Dialogue Seven Wolf Group President Zhou Shaoming: Menswear Brand "Anti Aging"

Fashion is truly "Esperanto". Wherever it goes, it can resonate. The fashion industry is one of China's largest "sunrise industries" and breeds endless opportunities for entrepreneurship, innovation and investment.

In April 12th, the 2019 annual "gorgeous ambition global fashion innovation and Investment Forum" was held in Beijing. Entrepreneurs, entrepreneurs, investors, managers and designers from the forefront of the industry gathered to explore the realistic topics and future trends of China's and global fashion industry's innovation, entrepreneurship and investment mergers and acquisitions, and used vivid examples to restore the fashion brand's "creation, development and evolution" step by step from a variety of vivid cases.

Founded in 1990, the seven wolves group has developed into a Integrated Company with clothing as its main business and equity investment and real estate cultural tourism project.

As the core platform of the group's core brand operation platform, the Fujian seven wolf industrial Limited by Share Ltd became the first garment enterprise in Fujian to be listed on the small and medium-sized board in Shenzhen in 2004. In 2014, the company established the development of multi brand industry, and set up the vision industry group to create 100 billion market value fashion industry group.

At present, in addition to its own brand "seven wolves men's men's wear", the seven wolf fashion industry group has a layout in the fields of digital media and e-commerce platform, including investing in the world's top fashion brands "KARL LAGERFELD" and tide brand "16N" through the acquisition mode; creating a new generation of fashionable taste "WOLF TOTEM" which is in line with the new generation, and investing in modern communication digital business, including the global creative short film platform NOWNESS; and joining the cross-border e-commerce platform Farfetch.

The seven wolves are driven by the two wheels of industrial operation and investment, and expand new development space through multi brand strategy, diversified investment and international cooperation.

At this stage, the development of the seven wolves is more committed to the deep cultivation of brand culture.

In 2018, it joined the NASA Research Institute to launch the Sirius exploration program and launched a joint name. In March this year, it crossed with the Chinese men's wear Museum, intervened from the fashion industry, and planned to protect the inheritance of national culture and craft.

In April 12th, Zhou Shaoming, President of the seven wolves group, attended the "gorgeous ambition fashion innovation and Investment Forum". He talked with Yu Yan, founder of the University of orange, and President of orange Bay University, sharing the consideration of the seven wolves in the layout of the fashion industry group, as well as the experience of brand pformation and industry investment.

Brand "anti aging": finding brand DNA + keeping pace with the times

Yu Yan: please tell us about the past 28 years that you have accompanied the seven wolves along the journey of the most famous Chinese men's wear brand in the past 28 years.

What milestone stages have the brand gone through?

Zhou Shaoming: We originated in Jinjiang, Fujian. We can say that we are the clothing brand created by the first private enterprise in China.

From the beginning of a single product, then mainly wholesale mode, has been from 1990 to 1996, began franchising.

In the 20 years since the establishment of the company, that is, in 2010, we pformed from product planning.

At that time, when international designers brought the original design ideas of the international forefront, how could we create a popular product that accords with the aesthetic habits of the Chinese people?

It is also a new topic.

In 2013, behind the fluctuation of performance, the SKU of products was gradually optimized.

This makes us realize that when many brands develop to a certain stage, if they fail to find the core of their brand from the original DNA, they will be faced with a problem of stagnation.

Therefore, since 2015, we have focused on the wolf element of the seven wolves. We are rooted in the needs of consumers, cultivating wolf culture and parallel with the times.

We can see that since 2017, our brand performance has been increasing gradually.

This experience is also telling entrepreneurs that regardless of foreign brands or Chinese brands, we must find the most important DNA of the brand, and then be able to keep up with the times.

For years, the seven wolves have been exploring the needs of consumers, pushing back product innovation, constantly optimizing new retail, channel structure, product models and other systems, and constantly upgrading the consumer experience.

While focusing on quality, we are committed to meeting the needs of different consumer groups on different occasions and tastes.

Yu Yan: China's old fashion brands are facing pformation problems at the moment, because the market environment more than 20 years ago is quite different from that of today.

I would like you to talk about it in detail. What do you think is the biggest change in recent years? How can the brand adapt to this change?

Zhou Shaoming: there is indeed a great difference. Since its establishment, the company has experienced nearly thirty years of development, and the market environment is changing rapidly.

In the past five years, seven wolves have optimized some stores which are not efficient enough to increase the development of shopping centers. In 2019, we will introduce a rich and complete big data link to build more precise and efficient store location evaluation and terminal selection system for channel development.

And through the accurate system to make store merchandise form, business form, decoration design form and other fusion, to achieve the greatest business results.

At the same time, we should further develop and upgrade the store image, enhance the shop value to bring better shopping experience to consumers, including the introduction of digital visual management system, and further realize the intelligent upgrading of store image.

At the same time, we also attach great importance to the consumer's sense of experience, including consumer product experience, shopping experience and so on.

Since 2013, we have made many new attempts. We have optimized the products and popularized network sales, including integrating online and offline, and communicating with consumers online and offline.

Return to the original product and brand, that is, the product must be better.

No matter what way to sell, the last thing we have to face is the overall sense of experience of consumers. Keeping the same price on line and offline is the experience of successful pformation in recent years.

In the overseas brand acquisition, we also follow the principle. We need to see whether these brands have core categories and core DNA, and invest in brand from this angle to study the matching of channels.

Group platform construction: multi brand matrix integration

Yu Yan: just now you mentioned the acquisition of overseas brands. We know that in 2017, seven wolves invested in Karl Lagerfeld, the world-famous fashion brand, and obtained the right to use the brand name in Greater China, and also invested in Chao brand "16N" through acquisition.

Create a new generation of fashionable taste "WOLF TOTEM".

What is the train of thought for seven wolves in the construction of such a brand matrix?

Zhou Shaoming: the development path of the seven wolves is from the operation of the single brand to the industrial platform, and the system of the system is built.

We are going to build a seven wolf fashion industry group to carry out multi brand operation.

Including the acquisition of the Carle Lagrange brand, we are also hatching many brand new designers. We have attracted different consumers with different brands and styles.

From the segmentation of consumers, we can reach the individual needs of consumers.

We hope to turn the original development experience of the wolves into a platform for fashion industry, not only for the service of the seven wolf brands, but also for the fashion industry.

Of course, from the perspective of long-term development, we also hope that from the perspective of capital, backstage service and social professional resources integration, professionals in the industry can gather more industrial resources, and constantly absorb new forces with unique insights and practical experience in the fashion industry, such as creativity, manufacturing, sales and service, together to create a fashion industry group belonging to the Chinese people.

Yu Yan: what are our innovative initiatives in brand building? What are the results?

Zhou Shaoming: in the face of young people nowadays, we created the "WOLF TOTEM" which is in line with the new generation of young people's fashion taste. It is very precise. They use wolf DNA as the design philosophy, and the essence of totem culture elements is displayed in the international fashion trend, producing strong sex appeal.

Combined with the Chinese elements of the 56 nationalities of China, we will publish these innovative elements every year in Milan fashion week.

For example, they build a culture of locomotives, targeting young people aged 20 to more than 30 who like to play with locomotives.

Yu Yan: through a large number of international exchanges, how do you feel the difference between Chinese brands and foreign brands?

What is our focus in the future?

Zhou Shaoming: every year in Milan fashion week, there will be a lot of buyer's shops to negotiate with us. But the main purpose is to communicate with each other. The second is to study and explore how a local brand of China goes to the international market.

The elements of Chinese fashion brands must be connected with the West. I think there are several aspects to consider. One is to understand their aesthetics, the two is to use their communication channels and local localization operation management.

For clothing, Chinese culture still needs further exploration to go out. This is a multi-dimensional and not a simple concept. But with China's national strength and cultural pmission, I believe there will be more Chinese elements going out in the future.

The designer brand of "precise positioning, quality touch" is good.

Yu Yan: we often deal with some young designers. You have seen many young designer brands in the course of investment. What do you think they have done well and what needs improvement?

Zhou Shaoming: I started my business, and I managed from product, production to purchase. Now I am an investor.

Over the past few years, I have been looking at some brands, mainly from foreign brands of high quality.

If we aim at the domestic brand, we will look at the following dimensions: first, the category, we will suggest that the designer make a specific product from a product point, for example, if you are making a jacket, what kind of jacket is it specifically?

This is a key breakthrough point. Only by finding the detonating point can we get the whole series through.

The second is consumer channel.

We will pay attention to its products through which channels and ways to reach consumers, and deliver products to consumers in a quality way.

We are also investing in buyer shops, hoping to help designers grow up through a series of products or a core category.

What we are trying to do now is two: one is the supply chain, the other is the flexible intelligent manufacturing, the other is the buyer shop.