Why do we want to talk about “How to create a brand”?
As we all know, China is the world’s most significant manufacturing power. This country has abundant supplier resources.
It is not difficult to create a stone brand with China’s abundant manufacturing resources.
Let’s share with you how to create a brand in the stone industry:
It can do in the following eight steps:
1. HOW TO CREATE A BRAND: SELECT THE STONE PRODUCTS YOU WANT TO BUY AND SELL
Stone is a vast industry. In this industry, there are marble, granite, travertine, onyx, sandstone, slate, mosaic, tombstone, carving, garden landscape stone, engineered marble, quartz surface, solid surface, crystallized glass panel, artificial onyx, terrazzo, and so on.
No matter if you just entered the stone industry, I suggest that you focus on one category in the beginning; For example, only marble; or only quartz surfaces.
Why? Because:
1.1 There are a lot of colors for marble. It has many items from many countries worldwide, such as Carrara and Calacatta in Italy; Crema Marfil in Spain; Ottoman Beige marble in Turkey; Chinese white marble; etc.
Similarly, granite, travertine, artificial stone, etc., are the same. Each stone variety has a lot of stone colors;
1.2 Communicate with your potential customers to see what materials they need, and you can meet their needs;
It is essential, in any business we do, must keep up with the market demand.
1.3 To engage in the stone business, you need to rent a warehouse. On the one hand, the more stone designs and stocks, the more capital is occupied; on the other hand, a larger warehouse area is required.
We need to start small and hope to grow fast.
1.4 Different stone types have different target customer groups. For example, the target customer group of garden landscape stones is in outdoor decoration; the quartz stone customer is mainly in the kitchen and bathroom industry.
Therefore, you have to choose the main stone variety based on your customer base from the beginning.
Next, I will use quartz stone as an example to share with you:
2. HOW TO CREATE A BRAND: SUPPLIERS SELECTION
Find and select three stone suppliers.
If you have chosen the primary stone type; such as artificial quartz stone, then you can find the right quartz stone supplier through the following ways:
2.1 Stone Fair;
If your country has a large-scale stone exhibition and quartz stone suppliers from all over the world to participate in the show, you can go directly to the exhibition site to communicate face-to-face and compare at the site.
The following types of exhibitors generally come to the stone exhibition:
2.1.1 High-end quartz stone manufacturers from all over the world:
They want to promote their brand; this type of manufacturer is positioned high-end and expensive. If you want them to produce for you with your brand, they will ask for a large minimum order quantity. And they’ll never tell you how to create a brand that will belong to you.
2.1.2 Export companies from China:
They want to export quartz products made in China;
This type of company can be your right partner for purchasing quartz stones from China.
They do not have factories, but they are familiar with quartz stone manufacturers in China.
They also know each factory’s advantages and disadvantages. They know where to source beautiful pure white quartz slabs and source the right quartz countertops with competitive prices and stable quality.
At the same time, they can help you solve the loading issues, trailers, and customs clearance from the factory to the Chinese terminal;
They can also help you solve the logistics issues from the Chinese terminal to your port or even your warehouse.
They can save you a lot of tedious operation matters.
At the same time, after you have cooperated with export companies for several years:
If your payment is always timely and the purchased quantity is stable, you can apply for credit support with these export companies when you want to expand the business scale. (credit support is beneficial at a critical time.)
The prices quoted from export companies will be a bit higher than the prices quoted by quartz stone manufacturers. After all, they also need operating costs, and they also need to be profitable.
2.1.3 Quartz stone factories from China:
They want to bypass export companies; look for foreign buyers by themselves;
These factories generally only promote the colors available in their factories; Colors will have some limitations.
Moreover, such factories’ business representatives generally cannot provide outstanding services (compared to export companies). Their advantage is that you get the first-hand supply directly, and the price is advantageous.
2.2 Google
You can search through Google, visit potential suppliers’ websites, email them, or call for inquiries. Ask them to send you price lists, and catalogs, or arrange express stone samples for you to test.
Because there is no face-to-face communication, you don’t know the company you are talking to, whether they are a factory or an export company. At the same time, you never know if you will encounter a fraud company.
A sense of trust.
If you can arrange a business trip to China and communicate with them face-to-face, you can generally eliminate the worry and doubt in your heart.
Regardless of the supplier information found through the stone exhibition or Google search, you may encounter hundreds of potential suppliers to contact you.
In the end, you only need to keep THREE; they become spare tires for each other, and one of them can become your primary supplier.
On the one hand, three suppliers are interacting with you, and you can also understand the price level of your products relatively clearly.
3. HOW TO CREATE A BRAND: STONE COLOR SELECTION
Among the stone colors provided by these three stone suppliers, you can choose the products which they are good at and integrate them;
A quartz stone brand can be composed of the following series:
3.1 Mirror & Glass Series
The items of this series are cheap, but the profit is not high (because your local competitors will not sell too high); but for products with low prices, there will always be many consumers who like to buy them;
3.2 Solid color series
This series of quartz stones, such as pure white, pure beige, pure gray, and pure black, are very classic; the price is a little higher than Mirror & Glass series quartz stone; when it decorates, it is easy to match with flooring and cabinets.
3.3 Marble texture series
3.4 Calacatta series
Marble texture series and Calacatta series are top-rated new color series in the market in recent years; these two series are mainly imitating natural marble; In the stone world, artificial stone likes imitating natural stone the most beautiful.
These two series can bring you better profits than the Mirror&Glass series and Solid color series.
4. HOW TO CREATE A BRAND: LOGO
Design your logo; make the brand website;
You can find a freelancer on upwork.com or Fiverr.com to help you design a good logo;
Similarly, you can also find a website designer to help you make a website. The prices are not high.
5. HOW TO CREATE A BRAND: PROMOTIONAL MATERIALS
Select the promotional material suppliers needed for brand promotion;
Promotional materials, including catalog, sample books, sample display racks; slab labels; sample labels; T-shirts; caps, etc.
In the beginning, if your budget is limited, you can only make sample kits, display racks, sample labels, and slab labels.
5.1 Sample Books
In the beginning, you have to decide how many items to sell; the minimum can be eight items.
The sample book can be 2-fold; with 4 items per page.
It can also be 16 items, 8 items per page.
The more items you choose, the larger the number of slabs you need to stock.
In general, the minimum order volume of sample books in China is 300pieces. The prices made in China are not high.
5.2 Labels: Slab labels and sample labels are cheap and straightforward.
5.3 Display Racks
Quartz sample display rack can significantly enhance your brand height; it can give consumers a visual impact.
Generally, in the kitchen showroom, and stone exhibition hall, you need to arrange a set of quartz sample display racks.
The display racks’ design styles are also various, and the MOQ is generally from 100 to 300 sets (depending on the complexity of the display racks).
6. HOW TO CREATE A BRAND: PAYMENT TERMS
Arrange deposits and trial orders;
In general, quartz suppliers in China, whether they are factories or export companies, generally accept payment terms in this way:
30% deposit, the balance is paid before the container arrives in your port.
For every order, after all the goods are ready, you can let your supplier notify you to come to China and do the inspection yourself.
7. HOW TO CREATE A BRAND: INSPECTION
After inspection, packing.
After the quality inspection, and if everything goes well, you can happily return to your country. Before the container arrives in the port, you can let the supplier send a copy of the bill of lading to you by email. And then you can pay the balance of the invoice.
8. HOW TO CREATE A BRAND: FIND A DISTRIBUTOR
With your brand, you can find distributors in your own country. Of course, if everything goes well, you can even find distributors in neighboring countries and let them help you distribute. The business is getting bigger and bigger; this will be your family business in the future, which can be inherited by your son and grandson, just like the Rothschild family.