How To Make Domestic Products Change From Temporary Red To "Long Red"

Wearing old Ganma's clothes, stepping on Li Ning Sports shoes and wearing red lipstick of the Forbidden City... A new generation of young people are defining fashion by wearing, using and eating Chinese goods, chasing the new trend and promoting the "national trend" fever. Is this a "red at once" fashion feast, or an opportunity for the development of domestic products? The reporter's in-depth interview found that, with the help of China's consumption upgrading, domestic products are catching up with "world-class products", which not only become hot-selling products in the eyes of Chinese consumers, but also let the world see the new strength of domestic products.

Wearing old Ganma's clothes, stepping on Li Ning Sports shoes and wearing red lipstick of the Forbidden City... A new generation of young people are defining fashion by wearing, using and eating Chinese goods, chasing the new trend and promoting the "national trend" fever.

With this wave of "national tide" fever, the domestic products which have experienced ups and downs in the consumer market have become popular. The old brands bring forth the new and bring forth the new. The new brands are innovative, and the latecomers are on the top. One by one, domestic brands are on the rise, ushering in an unprecedented outbreak period.

However, the trend is always changing, and the fashion is always changing from generation to generation. Many brands with high tide also have the precedent of being photographed on the beach. How to seize the opportunity of "national tide" and keep up with the trend, and still ride the wind and waves when the next wave of consumption trend comes, and "forever" establish the tide? This is the answer that new and old domestic brands are constantly pursuing.

　　 You can't be trapped by an old word

The famous Suzhou garden image is depicted in cakes and cakes, Red Chamber Dream, Qianlong exploration shop and other Jiangnan culture theme stories can be found - walking into the first experience shop in Daoxiang village, Guanqian Street, Suzhou. In the "front shop and back factory" style, there are baking and naked selling area, handicraft area, tea leisure area and cultural experience area, It's as if you are in the modern and exquisite life show in Suzhou, which is a blend of ancient and modern. It attracts many consumers to "punch in" and experience taste.

"Let's take a look at this set of" Baoyu cake "gift boxes. Each of them is individually packaged, delicious and exquisite." On the second floor of the shop, the staff are busy with live delivery. Since last year, after a series of attempts to cooperate with the head anchor to build a live broadcast team, develop wechat app mall, and try community marketing, daoxiangcun, Suzhou, with its sensitive market sense, has grasped the outlet of e-commerce live broadcasting and played an online marketing combination. In 2020, e-commerce sales increased by 30%, successfully making up for the shortage of offline sales during the epidemic period.

At the same time, they have also developed their own IP, which embodies the meaning of pastry making technology inheritance - "six generations of handmade", and has carried out IP cross-border co branding with famous brands such as Wang Zhe Rong and Kung Fu Panda... As an enterprise with a history of 248 years, which was first recognized as a Chinese time-honored brand by the Ministry of Commerce in 2006, why is daoxiangcun so "competing"?

In the view of Zhou Guangjun, President of daoxiangcun group, "time honored brands" do not refer to old traditions or concepts, but a kind of responsibility that forces us to go out of our comfort zone and always maintain innovation genes. ".

"When it comes to foreign brands, people will think of BMW, Mercedes Benz and other century old brands. However, the market does not regard them as "old" brands. On the contrary, they are regarded as representatives of fashion and trend. They are good at communicating with consumers in language, packaging and products that are close to the times. " Zhou Guangjun said frankly, after entering the 21st century, domestic time-honored enterprises have been impacted by various emerging economies in the market competition, leaving consumers with the inherent impression of being conservative in thinking, single in products and not in line with the trend and fashion. "Time honored brands are brands of the times. We should stand at the forefront of the times and lead the times, instead of relying on the old and selling the old to miss the past".

Another time-honored brand that chooses to say no to "rely on the old and sell the old" is Quanjude. From 2017 to 2019, the operating income of Quanjude has been declining. Zhou Yanlong, Secretary of the Party committee and general manager of Quanjude Group, also shared two sets of data to reporters: Quanjude's main consumers are 8 to 10 years older than their main competitors; The age of the operation team is also generally about 10 years older than the competitors“ Quanjude can't be trapped by an old word! China's time-honored brands have the natural advantages of cultural accumulation and traditional skills of products and services. Driven by the new forces of "Guochao", time honored brand enterprises also usher in the development opportunity of brand rebirth, which is expected to be pursued by young people again. " Zhou Yanlong said.

The brand-new IP image of "mengbaoya" was launched, the first lighting theme restaurant of Beijing catering time-honored brand was created, and Quanjude's 24 solar terms dishes were promoted through many platforms by short video way... Through multi-path careful layout, Quanjude has become a "tide". However, Zhou Yanlong believes that for time-honored brands, catching up with the "national trend" is not only to change the outer packaging of a product, or simply add traditional cultural elements to marketing, but also to pass on the product history and brand cultural value. In the future, Quanjude will focus on creating a new pattern of product + service + scene, focusing on the upgrading of time-honored boutique stores, embracing new retail and new media, promoting digital transformation, improving operational efficiency, and enabling sustainable development of brand with culture.

The "national tide" is blowing in the streets and lanes, and more and more young people are casting curious and hot eyes on traditional culture. However, their focus is not on the old and old patterns or objects, but on the "Chinese elements" after the aesthetic improvement and innovation of the times. This is also the magic weapon of domestic products in the eyes of Shen Huadong, general manager of Tebu e-commerce.

"Foreign brands have less understanding, investment and attention to Chinese consumers than local brands. Where is our competitiveness? It is to find out its own uniqueness and create a "tide" based on Chinese culture. " Shen Huadong, for example, told reporters that the color cards used in Tebu are "Chinese style color cards" based on Chinese aesthetics and originated from traditional culture; In view of the Chinese foot shape is generally wide, flat and other characteristics, special step adhere to the design of products according to Asian body shape, so that consumers can wear more comfortable.

"Since last year, the proportion of young consumers in Tebu has increased significantly. They do not blindly pursue big brands, but really love Chinese culture. In terms of R & D investment, we have to constantly strengthen the in-depth understanding and integration of Chinese culture and traditional aesthetics. " Shen Huadong told reporters that Tebu will continue to focus on the trend and fashion of youth, strengthen the events, activities and organization cooperation closely linked with young people, and carry out in-depth excavation of Chinese cultural research and element design, and strive to make China's brand culture bigger and stronger together with the whole society, and tell the unique "national tide" story of Tebu.

　　 From temporary red to "long red"

Standing in the "national tide" tuyere, the old brands bring forth the new, and new brands take off with the trend, and flowers compete.

Where is the new brand? New in the personalized design, diversified products, insight into the people's marketing. Compared with the simple and crude printing of "Guochao" logo on products in the early years, nowadays, Guochao new brand is more skillfully looking for the conjunction point of products and Chinese elements, such as Xiangyun, Xianhe, carving, etc., which used to be totally incompatible with fashion, appear in all kinds of commodities and lead the trend.

This is particularly prominent in domestic beauty brands“ In recent years, every product launched by "perfect diary" almost became a hit in the beauty market at that time.

The appearance of popular money seems casual, but it is not accidental. The person in charge of the perfect diary told the reporter that a keen insight into the aesthetic taste of the current consumers and innovation of supply around the demand are the key points for the perfect diary to change from "tide" to "fire".

"Every consumer can be our product designer." According to the above-mentioned person in charge, they insist on starting from the users, adopt the data-driven direct consumer mode, communicate directly with consumers through various social channels, and strive to convert the needs, habits and preferences of each user into products. Only a feather powder, before and after more than 300 consumers participate in the test, after many meetings and hundreds of days and nights to be launched. This customized production mode is favored by many young consumers. According to a survey conducted by tmall, perfect diary has become the second most popular domestic brand among "after 00". In this year's 618 promotion, the sales of perfect diary ranked first in Jingdong's self owned domestic cosmetics and vipshop cosmetics.

The strong rise of domestic cosmetics has promoted the continuous improvement of production research and development capacity, supply chain integration ability and brand building ability of domestic cosmetics industry. Some "national trends" have also been able to really move from "Internet red" to "brand", and started image exploration and brand building.

"Some people say huaxizi is an online brand, but we don't like the label very much." Feiman, the co-founder of huaxizi, said frankly that huaxizi did not simply define himself as "Guochao brand", but took the creation of Oriental color makeup system as the ultimate ideal. "Domestic color cosmetics brands were once crushed, which is generally believed that they are single and have no characteristics, are cheap and not high-end, and damage skin is not healthy". In order to solve the pain point of Chinese makeup, huaxizi decided to start from design and production, deeply excavate Chinese traditional culture and oriental aesthetics, endow tradition with fashion, Fu fashion with classic.

The process of product grinding is difficult“ The difficulty lies in the need to promote process innovation in the supply chain. " Fei slow to reporters for example, the ceramic technology applied to lipstick, huaxizi is the first, initially there is no ready-made technology. Huaxizi took two years to develop and finally promoted the birth and development of related technologies. Last year, this kind of ceramic lipstick was successfully put into the market. The paste adopts micro relief technology, and the white glaze has a pure and lustrous appearance, so it is sought after by consumers.

"Today, our R & D strength, raw material formula and quality inspection standards are not only leading in China, but also higher than most international brands." Feiman firmly believes that the development of domestic brands is at the right time when the "post-90s" and "post-00s" tend to focus on products.

Of course, good products also need good self recommendation. Different from the traditional "cramming" communication, the new brand pays more attention to social marketing, and enters the consumer's sight by means of word-of-mouth communication and experiential consumption.

Some enterprises choose to start from the source. As long as you are a member of the dairy brand "adopt a cow", you can visit the company on the 26th of each month to discuss with the product manager and R & D personnel their views and demands on the products, or be invited to the ranch to trace the source and closely inspect how the enterprise raises cattle.

"Adopt a cow" established in 2016 aims to produce "a cup of good milk" for the Chinese people, and embarks on a development path of "building pasture first, building brand later". Sun Shijun, the company's CEO, told reporters that they will take shuoyin and xiaohongshu as the main marketing positions, regularly organize live broadcasting of ranches and launch "cloud Ranch" games. With the deep connection with consumers, "adopting a cow" has rapidly grown into a new rich dairy enterprise. In May this year, the number of fans of its flagship store exceeded 10 million, becoming the fourth brand with more than 10 million fans in the category of tmall's big food.

The new design, new marketing channels and new consumption patterns have brought about vigorous flow dividends, and many new brands have achieved amazing value growth in just a few years. But in the Internet age, it is common to see the Internet red brands that fly into the sky and die in the evening. How can a new brand take advantage of the "national trend" and move forward from a temporary red to a "long red"?

Some brands are groping for their answers“ Quality and word-of-mouth are the key to the long-term development of new domestic brands, so we need a long-term vision. " Sun Shijun said that "adopting a cow" will always take quality as the lifeline, continue to increase investment in industrial chain layout and digital intelligence upgrading, constantly improve quality management, strive to build core competitiveness with excellent products, and win long-term results with quality and word-of-mouth.

　　 Chinese brands are booming

Li Ning is on the New York Fashion Week, cultural and creative industries of the Forbidden City are born, tmall and many traditional Chinese brands are becoming popular... From "domestic products" to "national trend", "made in China" is tearing off the inherent labels of "inferior quality" and "cheap", and gradually establish the influence of Chinese brands. According to the report "Baidu 2021 Guochao pride search big data", in the past five years, the proportion of Chinese brand search heat in the total brand heat has increased from 45% to 75%, three times that of overseas brands.

The improvement of national consumption ability is an important reason for the rise of "national tide". Wang Shanhe, executive vice chairman of the United Nations World Brand Development Committee and chairman of the Asian Working Committee, said that in recent years, China's total economic volume has continuously crossed the new threshold, exceeding 90 trillion yuan in 2018 and 100 trillion yuan in 2021. The rapid economic development and the continuous expansion of the middle-income group have ushered in a period of strategic opportunities for the development of "Guochao".

"The rise of" national tide "is the natural expression of cultural confidence in business in the process of China's modernization." Wang Yong, President of the Business School of brand alliance, said that in a sense, the "national tide" is a "re popularity" of traditional culture, which is a natural reflection of the growing demand for self-identity and self affirmation of the Chinese nation.

On the contrary, the rise of "national tide" also forces industrial transformation and upgrading, providing ideas for high-quality economic development. A series of new concepts, new technologies and new models are giving birth to new products, new trends and new industrial chains. Batch by batch of traditional brands are riding on the ride of transformation, and batch of new and sharp brands are emerging.

"Now that" Guochao "has entered the era of 3.0, its connotation has been expanded again, and its cultural and emotional added value has been further highlighted." Wang Shanhe said that on the consumption side, people's consumption habits for such "new domestic products" have gradually formed; On the supply side, Chinese brands are experiencing collective category innovation, product innovation and brand innovation, and are changing from "niche" trend to collective trend in the market.

But at the same time, there are also some hidden worries behind the hot "national tide": under the excessive marketing, the marketing expenses of some brands remain high, and the R & D investment is obviously insufficient; Some brands have "three minute fever" in their operation, which makes it difficult to insist on product development, technological innovation and after-sales service; Some brands still use low prices as the main means to occupy the market, but their quality and reputation are not satisfactory. Even some brands regard "national trend" as a gimmick, but actually they are used for speculation

How to take advantage of the east wind of "national tide" to perfectly integrate professional brand, local culture and periodic trend, so as to capture domestic consumers and win overseas praise, so as to continue the "tide"? This is a question that should be considered in the future for old brands and new brands.

"For enterprises, to further enhance their brand competitiveness, on the one hand, they need to work hard for a long time, and only if their own products and services are excellent, can they win market respect; On the other hand, to tell the Chinese story well, we should not only have strong hard power such as brand quality, scientific and technological strength, and R & D strength, but also soft power such as cultural charm of the brand. " Wang Yong said: don't think that only Chinese people can play "national tide", and foreigners can play "national tide". Facts have proved that the game is very good. For example, Hollywood in the United States produced Kung Fu Panda, which integrates Chinese traditional culture“ Therefore, "Guochao" should be the rejuvenation of Chinese excellent traditional culture. We have inherent advantages, but we also need to work harder to learn and understand, and have an international perspective, so that we can have a more comprehensive understanding of the culture we love. "

According to Zhou Guangjun, the essence of Guochao lies in the product itself“‘ "Guochao" is not a time to catch up with the trend. We can't do anything beyond the value of the product in the name of culture and innovation. We should really make products that lead the aesthetic and cost-effective, and finally win the double recognition of consumer culture and aesthetic level, and obtain the continuous favor of the market. "

Perhaps, the real "national tide" is just beginning“ There is no real "Chinese style" in the global popular market Shen Huadong believes that "Chinese style" should be an aesthetic system representing China's 5000 year history and national character. This kind of aesthetic needs to penetrate into all aspects of product color, material selection and story telling. "At present, Chinese brands are still in the stage of exploration and trial. I believe that one day in the future," Chinese style "with a unified aesthetic consensus and recognized by the international community will surely appear, and Chinese brands will become more and more prosperous.".

(source: Economic Daily)

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