Luxury Brands Beat Children's Market

　　 Luxury children's wear

In the last two years, the budget of high-end consumers has not been reduced to their children, which makes more and more fashion brands start to focus on children's clothing. Children's products This particular market. "Who doesn't want their children to look more respectable and prettier?" on this starting point, luxury goods are willing to give satisfactory answers.

　　 November 3rd, Burberry2010 Children's clothing in autumn and winter The product line has been officially launched in major Burberry stores, and its children's wear range is quite large. It covers not only 7~14 year old children's clothing, 2~6 year old baby clothes, but also newborn clothing under the age of one.

The layout of Burberry products seems to represent the strategic intention of most luxury goods to enter the children's market and achieve full coverage as soon as possible.

　　 Luxury brands have "infected" children's market.

In the eyes of many luxury brands, high-end children's wear and children's products market is like a tempting cake, everyone wants to eat.

"My little daughter is one and a half years old. From birth to now, it costs no less than 300 thousand yuan. For example, I go to Hongkong every month to buy milk powder, food, toys and clothing for her, and to buy some complementary food and clothing when I go abroad. Li Hong is not a young mother, but represents the consumption thinking of "mothers who want to give her the best".

In China's second tier cities, mothers like Li Hong are not uncommon. From infants and young children, they try to buy the best food, clothing, toys or school things for their children, hoping that their children will not lose at the starting line.

"Who are children's luxury goods in China's emerging consumer groups? Those who are born in big cities and have good economic environment are the target consumers of luxury brands, and they are more willing to spend their money on children." Wang Depei, vice president of the China Economic Restructuring Research Association and director of Shanghai Fu Kha Economic Prediction Research Institute, said in an interview with the China business newspaper.

In the eyes of many luxury brands, high-end children's wear and children's products market is like a tempting cake, everyone wants to eat. The famous British designer Paul Smith recently launched his first series of children's wear -- Paul Smith Junior; Fendi family's third generation successor, Fendi current accessories director Silvia Venturini Fendi has also recently unveiled the mystery of its high-end children's clothing. It has officially released the new clothing series with the famous brand of Italy, which is released at the Florence Florence children's Wear Exhibition. At the same time, the 2011 spring and summer series of the American fashion brand new children's clothing is also ready for a lively and dynamic style.

In the recently held Pitti Immagine Bimbo children's Wear Exhibition in Florence, Italy, Gucci also officially released the first children's wear series, the 2011 spring summer series, for children and children aged 1 to 8, with a wide range of clothing products. The design director, Frida Giannini, even used all the trademark elements of the brand. Of course, Gucci's signboards, motorcycle leather jackets and leather windbreaker, are simply abbreviated versions of adult clothing.

In fact, many luxury brand designers, from Christian Dior, Burberry to Ralph Lauren, Marc Jacobs, have designed and produced Mini fashion for many years. Among them, Burberry's children's wear is a mature brand of children's clothing, and Philip Lim Kids, Little Marc Jacobs are also the leading brands in the sales of famous brand children's clothing.

Kong Qingxi, assistant director of the Institute of business brand strategy at Communication University of China, said that in the last two years, the budget of high-end consumers has not been reduced to the budget of their children. This has made more and more fashion brands start to focus on the specific market of children's clothing and children's products.

　 Children's gift market with great potential

The trend of luxury gifts as children is becoming more and more obvious. They want to show how special they are.

The brands and designers who have been working hard for many years in the children's wear industry are constantly promoting their children's clothing products with new tricks. For example, Ralph Lauren sells children's stories "The Rl Gang" in the autumn and winter this year.

Xu Shunying, chief creative officer of Ogilvy fashion, believes that the brand marketing strategy of luxury goods is a multiple strategy, from clothing to housing, hotels, travel and other fields, including today's children's clothing. They have many new business practices in the marketing skills and planning strategies of the production line. These innovative and creative product thinking or marketing strategies prove their sensitivity to the market trend and the psychological grasp of consumers.

Before the economic downturn, the adjustment of ideas and categories is something that luxury enterprises must do. And entering children's clothing is one of the obvious adjustment results visible in the market.

"I don't think this is a sudden trend. After all, the market of luxury children's wear industry has been growing in these 10 years. It is one of the few areas that are not affected by the economic crisis, and in the children's clothing industry, the potential of gift making is very huge," Linda McLean, director of fashion in Junior, said in an interview.

Companies such as Dior and D&G sell a lot of brand milk bottles, dolls and baby shoes, all of which are bought as gifts. In addition, over the past 10 years, the public's awareness of brand awareness has also translated into a desire for children's brand products.

Sophie Devonshire, the founder of BabeswithBabies.com, the famous online luxury goods store, said: "at present, the trend of people wanting to use luxury goods as children's gifts is becoming more and more obvious. They want to show how special their gifts are." Whether it is for personal use or delivery, beautiful brand children's clothing is always good and popular.

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According to Bain's 2010 China Luxury Market Research Report, the domestic luxury market is expected to grow at an annual rate of 23% in 2010 (the total consumption of Chinese luxury goods in 2009 has reached about 156 billion yuan). About 67% of the growth will come mainly from new consumers.

The report also pointed out that gift giving is still an important reason for purchasing luxury goods. Gift cash cards are becoming more and more popular. The emergence of gift cards has led to a diversified trend of gifts and brands.

Of course, there are also discordant voices. Penny Nicholls, chairman of Children s Society, a British charity for children, openly criticized: "retailers and adults have the responsibility to protect children from growing under the right values. Otherwise, it will jeopardize the next generation and mislead them to pursue unrealistic and incorrect values and lifestyles.

Relying on traditional outlets is still the mainstream.

Apart from locating retail outlets in the most concentrated part of the target customers, luxury exhibitions will also be an important channel.

Since April 2, 2010, when Dior Baby opened a shop in Shanghai's Hang Lung Plaza, more and more luxury children's brands began to enter the Chinese market. It is understood that Burberry children's clothing in mainland China's first stop is Hangzhou, while Gucci children's clothing is Shanghai as their first choice.

"Luxury children's clothing is several times even more than ten times the price of ordinary children's wear brands," the staff of Hangzhou Tower children's Mall said in an interview. "Dior's sweater is priced at more than 3000 yuan, and the price of winter clothes is between 7000 yuan and 8000 yuan." According to the statistics of the mall staff, although the number of these fashionable brands is not as good as that of ordinary brands, the sales price always occupies the upper position because of the high unit price.

Jia Xiaoyi, a specialist in clothing products sales, told reporters: "the children's clothing market itself is very small. It is not a traditional consumption group by price. The purchase of luxury goods by adults may also depend on factors such as consumption concept and psychological needs, but when they buy children's clothing, they are mostly rational consumption.

There is no denying that some Chinese parents have a conspicuous consumption mentality when they buy children's luxury goods. But Jia Xiaoyi believes that only a small part of the consumer group is interested in luxury children's clothing. When she started researching children's clothing market two years ago, she found that parents pay more attention to practicality and wearability when they buy children's clothing for their children.

Overall, the channel strategy of luxury goods is to maintain a limited coverage of the market, and never provide a large number of products for consumers to choose from in the channel, so that the channels always remain in an unsaturated state. Under the limited premise, we need to complete the effective coverage of the target market as far as possible.

Under the guidance of this strategy, the distribution structure of luxury goods seeks to focus on coverage, focusing on a small number of outlets that have high demand for high-quality services. As for increasing retail outlets, the investigation into new markets will be very detailed and the decision-making period is longer, so as to ensure that every link in the value chain of the channel has high profits and maintain the high market cost required to maintain the noble image of luxury goods. Jia Xiaoyi said: "apart from placing retail outlets in the most concentrated place of target customers, luxury exhibitions will also be an important channel."

As we all know, franchised stores play a very important role in the sales system of luxury goods, and are of great help in establishing their own brands. The flagship store not only has the most complete and latest products, but also embodies the brand spirit and image. "New channels are hard to build, and the outlets for luxury children's clothing are likely to be even fewer than traditional luxury outlets." Jia Xiaoyi said.

Journalist observation

Domestic children's clothing still needs meticulous operation.

First line fashion brands have launched a series of children, luxury brands such as Baby Dior, Little Marc, Ralph Lauren Childrenswear, fashion brands such as Lit, l Earnie by, l, Earnie, and so on, and the American high street brand has also specifically launched organic cotton children's clothing.

According to the analysis data from the China pregnant and infant research center, the world's ten largest children's clothing market, the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, China, India, Russia and Japan, is growing at a speed of 6% to 7% each year. It is expected that by 2012, its retail sales will reach US $131 billion 500 million, of which US children's clothing consumption is the highest in the world, two times that of Western Europe, and 40 times that of the Asia Pacific region.

In the current Chinese children's wear market, 50% of the market share is occupied by international brands or joint venture brands. Among the children's garments made in China, 30% are brand children's wear, while 70% are in the absence of brand. At the same time, due to the lack of clear positioning, many domestic children's clothing enterprises soon fell into a low level of competition, homogenization and price war.

"Luxury brands entering the children's wear market is an opportunity to integrate and standardize the market for children's clothing in China." Kong Qingxi, assistant director of the Institute of business brand strategy, Communication University of China, said.

After more than ten years of development, China's children's clothing industry has made some achievements, such as "weaving lane" and "ring Market". However, serious homogenization production is also troubling enterprises in "children's wear town". It is understood that in the city of Foshan, Guangdong, in the area of 5 square kilometers, there are more than 2000 producing children's clothing and supporting enterprises. Regarding this issue, Bao Guoqiang, executive director of the China Association for international cooperation of small and medium-sized enterprises, said in an interview with the media: "the market segmentation of domestic children's clothing is not yet in place. This is also one of the thorny issues that Chinese children's clothing enterprises need to solve."

"Foreign brands do better in market segmentation, and invest more energy. For Chinese enterprises, only by first positioning the market of accurate products and getting rid of the current situation in the market, can we gradually establish and consolidate our brand in the long term market competition. Kong Qingxi said.

　　 In fact, luxury brand children's clothing is mainly faced with high-end consumers, and the impact on China's overall children's wear market is very limited. Jia Xiaoyi, a professional sales expert of clothing products, believes that the entry of luxury children's clothing into the domestic market will make the competition of Chinese children's wear market more and more intense. The current consumption situation in China has shifted from the "quantity consumption" stage to the "brand consumption" stage. The market share of children's clothing enterprises with rough workmanship, design copying and following suit and lack of brand personality will shrink rapidly, and the higher the brand value will have greater market discourse power.