Local Outdoor Brands Should Actively Respond To The Following Market Competition

A few days ago, in the international outdoor city of Xinjiang Di Wang mansion, a local outdoor brand made 80 percent off advertising banners, and the discount was low.

This is just a microcosm of the development of domestic outdoor brands. The same scene is being staged in other parts of the country. On the other hand, the international outdoor goods giants headed by SALEWA and HAGLFS have made great efforts to enter the domestic market. On the other hand, the high-speed development of many years has created a huge stock for the outdoor brands while they are famous for their outdoor brands. Under such circumstances, the local outdoors had to clean up the stock in the form of nearly "cabbage price" to map out the light market and compete in the following market.

　　 Exploration of high storage causes "cabbage price"

Xinjiang, known as the brand name of outdoor sporting goods brands in China, Li Shujiang, general manager of Xinjiang branch of Lion Brand outdoor products Co., Ltd. once said with smile, as long as a brand that can be named, it can be found in the market of Xinjiang, whether it is international brand or domestic brand.

The international outdoor city of Xinjiang Di Wang mansion near the train station and airport has become a banner of Xinjiang outdoor products market because of its convenient transportation and logistics. It can be regarded as a miniature of the outdoor products market in China: all outdoor brands of Fujian, Guangdong, Zhejiang, Beijing and Shandong are camping here. According to incomplete statistics, there are more than 130 outdoor brands in the international outdoor city. The subtle changes produced here may reflect some changes in the outdoor industry from one side, which is also a common view among the people in the industry. Because of this, when a local outdoor brand recently launched the banner of "80 percent off goods", the shock to the industry would be so great.

Li Shujiang said that this brand has never been given such a low discount. It is also the lowest season in the past year. The lowest price is 60 percent off. This year's price has made him a little surprised to have done many years of outdoor business.

"The competition pressure brought by international outdoor brands entering the Chinese market has gradually appeared in the market. More importantly, in the first two years, the outdoor market has been running too fast and backlog a lot of stocks. In the past two years, the development has slowed down and the competition is becoming more and more intense. It is time for everyone to clear up the burden and go back to the light. "Li Shujiang saw this scene without any regrets.

The public figures of industry bigwigs also support this view. In 2013, a quarterly report showed that the inventories of the Pathfinder were 254 million yuan, up 55.8% from the beginning of the year, and by the end of June 2013, the inventories of the Pathfinder dropped to 207 million yuan, but still increased 26.25% compared with the beginning of the year.

More than a month's local orders have also released the same signal. At the just concluded meeting, Chen Ruidian, chairman of the outdoor group, briefly summarized the trend of the outdoor industry with the word "confidence", and encouraged everyone to be united and concerted efforts at this time to make the market well. His "solidarity and concerted efforts" just hoped that the head office and agents and dealers could make trade-offs between inventory and order, so that the brand could reduce the risk of inventory.

　　 Breakthrough channels and new sales mode

Under the pressure of internal and external, the local outdoor brand is not waiting to die, but is trying to find new channel solutions to solve the problem.

Tianyongtian outdoor products Co., Ltd., general manager of Xinjiang branch, she Yongjun told reporters that outdoor brands to Wang Dasha international outdoor city, in addition to retail, there is another ultimate goal is investment. People who want to do outdoor business are almost here looking for brands. Therefore, in the international outdoor city, they decorate their stalls according to the standards of the stores, that is, set up a sample shop. However, in the past few years, this practice has really promoted their market expansion, but in the past two years, this investment has almost disappeared.

"The agents set the futures for the manufacturers, but when they expand the market, they are in the stock market. If the market is not good, the franchisee will not take the goods. The more goods they can pile up, the more they will become stock. The sales channel connected to the head of the head office will also be affected accordingly. Now, we basically open our own shop, we can control our channels better to distribute, reduce inventory risk. She Yongjun said.

Xie Yongli, general manager of San Fred Xinjiang branch, who shares the same idea with him, said that the market is bad and investment is bad. In order to fight for more market share, people have to passively develop their own channels, but from another point of view, in the past two years, this kind of passivity has turned to the initiative, especially in the context of wholesale transformation and retail of sports brand.

"Reduce intermediate links and speed up the decision-making process." Xie Yongli said that self built retail channels, more flat management, not only can better control sales, but also enable them to better connect with the local atmosphere, that is, more understanding of consumer demand, feedback to manufacturers, making products that are more suitable for the market.

"Before, brand dealers directly pressed goods to agents, from provinces to cities and then to counties, which resulted in unsmooth information." At the spring and summer ordering meeting in 2014, the vice president of the company, fan Peng, once said that the current development situation forced brands to turn from wholesalers to retailers and to contact more consumers. "The management mode is going to be flat, reducing the layers of agents, while increasing the number of outlets, timely introduction of some quality franchisees." He said.

On the one hand, we need to rearrange the channels. On the other hand, these agents are also looking for more sales patterns.

Just last week, Jian Dong Dong, director of Xinjiang Tiantian market, Tianlun Tian outdoor products Co., Ltd. just got a group purchase list of a local state-owned enterprise, which may bring some enlightenment to the local outdoor brand.

"In Xinjiang, making outdoor brands, group buying is a big part of the market," Jian Hongdong said. Although group buying is cheap, it has gathered vast demand and formed mass production. Each item only needs a small profit. As long as the overall plate is large enough, it can form huge gross profits, which can not only support cheap supply, but also have a good profit, increase sales volume, and at the same time, it has made a greater contribution to the popularization of brand.

"The key to do outdoor group buying is to find a good location. High cost performance is often an important measure of outdoor group buying. To this extent, our local outdoor brands can basically achieve this standard, so it is not a good thing to explore the group buying market from an attempt point of view." An insider familiar with the current situation of outdoor products analyzed.

　　 Return to research and development of "fit and wear" products

　　 channel And marketing innovation is important, but ultimately determines whether the brand can be accepted by consumers or depends on the real product.

Although it has been in Xinjiang for more than ten years to do outdoor products, Li Shujiang still clearly remembered a return event happened ten years ago. 10 years ago, an outdoor brand company in Jinjiang sent 30000 pairs of outdoor shoes. Finally, it was returned to 8000 pairs by local agents in Xinjiang, which is unimaginable. Later, the company has been selling shoes with high quality shoes. Now in the Xinjiang market, they sell nearly 100 million brands a year.

"In fact, whether the product is good enough to sell, and whether the brand is doing well or not, finally, it should return to the function of the product." He believes that the essence of the brand lies in the fact that "fit is not fit for the feet, and is not suitable for wearing." the Xinjiang market is obviously different from that in the north and the south. The shoe last type sold in the south is completely different from that in the north, not to mention the whole domestic market.

Objectively speaking, in recent years, the brand of outdoor footwear has made great progress in the development of integrated footwear and clothing brand. But compared with the international outdoor brand, there is a great difference between Quanzhou's design style and product professional R & D. At present, most domestic outdoor enterprises are still in the stage of purchasing and identifying new materials, and local suppliers are still lack of R & D capability. They are also quite conventional in design and lack innovative thinking. This is also the most scarce part of the domestic outdoor products industry. " Lv Menglong, director of clothing development of Lion Brand outdoor products Co., Ltd.

Fortunately, the local outdoor brand has realized this and has begun to act. The outdoor group has pioneered the industry leading product development team. product design The selection of fabrics is strictly controlled in every link of production, and a huge sum of money is set up to set up product research and development centers in Beijing and other international metropolis. The product design concept of "functional, durability and environmental protection" is emphasized, and the quality and balance of durability and function of various parts are fully considered in the selection of various links, so as to achieve the highest service life of products and strive to create products with excellent quality and excellent performance for consumers.

Coincidentally, last year SK. TRIP (lion outdoor) formally signed a contract with a European design team to create a perfect fusion of professional functions, fashion and comfort outdoor travel equipment. "Under such a market situation, the lion is able to identify its position and ensure that it stays behind in the front camp. Among them, the most important thing is to practice the product's internal strength. Xu Rongsheng, chairman of Fujian lions outdoor products Co., Ltd. hit the nail on the head.

In Xu Rongsheng's view, the key to improving the internal strength is to have differentiated products. The lion brand positioning is centered on "fashion, function and technology", and continues to cooperate with DuPont, Dongli, Taiwan Lily and other top international fabric suppliers to ensure its strong function. At the same time, the lion brand research and development team visited South Korea and other places every year, and worked with the Korean design office to provide design and special color fabrics for lion brand products. For example, lion products in this season's new products include lion elements in printing, punching and other crafts. These are all crafts from Korea, and undoubtedly add a lot of new products.

"Quanzhou outdoor products enterprises have already inserted the brand wings, but if we can develop together and form an outdoor industrial cluster, we will have more powerful capital to compete in the outdoor and domestic market." Chen Zhongyi, chief consultant of Tibetan strategy, thinks so.