Pathfinder: Brand "Play" Home, Making China'S First Outdoor Brand.

brand

。

In recent years, the total retail sales of outdoor markets in China's emerging markets increased by 48.9% annually, and the total retail sales amounted to RMB 7 billion yuan in 2010. This is a small industry which has also made a gem private listed company.

What kind of Pathfinder is the Pathfinder?

With what capabilities did he win the leading position in the outdoor industry?

What do those criticisms mean to the Pathfinder?

Is that the truth?

How far is he from a great brand?

Brand story

If a good start is half the battle, then the Pathfinder founder Sheng Faqiang discovered the folding leisure tent at the end of 1994, which is a successful start.

Seeing this tent product, its strong eyes brighten up and negotiations with the patent owner.

The other side offered 200 thousand yuan, and finally bought a strong 5000 yuan.

The reason for this is a good start because tents are located in an emerging industry with a relatively high market growth rate and relatively easy to grab profits in a new industry.

It is understood that the profit rate of the outdoor industry was 800%, which was a super huge profit.

This kind of tent not only enabled Sheng Fa to complete the original accumulation of his pioneering work, but also strengthened his determination to go deep into the outdoor industry.

Outdoor practitioners generally believe that Pathfinder is the most famous brand in the outdoor industry, and its success is largely due to the success of brand operation.

Sheng Faqiang told reporters that as soon as he moved to Beijing, he decided not to use tent as a business, but to prepare a company in the outdoor industry and create a famous brand.

The "brand" plot was long established when it was strong enough to go to school. He believed that the brand was a symbol of establishing trust relationship with consumers, and believed that in the outdoor industry, he might be able to change the phenomenon of foreign brands monopolizing Chinese shopping malls.

Ten years later, Sheng Fa Qiang did, and the Explorer brand store opened all over the country's major shopping malls.

We have our own views on how to build brands and to grow stronger.

Seen in Europe, the Germans proudly opened their own Mercedes Benz, BMW and Volkswagen. The French opened their Renault freely, and the Italians were in love with their Ferrari. In South Korea, many people never seem to know any other brands except modern and Daewoo.

"At this time, the worm that we call the" brand complex "starts to squirm, and when China can have famous cars that call the world, not just the auto industry, but also in all fields, Chinese people are too eager to create their own brand names.

Therefore, Sheng Fa Qiang thought of injecting the brand of the Pathfinder into the national culture.

This positioning made him like a commonweal activist many times.

After 2005, before the explosive growth of China's outdoor industry, the Pathfinder launched the theme of "protecting the Tibetan antelope in July 2005. We have been taking action - the Pathfinder's ecological care action in the west", to promote the protection of the Tibetan antelope and the western ecological environment together with consumers.

2004, the two years of 2005 are the period of rapid development of Pathfinder.

Xu Rulin, a senior outdoor personage, said that the outdoor market had just started and there were few outdoor people.

A lot of advertising can be done by the Pathfinder, and it can really publicize the outdoors and cultivate the market.

An enterprise starts shouting at the beginning of the whole industry, and insists on staying longer, so there will be more people who know and remember.

If at the height of the industry, a newly joined enterprise starts shouting, even if the voice of the Pathfinder is bigger, the attention will not be many unless the enterprise has a disruptive product.

All along, the Pathfinder has sponsored several mountaineering teams from Renmin University of China and Tsinghua University. Wang Yong Feng, captain of the Chinese mountaineering team, is one of the spokesmen of the Pathfinder.

Another heavyweight spokesman for the Pathfinder is Wang Shi.

For Wang Shi's endorsement fee and endorsement years, Sheng Qiang avoided talking, but he revealed from another side that Wang Shi donated the money to the public welfare undertakings in the name of him and Pathfinder, and the donation project in 2009 was "Beida Mountain Club".

{page_break}

Borrow arrows with thatched boats

Marketing people know that channel is king, access is the key to brand building and expansion, and it is the main right to win brand competition.

The Pathfinder did not enter the outdoor outlets which were easy to enter but difficult to control, but instead kept in the more mature channels of shopping malls.

Throughout the Chinese outdoor industry, hundreds of millions of brands can be sold in the outdoor industry, whether it is Kay stone or OZARK.

In China, shopping malls have large traffic flow and large number of target groups. The most important point is that people generally believe that there is no fraud and product quality, so the cost of brand communication is greatly reduced.

When the Pathfinder enters the mall, it means "Hong Kong and Macau Pass".

By coincidence, Pathfinder, Keller stone (the most fashionable outdoor brand Patagonia's foundries) and OZARK try to take the shopping mall channel and develop the distribution system at this time. After all, they set up direct stores, funds, personnel and operation capabilities.

So we can only use grass boats to borrow arrows.

The reason why the Pathfinder can borrow arrows is that the industry at that time was like the fertile soil which had not been developed, and the profit rate was very high. In the market, there were just a large number of experienced dealers in shopping malls who were looking for new projects. Moreover, along with the rapid shipment of "Pathfinder" tents for 8 years, the popularity increased significantly.

Similar to the low price strategy of the product pricing strategy, in the franchise policy, it is also well prepared, and does not accept the franchise fee. It also provides franchisees with shop support, such as decoration costs.

"The Pathfinder is still a small company. This is done to make the brand better landing, so that more consumers can know and are convenient to buy the Pathfinder."

Sheng Faqiang said.

Opening shop has become the most important thing for the Pathfinder at that stage.

In a fast-growing market, enterprises are more likely to gain the leading position by acquiring market size first, and then optimizing operation efficiency when the scale is competitive.

As of December 31, 2010, the total number of chain stores has reached 666, of which 98 are direct stores and 568 are franchisees. Compared with the number of newly opened stores at the end of 2009, the number of new outlets is 185. In 2010, there were 150 newly opened stores, and more than 70% sales were coming from franchised stores every year.

Until now, sales channels still occupy an important position in the strategic planning of the company.

More than 90% of the 300 million yuan raised by the gem listing will be used for the laying of the channel network.

After all, the allocation of all resources to the sales channel is the fastest and most effective way to increase sales. A shop has a sales volume. Lining, Anta and others are quick to land in this way.

While determining the important strategy of setting up stores in the mall, Sheng Fa Qiang also imitated the dumbbell business model of the international outdoor brand, that is, to create the business model of the Pathfinder according to the "U" shape smile curve. One is brand building and R & D capability, the other is market operation and marketing, which mainly refers to the channel capacity and the strong introduction. These two parts are the higher value-added part of the whole industrial chain, and the added value of the intermediate production links is relatively low, and the company has already realized the complete outsourcing of production links.

Of course, the two sides complement each other, and the channel capacity is closely related to brand building. If the brand building is bad, agents and franchisees will not go forward.

Brand bottleneck

If the brand's popularity is narrowly understood as the brand, the Pathfinder is indeed the best brand in the local outdoor enterprises.

In fact, the brand includes five dimensions: 1, brand loyalty, 2, brand awareness, 3, quality cognition, 4, brand recognition besides quality recognition, 5, other exclusive rights of brand assets - patent rights, trademark and channel relationship, etc. brand awareness is only one dimension in five dimensions.

In an interview, reporters learned that many donkeys had a bad impression on the Pathfinder. They thought that the Explorer sold high priced goods at a low price and sold low quality goods at a low price.

Indeed, the Pathfinder also admitted that during its fast growing 2005, because of the heavy workload of procurement and the lack of proper control, many inferior products were sold.

However, the high standard tent designer insists that the quality of the Pathfinder has always been normal. In his view, the domestic outdoor brand is too small to be plagiarized. However, it often fails to make the best of others. It adds a lot of shortcomings and seriously affects the quality of products.

He criticized, "I personally feel that innovation and quality are very important. Without these, as consumers become more rational and professional, their products will not have long vitality."

However, another 6 year old Beijing outdoor shop owner, Liu Zhiyong, who has been working in the outdoor industry for a long time, said that as a big brand, the quality is definitely not a problem, but it is only slightly inferior to the top international brand, as a medium and low end brand.

For clothing, fabric plays a key role, and the knowledge in fabrics is very deep. It must be tested through 8 indexes, namely, rubbing color fastness, perspiration fastness, light fastness, machine wash fastness, pH value, water color fastness, shrinkage rate and formaldehyde.

Fabric manufacturers "fog rain Lang Chuan" told reporters, "as the largest outdoor Pathfinder in the world, fabric procurement is the largest in Jiangsu, Wujiang, Shengze, and fabrics are similar to HM in volume production. Quality is as good as Metersbonwe!"

Pathfinder product performance testing requirements in the domestic outdoor brand medium, cloth quality standard requirements are common, in Jiangsu Wujiang Shengze textile fabric market as long as the company can do the Pathfinder order, of course, this need to have a very good network with the Pathfinder can receive this order, quality is not important.

Brand loyalty is the center of marketing activities, and it is the standard to measure the customer's dependence on the product.

The higher the brand loyalty is, the weaker the competition activity will attack the customers.

The Pathfinder has no brand accumulation, if the product of the "Pathfinder" mark is removed, even the outdoor industry veteran can not see that the product is produced by the Pathfinder, or even mistaken for Columbia, or TNF, or Jack Wolfskin and other international outdoor brands; a senior tent designer who has discussed and co operated with the Pathfinder even jokes that the outsourced design of the Pathfinder is still a mystery; another former employee who thinks the Pathfinder company is cold blooded indicates that the major private enterprises in the outdoor industry are plagiarizing. However, the plagiarism of the product designer of the Pathfinder is more complex, and which brand is generally popular. Liu Zhiyong told this reporter.

Such a product, consumers certainly have no brand loyalty.

When brand awareness has won the first place, if the brand loyalty and quality awareness can not keep up, it is difficult for enterprises to get the first place on the whole.

If the quality awareness is negative, the brand is likely to be a flash in the pan like the CCTV King's banquet wine, Qin Chi wine and Ido VCD.

Lu Tai Hong, a professor of international marketing at Zhongshan University, said that Chinese enterprises generally attach too much importance to brand awareness, while multinational corporations attach importance to the rich connotation and overall value of the brand.

As the first brand of China's outdoor industry, "Pathfinder" has reached the time to enhance the rich connotation and overall value of the brand, and strengthening product design is the most important part of it, which is one of the necessary means to maintain the competitiveness of the international outdoor brand.