Chapter 6 Section 5 Future Road of Chinese Underwear Brands

Underwear, as a woman's second skin, women must be more picky when purchasing than general consumer products.Therefore, as revealed above, if underwear brands want to take root in women's minds, they must strive to move closer to women's ideal self-image.Chinese companies have gradually begun to understand this point, so can they find a "magic bullet" to break out of the red sea in the underwear market?To answer this question, we have to take a look at the current landscape of underwear: If we take feminist consciousness as the vertical axis and sexy as the horizontal axis to locate foreign and domestic underwear brands, then we will get a binary coordinate map like Figure 1-12.Among the companies studied above, Victoria’s Secret, with its luxurious supermodel lineup and ingenious publicity techniques, is firmly at the double frontier of women’s rights and sexy; Calvin Klein, who is good at using simple design and outdoor advertising, is close behind; Relying on the foundation laid by history, Dengfeng has also established a good reputation in the two positions of women's rights and sexy.Although European brands have done little to convey feminist awareness, their mysterious and noble bloodlines, elegant and exquisite craftsmanship make them reveal unparalleled aristocratic sexiness, and Obad is one of them.In China, Maoren has single-mindedly positioned itself as a "Chinese-style sexy" underwear brand, and has accumulated a certain reputation among domestic consumers; , as well as the rendering of Chinese style, it has risen to the middle and upper reaches in terms of sexiness and feminism. It is no wonder that it is regarded as the most high-end brand of domestic underwear.

But does the emergence of brands such as Aimu and Maoren mean that domestic underwear can already compete with international brands?Our answer is no.Since Victoria’s Secret, Calvin Klein, Obad and other foreign brands have not fully entered the Chinese market due to factors such as prices and channels, domestic brands can still enjoy the huge market created by more than 600 million Chinese women, but if it is really fair compare?Compared with sexy, Chinese design may not be comparable to the exquisite luxury of Europe, or the passion and unrestrainedness of the United States. Chinese models can't match the sweetness, wildness, or unattainable beauty like the ice queen exuded by European and American supermodels. The charm of the soul; it is even more difficult than feminism. Europe and the United States are the birthplaces of the first and second waves of feminist movements. History has also proved that American advertising companies have always been good at "advocating" women's rights and buying women's hearts. It is definitely not an easy task to plan to catch up from behind in this respect.

So what to do?Can Chinese underwear companies make a fuss about the industrial chain?The conclusion is - of course! Figure 1-13 shows the traditional industrial chain. The underwear industry chain is similar, including raw materials, fabrics, design, manufacturing, warehousing, logistics, and sales (to enhance the image of the terminal).For Chinese companies, manufacturing is by no means a big problem. Many of them started out as processing companies. Design may sound sophisticated, but in fact it is not difficult to renovate and imitate styles. Many domestic companies have already had their own designs. department.As for the overall grasp of the industrial chain, how are Chinese brands doing?In the process of searching for the answer, an interesting discovery was made, that is, many major underwear production cities in China claim to have a "complete industrial chain", such as the following passage:

"Having the most complete industrial chain in the world - most of the underwear industry bases in the country can only have a part of the underwear industry chain, while Shantou has a complete industrial chain from twisted yarn, weaving, dyeing and finishing, printing, jacquard, napping, warp knitting, embroidery Even the auxiliary materials used in underwear such as mold cups, ribbons, steel rings, bone glue, cloth hooks, beads, etc. are all the way to the manufacture of underwear products. It is an exaggeration to say that as long as there is a cotton, underwear can be produced in Shantou. Even underwear products In the post-production period, photography, modeling, packaging, printing, advertising, media and other underwear industry service items are all available."

In Shantou area, there are other underwear production bases such as Guangdong Gurao, Guangdong Yanbu, Zhejiang Yiwu and other places with rich textile resources and supporting facilities. This is true, but can this be regarded as a complete industrial chain?Comparing Figure 1-13, these bases at best have "geographical" advantages in raw material procurement, while advertising, media, etc. are just marketing means, not enough to become a major link in the industrial chain. So what are the vast number of underwear companies in China lacking?Baidu Index gave us an inspiration. The Baidu index is based on the search data of Baidu users, and then based on the data analysis of the user population, a summary of the social attributes given.If we use the Baidu Index to simulate the influence of brands, then Figure 1-14 clearly points out that Gujin Lingerie, headquartered in Shanghai, has absolute brand advantages in Shanghai and Suzhou, while Aimu, which grew up in Beijing, has accumulated a large amount of Beijing underwear. Fans, Maniform, a local brand in Guangdong, has an unparalleled momentum in Shenzhen and Guangzhou.This shows what?Four words: terminal is king.

There are several models for underwear sales terminals: first, you can choose to enter the supermarket, but the pricing power of underwear in the supermarket is limited, and companies that want to upgrade their brands are not suitable for this way; second, you can rent a special counter in a large shopping mall. Many mid-range brands are taking this route; third, the development of franchise stores, from first-tier cities to many second- and third-tier cities, the underwear boutiques that have sprung up like mushrooms are the products of "franchising"; The second is to open a self-operated store, and the headquarters is in charge of the details of site selection, store layout, shopping guides, etc.

Thinking of "the terminal is king", I guarantee that the first reaction of many domestic bosses is to expand the terminal as soon as possible, increase the number of sales points as much as possible, and steal business from competitors.Based on this thinking, the franchise store model is undoubtedly the most conducive to expanding offline in a short period of time; it is also a good way to cooperate with large shopping malls to open special counters. After all, in many small and medium-sized cities, shopping in department stores is still the most popular. The way consumers choose to shop.

But, bosses, can this produce the "brand effect" you hope for?I doubt it.Search the Internet, and there are all kinds of advertisements that "invite underwear to join" are overwhelming. Do you think they are brand attractive?What about the counters in big shopping malls?Walking around in the shopping mall, the counter of this underwear shop is adjacent to that one. At first glance, it seems that there is no difference. What brand are you talking about? It is true that the development of franchise stores and special counters can bring cash back in a short period of time, and there may be certain benefits. At the same time, more consumers can "see" the brand name.Please note that I use "see", which does not mean that consumers can remember and appreciate a brand.Don't we often say "brand upgrade"?In fact, if a brand leaves a "middle-class" impression, no matter how many stores it opens, if it does not change, it will still be a mid-range brand, and it is impossible for it to become a high-end product.

How to improve the grade - starting from the design?We have already said in the previous article that although there are many styles of underwear, they are always the same. If we compare our domestic mid-range products with Victoria's Secret, it may be difficult to distinguish them from the appearance.It seems that the design is not the key, and in terms of price, Victoria's Secret is about tens of dollars for a set of underwear, which is only a mid-range price in the United States, but no woman has ever felt that it can't be sold. The world's supermodels are proud to endorse it.The reason behind all this is not the product itself, but the shopping experience provided by Victoria's Secret: I don't know if any of the readers have been to the Victoria's Secret store. Its flagship store on Fifth Avenue in New York, with H&M, Fashion clothing stores such as ZARA, Banana Republic, and Amarni Exchange are all neighbors. Walking into the store, the spacious space is filled with pink and the most popular music at the moment, and the flat-screen TV embedded in the wall is broadcasting the models. In the underwear show, bright underwear is hung on the hanger or placed on the stage. Women take the mesh shopping bags provided by the store and go around every corner of the store, while the women who pay and leave carry Victoria The exclusive pink paper bag of the secret, the dazzling color seems to tell everyone on the street: "Look, this is my new trophy!" The price of mid-range goods is exchanged for the shopping experience of a famous store. Victoria's Secret uses this way, so that women feel value for money, so that they think it is an undisputed big brand.Do not brag about product design, do not brag about the high technology contained in products, Victoria's Secret overcomes consumers' psychology with store art.In fact, isn't this also a trick that ZARA is good at?Opening the store in a prime location, adjacent to a real international brand, and decorating the store in a noble and stylish way, the brand will naturally rise to a level or even several steps in the minds of customers.

Many domestic underwear brands have declared that they want to become a pioneer in fashion underwear.Now that fashion is chosen, Victoria's Secret and ZARA's strategies are worth learning.Take the three brands in Figure 1-14 for comparison. Although they lead in their respective regions, when it comes to domestic high-end underwear, Aimer has the highest approval rate among consumers and the media, while Gujin underwear and Maniform can only be regarded as a mass consumer product.Why can Aimu enjoy the highest pricing, and why does Gujin, which has decades of tradition, lag behind?is the product difference?I'm afraid it's not true. I searched on Taobao, and I can't tell who is who from Aimu, Gujin, and Maniform. But as the saying goes, Buddha depends on gold clothes, and people depend on clothes. The same underwear is placed in different stores. Here, the feeling is quite different.The storefront of Aimu is spacious and bright, with many styles of underwear and a small number of each item, giving people a noble and high-quality feeling; while the storefronts of ancient and modern times are crowded, the number of each item is too large, and many underwears have With the eye-catching "15% off" sign, it looks popular at first glance.Don't forget, women are emotional animals. The image of underwear stores determines most of the brand image. In the hearts of female consumers, is it worth talking about who is superior and who is inferior?

We do not think that the aesthetic level of management and designers in ancient and modern times is lower than that of Aimu. This difference in storefront effect is likely to be brought about by the business model.We mentioned four terminal models above, and Aimer insists on the fourth model - opening self-operated stores - as the main one. Such a choice may affect the speed of terminal spread, but it guarantees the image of the terminal. In October 2004, it opened its first 400-square-meter flagship store in Beijing Lufthansa Jinyuan Shopping Center. At that time, it was the largest underwear store in China. In 2005, it made more than 4 million sales, every month In the second year, the sales volume in 2006 was more than 7 million, which was more than 600,000 per month, and the growth rate was 77.8%; in the third year, the sales volume exceeded 10 million, and the monthly average was 877,000, an increase of 42.6%, becoming a bright spot of Lufthansa.And another branch opened in August 2006, located in Cuiwei Building, a fashion department store in Beijing, covering an area of ​​more than 100 square meters, with sales in 2006 of 6?million; 10.9 million were sold in 2007, an increase of 71.38%. At the end of 2007, it opened another Aimer Lifestyle Store in Zhuangsheng Sogo SOGO, with an area of ​​about 300 square meters. In January 2008, it achieved sales of 754,000 yuan.Assuming that Aimer only maintains the level of 2007 in 2008, these three stores will contribute about 30 million yuan in turnover; and in 2008, Gujin Underwear had 1,176 directly-operated and franchised stores, with an annual performance of 448 million yuan. The store sells 380,000 yuan a year. Even if each store has an average area of ​​15 square meters in ancient and modern times, the sales per square meter is only 25,300 yuan/year; rival Aimu, the three stores create 37,500 yuan/square meter. year's results.In the link of sales terminals, it is clear at a glance whether it is quantity or quality. The comparison between Aimi and the past and present. Aimer is not the only one who spends a lot of effort on the brand terminal. Maoren Underwear is also committed to creating a "Catren Sexy Experience Hall", hoping to provide consumers with one-stop service enjoyment, including various matching suggestions for various clothing, etc. .There is no problem with this original intention, because Maoren is a brand with a very distinctive personality, and the move of "sexy experience hall" is also very in line with its personality.But when it comes to specific measures, Maoren's approach makes people worry: at the end of 2009, Maoren launched the "1310" mobilization order for large-scale investment promotion work across the country, targeting "10 stores in provincial capital cities, city and prefecture-level 3 stores in cities and 1 store in county-level cities”, and formulated an expansion plan to achieve 10,000 new stores within three years; People who want to start a business join Maoren.Such a radical approach makes it difficult for us to guarantee quality.The goal of Catman is to become the "Oriental version of Victoria's Secret", so how does Victoria's Secret develop its terminals?Since Limited Brands took over the brand in 1982, over the past 20 years, Victoria’s Secret has developed more than 1,000 chain stores in the United States and Canada, but each of them is a direct-sale store and has no franchise policy. The goal of the store is simply tortoise speed, but it strictly guarantees the high-end store image of Victoria's Secret.In contrast, the ambition of Maoren and the banner of joining the franchise are really making us sweat for its brand grade. Can franchise stores not guarantee terminal quality?Not necessarily.Easy Shop in Taiwan is a good example.It is the largest chain underwear store in Taiwan, and has branches in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Shenzhen, etc.The parent company is "Taiwan Audrey Co., Ltd." with a history of underwear production for nearly 50 years. The price of underwear sold by Easy Shop is mostly between NT$400 and NT$1,700, which is equivalent to RMB 85 to 360. The price is not very high, but it cannot be denied that it enjoys a high reputation in Taiwan. It is popular with women, which is inseparable from its pink-orange storefront tone, unique display method of hanging underwear on steel pipes, and spacious space.So does Easy Shop promote joining?Yes, it advertises, but what it encourages is "entrusted by excellent internal store managers to join."There are two points worth noting. First, those who are encouraged to join are excellent internal store managers, not people like you and me who may not know anything about underwear. That is to say, franchisees are already familiar with the details of Easy Shop. And has a good marketing ability, which not only guarantees the interests of franchisees, but also ensures that the brand image of Easy Shop will not be damaged by franchisees.The second point is that the franchise mode is "entrusted franchise". Generally speaking, there are three ways of chain franchise. In addition to entrusted franchise, there are two kinds of franchise franchise and voluntary franchise.The biggest difference between entrusted franchising and the latter two is that the headquarter is responsible for the store decoration and rent deposit, and the headquarter provides several suitable directly-operated stores for the franchisee to choose one of them according to the franchisee's living area and other conditions (also There are new stores, but fewer).This has many advantages. The headquarters has a high degree of control over the location and store image. Even if it is a franchise, it seems like a direct store to customers. What about the joining conditions of domestic underwear brands?We checked and found that most of the franchise advertisements did not clearly mention the franchise model, and the store location was left to the franchisee, store design, and the headquarters gave free guidance, but when it came to decoration, I am afraid that the franchisee had to do it himself. .Furthermore, the advertisements have declared that "even if you have no experience in opening a store, under our guidance, you can enjoy a lot of money."Let me ask, if a company really intends to promote its brand to a higher level, would it dare to hand over the store to a person with "no experience in opening a store" to take care of it? Going back to the starting point of the topic of the industrial chain, for several underwear bases in China, they have raw materials, design, and production resources, but they lack marketing terminals, so they still cannot control pricing power; for those who already have brands and sales terminals As far as underwear companies are concerned, most of the terminals are not good enough, which directly leads to mediocre image in the minds of consumers, and the price cannot be increased; Income women like to shop at Aimour, and are willing to pay its brand premium. Today's hot topic is "compression industry chain."However, we believe that for Chinese underwear companies, before compressing the industrial chain, there is still a lot to do in terms of sales terminals.Only when the terminal image is upgraded, can underwear brands gain room for pricing increases, and the effectiveness of industrial chain compression can be fully released.