How Can Innovative Industry Products Break Through? An Analysis of Junlong Brand's Breakthrough Case

After in-depth research into polyurea materials and the waterproofing industry, we have reached six core conclusions regarding the development of this novel material:

First: At its core, the building materials industry is a traditional sector where leading enterprises hold structural advantages in distribution channels, procurement relationships, product offerings, capital, advertising, and organizational management. Within the waterproofing materials segment, the brand landscape for bulk materials (roll goods) remains largely stable.

This stable landscape is difficult to disrupt through tactical maneuvers and exhibits oligopolistic effects. Leading companies capture the lion's share of the market, securing large-scale orders, while small and medium-sized enterprises are left with fragmented niche markets.

However, small businesses following large players in these residual markets struggle to gain traction. They must forge their own development paths, pursuing long-term strategies to achieve success over time.

Second: Rethink the essence of business. Junlong's engineering operations fundamentally revolve around relationship-based networks. The waterproofing materials industry chain is also heavily relationship-dependent—a core value point in construction. Yet relying solely on relationship maintenance to secure orders is exhausting and fails to reduce marginal costs. We must shift focus to other areas to lighten the burden on relationships, including brand building, product innovation, and technological advancement.

Third: Whether in materials or construction, major business transactions operate within a B2B framework centered on bidding procurement models and relationship management. Building competitive advantages around bidding processes is crucial to the business chain. Junlong must establish stable and standardized operations, with this area being a key area for future improvement.

Fourth: Assessing Junlong's resource endowment reveals it lacks strong competitive advantages. The brand should concentrate all resources on decisive battles, avoiding direct confrontation with established players in the business arena. Instead, focus on niche markets and long-term strategic positioning.

Fifth: Polyurea is a novel product in the waterproofing materials industry, yet its niche market size remains its primary challenge. Operating within a relationship-heavy and fragmented sector, technological adoption and market penetration progress slowly. While this product aligns with industry trends, Junlong must exercise strategic patience, preemptively planning its positioning. As market awareness grows, Junlong can gradually emerge as the leader in this specialized category.

Sixth: Junlong's engineering business is growing steadily, but its core challenge lies in outstanding payments. Pursuing larger projects intensifies capital pressure, while the inherent volatility and unpredictability of engineering work create developmental bottlenecks. While actively expanding into materials through polyurea products, the niche nature of polyurea and the absence of a proven business model for materials operations have stalled its growth, creating a predicament that must be resolved.

After analyzing core metrics to identify trends and make business judgments, it's time to adopt a bird's-eye view to discern the company's breakthrough path. Which route is viable? Which can kickstart the business and resolve the current operational impasse? This is the core of business thinking.

Multiple paths often emerge at this stage. However, we must select the ultimate breakthrough strategy based on trend analysis, corporate capabilities, product offerings, and competitive landscape.

Junlong's specific approach is a key focus of our consulting services and is not disclosed externally.

Once the path is confirmed, strategy and execution naturally align and become clear.

Below is an end-to-end solution from top-level strategy to implementation. (Core content withheld; only publicly shareable sections displayed)

First is Junlong's strategic positioning. What is strategic positioning? It describes the business and direction of a company's development—what the company does now and what it will do in the future. It charts a course for the long term (at least five years) with growth potential, enabling the company to capture market share using its own resources.

After thorough research, Taozhi decided to reposition the company. Its development requires a clear direction and a defined business compass.

Our prior research and analysis revealed that China's new construction floor area and investment amounts have been slowing annually, while the existing building stock market is steadily growing.

This existing market will give rise to new supermarkets. Comparing Junlong's core business with this market and trend, the direction is crystal clear: building renovation services.

Through data validation during the research and analysis phase, the decision was made to anchor the business in the building renovation market. Junlong's strategic positioning is now defined as: a comprehensive building renovation service provider.

Defining Business and Product Portfolio:

After anchoring in the renovation market, Junlong must adjust its current business and product offerings. The focus of both major business segments will gradually shift toward renovation, ultimately capturing market share and establishing a strong position as the renovation market experiences rapid growth.

For both materials and construction operations, product emphasis is required. Product lines must be refined to form a portfolio that supports and covers the positioning.

Defining the Guiding Philosophy for Corporate Development:

What constitutes a guiding philosophy for corporate development? It encompasses mission, vision, and values—core components of corporate strategy.

While terminology varies across organizations, this is often referred to as the “upper three tiers” of corporate strategy. Essentially, it unifies internal thinking by aligning corporate values, consensus, and ideology. Only through unified understanding can unified action follow.

Mission: The company's noble pursuit, ingrained in its very essence—a goal pursued throughout its entire lifecycle.

Vision: The destination a company aims to reach. Without knowing where to go, arrival is impossible. Thus, we define the company's developmental position.

Values: The company's recognition of value, reflecting the shared ethical standards of its leaders and employees, and serving as its fundamental value baseline.

We assisted Junlong in defining its mission, vision, and values, facilitating internal and external thought leadership.

The corporate top-level design mentioned above represents a bird's-eye view, while execution strategies constitute the middle layer. At its current stage of development, Junlong most critically lacks this middle layer—specifically, a channel model to break free from the business dilemma of disorderly experimentation.

Over the past two years, Junlong has experimented with traffic-driven sales, personal relationship-based sales, project-based sales, and more, yet failed to identify a high-volume approach for scaling its business.

After visiting and researching major waterproofing material brands and channel rules in the industry, we proposed a unique channel model for Junlong. This model requires strong sales force support. It has already been successfully implemented at two test sites, with the third and fourth sites currently undergoing testing. Our target is to reach eight test sites by 2021. Once these eight sites are operational, normal operations can commence next year, clarifying the situation and putting development on the right track for gradual business expansion. (This section contains core proprietary information and is therefore not publicly disclosed.)

What should the product do at this stage? Many companies tend to relentlessly promote how great their product is, emphasizing its quality. However, during this early phase, product quality claims can easily be confused with those of existing products, as everyone makes similar promises.

Traditional leak-sealing materials like foaming agents emphasize superior performance exceeding national standards, ease of use, low labor costs, and permanent leak resolution.

If polyurea were marketed similarly during its launch phase, effectiveness would be minimal. Customers would perceive polyurea as just another legacy product, obscuring its core differentiators.

So what should be done?

New technology + high cost + excellent results = premium products designed for high-end customers.

Therefore, position the product directly as premium, targeting high-value customers who are price-insensitive (industrial construction clients, private enterprises, etc.).

After establishing the corporate top-level design and defining the intermediate execution strategy, what are the next concrete actions?

What specific actions should the company take next?

We have mapped out six key actions for Junlong, to be implemented and completed within one year.

This article focuses on showcasing the three actions that have already been implemented.

The shield symbol, while a powerful emblem, has become an industry-wide generic graphic. Every waterproofing material company prints a shield on their packaging, making it impossible to claim as proprietary. Therefore, an upgrade is essential.

Now consider the brand name “Junlong.” These two characters lack clear semantic direction, making it a suboptimal brand name by modern standards—a common trait among early Chinese enterprises.

The name itself faces communication limitations. This calls for a memorable graphic symbol to help build brand equity, facilitating dissemination and recall.

However, lettermark design must be strategic—it cannot be created haphazardly. Junlong's logo needs to differentiate between new and old materials while highlighting new technologies, establishing visual distinction from the outset.

We recommend that Junlong take the lead in establishing a polyurea materials association during this phase of rapid product growth. Simultaneously, Junlong should collaborate with other polyurea brands to host the first industry category conference, securing strategic control over industry communication channels.

The conference would attract polyurea peers, observers of new technologies, companies with legacy products in the sector, potential clients, government agencies, and materials science researchers...

Given the niche nature of the category, leveraging collective momentum is essential to promote this product.

This constitutes a strategic marketing initiative.