Consumption Mature As A Booster Of Niche Brands

The growth of the new consumption pattern

Royal jewellery from Spain

Carreray Carrera (Carella Carella) chose to open the first boutique in Macao one square last year. Svetlana Kupriyanova, chief executive of the brand, told me that they were invited by MGM China Chairman He Chaoqiong to open the first boutique in China.

In her view, this is indeed a good time to enter the Chinese market. In the fast developing stage of luxury goods, people's consumption demand for jewelry brands like Carreray Carrera is far less than that of now.

There are more than one top brand like Carreray Carrera in Macao one Plaza. Of course, the most famous brand in Macao's newest luxury landmark still occupies an important position.

Macao, rather than Hongkong, as the entry point into the Chinese market, has become the latest choice of some brands.

In the past year, the "illegal occupation" campaign, which is taking place in Hongkong, is giving Hongkong retail status its status and facing many challenges.

Macao, one hour away from Hongkong, is becoming a substitute for many people.

Carreray Carrera originated in Spain. Gold is the main material of jewelry. Its unique shape and unique sandblasting technology is the favorite of Spanish royals and many European stars.

In China, people used to buy jewelry that was highly recognizable in design for a long time. Now, Svetlana Kupriyanova feels that valuable technology is becoming a major consideration in people's purchase of jewellery.

Similar events also took place in the fashion industry, and designer brands are finding new spring sales in China.

In Beijing, Shanghai and other first tier cities, the opening of designer brand stores is often paid more attention.

3.1Phillip Lim, which only opened 10 days in Taigu North District store in Sanlitun, has become the sales champion of the month. Its performance exceeds that of the well-known Paris family, and even a number of successful brands in a building's buyer shop "big I T".

More and more designer brands like 3.1Phillip Lim are well known through various channels, and they are replacing the popular luxury brands that have been most fashionable in people's minds.

Fast fashion brands are also increasingly extending olive branches to these brands. When H&M throws cooperative olive branches to Isabel Marant and Masion Matin Margela, this unknown Paris designer.

Rapidly with its relaxed design style, it has surrounded a large number of people.

Svetlana Kupriyanova believes that after a long period of education, a group of Chinese consumers who grew up first are enjoying a more relaxed and open mind.

They refuse to pay for stupid designs, and appreciate the clothing and elegant design of the costumes, and appreciate the weight of the process behind watches and jewelry.

If they used luxuries only to prove their money in the early days, most of the consumers with international vision now want to show their taste through their own purchases.

This change has occurred in Japan, which is fanatical about luxury consumption. Now it is moving low to the first tier cities in Beijing and Shanghai. The adjustment made by Beijing's old Buddha's department store relative to the Department of Lafayette department in Paris headquarters is an interesting explanation of this change.

Retail niche reform

Paris's Lafayette department store is located in Osman street, a luxury shopping district. Besides the old Buddha's department store (including independent men's clothing and home furnishing), it also has its biggest competitor, the spring department store of another top leading department store. In contrast, the location of Beijing, the older Buddha, is even younger. It has not been able to gather in the eastern part of Beijing, and has left China World Trade Center and Da Wang Road. Instead, it chose Xidan, a traditional shopping place for young people.

This changed the luxurious strategy of old Buddha's department store in other areas and replaced the "fresh and fashionable" route.

They did not replicate the luxurious Byzantine style dome of Paris's Lafayette department store. Instead, they only had many LED screens on the outside walls, and the interior decoration was not as gorgeous as in Paris. Instead, they used the marble and oak Versailles parquet floors to look younger.

There are nearly 500 brands in the department store. There are 30 fashion buyers who are well aware of local consumers in China.

Most brands do not set up shop here alone. In independent designer women's wear area, you can't even see the brand logo. They are only made into a label on the clothes rack. You pick a piece of clothing and try it on until the last thing you notice is the brand.

The 5 storey old Buddha is in fact a huge "fashion buyer shop". Brands no longer serve as the only centers, including Jil Sander and Stella Martney. Only six or seven packages are displayed on one to two containers.

In traditional boutiques, leather bags and shoes are placed under well-designed lights. Consumers buy things like pilgrimages, but in such a shop, plain design will give you more attention to the product itself.

Like the old Buddha, there was also a fashion department store in Hongkong. In 2012, when luxury consumption began to drop suddenly, they chose to reopen in Huaihailu Road Times Plaza. In 2012, CEOAndrewKeith said in a media interview that the failure of Lafayette once was due to the mode of franchising. They rented the shop front to the brand and decided what brand they were selling at Lafayette.

This time, they employed more than 80 fashion buyers, bringing more than 500 brands, including the personal brand of Chinese designer Alexander Wang (now Alexander Wang is the design director of Paris family), as well as the American brand Alice&Olivia and Mrs. Obama often wear J.Crew, which is the first time that these brands have been brought to China through regular department stores.

But before they came to China, these brands had already had a large number of fans through the Internet.

This phenomenon is changing the business model of department stores in the past. In the past, large shopping malls were still striving for rent free access to first tier brands. Nowadays, big brands are suffering from customer churn. Quality niche brands are becoming the best choice for consumers.

Get rid of the market demand of "blind worship"

From 2005 to now, the habit of Chinese consumers is splitting rapidly.

According to the 2015 China luxury goods report released by Ipsos group shortly before the Market Research Institute, Chinese consumers are more willing to get to know the daily information of a brand, and more and more people want to get first-hand information of the brand. This proportion far exceeds their concern about price (28% of the people who are most concerned about price). They are concerned about the news released by APPS through the brand and the news in fashion magazines. Mature consumers will also pay attention to the style of designers and even the replacement of designers.

80% of people expressed their willingness to accept news pushed by the brand at the first time, and 79% of them were willing to accept non commercial information such as commercial exhibitions.

After nearly 10 years of large-scale brand and media education, Chinese consumers are gradually getting rid of the negative image of "blind obedience" in the past, and they no longer pursue simple brand names or expensive ones.

They are more and more aware of choosing products that can be accepted at a price and show their taste at the same time.

Hong Huang's support for Chinese original designer shop in 2010 in North Sanlitun, "peppermint glutinous green onion", was questioned how long it was going to be in the early days. But today, Liu Qingyang, one of its co designers, is already a famous new designer in China. Its brand Chictopia also has its own stores, and has entered many shopping malls with Simon Gao, Christopher Bu and other domestic designers. If these recognition is only a popular pursuit of small fashion circles, but when Fan Bingbing, Joe Chen, Bai Baihe and others wore their clothes to public activities, Taobao sellers have begun rapid replication.

Even if it is a simple imitation, no one can deny that this popular imitation is a positive encouragement for independent designers.

Another high-end shopping mall located in the East Bridge of Beijing is the representative of the "small gathering place". The brand of investment that was envisaged in the initial project was also covered by LV. However, due to the delay of the project, by the time of 2009, they discovered that these brands had already had several stores within two kilometers, and they would not come to the grass.

But it is gratifying to find that consumers are no longer the big blind admirers. Instead, they turn their investment targets to those brands with strong characteristics and strong design styles, such as COS (Collection Of Style), Ted Baker, Karen Millen, even the hard luxury recognized by Zhong Biaozhu Bao, and are also representatives of Rojdu, Van Cleef & Arpels, Wempe and so on.