domeet webmaster

The core asset of consumer goods is still the brand.

It is learnt that the hummingbird brand “Hummingbird” recently completed a series A financing of tens of millions of yuan. This round was led by Qianxian Capital. Three individual investors from the financial, real estate and marketing sectors followed suit. Previously, the Hummingbird scooter had received an angel round of financing from Challenger Capital, and a pre-A round of financing invested by Ni Zhanggen, chairman of Dream Lily Home.

The hummingbird has been reported in detail many times, starting from an upgraded version of the “wheelchair”, providing people with reduced mobility the possibility of independent living and travel. The product is currently divided into a standard model and a flagship model (Pro version), priced between 16800-22800 yuan, the flagship model uses a wheelchair motor authorized by Japan Nidec (Nidec Corporation).

On the product side, after several years of continuous testing and optimization, the stability of the product has reached the current optimal level, forming a technical and time barrier.

According to founder Li Yujie, the company will continue to advance in the following three areas in 2020:

1. After the product stability is completed, the cooperation and sales on the channel side will be promoted. At present, the sales channels of Hummingbird 2B and 2C account for about 6: 4. The B-end is mainly dealers and old-age care channels, and the C-end is located in JD.com and Modian. 2020 also plans to open up overseas markets.

2. Build brand awareness . Li Yujie said that in the long run, the company’s core asset is the brand. Around this point, the company hopes to do two things: first, positioning professionalism, which is the most professional product in the wheelchair, and consumers are willing to pay for professionalism; It emphasizes the professional and humanized products ‘changes in life, establishes the “magic” cognition, and completes the occupation of group users’ minds in the community in the form of user experience and KOC.

3. Launch more cost-effective products, foldable portable electric wheelchairs priced at thousands of yuan. This is the second-generation product of Hummingbird. The first-generation product users build professional brand recognition and serve a higher level of consumer groups. The second-generation product hopes that more people can buy it at a reasonable price. From a commercial point of view, a portable wheelchair product is entering a wider market.
   

   The pension industry is huge in scale and is a trillion-scale market. However, as a consumer-grade product, while establishing professionalism, it is also necessary to gain insight into user psychology, which means that there is more humane care in the product. In addition to traffic capacity, Hummingbird ’s products take care of the user ’s habits in design details, such as a hemispherical rocker, adjustable seat and backrest; also psychologically, the product ’s simple appearance and practicality Sex has also become a product that users are willing to take photos and share photos with.

   Here are the hummingbird reports in March 2019:

   At the same time as aging, the market is paying attention to the “silver hair economy”.
   

   From the perspective of Li Yujie, the founder of Hummingbird, the pension industry is a trillion-level market , Among them, there are hundreds of billions of yuan in nursing care. Although it is mainly manpower at present, replacing or partially replacing manpower with smart devices to make old life more convenient and dignified must also be the future development trend.

   Hummingbird ’s first product is “smart scooter” , which can be understood The upgraded version of the wheelchair is designed for people with reduced mobility, hoping to make it easier for people with reduced mobility to live and travel as independently as possible.

   At present, the product can be mass-produced. It will be launched on JD.com’s crowdfunding, Youzan, and MoDian platforms at the end of 2018, and it will start to be shipped around December 2018. Product pricing is between 16800-21800 yuan, the main feature is the ability to overcome obstacles and support the entire road conditions. At the same time, the design language is also different from the traditional wheelchair in our impression. In Li Yujie’s words, I hope to make a wheelchair that can be “photogenic” and give users a high-value dignity.

   

   The product structure of the wheelchair market is single, with high-end productsProduct gap
   

   Smart research consulting data shows , the demand for wheelchairs in China in 2015 was 2.15 million, of which electric The number of wheelchairs was 744,000, and the growth rate was much higher than that of manual wheelchairs. Based on what the author observes from e-commerce channels, the General wheelchairs are generally priced at 300-700 yuan , while electric wheelchairs are priced at 2000- 10,000 yuan; and the homogeneity of the product is serious, it is difficult to see the difference in shape and function.

   Before, electric wheelchairs were limited by price and could not completely replace manual wheelchairs; and domestic high-end product lines Insufficient output depends mainly on imports . From the perspective of several head companies in the wheelchair industry, Shanghai Hubang and other brands’ sales are mainly from manual wheelchairs below 1,000 yuan. Electric wheelchairs are still in the “category, no brand” stage; but 江苏 鱼跃 In the related financial report analysis , it is also mentioned that aging has expanded the wheelchair market, And with the consumption upgrade, mid- to high-end products such as electric wheelchairs will usher in high-speed growth after the capacity problem is resolved.

   Becoming a Chinese wheelchair “Chinese wheelchair super brand”

   Compared to other products, this “smart scooter” from Hummingbird is slightly more expensive. Li Yujie told that Hummingbird’s goal is to become China’s wheelchair super brand, so the first product is positioned as a high-end, hoping to establish a brand first. In addition, the price is also related to the product’s function and production cost.

   Li Yujie said that he hopes to continue to invest the company’s future profits in technology research and development and then make better products. Then win good reputation with good products, and then form the company’s brand, and use the brand as the company’s long-term moat.

   The purpose of “wheelchairs” is to enable people with reduced mobility to travel, but ordinary wheelchairs cannot get rid of the assistance of others, and electric wheelchairs often experience poor experience. “Before the design, we did a user survey of more than 500 people and found that the current wheelchair does not meet the consumer’s immediate travel needs,” said Li Yujie.

   • Physiological aspects. The hummingbird has 8 ergonomic designs. People with reduced mobility can sit comfortably in a wheelchair for a long time and avoid chronic injuries. For example, rockers, electric wheelchairs are often designed as columns, and hummingbirds are designed as hemispheres, which can prevent palm and finger fatigue during long-term use, and avoid the gradual loss of hand functions caused by long-term tension in hand muscles. For example, the armrest, seat, and backrest can be adjusted in height to prevent fatigue and damage.

   • In terms of capacity. Ordinary electric wheelchairs can only drive on gentle road conditions, and cannot meet consumers’ travel needs. Hummingbirds focus on “full road conditions”, including the ability to turn flexibly in a narrow space; they can cross 6cm steps vertically, and the climbing ability can reach 25%; they can directly cross a 10 cm wide trench without the need to build a ramp. In addition, this scooter can also be quickly disassembled without tools, with a charging time of 4 hours and a range of 20 km.

   • Psychological aspects. “Let the user have dignity” is one of the original intentions of Hummingbird. In addition to the simple and elegant appearance design, there are also adjustments in the user experience: the armrests on both sides can be raised to facilitate the user to get in and out of the wheelchair. 70 kg for easy support and adjustment of body posture;Wave design reduces the risk of bedsores when riding for a long time.

   • Security. Using electromagnetic braking technology, the brake is applied when stopping, and the vehicle is not slipped on the slope to ensure driving safety. The vehicle has a total of 14 safety protection designs to protect against various possible conditions for people with reduced mobility.
     

     

     Demonstration of obstacle crossing ability

     Based on the above points, Li Yujie believes that the Hummingbird ’s obstacle surmounting ability and upgrade experience constitute its most obvious product difference.

     In addition, Hummingbird already supports mobile APP intelligent control, which can monitor vehicle conditions and also drive remotely. However, if the development of the analog mobile phone market is currently only from “Big Brother” to “Nokia”, it will be further optimized in terms of intelligence.

     For Li Yujie, from the perspective of consumer demand, the wheelchair market needs four types of products: one is similar to the hummingbird intelligent scooter, which solves the most significant travel pain points and will be the mainstream category; the other is the folding wheelchair , Lightweight, foldable, and easy to carry; Third, a professional nursing wheelchair to meet some special needs; Fourth, a scooter with a shape similar to a small three-wheeled vehicle. After the first product has initially opened the market, Hummingbird will also gradually launch three other products to do a matrix layout.

     Channel expansion is also an important development direction for hummingbirds. At present, hummingbirds are paying for young children who want to give parents a better experience. However, for large items such as “wheelchairs”, consumers tend to prefer relatives and friends to recommend and buy after offline actual experience. Therefore, in addition to online mainstream e-commerce, Hummingbird will also cooperate with offline channels such as dealers to get more display opportunities.

     A bigger imagination for silver-haired economy
     

     Prospective data shows that the potential demand for smart pension equipment is 100 billion yuan Above, but the industry development is still in its infancy, and the market size in the entire pension industry accounts for only 0.8%; the serious gap between supply and demand also means that there is a lot of room for start-ups to expand.

     Li Yujie told him that wheelchairs are a difficult category in the research and development, design and production of elderly hardware equipment. Take their firstAs an example, this type of smart scooter has 207 parts, while the balance is about 50, and the average wheelchair is 20-30. This means that the supply chain is extremely difficult. There are high barriers on the product.

     This also verifies the team’s ability. Hummingbird team members have experience in multiple industries such as algorithms and hardware. In the future, in addition to wheelchairs, Li Yujie also hopes to focus on the “care” attribute and make more expansions in the entire “smart elderly care device”. There is a great demand for similar emotional care robots and hearing aids.

     Before that, Hummingbird had received several million yuan angel round financing from Challenger Capital.