How Will I.T Group Celebrate Its Brand Aging Say NO?

Once upon a time, Hongkong was the window for the mainland to accept the trend information, and the I.T group was the representative.

Thirty years ago, the I.T group was only a 200 square meter shop in Causeway Bay, Hongkong. It sold the first barrel of gold from selling "parallel imports" and now it is one of the most popular fashion brand retailers in Hongkong.

Ta stands in the apparel retailing industry with more than 300 international brands and many private brands. It has become a trend of fashion chasing and many stars to come to the "holy land".

However, as Hongkong's retail industry is weak, the acceptance of new things in mainland China has surged, and the trend business has begun to move towards the centre from the periphery.

Can I.T group's expansion in mainland China blossom like Hongkong?

Each company will encounter the problem of brand aging after long term operation. Can I.T group adapt itself to the market changes through new attempts?

Sinking to the two or three tier cities in the mainland

In 2002, I.T group began to rush out of Hongkong and lay the market for the mainland of China.

Ta opened the first flagship store outside Hongkong in Shanghai Xintiandi, opening up a window to understand the trend of foreign countries for young people in the mainland.

Three years later, I.T group was listed on the Hongkong stock market in 2005.

Before and after the millennium, the development of the fashion industry in the mainland showed a polarization. On the one hand, it was a luxury high price that was prohibitive to people. On the other hand, it was a brand without quality.

I.T, a naturally owned "Hong Kong flavor trend" group, opened up the mainland market at that time, and introduced a large number of brands with the help of the "buyer shop" mode. Most of the fashion brands run by "big I.T" came from the masterpieces of the world, while "little I.T" sold the young trend cards in Europe, Japan and Korea.

This way of operation provides another direction for the polarization development.

Hundreds of overseas brands and private brands also let I.T group play different brand portfolio stores to quickly occupy the mainland market.

However, in recent years, the rapid development of fast fashion and light luxury brands has also squeezed the survival of I.T group in the mainland to a certain extent.

In the past few years, the I.T group, which always opened the store with "the best city, the best shopping mall and the best location", has already encountered bottlenecks in the first tier cities such as North and Guangzhou. The saturated market condition has forced it to sink to the two or three tier cities in the mainland to find opportunities for development.

At present, I.T group has about more than 500 direct retail outlets nationwide, covering more than 30 one and second tier cities.

According to statistics from win win business, I.T group's own brand "big I.T" and "small I.T" have 19 and 34 stores respectively in 19 cities and 50 thousand shopping centers that have been monitored.

In addition, in order to adapt to the new trend of retail sales in China, I.T group is still making some new attempts: "small I.T" has launched five kinds of concept stores: blue block, red room, green gallery, pink podium, yellow and yellow, integrating into fashion dress, daily necessities, shoes accessories, theme areas, art devices and other elements, trying to create fresh feelings for consumers.

What we need is not discount goods, but "new" and "tide".

In fact, the development and expansion of the I.T group in the mainland has also been cold. Especially four or five years ago, the concept of buyer's shop is still in the nurturing stage in the mainland market, and the trend culture is in a small crowd in the mainland.

In addition, the impact of e-commerce and RMB exchange rate fluctuations, I.T group's situation was not optimistic, the performance of a significant decline.

However, this situation took a turn for the better in late 2014.

First of all, this is due to the emergence of fashion brands like Vetements and OFF-WHITE.

Especially when OFF-WHITE was founded in 2014, it quickly rose to Europe and the United States.

I.T group has been able to seize the market by skillfully beating the trend of domestic and international "time difference". In December of this year, it became a OFF-WHITE regional partner in China, helping the brand open shop in Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin and Xi'an.

In addition, in February 2018, the I.T Beijing Market co founded by I.T group and Wakubo Rei's Dover Street Market was renamed Dover Street Market Beijing, and officially became the fifth member of the global family.

Both sides perform their duties, and their daily operations are managed by I.T group, and Dover Street Market is responsible for planning and creativity.

At the end of the same year, Sheenah, the fashion brand NAYOUNG created by female star, will also formally enter the I.T group.

In addition to the agency brand, I.T group still focuses most of its focus on 11 private brands, such as izzue, b+ab and 5cm, which contribute about 60% per year.

Shen Jiawei said that the target consumers of the group do not want cheap things, they want new and constantly changing things.

In order to increase the speed of product updates and reduce the discount rate, I.T group also tried to adjust the supply chain system, reducing the design and production cycle from 6 months to 3 months.

Whether introducing more new brands that match young consumers or adjusting the supply chain, I.T group is stepping up efforts to catch young consumers.

Trying to cater for the market.

In addition to opening different store types and introducing new tide cards, I.T group is making some new attempts to adapt to the changes in the domestic market.

1, find Wu Yifan as spokesperson.

In 2017, the explosion of hip-hop in China also boosted the trend culture into the commercial mainstream. Wu Yifan dressed in the program directly stimulated the young people's demand for fashion clothes.

In view of this, I.T group appointed Wu Yifan as the first spokesperson since the founding of the group in the same year.

2, accelerate the business of e-commerce.

With the improvement of the electricity market environment in the mainland market, I.T group, which has always been under the main line, is also actively developing online business.

At present, the group has established multiple platforms for single brand and multi brand online shops in Tmall, and has established cooperative relations with other wholesalers on the mainland.

In 2017, the group's official electronic business platform ITeSHOP, further expand the market layout, unprecedented access to online and offline channels, the I.T group extended to the entire mainland area.

3, launch glasses concept store NEITH and neith

In September 2018, I.T group announced the launch of the new concept store NEITH and neith, which sells brand glasses all over the world.

In November of the same year, the first NEITH also entered the first floor of Shanghai's Lafayette department store.

I.T group plans to launch a single store this year, and intends to open 10 to 20 independent stores in 3 years. The site will prefer to choose the clothing store near I.T group.

I.T group's new business development is following the positioning of big I.T and small I.T. According to the plan, NEITH positioning high-end, neith is more popular.

It provides Gucci and other luxury brand glasses, and will also search for more people oriented brand glasses to cover different groups of customers already owned by the group.

Conclusion:

The I.T group is facing the fashion industry that has been speeding up all the time. The future development in the mainland is still unknown.

The group cast its sights on the two or three tier cities.

Although compared with the first tier cities, local consumers are faced with relatively few choices.

But its income level and consumption level are limited. How to maintain brand tonal, product price performance and acceptance is the key to sink the channel.

With the increasingly attractive form of designer brand store, domestic platforms and brands such as YOHO, Jiangnan and so on have begun to expand their businesses through diversification of brand and category mix to enhance their market share and influence in the designer's brand apparel industry.

Facing the fierce competition in the mainland fashion industry and the increasingly fastidious young consumers, how to achieve the balance between commercialization and differentiation becomes a challenge for I.T group.

Author: Chen Jianwei