Domestic lighting industry needs to pay attention to "design is king"

尴尬Present state of high-end show to guard against “piracy division”

Needless to say, at present, there are more and more individual lighting companies that have been designed as kings like Zhongshan and Ligao. However, the industry's chronic illnesses - the phenomenon of simple imitators and riches still exist.

Enterprises with small scales secretly imitate the products of their domestic counterparts; if the scale of the enterprises is slightly larger, they may extend their sense of touch to foreign counterparts, so that high-end exhibitions such as the Milan Lighting Fair maintain a high degree of vigilance and protection against exhibitors. These products produced by plagiarism are the same as those of a mother's child. Both illegitimate children and nephews are carved out by a model. Natural appearance is difficult to distinguish from each other.

“At present, the current status of the domestic lighting industry is that large companies plagiarize foreign creatives, medium-sized enterprises copy the ideas of large companies, and small businesses directly bring back the hot lighting on the market back to the factory for proofing.” According to industry insiders in an interview with relevant media, due to large-scale Lighting companies have start-up capital, they can go to European exhibitions to observe new lighting products, and after the completion of the exhibition, they will transform the ideas and appearance of those new lighting products into their own new products. Because medium-sized lighting companies do not have enough funds, they directly copy the new products of large enterprises. Small-scale lighting companies are even more direct and see which lighting products are sought after by the market. They can directly buy back proofing products and change a little appearance to produce.

More lighting industry designers said that when they first worked, they also wanted to design several products that belonged to their own hearts and minds, but their independently designed products were rarely seen by the boss. When the boss brought back some lighting samples from the outside and asked himself to make a second creation, the boss felt that he had done a good job of modifying it, so he still produced and sold well. Over time, the designer eventually became a pirate.

However, with the increasing protection of intellectual property rights in foreign exhibitions, and the vigilance and prevention of pirates at certain exhibitions, for example, some exhibition organizers resorted to on-site legal counsel to resolve infringement disputes, etc. Exhibitors suspected of infringement will take evidence of infringement, and if they do infringe, they will immediately be expelled; for example, for some exhibitions that are prone to exhibit infringement, many organizers have taken photographs and sponsored the exhibition site without permission. The party has the right to confiscate and destroy on-site film negatives and digital materials and other measures to prevent infringement. The introduction of these measures has made many companies living on imitation less and less viable.

"After maintaining a period of rapid growth, the lighting industry is lagging behind in design and lacks independent intellectual property rights. The space for corporate profits is getting smaller and smaller and the competitiveness is declining. It is heartening." Zhang Huiming, Zhongshan Vocational and Technical College, last March The ancient town was stationed with the identity of a special commissioner of science and technology and the cooperation between the township school and the enterprise, and it investigated the development of the lighting industry in Zhongshan. In an interview with the media, he said that as early as 2004, Guzhen had registered the “Guzhen Lighting” as a collective trademark. However, up to today, the ancient town has not yet formed a real regional brand, and most of the export lamps are OEM.

Cruel reality original market acceptance rate is less than 20%

Since the advantages of original products are gradually emerging, and the simple imitative approach has gone further and narrower, why is the lighting company that really pursues the concept of "Design as King" still rare?

"If a lighting company adopts original production of new products, it must undergo at least five stages of market research, development and design, pre-sales, investigation, and mass production." Huang Yongwu, head of Zuoyi Lighting, who is engaged in lighting design, previously accepted In an interview, the media said that although the country has vigorously promoted independent innovation in recent years, due to the late development of the domestic lighting industry as a whole, the industry as a whole has not formed an atmosphere to produce original products. "What's more, if the market does not respond well, manufacturers will not mass-produce the designer's original lighting fixtures, so the amount of time and money originally spent on R&D will be in vain. This is currently unacceptable for the domestic lighting industry."

Huang Yongwu also cited his example: He used to invest 3 million yuan in 18 months to create a lighting company, launched more than 500 lighting products, more than half of the original. However, through comparison, he found that the original product's price/performance ratio is far inferior to that of pirated products, and the profit created is far lower. "However, original products also have their own advantages, that is, they can prop up the company's brand. If a company wants to develop in the long term, it must take the brand's road, and the original is an inevitable choice."

When reporters interviewed Chen Shaojun, general manager of Guangyang Electric recently, his remarks also revealed why most companies are still reluctant to do original work while relying on simple mimicry of margins and difficulties. Gwangyang Electric started to develop LED lights in the laboratory in 2006. However, the first- and second-generation products developed were not satisfactory. Chen Shao-fan did not finally bring these products to the market until the third-generation products came out. After that, that is, in the second half of last year, the company's LED lights were listed on a large scale, and production quickly accounted for 20% of the company's total output. The company has a research and development cycle of 5 years from the first generation of LED lamps to the third generation of mature LED lamps. “In the process, there is still such a market risk, that is, whether our R&D direction is in line with the development direction of the entire industry. Fortunately, we have bet against it. LED has become a new star in the lighting industry, and it has broad prospects for future development.” said Chen Shaojun. .

The words of Zhang Zhiming, the head of Li Gao Industrial, are even more frustrating. Although the company is known for its design, the products designed by the company's designers are only accepted by foreign customers by 10% to 20%. In many cases, designers' efforts are useless. Last year, Ligao designed more than 150 products, and there will be more than 100 models in succession this year, but it is really able to go to the market, and the product models accepted by the market are only one-two.