.

The elderly is one of the target consumer groups of functional home textile products. Many functions such as assisting sleep and adjusting body functions are the demand points of this group. With the development of society, many old people's consumption concepts have also changed. They no longer blindly pay for it, but instead they are willing to invest in themselves. This has given birth to the so-called "silver-haired economy." According to statistics from the China Aging Committee, "silver hair" groups over the age of 60 are predicted to have a big market cake with a spending power of 600 billion yuan.

The 35 to 60-year-old main social groups account for about 33% of the total population. They are responsible for the family and society. They have high work pressure, less exercise time, and less rest time. They are very likely to be in a “sub-healthy” state. How to sleep better to maintain the full strength and energy? This is the most troublesome problem for middle-aged people. In recent years, health care consumption such as health clubs, yoga halls, and foot spas have become the highlights of life, reflecting the society’s concern for health issues. As one of the main consumer groups of home textile products, middle-aged people have begun to turn their attention to functional home textiles.

The 20-35-year-old group generally has a good education background, has a high degree of acceptance of new things, is willing to try products with technological concepts, and is willing to invest a lot of money in improving their lives and physical health. They are functional bedding products. One of the important potential customer groups.

Of course, for young people and children, healthy functional home textiles are more important. In addition, they are the focus of attention of each family, the hope of society, and creating a better sleep atmosphere for parents. Parents are at no cost.

Functional home textiles are famous

However, compared to functional products in the fashion industry, the home textile industry is a little scary: many home textile companies are very optimistic about the development of functional products, but in the mall, stores and other main bedding sales channels Functional bedding is rare.

Just last winter, a service person who had served two domestic famous brands and had more than three years of experience in home textile shopping guides, also stated that he only knew functional bedding but never saw it. Also do not understand the substance. Shopping guides are the last service level for products in the consumer market. If you even buy guides, you will rarely hear them. How do functional products pass to consumers? For the entire functional bedding market, the proportion of functional products is still small.

So why are we all optimistic, but the market performance is far less than expected? What are the key factors? What are the countermeasures?

First of all, functional textiles are born out of the functional health industry, and because speculation, exaggeration, and even real-life phenomena occur from time to time, consumers have a certain level of distrust or even exclusion in the entire functional health care industry. When the large functional health care industry is trapped in the harsh environment, the small health-care functional textiles are also implicated. Moreover, the industry standards and testing basis for the entire functional textiles lag behind, which contributes to the extent of over-promotion. It also reduces consumer trust. Fortunately, in recent years, the adjustment and self-discipline of the entire functional health care industry have been standardized and improved step by step, and the testing standards and industry specifications for functional textiles are also being vigorously carried out.

Secondly, the functional home textiles industry has its own problems: from capsules, fibers, yarns, grey cloths, printing and dyeing, fabrics to finished products, lack of communication and in-depth cooperation between the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain. Push their own brands, engage in brand licensing, and issue tags to the downstream, and they are also fighting each other for publicity and promotion. This objectively leads to confusion among consumers and it is very unfavorable for the cultivation of consumer markets for functional home textile products. A coordinated and orderly environment is crucial to the development of an industry. Only by doing well in their own expertise and working upstream and downstream to jointly cultivate functional bedding consumer groups can they truly become bigger and stronger industries.

Again, channel differences are an important reason why functional bedding is not as functional as functional clothing. The clothing brand is backed by gold commercial areas all over the country. With the terminal strategy of the apparel industry, many brands have thousands of terminals and the network is spread all over the country. It is very easy to promote functional apparel products; Thousands of shops have only a few leading brands, most of them are regional brands. Since there is no basis for channels, functional bedding products are difficult to sell to the national market. Therefore, the promotion of functional bedding also requires a platform that can radiate across the country and radiate domestic mainstream brands.

Functional fiber research and development to deepen

The research and development of many functional fibers ended with the conclusion that the fiber could be mass produced. This is actually not enough. There is still a long way to go from functional fibers to functional bedding. Verified previous research results and prompted research from the laboratory to practical application. The field of bedding products has its own particularities. Functional products need more sophisticated technology research and development. Such as Tencel fabric bedding products, in the initial stage of the promotion of fabrics face a lot of difficulties and pressure, and through the cooperation of upstream and downstream research and development, and ultimately promote the Tencel bed products to the consumer market.

Another example is that Golden Sun's "E Heart Sleeping" functional fabric brand has been researched and launched after a long-term and thorough examination of the market and passed through with almost all brand customers of Golden Sun. (The author is the general manager of Jiangsu Golden Sun Textile Technology Co., Ltd.)