The Road Of Brand: Four Periods Of Bosden'S 44 Years

Bosden's transformation has great reference value for many brands.

Bosden is the first generation of national brand founded in the early stage of reform and opening up. When it came out, it was not the first in the industry. As a new brand, bosden made product innovation, bold marketing and rapid rise, it became the industry leader.

Bosden 44 years, through four periods: start-up (1976-1995), founded in 1976, the initial down clothing OEM processing, established in 1994 bosden brand.

Growth (1995-2007), since 1995, bosden's down jacket sales have been ranked No.1 for 25 consecutive years, and three down coats including xuezhongfei, KangBo and Bingjie have been launched for different groups; they were listed on the main board of Hong Kong in 2007.

Diversification (2007-2017), bosden actively developed the strategy of four seasons, entered the men's wear field and expanded women's clothing business. At the same time, bosden also experienced the pain of channel expansion, overstock and e-commerce impact.

Returning to the main business (2017 to present), facing the problems of aging brand and lack of fashion, in 2017, the strategy of "focusing on the main channel and shrinking diversification" was put forward to strengthen the core down business and create a high-end down jacket brand.

What bosden has experienced is also the common experience of the first generation of national brands. Facing difficulties and confusion, bosden has made a new road to rejuvenate after several transformations.

8 sewing machines started

In 1976, Gao Dekang led 10 villagers to start their own business with 8 sewing machines and set up a sewing group. The initial business was processing materials.

In 1980, Gao Dekang established Shanjing Village clothing factory. Although there is no brand, with good reputation and quality, Gaodekang got the processing order from Shanghai.

From Changshu to Shanghai 200 kilometers back and forth, every day before dawn, Gao Dekang rode a permanent bicycle on the road. On the rugged gravel road, Gao Dekang galloped at a speed of 20 kilometers per hour. When he went there, he took 100 kg of processed clothes with him. It took about 5 hours to contact the manufacturers in Shanghai. After that, he carried hundreds of kilograms of raw materials and returned to the village overnight. Back and forth for 15 hours, drink cold water when thirsty and chew dry food when hungry.

After the conditions improved, Gao Dekang bought a motorcycle. There are at most three round trips between Changshu and Shanghai in one day. Year after year, after five years of hard work and six motorcycles, goldcon finally got his first car, the Peugeot van. At the same time, great changes have taken place in the small workshops of Gaodekang, from processing with supplied materials to OEM production.

In 1984, Gaodekang began to transform and process down jacket. From processing to helping others to build brands, from marketing to supply chain, including product materials and fillers, how to do it without losing its luster is very clear.

In the early 1980s, Gao Dekang saw a long line of consumers buying with vouchers in huiluo Plaza, 100 Nanjing East Road, Shanghai. He once again noticed the down jacket. At this time, he made up his mind to do it.

After five years of cooperation, Gaodekang has been using the brand royalty of 150000 yuan per year for Tiangong garment factory to process "xiushideng" brand down jacket.

Young people like the down jacket produced by OEM very much. The product is in short supply, so we have to queue up in the major department stores in Shanghai, and there is no overstock in stock. In 1991, the company made a profit of 11 million yuan.

The age of bosden

In 1992, in order to get out of the OEM restriction, Gaodekang decided to register its own brand bosden.

The origin of bosden is explained by Gao Dekang. The original "xiushideng" is a homonym of Houston in the United States. In this way, he thought of Boston, a very cold city in the United States, so he registered the "bosden" trademark with the homophony of Boston.

In 1994, the company completed the joint-stock reform, and officially launched its own brand "bosden". In that year, the company made a profit of 23.6 million yuan. Some friends suggested that he open up the northern market. After all, that was the broader down jacket Market.

Originally, I wanted to make a big impact, but by the end of the winter of 1994, only 80000 pieces of down jacket were sold. Gao Dekang owes the bank 8 million loan, also owes the supplier and the processing factory money, he is at a loss.

In fact, when bosden launched the market, some people said that "bosden" was not in the right time because there were more than 4000 down jacket manufacturers. There are "ducks and ducks" in the South and "illyran" in the north. There are also many well-known brands that have carved up the market. It's not easy for bosden to set up a new brand of its own. But Gao Dekang thinks there is still room for market.

Gao Dekang made a trip to Northeast China. The first stop was Changchun, then Harbin and Shenyang. Gao Dekang went to the counter of the shopping mall and saw that his down jacket was hung inside because it was not sold well. He immediately understood what the problem was.

Compared with the best-selling down jackets in the local market, Gaodekang has found that there is a gap in color, fabric, style, pattern and technology of its products.

His rich experience as a tailor helped Gao Dekang. He knows what kind of fabric and what kind of dye is most suitable to ensure that the fabric does not fade and the color is bright but not dazzling. He studied the preferences of northerners and adjusted all the versions.

It took more than a dozen tailors half a month to redesign more than 30 SKUs. The lining was dense, the down fluffy was increased, the style was simple and clear, and the color was fresh and bright.

In the summer of 1995, Gao Dekang received a phone call from the floor manager of Wangfujing Department Store in Beijing. He yelled, "Mr. Gao, where have you been? I've been looking for you for a week. Now our shopping malls are engaged in counter season sales. Will bosden participate? 」

Gao Dekang immediately agreed, he designed the bag himself. Change the usual horizontal pockets to vertical ones. Because vertical can only put one piece, more bags, more advertising. A simple marketing idea, let bosden fire. The counter lined up.

He even gambled with the merchants, choosing the store, the counter and the salesman. The market rents a section of counter to ask to sell 400000 yuan, he proposed to do 500000 yuan, can't do to deduct money.

In Wangfujing Department store, bosden can sell 480 pieces a day. In the end, 25000 down jackets were sold in two months, easing the pressure on inventory.

At the same time, Shenyang Zhongxing commercial department store also extended a helping hand to Gaodekang, and actively sold products worth 3 million yuan.

In 1995, bosden made 680000 down jackets and sold 620000 of them, and * * was ranked as the national leader.

In 1996, the boss of an enterprise in Changshu who produced queke down jacket suddenly died. Four agents in Beijing, Jiangsu, Harbin and Shandong carried 4 million yuan in cash to buy the famous quiker at that time.

According to Gao Dekang's analysis, if these four agents buy the brand, they may set up factories to produce in four places, make them according to bosden's style, sell them at lower prices, and surround bosden in four places.

Within three days, Gao Dekang made a decision to purchase the brand of Quebec at a price of 4 million yuan, and invested 15 million yuan to solve the debt problem of Quebec. After the acquisition, he hid Quebec.

All but one vice president are against the acquisition. However, it turned out that if not, Gaodekang would have made at least 40 million yuan less.

This incident also made Gao Dekang aware of management problems. Many large enterprises are faced with such confusion: middle and high-level managers have made great contributions to the development of the enterprise. After the enterprise enters the mature stage, these hardworking officials can not adapt to the current development of the enterprise.

The nine Vice Presidents were originally in charge of sales, procurement, technology research and development. In the first half of 2004, all of them became managers of corresponding departments and no longer participated in major decision-making issues of the company.

In 1997, bosden has realized the actual situation for three consecutive years, but the absolute advantage of the market is not obvious. The reason is that consumers still have a certain degree of trust in the old brand, and it still needs time to identify with the new star bosden.

After learning about the Chinese mountaineering team's climbing activities on Mount Everest, bosden finally obtained the right to provide climbing clothes for the Chinese mountaineering team and the right to name the mountaineering team. Bosden put the metal plate of "bosden China * *" on the highest mountain in the world, which played a very good publicity effect. Bosden began to attach importance to the advertising effect. In 1997, bosden put advertisements on airplanes.

Since then, bosden has experienced twists and turns, but it has made progress all the way, and its revenue has continued to rise. The era of bosden officially opened.

In 1998, with the increasingly fierce market competition, goldcon decided to implement the multi brand strategy. In 2001, it realized the series extension of the second brand "xuezhongfei", the third brand "KangBo" and the fourth brand "Bingjie".

Bosden, the leading brand, aims at the middle and high-end market. Xuezhongfei is positioned as a sports down jacket brand, while KangBo and Bingjie are targeting at the middle and low-end consumers.

Bosden has made great progress all the way and is firmly in the first place in the down jacket Market. This also benefited from that era. In the late 1990s and early 2000, a style could sell 1 million pieces on the market. Sales also do not need to run business, as long as the weather drops, down jackets sell very well, dealers are carrying money, queuing up to pick up the goods.

In 2006, bosden completed a total production value of 11.8 billion yuan and a sales revenue of 10.6 billion yuan. In 2007, bosden was listed in Hong Kong. Before going public, bosden raised $700 million. Both HSBC and Goldman Sachs were its investors, and HSBC invested $70 million, which was an investment outside the financial sector.

Failure of brand expansion

Bosden benefited from the first brand extension.

At a time when other brands keep reducing their prices, xuezhongfei can also reduce prices, but bosden's prices remain unchanged. Xuezhongfei and other brands fought all the way to the end, while the main brand bosden brand did not suffer losses.

In 2004, bosden began the second product extension, forming a new pattern of coordinated development of men's casual wear, Delaney's casual women's wear, thermal underwear, knitting, sportswear, cashmere, children's wear and other series of products.

In fact, the second brand extension of bosden is directly related to the involvement of the second generation companies.

Gao Dekang's son is a turtle. At the beginning, his father strongly advocated that his son go abroad. His five-year study abroad gave Gao Xiaodong a deeper understanding of the operation of foreign enterprises and brands.

In 2003, Gao Xiaodong returned to China. He told his father to develop men's wear. Gao Dekang was very surprised, and then advised his son that he had just returned from abroad and was not familiar with the domestic clothing industry. He first worked in his own company and then worked alone after accumulating experience. In the end, they each stepped back. Gao Xiaodong, taking advantage of his father's Dongfeng venture, to do business casual men's wear.

Bosden men's wear was independent of the jurisdiction of goldcon from the beginning. In addition to providing registered capital and factory buildings, goldcon also asked an old friend who had worked in bosden for many years to assist his son in starting a business.

Gao Xiaodong chose to cooperate with international famous design companies and set up studios in Shanghai and Guangzhou to increase the popular elements and colors of bosden men's wear.

At the end of September 2004, Gao Xiaodong started the national shop plan. Instead of using bosden's original channels, he rebuilt the channels by building exclusive stores and entering middle and high-end shopping malls. In September 2008, two bosden men's wear opened in the busy streets of Suffolk County and Lincolnshire.

In addition to operating bosden men's wear, Gao Xiaodong also actively participated in capital operation, leading bosden's expansion in real estate, commercial retail, high-tech industry and other fields, operating Yiwu Chongqing Expressway, Dezhou Regal KangBo Hotel and other businesses.

At this time, goldcon did not realize that the crisis was coming because bosden's international business was progressing so smoothly that its overall revenue was indeed increasing.

Bosden makes use of its domestic brand advantages to carry out transnational cooperation trade and external promotion. In 2001, bosden became the Chinese brand partner of DuPont company in the United States; in October 2003, bosden, together with Itochu Co., Ltd., which ranked top 20 in the world's top 500, jointly invested and established Jiangsu dishant Co., Ltd., which designed, produced, sold and promoted the world-famous "dishant" sports and leisure wear series.

In 2004, bosden has successfully entered the markets of Japan, the United States, Canada, Russia, Switzerland and Mongolia, and exported more than 80 million US dollars in 2003.

Before the listing of bosden, some media reported that the overstock of bosden down jacket inventory has not been alleviated, and the contradiction with dealers and agents is very fierce. However, both investors, consumers and media are very optimistic about bosden.

In the third year after its listing, bosden's annual performance report showed that revenue fell by 19% and profit decreased by 30%. Bosden attributed the sharp decline in revenue and profit to the poor performance due to the impact of the international financial crisis, continuous warm winter weather, and excessive concentration of down jacket business.

At that time, Gao Dekang believed that the brand attribute formed by bosden over the years was too strong, which made consumers form a single product concept, and it took time to change consumers' cognition. Bosden plans to increase the proportion of four seasons clothing industry in bosden's whole business to 30% through M & A, and transform it into a comprehensive service brand operator.

2012 is a key year for the clothing industry. The business form has changed. People's shopping scene has changed from the clothing counter in the big shopping mall to the commercial complex. At the same time, the online channel is expanding rapidly, and foreign fast fashion brands are also penetrating the Chinese market.

In 2013, bosden's goal is to become a multi brand clothing operator, and its strategy is four seasons, multi brands and internationalization. Gaodekang hopes to occupy the market with different brands and locate the high-end, middle end and low-end markets respectively.

In this year, bosden, xuezhongfei and KangBo brands of bosden group operated independently, and their design and product development, marketing and channels were independent. Bosden's down clothing retail outlets of various brands increased by 4665 to 13009, and the total sales area increased by 18.9% to 1.037 million square meters.

But after a series of measures, winter came. That year, the entire clothing industry was under severe de stocking pressure, including bosden. In the first half of 2014, seven wolves closed 347 stores. In 2014, Li Ning closed 519 stores.

In 2014, bosden opened 2560 stores nationwide, with an average of 7 stores in one day. The sales volume could not keep up with the cost. The revenue of that year was 6.293 billion yuan, 23.6% lower than that of 2013, and the net profit was only 132 million yuan, less than one tenth of the previous year.

In 2015, the situation was even more severe, with bosden's revenue falling by 23.6%, the lowest since its listing.

Bosden also introduced professional managers to try to change the dilemma. In May 2014, Liang Xuhui parachuted to bosden. Before joining bosden, Liang Xuhui was the Chief Strategic Officer of Daphne International Holdings Co., Ltd., and also served as the chief operating officer of Goodbaby International Holdings Limited. The introduction of Liang Xuhui was regarded as a signal of bosden's acceleration and transformation.

After joining in, Liang Xuhui announced to start the transformation of terminal stores, planning to transform 20 medium-sized flagship stores with an area of 400-500 square meters into brand collection stores and experience stores. However, the transformation plan has not yet been fully implemented, and the era of Liang Xuhui has been over. Half a year later, bosden CEO Liang Xuhui announced his resignation and Gao Dekang, the former chairman and CEO, resumed his post as CEO.

Bosden's case is not a case in point. In 2012, Jin Zhenjun served as the acting chief executive officer of Li Ning. Jin Zhenjun, known as an iron fist, carried out a large-scale personnel and channel reform, but failed to balance the conflict of interests and reverse Li Ning's loss situation. In 2014, Jin Zhenjun chose to resign, and Li Ning, the founder and executive chairman of the company, began to act as president.

This is the dilemma of most local brands. Instead of changing the existing management system and structure, we only went to a manager with overseas background to try to change the situation and finally disillusioned.

Close the store and save yourself

Bosden's self-help lasted three years as it sold out of season and kept closing stores.

Some investors don't want bosden to close. Gao Dekang made an account for them: "a store for six people, and it takes 60 people to open 10 stores. The revenue of 10 stores is 10 million and 20 million, and it can also be achieved by opening a store, but this store needs about 10 people. Compared with one store, the rent of 10 stores may be more than that of one store, regardless of the staff's salary, insurance and various expenses, and the inventory will also be distributed to 10 stores. These are the costs - the cost went out and the clothes were not sold. 」

Adjustment continues. Bosden repositioned multiple brands, Bingjie went online, KangBo withdrew from the down jacket Market, and xuezhongfei was positioned as an outdoor clothing brand.

In 2016, bosden finally stopped the downward trend of net profit, turned to rise, and completed the most important self-help in 40 years.

In July 2017, bosden began to cooperate with Shanghai Junzhi Consulting Co., Ltd., and threw out his own confusion to the consulting service companies. After comprehensive understanding, the consulting company gave bosden three diagnoses:

First, positioning. Clothing brands are eating down clothing market, and a large number of overseas down wear luxury brands are seizing the high-end.

The mainstream population is entrusted by the down jacket of the four seasons brand; bosden is the first in the scale of domestic professional down jacket brands, but the scale of domestic professional down jacket is small, and the high-end people choose monkey and Canada goose.

Second, the brand is aging and out of the mainstream.

Bosden is a big brand in the minds of consumers, with recognition. Older people think bosden's quality is OK. A down jacket can last for five or six years. But young people feel that style, fabric and color are not in line with their taste. Bosden down jacket sales decline, is because the mainstream crowd to buy four seasons brand down jacket.

Third, market share.

Bosden has always thought that it accounts for 50-60% of the total market share, but in fact, there is a huge gap between its perceived market share and the real market share. According to China's down consumption to measure the market space, the annual scale of at least 100 billion yuan, bosden as the industry leader, the conservative market share should not be less than 30%. Based on this calculation, bosden can grow to 30-40 billion yuan depending on its main business. But bosden's overall share is less than 5%.

Finally, the consulting company gave a suggestion that bosden should return to the main business, with a large space and obvious advantages. When buying down jacket, consumers still hope to find a more professional, bigger brand and more able to match their own identity brand. They have requirements for product quality and design. Bosden is a well-selling brand in 72 countries, with a history of more than 40 years and a global consumption of more than 200 million people.

Return***

Gao Dekang finally realized that he should first strengthen and refine the down jacket and then extend it to others.

In November 2017, bosden began to upgrade its brand and return to its main business, down jacket, and established its strategic position as "the world's best selling down jacket expert".

According to Gao Dekang, this transformation is a "second venture". Focusing on "focusing on the main channel and focusing on the main brand", bosden has taken a series of landing measures, including activating brands, upgrading products and optimizing channels.

Activate brand:

First, give up all the other extended categories.

Second, how to get a brand that is considered to be aging back into the mainstream? Bosden began to learn to dance with young people.

The first step is to replace the trademark that has been used for many years.

The second step, marketing, embodies youth and fashion everywhere. Bosden cooperates with Wanda's 300 shopping centers to build flash stores and stores in stores where crowds gather. Since 2018, bosden's marketing has been inclined to fashion and new media. Through new media channels such as xiaohongshu and Shuo Yin, bosden has tried to promote KOL and short video.

He has successively cooperated with Yang Mi, international movie stars Tom hildleston and Scarlett Johnson to take the route of star cooperation and goods delivery.

Third, cross border cooperation. In September 2016, when Shanghai Disneyland opened, bosden cooperated with Disney to launch bosden Disney series down jacket products, which were highly praised.

One important reason why Canada goose is popular is to seek cross-border cooperation with the fashion industry. Bosden also took it as a very important step on the international show. The first stop was New York Fashion Week, then Milan fashion week and London Fashion week.

Bosden also cooperates with the designers of * * and cooperates with France, Italy and the United States in 2018. In 2019 and 2020, we will cooperate with herm è s Jean Paul Gaultier to launch high setting down jacket series and "new generation down jacket".

Upgrade products:

From the original functional to functional and fashion clothing brand. Bosden brand has a total of 9 theme series, such as peak, legend, extreme cold and high-end outdoor. Among them, the peak, legend and conqueror series mainly deal with extreme weather, and highlight the function of warmth and wind protection; while the extremely cold series (heavy down jacket with tooling wind), puff series (fashionable color contrast portable down jacket) and fashion sports series (dynamic) are more fashionable and favored by young consumers.

In 2016 and 2017, international high-end well-known brands (with an average price of 5000-8000 yuan) attracted a large number of consumers to subscribe in the domestic market, which enhanced consumers' awareness of the price of down jacket; while the price of domestic down jacket remained below 1000 yuan for a long time, and bosden brand products were mainly below 1000 yuan. In 2017, bosden started the brand upgrading process, aiming at the blank middle and high-end market (1000-5000 yuan), and the average price increased to 2000-2500 yuan.

Channel optimization:

Accelerate the layout of self operated stores offline, deeply cultivate tmall online, and accelerate the layout of live e-commerce and micro mall.

Starting from 2019, bosden began to expand its channels again, closing traditional offline stores and replacing them with new stores opened in shopping centers and fashion department stores. In 2019, the number of bosden stores is 4866, an increase of 238.

While combing and integrating offline channels, bosden has set up a special team to operate all brand online sales.

In the "double 11" in 2019, bosden's Omni channel sales volume is about 1 billion yuan, and in 2020, "double 11" is about 1.5 billion yuan.

The data shows that bosden's customers are inclined to younger and first tier and second tier cities. Among them, the number of customers aged 18-34 increased by 51% year-on-year, and the number of buyers in first tier and second tier cities increased by 54% year-on-year.

Bosden has not only brand down jacket business, but also OEM OEM business. Bosden provides OEM services for international famous brands such as Tommy, Adidas and the north face in the off-season. Since fiscal year 2018, bosden has been transformed from OEM (OEM commissioned manufacturing) + ODM (OEM commissioned design).

After the transformation, bosden's revenue and profit increased rapidly, with revenue of 6.817 billion yuan, 8.881 billion yuan and 10.383 billion yuan from 2017 to 2019, and the net profit also changed from 392 million yuan in 2017 to 981 million yuan in 2019.

When a domestic clothing brand is out of place, there is hope for it. You thought bosden might have been worn by mom and Dad, old style; now young people also wear it, fashionable style. Bosden is back again.