How Can Small And Medium Shoe Enterprises Set Foot On Brand Avenue?

According to relevant statistics, the average life expectancy of Chinese enterprises is only 3.5 years, because the lack of market competitiveness has not become a strong brand.

As far as shoe industry is concerned, competition is fierce year by year. Branding competition has brought heavy pressure to small and medium shoe enterprises.

For small and medium-sized shoe enterprises pursuing the brand Avenue, brand is not only a pursuit and dream, but also an enterprise killer that can not be ignored. How should we choose?

With regard to several topics that are generally concerned by small and medium shoe enterprises, the senior people in this industry are invited to give answers, hoping to provide some insights for the development of small and medium-sized shoe enterprises.

1, do you want to be a channel or a brand?

We are a small leather shoes manufacturer in Jiangsu. Before selling products through wholesale channels, we can have considerable profits as long as the products are good. But in recent years, the phenomenon of agent turnover has gradually appeared. The main reason is that the traditional wholesale business mode has been unable to adapt to the market changes, and the rise of mainstream sales channels such as department stores, business super stores and monopolization has made us more and more marginalized.

We must develop new channels immediately, but we need to create brand image.

Is there any way to maintain the original excellent agents, expand channels and control channels, and pform channel advantages into brand advantages?

Experts answer: first of all, it is a more contradictory topic for small and medium-sized shoe companies to build a brand image first.

Through the pioneering and development of the 90s of last century, most shoemaking enterprises have been excavating the first barrel of gold through simple production and processing, and now they are generally faced with the difficult problem of enterprise upgrading.

The current situation of shoemaking enterprises such as homogenization and excessive market demand will also result in a number of enterprises being eliminated because they do not conform to the mainstream competition rules.

So, what is the mainstream competitiveness of the current shoemaking enterprises?

First, channel is the first step. Brand guard channel is one of the mainstream competitiveness of shoemaking enterprises.

Enterprises focus on resources, combined with their own advantages, and focus on developing mainstream channels such as department stores, shopping malls or exclusive stores. Apart from expanding sales, they can also indirectly shape consumers' image of the brand.

However, if there is no brand support, the construction process of mainstream channels will be slow and prone to sudden changes. In addition, the brand image created by a single mainstream channel is not solid enough to be easily surpassed by competitors.

All these require shoe enterprises to have comprehensive thinking. After having a certain number of mainstream channels, they will further consolidate and enlarge the brand image accumulated by the channel and realize the sustainable development of enterprises through the development of more diversified mainstream channels with their brand image.

Two. Brand opens up, channels follow closely the way of brand opening, and the channel follows closely is the second way of shoemaking enterprises.

Without the support of brands, the process of channel mainstreaming is rather slow and extremely difficult, and the probability of failure is quite high.

The co construction of the market is not a unilateral business. It needs the cooperation of sales channels and resources.

If the enterprise takes the lead in concentrating resources, carries out the early brand building, establishes the confidence of channel resources, and helps to enlarge the achievements of brand building according to the circumstances, it may pry the channel resources together to build the mainstream channel, and complete the goal of mutual supplement and mutual promotion between the brand and the channel.

The key lies in the above two ways: relying too much on brands or relying too much on brands or relying too much on channels, and do not make use of the sustainable operation of enterprises.

(2) lending or financing or strategic investment?

We are a leather shoe manufacturer in Wenzhou. Since 2000, we have hired the image spokesperson and put it into advertising, and the market has gradually improved. In 2003, the revenue reached 160 million yuan.

Since entering 2003, the competition rules of the whole leather shoes industry have begun to change. The original wholesale mode of sale is gradually replaced by the brand mode dominated by monopolization.

Today, there is no first-class terminal image, the brand seems to be difficult to carry out, but we missed the opportunity to improve the terminal. It is late today that we have formally determined to do the terminal monopoly system.

But if the brand wants to achieve the market rank and influence in 03 years, there must be considerable cash reserves.

Now we are faced with two paths, either borrowing or selling shares to introduce investors.

Since we have been self-sufficient since we run factories, there is such a big gap in financing now. It is really a contradiction to give up, or to borrow money, or to introduce strategic investment.

What worries us most is that if it is handled carelessly, the enterprise may become someone else.

Experts answer: "money is not enough" is a common problem for all small and medium-sized enterprises. Enterprises are small and want to expand rapidly. Whether they are upgrading equipment, building factories, or putting into the market and advertising, they are all "burning money".

For a long time, influenced by the planned economy, coupled with self-reliance and self-reliance, most Chinese are not accustomed to various means of financing in the market economy.

Because of the strangeness and fear of Western firms' bank loans, fund private-equity and strategic financing, many Chinese enterprises often choose to give up after interfering in uncertainty and interfere with the growth of enterprises.

It is a common problem for SMEs to grasp the key points and deal with the worries of shoe manufacturers in the case.

They worry that borrowing too much money will not be enough. In the end, they may turn into a share selling enterprise and turn their efforts into naught.

In fact, there is no need to worry about this. As long as the enterprise can make a scientific assessment, raise the level of capital operation, borrow appropriate capital within the scope of risk control, and get the repayment of investment return, it can solve the gap between the demand for funds and seize the market opportunity, so as to maintain the autonomy of enterprises.

Self sufficiency is the best means of financing at the beginning of an enterprise. Many entrepreneurs, partners and others can get enough capital to start operations.

However, if the enterprise wants to be bigger and stronger, every step implies that more capital and resources should be invested in the short term than the competitors. All this is far from enough to rely solely on the operating income of the enterprise and the "private money" of the elder of the enterprise. Lending has become an ideal financing means for the development stage of the enterprise.

When lending to banks still can not solve the larger financing gap of enterprises, they should also be good at obtaining private capital loans, and multi-channel and multi means capital lending can also reduce some risks.

At present, most of the small and medium sized shoe enterprises are not able to use the financing means such as listing and strategic investment. We will not discuss them for the time being.

3, can the way of "star + advertisement" go through?

We are a sports shoe enterprise in Fujian. Before this, our company mainly engaged in export business of sports shoes. Recently, with the change of export trade environment, our company turned to focus on developing domestic market.

But at present, the competition in the domestic sports shoes market has been extremely fierce. Without advertising and celebrity endorsement, it seems that it is not a brand, so it is difficult to promote investment and promotion.

What should we do? Do we have to ask celebrities to endorse and advertise so that we can shape the brand?

Experts answer: 1. At a specific time, some specific marketing modes tend to have strong market competitiveness.

The marketing mode of "star + advertising" adapted to many business pformation opportunities at the beginning of this century, effectively helped many sports shoes enterprises to go through the first step of brand building, and even formed a popular "Jinjiang mode".

The mode of "star + advertising" is more suitable for the enterprises in the early stage of operation promoted by means of agency channels. In the early stage, it can build confidence with the "star + advertising" as the agent channel, create a better distribution market and open up the market, so it is favored by enterprises and agents.

Through this mode, many brands have promoted a certain popularity in a relatively short period of time, and developed a number of cooperative agents, thus promoting the nationwide listing and promotion of products.

Two. Times are changing, and the demand for marketing level is getting higher and higher. The single "star + advertisement" is no longer what it used to be.

All the people who have been to Jinjiang are most impressed by the "star arena" on both sides of the road. In fact, the connection between the stars and the enterprises behind them has become increasingly blurred. "Star + advertising" has long shifted the role to become a basic condition for the competition in the sports shoes industry, rather than the core force. When the shoe industry has such resources, it is obvious that it is difficult for them to share the resources of the sales channels, unless they can make breakthroughs in quantity, such as spending more money to hire world-class stars and spending more money on advertising, so as to gain a competitive advantage through the breakthrough in quantity.

But this kind of investment must be strictly costing and risk assessment, otherwise it will cause serious waste of resources and bury the growth of mines for enterprises.

A single "star + advertising" mode has been unable to complete the important task of brand building.

Based on the "star + advertising", we can enhance the product development, enhance production technology and efficiency, export market management, and promote the comprehensive competitiveness of sales channels. Under the current circumstances, we can realize the dream and pursuit of brand building.

(4) family or professional team?

We are a women's shoes enterprise. Through the efforts of the entrepreneurial team for over ten years, our annual sales performance has achieved nearly 2 hundred million.

But from 2003 onwards, sales scale began to linger.

At the beginning of 2005, after the discussion, we introduced the professional team. We dug 7 or 8 people from a first-line brand high salary, and focused on the research and development, production, marketing, brand and other work. Apart from finance, the original entrepreneurial team mostly withdrew from the management and retained only the board position.

The 2 year will soon be over. In 2005, though the business revenue was 3 hundred million, it was almost the same figure in 2006. But in the past 2 years, the business expenditure has increased by about 80000000.

Is it suitable for family businesses or professional teams like ours?

(1) family management mode still has strong vitality in a short period of time. Chinese enterprises have a special feature, that is, restricted by the pformation of market economy. Most enterprises (private enterprises) are in the stage of entrepreneurship. The management team is the first generation of entrepreneurial team, because their starting point is low, the foundation is thin, the level of education is low, and the scope of vision is narrow. If we find that the scale of enterprises is not large and the performance is lingering, the first reaction is often, "is the problem on the team of our own entrepreneurs?"

In fact, this kind of psychology is not scientific.

Of course, entrepreneurial teams are family members with a low starting point and weak foundation. But when they start from the very beginning of their business, they share the same breath and fate with the enterprise. No one knows their business better than them. This is very important for business operation.

The case shows that after the women's shoes company hired the outside team to go airborne, it launched a massive enterprise marketing and brand promotion. Although it also increased the sales revenue by 1 hundred million, it only increased the profit margin of less than 20 million after the 1 hundred million. It did not represent a fundamental change in the position, share and brand influence of the enterprise in the market.

It is a failure for the enterprise to introduce a professional team. The reason for its failure lies in the fact that in addition to the comprehensive factors such as products, it is the introduction of a professional team.

Two. Gradual management mode is more suitable for small and medium-sized enterprises. Most enterprises have a gradual process in the management of the development process -- "patriarchal system - family system - occupation system - system culture system".

According to our research, for the huge market in China, the parent system is not very inflexible when the annual sales volume is less than 2 hundred million in the areas of consumer goods and daily necessities. When the annual turnover is less than 5 hundred million, the family system still has a wide range of vitality. When the turnover is over 5 hundred million, the external force will start.