The cases of ecosystem brands in the Internet of Things era

At the end of May 2018, Mr. Cao, who lived in Beijing, received a package of fresh Jinxiang garlic. This garlic was ordered by Mr. Cao in February through Haier’s agricultural IOT platform COSMOPlat. Unlike ordinary garlic, Mr. Cao could learn about the production origin of the garlic when scanning the two-dimensional code on the package with a cell phones: the product comes from the garlic field of Liu Sihai, a villager in Yushan Town, Jinxiang County, and he can also see the garlic’s full life cycle from being a seed to being delivered. And it is such "transparent garlic" that allows the users to interact with the garlic farmers and even the garlic field as well in a zero-distance way.

Mr. Cao said, “This kind of Jinxiang garlic with its whole process of growth and logistics distribution totally transparent is absolutely healthy and safe!” According to garlic farmer Liu Sihai, if the garlic he grows this year is recognized by users like Mr. Cao, the users will continue ordering garlic from him next year. Business is no longer a single hit for Liu. This transparent process enables him to have more fixed users who can keep interacting with him over his garlic products which have a promising future.

"The world’s eyes are on Chinese garlic and China’s eyes on Jinxiang garlic.” Jinxiang garlic is not only big but also tastes good. Moreover, it is also rich in the trace element selenium. How was the “transparent garlic” produced in Jinxiang? When the 6.67 hectares of garlic just began to grow in Yushan Town in Jinxiang County in October 2017, Haier’s COSMOPlat stepped in and applied the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, big data and other technologies in the process. Haier’s COSMOPlat intelligent agricultural data visualization system could monitor the garlic production process in a comprehensive way including the environmental temperature, humidity, wind force, wind direction, sun intensity, soil temperature and humidity, precipitation and other indicators. Through comparison and analysis of various data and historical data collected by intelligent farmland, the harvest time of garlic can be predicted accurately, which provides a reference for local farmers and enterprises to evalsuate market expectations. According to the analysis of soil composition, visible evidence can be provided for scientific growing to ensure excellent quality and high yield for garlic. Liu Sihai said that after joining Haier’s COSMOPlat he grew 0.2 hectare of garlic this year, with an overall increase of over 450 kilograms. Although the garlic market is poor this year, and the price has dropped to the lowest level in recent years, Liu’s garlic was all ordered on the third day after being harvested, and he earned over 1,000 yuan more than those garlic farmers from neighboring towns.

It is understood that in addition to Jinxiang garlic, now on the agricultural Internet of Things platform COSMOPlat， there are more than 60 categories including millet, black beans, red beans, condiments and the like, which are landmarks of agricultural specialties. With the transparency of the whole process from the field to the users’ tables, and taking advantage of the differences of whole-circle, whole-process and entire-ecology, industrial internet enables agriculture to reconstruct agricultural value chains and to establish an ecosystem platform for all parties concerned.  This is the essence that Haier COSMOPlat enables agriculture.

About Haier COSMOPlat

What’s more, Haier has promoted 7 major modules of COSMOPlat to the society, interaction, design, procurement, logistics, service, etc. included. And it has replicated the modules in 12 industries such as building ceramics, home furnishing, agriculture, clothing and so on, in 11 regions including Shanghai, Guangzhou and Tianjin. According to statistics , the trading volume on COSMOPlat in 2017 is 313.3 billion , and the volume of customized order reaches 41.16 million , which has become the world ' s largest mass customization solution platform .

As an industrial internet platform focusing on   manufacturing, why COSMOPlat mode can be successfully replicated in so many fields? The main reason lies in Haier's first move dedicated to building ecosystem brands in the Internet of Things era, and it is for the first time that Haier has put forward the "brand creation" method in the Internet of Things era in the world. Behind the construction of "ecosystem brand", Haier transfers the competition between brands to the competition of ecosystem construction. In Haier's view, user requirements in the Internet of Things era are more personalized, and all digital technologies shall serve users' personalized experience. COSMOPlat is the result of Haier's transformation from mass manufacturing to mass customization.

About Haier ecosystem brand

In mode of the ecosystem brand, the interaction with the user is not price trading but value interaction, and this interaction is iterative and upgrading. For the users, interaction is different from transaction, and interaction is a kind of "warm exchange", fully understanding and updating the user's demand, continuously providing individualized products and services for users. Through Haier COSMOPlat, garlic farmers see the users, and the users can also be accessible to the garlic farmers in the whole process to achieve interaction.

In the future, the first-class enterprises must realize the necessity of transformation from the catch-up of product brand to the leading of ecosystem brand. Ecosystem brand proposed by Haier has no doubt pointed out the direction of brand building in the Internet of Things era for enterprises of China. Through the ecosystem brand leading, Haier will enable more industries in the future, and continue to be the founder of a better life.