Laboratory of Sustainable Materials Design

Marketing strategies for the forest certified wood flooring in China:
examining the manufactures’ and developers’ perception gap
中国における森林認証木質床材の市場戦略: 床材生産業者とデベロッパーの意識の違い(Lab. of Sustainable Material Design) ○Qin TAN, Kohei IMAMURA, Kenji NAGASAKA, Masafumi INOUE① Overview of the wood flooring industry in China

 Major housing developers Development of wood flooring (2005-2017)
PeriodGrowth rate

ReasonBefore 2010

High (10%~)High growth of real estatemarket

2011-2015

Low (-5%~5%)

Housing saturation

2016~

Comparatively high Implement of full(5%~)
decoration housing policy
across the country.

Introduction ②Wood flooring manufacture and housing developers in China• the top10 companies took over 25% of market
shares in 2018.
• Sold areas of full decoration house was 14% in
the whole house sold by the top10 developers.

 Major wood flooring manufacture• The development of housing market offers a high potential
demand for flooring products.

大亚圣象

Turnover of2018(Billion yuan)
Floor revenue A change in flooring market: housing developer playa major role in the consumption

德尔未来 宜华生活 兔宝宝

7.3

1.8

7.4

菲林格尔 大自然
4.30.8升达林业
2.9

5.0

1.0

2.4

Full decoration housing
Housingdeveloper

Manufacture

https://images.app.goo.gl/ksVb
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https://images.app.goo.gl/jpgXotmmrm
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Wholesaler,retailer, etc.

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End-userhttps://images.app.goo.gl/KuVNfHyjVR
KdmLf49• With an expand of full decoration
housing, developers are becoming
major purchasers of flooring.

1) Examine Chinese wood flooring manufactures’ perceived importance and challenges of forest
certification adoption.
2) Evaluate Chinese housing developers’ perceptions of benefits and barriers on the purchase offorest certified wood flooring.
3) Try to apply strategies to expand certified flooring in the full decoration housing market,
according to the findings on the perception gap between manufacturers and developers.

 Profiles of 10 survey companies (manufacture)
Questionnaire designPart 1 Basic information of company
Part 2 Forest certified wood flooring
Part 3 Motivations for forest certified
wood flooring
Part 4 Barriers for forest certified woodflooringMail survey (Oct.2019--Jan.2020)
Data analysis:• Cronbach’s alpha was adopted toestimate the reliability of theperception scales.
• Mann-Whitney u-test was used to
examine the significant difference on
the perceptions between developers
and manufacturers.

 Profiles of 17 survey companies (developer)

Turnover Percentage
Top 3 exported Top 3 origins
Respondent's No. ofin 2018 of revenue
countries (% of of wood forMain products
Observation
Location
employees (million fromposition
exports)
flooring (%)RMB) exports
Europe (60%)，
SalesEurope (70%)
Wood flooring,
Manufacturer A Jilin
301-1000 Over 4 90%
Russia (30%)，
wooden furniture
manager，USA (20%)
China (10%)
Sales
Wood flooring,Manufacturer B Shanghai
301-1000 Over 4 0%
None
China
wooden furniture
manager
Sales
USA (60%)，
Wood flooring,Manufacturer C Shanghai
301-1000 Over 4 40%
Russiamanager
Others (40%)
othersPhilippines,Russia, China,Manufacturer D Shanghai CEO20-300
20-40
30%
Wood flooring
Korea, Canada USA
Europe, USA,
Sales
China, Russia, Wood flooring, wood
Manufacturer E Zhejiang
20-300Over 4 60%
Southeast Asia,
manager
USAdoor, others
Japan
China (60%),
Sales
Wood flooring, wood
Manufacturer F Zhejiang
20-300Over 4 0%NoneUSA (20%),
managerdoor
Canada (20%)
Russia (40%)，
PreferMarketing
Manufacturer GLiaoning
20-300
not to100%
Japan (100%) China (55%)， Wood flooring
managersay
Canada (5%)
Guangdo Executive
Manufacturer H
301-1000 Over 4 20%
USA, Europe Peru, Cambodia Wood flooringng
Assistant
Wood flooring,Salespanels, wooden
Manufacturer I Shanxi
20-300Over 4 0%None
Unanswered
furniture, wood
managerdoor, others
SalesUSA, Canada,
Wood flooring, wood
Manufacturer J Zhejiang
Over 1000 Over 4 20%
Unanswered
Germany
managerdoor, others

Total(n=17)

Variables
Less than 5 years
5<y<=10
FDH history
10<y<=15
More than 15 years
Developer
Purchase decisions
OthersContract to flooring Have
manufactures
Don’t have
Flooring manufacturers
Purchase from
Building material market
SolidEngineer
Type (most used inLaminate
the FDH)
Ceramic
Stone
0%
10%
20%% covered by wood 30%
flooring
40%
50%
60%
70%

Purchase experience of forest
certified flooring
Have
(n=6)

Not yet(n=11)

04
10
4
242
60
140
10
102
30000342174
9210114222132111113831116134161282322344111
1Results and discussion
 Developers’ perception

 Manufacturers’ perception
Benefits (n=10)
Meet foreigner consumers’ purchasing requirements
Support sustainable forestry and protect the environment
Meet CSR goals
Gain access to new market (e.g. EU, USA)
Build an environmentally friendly corporate image and attract
more investors
Gain financial aids (e.g. tax, loan)
Achieve price premiums from export market
Maintain or gain domestic market shares
Meet domestic consumers’ purchasing requirements
Meet business partners’ purchasing requirements (e.g.
developers)
Achieve product differentiation
Reduce operating costs through developing green technologies
Achieve price premiums from domestic market
Barriers
Lack of technical support for obtaining certification
Low price premiums
Little government support
High cost of certified products
Little guidance to adopt certification
Low public awareness of the FSC or PEFC label

Mean S.D.
6.30
6.10
6.00
6.00

1.252
1.197
1.247
1.247

5.40 1.713
5.40
5.40
5.40
5.10

1.430
1.075
1.713
1.449

5.10 1.663
5.10 1.524
4.80 1.874
4.50 1.900
Mean S.D.
3.80
3.50
3.50
3.40
3.40
3.20

1.033
0.707
0.850
1.075
0.966
0.919

Benefits (n=17) Perception gaps
Mean S.D.

Acquire new consumers (e.g. green consumer)
Brand the house with high-end image
Achieve product differentiation
Improve company’s public image
Achieve price premiums
Support sustainable forestry and protect the environment
Meet CSR goals
Achieve green building certification (e.g. LEED)

5.60
5.53
5.47
5.33
5.27
5.20
5.00
4.80

0.986
1.302
0.990
1.633
1.3351.568
1.890
1.935

Obtain government's affordable housing project
Gain tax support from government
Obtain a longer payable period
Gain loan aids from banks.

4.13
3.80
3.47
3.33

1.187
1.207
0.834
1.113

Barriers (n=15)
Shortage of forest certified wood flooring supply
High cost of certified products
Low public awareness of the FSC or PEFC label
Low price premiums
Little support from government
Shortage of certified products from cooperative manufacturers
Low forest certification awareness among company’smanaging groups

Results of reported benefits indicated:① Demands from overseas market and market access have been and will be still
the most incentives for manufactures to adopt forest certification. Thoseconsistent with previous research in China (Durst et al. 2006; Huang et al.
2009; and Yan et al. 2003).
② Sustainability and CSR contribution were also key drivers of FC
development.
③ Weak demands and low-price premiums from domestic market might weaken
intention of FC adoption among none export-oriented manufacturers.
Results of barriers indicated:① Lack of education on forest certification adoption among manufactures inChina. Related instructions are necessarily held by industry associations andlocal governments in the future.
② Low public awareness was the least consideration on forest certification
adoption, which was different with previous findings of Wang et al. (2005)
and Huang et al. (2009). This revealted an increasing awareness of forest
certification or eco-labels among Chinese consumers.

Mean S.D.
4.07
3.73
3.73
3.73
3.73
3.40

0.799
0.961
1.280
1.163
1.223
1.183

3.33 1.047

Results from developers regarding benefits:• Enhance competition in the housing market was the key driverof the purchase of forest certified products among developers.
Through an install of forest certified products, developers
intended to brand the house with green image to win green
consumers or to build a high-end image to gain price premiums.
• Contribution for social and environmental sustainability was anincentive for such purchase.
Results regarding barriers:• Shortage of certified products supply in Chinese market was themost challenge for expanding forest certified products in thehousing market. Especially some developers indicated theircooperative flooring manufacturers did not supply suchproducts to them.
• Low public awareness of forest certification was concerned bydevelopers, however, they considered themselves with a highawareness of certification.

Perceived benefits of forest certified flooring
Achieve forest sustainability
Acquire new consumers
Achieve CSR goals
Gain government support**
Improve public image
Achieve product differentiation
Meet consumer demands
Achieve price premium
01Developer234567

Manufacturer

Perceived challenges of forest certified flooring
Shortage of supply
Little government support
Low price premiumHigh cost
Low public awareness*
01Developer

2345Manufaturer• Results of Mann-Whitney u-test showed significant differences
between manufacturers and developers on the benefit of “gaingovernment support” (p=0.042) and the challenge of “low publicawareness of forest certification” (p=0.088).
• This indicated that government support was an important incentive formanufacturers to adopt forest certification. However, developers did
gain little support on the purchase by the government.
• The difference of ratings on the “low public awareness” showed that
manufacturers considered their customers, in terms of retailers,
wholesalers, oversea consumers, developers, and end-user, with highknowledge of forest certification. While, developers hold a different
opinion, who considered end-users had little knowledge ofcertification, which weakened their purchase intention for certified
products.