Bestseller: China's Operating Myth Of "Denmark's Light"

The hometown of Andersen, the famous fairy tale master, is known as the "Kingdom of fairytale" Denmark, which is a distant but not intimate country for Chinese people.

The sense of distance caused by the barrier of mountains and waters brings a mysterious veil to the kingdom of Nordic, but whenever we mention the familiar fairy tales of "the daughter of the sea", "the little match girl" and "the ugly duckling", the unreachable "fairyland kingdom" seems to have been around us all the time, accompanied by generations of innocent Chinese children to have a wonderful childhood.

However, Denmark's exports to China are not only classic fairy tales, but also fashion fashions with strong European customs.

Most Chinese youngsters have seen or heard of Only, Jack&Jones and Vero Moda, which are popular brands in many major shopping malls, many of them even loyal buyers of these brands, and these famous brands are the sub brands of Bestseller group, a famous international fashion company in Denmark.

Bestseller was founded in 1975. At the beginning of its establishment, Bestseller concentrated its efforts on developing popular women's clothing. In recent years, Bestseller has been developing strongly in fashion women's clothing market. In 1987, Bestseller began to introduce children's wear product line.

Shortly afterwards, the men's clothing brand Jack&Jones was launched in 1989, which was highly sought after by the market.

So far, Bestseller has 12 brands, including Vero Moda, Only, Vila, Name It/Newborn, Selected, Jack&Jones and so on, and has more than 5200 outlets in more than 40 countries. It has been sitting firmly in Denmark's fashion industry for many years.

In 1996, Bestseller set up a wholly-owned subsidiary of Beijing fashion fashion in Xidan, and opened the first Only fashion ladies store in Beijing.

In the next year, bestseller opened 24 Only stores in 9 big cities, including Beijing and Shanghai.

With its unique design and exotic European style, Only for the first time let young women in metropolis for the first time see what is international fashion.

Since then, bestseller has launched two other main brands, Jack&Jones and Vero Moda, which have won the favor of many young urban men and women and quickly become the leading brands in the field of fashion apparel.

At present, Bestseller has been stationed in more than 300 cities above the county level in China, with a total number of 2910 stores, with annual sales exceeding 5 billion yuan, accounting for more than 1/3 of its global sales.

As Denmark's most successful multinational company in China, what has created the myth of Bestseller's operation in China?

In the European continent with fashionable capital such as Milan and Paris, there is a clear hierarchy of clothing brands.

From the top brands in Pyramid, such as Prada, Valentino and Versace, to the mid-range brands such as Hugo Boss, and to a large number of popular fashion brands such as Zara, H&M and Bestseller, they all have their own clear market positioning and specific target consumer groups.

As early as the start of the company's business, Bestseller established its own characteristics of high quality and low price. As the first multinational garment enterprise to enter the mainland market of China, Bestseller just started the old way of other multinational companies: directly importing products from abroad, and selling them without making any design modifications.

But Bestseller soon discovered that in the middle of 90s, the purchasing power of Chinese consumers was generally not high. The price of Only was higher than that in Europe, and only a small number of consumers could afford it.

Moreover, unlike the European consumers who have long been influenced by fashion, most Chinese consumers have no idea of the real fashion. The standard of choosing clothes is still at the stage of "price is right" and "style is almost the same".

As a result, Only's target market is actually a relatively small market. Only foreigners in China and a small number of people with high incomes and keen pursuit of fashion can make Bestseller's growth in China very limited.

After in-depth investigation, Bestseller found that young people in large and medium-sized cities such as Beijing and Shanghai already have certain purchasing power. They are relatively fashionable but lack fashion identification ability.

However, the high price of the international first-rate clothing brands is "astronomical" for ordinary people. Some of the domestic low-end brands are of uneven quality and lack of characteristics to meet their demand for fashion. While the famous international public group, such as UNIQLO, Zara, Gap and so on, have not focused their attention on this market, though the potential is unlimited, but the fashion has not yet become a trend.

In the face of the serious lack of strong mid-range fashion brands in China's clothing market, Bestseller quickly revised the market positioning and locked the target consumer groups in the 20~35 year old urban young men and women. The price also fully reflected the location of the brand names (summer wear 250~550 yuan, winter dress 400~1000 yuan).

This precise positioning enables Bestseller to maximize the ability to acquire a large number of fashion consumers who have a certain spending power, and at the same time, has laid the most solid foundation for Bestseller to seize the market in all major department stores in a short span of several years.

At the same time, in order to achieve the global unified pricing strategy and make it more competitive in China, and in order to make full use of China's low-cost labor resources advantages, the Bestseller without processing plants will be outsourced to domestic suppliers in the production and processing links of all garments sold in China.

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Brand combination: four brands are their "bits".

Bestseller has many well known brands. Apart from the popular fashions for urban men and women, there are fashion clothes and accessories for children (EXIT) and teenagers. However, after careful consideration of the attitudes and needs of Chinese mass consumers towards fashion, Bestseller has just introduced the three traditional brands of its flagship: Only, Vero Moda and Jack&Jones, while another famous fashion brand EXIT has not been introduced.

Only is located in young urban girls aged 18 to 25. Only's clothing series has a very high degree of personalization and unique fashion attitude. Its style is full of vitality, and its inspiration comes from the most popular pop spot of the season. It is suitable for all kinds of relaxing leisure occasions such as outing, friends gathering, campus life and so on.

Vero Moda is the first fashion woman dress brand founded by Bestseller, and also its "pillar" brand. It entered the Chinese market in 2001. It is a professional casual dress for 25~35 mature urban women. Its style is concise and its color is striking. It fully demonstrates the brand personality of elegant, sexy and self-confidence. It is the first choice for many white-collar women.

Jack&Jone is designed for casual, fashionable and fashionable men between the ages of 18 and 30. It is unique in style and vivid in profile. It is one of the most popular jeans garment brands in Europe. It was introduced into China in 1999, and is the leader of casual clothing brands for young men.

In 2008, in order to further expand its share in the Chinese market, Bestseller also launched a series of business casual brands, Selected, designed for fashion men. They are simple in design but not in fashion taste. They focus on professional tailoring and emphasize detailed design.

These four brands are clearly positioned to meet the needs of fashion consumers in different segments of the market. Bestseller, through the establishment of a strong brand portfolio to implement multi brand strategy, is not only conducive to the development of this new fashion clothing market, but also helps to limit the expansion opportunities of competitors while maximizing the coverage of the market.

Esprit, Etam, Azona, Mango and other pnational well-known fashion apparel brands are very similar to the brand of Bestseller, but they can never shake the market leading position of Only, Vero Moda and Jack&Jones, especially Jack&Jones.

The distinct differences between the 4 brands can reduce the possibility of brand erosion.

Besides, this almost perfect.