Chapter 11 Chapter 10 Branding of Luxury Goods: The Unique Positioning of Advertising

Highlights of this chapter: Under the influence of the "lipstick effect", consumers will choose products with high cost performance.For enterprises, it is easier to understand how to seek the differentiation of product appearance and performance, but it is more difficult to understand how to pursue the essence of the industry.The price of Italian famous brand luxury goods made in China is dozens of times that of domestic brands. In the case of identical appearance and quality, the cost performance improved by the nature of the industry is the most important difference.Enterprises must convey the essence and spirit of the consumer goods industry to consumers through advertisements.As a luxury product, it is bound to suffer a major blow during the economic depression, but what is the reason why the unique nature of the luxury industry can still attract capital from China's manufacturing industry?

Why do enterprises in Guangdong acquire Pierre Cardin?Why Tengzhong Heavy Industry will acquire Hummer? Even if you succeed in acquiring Prada and Anna Sui, if you don't understand the spirit of their industry, you will still fail. For the Chinese fashion industry, how should it be positioned in the future? The only chance is to find a "small" appropriate positioning in the brand triangle. We have repeatedly mentioned in the previous chapters that the industry essence and spirit of general consumer goods should be played out through advertisements.But judging from the examples of liquor and sports products, it takes constant trial and error to get the right ad in order to truly convey the spirit of the industry's essence.Li Ning is a good example. He has changed many spokespersons, such as Qu Ying, Li Tie, Jones and O'Neill, and has also changed many sportsmanship slogans, such as "Share the beauty of sports with the world", "Leave the excitement to yourself", " Everything is possible", "I move and I exist" and so on.The spirit is commendable, because to correctly develop the essence of the industry, one must strive for perfection step by step like Li Ning.

But many of our Chinese entrepreneurs are not like this. Most of us are impatient and very impetuous, and we hope to be able to reach the goal in one step. In the middle of 2009, I saw a news that our company in Guangdong spent 200 million euros to acquire the Pierre and Cardin brands.This behavior is a very typical behavior of Chinese entrepreneurs, opportunistic.We just want to pick up ready-made ones, preferably Pierre Cardin and other brands, after years of hard work and showing the essence of the industry through advertisements, and then we can buy them. Isn’t this simpler and more one-step?It can also improve the cost performance.

Why do enterprises in Guangdong acquire Pierre Cardin?Why Tengzhong Heavy Industry will acquire Hummer?This is inseparable from our national character.We are an impetuous nation, a nation of opportunists, and this impetuousness and opportunism are intertwined, which deeply characterizes the behavior of our entrepreneurs.I have a very specific description of these phenomena in the book "Lang Xianping Said: Who is Murdering China's Economy--The Curse of Culture".Under the impact of the financial tsunami, it is worth discussing whether it is advisable for our enterprises to go out and acquire brands.In fact, readers, please think about it, why do they buy world brands?Because entrepreneurs believe that many famous Italian brands are made in China, but after putting their brands on them, the profits have doubled by more than ten times.Therefore, our entrepreneurs and governments at all levels simply want to develop a brand strategy. Isn't this idea what we often see?They always think that building a brand is an important way to increase prices and increase profit margins.

However, readers may not have thought that these ideas are wrong.Do you know how much time these Italian companies or French companies spent before creating a brand by advertising the spirit of the essence of the industry to cultivate the brand?We never try to learn from other people's entrepreneurial spirit of striving for excellence, step by step, and down-to-earth over the past 100 years.Why not learn it?That's a lot of trouble, we buy the brand directly, it would be great in one step.This is the thinking of us Chinese, always hope that "if you don't make a sound, you will be a blockbuster", and hope that "four or two will make a thousand catties".This kind of mentality also includes our morbid mentality of worshiping the world's top 500 companies. For example, Lenovo, Haier and other companies impetuously want to enter the world's top 500 companies after reaching a certain level, and the method they adopt is opportunistic mergers and acquisitions. We are not interested in understanding the essential reasons behind success.

On this basis, I would like to talk about how the brand was refined through the pretext of the acquisition of Pierre Cardin by a Guangdong company.If we want to become a real multinational company and truly become a world famous brand, we must display the spirit of the essence of the industry through advertisements. We mainly discuss two brands, one is Prada and the other is Anna Sui.I want to clearly tell the Guangdong entrepreneurs who bought Pierre Cardin, don’t waste your 200 million euros, it’s better to speculate in real estate and stocks, and don’t buy brands, because buying brands will not succeed.I would like to ask readers, what is the essence and spirit of the industry of Prada and Anna Sui?Why can they become famous brands, why can they be sold at a good price with the words Prada or Anna Sui on them?I believe that even people in the clothing industry may not be able to answer it.This can be explained by my latest research, the Brand Positioning Triangle, shown in Figure 10-1.

The vertical axis in the figure represents age, the higher you go, the older you are; and the horizontal axis is the degree of femininity, the further to the right, the higher the degree of femininity.Readers, please note that all world brands must be positioned within this triangle.It can be said that if you leave this triangle, you cannot become a world famous brand. This is the triangle of world brands.Take Chanel as an example. This brand is positioned at very feminine and older noble women, and its frequent spokespersons include President Kennedy's very elegant wife.So young women should not use Chanel. If a 20-year-old girl holds a Chanel purse, others will laugh.Younger and more feminine girls should use Saint Laurent, while less feminine young girls should use Gucci, etc.Why are Louis Vuitton handbags always the same khaki color?Because its positioning is women who are weak in femininity, older and more traditional and conservative.

How is Prada positioned?It's targeting older and more masculine women, what does that mean?Let's see how Prada advertises.They made a movie in 2006 called "The Devil Wears Prada" (The Devil Wears Prada), which explained the essence of Prada's industry very clearly.The protagonist of this movie is Miranda, the editor-in-chief of the fashion magazine "RUNWAY". In the eyes of the public, Miranda is a very masculine "devil", enjoying countless applause and flowers.Her appearance keeps men away, because she is a "Prada woman", and many of the people working under her are men. This "Prada woman" is in the workplace, and she doesn't need men at all...

Prada and LG jointly produced a Prada mobile phone in 2006. It is an absolutely masculine mobile phone, a bit like a small black business computer, which is extremely ugly because it is too masculine.Miranda, dressed in masculine black and holding an ugly Prada phone, is an incredibly strong woman who can call everything she wants.She is a domineering, outright tyrant... This is the essence of Prada's industry spirit - "Prada woman", the most powerful woman in the new era. The devil has a cute little secretary who doesn't look like a Prada woman at all.One night at 12 o'clock, the little secretary suddenly received a call from the female devil, asking her to rush to her house.When the little secretary rushed to Miranda's house, she saw a depressing scene. The devil looked particularly haggard and helpless, because her beloved man wanted to divorce her.You can't believe this is the same woman, so beautiful and strong during the day, but at night, when her man is about to leave her, she breaks down, and the devil says, "Be strong Every woman needs a man's care", she also wanted to lean on a man's shoulder deep in her heart.

But this deep secret is not the spirit of Prada. It is another brand—Anna Sui—that digs out this secret in a woman's heart.Prada is completely different. Prada can only show weakness and a little woman in the dead of night, but when she wakes up to hold a press conference the next morning, a female devil who does not need a man appears, because Prada women are No need for men.The little secretary looked at her boss from afar. The witch who had a very haggard face last night turned into another woman the next morning. The little secretary couldn't stand this transformation at all... Finally, the little secretary put The Prada phone in her hand was thrown into the sink because she didn't want to do it anymore, she couldn't stand the Prada spirit.Miranda said at the end: "... either accept it or leave forever." This is the brand spirit of Prada, whether you like it or not, this is what Prada has been bred for hundreds of years The essence of the industry.

If you spent 200 million yuan to buy the Prada brand, may I ask if you know the nature of the Prada industry I am talking about?If you don't know, even if you spend a lot of money to buy this brand, the final outcome must be a crash.Just like our company's past acquisitions, such as TCL's acquisition of Alcatel and Thomson, BenQ's acquisition of Siemens' mobile business, and Lenovo's acquisition of IBM's PC business.This is the fate of our entrepreneurs, going out one after another, and sacrificed one after another... because we don't understand the nature of the industry. What I want to tell readers is: brands are easy to buy, but it takes decades to cultivate a brand spirit that conforms to the essence of the industry.Just because Prada has the spirit and you don't, so you have to work for it, it tells you what clothes you need, what colors you need...and you don't know why. In the 1970s, a new company, Anna Sui, was formed.The mentality of these international famous brands is different from ours. We basically do business through opportunistic methods, while Anna Sui has gone through a lot of research before starting a brand.They must understand the brand positioning triangle, knowing that internationally renowned brands have already filled the entire triangle, so Anna Sui has no way to position. Anna Sui finally decided on a brand-new positioning, which is more feminine than all other brands, that is, to fully excavate the secret of the Prada devil who wants to be a little woman in her heart, so this brand is absolutely feminine.Princess Diana, women envy her, dream wedding, hordes of fans... Barbie always has a perfect prince (Ken) waiting for her... Every woman is a princess, Anna Sui Make your dream of a princess come true.Anna Sui succeeded. Anna Sui's lipstick is so beautiful and cute, I want to smile when I see it, this is what the little princess uses.In fact, not only little girls, 50-year-old women will also buy this lipstick, because women, regardless of size, have the dream of becoming a little princess deep in their hearts, and Anna Sui has made a woman's dream come true. All of Anna Sui's products are very cute, such as the little guitar, which is not an ordinary guitar, but a colorful little guitar. The advertising slogan is "I rock, I'm cute".Anna Sui's paper bag slogan is "I am environmentally friendly, I am exquisite".The slogan of Anna Sui's business card holder is "I am professional, I am charming".And it's not just little girls who buy this brand, but female consumers from their teens to their sixties.This is a miracle. The most feminine Anna Sui is the only brand in the brand triangle that spans different age groups. This achievement is amazing. The essential spirit of the industry that Anna Sui wants to convey is the princess in a man's mind, a man's little woman.Many women say, I don't want to be a little girl.It doesn't matter, you go to buy other brands, if you want to be a strong woman, then you go to buy Louis Vuitton and Prada.If you want to be a little princess, you buy Anna Sui, which is what the brand positioning triangle means. At this point, readers must have discovered that this brand positioning triangle is very interesting. It has clearly told us that fashion brands have nowhere to go, because all positions in the fashion brand triangle have been occupied.These fashion brands have a history of hundreds of years. These brands have occupied every position in the brand triangle during the century, and there is no opportunity for new entrants.Take Gucci as an example. Gucci has a history of 87 years. They have created a Gucci brand through 87 years of hard work, and the latest brand is Anna Sui founded in 1970.Since all the positions of the brand triangle are occupied, Anna Sui chose the rightmost position of the triangle, which is the most feminine position. This is a frustrating conclusion. For the Chinese fashion industry, how should it be positioned in the future?After understanding the brand positioning triangle, you find that it seems impossible to position, because all the positions of the brand triangle are occupied.Your only chance is to play around and find a "small" proper positioning in the brand triangle. Of course, you can also consider buying other brands, but let me tell you readers, well-made brands will not be sold to you, only those brands that are not well-made, such as Pierre Cardin, will not work well in China Only then will it be sold to you.What's more, what is sold to you is not a world brand, but only the right to operate in China, plus more than 20 distributors. After you bought the Pierre Cardin trademark in China, you still need to deal with more than 20 distributors. Are you tired? Even if you succeed in acquiring Prada and Anna Sui, if you don't understand the spirit of their industry, you will still fail.Therefore, a successful acquisition must be based on an understanding of the nature of the industry.But after all, luxury goods are luxury goods. Even if you grasp the essence of the industry, it is difficult to fight against the economic depression. Although it can attract some Chinese manufacturing funds, this is not the purpose of our chapter.The economy will always return to normal, and we hope to give readers the right direction in which to work in the future.