Growing Up From Small Tailors To Underwear Experts

Image: at first listen, you will think this "in"

The "big boss" who has worked hard for 20 years will be a middle-aged businessman with big belly.

When Huang Xiao Xiao came to me in a slightly bookish and gaunt way, I was a little out of tune.

The tailor family was born. At the age of 22, Huang Hsiao Xiao started his underwear company with 50 thousand yuan of funds, three houses and ten household sewing machines. Now he has become one of the largest underwear enterprises in East China. He talked about this process from scratch, and he admired himself without any misgiving. He also said "proudly" insisted that underwear business should be carried on to the end.

Guest profile: Huang Xiao Xiao, a Jinhua native of Zhejiang, EMBA of Tsinghua University, is currently the chairman of Zhejiang Asia's underwear chain Group Co., Ltd., and has won the honorary title of Jinhua's outstanding entrepreneur (Taurus Award) and excellent factory director (Manager) of the year.

Starting from the establishment of Shu Mei Underwear Co., Ltd. in 1994, after more than ten years of development, Asia's underwear has become one of the largest bra production enterprises in East China.

One stop shopping concept of private clothes workshop

Moderator: a survey shows that the main factors that consumers consider in buying underwear is brand, fabric, followed by style, quality and price. From the perspective of producers, how will you sort them?

Huang Hsiao: I think the brand is the first, then the underwear is very important is the comfort of wearing, and then the price, in fact, each brand is concerned about the same. Underwear brand attaches great importance to comfort, materials and design styles, because underwear is close to the body, with a higher degree of comfort requirements.

Host: what is the market positioning of Asia's underwear?

Huang Xiao Xiao: now it is mainly aimed at two or three line cities, because our product positioning is medium price, so now the market is mainly based on the two or three line market, mainly in shopping malls and their own stores.

Moderator: survey shows that more than 60% of consumers will choose to buy underwear shop, and how to attract the remaining 40% customers to buy underwear in your store?

Huang Hsiao: we have built a concept of private clothes shop. The underwear series is more comprehensive. It is like a woman's wardrobe, which involves women's pajamas and home clothes. Unlike brassiere stores, they only focus on bra, brassiere is also our flagship, and there are some swimsuits, suspenders and so on. The scale of the store is relatively large, with many styles and many categories.

Host: Why did you think of doing a store like this?

Huang Hsiao Hsiao: at that time, the enterprise decided to make a brand plan. In fact, there were many stores for underwear. We also followed the consumption trend and gave consumers a one-stop shopping experience. This is also in line with our positioning, which is aimed at urban white-collar workers.

Host: what kind of competitive advantage does this form of private clothes bring to Asia?

Huang Hsiao Hsiao: from our sales performance, we can also promote consumption through this mode. For example, buying a bra, buying underwear with a small sling, maybe matching a pair of socks or something else, so that we can promote the performance of our single store.

Moderator: underwear is also a kind of clothing. Underwear also has fashion. What do you think is the fashion of underwear?

Huang Hsiao: now the relationship between underwear and fashion has been very strong. Five years ago, underwear was worn for wearing. But in recent years, I feel very deep, that is, the fashionable colors, patterns and styles of underwear are closely related to fashion and coat.

Underwear has also been worn for many years, and this trend is becoming more and more obvious. For example, this year's popular leopard print, you can immediately have underwear to match your outfit.

It used to be a very simple basic color, white, black, and three colors. Now the color of underwear has changed a lot. With the trend of fashion, underwear can be followed up immediately.

Functionally, the adjustable underwear is no longer a new topic, and it has the function of adjustment through design, which is the direction of underwear development nowadays.

Host: what is the concept of underwear fashion advocated by Ya Qian?

Huang Hsiao Hsiao: because the brand positioning is fashion and elegance, and also takes into account the functionality, so in research and design, it tends to be more elegant, not very fancy fashion concept.

Host: there is a big underwear brand in Vitoria abroad. Do you think China will have or need to have such a big name?

Huang Hsiao: now the underwear industry in China has not yet appeared as such a famous brand as Vitoria secret. It is said that the underwear market has a large capacity, at least one hundred billion of the market capacity. But the real national underwear is the best one, which is more than a billion sales, accounting for a low total market share.

Personally, I think the underwear industry in the next few years, there will be one or two brands to lead the whole industry, now a little leader, everyone is similar, no special outstanding, real brand operation is particularly good, not much now.

Moderator: according to your prediction, which brands are likely to become such a big brand?

Huang Hsiao: what I do better now is Beijing's admiration. It has more potential at present. I think it is possible to be a leader in the underwear industry.

Host: is it your goal?

Huang Hsiao: our positioning is different from them. We are facing the middle consumption market. The brand like Vitoria's secret and admiration is for the high-end market, but our audience is relatively large. In the industry, we call the second line. I think the prospect of the second tier market is very good, and we hope that in the future, Yasia can also make a contribution in the underwear industry.

Men's underwear is mixed.

Moderator: I find a very interesting phenomenon is that many underwear brand managers are men. What do you think is the advantage of men in underwear industry?

Huang Hsiao Hsiao: maybe men look at women's underwear with different angles, such as sensitivity to fashion, including good underwear designers are men, and the top designers are male. Maybe men are more sensitive to underwear design.

Host: is there any disadvantage at the same time?

Huang Hsiao: there are also very convenient places. Especially when visiting the market, a man always goes to the underwear shop. He must be very careful in making underwear, and feel a good feel. People will think you are very strange, so this is very inconvenient.

Sticking to underwear business

Host: How did you get into the underwear industry?

Huang Xiao Xiao: our family has always been done by ancestors.

Including my grandfather's last generation, to my father, to my generation are tailors, in 90s, underwear is very few things, especially in Jinhua, which is a blank market, I felt a very small bust sold dozens of dollars, or there is a great potential for the market, I first sold underwear products, and later felt that this industry can develop, slowly turn to their production, and then make their own brand.

Compere: what difficulties did you encounter at the beginning of the brand?

Huang Hsiao Hsiao: because the industry was first made by Hongkong people and Taiwanese people set up factories in Guangdong. We started here in Zhejiang, and no one else was doing it. My family was one of the biggest difficulties at that time. One of them was talented people. For example, some technical personnel had to go to the outside to hire, there were also some matching industries, and there was a lack of Zhejiang.

Fortunately, I am a tailor too, so I have some technical foundations.

Through nearly twenty years' efforts, Zhejiang has also formed a certain scale industry.

Host: do you still insist on doing it?

Huang Xuxiao: Yes, because I have been in touch with underwear since I started my career. Now it is almost 20 years now. I think it will be my career in the next 20 years or even longer. I will do it. I hope that through my decades of efforts, I can create a brand that is more popular in the domestic garment industry and let everyone accept the brand.

Women need consultant underwear consumption.

Moderator: before we interviewed, we conducted an underwear survey on micro-blog and asked how many men would give their opinions to women in choosing underwear. As a result, less than 40% of men would take part in it. What do you think of male participation?

Huang Hsiao: it is very important for men to give advice to women in underwear, but now the society has not reached a large scale. Even most men are shy about their underwear.

This may be related to the concept of consumption. Women themselves know what kind of clothing they are suitable for. They also buy their own cups, and they do not find that male participation is so important.

Underwear is still a part of privacy. Nowadays, the society has already opened a lot. When we did underwear for men like a decade ago, we were very embarrassed to enter the underwear shop.

Now that society is developing, it is normal for men to buy underwear in underwear stores, but the proportion of suggestions is not very high. Moreover, women need consultant style underwear consumption. This is very common in foreign countries. Professionals have related suggestions for your body shape, tell you a little bit of relevant knowledge, how to dress and choose correctly, which can be done through professional training staff, and the participation of men is not so important.

Try to wear underwear first.

Host: from the perspective of the opposite sex, what aspects do you think women's taste should be reflected?

Huang Hsiao Hsiao: from wearing and speaking and manners, dressing can embody the taste of women, which can be seen.

Host: how would you advise women to choose underwear?

Huang Hsiao: it's best to try at a store and give you some suggestions by consulting salesmen, so that you can buy underwear that is more suitable for you.

It is also the size of 34B. Maybe the A brand is very suitable for you to wear, and B brand is not necessarily appropriate.

So there must be some slight differences.

Because every woman's body is different, she can feel and feel it by herself. The same brand has the same size and different styles, so it will be better to wear it before buying.

Host: what places do you want to travel most?

Huang Xiao Xiao: I prefer the sea or Maldives places in Sanya, Hainan.

Seeing the sea will be better and easier.

Host: what is the most admired person?

Huang Hsiao: I think I still admire myself more. I can develop an underwear industry in Zhejiang from scratch. Now, through efforts, it has also led to the development of the surrounding areas. And I am a big man as a female product. I started doing this industry at a very young age, and now I have made a little progress. I still recognize myself.

Host: what do you think is your greatest strength?

Huang Hsiao Hsiao: I believe that one thing will persist persistently.

If we do not persist in difficulties, we will never succeed. For instance, at the beginning, we do this underwear industry, and resources are scarce here. But I have persevered. Now I can do that, and I can bring some surrounding industries or some enterprises together to grow the underwear business.

Host: what is the most important thing you say to your employees?

Huang Hsiao Hsiao: as a man, he should be persistent in his work, and be able to do well in his own post. If there is any opportunity for his career to grow up, it will be bad for his career growth, and if he wants to succeed, it is the most basic thing to win the trust of others.

Host: what do you want to say to yourself in the future?

Huang Xiao Xiao: Hope

The brand can be opened to three thousand stores nationwide, and sales must have a larger increase.

Relatively speaking, the sales of single stores are not particularly satisfactory to me now. We will increase the number of shops through these five years and improve the quality of our stores.