The brand transformation journey of a smart home appliance ODM/OEM manufacturer
Located in Shunde — China's home appliance manufacturing hub — this company provides smart small home appliance ODM/OEM services for well-known domestic and international brands, with annual revenue of RMB 580 million and 1,200 employees. As OEM margins declined year after year (from 12% to 5%), management decided to develop their own brand — but they had zero experience in brand operations and intelligent marketing.
Raw materials up, labor up, customers squeezing prices. OEM gross margins slid from 12% to 5% — "no revenue without orders, no profit with orders."
Wanted to launch an own brand but had no concept of how — didn't know what products to make, who to sell to, or how to sell.
Chaotic processes from order to shipment, data scattered across departments, decisions based on "the boss's gut feeling."
Traditional offline distributor model was stagnating. Online channels were virtually non-existent — no e-commerce capability, no livestreaming know-how.
Data-driven market insights determined a "high aesthetics + value-for-money" youthful brand positioning. E-commerce data + social media trend analysis precisely identified air fryers and blenders as the initial product lines.
Built from scratch: brand website, Tmall/JD flagship stores, Douyin brand channel, Xiaohongshu content matrix. Unified brand visuals and content tone, establishing a complete "exposure → interest → purchase → repurchase" chain.
Built a data middle platform integrating ERP, e-commerce, and CRM systems for full-process intelligence from order to delivery. Real-time data dashboards gave management instant visibility into business performance.
Established a private domain operations system: WeCom communities + membership system + automated marketing for user lifecycle management and precision repurchase targeting.
"OEM margins were getting thinner and thinner, and we wanted to build our own brand but had no idea where to start. DAKAW helped us map out an 'intelligent first, then branded' roadmap — using data to drive product selection, using content to build brand awareness. In under a year, own-brand revenue share went from 0 to 22%, and the gross margin on our own brand is over 5x that of OEM. This was the right path."
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