Exclusive Interview With Xu Tingyuan, Chairman Of Small Women's Underwear: Pulse Chinese Underwear Market

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Xu Tingyuan, chairman of the small women underwear enterprise group, invited her from the perspective of insiders to "steer the pulse" for the domestic underwear market.

Reporter: Thank you. Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to be interviewed.

First of all, please briefly talk about the development of underwear market in China.

With the improvement of people's living standard, women pay more and more attention to the health, comfort and dressing quality of clothing. As a chain of "beautiful and healthy industry", the underwear industry also develops rapidly.

According to the relevant statistics of China Apparel Industry Association, China sells 3-4 billion bras per year, while knitted underwear accounts for about 25% of the total sales of five categories of clothing, namely men, women, children, sweaters and knitted underwear.

This shows that China's underwear sales market is very large, and maintained a good growth momentum.

The potential size of China's underwear retail market is huge and its supply and marketing capabilities remain at a high level.

Take our "Little Women" as an example. The small woman has joined more than three thousand stores in just three years, and the market share has soared. This shows that the underwear market has broad prospects and rapid development.

Reporter: Xu, can you talk about the trend of the underwear market in China?

Xu: at present, domestic underwear presents two trends: first, the regional concentration trend.

For example, underwear manufacturers in China are mainly distributed in Guangdong, Zhejiang, Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu and other places.

Just a small commodity city in Yiwu, Zhejiang, there are hundreds of underwear and home enterprises.

The two is the layering of underwear.

High end products are basically mature.

These high-end brands such as Ttiumph, admiring and little women usually pay more attention to the color, R & D, style, quality, new materials, and the overall brand culture and corporate culture. The product launch is also showing a series of distinctive characteristics, and all aspects are maturing.

The mid-range brand has sprung up.

The price advantage of the mid-range underwear has provided some good opportunities for some underwear enterprises, such as Dalian Sang Fulan, Zhejiang water flower, Chaoyang brand and so on. The brand has also started a surge of mid-range brand in the underwear industry.

Three line underwear gradual pformation.

In this case, the market still takes the absolute advantage. Now the brands represented by Xue Nifang, Xia Daifang and so on are facing the disordering of the market competition, and they begin to carry out the marketization operation of the brand gradually.

Whether it is an inflection point or a starting point, the more than 10 years of China's underwear industry has come to a critical point of rational regression and pformation. With the pformation and upgrading of the underwear industry in China, the survival of underwear enterprises with low strength and low added value will be more and more difficult.

Under such a trend, the turning point of the underwear industry will be shocked: the inflection point must be there, only to see who it is.

The turning point means new reshuffle. Many enterprises will withdraw from the market center stage. At the same time, the turning point is accompanied by new opportunities, and enterprises will take the turning point as a new starting point to take off quickly.

For all the Chinese underwear brands, how can we turn the inflection point into a new starting point and break through successfully when the underwear industry has undergone profound changes?

1, one of the characteristics: scattered market.

With the rise of China's market economy, the underwear industry is developing at a high speed. Underwear has become the most dynamic, fastest growing and most promising branch of Chinese industry.

Whether conventional underwear, body underwear, thermal underwear, clothing, bra, bottompants and so on, have become hot spots in China's clothing market.

According to reports, the domestic underwear market has a capacity of 500 billion yuan, with annual sales of 500 - 200 billion, and is growing by 20% per year.

The young Chinese underwear industry has burst out of vigorous development, and the huge market cake has attracted numerous nibbling people.

Although eight or nine years ago, China's underwear market was listed as the core battleground by many foreign brands and local brands. But so far, there has not been a leading brand that has absolutely overwhelming strength, and the market is far less mature than other fast selling products such as food and daily chemicals.

Although the underwear market structure is beginning to mature, there are emerging representative brands in their respective fields. For example, high-end bras are led by women, Ttiumph, Wacoal, Ann Li Fang and Ordifen; men's high-end underwear is led by Shu Ya, Bai Fu and Danba degrees; home clothes such as autumn deer, Phoenix and Connie, and so on, and local brands such as thermal underwear, cat, three guns, and so on, occupy one side of the market.

But at present, most of the underwear market in China is eaten up by some miscellaneous armies. In China's underwear market with annual sales of 500 to 200 billion, as the leading brand of women's underwear brand, Vitoria's secret, the male underwear brand Shu Ya, their sales volume is less than a few hundred billion and a hundred billion.

This fully reflects: at present, China's underwear industry presents a typical fragmented industrial characteristics, many enterprises are competing, no enterprise has a significant market share, nor any enterprise can have a significant impact on the development of the whole industry.

2, characteristic two: low level competition

The huge market capacity and development prospect of the underwear industry is very tempting. At the same time, because of its low technology content and low entry threshold, many manufacturers have been attracted by the low entry threshold. As a result, the original brand that has been processed and its mature brand has also created a new brand to share a cup of cake, and more and more brands have entered the market.

The market is divided up by many small and medium-sized brands, and different levels of brands are segmented in different markets.

The competition among brands is mainly manifested in the lower level of competition, such as product competition, channel competition and price competition. Price wars, concept wars, advertising campaigns, celebrity wars and so on are emerging in a variety of market means. The brands that really rely on brands to drive sales are few, resulting in the underwear market entering a disorderly competition era.

Or bloody or gorgeous, or pleasantly surprised or lost, and the feelings of enterprises that have gone through various campaigns are different.

However, with the development of the market now, when the price war, the concept war, the advertising campaign and other kinds of campaigns are dispersed, many enterprises have gained a common feeling: although they have been scarred by various battles, consumers seem to be reluctant to buy it, and the market seems to be in no way to buy it.

What does this mean? In the fierce competition of low level competition, and how to cope with the fierce competition in the increasingly mature industry and the gradual decline of profits, how should the underwear enterprises respond?

The development of an industry must undergo a turning point test.

Only when faced with crises and experienced reflection and revision of the whole industry will the industry mature.

As a young industry, China's underwear industry has been developing in a high spirit for more than a decade.

The more than 10 year's Chinese underwear industry has come to a critical point of rational regression and pformation.

Industry is maturing in reincarnation and pformation, rational regression and industry competition upgrading will become the general trend of China's underwear market in the future.

1, standardized operation can continue to develop.

After more than 10 years of development, the underwear industry has begun to grow from maturity to maturity. Underwear has become popular and popular. It has become a necessity for people's lives. With the maturity of people's consumption consciousness, the era of profiteering has already ended and the profit has become more rationalized. Only by relying on a concept, a star, a trade promotion, and so on, the marketing mode of distributors and consumers will be terminated. Underwear enterprises must re-examine the market operation from the perspective of strategy and industry. The probability of success of opportunists will be lower and lower, and the sustainable development of them must rely on standardized operation.

The development of an industry will go through the stages of introduction, growth and maturity.

After the baptism of advertising campaigns, star wars, concept wars and price wars, China's underwear market will gradually begin to standardize in disorder, and start rational regression. It will usher in new changes and challenges in the popularization, branding, differentiation and systematization.

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Reporter: what are the problems in the underwear market in China?

Xu: during the 3-15 period, the number of cases of underwear complaints increased. On the one hand, this shows that consumers are fully aware of the importance of underwear, and have higher requirements for the quality of underwear. On the other hand, they also show that underwear manufacturers are eager to gain instant benefits and have a serious mentality, and the market order is not healthy enough.

As far as my personal view is concerned, there are five main problems in the underwear market at present: first, the brand is numerous and the crowd is mixed up; two, the industry is low in technical content, the market is not standard, and the competition is intense; three, the brand consciousness is weak; four, the market operation method is single; five, the phenomenon of heavy distribution, the confusion of the market, and the irrational speculation.

2, upgrading from low level competition to brand competition.

As mentioned earlier, the competition in China's underwear market has remained at a low level of competition for a long time.

Companies are trying to make up their minds in terms of product concepts, but why are these concepts not sustainable? Can not be truly recognized by consumers? Why do many companies fail to push new products every year and change their products every year?

Concept wars, star wars and price wars have led many enterprises to overdraw in a brutal market competition, resulting in a decline in corporate profits, coupled with the short term investment behavior and impetuous psychology of many enterprises, resulting in the fact that enterprises can not really promote the brand to consumers' minds, and can not occupy a favorable position in the minds of consumers.

Market competition is ultimately brand competition.

As consumers become more rational, as the level of consumption continues to improve, brand awareness will also become stronger and stronger. The future market competition will escalate to brand competition.

For underwear enterprises, only by fundamentally shaping the brand and building a strong brand power can the ultimate competitiveness of the market be formed.

3, systematic marketing has the power to kill.

Some people once summed up the marketing operation of the underwear industry as "three one", that is, a concept, a star and a business invitation.

It is undeniable that many underwear enterprises, especially the thermal underwear enterprises, have gained a certain share in the market by virtue of the "three ones" and have obtained certain profits.

However, a chronic disease formed by this mode is that enterprises ignore the systematization of marketing, and the market, channel and terminal network are very fragile, forming a typical "external strength, internal and virtual" marketing mode.

With the gradual maturity of the underwear market, the rationalization of dealers and consumers' rationality and industry profits will be completely changed in the market competition.

China's underwear market competition will be tested by the systematic operational capability of the brand, products, channels and terminals. Only systematic marketing can win the market and benefit.

Breaking the brand: grasp the "turning point" market opportunities

The "turning point" of the development of the underwear industry is a major trend, and the industry is moving towards rational regression and industrial pformation and upgrading, and this process will be accompanied by cruel reshuffle.

For many enterprises, the turning point is coming.

The lack of brand strength and low value-added enterprises will become more and more difficult to survive, and will be marginalized until they withdraw from the market center stage.

On the other hand, the turning point is accompanied by new opportunities, and enterprises will take the turning point as a new starting point to take off quickly.

For all the Chinese underwear brands, how can we turn the inflection point into a new starting point and break through successfully when the underwear industry has undergone profound changes?

1, take advantage of the market: to grasp the fragmented market characteristics of the general trend of success.

Underwear has become a necessity for China's 1 billion 300 million population and tends to fast consumption. This market demand will continue to exist along with the growth of economic level, which determines the existence of large survival space for underwear enterprises.

More importantly, there are typical fragmented market characteristics in the domestic underwear market at present.

This is an era of "everything is possible".

And fragmented markets mean that everyone has market opportunities.

The diversification of consumer demand in the underwear market and the diversification of its subdivision make it possible for everyone to become a particular category or even a leading brand in the industry.

Therefore, enterprises must stand at the height of the whole industry to examine themselves, combine their own resources to make effective strategic decisions in the current competition pattern, and establish their own product positioning, market positioning, target consumer positioning and brand positioning around strategic decisions, integrate social resources, flexibly apply capital operation means and business methods, and assess the situation and launch timely attacks.

2, breaking the essence of the road: brand building to the end

Market competition is ultimately brand competition.

For underwear enterprises, only by fundamentally shaping the brand and building a strong brand power can the ultimate competitiveness of the market be formed.

Therefore, continuous brand building is the first priority for underwear enterprises, and is also the way to success in the industry's turning point.

Brand positioning is the key:

Brand positioning determines who your product will be bought, and determines a series of marketing strategies.

Successful brand positioning is the key to brand success.

For example, small women's underwear is a successful case in the Chinese market with brand positioning.

Reporter: as you mentioned just now, the small woman has joined more than three thousand stores in just three years, and the market share has soared.

The small woman has also won the honor of "China's ten largest underwear brand", "the world's ten largest underwear brand", "the 3.15 quality trustworthy brand of the state", "national inspection free product" and "international quality certification system ISO certification".

I ask, in the face of such opportunities and challenges, what measures have been taken by the little woman to achieve such a remarkable achievement?

Xu: in the domestic underwear market, the competition is encouraging and the pattern is reshuffling rapidly. If we want to make a difference in the market, the key is the competitiveness of our products.

Competitiveness includes product quality and product culture.

The quality of products is better, and the cultural connotation of enterprises should conform to people's pursuit of high quality of life.

The "little woman" is trying to improve competitiveness in these two aspects.

Quality, we build high-tech underwear, to deal with market challenges.

Our underwear is checked by top fashion designers. After dozens of processes, it is beautifully tailored, innovative design, advanced fabrics, combined with Asian women's body, making full use of human mechanics and skin structure to identify the main focus of the human body. It is designed strictly according to the proportion of women's chest and surrounding structure, pushing the healthy shaping revolution to a new height, providing high-tech protection for the most delicate parts of women.

One of the simplest "Little Women" underwear requires at least twelve different versions to splice, four to sixty processes, and to consider different editions and materials for different consumer groups and functions.

In terms of cultural connotation and corporate positioning, our little woman has also made a precise positioning, that is, let the little women's underwear become a beautiful spokesperson and become a symbol of status and status.

The psychological needs of consumers are our starting lights. We have found through market research that 70% of consumers buy underwear not only for their style and color, but also for the value of underwear.

For example, we have introduced the series of products of the Chinese style women's private clothing Square: yellow silk love, the love of the fallen city, all kinds of competition, wonderful footpaths, jungle wild fun, hundred years old harmony, new silk meaning, blue fairy, West Lake Xiaoyue, the age of cardamom and so on. These highly artistic and poetic products are loved by consumers.

We have been insisting on giving underwear a dream like beauty, so called "just outside the cloud window".

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Culture promotes brand:

What is the "bow" of countless fashion designers at the Paris fashion show in 2006? It is China's cheongsam. When Chinese characteristics are integrated with products, the application of these Chinese elements has aroused strong concern in the fashion world.

Chinese culture and elements have become the focus of attention of various brands. For example, Nike's "China Red" series is the application of Chinese culture and elements.

In fact, when China's traditional culture is neglected by ourselves, foreign enterprises are digging into Chinese culture, making full use of Chinese elements in products, and achieving good results.

It is worth recollection that when those foreign brands used Chinese elements, they in turn won the favor of consumers in the Chinese market.

Therefore, for domestic underwear enterprises, in the process of building brand, we should take advantage of Chinese local culture and elements to enrich the brand connotation and form the brand's unique competitiveness.

Attach importance to brand communication

In the era of brand consumption, if there is no strong brand influence, there will be no core competitiveness.

Brand influence is the key to brand communication. Underwear industry has many successful cases of brand communication, such as Ttiumph, love, little women, etc.

The lingerie brand has always been famous for its dreamy and gorgeous fashion lingerie show.

In 2001, the fashionable underwear show, which was directed by Hongkong fashion director, the dream of drunken neon bridge, launched a new round of underwear fashion trend. It lasted for 16 weeks, touring 30 cities and performing nearly 200 games. The spread of the brand has surpassed the underwear show itself.

In 2002, Beijing's admirers also joined hands with general review and held a large fashion underwear show to admire Dunhuang. With unique creativity, brand new ideas and advanced performance, the love and strength, fashion, culture and humanized brand connotation were fully displayed.

These are effective means of brand communication.

Reporter: in addition to quality and corporate culture, what do you think is more important in market competition?

Xu: good faith.

Treat others with sincerity, borrow a popular word now, "if you are the one".

We insist on being honest to consumers and trustworthy to join franchisees.

"We should pay attention to communication and communication with consumers and understand their real needs."

The "little woman" takes various forms, such as sampling surveys, visits, surveys, online surveys, birthday gifts, little women carnivals, etc., to interact with consumers and build bridges with consumers.

According to the actual situation of the franchisee, our little women, from the store design, decoration, clothing placement, business training and other one-stop services, help the franchisee to operate the brand and successfully rely on the small women underwear brand.

However, we are successful, thanks to the trust of consumers and the support of franchisees.

Reporter: I heard that you like poetry writing very much, and you have a lot of achievements.

Here is a poem you wrote in person, "butterfly love flower". "The West Lake lakeside is enjoying the spring, the wind is supporting the willow willows, and the number of gold is fine."

Gossamer gossamer dance catkins, but drunk "little woman", Hong Xing Xiu Chun Gu; Fu Qin shy and spring language, but surprised Xu Xu nowhere.

"Artistic conception is beautiful and beautiful, with strong traditional Chinese flavor.

Excuse me, Xu general, is this related to your company's market pursuit and cultural connotations?