SPA Version: Metersbonwe

If 25 years ago, the young man who had failed to open a garment factory in Zhejiang's rural areas and friends turned around, the emergence of the first SPA enterprise in China would probably be a few years later.

SPA is the Special Stores with Private Label Apparel. Since the concept of GAP was introduced in 1986, the competition pattern and mode of the world garment industry have changed.

In 2009, the top five brands of world clothing sales have their own characteristics, but they have one thing in common -- they are all SPA models.

In the Chinese market, the annual sales scale of around 5 billion yuan is a recognized ceiling which is hard to overcome for a single brand casual wear enterprise. Around this figure, Giordano has been hovering for 3 years.

Before reaching this threshold, Metersbonwe has decided to use the SPA model as a magic weapon to ensure the continued growth of the company's sales scale.

In 2008, Metersbonwe officially launched the first SPA brand Me&City in China, and tried to pass the top line with the industry.

5 billion ceiling

In 1987, after the collapse of the first factory that he founded, Zhou Chengjian, a young boy from Qingtian, Zhejiang, who was less than 19 years old, came to Wenzhou from her rural hometown to continue his dream of clothing.

In 1993, he founded Keri, Wenzhou.

In early 1995, Zhou Chengjian made two decisions.

In 2001, Mester banner opened the brand promotion strategy of celebrity endorsement and TV advertising. In 2003, Mester's Jay Chou signed a promising career. At the same time, it launched a large-scale TV promotion campaign. In August 2008, Metersbonwe listed on the Shenzhen stock exchange's small and medium sized panels. In that year, the sales volume reached 4 billion 470 million yuan, and the store reached more than 2200.

So far, what the United States has done is wonderful, but it is much the same as most of the competitors in the market, but it is not in line with its famous slogan, "no ordinary way."

At this point, the United States is about to enter the threshold of "5 billion" and began to ponder the possible bottlenecks in the future, because the annual sales scale of around 5 billion yuan is the growth ceiling recognized by Chinese local garment enterprises. According to the age, Metersbonwe trained consumers are also entering the field to leave the service people they lock.

Any enterprise is faced with the problem of how to choose with the growth of consumers. Some enterprises will choose the strategy to grow with the consumers, while others will remain the same brand positioning, waiting for the next batch of consumers who are growing up.

"The former is easy to die, and the latter is relatively longer." Zhou Chengjian believes that the United States does not want to give up the faithful consumers who have been trained for a long time. On the one hand, the consumers of Metersbonwe will soon become the mainstream consumer of the society. On the other hand, it is difficult for the domestic clothing brands that are located around the age of 30 to be recognized by the post-80s. Therefore, they are determined to launch a brand new brand.

SPA first experience

Earlier than the United States, a few years ago, Giordano and Baleno also launched Giordano Concept, Baleno:Attitude and other sub brands. The two brands were not endorsed from the parent brand.

Unlike Giordano and Baleno, Me&City has cut off its ties with its parent brand from the very beginning and has adopted a completely new mode, SPA.

Me&City and Metersbonwe belong to the United States group, but in the internal operation of two teams, in addition to administrative, financial and other public platforms, design, marketing, and channels are completely independent.

The formal launch of Me&City took three years to prepare for it. But in the eyes of Wang Quangeng, general manager of the group, it is still difficult to develop in the direction of SPA.

We have no examples to learn, and we must rely on ourselves to find out.

SPA was proposed by the American GAP company in 1986 to define the new business system of the company, which was defined by the integration of the head office from commodity planning, design, production to retail.

In the late 1980s, clothing production and sales were often completed by different companies. As the first generation SPA company template, GAP mainly completed the change from product planning to sales integration.

This change reduces supply chain links, reduces logistics costs and time, and allows companies to return money more smoothly and cash flow more healthily.

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In the early 1990s, a number of garment enterprises emerged in Europe as a template and improved by the first generation of SPA enterprises, such as INDITEX group in Spain and H&M in Sweden.

The second generation SPA enterprises are more distinctive than the first generation. They are famous for their fast imitation of international top brands and shorten the distance between the public and the top fashion, so they are called "fast fashion".

At the same time, Japan's UNIQLO evolved another SPA mode different from "fast fashion".

Due to the characteristics of Japan's textile industry, UNIQLO's production is all handed over to external companies, and UNIQLO mainly provides basic clothing. The products do not look so fashionable, and the style is only 1/3 or 1/4 of ordinary casual wear brands.

But the same as the second generation SPA represented by ZARA, UNIQLO can also achieve effective supply chain control and fast shipment.

These new generation of SPA enterprises have many similarities: in the background that consumers can not see, they are squeezing the cost of internal management through effective control of the supply chain, flat structure makes them understand consumer demand better and respond faster.

In the shops that consumers see, SPA stores tend to be 4 to 5 times the traditional brand stores.

On the one hand, a large storefront can provide consumers with a richer display of products; on the other hand, large stores are more favorable to create brand names.

Chiang Hua, director of the women's clothing sales department of the largest garment enterprise attachment group in South Korea, said: "the super store is the trend of the future retail industry. Combining different positioning and brand of different categories can enable consumers to arrive at the place once they choose."

After the listing of Smith Barney, Zhou Chengjian said that the main input of listed capital will be used for the building of new brands and the laying of flagship stores.

The new brand is Me&City. At present, Me&City has 10 stores in Beijing and Shanghai with an average area of more than 3000 square meters. In Chengdu, Kunming and other two or three cities, the store area is 2000 square meters.

In marketing propaganda, Me&City is offering big gifts.

In 2008, Me&City invited the movie star Wentworth Miller, who was a red star with prison break, as spokesperson.

In 2010, Me&City chose actress Orlando Bloom and famous model Agyness Dean to invite international photographer Terry Richardson, who are the most popular figures in the global fashion circle compared with the seemingly marginal and outdated stars who cooperate with Chinese enterprises. Me&City also quickly showed a completely different image and temperament from Metersbonwe, and even made people smell the authentic international brand.

Chinese style SPA

Despite its confidence, the road to Chinese SPA is not smooth.

In April 2010, the United States announced its annual report in 2009, and its profit dropped by 24.77% when sales revenue increased by 16.63% over the same period last year.

Many research reports say: "Me&City is the main cause of poor performance because of its excessive expansion and mismanagement."

In 2009, there were 111 new stores in the United States and the number of Me&City shops increased by about 80.

The United States does not shy away from the outside world: "we have gone too fast, and we have made several twenty provincial capitals at once.

But we must seize the time to occupy the highlands. For example, we have to seize the stores in the golden section, we can't get them slowly, and the brand is also the highland that we want to seize. We need to build the gas field in a short time.

This development speed will occupy a lot of resources in a short time. "

In the first tier cities such as Beijing and Shanghai, Me&City, whether brand image or shop location, is as close to ZARA or H&M as possible, which makes people feel the impression that Me&City will attack these international fast fashion brands.

Therefore, in the interview process, whether facing the design director or the general manager, the reporters will have the same question: "in your eyes, what brands and Me&City compete with each other?" they tried to infer the true positioning of Me&City, which is also the United States ponder over the past two years.

Me&City brand director Yin Jianxia believes that the biggest advantage of Me&City is to understand the Chinese market, understand the stratification of the market and the psychology of consumers at different levels.

ZARA understand the operation of the metropolis, but do not necessarily know about the two or three tier cities.

"Do consumers really need our new models every day? We promise to catch some popular trends every year, and every week to two weeks will be enough for new consumers."

In the eyes of Zhou Long, the brand director of the US bond group, what Me&City needs to do is not to compare with ZARA, but to find a more suitable mode for its own development. For example, in the two or three tier city, the US bond may join in the future, but will not insist on the SPA store's own store.

Besides big cities such as Beijing and Shanghai, Me&City will extend to Guangxi, Baise, Yunnan and Puer two or three cities.

In these cities, Me&City has a development logic that is completely different from the first tier market. The super flagship store in the first tier cities will show people in small shops in the two or three tier cities.

In the past year, the United States and the United States have launched about 4000 new products, and how to choose the right local products. For this reason, Me&City's practice is to select suitable local series, display them on the theme of series, achieve the unity of the effect of the store, instead of selecting the styles suitable for local consumption in different series.

The criteria for selecting goods are derived from Me&City's understanding of consumers in China's two or three line market.

"Clothing is a sensual thing, and the dress is beautiful, not beautiful. Sometimes it does not depend on the dress itself, but on the brand's aura.

For example, if you enter Fendi or Gucci shops, you will feel pretty, but if you choose one in a store, it will not be the case.

In fact, consumers in the three or four tier cities do not have such strong judgement ability, and are more vulnerable to the influence of gas fields.