How Far Is China'S Clothing Brand Entering The World

From Fanke Youpin founded in 2006, handu Yishe founded in 2008, and perfect diary founded in 2017, after stepping into the carriage of Internet, a number of "Chinese brands" promoted by capital appeared in the market. Although their names are very loud, when they are interpreted with a few key words that can reflect the value of their brands, these brands are vague. However, this does not mean that the Chinese market lacks the gene to be a good brand.

With the diversification of market channels, the decentralization of social media and the rise of circle culture, most brands that come to the public have actually established their foothold in the vertical field. Only a few years have passed since the foundation of brand investment has been recognized. As Liu Bo of Qingliu capital said to vogue business in China, "fashion brands with clear brand core" can be further rooted in the subculture soil they are based on to build the core of brand.

In other words, the next step for a famous brand is to have a creative leader to lead the construction of brand power. This person should be able to give the brand a clearer world view, and even make it a kind of belief of consumers, which means that brand building will no longer be a matter of pure spending money.

In the Chinese market gradually explore what is a brand, how should we identify whether a brand really has brand power? What elements do you want to have in the Chinese market?

The most important thing about a brand is to have a world outlook

In the Chinese market, the establishment of brand awareness in the field of clothing has been flashing a glimmer, because the clothing business started in a number of street stores, although the operators did not intentionally do brand, but they are good at showing the brand image and highlighting the most bright spots through the small window, which imperceptibly makes people form the cognition of the brand.

The culture of small shops is still in existence, and these stores can still be seen on the road to the French concession in Shanghai. However, this weak sense of brand awareness has not been like Vivienne Westwood or Ralph Lauren to constantly brew brand DNA and create a real brand through one shop. Galaxy Securities Research Institute also pointed out in the report that although China is already a big clothing country, it is not a clothing power.

"It takes some time in the field of fashion. After all, we do fashion in the context of western fashion." Said Bedi ye, fashion columnist and chief marketing officer of DFO. "Louis's status in France is still disappearing now. Of course, the younger generation will continue to invest in Chinese brands before and after this

And how to continue to build a brand and truly establish brand awareness, the brand to the extreme luxury brand is worth learning. Their approach is to do a lot of "dream making" activities that do not make money in addition to selling goods. This can also be seen from the perspective of the response mode of luxury brand executives in an interview. You'll find that they don't want to talk about business in depth, they prefer to focus on the brand. Chanel CEO Bruno Pavlovsky's favorite word is "creation". Virgil abloh is most concerned about what young people care about. The current CEO of Dior cares most about the tension between tradition and modernity, which has nothing to do with the business itself, but can determine the long-term vitality of the brand.

What these luxury brands have in common is that they have established the world outlook of the brand, which is also the basic quality required to make a brand. However, there is no unified solution to what is the world view of brand. It can be a cult like organization like lululemon, a self-contained "belief" in sports like Nike, or a "moodboard" like glossier. There are also many brands whose world outlook is synchronized with the founder's world outlook and style. This brand is the embodiment of the founder. When you see this brand, you will think of the founder. Whether there is a soul of a brand or not, the world outlook constructed by a good brand also needs to be human and expressed through vision, brand copywriting, and even the taste and atmosphere of entering a brand store.

A good brand can sell anything

To identify whether a brand is strong enough, we can see whether it can enter other fields and sell almost anything. In Supreme's autumn / winter 2020 series, in addition to various clothing and co branded items that the brand will normally have, it has also produced a lipstick product in cooperation with Pat McGrath's makeup brand pat McGrath labs. Although the price has not been announced, this product, which uses the supreme box logo red, will obviously become the next supreme product to charge a high price in the second-hand market.

The reason why pat McGrath labs has been selected for cooperation also has some advantages. Not only is McGrath affectionately called "mother" by fashion people, but also because her brand is not limited to a female cosmetics brand. McGrath's inspiration comes from the cross dressing culture of art, music and film. In fact, it keeps a certain distance from the trend. Although it is still a minority, it also gives her brand its own recognition. This lipstick called "supreme" is colored with blue red. Many other brands have the same color, but the label "supreme" gives it a premium.

It is worth considering that this is by no means a simple OEM behavior. If a brand can make such unexpected and reasonable co branding, it can also verify whether a brand has enough brand power from the side. Behind supreme's sudden desire to sell lipstick, this New York downtown skateboard shop actually took more than 20 years. In the same way, rimowa can sell mobile phone case and glasses products, byredo can sell color makeup, IKEA can sell pullovers, which also rely on the brand strength accumulated behind the brand.

"When the brand is strong enough, category extension can be carried out on the premise that the main category of the brand is strong, and the extended category is relatively low-priced, mainly for marketing, or suitable for incidental sales. The brand is either high-end or public but monopolistic. In short, the brand value is high enough, so it can be realized, "Ye concluded.

IKEA's recent launch of clothing products can even make it a fashion breaker at the brand level, making the brand story evolve and upgrade. This year's fashion series in Japan, called eftertr è Da (Swedish for "successor"), includes clothing, tote bags, water bottles, umbrellas and other products. The design uses the classic elements of the brand furniture line, such as the bar code of Billy bookshelf, the words "design and quality, IKEA of Sweden" and IKEA's yellow and blue logo. This may be mistaken for IKEA employee wear, but this crossover proves that the "aging" brand is also interested in evolving its image and DNA. However, IKEA's initial trial of water clothing also brought many objections. Some netizens thought that IKEA's practice seemed gimmicky. "Fortunately, they only made T-shirts and pullovers, which are practical and common products, and should not be more." One netizen said.

On the other hand, it may reflect that consumers are still unable to connect IKEA with the world outlook represented by clothing and even fashion, and feel that the brand is not sincere enough. And produce emotional connection is a good brand just need. "For me, a strong brand needs to have a clear focus, be able to communicate clearly both internally and externally, and be consistent in terms of product, promotion and experience," said Oliver Roth, an independent brand consultant based in Shanghai. Therefore, in the process of brand development of a new category, we need to think deeply whether the brand strength is strong enough, and then try to broaden the category, otherwise it will only become a meaningless marketing gimmick.

The growing, steady and worthy brands are facing the same challenge

If the brand is divided into three categories: growth type, robust type and worthy of re modeling, they all have obvious embodiment in the Chinese market.

The growing brand Neiwai recently hired Chinese designer Chen Xuzhi as its creative director. The first creative project he was responsible for shooting was a series of black technology physiological underpants, which were not visually reflected in the form of models wearing underpants, and gave a more abstract interpretation of underwear products.

Hi tea's biggest competitor, Naixue tea, belongs to the stable brand. Recently, it also released a rap theme song "summer melon music" in conjunction with the new product release in Netease cloud music, which skillfully linked the cheese and emerald melon drinks with the "melon eating" culture of young people.

Yuxi, a beauty brand worthy of recycling, recently launched an upgraded version of Ganoderma lucidum water skin care product in Wenchang, Hainan, the launch site of China's first Mars exploration mission, tianwen-1, which has injected scientific and technological elements into the brand.

One of the common points of marketing events done by these brands is that they all innovate in the expression of brand stories, so that consumers can fall in love with the brand, so that consumers can have the desire to buy back from business. According to the white paper "relationships: a status update" published by information desk, a consulting agency of vice media group, consumers' emotional views are similar to those of brand selection. Their relationship with others has become diversified and their attention to their heart has become more in-depth.

According to the report's survey of young people aged 16 to 39, only 24% of consumers remain loyal to the brand they have already consumed once, but 74% of consumers will buy back the brand they have fallen in love with. The report also points out that 78% of consumers want to have a brand consumer relationship that is "people in the same way" that is consistent with their values, and can have a positive impact on consumers' lives, even an extension of self.

Although these three brands have different experiences, they all face the same challenges in the Chinese market. Roth believes that although the upgrading of consumption, the rise of new channels and new consumer groups have given more opportunities to brands, it is not so easy to create a "perfect diary" or "tea loving". At present, the new brand is facing a relatively decentralized market without industrial leaders.

As Roth said, "it's hard for them to communicate with the brand through the contact and the brand.". "Online and offline competition is also becoming increasingly fierce. With the gradual mainstream of digital zeitgeist, it is more difficult to capture consumers. However, for brands, it is more important to create imagination space for consumers and attract their attention."

Therefore, when consumers put forward more complex and dynamic requirements for the brand, it also requires that the brand has a strong enough gene to support, and can constantly "gene mutation" in this era of rapid change. The original story and dream making of a brand can be a constant quantity, but it needs constant self breakthrough in how to apply it. As Joan Didion once said, "we tell our stories in order to live". A real brand also needs to constantly edit and improve its own story in order to "survive".