What are the industrial instrumentation industry trends in China?
Instrumentation is the means and equipment for people to measure, collect, analyze and control various information in the objective world, and is the basic tool for human beings to understand the world and transform it, as well as the source and component of the information industry.
As China’s traditional industries continue to transform and upgrade, emerging industries accelerate their development and people’s living standards continue to improve, the demand for instrumentation in major projects, industrial equipment, intelligent manufacturing, life sciences and medicine, new energy, marine engineering, nuclear power, scientific and technological research, environmental governance, inspection and quarantine, and other fields will further expand, and China’s instrumentation industry will usher in new development opportunities.
As the technical level of the industry continues to improve, electronic components with high quality, small size, stable performance, and suitable cost are emerging, and various accurate and efficient multimeters, laser distance meters, air quality detectors, and other measuring devices can be produced on a large scale. According to the data released by China’s National Bureau of Statistics, the annual cumulative operating revenue of China’s instrumentation manufacturing industry in 2019 was RMB 724.260 billion; the annual total profit was RMB 70.040 billion. The market demand for China’s instrumentation manufacturing industry was strong. Affected by the new crown pneumonia epidemic, China’s manufacturing industry declined in 2020, with operating revenue of China’s instrumentation manufacturing industry standing at RMB 237.2 billion in May 2020, down 6.4% year-on-year.
In recent years, China’s instrumentation industry has been in a phase of incremental development, and the government’s “13th Five-Year Plan” clearly states that scientific instrumentation research and development and applications should be strengthened. Since 2011, the number of enterprises in China’s instrumentation manufacturing industry has been on an increasing trend, which is basically the same as the trend of revenue changes in China’s instrumentation industry. According to data from the Bureau of Statistics, the number of enterprises in China’s instrumentation manufacturing industry from January to May 2020 was 4,829, an increase of 8.64% year-on-year.
Since the “13th Five-Year Plan”, China has introduced “Made in China 2025” and other strategic deployments, providing a rare opportunity for the future development of China’s instrumentation industry. With the upgrading of the industry and the improvement of the technical level in the industry, China’s domestic instrumentation is increasingly recognized by the market.
Development trend of China’s instrument industry
1、Technology integration development
With the rapid development of sensing technology, digital technology, Internet technology, and Fieldbus technology, measurement, and testing instruments and meters using new materials, new mechanisms and new technologies have achieved high sensitivity, high adaptability, and high reliability, and are developing in the direction of embedded, miniaturization, modularization, intelligence, integration and networking. Microelectronics, micro-mechanical technology, nanotechnology, information technology, and other integrated applications in the production, the size of the instrument will become smaller; benefit from the use of the above-mentioned technologies, integrated diverse functional modules, the instrument will be more fully functional.
2、International development
On the one hand, large companies will gradually form a monopoly through mergers and acquisitions, occupy the high-end market and accelerate the expansion to the middle and low-end markets, control technical standards and patents, and lead the direction of industrial development; on the other hand, small enterprises will develop in the direction of “small, precise, specialized and strong”. Small enterprises are developing in the direction of “small, precise, specialized and strong”, pushing their products and services to the international market through their outstanding advantages in the niche market and through cross-border cooperation and sales channels.
What are the unique marketing promotion methods in China?
For an overseas brand that wants to promote success in China and gain a large number of Chinese consumers, it needs to find the right marketing methods. The common marketing channels suitable for China are as follows.
1.Baidu SEO
Establish an official website in China. Set up an official website in China and make it rank on the Baidu search engine, where customers can find the corresponding content through the internet.
After setting up the website, the website is optimized for search engines, i.e. Baidu SEO. The main content includes website optimization structure, keyword optimization ranking, etc., which is the key for organic search engine ranking. Publishing information related to the brand in Baike, Zhidao, tieba, etc. Doing a good job of Baidu search engine optimization can improve the exposure rate of the website and increase the orders.
2.Baidu Promotion bid(SEM)
At present, China’s largest search engine traffic is still dominated by Baidu, other search engines to Baidu as a template for an extension.
Baidu bidding promotion (SEM) is in accordance with the number of potential customers brought to the business to visit the billing, the corresponding no customer visits will not be billed, but also according to the different needs of the precise customization of different promotion needs, such as different regions, different time, different precision, etc., there is a function to prevent malicious click.
Baidu bidding promotion provides the most accurate content to internet users through their search keyword needs, maximizing business value for businesses. Because Baidu has perfect web analysis technology, “Chinese word splitting” technology, anti-spam web technology, and process, the ultimate goal is to achieve accurate targeting.
3. Social Media
(1) WeChat: WeChat has over 1 billion users in China and ranks first in terms of the penetration rate of Chinese netizens.
Enterprises with different industry attributes can always find their user base in WeChat. With the WeChat ecology built by Tencent over the years, enterprises can establish systematic user management channels in WeChat:
Public customer acquisition and sedimentation via WeChat official accounts;
Content marketing to cultivate potential customers;
Increase customer stickiness and guide customers to browse and place orders in mini-programs;
Quick payment through WeChat pay;
WeChat’s unique social properties allow brands or products to spread rapidly through customers’ social circles, bringing in higher quality potential customers with real personal relationships.
Therefore, WeChat is suitable to be used as the main channel of communication between enterprises and customers, for periodic personalized marketing, and can be directly converted through the official mall or mini-programs.
(2) Xiaohongshu: Xiaohongshu has accumulated a user base of 250 million, with a monthly active user base (MAU) of over 85 million; KOLs are a core resource, and the ability to “grow” products is quite impressive.
Xiaohongshu started out as a lifestyle community and has been cultivating verticals, with users sharing their experiences in overseas shopping and gradually developing into sharing their experiences in beauty, skincare, travel, home, and other areas.
In terms of gender distribution, male users account for only 13%, while female users account for the majority, 87%, and most of them are middle and high-level consumers in economically developed regions. In terms of age distribution, nearly 70% of users are under 30 years old, with about 40% of users under 24 years old and about 30% of users between 24 and 30 years old.
(3) TikTok: The number of independent users of short videos in China has now reached 508 million, accounting for 46% of the total number of Internet users in the country, which means that basically, one in every two Internet users uses short videos.
Short videos have become a new traffic favorite, and nearly half of the companies have already used videos in their brand operations, making TikTok the preferred social media marketing platform for these companies. The platform’s big data intelligent algorithm helps to accurately distribute video content and better match the people interested in the video.
Enterprises operating TikTok need to identify content verticals based on their industry and product attributes. At present, there are already a large number of competitors in food and beauty, while mother and child, automotive, education and training, medical science, and legal knowledge science all have a broad future.
Although the short video platform has a variety of communication advantages, more test enterprise content creation of brain and fun, in the industry based on the combination of seasonal events and other hot spots, triggering user resonance, in order to become a “pop” in the short video flood.
(4) Zhihu: Zhihu has been recognized by users for sharing knowledge, experience, insights, and especially topics from opinion leaders. It has unmatched weight in brand image promotion by other platforms, with 500,000 pieces of content being shared off-site every day and its content ranking high in search engines. Therefore, Zhihu is also an important social media marketing platform for companies doing SEM (search engine marketing), such as B2B companies with high customer unit costs.
4 . Exhibitions
Attending exhibitions in China is an unmissable opportunity. Some of the largest international exhibitions in China are ChinaCoat, ChinaPlas, and many more, which are attended every year.
By attending exhibitions in China you can showcase your products and services to specific customers, increase your brand awareness and meet a large number of potential customers.
How to start an industrial instrumentation business in China?
The market for industrial instrumentation in China is very large and the best way for foreign suppliers to successfully launch their business in China is to find a Chinese agent to work with.
What are the advantages of finding a Chinese agent to work with?
- At present, China’s import control is relatively strong, overseas suppliers want to carry out business directly in China is difficult, find Chinese agents easier to enter the mainland market.
- Chinese agents have their own more mature sales channels, to find the right agent can take advantage of their original sales network, the rapid spread of goods to the end market, fewer detours, but also to buy time to occupy a larger share of the market sales;
- Chinese agents are familiar with the rules of the Chinese market and mainstream marketing and promotion methods, so they can better develop their business in China.
H.J.UNKEL LIMITED is a professional Chinese technical instrument distributor, and we are looking forward to cooperating with high-tech product manufacturer in Europe or North America, contact us if you want to start your business in China.