Haier Central Air-conditioning Market In Sichuan Channel Management

Along with the rapid development of national economy and an improved living standard of people in our country, central air-conditioning industry, an emerging industry in national economy, has been booming since 1990s. It is especially the case during the past decade, when the real estate investment, especially mercantile occupancy investment gains its scale, and people develop a high requirement for working and living environment, thus, the demand for central air-conditioning experiences a rapid growth with an average 20% annual growth rate in the industry, sometimes even reaching 30%, and the corresponding market has a large space to be explored. Such a positive market prospect has attracted numerous domestic enterprises into the industry, and foreign brands have also increased the amount of investment to obtain a larger market share. As a result, the market competition becomes increasingly fierce.Haier central air-conditioning was established in 1996; with 14 years of fast development, it has become a famous domestic brand with 4 product groups including commercial air-conditioning, household central air-conditioning, vacuum reducer valve, and large water cooled air-conditioning,10 product collections, and over 1000 models of products. Haier has established its selling network in major cities throughout the country, and reached a 1.3 billion of annual revenue in 2009. However, along with the rising competition in the industry, a lack in sustained developing capability in Haier's marketing channel gradually manifests itself. The gradually declining occupancy rate in certain regional markets during the latest years has lead to a relative backward position in its competition with major competitors. In Sichuan market, the problem is extremely severe. The market share of Haier central air-conditioning in Sichuan in 2009 was only 3.8%, far less than that of major competitors, and the sales revenue was RMB26000000, occupying only 2% of the brand's annual figure. How to change the unfavorable situation becomes the vital problem the enterprise faces. Despite the progress Haier needs to make on aspects including products, price, and logistics, etc, the most urgent effort to make would be the perfection of the management system of its marketing channel.Based on the study on the management system of marketing channel, the paper applies related knowledge in marketing management including marketing channel, channel conflicts, and channel management to the practical cases, and identifies the problems in Haier's channel management in Sichuan market by analyzing the current situation in this industry and of the very enterprise, summarizing the major channel models in the industry, and using reference from successful cases. And the four major problems are:first, the marketing channel is still in the phase of traditional transaction; second, the interior competition within the channel is extremely fierce and thus causes numerous conflicts; third, the channel staff lack systematic standard to restrict their working models; last, manufacturers are of low proficiency, and the staff career development planning process needs perfection. Applying theories of partnership-oriented marketing channel relationship, HR management, and performance evaluation models, the paper analyzes the causes of the problems in Haier's channel management, and suggests establishing a partnership-oriented marketing channel relationship to enhance the channeling efficiency, keeping a good spacing density of distributors, perfecting the dynamic distribution management and encouragement system, and improving the overall proficiency of the sales staff of manufacturers. Also, the paper evaluates the newly-raised project and puts forward several notes. The paper analyzes the marketing channel in Haier's Sichuan market, identifies the problems in channeling management, and puts forward improvement project. The problem of marketing channel is quite general in the marketing practices of central air-conditioning. Thus, the study of the paper provides certain reference for channel management in marketing practice, and is practically significant.