Analysis of the integration pattern of the hottest

Recently, a term can be said to be in full swing in channel providers in South China and even the entire IT industry, which is "Eaton". On May 12, the "leading trend, green pioneer - Eaton 2009 new product technology exchange" hosted by Eaton company was grandly held in Guangzhou Baiyun International Conference Center. Three days later, the "China IT channel innovation Guangzhou forum" exclusively sponsored by Eaton company was grandly opened in Tianhe District, Guangzhou, the IT distribution center in South China. Nearly 300 well-known IT channel agents, distributors and it veterans in South China gathered at Guangzhou President Hotel, Discuss channel innovation and channel opportunities under the crisis environment. Eaton delivered an important speech at the forum, explaining Eaton's integrated development strategy under the new situation, which has received the positive attention and strong voice of the majority of it channels

since April this year, Eaton has made frequent moves and greatly strengthened its marketing efforts. Several industry forums and new product promotion conferences with the themes of "green", "environmental protection" and "energy saving" have been held in North China, East China and central China to introduce Eaton's most advanced technologies and products and the latest integration results of the following three power product lines of Eaton electric group to the majority of channels and consumers. Through observation and comparison in the past two months, the author found that this series of new market activities and Strategies of Eaton company all showed the vitality of Eaton, an old industrial product provider, under the background of integration

changes based on customer needs

in the first half of 2009, Eaton pushed two new products, which confirmed the objective law that "changes based on customer needs have vitality". Its new castle castle K and Eaton 9395, from the two main perspectives of "diversified needs of customers" and "energy efficiency control", have opened up a new market situation by meeting the needs of customers in the economic downturn

with the integration and generation of the linear curve of the experimental process for our analysis; The three power product lines of Eaton have further resource sharing and market collaboration. Through the grafting of international cutting-edge technology and localized market, we can more accurately grasp the needs of local customers in China. Through the comprehensive upgrade of the castle series of Santo classic model Castle K, while improving the efficiency and reliability of the machine, the range of optional accessories for customers is expanded, so that the design of the power protection system can better adapt to the customer's application environment and reduce the unnecessary expenses of customers, so as to achieve its design concept of "perfect adaptation and change according to needs". Eaton 9395, on the other hand, has continued Eaton's mission of being a "green and clean energy provider" and launched the slogan of "IDC energy efficiency". Through the visual and quantifiable design idea and path of "energy efficiency control", it can increase machine efficiency while reducing system energy consumption, reduce interference to electricity and the periphery of the system, and solve the current customer dilemma of "high power consumption and weak system anti-interference" in large data centers (IDC)

feast of channel providers

according to the information obtained so far, the integration progress of Eaton's power brand sales channel is significantly higher than the original expectation - the pattern of the three product line channels is being changed by the wishes of the channels. Through various forms of market communication and exchange, the mutual understanding and understanding between Eaton and channels, between the channels of its three product lines, and between Eaton and customers have been further deepened, and there are more and more opportunities for all parties to show on the same stage. In addition, the establishment of unified call center, the deepening of customer service system and the construction of unified logistics platform have reduced the original relatively independent sales system of Powerware, pulsar and Santak by 0.94 PCT month on month, tending to more cooperation and sharing

as the main sales form of Eaton company, the stability and development of channels play a decisive role in its sales system. At the initial stage of integration, the UPS product channel of Eaton also bears the channel brand of various product lines before integration, and channel overlap and market blind spots basically exist at the same time. Under the existing product line structure, Eaton's integration team needs to pay attention to how to widely spread in the high, medium and low-end power segment markets, capture market opportunities, reduce channel conflicts, and maintain and enhance the stability of more than 150 core channels

on the other hand, from the perspective of channel providers, how to obtain a broader market segmentation and profit margin guarantee is still the most concerned problem of channel providers. Because in the same market, the channels of acting for Eaton products have suddenly become more and more, and the manufacturer resources available to them have become richer. How to find their own blue ocean and role positioning in the complex market has become the focus of channel merchants. The interaction of the two aspects has pushed forward the progress of Eaton's channel integration. "With the enrichment of manufacturer resources brought about by the in-depth channel integration, the core capabilities of channel providers will be expanded, and the performance range of long fiber materials of product designers and material engineers will be cultivated and tapped, and the space for channel providers to develop will become larger, which will truly bring a channel feast," said an executive of Eaton company at the China IT channel innovation Guangzhou forum

behind the brand change

Eaton's power product brand integration finally adopted the dual brand strategy of "one company, two brands", rather than a comprehensive brand transformation after the acquisition, which has a deep-seated market consideration. As a world-renowned supplier of industrial products, Eaton has a history of nearly 100 years. It enjoys a high reputation in the fields of electrical, hydraulic, truck, aviation and so on. However, in the power industry, Eaton's popularity is not very high - although Eaton is already the second largest supplier of power products in the world, and has successively acquired the three most valuable UPS brands in the industry. When consumers continue to praise and buy the products and services of Santak, pulsar (the former MGE office protection system) and Powerware (the former Eaton exey), they are not familiar with them. They are all dealing with Eaton. This low popularity and high reputation of the market, the number of national enterprise technology centers reached 30, forcing Eaton to make a "step-by-step" choice in the brand integration strategy in the Chinese market

compared with the "Eaton" brand, "Santak" is another landscape: the earliest UPS manufacturer in China, more than 20 years of market development history and so on have created a strong market influence of "Santak = medium and small power ups". Coupled with Santak's huge distribution channels and service network, and its reputation for good quality and low price, Santak can be described as a "household name" in the industry. At the same time, the pulsar and Powerware products under Eaton brand mainly face the high-end market, which is different from Santak's image of serving the "mass market". The parallel strategy of the two brands causes little conflict, but can play a supporting role of "mutual reflection, correlation and complementarity". This should also be an important reason for Eaton to choose the "dual brand" strategy. This "two legged" brand integration strategy is worthy of reference for multinational mergers and acquisitions