How Do The New Generation Of Young Consumers View The Brand Of Chinese Local Designers?

As an important force to promote the development of Chinese designer brand, 2019 autumn and winter fashion week in Shanghai arrived. Since its establishment in 2003, it has profoundly recorded the development and changes of China's fashion industry over the past decade. China, as the most potential fashion consumer market, has attracted more and more attention from professionals in the industry. Daxue Consulting has predicted that by 2020, China's total sales of clothing will be increased from 398 billion yuan in 2010 to more than 1 trillion and 300 billion yuan.

The doubling of sales has naturally promoted the rapid growth of Chinese local designer brands. In addition to seizing the opportunities of the Chinese market, it has long been nothing new to enter Lafayette, old Buddha and famous foreign buyers. Various international awards have also thrown olive branches to Chinese designers. For example, Susan Fang and Caroline Hu have been selected as the world's most influential young designer Grand Prix LVMH Prize this year. As the main consumer of new things, the younger generation has begun to pay more attention to the Chinese designer brand, and naturally they have different opinions on their development.

The combination of business thinking and supply chain resources can eliminate the worry of "pricing difficulties".

The pricing of Chinese designer brands has always been a topic of wide discussion. Although different brands have different price orientations for their market positioning, for example, the retail price of most Chinese designer brands fluctuate between 2000 and 6000 yuan. Young consumers say that such pricing is unreasonable and too high.

Apart from brand value and popularity, the designer's brand "pricing difficulty" reflects the weakness of the supply chain. As a small original designer brand, to reduce the pressure of sales and inventory, many brands will choose the intermediaries such as "production studio" to do all the work. These private studios are from the plate making to the bulk goods one stop service, and require less production quantity. The order of 50 or so orders can also be coordinated. Although the number is reduced, the reason why "middlemen make the difference" is believed by everyone. But relying entirely on the production studio, it also makes designers lose the ability to integrate supply chain resources, and deliver cost control to others. In the final pricing, it will also become a passive role.

Secondly, most young designers lack the experience of commercial operation, resulting in the lack of brand power of many brands. Brand power refers to the degree of consumer's influence on the purchase decision of a certain brand. Why do many young people choose foreign brands instead of local designer brands at the same price and same category?

It reflects consumers' recognition of different brands, and the "identity symbol" brought by famous brands has attracted many young people. With the continuous optimization of the fashion industry structure, many Chinese designers have been very sophisticated in their work, but only by combining them with business thinking can they eliminate the worry of "high price".

But from the interview, we can also hear such a different voice: when choosing clothes to buy, we value the design itself and the degree of subjective preference. Indeed, the younger generation under the new consumerism is paying more and more attention to "non significant" consumption, that is, elements that are hidden in product details, culture, spirit and fashion behind the brand, and are willing to pay for such products or brands. Many Chinese designers have begun to pay more and more attention to this trend, seeking to resonate with young consumers in design.

From the current market situation, the Chinese designer brand has changed significantly compared with the previous years. The overall design is more integrated with the international practice on the basis of Chinese culture, and the product culture and spirit behind it are more and more in line with the values and aesthetic orientation of the Chinese younger generation.

But it is undeniable that the phenomenon of blind pursuit of profits and crude manufacturing is still widespread in China's fashion industry. If Chinese designer brands want to really eliminate this phenomenon, they need to constantly improve their own requirements, and strive to find better supply chain support and practical commercial propaganda means.

Are Chinese designer brands narrowing the gap with foreign countries?

As China's fashion industry started relatively late, compared with the developed countries in the world, there has always been a big gap. But in the fashion business model represented by Shanghai fashion week, the simultaneous development of B2B and B2C platform has opened up more markets for Chinese designer brands. The early acceptance of new things by young consumers has also brought new concepts such as boutiques and buyer shops from the first tier cities to the two or three tier cities. The expansion of the local market has provided a guarantee for the internationalization of the brand, and more and more Chinese designer brands have appeared in the top fashion week of Milan, London and New York.

Looking at the history of young designers in China, many people have experience in studying or working abroad. But many of them will eventually choose to return to the country to create their own designer brand, combining the western fashion ideas with their own culture, and there is a "Master Yi Long technology to make Yi". Fashion design in China has been undergoing the process of imitation to originality. But as young designers are becoming more rational and constantly absorbing foreign experience, Chinese designer brands are beginning to have their own style and characteristics. It is certain that Chinese designer brands are trying to narrow the gap with foreign countries. But due to the constraints of history, culture, economy and other factors, the reduction of this gap needs a long process. The design can be imitated, but the cultural details are hard to replicate. Although the influence of Tokyo fashion week is difficult to match with the world's four fashion week, its fashion design has always been in the leading position in the world, which is inseparable from the discussion and combination of Japanese designers' different cultures and their own traditional culture.

The book "Untitled" published by TIGERHOOD has introduced the fashion development course of Tokyo from 1971 to 1984 from punk culture and contemporary art culture, and explained the origin and influence of these cultures on the development of Japanese fashion. Similarly, Asian countries, the development of fashion design in China is very difficult to have the same historical significance as Japan. This is also an important reason why it has been difficult to narrow the international gap. To some extent, what we lack is the inclusiveness and openness of other cultures in the world. How to integrate various cultures in fashion design and achieve true cultural confidence is a question worth pondering in the future.

The impact of young consumers on the development of Chinese designer brands

As a young generation growing up in the Internet, the fashion information acquisition method based on social network has completely broken the geographical restrictions. Many young fashion enthusiasts are familiar with the latest trends in the world and the latest series. They will also unconsciously compare domestic and foreign brands. Strategy consulting firms OC&C said in a press release: "for fashion brands, it is very important to pay attention to the behavior and expectations of the new generation of global consumers. The way they interact with brands, celebrities and peers is fundamentally different from previous generations. It is very dangerous for enterprises to ignore these changes.

The development of Chinese designer brand is inseparable from the patriotic complex of the younger generation. CBNData released the "China Internet consumption ecology big data report" shows that in 2018, the "post-90s" contributed 65% to the consumption amount of online original clothing, representing a sharp increase of 450% compared with 2017. China's current "national goods movement" is no longer as radical as before. It is more about the rapid growth of local designer brands, and the impossibility of substitution of foreign brands has been gradually weakened. In particular, more and more Chinese designer brands are moving from offline to online to cater for young people's consumption habits. The support of the large flow of electronic business platform also gives the designer brand the power to develop.

With the development of new media and information channels, domestic designer brands are becoming more diversified in marketing. And through the short video, copywriting, fashion and other different carriers of the brand culture output, it only refers to the younger generation's consumer identity.

Secondly, in order to enhance brand exposure, cross-border cooperation has also become an important means of Chinese designer brand. From Feng Chen Wang to Converse and then to the Soviet Union five and Vans's new year's joint name, the co operation with sports shoes as the carrier has attracted the attention of many young consumers. This has also proved the continuous improvement of the young designers' strength and business value from the side.

Although young consumers are more and more tolerant to different cultures and brands, impulse consumption and advanced consumption are still a problem that can not be ignored. This has also led to their rapid and loathing of brand loyalty. A new consumption hot spot can often lead to the development of the whole brand and even the industry. For example, VETEMENTS, who is very popular at the moment, tries to break the traditional fashion concepts such as sex and season through the integration of street style scenes. The key is to win the support of the big traffic stars. Successfully conquered a lot of young consumers. But in recent years, due to the continuous emergence of new hot spots, coupled with the emergence of more and more competitive brands, the degree of concern of VETEMENTS among young consumers is also decreasing. Therefore, this popular brand has often been seen on the discount pages of some electronic business platforms.

The upgrading of the fashion industry is accelerating, and the young designer brand wants to continue to develop. Only by setting up an irreplaceable style and constantly providing personalized design can we seize the "changeable" heart of young consumers.

According to the respondents, most young people hold an encouraging attitude towards the development of Chinese designer brand. Such encouragement is both an opportunity and a challenge. In the face of increasingly diversified and personalized consumption demands and the desire to win new heights in market competition, Chinese designers need to constantly deepen their understanding of young consumers.

Dressing for young people today is not only a simple necessity of life, but also a manifestation of a "happy self" mentality and a new way of life. Once this premise is established, the younger generation of consumers will have higher demand for the quality of the clothing brand. Chinese designer brands want to find more fans. They also need to constantly strengthen their innovative ability, combine the practicality and personalization organically, set up unique style tonality and attach importance to the psychological changes of young consumers. Author: Viki.Huang