Luxury Brands Actively Develop Sub Line Positioning And Clearly Refine Brands

Whether it is the vertical extension of different price positioning in the same category or the horizontal extension between different categories, the benefits of product line expansion for luxury brands are self-evident. He Bin, director of Kiton China, pointed out in an interview that "it is the benefit of product line extension to develop more consumers with the influence of existing brands."

But not all luxury brands can achieve great success in extending their product lines. If they do not plan well before officially launching the market, luxury brands will face the problem of remodeling their product lines, which will not only bring trouble to consumers, but also affect the brand's image in consumers' minds, After all, the reason for remodeling is easily linked to poor market response.

　　 The product lines should be clearly different

HUGO BOSS, who has just finished the Shanghai fashion show, will not only focus on women's clothing in the future, but also integrate and reshape its traditional advantageous business men's clothing product line in the autumn of 2013. This means that the BOSS Black series and the most high-end BOSS Selection series that the group used to position elites will no longer exist independently, but will be integrated into BOSS series.

Coincidentally, not long ago, Calvin Klein also launched the product line remodeling plan. Among them, Calvin Klein Collection is still the most high-end brand, but ck Calvin Klein, who originally targeted high-end ready-made clothes, will change its name to Calvin Klein platinum label, which is positioned as a low-grade sport compared with Calvin Klein Collection clothing And accessory brands. In addition, Calvin Klein white label will include the most basic brands in the original Calvin Klein Jeans jeans and Calvin Klein Underwear brand combination.

"The ultimate goal of the product line remodeling is nothing more than two, the first is to achieve a more accurate brand image, and the second is to facilitate sales." Gao Ming, senior vice president of Roder PR and general manager of Shanghai, who provide consulting services for several first-line luxury brands, analyzed this reporter.

Claus Dietrich Lahrs, the global chairman and CEO of Hugo Boss Group, believed in an exclusive interview with this newspaper that after the product line is reshaped, a clearer brand strategy can be delivered to consumers, and integrating the original most high-end BOSS selection into the BOSS series can make the new product series have an overall improvement, which is also an inevitable evolution of development.

He Bin has also seen such a trend. In the face of huge competition, in order to maintain its own profits, the brand must be elevated. The division of different product lines with slightly overlapping target customer groups will undoubtedly lead to customers of high-end product lines being digested by low-end product lines. In order to keep the main line brand, the Italian luxury brand Dolce&Gabbana had to close the sub line D&G product line for this reason.

Gao Ming reminded: "No matter how many product lines are, the most important thing is to have a clear difference in their positioning, give play to their respective advantages, so as to cover more consumers. If the positioning overlaps slightly, it will be detrimental to brand development."

　　 Public awareness is the foundation

In addition to how to plan, luxury brands should also consider the opportunity to extend their product lines, and should not start hastily because of the trend of competitors in the market. At the moment when men's luxury brands have almost developed at least one sub line, Kiton, where He Bin is, still has not introduced the sub line that has gradually developed abroad in the Chinese market.

Kiton's secondary products are aimed at the needs of young and fashionable people, which is clearly separated from the mainstream consumer group whose age is about 40 years old. The price is about 30% cheaper than the high price of the main line suit starting at 68000 yuan. "The development of the sub line is out of the consideration of expanding more consumer groups. On the one hand, it does not affect the original brand positioning, and on the other hand, it develops the sub line on the basis of brand influence." He Bin admitted.

However, Kiton is most worried about whether the extension of the sub line will have a bad impact on the main line customers. Therefore, in foreign markets, Kiton hardly displays and sells the sub line products in its own brand stores, and multi brand stores complete the sales. "Fear of affecting the perception of original customers" is the concern that He Bin mentioned most.

In the Chinese market, He Bin believes that the time to extend the sideline products is not yet. When is the right time? He Bin's answer is: "The sub line can only be launched when the main line brand has a certain popularity among the mass consumers, but Kiton is now mainly known among the more high-end consumers, and the popularity of the mass is not high. Only when the mass consumers understand the brand, can they sink and develop the sub line product line and form complementarities, can there be a future."

On the other hand, Kiton also needs to enrich its sub line product lines to support independent stores, because in its view, when introducing sub lines to the Chinese market in the future, it is more feasible to open independent sub line brand stores.