Columbia Zhu Guangxian: What Are The Expectations For The Future Chinese Mainland Market?

According to the world clothing shoes and hats net, Columbia

It was founded in 1938 in Portland, Oregon.

From the first store selling clothes to the world famous outdoor sports apparel brand, as a pioneer of outdoor clothing brand technology, research and development of a variety of patent outdoor sports.

It consists of Omni OMI technology and has more than 13000 retail outlets worldwide.

As the leading brand of the outdoor clothing market in the United States and Canada, in recent years, the Asian market including Mainland China has continuously strengthened the position of Columbia brand in the outdoor apparel leader in the Greater China region, and achieved good results.

In December 15, 2016,

The first brand new image store in the country opened on the five floor of the joy city of Xidan, Beijing. JasonZhu, the general manager of Columbia China, led the management of the brand to attend the opening ceremony to witness the appearance of China's first store in Columbia in 2016. During this period, the reporter gave an exclusive interview with Mr. Zhu Guangxian (JasonZhu).

Today is exactly the day when the world's cross-country running enthusiasts pay close attention to the 2017 UTMB (Blanc peak cross-country race). We know that the Columbia brand is the main sponsor of this event. Can you talk to us about Columbia's off-road running products and related events?

Columbia Zhu Guangxian (Jason Zhu): Columbia has sponsored various events in the United States, such as the 100th anniversary National Park activity in the United States, and the top European cross-country race - UTMB around the Blanc peak. Columbia also has sponsorship. UTMB is really a great match with a feeling of running in the white clouds.

We have sponsored many famous cross-country races in China, such as Dalian 100, Laoshan 100, Dali 100, and the 168 Gorges 168. Many athletes think that this year's Three Gorges area is even more difficult than the raceway of some European cross-country races, and it also has rain and snow.

Cross country running can meet the challenge of extreme challenges, and it is also in line with the spirit of our brand representatives: how to overcome difficulties in bad weather and weather conditions and unlock all of our potential.

As for off-road running products, there are no such products in this store now. We will begin to list these products in China in 17 January and February.

Columbia has a sub brand called Montrail, which specializes in off-road running products. This brand is the best choice for many professional cross-country runners in Europe, America and Japan.

Including these shoes on my feet, they are also Montrail's.

The best compliment I've heard of this brand is from the famous domestic extreme athlete Yu Lei, who completed the heroic work of UTMB, 4K and giant journey back-to-back 850 km cross-country race in two weeks, which was completed by Montrail, and UTMB did not change shoes in the 168 km way. I think this is the best interpretation of our brand attributes.

I think the evaluation of professional athletes is the best for us, because the requirements of athletes are the highest.

Montrail is actually an independent brand, but when it comes to the market in Columbia, the LOGO and Montrail LOGO will appear on the product at the same time. Double LOGO is considered because many consumers in China may not know this brand. Its shoe design and color are very young, especially for the feet of Chinese runners. It is also a typical mountain cross-country running design. In 2017, we hope it can become the right-hand man of many cross-country runners.

Will cross-country running be the mainstream in the next 5 to 10 years? Will Columbia brand focus on this direction?

Columbia Zhu Guangxian (Jason Zhu): actually not only cross-country race, but also an opportunity for all outdoor brands in the next 5-10 years.

I myself, including many of my friends, are very fond of running, so we challenge marathon and want to challenge other cross-country competitions.

Our brand is to serve these off-road elite, provide them with updated equipment, so that they can perform better, because cross-country running and road running are not the same thing.

There will be a Winter Olympic Games in Beijing in 2022. We will sponsor ice and snow sports. We have sponsored the national ski team before all previous Olympic Games.

At present, China's ice and snow campaign is still in its infancy, and there are no real ice and snow products in our shops. In the future, we will consider joining the development of ice and snow sports in China.

Many of my friends like to go skiing everywhere. They say they must wear outdoor products when they go skiing, because outdoor products are windproof and waterproof.

Our down jacket is also a patent technology developed by our Italy subsidiary, using Outdry full waterproof patent technology. It is the best company to study waterproof materials and breathability.

This technology is our only technology and licensed to some small outdoor brands.

What do you think of the current domestic outdoor situation? What are your expectations for the future Chinese mainland market?

Columbia Zhu Guangxian (Jason Zhu): the definition of outdoor is very extensive. Cross country running, mountaineering, skiing, camping, Americans like camping very much. Besides, sea fishing and stream fishing are also outdoor.

At present, the domestic outdoors is still in the development stage. I like running very much, and I don't like running on the treadmill in the gym. I always like to run outside.

I also told my colleagues that I hope to finish a 25 or 50 kilometer cross-country race next year. I hope I can really experience the feeling of "Tough" and challenge myself.

Columbia is also actively promoting the domestic off-road running project. Only by personally trying to know whether our brand can meet the needs of consumers well, I hope to be able to interact with consumers at zero distance.

Including myself in the United States also many times experience skiing, the Columbia headquarters in the United States Mt.Hood (Hu Deshan), where the summer can also ski, this winter, our advertising is also in the mountain hood, of course, there are also many great snow fields in China.

This year, in order to enable consumers to experience our skiing product technology in advance, we can use our latest VR technology to wear our VR glasses and put on our equipment. We can feel our skiing equipment technology on the snowboard machine.

In fact, every company has its own long-term plan. Our brand mission is that WeConnectActivePeopleWithTheirPassions--- connects our people who love sports with our enthusiasm.

We hope to lead more consumers to enjoy outdoor activities, enjoy sports, enjoy the torrential current in summer, enjoy the winter ice and snow, and even enjoy the hot, enjoy the cold, enjoy the strong wind and torrential rain, instead of sitting in the office every day or staying at home, you should have more time to enjoy nature.

Everyone is complaining about the bad weather in Beijing, but if you want to go to the outdoor environment more often, you can enjoy the best air and the most beautiful environment.

So our vision is to let our brand lead consumers to enjoy outdoor beauty, outdoor vitality and energy, so that we can go out more.

This year's double 12 has just passed. The annual double 11 double 12 will trigger the climax of e-commerce sales. How can Columbia brand balance e-commerce and physical store sales? What is the reason for opening such an image shop?

Columbia Zhu Guangxian (Jason Zhu): the so-called electronic business platform is just a shopping platform to meet the needs of consumers.

Whether online platform or offline platform is the extension of brand.

The real problem we need to solve is the consumer experience. Only when every platform enables consumers to truly feel the satisfaction of demand, and our service concept and consumer connection, consumers will be more convinced that we are willing to have more contact with us.

The main purpose of our new image store is to use the store image to make consumers more outdoors and feel outdoors. On the top of our shop is the Columbia River, with pictures and brand history of snow fields on the walls. The rings behind the trees are made by real trees.

I would like to recommend the photo wall in the store. The photos on the wall are from our consumers. We hope that the shop can become the center of the consumers' gathering. Besides, we will organize the consumers to go hiking and camping regularly, enjoy the outdoor activities, change the habit of the house, and join us in enjoying the fun of nature, and come here to make some friends and go out with friends.

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Our fitting room will also design more scenes.

The design of the cable car is to imitate the scene of the snow field, some of which are designed to be forests, so that consumers can experience the outdoor experience of their faces.

It is hoped that customers can enjoy outdoor fun at every moment of the shop.

In the future, we will also make some soft clothes for the shops so that customers can enjoy more outdoor fun here. Our store positioning is a professional outdoor brand that can meet the needs of the most core outdoors.

In winter, we can see many kinds of outdoor occasions, which can be seen as the metal film sensing inner thermal insulation technology that becomes the unique identification mark of Columbia brand. Can you tell us about this unique technology of metal film thermal insulation?

Columbia Zhu Guangxian (Jason Zhu): most of our winter equipment has this technology, which is our patented technology.

Here I would like to commend our brand. Columbia was founded in 1938. It is one of the oldest outdoor brands in the world. It may have a long history than many outdoor brands.

Our founders were "ToughMother" in the United States. This year, she was named one of the ten greatest stories of the year by the American industry media (SGB). They called her the first lady of innovation.

Over the years, our brand is one of the few outdoor clothing brands that insist on its R & D technology. In winter, we have OmniHeat OMI thermal reflection technology. In summer, we have OmniFreezeZero OMI professional cooling technology. Besides, we also have waterproof and moisture permeable technology, windbreak technology, anti UV line technology, pest control technology, etc. before and after, we have more than 15 unique technologies.

We believe that although certain technologies are widely applied to brands, they can not satisfy all the needs of consumers.

We hope to use our technology to meet the diverse needs of consumers. In different environments and weather conditions, we need different protective measures.

We hope to respond with our own technology so that consumers can enjoy outdoor fun better.

As the head of the world-famous outdoor brand China, can you talk to us about the Chinese team in Columbia, and how will the brand strategy of Columbia be laid out in 2017?

Zhu Guangxian (Jason Zhu): I think the most important thing is that everyone in the team can work together for the same goal.

Our determination is how to make consumers fall in love with the outdoors, and how to make the consumers more aware of the outdoors. When all of us have a common determination and direction, the team will get better and better. I personally attach great importance to teamwork spirit.

In addition, I encourage employees to take part in sports or take part in outdoor activities. I will let employees write down their wishes next year.

As an outdoor brand, we hope that employees will spend more time in outdoor sports.

At the same time, we hope to integrate outdoor atmosphere into the staff atmosphere.

Every employee in Columbia is a disseminator of outdoor culture. This is our passion for work and motivation rather than simply selling clothes.

Besides paying attention to mountain hiking and cross-country running in 2017, we will also promote some travel and leisure culture and promote the development of travel and leisure culture with the products of life.

According to industry statistics, when the per capita disposable income reaches 5000 dollars, it will reach the turning point of outdoor brand development.

I think China has now reached such a turning point. Everyone is thinking about how to balance their own lives and how to get better and healthier.

Now that the turning point has arrived, our brand will face challenges and find ways to better serve consumers.

In addition, our brand will continue to invest, sponsor professional cross-country events, sponsor charity events, on the one hand, we hope to fulfill corporate social responsibility, and on the other hand, we hope to communicate more with consumers.

In terms of media delivery, we will put more into the electronic media. At the same time, we will use more new technologies, such as VR technology to do skiing videos, whole city hot search and grab products (similar to PokemanGO) and so on. We hope to use these technologies to bring brands and consumers together and enhance brand interaction.

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