Seven Wolves: From "Lying Wolf" To "Running Wolf"

"Our brand must be able to guide consumers to establish the correct values and assume their due social responsibilities. Specifically, seven wolves (002029) brand planning must tell a system of values. For example, the introduction of "men is more than one side" is to convey an excellent man who wants to know how to fight, and how to understand family harmony.

- Seven wolves Chairman Zhou Shaoxiong

When Honglei Sun, Zhang Hanyu, Chang Chen, Hu Jun and many other stars come out together, do not think that another blockbuster will be on the stage. This is only the latest promotional film of seven wolves (002029) explaining the brand connotation of "men more than one side". Compared with today's heroic hiring of first line celebrities, seven wolves 20 years ago are just one of the few people in the thousands of small garment factories in the region. The registered capital is only 150 thousand yuan, with dozens of workers and dozens of flat cars.

The 2010 Interim Report of the seven wolves showed that the company achieved 974 million yuan in the first half of this year, an increase of 11% over the same period last year, achieving a net profit of 124 million yuan, an increase of 31% over the same period last year, and maintained a high growth rate. Correspondingly, the company's stock price reached 34 yuan / share, and its market value was 9 billion 600 million yuan.

In the past 20 years, when people could only search for the Chinese shoes and clothes capital in the debris of memory, the seven wolves who also started their business in that era were not only surviving but also became the first line brand of the leisure clothing market in Jinjiang. What causes it to stand out in the competitive clothing industry? Recently, the reporter visited the fast-growing garment enterprise, trying to unlock its success password.

Leading industry ahead of advanced consciousness

The predecessor of the seven wolves -- Fujian seven wolves Garment industry Ltd. was founded in 1990 in Jinjiang, Quanzhou, Fujian. Wu Xingqun, a senior manager and deputy general manager of the company, told reporters that Quanzhou was the birthplace of China's clothing industry. At that time, thousands of garment factories were gathered in this tiny area. Under the temptation of the market economy, seven middle school students including Zhou Shaoxiong, the three chairman of the company, decided to go all out to make a career. Then they registered the "seven wolf" brand and set up factories to sell their ready-made garments. At that time, Zhou Shaoxiong worked in Xinhua Bookstore, while Wu Xingqun was a Chinese teacher.

"Jinjiang, Shishi area is a famous hometown of overseas Chinese. In the late 80s of last century, a large number of Returned Overseas Chinese went home to visit their relatives. They wore various styles of clothing and costumes with various trademarks. Many of them were marked by animals, which promoted the hazy brand awareness of the seven wolves entrepreneurial team." Wu Xingqun said.

In Minnan dialect, the "seven wolves" and the "seven people" homophonic, while the wolf is also a very team conscious animal, all kinds of coincidence, we finally chose the "seven wolves" as clothing brand and enterprise name. "At that time, it was the time when China began to get in touch with new thinking and new things. The names of the seven wolves were somewhat different. They also contained some rebellious factors. In other words, it's easier to attract attention. Wu Xingqun told the reporter proudly: "this is the first clothing trademark registered in Fujian province."

When the seven wolves were founded, they were catching up with the golden age of the development of the garment industry. The supply of products was in short supply and the profits were quite substantial. But in many garment factories riveted hard production, the market changed quickly. The seven wolves soon set up a realistic problem, which is how to survive from a large number of small enterprises with serious homogenization of products.

At this critical moment, the seven wolves stand out from the transformation of three leading companies.

The first is to change the sales mode. In 1992, many garment manufacturers Distribution channel Mainly in the wholesale market, the seven wolves began to seek the transformation from individual wholesale market to shopping mall mode. The products of the company began to sell in department stores, including the famous department stores in Beijing, Xidan, Wangfujing (600859) and Shanghai Hualian.

This sales pattern has changed for two years earlier than peers. Just as companies followed suit to enter the market, the seven wolves in 1995 drew on the overseas brand to promote franchisees in China, and became the first domestic garment industry to implement the sales mode of franchised stores by dealers, and continue to lead the development of the same industry. This pattern is still the main selling mode of major brand clothing.

Secondly, it first proposed the OEM mode of production and marketing separation in the domestic apparel industry. With the rapid development of agent sales mode, the production scale of the seven wolves has become a bottleneck. In 1996, the company used the successful experience of other countries for reference, and first introduced the OEM mode in the same industry. Under the premise of controlling brand management and product quality, a large number of products were produced through OEM. "This is a great turning point for the seven wolves and even the entire domestic garment industry. Facts have proved that this mode promoted by the seven wolves has promoted the formation and development of the domestic garment industry module. " Wu Xingqun is proud of talking about this history. After that, the regional distribution of the domestic garment industry module gradually formed: Jiangsu and Zhejiang mainly produce suits and shirts, and Dongguan and Huizhou in Guangdong mainly produce knitted products; Jinjiang Shishi area mainly produces business clothing, casual wear and other products.

The advance consciousness of the transformation of the seven wolves management mode not only won the market, but also won the respect of the same industry, so that Zhou Shaoxiong, chairman of the board of directors, won the full vote when he was president of the Fujian clothing and Apparel Association.

Thirdly, it is the first to introduce the construction of modern enterprise CIS system. "We were the first to build CIS in enterprises." Wu Xingqun smiled and said, "as early as 1992, the seven wolves began importing CIS image recognition system: unified trademark image, unified colors, fonts and so on, although now is very common, but at that time most enterprises have never heard of it." He said that the symbol of "seven wolves" was changed from a "lying wolf" to a "running wolf" shape at that time.

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Leveraging capital platform to achieve leapfrog development

After the survival period, how to further standardize development has become an important issue for seven wolves management team. In 1998, the company began to seek listing and financing, which became the first person in Jinjiang shoes and clothing enterprises to dare to eat crabs. In August 6, 2004, the seven wolves successfully landed in the Shenzhen SME board, becoming the first Fujian listed company in the small and medium-sized board, and the first listed company in the capital market of Fujian garment industry.

The listing of the seven wolves not only promoted their own development, but also led the private enterprises in Jinjiang to take advantage of the capital market. After that, several Jinjiang private enterprises such as xunxing shares (002098), plum umbrellas (002174) and so on, have landed on small and medium-sized boards, and Anta and other enterprises have successfully issued shares in overseas capital markets.

In Zhou Shaoxiong's view, the listing in 2004 was an important financial support for the company's rapid development. "Through the capital market, the seven wolves have more powerful financial strength, which has provided positive help for the expansion, product development, talent introduction and management level of the seven wolves, and has achieved a virtuous circle of corporate development and investor returns."

In 2007, the seven wolves were re issued successfully, raising funds for the development of 20 seven wolf wolf men's living centers in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Fuzhou, Xi'an and other regional sales center cities. At the same time, 200 seven wolf wolf flagship stores and 600 seven wolves franchised stores were set up, and the market share expanded rapidly.

While grabbing market share, the listing also promoted the standardization of the internal management of the company, attracting the joining of professional talents, and making the company continue to develop steadily.

Since 2007, the seven wolves began to cooperate with internationally renowned management companies such as IBM and Oracle. With the help of foreign advanced management concepts, the company has strengthened the supply chain and information system through technological means. On this basis, we set up our own IT team, develop management software according to our own characteristics, link the links of commodity development, purchase, raw plant, warehousing, transportation and logistics into a whole functional network chain mode to achieve rapid response. With the help of these information technologies, the efficiency of the supply chain nodes has increased by 20-30%. Wu Xingqun said.

It is worth mentioning that in 2008, the seven wolves put forward the idea of developing industrial alliance innovatively. "This time we again took the lead in the industry to put forward the idea of establishing a garment industry alliance. We hope that through the advocacy and creation of the garment industry alliance, we can transfer the demand of terminal consumers to the upstream materials and accessories suppliers, so as to achieve the goal of guiding the development of the industry. Wu Xingqun said. The plan has been recognized by the NDRC as the only technology center of garment industry in the country. It will become a new starting point for the seven wolves.

The two venture, the brand encourages life.

Zhou Shaoxiong said that the domestic garment industry has gone through the era of horse racing, and this year is the 20th anniversary establishment of the seven wolves. The company has put forward the slogan of "20 years of entrepreneurial achievements to zero" and the resumption of the new process next year. "Seven wolves will pay more attention to the construction of internal management and brand culture in the future, which means that it may not be the rapid growth of business income but the competition of soft power."

For example, the financial crisis that broke out in 2008 has a certain impact on the garment industry. The wolfram management team regarded the crisis as a good opportunity to reflect and promoted the work of "removing impetuosity and consolidating internal management". In that year, the "seven wolf constitution" was introduced inside the enterprise, and the vision and development direction of the seven wolves were recombed, and all aspects of management, organization and other aspects were perfected and promoted. "This has laid a solid foundation for the seven wolves to survive the crisis and develop steadily." Zhou Shaoxiong thinks.

When it comes to the brand connotation of "seven wolves", Zhou Shaoxiong obviously has endless topics. In the brand building process of the seven wolves, there is a sentence called "let the brand inspire life". Our brand must be able to guide consumers to establish the correct values and bear the due social responsibility. Specifically, the brand planning of the seven wolves must tell a system of values. For example, the introduction of "men is more than one side" is to convey an excellent man who wants to know how to fight and understand family harmony. Therefore, what we should recommend is a man of iron and tender feelings. What he wants to shape is a man who is soft and flexible. This has a positive effect on shaping a harmonious society.

Corresponding to the "seven wolves" brand connotation is the practice of seven wolves themselves on corporate social responsibility. Zhou Shaoxiong said that the company not only actively donated money and donations in the face of major disasters, but also paid more attention to shareholders, employees, upstream and downstream partners and the interests of society. In addition, the company has established a cultural development fund with Peking University, set up a seven wolf culture research center with the Chinese Academy of fine arts, and is now building a seven wolf fund, which is the embodiment of the enterprise's commitment to repay the society and improve the quality of life of the people.

Zhou Shaoxiong said that foreign brands such as POLO and UNIQLO are all over 10 billion marketing companies. Although the seven wolves have been the forefront of the industry in China, their annual sales volume is only about two billion yuan, which is not in the same order as those of large enterprises. But with the continuous development of China's economy, China's role in the world economic arena has become more and more important. What the seven wolves must do is grasp the opportunities of the times and build a brand that can influence the world and represent the spirit of China based on China.