"It sells well in Paris, New York and Seoul, and is the choice of 15million young people around the world." When you hear this slogan of SKG, what do you think of first? Most people may think that this is an international brand from overseas, but in fact, it is a local enterprise founded in Shunde, Guangdong Province.
Wen sina science and technology Zhang Jun
Editor: Han Dapeng
Focus:
- SKG has been creating the impression of international brands to the outside world. However, in fact, this is a local enterprise that started in Shunde, Guangdong Province. In the early stage, it also regarded itself as the German SKG group, mainly selling household appliances. Later, it was transformed into a massage instrument when it encountered a bottleneck.
- Massage instruments are indeed very profitable. SKG and beirelaxed are the top2 brands in the field of massage instruments in China. Among them, beirelaxed's gross profit margin in 2021 was 56.73%, which far exceeded that of Xiaomi and even Apple Gross profit margin.
- In terms of product publicity, SKG is also suspected of exaggerating publicity. In terms of product attributes, massage apparatus does not belong to medical devices. Many users reported that scalds, increased pain, and even induced disease hospitalization.
Shunde is known as the capital of home appliances in China, bringing together a large number of well-known home appliance enterprises such as Midea and Galanz. Interestingly, SKG, founded in 2007, was first mainly engaged in household electrical appliances, and later transformed into a massage instrument enterprise.
With the spokesperson Wangyibo and the advertising bombardment in various variety shows, SKG has become popular in massage instrument categories, attracting a large number of young people to pursue and make a lot of money. According to tmall data, from 20:00 to 24:00 on May 31, SKG brand massage equipment won three first places.
But SKG is also being questioned.
In the product promotion, it emphasizes the joint research and development with medical experts, which is effective for cervical pain and other diseases. It even claims to be a medical product, which is quite a sidekick. In fact, the massage apparatus is not a professional medical instrument and cannot be used to treat related diseases.
Many users reported that after using the SKG massage instrument, they were scalded, the pain became more and more serious, and even caused hospitalization.
International brand? In fact, it is the transformation of Shunde small household appliance enterprises
Hearing the name of SKG, many people will think it is an overseas brand. Its heavy investment in marketing has deepened the impression of users.
On the outer package of the product, the key words are: "SKG massager is popular in Paris, New York and Seoul, and is the choice of 15million young people around the world"; In terms of variety show, in 2020, SKG cooperated with various variety shows such as "this is hip hop 3" and "sister riding the wind and waves", and used a large number of stars to drive the exposure to attract young people; In 2021, SKG announced that Wangyibo was the global spokesperson of SKG brand.
In fact, SKG starts from Shunde, Guangdong.
In 2007, SKG was officially established in Shunde, where many home appliance brands in China gathered. SKG's main business also began with home appliance products. "At that time, I wanted to establish a global brand, so SKG didn't have Chinese at first." SKG founder Liu Jie once said.
SKG's current operating entity is future wearable health technology Co., Ltd. at the beginning of its establishment, SKG used the names of Foshan Shikai life Electric Appliance Co., Ltd. and Foshan aishikaiqi Electric Co., Ltd. SKG's earliest target market was overseas. In order to open the overseas market, SKG also consciously or unconsciously promoted itself as the German SKG group.
However, in the years before its establishment, SKG experienced a sharp decline in the overseas market. Some products designed according to the habits of overseas users are difficult to open the overseas market, leaving a large amount of inventory. However, they have to try to open the market in China.
Fortunately, SKG has caught up with the rise of domestic e-commerce channels. It was once known as the first brand of domestic Internet appliances. Its independent categories involve electric appliances, heating appliances and beauty appliances. At the same time, ODM has developed health preserving pots, wall breaking machines, massage shawls, and even set foot in many categories such as electric toothbrushes, humidifiers, lamps and lanterns through ecological chain enterprises.
However, the good times did not last long. At that time, mobile phone manufacturers such as Xiaomi and Huawei were also vigorously expanding categories such as intelligent hardware and small household appliances. Compared with them, SKG undoubtedly had no advantage; At the same time, more and more well-known household appliance enterprises have also launched small household appliance products.
In 2017, SKG ushered in a ten-year development node, which should have been a day to celebrate, but it worried senior executives including SKG founder Liu Jie. Under the cover of giants, SKG has encountered a growth bottleneck and needs to re-examine the track.
After internal discussion, SKG locked the track in the field of beauty and health. On the one hand, people in contemporary society are facing a series of health problems and have a demand for health products; On the other hand, SKG used to follow the cost performance route in home appliances, while the health category is closer to consumption upgrading and has a product premium.
After the transformation from Internet appliances to beauty and health appliances, SKG cut down a large number of categories, and finally directly focused on the massage instrument category.
How much money do you make? Gross profit margin far exceeds that of mobile phone manufacturers
After focusing on the massage instrument category, SKG initially focused on the online channel and continuously expanded its product line.
Sina technology has seen on SKG's official website that it already has six massage instrument product lines: cervical massage, shoulder neck massage, eye massage, waist massage, head massage and leg knee massage. In addition, SKG has also set foot in the new categories of fascia gun and health monitoring watch in the past two years.
Cervical massage instrument is a strong category of SKG. According to the statistical research of Euromonitor International on the sales of cervical massage instrument in Chinese Mainland, SKG ranked first in the statistical ranking of the retail sales of cervical massage instrument in B2C channels (including online and offline retail channels) in 2021.
However, in the field of eye, head and other massage instruments, SKG is slightly less relaxed than its competitors.
According to the data of prospective industry research institute, from the perspective of online market share in 2021, SKG has a high share in cervical massager, reaching 31%, and eye massager, 12%; While beirelaxed has more advantages in the sales of head and eye massagers, accounting for 46% and 26% respectively.
Both of them are representatives of making a fortune in the field of massage instruments.
Among them, times easy has landed on the sci tech innovation board in 2021. The financial report shows that its gross profit margin in 2021 is 56.73%; In contrast, mobile phone manufacturers are much inferior. Taking Xiaomi as an example, the gross profit margin of Xiaomi mobile phones is 8.7% in 2020 and 11.9% in 2021. However, compared with massage instrument manufacturers such as beirelaxed and SKG, it is still very embarrassed.
Then compare with apple, the most profitable company in the mobile phone industry. The results of the second quarter of fiscal 2022 released recently show that the comprehensive gross profit margin is 43.7%; From iphone According to the material cost of iPhone 13 Pro published by foreign media, the gross profit margin of an iPhone 13 Pro is as high as 48%. Interestingly, this is still less than times as easy and SKG.
At the end of December 2021, the future wearable technology Co., Ltd. (SKG's operating entity) signed a listing guidance agreement with CSC securities, which means that SKG has also started a sprint for listing.
Play the edge ball? Massage instrument is not a medical device
It is worth noting that massage instrument enterprises such as SKG are also being questioned in all aspects while their products are selling well.
The first is suspected of exaggerating propaganda. On the official website, SKG introduced the technical principle of its products, and the official mainly mentioned two technologies: the secret channel technology and the constant temperature hot compress technology. In fact, the so-called secret channel technology is pulse electric technology.
At present, the massage instruments on the market can be divided into physical massage instruments and pulse electric massage instruments according to the massage methods. Physical massage instrument simulates the manipulation and effect of human massage through massage head; The pulse electric massage instrument contacts the skin through the electrode piece, and the massage effect is achieved through the electric frequency pulse.
SKG mainly takes the route of pulse electric massage instrument, and packages it as a secret channel technology.
On SKG's online sales page, it also frequently advertises that its products are jointly developed with bone injury and pain rehabilitation experts. All kinds of publicity of SKG imply that its massage instrument can cure diseases.
This can also be seen in the external statements of SKG executives. In December, 2021, when attending the public event, lushuping, vice president of SKG, said that SKG is committed to combining medical electronics and biotechnology in the field of consumer electronics and medical devices. In the future, SKG will divide its products into several categories: the first category is pain management, the second category is chronic disease monitoring, and the third category is sleep management.
On the official website, SKG also described its mission as providing smart wear and medical devices for individuals and families.
A person in the medical industry who did not want to be named pointed out to Sina technology that the massage instrument is not a medical device and has no therapeutic effect. It cannot be used for patients with cervical spondylosis and other related diseases. As far as the pulse electric massage instrument is concerned, its function is health care and relaxation. It has only health care effect, but no therapeutic effect. Therefore, do not rely too much on it, and do not treat it as a cure for all diseases.
Secondly, due to the exaggerated publicity of SKG, some users have already suffered.
Ms. Gu told sina science and technology that she bought SKG neck massage instrument in February this year and burned her neck after only using it twice. After feedback to the brand side, the business did not apologize or compensate, and has been shirking its responsibility. "The customer service said that the third gear would cause slight burns, but the manual did not specify that it would cause burns. Why should we set the third gear to cause slight burns? That's too irresponsible!"
On the black cat complaint, Sina Technology also saw many users' feedback that the more they press, the more serious the low back pain is, and even the serious condition of inducing disease hospitalization after use.
The above-mentioned medical professionals said that improper use of the pulse electric massage instrument would lead to adverse reactions such as skin allergy and tingling; In addition, some people should not use it, such as implanted devices such as cardiac pacemakers, epilepsy and other diseases, which will cause harm to users.
"For the safety problems that may be caused by the massage instrument, the supervision link is very important. But more importantly, the user should have a correct idea. Health care products can not replace treatment. Remember." He stressed.