Dialogue Levi'S CEO: China'S Market Will Continue To Maintain Two Digit Growth

Recently, the Levi Strauss & Co. headquarters in San Francisco held a media opening day for history and innovation. The group's president and chief executive, Chip Bergh, said in an interview with reporters that she has the longest history.

Facing the Silicon Valley, embracing new technology, but not forget the original intention: that is, persist in the pursuit of high quality, and create a "slow fashion" that a hundred years will have.

Chip believes that China is a bright spot in Asia, and Levi's's revenue in China is very impressive. It is expected that it will continue to maintain two digit growth in the next few years.

The oldest Cowboy brand embraces new technology

In the San Francisco Bay area, where innovation is hot and investment hot money is surging, new technologies are frequently used in all kinds of novelty.

Amazing.

163 years ago, it was founded in San Francisco, and spread the traditional cowboy culture to the world Levi Strauss & Co., although the production and sale of traditional denim clothing brand, but with the multiple geographical advantages of Silicon Valley as a backyard, it is not difficult to collide with technology companies to belong to the cowboy trend.

Since 2013, with the effective implementation of the reform and recovery plan initiated by chief executive officer Chip, Levi Strauss & Co. has achieved the first balance of payments in the past 20 years.

In the face of just stable sales performance and the cost of opening laboratories, Chip resolutely decided to set up Eureka Innovation Lab at headquarters in San Francisco to replace the earliest Turkey laboratory.

Chip said that when we first set up Eureka Innovation Lab in San Francisco, it was not only convenient for the design team of the headquarters to quickly feedback the idea to the market, but also because of the consideration of adjacent Silicon Valley, through this way, we could cooperate with Silicon Valley high tech company.

So in 2014, Levi's (Levi 's) and Google frontier science and technology project group (ATAP) jointly launched the "black science and technology project" of the wearable clothing accessories, Project Jacquard riding jacket, and unveiled the product prototype at the I/O conference of Google in 2016.

Project Jacquard riding jacket is to increase jacquard sensor and intelligent equipment interaction in the cuffs of clothes. On the surface of clothing, it uses a variety of simple gestures, such as percussion and sliding, sends wireless signals through wearable devices to control smart devices such as mobile phones, and realizes many functions such as sending short messages and calling, so as to maximize the release of hands.

Speaking of cooperation with Google, Chip said that Google, as a technology giant, can choose any fashion brands that they are interested in doing wearable devices cooperation. I am glad that they finally chose Levi's Levi.

If the Project Jacquard project is progressing smoothly, this will be a breakthrough in the capacitive touch interaction technology for textile and clothing, and will become a new trend in the future fashion industry.

At the same time, because of the timeliness of wearable device information collection, we opened the developer kit early in the product testing stage, and received a good response from the market, which we can not do through traditional clothing sales.

At the same time, Levi's Levi (s) and Intel (Intel) launched the radio frequency identification technology (RFID) cooperation, and successfully applied in the headquarters of the image shop, will also be applied in all stores in the United States to promote.

"Silicon Valley has always been our backyard, but only in recent years did we realize that we should make full use of Silicon Valley's resources to bring together talented people from all walks of life and bring new energy and attention to the company.

So we have just set up a Collaboratory plan to set up scholarships to support young entrepreneurs who are interested in making research for sustainable development.

The new research results will promote the pformation of industrial development and improve our manufacturing processes and sales.

Innovation does not necessarily start with us, and we work with different industry think tanks. We can generate creativity from totally different fields, and the results will be amazing, "Chip said.

Insist on creating slow fashion

In the fashion industry, the trend of sports and fashion in recent years has been sweeping the globe, and there are endless innovations. But how long has this fashion lasted?

In this regard, Chip believes: "now the fashion market is popular" fast fashion "concept, while Levi's (Levi) s is" slow fashion ".

For the "slow fashion", Levi's (Levi 's) pays attention to the brand value, quality, originality and authenticity of the product, so that the best product can not be completed quickly.

In some secondhand clothing stores in the United States, the price of Levi's's classic 501 second hand jeans is two or three times the original price.

Levi Strauss & Co. is probably the only fashion brand that can achieve this kind of sales.

A cowboy jacket or jeans can be worn for the rest of your life if you take care of it carefully.

Chip describes that at the beginning of the rise of Chinese electricity providers, the environment is more like a flea market, and buyers and sellers can lower the price as much as possible, which is very bad for brand building.

"At that time, I held consultations with the top executives of Alibaba headquarters in Hangzhou, hoping that the Chinese e-commerce environment could get rid of the cheap brand positioning and really implement some brand strategies.

Now, China's electricity providers have shifted towards the right direction for brand building.

"My other idea is not only to focus on the paction of the product itself, but also to focus on some rich connotations, so I have always stressed that Levi's Levi is not" fast fashion "thrown away on the market for a few times, but we are" slow fashion ". It is a brand of high quality that represents originality and authenticity." s "

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For today's "sustainable development" hot topic, Levi Strauss & Co. has established sustainable development as one of the corporate culture since its establishment. The leading brand of 163 years has stood up, leading a series of "green fashion" of garment industry.

Chip says, "we have a lot of projects on sustainable development, including two aspects of the environment, social and economic.

For the environment, we have such things as Water

From a socio economic perspective, Levi's also has Worker Well-Being programs to train workers in physical and mental health and financial management.

Levi Strauss and Co. have invested a lot of money in educating women workers how to save money, save money, and educate them to pay more attention to their physical and mental health.

A lot of successful project investment has given us a huge reward. Basically, one dollar investment can yield us $four.

Levi Strauss & Co. implemented this "welfare plan" in 15 suppliers, and hoped that in 2020, at least 20% of the products should be produced from the factories implemented by the project.

The implementation of this series of sustainable development projects has also been followed by other brands as an industry standard.

Unique Chinese complex

In the world's top five markets of Levi Strauss & Co., the Chinese market has taken a unique position in Chip's mind.

On the one hand, Chip has a Chinese lady from Chongqing, who has feelings for relatives in China. On the other hand, the statistics of China's population in the next 15 years, more and more consumers convince him that in his lifetime, China may become the largest selling market beyond the United States.

Every Chinese Lunar New Year, Levi's Levi (s) will launch the new spring series design.

Chip said he had seen the design of the 2017 zodiac in the year of the chicken. He said excitedly: "my own zodiac is also a chicken. After seeing the theme design of the 2017 Spring Festival, I look forward to feedback from China and other Asian countries next spring festival.

Meanwhile, Levi's Levi (s) is also actively engaging in cross-border cooperation with Chinese artists, musicians and fashion bloggers, adjusting the localization marketing strategy combined with the Chinese market.

In terms of digital marketing, Levi's Levi (s) has invested more than 50% of its marketing into digital media in China to inject large amounts of capital into target marketing in China's mainstream media and portals.

Although in the field of electricity business, Levi's Levi (s) has entered the fierce battle in China late in the industry, but now it has made good use of the platform and soon established its own electronic mall.

Chip said: the development speed of China's electric business is amazing, just like a thunderclap on the ground. As an outsider, I have witnessed the rapid growth and growth of China's electric business, and have the huge and flexible payment method of Alipay and other users.

For us, the sale of the electricity supplier is very important. Tmall mall has achieved two digit growth. The sales of double eleven can almost match the sales of the US Thanksgiving black Friday.

According to the first quarter earnings in 2016, sales of Levi Strauss & Co. in Asia increased by 10% compared to the same period last year, net income rose 3% to 209 million US dollars, and operating income was 47 million US dollars, unchanged from the same period last year.

Chip believes that China is a bright spot in Asia, and Levi's's revenue in China is very impressive. It is expected that it will continue to maintain two digit growth in the next few years.

In the following 2016, despite the adverse factors brought about by the economic environment, we still believe that the company will maintain a 2% growth rate for three consecutive years.